IOWC Mission Statement
The Indian Ocean World Centre (IOWC) at McGill University is a research initiative and resource base established to promote the study of the history, economy and cultures of the lands and peoples touching the Indian Ocean World - from Africa to the Middle East, India, Indonesia and Australia to China.
A complex regional trading system since the 10th Century, the Indian Ocean World constituted the first 'global' economy. Today the region comprises 50 per cent of the planet's population and is forecast to become the leading world economy by 2020.
The IOWC pursues an interdisciplinary approach inspired by French historian Fernand Braudel (1902-1985) who posited history as an ongoing interaction between human and natural forces, encompassing geography, environment, climate and disease.
The Centre's current research priorities include:
- the rise and development of the first global economy
- human migration and diaspora
- slavery, the slave trade and slave diaspora
- the exchange of commodities, technology and ideas
