Judging from social media and the commercials on TV, one would assume that pumpkin spice is as American as apple pie. That may be true, but not in the way you think. The spices for both apple and pumpkin pie originated in the Spice Islands, which are about as far from America as you can get.
The Maluku Islands are an archipelago in the eastern part of Indonesia, meaning they are chains and clusters of islands that are grouped fairly close together. The islands were known as the Spice Islands because nutmeg, mace, and clove are exclusively found there, the presence of which sparked colonial European trade interests. But spice trade did not begin with the Europeans.
The maritime spice trade was dominated by Indonesian sailors who established routes from southeast Asia to Sri Lanka and India by 1500 BCE. The Aksumite Empire established the Red Sea route prior to the 1st century CE. Indian and Persian traders also transported spices overland towards the Mediterranean and the Greco-Roman world via the incense route and the Silk Road. Thus, spices such as cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, pepper, nutmeg, clove, and turmeric were well known in antiquity and had found their way into the Near East well before the rise of Christianity.
During the Crusades (11th to 15th centuries), the Italian maritime republics monopolized the trade between Europe and Asia. The trade routes changed again in 1498 when the Portuguese successfully navigated around the Cape of Good Hope. This route, which drove world trade from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance ushered in an age of European domination in the East.
Spain was among the many countries seeking to find faster routes to the Spice Islands. Christopher Columbus wrote the Florentine astronomer, Pabolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli in 1481 about the possibility of a westward route. Toscanelli not only encouraged the plan but provided a copy of a map implying that a westward route to Asia was possible. However, it was not until 1492 that Columbus garnered support for his expedition from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain and set off on his voyage across the Atlantic in search of gold, spices, and a safer route to the East.
On October 12, 1492, Columbus’s ships made landfall in the Americas. His landing place was in the Bahamas’s. Believing himself to be in India, he dubbed the indigenous population Los Indios (Spanish for “Indians”). From there he visited the islands now known as Cuba and Hispaniola, and established a colony in what is now Haiti. Thus, it is Christopher Columbus’s failed circumnavigation attempts that lead to America’s connection to pumpkin spice.
See popular spice blends below. Continue reading
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