BIOB38H3 Lecture 8: Part 2 Plants that please the palate
Document Summary
Cloves are native to few molluca islands in indonesia (1721 bc) and spent energy to move it to the middle east. Incense use in egypt by drying resin from trees (1200 bc) worship god amon. Embalming: filling bodies with anise, cumin, myrrh, cinnamon for eternal life. Egyptian collection expedition (1500 bc: bring back franincense, cinnamon, myrrh trees. Trade winds promoted spice trade: discovered by greek navigators by ad 40, prevailing winds blow sw from april to september and ne from october to march. Few spices make it way to europe via venice or genoa. Age of exploration (16th century: caravels invented by portuguese (late 15th century). European competition: portugal: made it first around africa into spice island and established dominance in indonesia. The netherlands: got dominance in sugar in indonesia: netherlands won this fight and got lots of cloves. French stole some trees from them and planted them in. Zanzibar in africa (french colony) and still grows cloves today.
