AP World History Unit 2: Networks of Exchange

Silk Roads

A system of ancient caravan routes across Central Asia, along which traders carried silk and other trade goods.

Textiles

cloth items

Kashgar

a central trading point where the Eastern and Western Silk Roads met.

Samarkand

During the rule of Timur Lane was the most influential captial city, a wealthy trading center known for decorated mosques and tombs.

Bills of Exchange

a written order to a person requiring the person to make a specified payment to the signatory or to a named payee; a promissory note.

Banking Houses

These European banks developed during the Middle Ages to aid trade. Along with innovations such as bills of exchange, or bank drafts, and credit; Supported the development of interregional trade in luxury goods.

paper money

legal currency issued on paper; it developed in China as a convenient alternative to metal coins

Khanates

Four regional Mongol kingdoms that arose following the death of Chinggis Khan.

Mongols

A people of this name is mentioned as early as the records of the Tang Empire, living as nomads in northern Eurasia. After 1206 they established an enormous empire under Genghis Khan, linking western and eastern Eurasia.

Uyghur script

Turkish letters used in Arabic and Some Cyrillic languages

Indian Ocean Trade

worlds richest maritime trading network and an area of rapid Muslim expansion.

compass

an instrument containing a magnetized pointer that shows the direction of magnetic north and bearings from it.

Astrolabe

An instrument used by sailors to determine their location by observing the position of the stars and planets

Swahili city-states

dominated trade along the east African coast

Gujarat

Region of western India famous for trade and manufacturing.

Malacca

Port city in the modern Southeast Asian country of Malaysia, founded about 1400 as a trading center on the Strait of Malacca. Also spelled Melaka. (p. 387)

Diasporic communities

merchant communities that introduced their own cultures into other areas

Zheng He

An imperial eunuch and Muslim, entrusted by the Ming emperor Yongle with a series of state voyages that took his gigantic ships through the Indian Ocean, from Southeast Asia to Africa.

monsoon winds

These carried ships on the Indian Ocean between India and Africa

Trans-Saharan Trade

route across the sahara desert. Major trade route that traded for gold and salt, created caravan routes, economic benefit for controlling dessert, camels played a huge role in the trading

Camel Saddle

An invention which gives camel riders more stability on the animal and its invention and basic idea traveled along the Trans-Saharan Caravan Trade Route. Invented somewhere between 500 and 100 BCE by Bedouin tribes.

Caravans

Groups of people traveling together for safety over long distances

Mali

Empire created by indigenous Muslims in western Sudan of West Africa from the thirteenth to fifteenth century. It was famous for its role in the trans-Saharan gold trade.

Urbanization

An increase in the percentage and in the number of people living in urban settlements.

Ibn Battuta

Moroccan Muslim scholar, the most widely traveled individual of his time. He wrote a detailed account of his visits to Islamic lands from China to Spain and the western Sudan.

Marco Polo

Venetian merchant and traveler. His accounts of his travels to China offered Europeans a firsthand view of Asian lands and stimulated interest in Asian trade.

Bubonic Plague

disease brought to Europe from the Mongols during the Middle Ages. It killed 1/3 of the population and helps end Feudalism. Rats, fleas.

Bananas in Africa

Brought into Africa through the Indian Ocean Sea Lanes and spread all through Africa as the Bantus migrated. Provided extra nutrition in the diet and helped increase the population of Africa to 17 million

junk

A very large flatbottom sailing ship produced in the Tang and Song Empires, specially designed for long-distance commercial travel.

flying cash

Enabled merchants to deposit good or cash at one location and draw the equivalent in cash or merchandise elsewhere in China.

Hanseatic League

An economic and defensive alliance of the free towns in northern Germany, founded about 1241 and most powerful in the fourteenth century.

Pax Mongolica

The period of approximately 150 years of relative peace and stability created by the Mongol Empire.

Golden Horde

Mongol khanate founded by Genghis Khan's grandson Batu. It was based in southern Russia and quickly adopted both the Turkic language and Islam. Also known as the Kipchak Horde.

Il-Khanate

Mongol rule in Persia deferred to local Persian authorities, who administered whom as long as they delivered taxes to the Mongols and maintained order.

Lanteen Sail

A triangular sail used to sail against the wind.