Unit 2: Networks of Exchange (1200-1450)

Silk Roads

Overland trade routes linking East Asia to the Mediterranean. Carried mostly high-value, lightweight luxury goods (silk, porcelain, jade) because hauling bulk goods over land cost too much.

Caravan

A large group of merchants and pack animals traveling together for protection against bandits and harsh terrain.

Caravanserai

Roadside inns spaced about a day's travel apart along trade routes, offering merchants lodging, water, food, stables, and protection. Also places where ideas and religions were exchanged.

Demand for Luxury Goods

Growing elite demand across Afro-Eurasia for items like Chinese silk and porcelain; the main force driving the expansion of Silk Road trade.

Porcelain

Fine, high-fired ceramic perfected in China; a prized export and status symbol across Eurasia.

Proto-Industrialization

Song China's surge in production of iron, steel, silk, and porcelain beyond what the domestic market needed, largely for sale in distant markets.

Flying Money (Flying Cash)

Chinese credit system, begun under the Tang, that let a merchant deposit coins in one city and collect the same amount in another city with a paper certificate, avoiding the need to carry heavy coins.

Paper Money

Government-issued paper currency first widely used in Song China and expanded by the Mongol Yuan; made large transactions far easier.

Bills of Exchange

Written documents promising payment of a set sum at a later date in another place; let merchants trade across long distances without carrying coins.

Banking Houses

Institutions that issued bills of exchange, made loans, and extended credit to merchants; forerunners of modern banks.

Credit

An arrangement that lets a merchant receive goods or money now and pay for them later.

Money Economy

An economy based on standardized coins and paper currency rather than barter; spread as long-distance trade grew.

Kashgar

Oasis city in far western China where the northern and southern Silk Road branches met; a key stop for water, food, and markets before crossing the Pamir Mountains.

Samarkand

Wealthy Silk Road city in Central Asia (modern Uzbekistan); a center of trade, Islamic learning, and cultural mixing, later the capital of Timur (Tamerlane).

Hanseatic League

Alliance of northern German and Baltic merchant cities that controlled North Sea and Baltic trade and linked northern Europe to wider trade networks.

Genghis Khan (Temujin)

Unified the Mongol tribes in 1206 and launched the conquests that built the largest contiguous land empire in history.

Kurultai

Council of Mongol leaders that chose the Great Khan and decided major policy; Genghis Khan was proclaimed ruler at one in 1206.

Pastoral Nomadism

A way of life based on herding animals and moving with the seasons; gave the Mongols expert horsemen and highly mobile armies.

Tumen

Mongol army unit of 10,000 soldiers, organized in decimal units (10, 100, 1,000) for discipline and control.

Composite Bow

Short, powerful bow made of wood, horn, and sinew that Mongol horse archers could fire accurately at full gallop.

Mongol Siege Warfare

Catapults, trebuchets, and gunpowder weapons the Mongols adopted from Chinese and Muslim engineers to capture walled cities.

Mongol Terror Tactics

Destroying cities that resisted while sparing those that surrendered, which led many cities to give up without a fight.

Pax Mongolica

Period of relative peace and stability across Eurasia under Mongol rule (13th-14th centuries). The Mongols protected trade routes, which increased trade and cultural exchange.

Yam System

Mongol network of relay stations with fresh horses and supplies that let official messengers cover huge distances quickly.

Paiza

Metal tablet that served as a Mongol passport, giving officials and approved merchants safe passage and supplies across the empire.

Ortogh (Ortoq)

Partnerships in which Mongol elites supplied capital to (mostly Muslim) merchants who ran the trade, sharing profits and risk.

Uyghur Script

Writing system Genghis Khan adopted to give the Mongols a written language for laws and administration.

The Four Khanates

The regions the Mongol Empire split into after Genghis Khan: Yuan Dynasty (China), Ilkhanate (Persia/Middle East), Golden Horde (Russia), and Chagatai Khanate (Central Asia).

Kublai Khan

Grandson of Genghis Khan who founded the Yuan Dynasty (1271), completed the conquest of Song China (1279), and hosted Marco Polo.

Yuan Dynasty

Mongol dynasty in China (1271-1368). Kept many Chinese government structures but favored Mongols and foreigners over Chinese for top posts and suspended the civil service exams until 1315.

Khanbaliq

Capital of the Yuan Dynasty, on the site of modern Beijing.

Hulegu Khan

Grandson of Genghis Khan who conquered Persia and Mesopotamia and founded the Ilkhanate.

Sack of Baghdad (1258)

Hulegu's destruction of Baghdad; the Abbasid caliph was killed, the House of Wisdom was destroyed, and the Abbasid Caliphate ended.

Ilkhanate

Mongol khanate in Persia and the Middle East; its rulers converted to Islam and relied on Persian administrators and practices.

Batu Khan

Grandson of Genghis Khan who conquered the Rus principalities and founded the Golden Horde.

Golden Horde

Mongol khanate that ruled Russia indirectly by collecting tribute through Russian princes.

Kievan Rus

Federation of East Slavic principalities that fell to the Mongols (1237-1240) and became tribute-paying vassals of the Golden Horde.

Muscovy (Grand Principality of Moscow)

Russian state that grew powerful by collecting tribute for the Golden Horde, won an early victory at Kulikovo (1380), and finally ended Mongol overlordship in 1480.

Chagatai Khanate

Mongol khanate in Central Asia ruled by descendants of Genghis Khan's son Chagatai.

White Lotus Society

Chinese secret religious society that led peasant revolts against Yuan rule.

Zhu Yuanzhang

Peasant-born rebel leader who drove out the Yuan and founded the Ming Dynasty in 1368, ruling as the Hongwu Emperor.

Mongol Transfers of Technology and Culture

By moving artisans, scholars, and engineers across their empire, the Mongols spread gunpowder, paper, printing, astronomy, medicine, and Persian and Chinese administrative methods.

Indian Ocean Trade Network

Largest sea-based trade network of the era, linking East Africa, Arabia, India, Southeast Asia, and China. Ships could carry bulk goods (textiles, rice, timber, spices) as well as luxuries.

Monsoon Winds

Seasonal winds blowing from the northeast in winter and the southwest in summer. Sailors timed voyages around them and often waited months in port for the winds to shift.

Lateen Sail

Triangular sail that let ships sail at an angle into the wind (tacking).

Dhow

Arab and Indian trading ship with lateen sails, often built with hull planks sewn together with coconut fiber.

Chinese Junk

Large multi-masted Chinese ship with watertight compartments (bulkheads), a sternpost rudder, and battened sails; could carry hundreds of tons of cargo.

Sternpost Rudder

Chinese-developed rudder mounted at the back of a ship, allowing better steering of large vessels.

Magnetic Compass

Chinese invention using a magnetized needle to find direction, letting sailors navigate out of sight of land.

Astrolabe

Instrument refined by Muslim scholars that measured the angle of the sun or stars to determine latitude.

Sultanate of Malacca

Islamic state controlling the Strait of Malacca; grew rich by taxing ships passing between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea and used its navy to suppress piracy.

Swahili City-States

Independent East African port cities (Kilwa, Mombasa, Zanzibar) that traded interior gold, ivory, and slaves for Indian textiles and Chinese porcelain.

Swahili Language

Bantu language with many Arabic words; a product of contact between Arab and Persian merchants and East Africans.

Calicut

Port on India's southwest (Malabar) coast; a major hub of the pepper and spice trade.

Gujarat

Region in western India famous for producing and exporting cotton textiles and indigo.

Diasporic Communities

Merchants who settled in foreign ports, often married locally, and spread their culture (e.g., Arab and Persian Muslims in East Africa and India; Chinese merchants in Southeast Asia).

Spice Islands (Maluku/Moluccas)

Islands in modern Indonesia that produced cloves, nutmeg, and mace.

Indian Ocean Slave Trade

Forced movement of East Africans across the Indian Ocean to Arabia, Persia, and India for domestic, agricultural, and military labor.

Zheng He's Voyages (1405-1433)

Seven Ming treasure-fleet expeditions to Southeast Asia, India, Arabia, and East Africa to display Chinese power and bring states into the tributary system. The Ming court later ended them.

Tributary System

China's system of foreign relations in which other states sent gifts and acknowledged the emperor's superiority in exchange for trading rights and gifts in return.

Trans-Saharan Trade

Overland routes across the Sahara linking North Africa and the Mediterranean with West Africa.

Sahel

Semi-arid grassland south of the Sahara where trading cities and empires such as Mali arose.

Camel

Pack animal able to travel long distances without water; made regular desert crossings practical.

Camel Saddle

Saddle designs (such as the South Arabian and North Arabian saddles) that let camels carry heavy loads, making large desert caravans possible.

Saharan Caravans

Large camel caravans, often guided by Berber desert experts, that crossed the Sahara carrying salt, gold, cloth, and other goods.

Gold-Salt Trade

Core exchange of Trans-Saharan trade: salt from Saharan mines (like Taghaza) traded for gold from West Africa. Slaves, ivory, and textiles were also traded.

Ghana Empire

Early West African empire that grew rich by taxing the gold and salt trade before declining around 1200.

Mali Empire

West African Muslim empire founded by Sundiata in the 1200s; grew rich by controlling gold fields and taxing trade. Key cities: Timbuktu, Gao, Djenne.

Sundiata Keita

Founder of the Mali Empire; united the Mandinka peoples and took over former Ghana lands.

Mansa Musa

Mali's most famous ruler (r. c. 1312-1337); expanded the empire and promoted Islam by building mosques and schools.

Mansa Musa's Hajj (1324-1325)

Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca with a huge entourage and vast amounts of gold. He spent so much in Cairo that gold lost value there for years, and Mali soon appeared on European maps like the Catalan Atlas (1375).

Timbuktu

Trading city near the Niger River that became a major center of Islamic learning, with mosques (Sankore), libraries, and manuscript collections.

Songhai Empire

West African empire based in Gao that took over much of Mali's territory and trade in the late 1400s.

Cultural Diffusion

The spread of religions, ideas, art, and technology through contact along trade routes.

Syncretism

Blending of different cultural or religious traditions into something new (e.g., the Swahili language; Neo-Confucianism combining Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist ideas).

Dar al-Islam

The "house of Islam": all the lands where Islam was the dominant religion.

Spread of Islam

Carried by merchants and Sufi missionaries along Trans-Saharan routes, into Indian Ocean ports, and into Southeast Asia (e.g., Malacca), often blending with local customs.

Spread of Buddhism

Mahayana Buddhism spread along the Silk Roads to East Asia; Theravada Buddhism spread by sea to Southeast Asia.

Spread of Hinduism

Carried by sea to Southeast Asian states such as the Khmer Empire, where Angkor Wat was built as a Hindu temple and later became Buddhist.

House of Wisdom

Abbasid center of learning in Baghdad where Greek, Persian, and Indian texts were translated into Arabic; destroyed in the 1258 Mongol sack.

Translation Movement

Abbasid-era effort to translate Greek, Persian, and Indian science, math, and philosophy into Arabic, preserving classical knowledge.

Al-Andalus

Muslim-ruled Spain; a key route by which Arabic learning and preserved Greek works reached Christian Europe.

Spread of Gunpowder

Chinese invention carried across Eurasia by the Mongols and traders; transformed warfare in the Islamic world and Europe.

Spread of Paper and Printing

Chinese technologies that spread across Eurasia, expanding record-keeping, literacy, and the spread of ideas.

Grand Canal

Canal linking northern and southern China, allowing grain and goods to move between regions.

Hangzhou

Capital of the Southern Song at the southern end of the Grand Canal; grew to over a million people and was described by Marco Polo.

Decline of Cities

Some major cities shrank due to conquest (Baghdad, 1258), plague, or shifting trade routes.

Ibn Battuta

Moroccan Muslim scholar and judge who traveled about 75,000 miles (1325-1354) through Dar al-Islam and beyond, including Mali, the Swahili coast, India, and China. Recorded his journeys in the Rihla.

Marco Polo

Venetian merchant who spent about 17 years in Kublai Khan's China. His book amazed Europeans with descriptions of Chinese wealth, cities, and paper money.

Margery Kempe

English Christian mystic whose Book of Margery Kempe, often called the first autobiography in English, describes her pilgrimages to Jerusalem, Rome, and Santiago de Compostela.

Champa Rice

Fast-ripening, drought-resistant rice brought to Song China from Champa (Vietnam). Allowed two harvests a year, fueling major population growth.

Diffusion of Crops

Trade spread crops to new regions: bananas from Southeast Asia to Africa improved diets and supported population growth; Muslim traders spread citrus and sugarcane to the Mediterranean.

Great Zimbabwe

Southern African trading city that prospered through gold and Indian Ocean trade but was abandoned by the 1400s, likely due to overgrazing, deforestation, and soil exhaustion.

Bubonic Plague (Black Death)

Epidemic caused by Yersinia pestis, carried by fleas on rats along Mongol-era land routes and sea lanes; reached the Mediterranean and Europe in 1347.

Effects of the Black Death

Killed roughly one-third to one-half of Europe's population, with heavy losses in the Middle East. Labor shortages let surviving peasants demand higher wages and more freedom, weakening feudalism.

Overland vs. Maritime Trade

Overland routes (Silk Roads, Trans-Saharan) mostly carried light luxury goods by animal; the Indian Ocean carried far larger volumes, including bulk goods, by ship.

Silk Roads Summary

Land route across Eurasia; camels and horses; luxury goods (silk, porcelain); caravanserai, credit, paper money; spread Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity; boosted by Song China and the Mongols.

Indian Ocean Summary

Sea lanes linking East Africa, Arabia, India, Southeast Asia, and China; dhows and junks; bulk and luxury goods (spices, textiles, rice); monsoon knowledge, lateen sail, compass, astrolabe; spread Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism; key players: Swahili city-states, Malacca, Ming China.

Trans-Saharan Summary

Desert routes linking North and West Africa; camel caravans and camel saddles; gold, salt, slaves, ivory; spread Islam; key players: Ghana, Mali, and Songhai.

Causes of Trade Growth (1200-1450)

Strong states that protected trade (Mongols, Song China, Mali), new transportation technology (saddles, sails, compass), new financial tools (credit, paper money), and rising demand for luxury goods.