The weather and climate have influenced the history of trade in the Indian Ocean, because of monsoon winds, which made sea travel easier at certain times of the year.
What are monsoon winds?
A monsoon is a seasonal change in the direction of the prevailing, or strongest, winds of a region. Monsoons are seasonal winds that change the weather due to colliding high-pressure and low-pressure systems with divergent temperatures.
They correspond to the variation of wind direction as a result of the seasons. In the summer monsoon, also known as maritime monsoon, the winds travel from the Indian Ocean to the mainland. In the winter monsoon, the winds go from the Asian continent to the ocean.
Therefore, monsoon winds impacted the ease of transporting goods on Indian Ocean trade routes, making travel easier.