AP World History - Unit 2: Networks of Exchange

Key Terms:

• Silk Roads: A network of trade routes connecting East Asia, Central Asia, and the Mediterranean, facilitating the exchange of goods, culture, and ideas from around 200 BCE to the 15th century CE.

• Sea Roads: Maritime trade routes, especially across the Indian Ocean, linking East Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, active from ancient times through the medieval period.

• Srivijaya: A powerful maritime kingdom (7th-13th century) based on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, that controlled key trade routes in Southeast Asia.

• Angkor Wat: A large Hindu temple complex in Cambodia, originally built in the 12th century as a state temple for the Khmer Empire, later transformed into a Buddhist site.

• Swahili Civilization: A coastal East African civilization, flourishing between the 10th and 15th centuries, that developed through trade and cultural exchange with Arabs, Persians, and Indians.

• Great Zimbabwe: A medieval city in Southern Africa (11th-15th centuries) known for its large stone ruins, which were part of a thriving kingdom based on trade, particularly in gold.

• Zheng He: A Chinese admiral and diplomat during the Ming Dynasty (early 15th century), known for leading seven major naval expeditions to Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and East Africa.

• Sand Roads: Trade routes across the Sahara Desert connecting West Africa with the Mediterranean and the Middle East, primarily involving the exchange of gold, salt, and slaves.

• Arabian Camel: A domesticated camel species, well-adapted for desert travel, that became essential for trade and transportation across the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa.

• West African Civilization: Refers to the diverse societies and kingdoms of West Africa, such as Ghana, Mali, and Songhai, known for their wealth, trade networks, and cultural achievements from the medieval period onward.

• Ghana: An ancient West African kingdom (circa 6th-13th centuries), famous for its wealth from gold and its strategic role in trans-Saharan trade.

• Mali: A West African empire (circa 13th-16th centuries), known for its wealth, particularly from gold, and its centers of learning like Timbuktu.

• Trans-Saharan Slave Trade: The trade of enslaved people across the Sahara Desert, primarily to North Africa and the Middle East, from the medieval period to the early modern era.

• Timbuktu: A major city and center of learning and culture in Mali, famous for its libraries and universities during the medieval period.

• House of Wisdom: A major intellectual center in Baghdad during the Islamic Golden Age (8th-13th centuries), where scholars translated and advanced knowledge in science, mathematics, medicine, and philosophy.

• American Web: The network of trade routes connecting various pre-Columbian societies across the Americas, especially in Mesoamerica and the Andes, facilitating cultural and material exchanges.

• Chaco Phenomenon: A cultural and architectural development in the American Southwest (circa 9th-12th centuries), characterized by the construction of large, planned cities and complex systems of trade and communication.

• Pochteca: Professional traders in the Aztec Empire, who traveled long distances to acquire luxury goods for the elite, and were also key in spreading information and culture.

• Temujin (Chinggis Khan): The birth name of Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century, who united the Mongol tribes and led them to conquer vast territories.

• Mongol World War: Refers to the series of Mongol conquests during the 13th century, which expanded the Mongol Empire across much of Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.

• Khubilai Khan: The grandson of Genghis Khan, who founded the Yuan Dynasty in China and expanded Mongol rule to include China, as well as parts of Southeast Asia.

• Yuan Dynasty (China): The Mongol-ruled dynasty in China (1271-1368), established by Kublai Khan, known for its efforts to integrate Chinese and Mongol cultures.

• Ming Dynasty: A Chinese dynasty (1368-1644) known for its strong central government, cultural achievements, and maritime explorations, including those led by Admiral Zheng He.

• Hulegu: A Mongol leader and grandson of Genghis Khan, who led the conquest of the Middle East, including the destruction of the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad in 1258.

• Safavid Empire: A Shiite Muslim empire in Persia (1501-1736), known for establishing Shiite Islam as the state religion and creating a powerful and culturally rich state.

• Khanate of the Golden Horde: A Mongol state that controlled much of Russia, Eastern Europe, and parts of Central Asia from the 13th to the 15th centuries.

• Black Death (Plague): A deadly pandemic of bubonic plague that swept through Europe, Asia, and North Africa between 1347 and 1351, killing millions and causing major social and economic upheaval.

• Hanseatic League (1358): trade alliance though northern Europe to drive toward nationhood, increase social mobility and flexibility

• Heresies: religious practices/beliefs not conforming to traditional church doctrine

• Crusades (11-14th century): military campaigns by European Christians to convert Muslims and non-Christians, combat religious questioning

• Pope Innocent III: issued strict decrees on church doctrine - frequently persecuted heretics and Jews, unsuccessful 4th crusade

• Pope Gregory IX: Inquisition (formal interrogation and prosecution of perceived heretics with punishments like excommunication, torture, execution) - church often referred to as Universal Church or Church Militant

• Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274): Christian theologian who made advancements in Christian thought - faith and reason aren’t in conflict

• Mansa Musa: Malian ruler who built the capital of Timbuktu and expended the kingdom beyond Ghana

• Sonni Ali: Songhai ruler that conquered region of west Africa in 15th century - became a major cultural centre until 1600

  ---

Height of the Middle Ages: Trading and Crusading

• Merchants emerged in towns - referred to as Burghers, became politically powerful

• Towns often formed alliances with each other

• Hanseatic League (1358): trade alliance though northern Europe to drive toward nationhood, increase social mobility and flexibility

• Architecture: Romanesque to Gothic - especially reflected in cathedrals

  • Flying buttresses: tall windows and vaulted ceilings

  • Often had art and sculpture, music

• Scholasticism: growth of education and knowledge - founding of universities for men; philosophy, law, medicine study; ideas of Muslims and Greeks - came in conflict with religion

• Crusades (11-14th century): military campaigns by European Christians to convert Muslims and non-Christians, combat religious questioning

  • Combat Heresies: religious practices/beliefs not conforming to traditional church doctrine

  • Pope Innocent III: issued strict decrees on church doctrine - frequently persecuted heretics and Jews, unsuccessful 4th crusade

  • Pope Gregory IX: Inquisition (formal interrogation and prosecution of perceived heretics with punishments like excommunication, torture, execution) - church often referred to as Universal Church or Church Militant

  • Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274): Christian theologian who made advancements in Christian thought - faith and reason aren’t in conflict

• Urbanization

  • Trade led to the growth of urban culture - cities usually were around trade routes

  • Silk Route cities were the most populous - Baghdad, Merv, Chang’an

  • Constantinople before 1400 and Paris and Italian city-states after 1400 were big European cities

The Rise and Fall of the Mongols

• Set of tribes and clans that were superb horsemen and archers

• Genghis Khan: unified the tribes in Mongolia in the early 1200s to expand their authority over other societies - first invaded China in 1234

• Mongol Empire: spanned from Pacific Ocean to Eastern Europe - spit into hordes after death of Genghis Khan, ruthless warriors destroying cities but remained peaceful after settling into cities

  • Golden Horde: conquered modern-day Russia

  • Kublai Khan: Genghis Khan’s successor - ruled China

    • Set up Yuan Dynasty and adapted to rule in Chinese conditions such as adopting Confucianism

• Ended the Abbasid Caliphate and destroyed Baghdad in 1258

• Didn’t really have a set culture - didn’t enforce religion or way of life on conquered nations, but did make any cultural advancements

• Timur Lang: Mongol leader who took over India and destroyed everything - grew Islam in the nation

• If any residents of society the Mongols took over resisted, they would immediately kill them, so most had no choice but to give in - they were ruthless fighters, organized and mobile

  • Spared skilled workers like artisans which increased spread of technology and culture

• Impact:

  • Conquests spread the bubonic plague across Eurasia

  • Expansion of Ilkhanate led to destruction of numerous Islamic states

  • Great diffusers of culture

    • Facilitated cultural and scientific exchanges

  • Prevented Russia from culturally developing

  • World trade, cultural diffusion, global awareness grew as they spread through Europe, the Middle East, and Asia

    • Silk road was more safe and trade along here flourished

    • Improved infrastructure in the places they ruled

  • Increased communication

    • Yam system - series of relay stations spread across the empire

Chinese Technology

• Song Dynasty: bureaucratic system built on merit and civil service examination creating a lot of loyal government workers, improved transportation and communication and business practices

• Concentrated on creating an industrial society - improved literacy with printed books which increased productivity and growth

• Paper money allowed for easier trade and better security, facilitating development along with diffusion of culture and ideas

  • “Flying Money“ - credit where you can exchange paper for coins which expanded trade further and networks of exchange

    • Led to the development of banks to facilitate these transactions with paper money and bills of credit which spread to Europe as well

Review of Interactions Among Cultures

Trade Networks and Cultural Diffusion

• Trade exploded from 1200-1450

• Improved with better transportation and monetary systems

  • Paper money

  • Caravanserai - Series of guest houses spaced apart along frequent trade routes so merchants and their animals could stay for the night

    • Provided safety

    • Centers of cultural exchange

  • Saddles

• Main Global Trade Routes:

  1. The Hanseatic League

  2. The Silk Road

  3. Indian Ocean Trade

  4. The Trans-Saharan trade routes between west Africa and the Islamic Empire

• Cultural diffusion - spread religions, languages, literature, art, idea, disease, plague

• Bubonic Plague: started in Asia in the 14th century and carried by merchants - killed about 1/3 people

Effects of growing trade

• Rise of powerful trading cities

  • Silk Road - Kashgar, Samarkand

  • Indian Ocean - Swahili States, Malacca, Gujarat

    • Taxed ships coming in and out of ports 🤑

  • Hangzhou

  • Centers of cultural exchange and strategically placed between major trade routes

• Decline of cities

  • Militaries also used these routes

  • Mongols destroyed Baghdad

• Increased demand for luxury goods

  • Chinese porcelain and silk

  • Led China to increase production of these luxuries in order to sell more goods in distant markets (proto-industrialization)

• Cultural diffusion and technological exchange

  • Merchants spread their own religion and exchange technologies

  • Both natural spread of religion through contact over trade and intentional diffusion through missionary work or religious war

  • Three categories of transfer:

    • Culture

      • Belief systems like Buddhism made their way to China (Combining with Taoism to make Chan Buddhism)

      • Dar-al-Islam expanding means Muslim merchants had many places to trade which caused more African civilizations to convert

    • Literary and Artistic

      • Muslim scholars translated ancient Greek philosophy in the Baghdad House of Wisdom which would be transferred to Europe, sparking the Renaissance

    • Technology

      • Gunpowder

• Environmental Effects

  • Agricultural transfers

    • Bananas

    • Champa Rice (drought resistant, harvest multiple times/year)

    • Citrus

    • Led to population growth as people’s diet expanded

  • Spread of Black Death

    • spread by mongol conquests and trade

Indian Ocean Trade

• Network of sea routes that connected various states throughout Afro-Eurasia through trade

• Dominated by Persians and Arabs - western India to Persian Gulf to eastern Africa

• Great Zimbabwe: trading empire in Africa from 11th to 15th centuries

• Diaspora: Group of people from one place going to another while keeping their culture

• Diasporic merchant communities: merchants from the same place holding property across trading networks. Members in a firm settle in local ports to organize transactions

• Swahili city states: independent city states along the coast of east Africa

  • Acted as brokers for goods from the African interior such as gold, ivory, slaves

  • Swahili emerged as a language merging African and Arabian languages

  • Joined Dar-Al-Islam after converting to Islam which expanded its trade

• Sailors marrying local women created cultural intermixing

• Expanded greatly during this time after 1200 because:

  • Collapse of the Mongols made Silk Road less safe for trade

  • Commercial practices

    • money economies: use paper money to facilitate exchange

    • ability to buy goods on credit made trade easier

  • Innovations in transportation tech

    • Magnetic Compass

    • Astrolabe (measured stars)

    • Lateen Sail (take wind in almost any direction)

    • Knowledge of monsoon winds (predictably blew in certain directions)

    • Better shipbuilding

  • Spread of Islam

    • Facilitated trade in Land AND Sea based trade routes

• Traded:

  • Luxuries, cotton textiles, grains (ships were bigger so could carry more common cargo rather than just luxuries like in the Silk Road)

Silk Road

• China to Mediterranean cultures in early days of Roman Empire and from 1200 to 1600

• Cultural exchange through travellers stopping at trade towns - Kashgar, Samarkand

• Silk, porcelain, paper, religion, food, military technologies

  • Mainly luxuries though

• Had caravansaries

Hanseatic League

• Made up of over 100 cities

• Created substantial middle class in northern Europe

• Set precedent for large, European trading operations

Trans-Saharan trade routes between west Africa and the Islamic Empire (Mali and Songhai)

• Series of trade routes that connected North Africa and the Mediterranean world with the interior of West Africa and the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa

• Sonni Ali: Songhai ruler that conquered region of west Africa in 15th century - became a major cultural centre until 1600

• Traded goods: Gold, Kola nuts, Horses, Salt

• Causes of expansion:

  • Technological innovations

    • Arabian Camel

    • Saddles

    • Caravansaries

Mali

• Mali had a lot of gold that Islamic traders were interested in

• Conversion of the Mali Empire to Islam led to other regions bordering the Sahara to follow suit

  • Mali converting to Islam also established religious connection with the rest of Dar-Al-Islam

• Mansa Musa: Malian ruler who built the capital of Timbuktu and expanded the kingdom beyond Ghana

Other Reasons People Were on the Move

• Ran out of room in certain places, but cities were always increasing in size as opportunities grew in them

• New cities and empires drew people in

• Muslim pilgrimages

Notable Global Travellers

1. Xuanzang: Chinese Buddhist monk - through T’ang Dynasty to India to explore Buddhism

2. Marco Polo: merchant from Venice, to China and Europe

3. Ibn Battuta: Islamic traveler, through Islamic world to India to China

4. Margery Kempe: English Christian, through Europe and Holy Land

Technology and Innovations Table