Intermodel Shipping Container, supposedly invented in the 50s and revolutionized ocean trade.
Indian ocean trade network, massively important to the trade around the asian/arabian/east african coasts, made possible by monsoon winds.
I hadn't heard of the indian ocean trade network before crashcourse, suggesting to me that it's been obselete since before I was born. But I've known about the huge international shipping industry we have now and how so much of it is done with these big standardized metal boxes, since I was very small. Makes me wonder if one killed the other.
While I don't know the answer to your question, I suspect I once read it in The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger. I wish I could be more helpful, but if you have a burning interest in shipping containers (or even a passing one; it's amazingly well written), then this book might help.