AP World Assessment Review: 2.1 - 2.3 (2024)

Silk Road

An ancient trade route between China and the Mediterranean Sea extending some 6,440 km (4,000 mi) and linking China with the Roman Empire.

Junk

A very large flat bottom sailing ship produced in the Tang and Song Empires, specially designed for long-distance commercial travel.

Caravanserai

Inn or rest station for caravans

Money Economy

Economic system in which goods or services are paid for through the exchange of a token of an agreed value

Flying Cash

Enabled merchants to deposit good or cash at one location and draw the equivalent in cash or merchandise elsewhere in China.

Paper Money

Legal currency issued on paper; it developed in China as a convenient alternative to metal coins

Banking Houses

These European banks developed during the Middle Ages to aid trade. Along with innovations such as bills of exchange, or bank drafts, and credit, the rise of banking houses supported the development of interregional trade in luxury goods.

Bills of Exchange

Established exchange rates between different coinage systems.

Hanseatic League

An economic and defensive alliance of the free towns in northern Germany, founded about 1241 and most powerful in the fourteenth century.

Khan

A Mongol ruler

Pax Mongolica

The period of approximately 150 years of relative peace and stability created by the Mongol Empire.

Khanates

Four regional Mongol kingdoms that arose following the death of Chinggis Khan.

Golden Horde

Mongol khanate founded by Genghis Khan's grandson Batu. It was based in southern Russia and quickly adopted both the Turkic language and Islam. Also known as the Kipchak Horde.

Lateen Sail

Triangular sail that made it possible to sail against the wind; used in the Indian Ocean trade

Zheng He

(1371-1433?) Chinese naval explorer who sailed along most of the coast of Asia, Japan, and half way down the east coast of Africa before his death.