UNIT 2: Networks of Exchange c. 1200 - 1450

Unit 2

• Networks of Exchange

• c. 1200 - 1450

• how various states are connected to one another

Networks of Exchange

• merchants and traders carried goods for sale across these routes

• religion, culture, and language were also transferred

Major Networks of Exchange

Silk Roads + Indian Ocean Network + Trans-Saharan Trade

• during c. 1200 - 1450: these networks increased in geographic scale

Silk Road

• stretched across Eurasia (Europe + Asia)

• powerful trading cities emerged because of their location along these routes: Samarkand + Kashgar

Luxury Goods:

• Chinese silk and porcelain

Innovations:

transportation:

• Caravanserai: provided safety and shelter along the route to travelers

• significant place for the spreading of religion and technology

commercial:

• Money Economies: paper money to exchange goods

• Credit: Banking Houses (the transfer of money and goods)

Indian Ocean

Transportation:

• Monsoon Winds: predictable wind patterns that allowed for more efficient travel (utilizing sail boats)

• Magnetic Compass (direction)

• Ship Designs: Chinese “Junk” (large cargo capacity)

Luxury Goods:

• textiles

• spices

• bulk goods (ships can carry heavier cargo)

Indian Ocean: Swahili City States

Swahili City States: a collection of independent city-states along Africa’s EAST coast

• gold, ivory, enslaved people

• Islamic: larger trading in Dar-Al Islam

• Swahili language emerged (native Bantu + Arabic)

Diasporic Communities

settlement of ethnic people in another location (separate from their homeland)

(Indian Ocean: e.g

• Arab and Persian communities established in East Africa)

Trans-Saharan Route

Transportation Technology:

• Camel Saddles: larger cargo and more suitable for long term travel

Empire of Mali: Trans-Saharan Network

• gained extreme prosperity through trade (gold and taxing of merchants)

• Mansa Musa: monopolized trade and facilitated growth

Effects of Connectivity through Trade

Cultural:

• spread of religions and beliefs:

  • Buddhism originated in South Asia or India but got transferred into China

• House of Wisdom:

  • Greek and Roman scripts were translated into Arabic

• gunpowder: explosive weaponry (originated in China)

Environmental:

• crops: champa rice

• disease: BUBONIC PLAGUE:

  • Created in China due to rats and declined large amounts of the population

Mongol Empire

• established the largest land-based empire of all time

  • based on the SILK ROAD

• replaced powerful empires across Eurasia (e.g: Song Dynasty + Abbasid Empire fell to the Mongols)

• Four Khanates: maintain unity and effectively govern the large empire

• increased the safety of merchants along the Silk Road

• Pax Mongolica: the period of relative peace and stability that existed within the vast Mongol Empire