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Ap world Unit 2 Study Guide
Silk Roads
most famous network of exchange, named after their most famous products, linked the various peoples and civilians of the Eurasian landmass from China to Europe by the early centuries of the Common Era. Especially during prosperous and politically stable times, a vast array of goods made their way across the silk roads, often carried in large camel caravans that transversed the harsh, dangerous steppes, and oases across Central Asia.
Caravanseri
Those caravans stopped at inns or guesthouses, known as caravanseri, located all along the trade routes from the eastern Mediterranean to China. There merchants could rest, exchange goods, and resupply their animals. Such places became centers of cultural exchange as merchants from many religious and cultural traditions met and mingled. Some of the caravanseri developed into central asian communities such as, Bukhara, Samarkand, Khotan, Kashgar, and Dunhuang.
Route
trade routes were from the eastern Meditteranean to China
Type of Goods
Most of the goods that made their way across the silk road were luxury products destined for elite and wealthy market, rather than staple goods, for only readily moved commodities of great value could compensate for the high costs of transportation across such long and forbidding distances
Luxury Goods
Silk was the most prominent of luxury goods
Staple Goods
Not many staple goods were traded because it couldn’t compensate transportation expenses in terms of value and profits
Silk
Silk was most prominent of those luxury goods
Spread of silk making
China long held a monopoly on its production, but by the 6th century C.E., the knowledge and technology for producing raw silk had spread beyond China to Korea, Japan, India, Persia, and the Byzantine Empire
Uses of silk
As the supply of silk increased, its many varieties circulated even more extensivly across Afro-Eurasian trade routes. In central asia, silk was used as currency as as a means of accumulating wealth. In both China and The Byzantine Empire, silk became a symbol of high status, and governments passed laws that restricted silk clothing to only members of the elite. Silk became associated with the sacred in Buddhism and Christianity. Religious Gifts and signs and signs of devotion and piety.
Technology on silk road
over many centuries, various technological innovations, such as yokes, saddles, and stirrups, made the use of camels, horses, and oxen more effective means of travel across the last distance of the Silk Roads. A “frame” and mattress saddle most likely an Arab invention, allowed camels to carry much heavier loads in stable fashion.
Explain the impact of tech developed along the silk road
Tech developed along the silk road allowed transportation to be more effective, brought new innovations to many cultures through trade and connected many different cultures. Camels, horses, and oxen
What is credit?
forms of payment or economic exchange. for example, paper bills, banks, credit, and checks
Paper Money/Flying Money
innitially a chinese invention called “flying cash” because of its tendency to fly away in the wind, made it unnecessary to carry heavy metal coins. European traders introduced “bills of exchange”, A kind of contract promising payment. Novel banking practices allowed urban-based banking houses to offer credit to merchants
Economic consequesnces of S.R.
peasents in the Yanzi River delta of southern China sometimes gave up cultivation of food crops, choosing to focus on producing silk, paper, porcelain, laquerware, or iron tools, many of which were destined for silk road markets
Socail Consequences of S.R.
The impact of long-distance trade trickled down to affect the lives of ordinary farmers. Furthermore, merchants could benefit immensly from their involvment in lond-distance trade. A persian trader named Ramisht whose ships transversed the indian ocean and red sea made a personal fortune from an expensive covering made of silk for the Kabba, the central shrine of islam in Mecca.
Periods of S.R. trade
Roman and Chinese empires. (200 B.C.E. - 200 C.E.) Silk Road trade flourished again during the 7th and 8th centuries C.E. as the Byzantine Empire, the powerful Abbasid Caliphate, and the Tang Dynasty created an almost continous belt of strong states across Eurasia. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the Mongol empire briefly encompassed almost the entire route of the Silk Roads in a single state.
Buddhism Spread
Spread widely throughout central and East Asia as Indian traders and Buddhist monks brought the new religion to the trans-Eurasian trade routes of the Silk Roads.
Oasis cities
Buddhism took root in especially the oasis cities of Central Asia such as Merv, Samrkand, Khotan, and Bunhang. Conversion to Buddhism in such places was voluntary, without the pressure of conquest or foreighn rule. Dependant on long-distance trade, the inhabitants and rulers of those sophisticated and prosperous cities found in Buddhism both a rich spiritual tradition and a link to the larger, wealthy, and restigious civilzations of India
Changes in Buddhism
The original faith had shunned the material world, but Buddhist monastaries in the rich oasis towns of the Silk Roads found themselves very much involved in secular affairs. The begging-bowls of monks became a symbol rather than a part of daily activity. Sculptures and murals in monastaries depicted misicians and acrobats, women applying makeup, and even drinking parties, which all suggested wealthier and more worldy sort of living, far from traditions
Mahayana Buddhism
More devotional. Featuring Buddha as a deity, numerous bodhisattvas, an emphasis on compassion, and the posibility of earning merit - that flourished on the Silk Roads rather than the more austere pyschological teachings of the historical Buddha
Zoroastrian influence in Buddhism
In the Sogdian city of Samarkand, the use of zoroastrian fire rituals apparently became a part of Buddhist practice. In a similar way, the gods of many peoples along the Silk Roads were incorporated into Buddhist practice as bodihstattvas
Bodhisattvas
fully enlightened beings who assisted a suffering humanity
Pure Land School
One of the most popular expressions of Buddhism in China was the Pure Land School, in which faithfully respecting the name of an earlier Buddha, the Amitabha, ensure rebirth in a beautifully described heavenly realm, the Pure Land. In its emphasis on salvation by faith without arduous study and extensive meditation, Pure Land Buddhism became a highly popular authentically Chinese version of an Indian faith
Criticism of Buddhism
In 819, Han Yu, a leading figure in Confucian counterattack on Buddhism gave expression to this hostility saying the Buddha was from barbarian origin, his language different from Chinese, his clothes a different cut, his mouth did not pronounce words of former kings and he did not recognize the relationship between prince & subject and father & son.
Chinese state action against Buddhism
A series of imperial decrees between 841-845 ordered some 260,000 monks and nuns to return to normal life as tax-paying citizens. Thousands of monastaries, temples, and shrines were destroyed or turned to public use while the state confiscated land, money, metals, and serfs belonging to monastaries. Buddhists were now forbidden to use gold, silver, copper, iron, and gems in contruction of their images
Impact of state persecution of Buddhism
These actions dealt a serious blow to Chinese buddhism. It’s scholars and monks were scattered, its creativity diminished and its institutions came even more firmly under state control. Despite this persecution, Buddhism did not vanish from China. The Chan school of Chinese Buddhism (meditation) became dominant during the song dynasty and was favored by court officials and scholars
Neo-Confucianism
At the level of elite culture, Buddhism philosophical ideas played a role in the reformation of Confucian thinking that took place during the Song Dynasty. Called Neo-Confucianism, this outlook rejected the religious aspects of both Buddhism and Daoism but appreciated the high moral standards of Buddhist teachings, while returning to classical texts of Confucianism
Impact of Neo-Confucianism
At the village level, Buddhism became one element of Chinese popular religion, which also included the veneration of anscestors, the honoring of Confucius, and Daoist shrines and rituals. Temples frequently included statues of Confucius, Laozi, and the Buddha, with little sense of any compatability among them
Combination of Chinese traditions
Chinese saying: “Every black haired son of Han wears a confucian thinking cap, a Daoist robe, and Buddhist sandals” Unlike in Europe where Christianity triumphed and excluded all other faiths, Buddhism in China became assimilated into Chinese culture alongside its other traditions.
Spread of Chinese Culture
Many of China’s own cultural traditions spread to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, which actively borrowed many cultural features of their giant and highly prestigious neighbor. Korea sent tribute to China, which gave legitamacy for Korean rulers and offered models of court life and administrative techniques that they sought to replicate back home
Kumsong
A new capital city of Kumsong was modeled directly on the Chinese capital of Chang’an
Chang’an
China’s capital city
Korean integration of Chinese culture
Thousands of Korean students were sent to China where they studied primarily confucianism but also the sciences and arts. Buddhist monks visited centers of learning and pilgramage in China and brought back popular forms of Chinese Buddhism, which quickly took root in Korea. Schools for the study of confucianism, using texts in the Chinese language were established in Korea
Chan Buddhism
Known as Zen Buddhism in Japan, stressed meditation and appreciation for natural and artistic beauty. Popular with members of elite Chinese society.
Zen Buddhism
popular among the samurai warrior class. Chinese Neo-Confucian teachings arrived in Japan around 1240 and proved highly influential among intellectuals. By the 17th century, Neo-Confucianism had become the official ideology of the Japanese Tokugana regime. The Chinese writing system - and with it an interest in historical writing, calligraphy, and poetry - likewise proved attractive among the elite.
Sea Roads
Sea-based trade route connecting distant peoples all across the Indian Ocean basin. Trans-oceanic trade routes grew out of the environmental and cultural diverseties of the region. The desire for goods not available at home - porcelain from China, spices from the islands in southeast asia, cotton goods and pepper from India, ivory and gold from East African coast, and incense from Arabia provided incentives for Indian Ocean commerce
Goods moved along the Sea Roads
Carried more bulk goods and products destined for mass market - textiles, pepper, timber, rice, sugar, and wheat
Why was Indian Ocean trade cheaper than Silk Road?
Transportation costs were lower on the Sea Roads than on the Silk Roads because ships could accomodate larger and heavier cargos than camels
Monsoons
alternating wind currents that blew predicably northeast during the summer months and southwest during the winter
Junks
Chinese junks, new kind of ship
Dhows
Arab dhows, new kind of ship
Astrolabe
new way of calculating latitude
Impact of permanent trading posts
Merchants learned local languages, cultures, and trading practices while also retaining links to their home societies. Permanent settlements of foreign traders.
Diasporic Communities
Groups of people who share a common culture and live outside their native lands. They were in a position to facilitate cammercial exchange among quite different peoples even as they introduced new religious traditions to their host societies.
Reasons for Chinese exploration
Malacca —> Swahili cities flourished (1400s), so China decided to launch a massive series of maritime expiditions, which clearly illustrated connections in the Indian Ocean basin.
Ming Voyages
Launched in 1405, followed over the next 28 yrs by 6 more expeditions. On board more than 300 ships of the first voyage a crew of thousands of physicians, hundreds of gov. officals, astologers, enuchs, carpenters, tailors, accoutants, merchants, etc. Visiting many ports in Southeast Asia, Indonesia, India, Arabia, and East Africa.
Zheng He
Captain of the first Ming voyage. Sought to enroll distant peoples states in the Chinese tribute system
Purpose of treasure fleets
Rulers accompanied the fleets back to China where they presented tribute, performed the required rituals of submission, and received in return abundant gifts, titles, and trading oppurtunities. Officially described as “bringing order to the world” Zheng He’s expeditions established Chinese power and prestige in the Indian Ocean and exerted Chinese control over foreign trade in the region.
End of Chinese exploration - reasons
After 1433 Chinese authorities simply stopped such expeditions. A historian of these voyages wrote “In less than 100 years, the greatest navy the world has ever seen had ordered itself into extinction” Part of the reason involved the death of the Emperor Yongle who had been the cheif patron of the enterprise. Many high-ranking officials had long seen the expeditions as a waste of resources.
Middle Kingdom
Self-Sufficiant “middle kingdom”. the center of the civilized world, requiring little from beyond its borders
Trade in China after death of Yongle
Chinese beleived if they desired something from abroad, others would bring it to them. They viewed the voyages as the project of the court enuchs, whom officials despised. Even as these voices of Chinese officialdom prevailed, private Chinese merchants and craftsman continued to settle and trade in Japan, Philippines, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, but they did so w/o the support of their government
Context of Chinese Voyages
The consequences of this action were important. Since the voyages led to no lasting outcomes, they were long neglected in China’s historical memory, revived only in the early 21st century in the context of China’s reentry on the global stage. At the time, however, the Chinese withdrawl from the Indian Ocean actually facilitated the European entry.
How did the end of Chinese exploration help European explorers?
It cleared the way for the Portuguese to penetrate the region, where they faced onlt the eventual naval power of the Ottoman Empire. Had Vasco de Gama encountered Zheng He’s massive fleet as his four small ships sailed into into Asian waters in 1498, world history may welll have taken a different turn.
Sand Roads
Across the vast reaches of the Sahara in a series of Sand Roads - linked North Africa and the Mediterranean world with the land and people of interior West Africa. Like the others, these Sand Roads commercial networks had a transforming impact, stimulating and enriching West African civilization well before the European slave system linked Africa to a larger Atlantic network of exchange.
Sahara Desert
The great Sahara help deposits of copper and especially salt, and its oases produced sweet and nutritious dates(food). While the sparse populations of the desert were largely pastoral or nomadic, farther south lived agriculture people who grew a variety of crops
Goods traded
textiles and metal products, and mined a considerable amount of gold, crops, grain crops such as millet or sorghum, and the forest areas farther south, there were root and tree crops such as yams and kola nuts
Arabian Camel
introduced to North Africa and the Sahara in the early common era. Could go for 10 days without water, made the long trek across the Sahara possible
Impact of Arabian Camel
Camel-owning dwellers of the desert oases initiated regular trans-Saharan commerce by 300 to 400 C.E., several centuries later, North African Arabs, now bearing the new religion of Islam, also organized caravans across the desert
West African goods
Gold, African ivory, kola nuts, and slaves
West African Civilization
(600-1600) took shape in the region of West Africa, stretching from the Atlantic coast to Lake Chad
Empire of Ghana
(ca. 700-1200) included within the Western African civilization, an ancient kingdom located in what is now southeastern Mauritania and western Mali. A powerful trading empire. King known as the wealthiest king because of their stocks of gold.
Empire of Mali
(ca. 1230-1500) broke away from Ghana. Rulers heavily supported Islam, this was a strong empire of Western Africa. With its trading cities of Timbuktu and Gao, it had many mosques and universities. The empire was ruled by two great rulers, Sundiata and Mansa Musa. They upheld a strong gold-salt trade, horses, metals, free export of gold dust.
Kanem
(at its height 1571-1603) in present day Chad but lasted from the 8th century to the 14th century & was one of the most powerful empires in the region
Kumbi Saleh
ancient city in the Ghana empire that was a promenent trade hub
Jenne
ancient city in Mai known for its architecture, known for great Mosque of Jenne, important center for trade & Islamic learning
Timbuktu
one of the major trading cities, had many muslim religious teachers, judges, scholars, and other learned peoples who maintained the kings expenses
Hausa speaking peoples
located in what is now northern Nigeria, created a substantial number of independent city-states
Similarity to Swahili states
among them Kano, Katsina, and Gobir - that broadly resembled the Swahili city-states of the East-African coast
Kola nuts
Beginning in the 11th century, these Hausa cities created a flourishing urban and commercial culture and acted as middlemen in West African commerce, obtaining kola nuts, for example, from the forest region and sending them north into the trans-Saharan trade. Source of caffeine
Kano - goods
In the 14th and 15th centuries, one of those states, Kano, had become famouse for the production of beautifully dyed cotton textiles, which entered the circuts of West African and trans-Saharan trade
Class system in Western Africa
Royal families and elite classes, mercantile and artisan groups, military and religious officials, free peasents and slaves - all of these were represented in this emerging west African civilization
Gender in Western Africa
So too were gender hierarchies, although without the rigidity of more established Eurasian civilization. Rulers, merchants, and public officials were almost always male, and 1200 earlier matrilineal descent patterns had been largely replaced by those tracing descent through the male line. Male bards, the repositories for their communities history, often viewed powerful women as dangerous, not to be trusted, and suductive
Whar role did the Oral tradition play in Wester Africa?
Oral traditions and mythologies frequently portrayed a complementary rather than heirarchal relationship between sexes.
Slavery in West Africa
Early on, most slaves had been women, working as domestic servants and concubines. As West African civilization crystalized, however, male slaves were put to work as state officials, porters, craftsmen, and miners harvesting salt from desert deposits, and especially agricultural laborers producing for the royal granaries on large estates or plantations.
Changes in Slavery
arrival of european traders & start of trans-atlantic slave trade
Trans-Saharan Slave Trade
Between 1100 and 1400, perhaps 5500 slaves per year made the perilous trek across the desert, where most were put to work in the homes of wealthy in Islamic North Africa.
Introduction of Islam
Islam accompanied trade and became an important element in the urban culture of West Africa. It was introduced largely by Muslim traders across the Sahara rather than being brought by invading Arab or Turkic armies. Introduced by Muslim merchants from North Africa. Largely peaceful and voluntary
Reasons for conversion to Islam
For African merchant communities, Islam provided an important link to Muslim trading partners. For the monarchs and their courts, it offered a source of literate officials to assist in state administration as well as religious legitimacy, particularly for those who gained the prestige conferred by a pilgrimage to Mecca
Mansa Musa
Most prominent pilgrim to Mecca, ruler of Mali, who in 1324 undertook the hajj accompanied by a huge entourage and huge amounts of gold
Hajj
The pilgramage to Mecca, one of the five pillars of Islam
Islamic learning in Timbuktu
Timbuktu, like Malacca, became a renowned center of learning, boasting more than 150 lower-level Quranic schools and several major centers of higher education. Libraries held tens of thousands of books and scholarly manuscripts.
Role of the state in West African Islam
Monarchs subsidized the construction of mosques as West Africa became an integral part of the larger Islamic world
Explain why Islam did not spread into the lower class until the 1800s
Although many rulers adopted Islam, they governed people who steadfastly practiced African religions and whose sensebilities they had to respect if social peace were to prevail. Thus they made few efforts to impose the new religion on their rural subjects or to govern in strict Islamic Law
How does Sonni Ali demonstrate the West African system of Islam
Sonni Ali, a 15th century ruler of Songhay, observed Ramadan and built mosques, but he also consulted traditional diviners and performed customary sacrifices. In such ways, Islam became Africanized even as parts of West Africa became Islamized
Explain the scale of the Islamic world
Certainly by 1200, millions of peoples in very different cultural settings shared a common faith and spoke Arabic. This huge region, ranging from Spain-West Africa across the Middle East to India and Southeast Asia, had become a vast trading zone of hemispheric dimensions
Why did Islam encourage trade
Commerce was valued positvely within Islamic teaching, and laws regulating it figured prominently in the sharia, creating a predictable framework for exchange across many cultures. The Pilgrammage to Mecca, as well as the urbanization that accompanied Islamic civilizations, likewise fostered commerce
Role of Canton
As early as the eighth century, Arab and Persian traders established a commercial colony in Canton in Southern China, thus linking the Islamic heartland with Asia’s other giant and flourishing economy
Economics in the Islamic world
Various forms of banking partnerships, buisnesses, banking contracts, and instruments, for granting credit facilitated these long-distance economic relationships and generated a prosperous, sophisticated, and highly commercialized economy that spanned in Eastern Hemisphere
Ecological Changes
Agricultureal products and practices spread from one region to another the transcontinental expanse of Islamic civilization also contributed to ecological change
Crops (Islamic World)
Different varieties of sugarcane, rice, apricots, artichokes, eggplants, lemons, oranges, almonds, fish, and bananas
Mansa
ruler/ term for king
Expedition west
In the 14th century, Mali was an expanding empire. According to Musa, one of his immediate predecessors had launched a substantial maritime expedition into the Atlantic Ocean. The voyage never returned
How did Mali become wealthy?
the goldfields to the South and the trans-Saharan trade networks to the North. Mansa Musa started a program to buld Mosques —> places turned the city of Timbuktu in a region of trade, religion, abd intelectual life.
Mansa Musa’s hajj
When he began his journey in 1324, he was accompanied by an enormous entourage, with thousands of fellow pilgrims, some 500 slaves, his wife and other women, hundreds of camels, and huge quantities of gold
Spending of gold in Egypt
Mansa Musa distributed it lavishly along his journey. Egyptian sources reported that the value of gold in their country was depressed years after Musa’s visit. On his return trip, he exhausted his supply and had to borrow money from the Egyptian at high interest rates
View of women
Mansa Musa was surprised to learn that Muslim rulers were not allowed to take the beautiful unmarried women of their realm as concubines, he quickly committed himself to abandoning the practice
What significance did Mansa Musa likely attach to his pilgrimage?
Personal level: so moved by the pilgrimage, that he considered leaving his throne and returning to Mecca so he could hear the sancuary of thekaaba
How might Egyptians, Arabians, & Europeans have viewed it?
Egyptians: astounded by Musa’s wealth
Arabians: seen as deep religious devotion
Europeans: seen as a revelation
Islamic Green Revolution
Water managment practices contributed to food increased production, as well as population growth, urbanization, and industrial development across the islamic world.
Islamic tech
Muslim technicians made improvements on rockets, first developed by China, by developing one that carried a small warhead and another that was used to attack ships. In the 8th century papermaking techniques paper mills strengthened autocratic governments
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