Southernization: AP World History Lockhart

Southernization

A multifaceted process beginning in Southern Asia that spread globally, involving the development of mathematics, spices, trade routes, and tropical crops.

Westernization

Developments that first occurred in Western Europe and eventually spread to other regions, analogous to the earlier process of southernization.

Gupta kings

Indian rulers from $320$ to $535$ C.E. during whose reign southernization was well under way and spreading to China.

Cotton

The oldest strand of southernization, first domesticated in the Indus River Valley between $2300$ and $1760$ B.C.E. and exported globally by India.

Bullion

Precious metals like gold; Indian merchants sought new sources in Indonesia and East Africa after Central Asian disturbances interrupted trade with Siberia.

Cosmas Indicopleustes

A $6\text{th}$-century Byzantine geographer who documented Ethiopian merchants sailing south for two-year voyages to obtain gold ingots.

Southern Ocean

A Chinese term for the waters spanningจาก the South China Sea to the eastern coast of Africa.

Malays

People from modern Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines identified as the most intrepid sailors of the Southern Ocean before $300$ B.C.E.

Monsoons

Seasonal winds that Malay sailors learned to ride to navigate between Asia and Africa.

Kunlun

The Chinese term for Malay seamen who reached the southern coasts of China by the $3\text{rd}$ century B.C.E.

Cinnamon

A southern spice first traded long-distance by Malay sailors from South China Sea ports to East Africa and the Red Sea.

Balance lug sails

Square-shaped, pivoting sails developed by Malays that allowed ships to tack against the wind, likely the prototype for Arab triangular sails.

Tack

A sailing technique of moving diagonally against the wind, utilized by Malay sailors to navigate open oceans.

Crystallized sugar

A development by Indians that turned sugarcane juice into granulated crystals, making it easy to store and transport for trade.

Zero

The mathematical concept invented in India as a number; it made the place-value system superior to all others and appeared in text by $499$ C.E.

Amr ibn Bahr al Jahiz

An influential $9\text{th}$-century Arabic writer who praised India for its advancements in astronomy, medicine, and mathematics.

Champa rice

A drought-resistant, early-ripening variety from Vietnam that doubled the area of rice cultivation in China after its introduction.

Grand Canal

A waterway completed around $610$ C.E. by the Sui dynasty to transport southern rice to the northern military and political centers.

Gunpowder

An invention by $9\text{th}$-century Taoist alchemists in China, potentially linked to saltpeter discoveries made by Indian monks.

South-pointing needle

The Chinese name for the navigational compass, which was perfected during the Song dynasty for marine travel.

Porcelain

A major Chinese export developed before $400$ C.E. that became a staple of overseas commerce alongside silk.

Desalination

The process of removing salt from soil, performed by enslaved East Africans in the Persian Gulf to prepare land for sugar production.

Francis Bacon

A $17\text{th}$-century philosopher who identified the compass, printing, and gunpowder as the three technologies that changed the world.