Unit 2: Networks of Exchange (c. 1200 C.E. - c. 1450 C.E.)

Vocabulary flashcards covering the major trade networks, commercial innovations, cultural diffusion, and environmental impacts of Unit 2: Networks of Exchange (c. 1200 C.E. - c. 1450 C.E.).

Silk Roads Financial Innovations

Commercial mechanisms including bills of exchange, banking houses, and the use of paper money that facilitated trade in luxury goods such as textiles and porcelain.

Kashgar and Samarkand

Prominent trading cities that developed and thrived along the Silk Roads trade networks.

Pax Mongolica

A period of relative peace under the Mongol Empire that facilitated regional trade and encouraged technological and cultural transfers as Mongol khanates replaced earlier empires.

Swahili Coast, Gujarat, and Malacca

Prominent city-states and trading centers that participated actively in exchange in the Indian Ocean.

Indian Ocean Maritime Technologies

Innovations such as the compass, astrolabe, and new ship designs that facilitated long-distance exchange across the Indian Ocean.

Diasporic Communities

Settlements of merchants established along trade networks, such as in the Indian Ocean, that fostered technological and cultural transfers.

Trans-Saharan Trade Routes

North and West African trade routes facilitated by the camel saddle and caravans, primarily known for the trade of salt and gold and the expansion of West African empires like Mali.

Mali

A West African empire that expanded in connection with trade along the Trans-Saharan trade routes.

Cultural Consequences of Connectivity

The historical effects of exchange networks, including the diffusion of religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam), the transfer of Chinese technologies (gunpowder and paper), and writings by cross-cultural travelers.

Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, and Margery Kempe

Prominent historical travelers whose journeys illustrated and recorded the cultural consequences of connectivity across Afro-Eurasian trade networks.

Environmental Consequences of Connectivity

The biological and ecological impacts of interregional trade, consisting of the diffusion of crops (bananas, rice, citrus) and pathogens (bubonic plague).

Bubonic Plague

A deadly pathogen that spread across trade routes as an environmental consequence of increased connectivity between c. 1200 C.E. and c. 1450 C.E.