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Indian Ocean trade is vital for the global economy and has been described as the "cradle" for global trade. Traditionally connecting the western world to the eastern world since antiquity, long-distance maritime trade by South East Asian and South Asian, and Middle Eastern and later African ships has made it a dynamic zone of interaction between peoples, cultures, and civilizations stretching from Southeast Asia to East and Southeast Africa, and the East Mediterranean in the West, in prehistoric and early historic periods. Cities and states on the Indian Ocean rim focused on both the sea and the land. The ocean was historically called the "Mahodadhi", divided into the two seas Purvapayodhi (sunrise) and Apara (sunset). The Indian Ocean is critical for global trade and 50% of container traffic and 80% of global seaborne oil traverses the region.
The earliest long distance trade was by the sea-faring Austronesian peoples who settled in a vast swathe of coastal lands in the Indian Ocean from islands surrounding southern China such as Taiwan and Japan, to coastal areas of Maritime South East Asia, South Eastern India and Sri Lanka. These routes were later continued by South Asian, East Asian and European merchants such as the colonial trade routes of the Dutch East India Company. This trade continues into the modern era, with the region becoming a significant geopolitical asset competed for by China, India and other powers. The Indian Ocean has been described as the "cradle of globalisation". Up to half of the world's trade and two third of oil pass through the Ocean.
The Middle East has also been a major actor in the history of western Indian Ocean trade, connecting Africa with the Middle East and South Asia. Gulf ports have played a continuous role in connecting Europe to South Asia since the Hellenistic and Roman period. The disruption in the Middle East to the trade routes between Europe and India likely played a major role in the establishment of colonialism and the World Wars period in Europe, which can also be seen in the modern-era, such as disruption to shipping in the Red Sea and Strait of Hormuz in early 2026 due to the Middle East war, though conflicts are relatively rare in Indian Ocean outside West Asia and the Greater Middle East.
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General info from Wikipedia.org