AP World History Unit 2: Networks of Exchange

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering trade networks, commercial innovations, cultural diffusion, and the Mongol Empire in AP World History Unit 2 (1200–1450).

Networks of exchange

Trade routes and interconnected systems where merchants carried commercial goods, religions, languages, and technologies, facilitating global economic interaction and cultural diffusion between 1200 and 1450.

Silk Roads

A major land-based network of exchange stretching across Eurasia that specialized in the trade of luxury items, most notably Chinese silk and porcelain.

Caravanserai

A network of roadside inns and guesthouses established along the Silk Roads roughly a day's journey apart, offering security for merchants and fostering cultural and technological exchange.

Money economy

An economic system developed in China that uses paper currency to conduct commercial transactions rather than trading goods directly as in a barter economy.

Flying money

A credit and paper money system developed in China that allowed merchants to deposit money in one location and withdraw the equivalent amount in another, reducing the risk and burden of carrying metal coins.

Bill of exchange

A written financial document presented at European banking houses that stated a merchant's name and the specific amount owed to him, functioning like a check.

Kashgar

A flourishing trading city located at the convergence of two major routes of the Silk Roads in a lush river valley, which grew wealthy by providing resources to merchants crossing inhospitable terrain.

Monsoon winds

Predictable seasonal wind patterns in the Indian Ocean that blew in consistent directions depending on the season, enabling maritime merchants to navigate the ocean safely and reliably.

Astrolabe

A navigational instrument improved during the period that allowed mariners to measure the position of the stars and calculate latitude and longitude by comparing readings with star charts.

Chinese junk

A large ship design featuring enormous cargo holds capable of carrying massive quantities of bulk goods and commercial cargo across the Indian Ocean.

Swahili city-states

A collection of independent trading states along the East African coast that accumulated great wealth and power by acting as commercial brokers for interior goods such as gold, ivory, and enslaved people.

Diasporic communities

Settlements of merchants and ethnic groups who resided in foreign trade ports outside their homelands, such as Arab and Persian communities established in East Africa.

Swahili (language)

A language that emerged along the East African coast as a result of cultural blending, formed from a mixture of native Bantu languages and Arabic vocabulary.

Zheng He

An admiral commissioned by China's Ming dynasty who led voyages across the Indian Ocean to enroll foreign states into China's tributary system while spreading Chinese maritime technology.

Trans-Saharan trade network

A major overland trading route across North Africa that experienced significant expansion between 1200 and 1450 due to advancements in camel transportation and trade in commodities like gold.

Camel saddle

A transportation innovation developed to enable camels to carry substantially heavier cargo loads across arid desert environments.

Mali

A West African empire that achieved enormous wealth by trading gold and taxing merchants along the Trans-Saharan routes, closely connected to Dar al-Islam following its leaders' conversion in the ninth century.

Mansa Musa

A fourteenth-century ruler of the Mali Empire who brought the state to the peak of its power and wealth by monopolizing trade routes between North Africa and the continental interior.

House of Wisdom

An intellectual center in Baghdad where Islamic scholars translated classical Greek and Roman texts into Arabic and composed commentaries that later formed the foundation for the European Renaissance.

Gunpowder

An explosive substance invented in China that spread via exchange networks and Mongol conquests to Muslim empires and Europe, fundamentally transforming warfare and the balance of power.

Hangzhou

A major Chinese trade city situated at the end of the Grand Canal that grew increasingly wealthy, populated, and urbanized as commercial connectivity expanded.

Ibn Battuta

A Moroccan Muslim scholar who traveled across Dar al-Islam over a thirty-year period and left detailed written records describing the rulers, societies, and cultures he visited.

Champa rice

A quick-maturing, high-yield grain introduced to China from the Champa Kingdom through the tributary system, significantly boosting agricultural production and population growth.

Bubonic plague

A lethal disease spread by fleas and rats along Silk Road routes and maritime trading ships after erupting in China in 1331, wiping out massive portions of the population in Europe and the Middle East.

Khanates

The four regional states ruled by a Khan into which the Mongol Empire was partitioned by the second half of the fourteenth century.

Pax Mongolica

A historical era of broad peace and stability across Eurasia under Mongol rule that facilitated safe overland trade, diplomatic communication, and cross-cultural exchange.

Uighur script

A written script adopted by the Mongols from a conquered Turkic Muslim group in Central Asia, utilized throughout the empire as the official written medium for diplomacy and administration.