Southernization Lecture Notes Practice Flashcards

These flashcards cover the vocabulary and key historical concepts regarding the process of southernization as described by Lynda Shaffer.

Southernization

A multifaceted process that began in Southern Asia and spread globally, involving developments in mathematics, spices, trade routes, and tropical crops.

Westernization

Developments that first occurred in Western Europe and later spread to other areas, often cited as being founded upon the process of southernization.

Gupta kings

Indian rulers during whose reign ($320-535$ C.E.) the process of southernization was well under way and spreading to China.

Cotton

A crop first domesticated in the Indus River Valley between $2300$ and $1760$ B.C.E., becoming a major textile export that 'virtually clothed the world' by the mid-$1700$s.

Indus River Valley

The region where cotton was first domesticated and whose merchants sold textiles to Mesopotamia.

Britain’s Industrial Revolution

The historical turning point when steam engines began to power cotton textile production, undermining India's global market position.

Bullion

Gold and silver sources sought by Indians after nomadic disturbances in Central Asia disrupted traffic from Siberia.

Mauryan Empire

The Indian empire ($321-185$ B.C.E.) during which the search for new gold sources and trade routes began to intensifiy.

Siberia

India's main source of gold during the Mauryan rule before trade was disrupted by nomadic disturbances.

Cosmas Indicopleustes

A $6$th-century Byzantine geographer who documented Ethiopian merchants traveling south to obtain gold ingots.

Ethiopian merchants

Important trading partners of India who reportedly sought gold in East Africa as early as $300$ C.E.

Kilwa

A coastal point in Africa that sailors could reach and still catch the return monsoon to the Red Sea within the same year.

Zimbabwe

The likely destination for ancient gold-seeking expeditions that took two years to complete due to monsoon wind patterns.

Southern Ocean

A Chinese term for all waters stretching from the South China Sea to the eastern coast of Africa.

Malays

The most intrepid sailors of the Southern Ocean who lived in modern-day Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

Monsoons

Seasonal winds that blow off the Asian continent in colder months and onto its shores in warmer months, used by Malay sailors for navigation.

Kunlun

The Chinese term for Malay seamen who sailed north to the southern coasts of China by the $3$rd century B.C.E.

Madagascar

An island where the population still speaks a Malay-Polynesian language, proving the historical presence of Malay sailors in East African waters.

Cinnamon

A southern spice delivered by Malay sailors from South China Sea ports to East Africa and the Red Sea in the last century B.C.E.

Balance lug sails

Square sails mounted to pivot, used by Malay sailors to tack against the wind; the likely prototype for Arab triangular sails.

Tacking

The sailing technique of sailing into the wind by moving diagonally against it, switching directions from one way to the other.

Crystallized sugar

A monumental Indian development where sugarcane juice was turned into granulated crystals for easier storage and transport.

Ghee

Clarified butter that, along with sugar, served as a dietary mainstay for Indian sailors.

Zero

A mathematical number concept invented in India that made the place value system of writing numbers superior to all others.

Hindi numbers

The name used by Arabs for the Indian numeral system, characterized by the use of the zero.

Place value system

A system of writing numbers that became highly efficient after the Indian introduction of the zero.

Amr ibn Bahr al Jahiz

An influential $9$th-century Arabic writer who praised Indians for their intelligence and inventions like chess, pins, and math.

Han dynasty

The Chinese dynasty that fell in $221$ C.E., leading to a period of disunity where Buddhism and southernization began to impact China.

Sui dynasty

The dynasty that reunited China in $581$ and built the Grand Canal to connect the southern agricultural wealth to the northern center.

Tang dynasty

The Chinese dynasty ($618-906$) during which printing and gunpowder were invented and Indian mathematics was integrated.

Song dynasty

The dynasty ($960-1279$) that saw the perfection of the compass, the use of Champa rice, and massive population growth.

Indigo

A plant used for dyeing that became well-established in China during the southernization process, leading to the common blue-black peasant garb.

Cotton canvas

A material developed in China during the Song period to create more efficient sails for ocean-going ships.

Champa rice

A drought-resistant, early ripening variety of rice from Vietnam that allowed China to double its area of rice cultivation.

Grand Canal

Constructed around $610$ during the Sui Dynasty to deliver southern rice to northern cities and military forces.

Printing

An innovation that developed within Buddhist monasteries in China between $700$ and $750$ C.E.

Gunpowder

Invented by Taoist alchemists in the $9$th century and first used by the Chinese as an igniter in flamethrowers in $919$ C.E.

Saltpeter

An ingredient in gunpowder identified by an Indian monk in China in $644$, who demonstrated its ignition with a purple flame.

South-pointing needle

The term for the compass perfected during the Song dynasty, which was particularly well-suited for marine navigation.

Needle charts

Navigational maps published for sea captains to follow specific 'needle routes' on the Southern Ocean.

Porcelain

A major Chinese export developed before $400$ C.E. that joined silk as a staple of international commerce.

Iron hardware

Ordinary consumer goods like needles and cooking pots exported in massive quantities from Song China.

Islamic Caliphates

Empires that spread southern crops like sugar, cotton, and citrus fruits throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

Desalination

The labor-intensive process of removing salt from soil at the north end of the Persian Gulf, performed by enslaved East Africans to allow for sugar production.

Baghdad

The capital of the Abbasid caliphate established in the $700$s, positioned to receive maritime trade directly from China.

Algebra and trigonometry

Mathematical fields where Muslim scientists made significant advances based on Indian, Greek, and Persian traditions.

Francis Bacon

The $17$th-century figure who identified the compass, printing, and gunpowder as the three technologies that changed the world.

Mongols

The group likely responsible for introducing Chinese inventions like block printing and gunpowder to Italy in the $1300$s.

North Atlantic powers

European nations that rose to power after reaping the profits of southernization through the seizure of tropical territories.

Year 1200

The time by which southernization had created a rich south and a relatively poor north in the Northern Hemisphere.

$499$ C.E.

The date of the oldest existing mathematical work that used the Indian zero in its modern way.

Champa

A Malay kingdom located on what is now the southern coast of Vietnam from which drought-resistant rice originated.

100 million

The total population of China in the first decade of the $12$th century, a result of agricultural advancements like Champa rice.

Flamethrower

A weapon that used gunpowder as an igniter as early as $919$ C.E. in China.

Malacca

A strait that Malay sailors likely used to establish early maritime contact between Southeast Asia and India.

Zambezi River

A waterway used to go inland to Zimbabwe, requiring sailors to wait until the following year for the return monsoon.

Sui Dynasty

The dynasty that reunited China in $581$ after more than $350$ years of regional rule.

Taoist alchemists

The group credited with the invention of gunpowder in China during the $9$th century.

Chess

Described by Arabic writers as the 'noblest of games' invented by the Indians.

Citrus fruits

One of the important variety of southern crops spread westward into the Middle East and Spain by the Arabs.