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The sea route from Arabia via India to China is one of mankind's oldest trade routes and one of the most exciting chapters in European cultural history: it stretches over thousands of nautical miles, past three continents. For more than a thousand years, this "Silk Road of the Seas" has been the site of flourishing trade, religious wars and wars of conquest, and treasure fleets passing by the coasts. The first episode of the two-part documentary by Reinhard Joksch sets out in search of the traces of the Arab explorers who began two thousand years ago to explore the sea routes east with their fast and manoeuvrable ships along the legendary floodplains. The driving force behind the Arab explorers is trade with the Far East, especially the search for exotic spices. But also after its emergence in the 7th century the export of Islam. For many centuries the naval power Arabia maintained its supremacy on the maritime silk road and was China's most important trading partner for a long time, while European traders in the first centuries depended on Arab middlemen for their enterprises. The hub of this trade route was and is Indonesia, where ships used to have to wait for favourable winds. On the way to the rhythm of the monsoon, threatened by pirates, storms and reefs. Even today, Singapore is one of the most important seaports in the world. And even today Indonesia, with its more than 80,000 kilometres of coastline, is still considered the centre of smuggling and piracy. (Text: arte) Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator

For more than a thousand years, flourishing trade has taken place along the "Silk Road of the Seas", wars of religion and conquest have been waged, and treasure fleets have passed by the coasts. The trade goods of this sea route have had a lasting influence on European culture. Chinese porcelain reaches the west on this route, merchants travel east in search of exotic spices. With its sought-after export goods, China becomes a naval power from the first millennium onwards. Initially, river junks developed into seaworthy ships with which the navigator Zheng He travelled the world in the 15th century. His fleet, also known as the Treasure Fleet, was larger and more powerful than anything that had previously travelled the Silk Road of the Seas. Only after the end of these Chinese discoveries did the European conquerors appear on the scene: with Vasco da Gama a Portuguese "finds" the sea route via India to the Far East. Soon Dutchmen, Englishmen and Spaniards followed and from now on decisively shaped the development of the maritime Silk Road. For centuries, Europe was supplied with the luxury goods of the East via this route. The history of this route does not only describe the legacies of past centuries, but also leads into the living present of today's cultural exchange and trade. (Text: arte) Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator