| 5000 BC | Middle East |
Evidence of spices being used |
| 3000 | Egypt |
Use of spices in embalming |
| 2000 | Arabia |
Monopoly of spice trade (for 2000+ years) |
| 1500 | Egypt |
Queen Hathepshut imports spices from Punt (East Africa) |
| 1000 | Palestine |
Use of spices in anointing oil and incenses |
| 992 | Arabia | Queen of Sheba brings spices to King Solomon |
| 500 | Greece |
Importance of spices in diet as medicine |
| 200 | China |
Cloves imported from Spice Islands |
| 1st Century AD | Rome |
Extravagant use of spices |
| | Rome | Developed sea-trade with India; lasted 3 centuries |
| 500 | Europe |
Spices from Moluccan Islands available |
| | Arabia |
Controlled spice trade until Middle Ages |
| 1100 | Europe |
Crusades stimulated interest in spices |
| 1200 | England |
Guild of Pepperers established; merged with Spicers |
| 1250 | Europe |
Spices regarded as aphrodisiacs |
| 1300 | Italy |
Marco Polo’s book stimulates interest in Oriental spices |
| 1350 | Europe |
Spices used as medicines & fumigants during Black Death |
| | Italy |
Venice and Genoa control spice trade |
| 1400 | England |
Spicers’ Guild became Grocer’s Company |
| | Portugal |
Henry the Navigator stimulates sea discoveries |
| 1450 | Turkey |
Controls spices; forced other sea route discoveries |
| | Spain |
Columbus finds spices in Caribbean islands |
| 1500 | Portugal |
Controls spice trade after Vasco da Gama sails to India |
| 1521 | Spain |
Magellan’s expedition circumnavigates the globe |
| | Italy |
Venice’s spice wealth helps finance Renaissance |
| 1550 | England |
Drake circumnavigates globe; imports spices into England |
| 1600 | Holland |
Gradually wrests Spice Islands from Portugal |
| | Spain |
Competes for spice trade |
| 1650 | Holland |
Controls spice trade from East Indies |
| | | Creates artificial shortage of Spice Island products |
| 1700 | Ceylon |
Coffee trees planted; later, grown in Brazil |
| | Europe |
Coffee, chocolate and tobacco favored over spices |
| 1750 | France |
Peter Poivre brings nutmegs and cloves to Mauritius and Reunion |
| | Holland |
Destroys spices to try and create price increases |
| 1800 | England |
Take over Spice Islands, briefly |
| | America | Pepper trade with East Indies makes millionaires in Salem, MA |
| 1850 | Europe |
Spices are of decreasing significance |
| | | Sugar becomes favored flavor |
| 1900 | World |
Dietary fashions change; spices decrease in importance |
