WHAP - 2.6 Environmental Consequences of Connectivity

Historical Developments - There was a continued diffusion of crops and pathogens with epidemic diseases, including the bubonic plague along trade routes

Migration of Crops

• Champa Rice

  • Vietnam (Hindu) → (tributed to) China

  • Drought Resistant, flood resistant, yielding two crops a year

  • Terraced farming (able to grow in regions that were thought to be unusable)

• Bananas

  • Indonesia → sub-saharan africa

  • Spiked population

  • Migrated to places where traditional foods (yams) could not grow (but bananas could)

• Cotton, Sugar, Citrus Crops

  • Europeans LOVED SUGAR

Environmental Degradation

• Overgrazing - Great Zimbabwe (1400s abandonment)

• Europe - deforestation and soil erosion - reducing agricultural production

• Little ice age - decreased agricultural production

Bubonic Plague

• Mongols from southern China → Central ASia → Southeast ASian → Europe

• Argued that caravanserais were the problems

• 1/3 of Europe’s population DIED

  • Labor became more valuable

  • Demand for higher wages

  • Feudalism declines