Today, spices are seen as average household commodities of basic value, purchasable at your nearest local supermarket. The path taken by most common spices to reach the common use that they hold today is that of simultaneous cultural expansion and loss as well as global development. Spices today however are due a great amount of appreciation in that they fueled major European colonial endeavors, in turn altering the course of world history.

In “ancient times,” anything with a strong aroma could be considered a spice. It was the European desire to control the trade and use of this valuable commodity however that led to the development and classification of the various spices known today. Starting with the Crusades (1095-1275), the spice market was opened up and expanded into Europe in large scale for the first time.

The European monarchies and governing bodies sought religious and colonial expansion and as such, explorers such as Portuguese navigator Dom Vasco da Gama sailed eastward into uncharted regions of the globe. What they discovered and developed contributed the shaping of world history. The spices found in India as well as the Moluccas and current day Sri Lanka in the Age of Discovery brought about European governing bodies promoted further world exploration and colonial expansion while also spreading the goods that were spices (pepper, nutmeg, cloves cinnamon, etc.) from continent to continent.

Vasco da Gama
biography.com 

Intercontinental trade markets formed and prospered and the European aristocracy and wealth behind the various countries’ desire to control the spice trade brought about huge pools of financial security for governments but also a myriad of human and cultural conflict. Entire indigenous populations in the Moluccas were wiped from existence as the powerful European governments traded weapons and hard goods to tribes in civil conflict for access to spices. In addition to the fueling of wars, explorers such as the Dutch and British East India Company in the early 17^th century exterminated entire local populations to gain control of the world-sought spices and control of their trade.

European Spice Trade
http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~vaucher/Genealogy/Documents/Asia/EuropeanExploration.html

The European monarchies and governing bodies that pushed eastward in search of spices and dominance in their trade altered the course of world history in that they colonized and discovered entirely untouched civilizations, lands, and cultures. World economies developed, but at the cost of vast cultural loss and human life.    

World Wide Spice Accumulation
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2010/03/27/what-do-ancient-spice-traders-and-the-modern-financial-industry-have-in-common/