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AP World History - Unit 2: Networks of Trade

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

Trade Routes of Hanseatic League - 13th to 15th century

  • 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 horseman and archers

  • Genghis Kahn: 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 Kahn, ruthless warriors destroying cities but remained peaceful after settling into cities

    • Golden Horde: conquered modern-day Russia

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

  • 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

  • Impact:

    • Great diffusers of culture

    • Prevented Russia from culturally developing

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

Mali and Songhai

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

  • 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

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

Review of Interactions Among Cultures

Trade Networks and Cultural Diffusion

  • Trade exploded from 1200-1450

  • Improved with better transportation and monetary systems

  • Main Global Trade Routes:

    1. The Hanseatic League

    2. The Silk Road

    3. The land routes of the Mongols

    4. Trade between China and Japan

    5. Trade between India and Persia

    6. 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

Indian Ocean 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

Vibrant Indian Ocean Communities

  • Sailors marrying local women created cultural intermixing

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

Hanseatic League

  • Made up of over 100 cities

  • Created substantial middle class in northern Europe

  • Set precedent for large, European trading operations

Expansion of Religion and Empire: Cultural Clash

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

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

Islamic World

China

paper mills

gunpowder cannons

universities

movable type

astrolabe and sextant

paper currency

algebra

porcelain

chess

terrace farming

modern soap formula

water-powered mills

guns and cannons

cotton sails

mechanical pendulum clock

water clock

distilled alcohol

magnetic compass

surgical instruments

state-run factories

VP

AP World History - Unit 2: Networks of Trade

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

Trade Routes of Hanseatic League - 13th to 15th century

  • 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 horseman and archers

  • Genghis Kahn: 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 Kahn, ruthless warriors destroying cities but remained peaceful after settling into cities

    • Golden Horde: conquered modern-day Russia

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

  • 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

  • Impact:

    • Great diffusers of culture

    • Prevented Russia from culturally developing

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

Mali and Songhai

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

  • 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

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

Review of Interactions Among Cultures

Trade Networks and Cultural Diffusion

  • Trade exploded from 1200-1450

  • Improved with better transportation and monetary systems

  • Main Global Trade Routes:

    1. The Hanseatic League

    2. The Silk Road

    3. The land routes of the Mongols

    4. Trade between China and Japan

    5. Trade between India and Persia

    6. 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

Indian Ocean 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

Vibrant Indian Ocean Communities

  • Sailors marrying local women created cultural intermixing

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

Hanseatic League

  • Made up of over 100 cities

  • Created substantial middle class in northern Europe

  • Set precedent for large, European trading operations

Expansion of Religion and Empire: Cultural Clash

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

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

Islamic World

China

paper mills

gunpowder cannons

universities

movable type

astrolabe and sextant

paper currency

algebra

porcelain

chess

terrace farming

modern soap formula

water-powered mills

guns and cannons

cotton sails

mechanical pendulum clock

water clock

distilled alcohol

magnetic compass

surgical instruments

state-run factories

robot