<P> This trade, which drove the world economy from the end of the Middle Ages well into the modern times, ushered in an age of European domination in the East . Channels, such as the Bay of Bengal, served as bridges for cultural and commercial exchanges between diverse cultures as nations struggled to gain control of the trade along the many spice routes . European dominance was slow to develop . The Portuguese trade routes were mainly restricted and limited by the use of ancient routes, ports, and nations that were difficult to dominate . The Dutch were later able to bypass many of these problems by pioneering a direct ocean route from the Cape of Good Hope to the Sunda Strait in Indonesia . </P> <P> The Egyptians had traded in the Red Sea, spices from the "Land of Punt" and from Arabia . Luxury goods traded along the Incense Route included Indian spices, ebony, silk and fine textiles . The spice trade was associated with overland routes early on but maritime routes proved to be the factor which helped the trade grow . The Ptolemaic dynasty had developed trade with India using the Red Sea ports . </P> <P> People from the Neolithic period traded in spices, obsidian, sea shells, precious stones and other high - value materials as early as the 10th millennium BC . The first to mention the trade in historical periods are the Egyptians . In the 3rd millennium BC, they traded with the Land of Punt, which is believed to have been situated in an area encompassing northern Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea and the Red Sea coast of Sudan . </P> <P> In the first millennium BC the Arabs, Phoenicians, and Indians were engaged in sea and land trade in luxury goods such as spices, gold, precious stones, leather of rare animals, ebony and pearls . The sea trade was in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean . The sea route in the Red Sea was from Bab - el - Mandeb to Berenike and from there by land to the Nile and then by boats to Alexandria . The land trade was in deserts of Western Arabia using camels . The Indonesians were trading in spices (mainly cinnamon and cassia) with East Africa using Catamaran boats and sailing with the help of the Westerlies in the Indian Ocean . </P>

Who controlled the rich land and sea trade routes to asia for a long time