AP World History Unit 2 Terms

Camel Saddle

North African saddle that stabilized heavy loads, driving the expansion of Trans-Saharan trade.

Caravanserai

Roadside inns along trade routes that lowered merchant risks and sustained long-distance trade.

Marco Polo

Venetian traveler whose Asian journals inspired European desire for direct Asian trade routes.

Silk Roads

Eurasian overland network trading luxury goods while spreading Mahayana Buddhism and technologies.

Compass and Astrolabe

Maritime tools that enabled accurate ocean navigation and expanded global sea trade.

Diasporic Communities

Merchant enclaves, like Arab traders in Asia, that introduced native religions and cultural practices abroad.

Junks

Large Chinese ships with watertight bulkheads that made bulk maritime trade across the Indian Ocean possible.

Monsoon Winds

Seasonal Indian Ocean winds that dictated maritime sailing schedules and trade timing.

Sultanate of Malacca

Wealthy Islamic empire that dominated Indian Ocean trade by taxing the strategic Malacca Strait.

Zheng He

Ming admiral who led massive Indian Ocean naval voyages to collect tribute and display Chinese power.

Ibn Battuta

Moroccan scholar whose travels documented the broad unity and diversity of Dar al-Islam.

Mali Empire

Wealthy West African state that dominated Trans-Saharan trade through its control of gold and salt.

Swahili City-States of East Africa

Coastal trading hubs that linked African exports to the Indian Ocean while creating a blended Bantu-Arab culture.\

Timbuktu

Major West African commercial hub that became a world-renowned center for Islamic scholarship.

Trans-Saharan Trade Network

Desert routes linking Sub-Saharan Africa to the Mediterranean primarily via the exchange of gold for salt.

Chinggis Khan

Mongol leader who unified Eurasia, establishing the Pax Mongolica that revitalized Silk Road trade.

Crusades

Religious wars that re-connected Western Europe to Mediterranean trade and Asian ideas.

Bubonic Plague

Pandemic spread along trade routes that caused massive Eurasian population crashes and weakened feudalism.