AP World Unit 2: Networks of Exchange

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. Marco Polo followed the route on his journey to Cathay.

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. The exception

Exchange in the Indian Ocean

Where most of the volume was being traded in the world at this point. Traded the things that the average person might use = textiles, coffee, lumber, etc (the people's trade).

Cultural, technological, and biological diffusion within and between societies

Due to a deepening and widening of networks of human interactions within and across regions

Increased volume of trade and expanded geographic range of trade routes

Due to improved commercial practices. This also promoted the growth of powerful new trading cities

Indian Ocean trading network

The world's largest sea-based system of comunication 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. Also fostered the growth of states

Caravanserai, forms of credit, development of money economies, compass, astrolabe, and larger ship designs

Encouraged the growth of inter-regional trade in luxury goods

Economy of Song China

Flourished because of increased productive capacity, expanding trade networks, and innovations in agriculture and manufacturing

Expansion of empires - Mongol territory

Facilitated Afro-Eurasian trade and communication as new people were drawn into their conqueror's economies and trade networks

Expansion of empires - Mali in West Africa

Facilitated Afro-Eurasian trade and communication as new people were drawn into the economies and trade networks

Muslim rule

Continued to expand to many parts of Afro-Eurasia due to military expansion; Islam religion expanded through merchants, missionaries, and sufis

Diasporas communities

Set up by merchants in key places along important trade routes; they introduced their own cultural traditions into the native cultures, and the native cultures then began to influence the merchant cultures

A resulted in the diffusion of literary, artistic, cultural traditions, and scientific and technological innovation

Cross-cultural interactions

After the fall of the Abbasid Caliphate

Islamic political entities (Turkic people) emerged; demonstrated continuity, innovation, and diversity

Song Dynasty of China

960-1279 CE; utilized traditional methods of Confucianism and imperial bureaucracy to maintain and justify its rule; demonstrated continuity, innovation, and diversity in 13th cent.

New Hindu and Buddhist states

Emerged in South and Southeast Asia; demonstrated continuity, innovation, and diversity

Europe

Was politically fragmented and characterized by decentralized monarchies, feudalism, and the manorial system

Significant technological and cultural transfers

Was encouraged by inter regional contacts and conflicts between states and empires (ex = the mongols); these transfers also encouraged Chinese maritime activity (led by Zheng He)

Demand for luxury goods

Increased in Afro-Eurasia; Chinese, Persian, and Indian artisans and merchants were able to expand production of textiles and porcelains for export; iron and steel production also expanded in China

Samarkand

During the rule of Timur Lane was the most influential captial city, a wealthy trading center known for decorated mosques and tombs; located in Central Asia; had lots of diverse religions (Christianity, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Islam); introduced new fruits and vegetables, rice, and citrus products from southwest Asia to Europe

Kashgar

a central trading point where the Eastern and Western Silk Roads met; traded spices; a primarily Buddhist city but a center of Islamic scholarship

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.

Caravanserai

inn or rest station for caravans

Champa Rice

a quick-maturing, drought resistant rice that can allow two harvests, of sixty days each in one growing season; introduced to China as a tribute from Vietnam

Battle of Talas

battle between the Tang dynasty and the Abbasid Caliphate; eastern expansion of the Muslim power; Muslims win and stop Chinese western expansion (751 CE); a key event in the transmission of paper (technology) because the paper production was a secret. The technology transmitted to the Islamic world and Europe

Bubonic Plague (Black Death)

Deadly disease that spread across Asia, north Africa, & Europe in the mid-14th century, killing millions of people(1/3 of European population)

Began with infected fleas

Fleas traveled on rats and on poeple

First from the Mongols, then to China and rest of Asia, then to Euorpe through Italy

Spread through:

Trade, conquest, uncleanliness

Sogdians

A people who lived in central Asia's commercial centers and maintained the stability and accessibility of the Silk Road. They were crucial to the interconnectedness of the Afro-Eurasian landmass.

Pax Mongolica

The period of approximately 150 years of relative peace and stability created by the Mongol Empire; brought in the third golden age of the Silk Roads

Genghis Khan

A Mongolian general and emperor of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, known for his military leadership and great cruelty. He conquered vast portions of northern China and southwestern Asia. (1162 CE - 1227 CE)

Tamerlane

He is very much like Ghengis Khan; a military leader who conquered the lands of Persia; his empire was decentralized with tribal leaders. (1336 CE - 1405 CE)

Marco Polo

(1254-1324) Italian explorer and author. He made numerous trips to China and returned to Europe to write of his journeys. He is responsible for much of the knowledge exchanged between Europe and China during this time period.

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.

Temujin

a man who unified the mongol tribes and became Genghis Khan in 1206 at a massive tribal setting in the Gobi Desert

Steppe

A large area of flat unforested grassland in southeastern Europe or Siberia.

Yurt

a portable dwelling used by the nomadic people of Centa Asia such as Mongols, consisting of a tentlike structure of skin, felt or hand-woven textiles arranged over wooden poles.

Sinification

extensive adaptation of Chinese culture in other regions

Kublai Khan

(1215-1294) Grandson of Genghis Khan and founder of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty in China.

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.

Dhow

Ship of small to moderate size used in the western Indian Ocean, traditionally with a triangular sail and a sewn timber hull.

Lateen Sail

Triangular sail that was developed in Indian Ocean trade that allowed a ship to sail against the wind.

Junk (ship)

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

Astrolabe

An instrument used by sailors to determine their location by observing the position of the stars and planets

Stern-post rudder

invented by the chinese - at the back of the ship in the center - helps with steering

Srivijaya

A state based on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, between the seventh and eleventh centuries C.E. It amassed wealth and power by a combination of selective adaptation of Indian technologies and concepts, and control of trade routes.

Diaspora

A dispersion of people from their homeland

Trans-Saharan Trade

route across the sahara desert. Major trade route that traded for gold and salt, created caravan routes, economic benefit for controlling dessert, camels played a huge role in the trading

Camel saddles

An invention which gives camel riders more stability on the animal and its invention and basic idea traveled along the Trans-Saharan Caravan Trade Route.

Mamluk Sultanate (1250-1517)

- A political unit in Egypt established by Mamluks

- Defeated the Mongols and the Ayyubid Sultanate

- Did not set up a consistent, hereditary line of succession, which hurt them greatly

- Failed to adapt to new warfare and were eventually defeated by the Ottomans, who brought guns

- Disinterest in trade also contributed to their downfall

Hausa Kingdoms

A collection of states started by the Hausa people; Vibrant trading centers by the 15th century; primary exports = slaves, leather, gold, cloth, salt, kola nuts, animal hides, and henna; between Niger River and Lake Chad (Modern day Nigeria)

Timbuktu

City on the Niger River in the modern country of Mali. It was founded by the Tuareg as a seasonal camp sometime after 1000. As part of the Mali empire, Timbuktu became a major major terminus of the trans-Saharan trade and a center of Islamic learning.

Salt and gold trade

Principal economic pillars of various west African empires; if you controlled the salt trade, you also controlled the gold trade

Camel Caravans

Used to travel across deserts. Fleets in the desert were camel caravans. Fleets usually meant groups on ships.

trans-Saharan slave trade

A fairly small-scale trade that developed in the twelfth century C.E., exporting West African slaves captured in raids across the Sahara for sale mostly as household servants in Islamic North Africa; the difficulty of travel across the desert limited the scope of this trade.

Sundiata

the founder of Mali empire. He crushed his enemies and won control of the gold trade routes

papermaking

The act of using plants, such as hemp or bark, to create paper, which was first invented in China.

Dar al-Islam

an Arabic term that means the "house of Islam" and that refers to lands under Islamic rule

Gunpowder

Invented within China during the 9th century, this substance was became the dominate military technology used to expand European and Asian empires by the 15th century.

compass

an instrument containing a magnetized pointer that shows the direction of magnetic north and bearings from it. Invented by China

Pax Islamica

Islamic Peace, a time of great prosperity for the Islamic world. Aka Islamic golden age; 8th century - 14 century

Spread of Buddhism

Spread by Ashoka in India; First established presence in the oasis towns along the silk roads; prominent faith of silk roads. Merchants from 200 BCE to 1000 CE; by the first century had spread to China and southeast Asia. Also spread through missionaries and Chinese printing press

paper money

Developed by the Chinese to manage the increasing trade

Crusades

A series of holy wars from 1096-1270 CE undertaken by European Christians to free the Holy Land from Muslim rule. Paved the way to expanding networks of change; brought back fabrics and spices from the east; opened Europe up to global trade and disease

money economy

a system or stage of economic life in which money replaces barter in the exchange of goods.

Hanseatic League

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

siege weapons

weapons used to attack castles; trebuchet, mangonel (flings rocks), battering ram, tortoise. Mongols used this type of technology from the Chinese and Persian engineers

Mongolian pony express

A pony express that was created by Genghis Khan; instead of carrying written letters, the carriers carried oral messages

Batu Khan

The oldest grandson of Genghis Khan who took over the armies of the North and conquered Russia in 1240 CE.

Golden Horde

Batu's army; they marched westward and conquered small Russian kingdoms and forced them to pay tribute; they looted and destroyed the capital city of Kiev

Battle of Kulikovo (1380)

Battle between the Mongols and the Russian- city states; after the Russians won the battle, Mongolian influence began to decline

Hulegu Khan

Grandson of Genghis Khan (ca. 1217-1265) who became the first il-khan (subordinate khan) of Persia.

Hulegu conversion

Hulegu and other mongols in the area converted to Islam; before, they were tolerant of other religions. After the conversion, they supported massacres of Jews and Christians

Cannon

Used by the mongols as a siege weapon; a mix of Chinese gunpowder, Muslim flamethrowers, and European bell-casting techniques

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.

White Lotus Society

Secret religious society dedicated to overthrow of Yuan dynasty in China; typical of peasant resistance to Mongol rule

Expansion of Islam

Connected more cities than ever before; brought the Indian Ocean trade to life

Calicut

Major trading city that dealt in spices; on the west coast of India; became a thriving center because of interaction with merchants from east Africa and southwest Asia

India special products

High quality of fabrics (especially cotton); merchants traveled to India for woven carpets and high-carbon steel (knives and swords), tanned leather, stonework, and pepper and other spices

Spice Islands

Modern-day Indonesia and Malaysia; farmed nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom for exports

Mombasa, Mogadishu, and Sofala

Exported gold, ivory, and slaves

Chinese special products

Silk, porcelain, and tea

Southwest Asia special products

Figs, horses, and dates

Result of Indian Ocean slave trade

African words, musical styles, and customs can be found in Oman, India, and elsewhere

Melaka

The first major center of Islam in Southeast Asia, a port kingdom on the southwestern coast of the Malay Peninsula; became wealthy by having fair taxes and building a navy; became prosperous because of trade rather than agriculture of manufacturing

Result of trans-Saharan trade

Spread of Islam and the trade brought considerable wealth to the societies of west Africa such as Ghana and Mali

Songhai Kingdom

Largest African trading kingdom during its time; Helped rebel against Mali; only lasted for about 100 years (late 1400s)

Neo-Confucianism

A mix of rational thought of Confucianism with the abstract ideas of Taoism and Buddhism; popular in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam

Factors of growth of cities

- political stability

- safe and reliable transportation

- rise of commerce

- plentiful labor supply

- increased agricultural output

Constantinople, 1453

Constantinople, the capital and almost the only outpost left of the Byzantine Empire, fell to the army of the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II "the Conqueror" in 1453, an event that marked the end of the High Middle Ages. When they took Constantinople, they took the Byzantine empire with it

Factors of decline of cities

- political instability and invasions

- disease

- decline of agricultural productivity

Effect of sugar

Created an enormous demand from Europe once they were exposed to the global trade; demand for sugar was so high that it was a key factor in the massive use of enslaved people in the Americas in 1500s and after

environmental degradation

Increased population put pressure on resources; lead to overgrazing (Great Zimbabwe), deforestation and over use of farmland lead to soil erosion in Europe; decrease in agriculture from environment damage and little ice age