Unit 2 Notes: Networks of Exchange and Their Effects

Networks of Exchange and State Interactions

  • Unit 2 focuses on how states connected during the same period as Unit 1.
  • Emphasis is on networks of exchange, rather than individual state building.

Three Major Trade Networks

  • Silk Roads
    • Luxury goods traded, especially silk.
    • Cities along the Silk Roads grew in prominence, e.g., Kashgar and Samarkand.
    • Growth facilitated by:
      • Transportation innovations: Caravan Sarai (inns for merchants).
      • Animal technology: Development of yokes, saddles, and stirrups.
      • Commercial technologies: Paper money (originated in China) light weight (\rightarrow) increased trade.
      • New forms of credit and banking houses (innovated from Chinese models).
  • Indian Ocean Network
    • Most significant sea-based network until 1500.
    • Causes of growth:
      • Desire for goods not available locally (Chinese porcelain, Indian cotton and pepper, spices from Southeast Asia).
      • Technological innovations: Lateen sails, magnetic compass, astrolabe, new ship designs (Chinese junks, Arab dhows).
      • Spread of Islam: Created connections among Muslim traders.
    • Growth of cities: Swahili city-states acted as brokers for goods from the African interior (gold, ivory, enslaved people).
    • Sultanate of Malacca: Controlled the Strait of Malacca, grew wealthy due to trade.
    • Effects of growth:
      • Establishment of diasporic communities: Settlements of people living apart from their homeland.
        • Arab and Persian communities in East Africa.
        • Chinese communities in Southeast Asia.
      • Cultural and technological transfers: Voyages of Zheng He increased Chinese power and influence.
  • Trans-Saharan Trade
    • Connected North Africa/Mediterranean with interior West Africa.
    • Growth factors: Innovations in transportation technologies.
      • Introduction of the Arabian camel and camel saddles.
      • Increased interregional trade and expanded geographical range.
      • Empires spurred and influenced by trade; most significant was the Empire of Mali from the twelfth century.
      • Islam introduced to Mali in the ninth century connected them commercially to Muslim merchants across Afro-Eurasia.
      • Mansa Musa: Powerful ruler of Mali, monopolized trade, increased wealth, and facilitated network growth.

Cultural Diffusion

  • Major impact of trading routes.
  • Religion and belief systems:
    • Buddhism spread from India to China via the Silk Road, changed to Chan Buddhism, then to Japan as Zen Buddhism.
    • Hinduism and Buddhism entered Southeast Asia.
    • Islam spread throughout Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
      • Swahili language: Blend of Arabic and Bantu facilitated trade.
      • Timbuktu in Mali: Became an international center for Islamic education.
      • Delhi Sultanate: Significant impact of Islam in South Asia.
  • Scientific and technological innovations:
    • Champa rice from Vietnam (\rightarrow) population explosion due to more food.
  • Rise and fall of cities:
    • Rise: Samarkand and Kashgar along Silk Road routes (centers of Islamic scholarship).
    • Fall: Baghdad sacked by Mongols in 1258 (\rightarrow) significant decline.
  • Travelers:
    • Ibn Battuta: Muslim scholar from Morocco who traveled Dar Al Islam (his travels were made possible because of trade routes and interconnectedness of the world).

Environmental Consequences

  • Spread of crops and diseases.
    • Crops:
      • Bananas in Africa: Introduced via Indian Ocean trade, led to the rise of powerful chiefdoms and kingdoms.
      • Champa rice in East Asia.
    • Diseases:
      • Bubonic plague (Black Death) spread due to increasing connectivity.

The Mongols

  • Created largest land-based empire, increased interconnection across Afro-Eurasia.
  • Facilitated increased interaction by:
    • Controlling the Silk Road network (\rightarrow) safety and continuity along trade routes.
    • Encouraging international trade to extract wealth.
    • Increasing communication and cooperation across Eurasia (e.g., Persian and Chinese courts exchanging artisans and ambassadors).
  • Technological and cultural transfers:
    • Transfer of people (\rightarrow) transfer of technology, ideas, and culture.
    • Science and technology: Advances in astronomy and astronomical tools in the Ilkhanate region.
      • Increased accuracy of calendars.
      • Improved tools like the astrolabe.
      • Prediction of solar and lunar eclipses.