AP World History MC Unit 2

What regions did the Silk Roads connect?

Eurasian landmass from China to Europe

What are Caravans?

a group of merchants, travelers, and animals (like camels and horses) traveling together for safety and commerce along the ancient trade routes connecting East and West

What are Caravanserai?

Inns/ Guest Houses Located all along the trade routes from eastern Mediterranean to China. Where merchants could rest, exchange goods with local people and other traders, and resupply their animals.

Why did Caravanserai develop into Major central Asian commercial cities such as Bukhara, Samarkand, Khotan, Kashgar, and Dunhuang?

Because they became centers of cultural exchange as merchants from many religious and cultural traditions met and mingled.

Who were the goods that made their away along the Silk Roads destined for?

For an elite and wealthy market, rather than stape goods, for only readily moved commodities of great value could compensate for the high costs of transportation across such long and forbidding distances.

What technological innovation made transportation more effective?

saddles, stirrups, and a “Frame and mattress” saddle that allowed heavier load in a stable fashion.

What was the form of credit used on the silk road?

Flying cash, used because it made it unnecessary to carry huge metal coins.

How did buddhism change as it spread across the silk roads?

The original faith shunned the material world, but buddhist monasteries in the rich oasis towns of the Silk Roads found themselves receiving gifts.

What was Neo-Confucianism

philosophical and ethical movement that emerged in China during the Song dynasty, synthesizing Confucian thought with elements of Buddhism and Daoism. This movement sought to address the spiritual and moral challenges of the time, reinforcing Confucian ideals while also adapting to the influences from other belief systems, shaping East Asian culture and governance from the 12th century onward.

Major Trade Products: Silk Roads

GOODS: Silk, tea, spices, dyes, porcelain, rice, paper ,gunpower (E-W); Horses, saddles, fruit, domestic animals, honey, and textiles (W-E)

Major Trade Products: Trans-Saharan

Horses, books, and salt (N-S)
Gold, ivory, cloth, slaves (S-N)

West African Empires

Ghana, Mali, Songhai

Mansa Musa {TRAVELER}

Made a pilgrimage to Mecca
He was devoted to Islam
*Established Islamic schools in Timbuktu
*Converted Mali to Islam
*Songhai took over

Ibn Battuta

(1304-1369) Morrocan Muslim scholar, the most widely traveled individual of his time. He wrote a detailed account of his visits to Islamic lands from China to Spain and the western Sudan. His writings gave a glimpse into the world of that time period.

Mongols

A people of this name is mentioned as early as the records of the Tang Empire, living as nomads in northern Eurasia. After 1206 they established an enormous empire under Genghis Khan, linking western and eastern Eurasia.

Kublai Khan

Grandson of Genghis Khan, spent years trying to conquer the Song dynasty in China. After 11 years, finally defeated the Chinese and established the Yuan Dynasty. like Genghis Khan instituted a policy of religious tolerance.

Indian Ocean Trading network

The world's largest sea-based system of communication and exchange before 1500 C.E., Indian Ocean commerce stretched from southern China to eastern Africa and included not only the exchange of luxury and bulk goods but also the exchange of ideas and crops.

City states of the Swahili Coast

Trade centers in eastern Africa. Their growth was due largely to the increase in trade along the Indian Ocean Basin. Bantu settlers on the coast and Arab merchants who traded along the east African coast interacted to create city-state and bustling commercial centers, like Kilwa, Mombasa, and Zanziber . Local traders sold ivory, gold and slaves to Arab trading partners as well as other exotic goods. They acquired Chinese porcelain, Indian cotton and manufactured ironworks. Trade brought considerable wealth to the cities on the coast of East Africa.

Ming Dynasty

Succeeded Mongol Yuan dynasty in China in 1368; lasted until 1644; initially mounted huge trade expeditions to southern Asia and elsewhere, but later concentrated efforts on internal development within China.

Zheng He

muslim admiral who was sent of seven voyages by the Ming emperor Yongle. Expeditions won prestige for the Chinese government and opened up new markets for Chinese goods. His fleet included 300 ships and crews totally close to 28,000 people. Voyages inspired some Chinese people to immigrate to the ports that the expedition had visited in Southeast Asia and elsewhere. Chinese exploration ended when Zhu Gaozhi (Yongle's son and successor) ended expeditions, discouraged people from sailing aways from China and made it illegal to build a ship with more than two masts.

Marco Polo

Venetian merchant and traveler. At 17, he left Venice with his father and uncle. They traveled the Silk Road to China where he met the great ruler Kublai Khan. Marco traveled much of China and the east, and his stories were written into a popular book. His book would go on to inspire other explorers.
His accounts of his travels to China offered Europeans a firsthand view of Asian lands and stimulated interest in Asian trade.

Diasporic

Communities usually of a particular ethnicity, culture, or nation, scattered across places outside of their land of origin or homeland

Mongol Empire

an empire founded in the 12th century by Genghis Khan, which reached its greatest territorial extent in the 13th century, encompassing the larger part of Asia and extending westward to the Dnieper River in eastern Europe.

Chinese Junk

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

Samarkand

During the rule of Timur Lane was the most influential capital city, a wealthy trading center known for decorated mosques and tombs.

Pax Mongolica ("Mongol Peace")

The period of peace and prosperity from the mid-1200s to the mid 1300s when the Mongols imposed stability and law and order across much of Asia

Calicut

Great spice port of India where da Gama landed and traded

Malacca (Melaka)

Port city in the modern Southeast Asian country of Malaysia, founded about 1400 as a trading center on the Strait of Malacca. (Melaka); a Muslim Indian Ocean city-state that gained wealth by imposing fees on ships that passed through the Strait of Malacca