Maritime trade

Maritime trade is the exchange of goods carried by sea between ports and regions. It links distant markets through shipping routes, ports, and commercial networks.

Seaborne trade: Trade in goods transported over bodies of water by ship. This broader category includes maritime exchange alongside inland and coastal water transport.
Austronesian expansion: The prehistoric spread of Austronesian-speaking peoples across the islands of the Pacific and Indian oceans. Austronesian voyaging connected island communities through migration and exchange.
Bulk carrier: A merchant ship designed to carry unpackaged bulk cargo such as ore or grain. These ships move large quantities of raw materials through global markets.
Maritime empire: A state whose power and territory depend substantially on naval reach and overseas connections. Control of sea routes and ports helped states project commercial and political power.
Overland trade: The exchange of goods transported over land between settlements or regions. It offers a comparison with maritime routes' capacity, costs, and geographic limits.
Shipping route: A regularly used maritime path connecting ports or regions. Routes organize the movement of cargo between trading centers.
Indus–Mesopotamia trade: Trade linking Bronze Age settlements of the Indus civilization with Mesopotamia. It shows early long-distance exchange supported by maritime connections.
Oil tanker: A ship designed to transport petroleum or other liquid cargo in bulk. Tankers carry energy commodities between producing regions and refineries.
Atlantic slave trade: The forced transportation of millions of Africans across the Atlantic into slavery from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. Atlantic commerce tied shipping, plantation commodities, and mass enslavement together.
Air cargo: Goods transported by aircraft for commercial or logistical purposes. Air freight is faster but generally less suited to heavy, low-value cargo.

Linked from 16 pages