What people were the first europeans to control the indian ocean spice trade?

They used the idea of wheel hubs.

They already had good experience with lightweight, slim structures from working on bikes.

Explanation:

The existence of  number of conceptual links between airplanes and bicycles, so it is not pure coincidence that the invention of  mechanical flight  through experimenters knowledgeable about bicycles. The contribution of many things to the Wrights’ success with flight, but the factor responsible for that is the similarity between cycles and airplanes.

So, they used the wheel hubs idea and they had a good knowledge of lightweight, slip structure while working on bicycles.