all right buckle up cuz I'm about to

help you cram everything you need to

know about AP World History unit 2 right

into your brain fold so if you're ready

to get them brain cows milks let's get

to it first let me just drop the big

picture on you we're still in the time

period 1200 to 1450 we're still

considering many of the same States and

Empires that we got cozy with in unit

one but here in unit 2 the whole

emphasis is on how all these various

states were connected to one another

through networks of exchange and I know

NETWORKS OF EXCHANGE

it would be easier just to call these

Networks trading routes because that's

exactly what they were but the AP World

History overlords aren't interested in

making things easy for you so we call

them networks of exchange because not

only were Merchants carrying goods for

sale across these routes but they also

brought their religion and their

languages and their technology and so

the point to remember here is that these

networks did not only create the

occasion for economic interaction across

the world but just as importantly they

facilitated cultural diffusion and

CULTURAL DIFFUSION

transfers as well now there are three

major networks of exchange that you need

to get familiar with the Silk Roads the

Indian Ocean Network and the trans Sahar

and TR and before we get into the

details of each you need to know a few

General developments that apply to all

of them but hey before I tell you what

they I should mention that this video is

part of a larger resource called the AP

World History himler review guide and if

you're feeling spicy you should check it

out in the link below it's got whole

unit review videos like this one that

are not here on YouTube note guides to

follow along practice questions practice

exams and answer keys for all of it it

is the fastest way to study for your

class and for your exam in May so you

know have a look and now back to General

developments among the major networks of

exchange first in the period 1200 to

1450 the geographical range of all these

networks expanded to be clear all three

of these networks existed for a long

time for 1200 but the thing to remember

is that during this time each of these

networks increased in Geographic scale

and that led to further connections

among states in this part of the world

second the range of these networks

expanded due to Innovations and

Commercial practices and technological

innovations you might have no idea what

those words mean but put it in your

pocket and we'll come back to it third

The increased connectivity between these

places caused various states to grow

wealthy and Powerful due to their

participation in these networks and

fourth The increased interconnectivity

caused the rise of powerful states and

cities while also causing the collapse

of others okay so that's what all the

the major networks of exchange have in

common so now let's talk about some of

the distinct features on each route and

I reckon we ought to start with the silk

rope this network stretched across EUR

raion it was mainly luxury goods that

were traded along these routes and the

big ones to remember are Chinese silk

and Porcelain now the reason the Silk

Road Merchants specialize in trading

luxury goods is because it was expensive

and arduous to travel from one side of

the stinking world to the other and it

didn't make sense to carry more common

items that wouldn't sell for a premium

and that reality was illustrated by a

common proverb among Silk Road Merchants

namely if it don't make the boom boom I

ain't got the room room to carry it on

my camel that's just a rough translation

anyway the expansion of these routes

during this period reflected the growing

demand for these luxury items and so

that increased demand caused an increase

in the production of these Goods by

Chinese Indian and Persian Artisans so

for example the focus on the production

of luxury goods for distant markets LED

peasants in the Yi River delta to scale

back on food production in order to

produce more luxury goods destined for

trade across the Silk Road and that was

kind of a risky move because you know

you can't eat porcelain you can't eat

silk but I'll show you why that didn't

matter that much much in a moment now

you're also going to need to know a few

of the innovations that facilitated the

expansion of these networks and they

fall into two categories first were

Innovations in transportation

Technologies and you only need to know

one of these namely the Caravan suran

these were a series of inss and guest

houses that sprang up along the Silk

Roads about a Day's Journey apart

additionally the caravanserai provided

safety along the Route I mean don't

forget that these Merchants were mainly

hauling luxury goods across these routes

and so that meant they were targets for

theft but just as important Caravan

Sarai brought Merchants from all

different cultures and backgrounds

together and that created the occasion

for significant transfers whether it was

cultural or technological all right the

second development that caused the

expansion of the Silk Roads were

Innovations of commercial practices and

that just means buying and selling

things became way easier and here you

need to know two of those practices

first was the development of money

economies now wasn't the fresh heck does

that means well a money economy uses

paper money to facilitate exchange

unlike a barter economy which uses Goods

as currency and this was first developed

in China and the development of money

economies was huge for facilitating

trade I mean think about it metal-based

money is heavy in merchant selling

Electric Goods would be none too happy

about hauling that money all across Asia

but with the introduction of paper money

to facilitate trade a merchant could

deposit bills in one location and then

withdraw that same amount in another

location thus increasing the ease of

travel and the security of transactions

and if you want a term for this and I

know you do the Chinese called it the

flying money system and then another

commercial practice that expanded trade

was the introduction of new forms of

credit again the Chinese pioneered this

but eventually this practice spread all

the way to Europe where they introduced

banking houses to handle all these

BANKING HOUSES

exchanges there a merchant could present

a bill of exchange which had the name of

a merchant and the amount of money owed

to him and then he would receive that

amount of money from the banking house

it's kind of like using a check but you

know now that I'm saying that I'm

realizing that you Apple paying venmo

using youngans probably don't even know

what a check is so just you know ask

your grandparents they'll tell you all

about it but the point is these

commercial Innovations May getting paid

a lot easier and that led to an increase

in trade along the Silk Roads okay now

the last thing you need to know about

the Silk Roads is that this increase in

trade led to the rise of powerful

trading cities that grew and flourish

precisely because they were located

along these routes and there are several

you could know but you only need to know

once let me introduce you to cashar it

was located at the convergence of two

major routes of the Silk Roads which

before and after passed through

exceedingly inhospitable terrain the

cashar was built around a river and its

Lush Valley made it an attractive stop

for traveling merchants and as trade

along the Silk Road expanded so to to

cashar grow and power and wealth okay

now let's get into the details of the

Indian Ocean Network just like the Silk

Roads this Maritime Trade Network

existed for centuries before 1200 but

during this period the scope of these

routes expanded significantly now what

made trade along this network possible

was a thorough understanding of monsoon

winds and really all you need to know

about that here is that Indian Ocean

Merchants developed an understanding

over time that winds predictably blew in

One Direction or the other depending on

the season now in contrast with the Silk

Roads a large bulk of what was traded

along these routes included more common

goods like textiles and spices and

that's because the hull of a ship could

hold way more cargo than you know the

back of a camel but to be fair they also

traded luxury goods along these routes

but when contrasting these two routes

that's the big difference so what caused

the expansion of the Indian Ocean

Network a fine question and again like

on the Silk Roads the answer is

technological innovations and

Innovations and Commercial practices

under technological innovations I'll

give you three that you need to know

first is the Improvement of the magnetic

compass which helped Merchants know what

direction they were going on that giant

honking Ocean second was an improved

astrol which was a tool for measuring

the stars and then comparing them with

Star Charts which helped them wreck in

latitude and longitude which was not

easy on that giant honking ocean and

then third were new ship designs like

the Chinese junk these were massive

ships with enormous cargo holes that

could transport metric buttloads of

goods across the ocean but then there

were Innovations in commercial practices

that facilitated trade as well and these

were essentially the same practices that

were introduced on the Silk Roads

practices like various forms of credit

and then just like on the Silk Roads the

expansion of the Indian Ocean Network

fostered the growth of states and there

are a lot of examples here but you only

need to know one so meet the Swahili

city state now this was a collection of

independent city states along Africa's

East Coast that acted as Brokers for

goods originating from the African

interior things like gold and ivory and

enslaved people by playing this role

these city states grew significantly in

power and wealth and then under the

influence of Muslim merchants the

Swahili States became Islamic got

connected to the larger trading world of

Dar al- Islam and that only increased

their power and economic prosperity and

then another effect of the expansion of

these routes was the establishment of

diasporic communities and since I'm

guessing you don't throw words like that

around in normal conversation let me

Define it a diaspora Community is a

settlement of ethnic people in a

location other than their Homeland for

example Arab and Persian communities

were established in East Africa which

led to intermarriage with the women

there and I know that sounds really

romantic but it was done to ensure that

trading partners in different states

were trustworthy anyway that cultural

intermingle led to the further spread of

Islam and that in turn fostered the

growth of the Swahili States in East

Africa because of that influence an

entirely new language emerged called

Swahili which began as a mixture of

native banto languages and Arabic words

and finally one more example of cultural

diffusion in the Indian Ocean Network

came from our boy junga now there's a

lot of notable things we could say about

this guy not least the ginormous size of

his Fleet but you don't need to know any

of that what you need to know is that

Jung ha was sent by China's Ming Dynasty

MING DYNASTY

to go throughout the Indian Ocean en

rolling States in China's tributary

system and he was pretty successful but

even that that is secondary to the

technological and cultural transfers

that occurred because of his voyages for

example China's Advanced Maritime

technology especially navigation tools

and ship building methods were spread to

the various places that junga visited

and then the final major network of

connection you need to know is the trans

Saharan Trade Network over here in

Africa and just like the other major

routes this network expanded during the

period 1200 to 1450 and that was mainly

due to Innovations in transportation

Technologies the big one to know here is

the new and improved camel saddle and

CAMEL SADDLE

yes Saddles were used for riding camels

but more significantly Saddles were

developed for transp reporting way

bigger loads of cargo across the desert

and just like the other route's

participation in this network led to the

increasing wealth and power of various

States and here you just need to know

the Empire of mly now a big turning

point for mly was the conversion of its

leadership to Islam in the 9th century

which again folded the state into the

exceedingly prosperous Merchant Network

throughout daral Islam but by our period

Molly grew stupid Rich through the trade

of gold and by taxing Merchants

traveling to basically all parts of West

Africa and M's wealth and influence

reached its highest point in the 14th

century under the leadership of our boy

Mansa Musa who further monopolized trade

between the North and the interior of

the continent both increasing the wealth

of mly and facilitating the growth of

existing trade networks okay now that

you have a sense of what these

individual networks were all about let's

settle in and talk directly about the

effects or Consequences of all this

increasing connection during that time

and those consequences basically fall

into two categories cultural and

environmental and just for poops and

Giggles let's begin with cultural

consequences the first cultural

consequence was the transfer of religion

or belief systems across these networks

and here we could talk about the spread

of Islam but we've already touched on

that or we could talk about Hinduism

spreading into southeast Asia but since

you only need to know one example let's

make it Buddhism now recall from unit

one that Buddhism originated in South

Asia but here we need to emphasize that

this belief system entered China via the

Silk Roads carried by merchants and

missionaries the second cultural

consequence of connectivity included

significant literary and artistic

transfers across the world for example

Islamic scholars in baghdad's House of

Wisdom translated Greek and Roman

Classics into Arabic and made extensive

commentaries on them including their own

developments in philosophy and medical

practices these Works were then later

transferred to Europe where they created

the basis for a cultural Awakening known

as the Renaissance which we're going to

talk all about in unit four and then

third under this heading were the

transfer of scientific and technological

innovation and arguably the most

significant of these transfers was

Gunpowder now this stuff was invented in

China but through networks of exchange

it spread to Muslim empires and then

later Eastern European States

encountered this explosive powder when

the Mongols came knocking on their door

trying to take over all their crap and

once they figured out how to use this

stuff to blow other people up the

harnessing of gunpowder would

fundamentally alter the balance of power

across the world okay now the second

concept quence of connectivity was the

rise and fall of cities and I'll give

you an example of each a good example of

the rise of cities is hongo in China it

was situated at one end of China's Grand

Canal which facilitated all kinds of

trade and as a result hung Joo became

increasingly wealthy and increasingly

urbanized which is to say more and more

people organized their lives around the

city but other cities did not Faire as

well as connections increased and that's

because not only did merchants travel

across these networks but so did

military so for example Baghdad had the

unfortunate opportunity to get utterly

destroyed in 1258 by Mongol armies and

we'll talk about more about them in a

moment and then the last cultural

consequence you need to know is that

increased interconnectivity facilitated

Travelers who wrote about their

experiences and here it would be fun to

talk about Marco Polo or Marjorie Kemp

MARCO POLO / MARGERY KEMPE

but since you only need to know one let

me introduce you to ibben batuta he was

a young Muslim scholar from Morocco who

over the course of about 30 years

traveled all over Dar Al Islam and wrote

detailed notes about the places that he

visited and the people and the rulers

that he met and the cultures that hosted

him and all of his expansive travels

were made possible because of trade

routs now to be fair there were a lot of

people that traveled around the Known

World during this period but what makes

I and bauda important is that he

actually wrote about his travels which

gave later Scholars a firsthand account

of Life all over darl Islam okay now the

second category of consequences of

connectivity is environmental and here

we'll talk about crops that were

transferred and diseases that were

transferred and an example of the

transfer of crops over networks of

exchange was Champa rice now remember

that this new strain of rice was

introduced to China via the Champa

Kingdom who offered it to China as part

TRIBUTE SYSTEM

of the tribute system when the Chinese

harnessed this new grain It produced way

more food for their growing population

than was possible before and that led to

even more population grow never forget

more food equals more babies and then

second disease was transferred due to

increasing connectivity and the

granddaddy of all of them was the

Bubonic plague this nasty disease first

erupted in China in 1331 and though

people didn't know it at the time it was

carried by rats and fleas and those

fleas unceremoniously attached

themselves to camels and Merchants

traveling along the Silk Roads and those

rats found hidden corners and Merchant

ships traveling along the Indian Ocean

when you look at the spread of this

disease it is almost entirely in line

with trading routs when the plague

showed up it was uh deadly as heck and

killed giant swats of the population in

the Middle East and Europe all because

of connectivity or maybe we could say

all because of the Mongols and that

leads us to our final section for the

unit so let's talk about the Mongol

Empire but wait if you're paying

attention it's a little weird that we're

talking about the Mongol Empire in a

unit that's all about connectivity

through trade networks like shouldn't we

have talked about the Mongols in unit

one when we were getting all cozy with

the various states around the world well

here's where I tell you that of all the

juicy things we could talk about with

respect to the Mongols the most

important and juiciest of them is that

their giant stinking Empire facilitated

all these connections that we've been

talking about and they did it uh big

time so you really only need to know

three things about the Mongols first as

they established the largest land-based

Empire of all time it replaced powerful

Empires across Eurasia the Song Dynasty

fell to the Mongols the Abbasid Empire

in the Middle East fell to the Mongols

and by the second half of the 14th

century Mongols ruled this entire area

through for conat which is the term that

describes States ruled by the con and

the second thing you need to know is

that under Mongol rule networks of

exchange increase significantly for

example throughout history the Silk

Roads flourished the most when large

Empires controlled the routes because

they could provide safety and continuity

along them and so when basically the

entire territory over which the Silk

Roads fell under the Mongol control that

is exactly what happened I mean the

Mongols themselves produced no sellable

Goods nor did they participate in

longdistance trade but as the entire

Eurasian world came under their

domination they vigorously encouraged

international trade and extracted great

wealth as facilitators of Commerce on

the Silk Road for example Mongols paid

high prices for goods from other

countries which encouraged trade and

they took pains to increase the safety

of merchants making the long tracks

across those trading routs and because

of this the Mongols also facilitated an

unprecedented increase in communication

and cooperation across their empire for

example Persian and Chinese courts often

work together and send emissaries and

Artisans to each other because of these

connections trade increased between both

sides of the Mongol Empire and they both

got plenty wealthy as a result and this

big interconnected hugfest was made

possible because of Mongol rule and

that's why they call it the Pax

mongolica or the pece of the Mongols and

PAX MONGOLICA

then the final thing you need to know

about the Mongols is that they

facilitated significant technological

and cultural transfers on the

technological side Mongols created the

conditions for the transfer of Greek and

Islamic medical knowledge to Western

Europe the cultural side was the Mongol

adoption of the weager script now in the

beginning the Mongols didn't have a

written language but as they started

conquering literate societies they

decided to adopt the weager script from

one of the Turk Muslim groups they

conquered in Central Asia this written

language became common among all parts

of their empire as the language of

policy and diplomacy in exchange Okay

click here if you want to get my AP

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