Commerce and Culture 600-1450

This is a set of vocabulary flashcards reviewing the major economic and cultural developments between 600-1450 CE, focusing on trade routes and their impact in Afro-Eurasia and the Americas.

Trade Importance (600-1450)

A network of exchange and communication extending all across the Afro-Eurasian world and separately in parts of the Americas.

Trade & Political Life

Wealth available from controlling and taxing trade motivated the creation of states and sustained them.

Goods in Transit (Silk Road)

A vast array of goods, often luxury products, destined for an elite and wealthy market rather than staple goods.

Silk

Symbolized the Eurasian network of exchange, originating in China around 3000 B.C.E.

Trade Vehicle Items

Religious ideas, technological innovations, disease-bearing germs, and plants and animals.

Black Death (1346-1350)

A devastating plague that spread across Eurasia, impacting Europe, China, and the Islamic world.

Monsoons

Alternate wind currents that blew predictably northeast during the summer months and southwest during the winter, enabling sea-based trade in the Indian Ocean.

Oceanic Commerce Impact

Trade stimulated political change as ambitious rulers used the wealth derived from commerce to construct larger, centrally governed states, also experiencing cultural change due to foreign religious ideas.

Srivijaya

Dominated the critical choke point of Indian Ocean trade from 670 to 1025 due to its plentiful gold and access to spices.

Srivijaya Buddhist Observance

Grew into a major center of Buddhist observance and teaching, attracting thousands of monks and students from throughout the Buddhist world.

Swahili Civilization

Illustrates the distinctly cosmopolitan character of Swahili culture as it rapidly became Islamic through Arab traders.

Great Zimbabwe

Connected to the growing trade in gold to the coast and the wealth embodied in its large herds of cattle.

Trans-Saharan Trade across the Sand Roads

Provided incentives and resources for new and larger political structures in West Africa.

Arabian Camel

The Arabian camel could go for ten days without water, which finally made possible the long trek across the Sahara.

Timbuktu

A West African city, terminus of the Sand Road commercial network, became an intellectual center of Islamic learning.

American Web

Had limited direct connections among its various civilizations and cultures compared to Afro-Eurasia, due to the absence of key technologies and geographic obstacles.

Thorfinn Karlsefni

Led 160 people on three ships to North America seeking furs, timber, and other valuable resources.

Pochteca

Professional merchants undertook large-scale trading expeditions within and beyond the borders of the Aztec Empire.