Times:

• Mongol Empire revitalized Silk Road Commerce from 1200 - 1400

• Black Death Entered Europe 1347

• Flourishing of Malacca 1400 - 1511

• Kingdom of Mali 1235 - 1400

• Mansa Musa’s Pilgrimage to Mecca 1324 - 1325

• Ibn Battuta Visited West Africa 1354

• The Flourishing of the Kingdom of Songhai 1400 - 1591

• Aztec and Inca Empires facilitate commerce exchange 1400 - 1500

• THE MAKING OF THE SILK ROADS

• Eurasian network

• Silk was a symbol of high status ( elite )

• Silk became associated with the sacred religions of Buddhism and Christianity

• Ramisht made a personal fortune with which commissioned an enormously expensive covering made of Chinese silk for the Kaaba

• Kaaba = the central shrine of Islam in Mecca

• The SIlk Road flourished as the Byzantine Empire and the Tang Dynasty created and almost continuous belt of strong states across Eurasia

  BUDDHISM AND THE SILK ROADS

• Chinese Buddhist pilgrims who traveled to India seeking religious texts and relics took silk in large quantities to give as gift to the monasteries that they visited

• Buddhism spread across the Silk Roads as Indian traders and Buddhist monks brought the new religion to the trans-Eurasian trade routes of the Silk Roads

• The Conversion of Buddhism was voluntary, without pressure of conquest or foreign rule

• Buddhist monasteries were in the rich oasis towns of the Silk Roads and they found themselves very much involved in secular affairs

• The begging bowls of the monks became a symbol rather than part of a daily activity

• Buddha was a deity

• Bodhisattvas = an emphasis on compassion

• The possibility of earning a merit

• Zoroastrian fire rituals became a part of Buddhist practice

• Amitabha = an early Buddhist god who ensured rebirth in a beautifully described heavenly realm, the pure land

• In 819, Han Yu, a leading figure in the Confucian counterattack on Buddhism gave expression of hostility against his dislike of Buddhism

  • After many years after that others began to notice Buddhist differences and and ordered around 260,000 monks and nuns to return to their normal life as tax-paying citizens

  • Thousands of monasteries, temples, and shrines were destroyed or turned to public use

• The Chan school of Chinese Buddhism was favored by court officials and scholars

• Buddhism was seen as inferior to Confucianism in China

  CHRISTIANS AND THE SILK ROAD

• Silk wall hangings

• Altar coverings

• Vestment that became highly prestigious signs of devotion and piety

  PAPER MONEY

• Was invented by Chinese

• Was called “flying cash” because it flew away in the wind

• “bills of exchange” was introduced by European traders as a kind of contract that promised a persons payment

SWAHILI CIVILIZATION

GOVERNANCE:

• Clan chiefs of small African societies became kings because they ended up getting more money ( similar to Europe )

• The Swahili City states were politically independent

• No imperial state ever took over

• never had any specific hold over points of trade ( unlike Melaka )

• They had distinct social classes

• Next to the Indian Ocean Trade Route

  CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS AND INTERACTIONS

• Made of small fishing and farming communities

• They spoke African Bantu Languages

• ISLAMMMMM

• Different cities of Lamu, Mombasa, Kilwa, Sofala

• Ibn Battuta spread a ton of Islam with his teaching, beliefs, and practices

• The Banana was brought over and it enhanced agricultural productivity, and population growth

  ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

• Traded with Greece, Arabs, Romans, China, Persia

• Acquired Gold, ivory, quartz, leopard skins, slaves, iron, and timber

• The Great Zimbabwe brought great wealth

  SOCIAL INTERACTIONS AND ORGANIZATION

• You could tell the distinct social classes

• Welcomed diasporic communities

• Interacted with Arabs and quickly adapted to Islam

SEA ROADS

• Indian ocean trade route

• The compass and different styles of sails and boats evolved and helped for faster and more efficient travel

• Super efficient and fast to travel

• Used monsoons to their advantage

• Carried and traded both luxury and commodity goods

• created diasporic communities

• Cultural diffusion of Islam and Buddhism most

  SAND ROADS

• Named the Trans Saharan Trade Route

• The Arabian camel was used for transportation because it could go 10 day without water and finally made it possible for the long trek across the Sahara Desert ( Remember that animals are technologies )

• Islam largely spread across

• A lot of internal ideas and goods of Africa were brought to the outside and were traded on the Indian Ocean Trade Route as well

• Was great with gold, salt, crops, textiles, slaves, kola nuts, ivory, horses, cloth, dates, and metal

• The Savannah Grasslands were used for more agriculture and it was south of the Sahara dessert

  SILK ROADS

• Sold mainly luxury goods due to to travel time and expense

• Used camel because they could go days without and were efficient ( Remember that camels are classified as a technology )

• Created diasporic communities

• Cultural Diffusion of mostly Islam, Buddhism, and HInduism

• Was a lot slower to travel compared to the Indian Ocean Trade Route

  WEST AFRICAN CIVILIZATIONS

• Islamic Green Revolution increased food production, population growth, urbanization, and irrigation technologies that spread

• The Trans-Saharan slave trade was developed between 1100 - 1400 and was thought to have traded around 5,500 per year and were mostly put to work in Islamic North Africa

• Various forms of banking, partnerships, business contracts, and instruments for granting facilitated the economic growth for commercialized economy

• The first hospitals, traveling clinics, and examinations for physicians and pharmacologists were developed in the Islamic world

• Islamic world foods

  • sugarcane

  • rice

  • apricots

  • artichokes

  • eggplants

  • lomans

  • oranges

  • almonds

  • figs

  • Most important Bananas

• Timbuktu was a MAJOR center of TRADE ( Islam )

  • became a renowned center of learning, boasting more than 150 lower-level Quranic schools and several major centers of higher education and attract a ton of students from around a lot of places

  • They had libraries with tens of thousands of books

  • Built big Mosques

• Ghana ( ca. 700-1200)

  • Monarchy

  • Drew wealth from the Sand Roads

  • Had “ the wealthiest king ever “ named Ghana

• Mali ( ca. 1230-1500)

  • Monarchy

  • monopolized the import of strategic goods such as horses, metal, salt, copper, and gold

  • The commerce generated guaranteed social complexity and hierarchy characteristics of all civilizations

  • There were gender hierarchy established by Eurasian civilizations

    • Rulers, merchants, and public officials were almost always male

    • Male bards, the repositories for their communities historys, often viewed powerful women as dangerous, not to be trusted, and a seductive distraction to men

    • Ordinary women were central to agricultural production and weaving

    • Elite women played important roles in politics, oral traditions, and mythologies

    • Ibn Battuta didn’t agree with their women being disrespected so highly and wanted them to convert to Islam

  • Had slaves and slave trade

• Songhai ( ca. 1430-1591)

  • Monarchy

• Kanem ( height at 1571-1603)

  • Monarchy

• Nigeria ( Kano, Katsina, Gobir )

  ISLAM IN WEST AFRICA

• The HOUSE OF WISDOM

  • located in Baghdad

  • Islamic thinker = Mutazilites

  • Was built by al- Mamun for purpose of Islam studies and translations

• Was introduced by Muslim traders across the Sahara

• Islam provided an important link to Muslim trading partners ( much as BUddhism and later Islam had done in Southeast Asia )

• You gained prestige if you ever made your Hajj to Mecca

  MANSA MUSA

• Mansa Musa and his big ass Hajj in 1324 was freakin wack and made everyone hate him because he gave all of his gold away like who would do that dumbass

• Built Mosques

• Made Timbuktu a cultural and commercial kingdom

• He was the “Most richest and most noble king in all the land”

• He displayed both his pride and ignorance to the Islamic Law

• He was so moved by the pilgrimage that he thought of giving his position of King away and living in Mecaa to devote his life

  CONNECTIONS ACROSS THE AMERICAS

• Developed very differently from the Western Hemisphere

• Commerce played an important role in the making of the

  “ American Web “ of the whole Eastern Hemisphere

  CAHOKIA

• Well known for its huge terraces pyramid ( largest structure of North Mexico

• Stratified Societies with clear elite and rulers that were able to mobilize to labor required to build the big pyramid

• 1100-1350 in the eastern woodlands, another American chiefdom at Cahokia, ( Near present day St. Louis ), laid at the center of a widespread trading network

• Stuff That went around

  • buffalo hides from the great plains

  • obsidian from the Rocky Mountains

  • Mica from the southern Appalachian Mountains

  • Canoes

  CHACO PHENOMENON

• encompassed 25,000 square miles

• Made of 150 outlying settlements

• five story high houses

• Hundreds of miles of roads ( no help on travel like Wheels or Animals )

• Became a dominant center for the production of turquoise ornaments which then became a large commerce item

• Had copper bells, macaw feathers, chocolate, tons of shells

• Had a long drought period