APWH Ch 7 Vocab

Silk Roads

(c. 200 BCE–1450 CE) land-based trade routes linking China, Central Asia, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean, enabling exchange of silk, horses, luxury goods, religions like Buddhism, technologies, and diseases.

Black Death

(1346–1353) a plague that spread along Eurasian trade routes, killing up to one-third of Europe and large portions of the Middle East and China; it reshaped labor systems and weakened major states.

Indian Ocean Trading Network

(c. 1000 BCE–1500 CE) (aka the Sea Roads) the largest premodern sea-based trade system, connecting East Africa, Arabia, India, Southeast Asia, and China; enabled by predictable monsoon winds and supporting bulk trade on ships at lower cost than land routes on camels. Spices, textiles, precious, metals, and luxury items like silk and porcelain.

Srivijaya

(670–1025 CE) a Malay kingdom controlling the Strait of Malacca; enriched by taxing passing ships, exporting gold and spices, and serving as a major Buddhist center that attracted monks and students.

Borobudur

(built c. 800 CE) a massive Buddhist temple (the largest!) in Java with ten levels representing the path to enlightenment, showing how Buddhism became rooted in Javanese culture.

Angkor Wat

(c. 1100s CE) the largest premodern temple complex, built by the Khmer Empire; originally Hindu and later used as a major Buddhist site, showing religious blending in Southeast Asia.

Swahili Civilization

(c. 800–1500 CE) consisted of East African coastal city-states that prospered from Indian Ocean trade; culturally blended African and Arab influences, adopted Islam, and developed the Swahili language still spoken today.

Great Zimbabwe

(c. 1200–1450 CE) a powerful southeastern African state enriched by gold, cattle, and Indian Ocean trade; known for its monumental stone structures like the Great Enclosure.

Sand Roads

(c. 300–1600 CE) trans-Saharan trade routes linking North Africa and the Mediterranean with West Africa (across the Sahara), exchanging gold, salt, slaves, textiles, and books, and supporting the rise of Sahelian kingdoms.

Ghana, Mali, Songhay

(700–1600 CE) wealthy West African empires that controlled, drew wealth, taxed the trans-Saharan trade (gold-salt trade) and were known for strong monarchies and centers of learning like Timbuktu.

Trans-Saharan Slave Trade

(1100–1400 CE peak) transported about 5,500 enslaved Africans per year across the Sahara to North Africa and the Mediterranean, integrating West Africa into international commerce.

American Web / Turquoise Road

(200–1500 CE) a network of exchange across the Americas, connecting Cahokia, the Southwest, Mesoamerica, the Andes, and the Amazon; traded goods like maize, obsidian, feathers, and turquoise mined by Ancestral Pueblo peoples.

Thorfinn Karlsfeni

(active c. 1000–1007 CE) a Viking explorer who attempted to establish a settlement in Vinland/North America; conflict with Indigenous peoples ended the effort, showing the limits of Norse expansion.

Pochteca

(1400s–1521 CE) elite long-distance Aztec merchants who traded luxury goods such as jade, cacao, and feathers; they also acted as spies and diplomats, contributing to Aztec wealth and intelligence.