Unit 2 AP World

Silk Roads

Vast network of roads and trails that facilitated trade and the spread of culture and ideas across Eurasia in and before 1200-1450. Mainly luxury items.

Development of money economies (paper money), increasing use of credit (flying money), and rise of banks (bill of exchange), caravanserai, and saddles.

Causes for the Silk Roads Expansion

Flying Money

Money could be deposited at one bank and withdrawn from another, specifically Chinese

Bill of Exchange

Promises to pay future amounts for merchants in AP World

Caravanserai

Inns and houses among paths for safety and cultural exchange

New trading cities, increased demand of goods, and cultural diffusion

3 Effects of the Silk Roads

Kashgar

Trading city on the silk roads before desert with water, food, markets, and cultural diffusion

Samarkand

Trade city in central asia with a lot of cultural exchange

Proto-industrialization

When china began producing more goods than their country would use so they began to sell said goods in foreign markets which produced excess profit to be put back into their steel and iron industries

Temujin united Mongols under one ruler. Created an efficient, powerful, and organized army. Conquered a lot of land and his sons did the same.

Factors that led to Mongol Rise

Yuan Dynasty

State that Kublai Khan ruled in China with his Mandate of Heaven as he ruled as a confucian style ruler.

Mongols adopted the culture of those they conquered

What the mongols did in the areas they conquered

Improved infrastructure and communications

How Mongols improved economics

Yam System

Mongol system of communication (mongol mail)

Mongols led to cultural transfers and knowledge transfers between conquered people

Effect of the mongols on knowledge

Silk road flourished under mongols because of safety and the pax mongolica

Mongols effects on silk road

Medical knowledge and Uyghur Script

What was transferred knowledge wise

Uyghur Script

Written Mongolian language

Indian Ocean Trade

Network of sea rotes that connected various states throughout Afro-Eurasia through trade.

Collapse of the Mongol Empire, commercial practices, innovations in transportation tech, spread of islam

Causes of expansion for the Indian Ocean Trade

Transportation Tech

Astrolabe, magnetic compass, lateen sail, knowledge of monsoon winds, and improvements in ship building (more cargo)

Swahili, Malacca, Gujarat

States that grew from the indian ocean trade

Diaspora

Groups of people that move from one location to another while keeping their cultural customs. Very prevalent in the Indian Ocean Trade

The cultural and technological ideas (religion, language, tech) exchanged in trade routes are just as important as the goods

Importance of maritime trade

Admiral Zheng He

Leader of the Song Fleet that shared much innovation with the world through his expeditions during the time of tributary systems in China

Taxed trade ships that passed through their Strait

How the straight of Malacca maintained power

Both taxed traveling merchants to gain wealth

How Malacca and Mali were similar

Trans-Saharan Trade

A series of trade routes that connected North Africa and the Mediterranean world with the interior of West Africa and the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa

Transportation technology, saddles, caravanserai

Causes of Sub-Saharan Africa Trade

Hold, Kola nuts, horses, and salt

Trans-saharan trade goods

Each region specialized in goods which created demand to trade with each other which led to expansion

Growth in Sub-Saharan Trade

Mali Empire

Empire in West Africa which became very rich through trade and taxation of merchants passing through. Got connected in trade by becoming an Islamic state

Mansa Musa

Leader of the Mali Empire who had immense wealth and caused hyper inflation in Egypt while on a Hajj. Was able to do so because of the immense wealth gained through trade.

Cultural transfers (culture spreads through trade and changes: syncretism), literary and artistic transfers, scientific and technological innovation

How culture was diffused over trade networks

Hangzhou

City at the end of the Grand Canal in China which prospered from trade

Samarkand and Kashgar

Cities on the Silk Road which prospered from trade

Baghdad

Capital of Islamic culture and achievement and was sacked by the Mongols. Shows how trade routes can cause cities to decline

Constantinople

Capital of the Byzantine empire which was sacked by the ottomans. Shows how trade routes can cause cities to decline

Ibn Batutta

Moroccan Muslim who traveled across Dar-al-Islam and recorded his findings for others to see the culture across the world

Marco Polo

Italian Scholar who traveled to Yuan China and wrote about his findings and was later proved by other scholars.

Margery Kemp

christian mystic who traveled to holy sites and could not write so she had others write what her findings were

Bubonic Plague

Disease that traveled on trade routes and killed basically everyone. Mongols increased its spread by making trade routes safer

Bananas (SE Asia → Africa, Population Growth) Champa Rice (Vietnam → China, Population Growth) Citrus Fruits (Muslim Traders → Europe, better health and diet)

3 crops that were diffused through trade routes