AP WORLD UNIT 2

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Networks of Exchange

Merchants carried goods and brought religion, languages, and technology across these trade routes.

Trade Routes Changes

This grew during this time due to innovations in commercial practice and technological innovations. It caused various states to grow wealthy and powerful via participation, and causes others to collapse due to the increased connectivity

Silk Road

A network of land-based trade routes connecting Asia, the Middle East, and Europe that traded luxury goods and spread ideas, religions, technologies, and diseases across regions.

Silk Road items

Chinese silk, spices, and porcelain were mainly traded on this route due to its increased demand and, therefore, production. These items were very profitable, and easy to carry.

Caravanserai

A cause of expansion. Roadside inns along trade routes where merchants and their animals could rest, resupply, and stay safe, helping support long-distance trade and cultural exchange. It brought many merchants from differing cultures together, and that created the occasion for cultural or technological transfers.

Money Economy

A cause of expansion. An economic system where goods and services are exchanged using paper money instead of barter, making trade more efficient and helping expand markets and long-distance trade networks. (Flying money system)

Credit

A cause of expansion. A system where people can buy goods or borrow money and pay later, which helped merchants trade more easily and safely over long distances.

Kashgar

A Silk Road trading city in modern-day western China that grew in power and wealth and became a cultural center due to its location, which led to more trade, where goods, ideas, and religions mixed and spread.

Indian Ocean Network

A sea-based trade network connecting Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia that used monsoon winds to trade goods and spread ideas, religions, and culture across regions.

Monsoon Winds

Seasonal wind patterns in the Indian Ocean that reverse direction during the year, allowing traders to travel and return on predictable routes, making long-distance sea trade easier and more efficient

Indian Ocean trade Network Items

On this route, more common goods were carried, like textiles and spices. Due to being able to load more cargo. They also traded luxury goods.

Magnetic Compass

A cause of expansion, a tool that uses Earth’s magnetic field to show direction, which made ocean travel more accurate and helped sailors safely travel longer distances and expand trade.

Astrolabe

A cause of expansion. A device used to find location by measuring the position of the stars and sun, which helps reckon latitude and longitude, making long-distance sea travel more accurate and helping expand trade.

Chinese Junk

A cause of expansion. A large sailing ship with multiple sails and a strong design that made it stable and able to carry heavy cargo on long-distance trade routes across the Indian Ocean.

Swahili City-States

The expansion of the Indian Ocean trade led to the growth of wealthy coastal trading cities in East Africa, where merchants exchanged goods like gold and ivory, and where Islam and cultural blending added to these states' culture and language.

Diasporic Communities

groups of people who live outside their homeland but keep their culture and trade connections, such as Arab and Persian merchants who settled in East African trading cities and helped spread Islam, which led to the creation of the new Swahili Language.

Zheng He Impact

A Chinese admiral who led large naval expeditions across the Indian Ocean to show power, collect tribute, and strengthen trade connections between China, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and East Africa.

Camel Saddle

A cause of expansion. A technological innovation that allowed camels to carry heavier loads more safely and efficiently, improving the transportation of goods across long desert trade routes and supporting expanded trade.

Empire of Mali

A wealthy West African empire that grew powerful by controlling and taxing trans-Saharan trade in gold and salt, expanding under strong rulers (Mansa Musa), and connecting to the wider Islamic world through trade and religion.

Trans-Saharan trade network

A network of trade routes across the Sahara Desert that connected West Africa to North Africa, using camel caravans to trade goods like gold and salt, and helped spread Islam and wealth

Transfer of religion and belief systems

An effect of networks. The spread of religions like Buddhism, which traveled from India to East and Central Asia through merchants and missionaries, spreading ideas and adapting to different cultures along trade routes.

Literary and Artistic Transfers

An effect of networks. The translation of Greek and Roman classical works into Arabic by scholars in the Islamic world preserved and expanded ancient knowledge in fields like philosophy, science, and mathematics. These texts were later reintroduced into Europe through trade and contact in places like Spain and Italy, helping to spark new learning and ideas that contributed to the Renaissance.

Scientific and Technological Innovations (Gunpowder)

A effect of networks. A chemical explosive mixture that originated in China and spread along trade routes like the Silk Roads to the Middle East and Europe through merchants and military contact, leading to major changes in warfare by increasing the use of cannons and firearms and weakening traditional forms of defense like castles and armor.

Rise and Fall of Cities

A effect of networks. The expansion led to the rise of Hangzhou because its location on major trade routes in China allowed it to grow into a wealthy center of trade, culture, and government. At the same time, the fall of Baghdad after the Mongol invasion in 1258 shows how cities connected to trade networks could decline when faced with military conquest and political instability.

Travelers wrote about their experiences

An effect of networks. Written records and descriptions of journeys by individuals who traveled across regions, like Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, and Margery Kempe, often document the cultures, governments, economies, and religions they encountered. These accounts helped spread knowledge and provide insight into different societies connected by trade networks like the Silk Roads and the Indian Ocean trade.

Transfer of Crops

The movement and spread of agricultural goods and plants between regions through trade networks, migration, and contact. Like Champa rice, a fast-ripening rice variety from Southeast Asia that spread to China through trade networks, greatly increasing food production and supporting population growth in Song Dynasty China.

Transfer of Disease

The spread of infectious diseases between regions through trade routes, travel, and increased human interaction. As networks of exchange expanded, diseases could move quickly across large distances, often causing widespread population decline and social and economic disruption. Like the Bubonic plague, which was oc deadly

Mongol Empire

The largest land-based empire OAT. Most empires that fell to them facilitated and expanded the trade networks and connections, due to them promoting trade to the conquered & merchants and providing safety on the routes (Pax Mongolica). Technological transfers, such as Greek and Islamic medicine, to Western Europe. Cultural Transfers, like the Uyghur script. (a language)