Expansion and Intensification of Communication and Exchange Networks

Although Afro-Eurasia and the Americas remained separate from one another, this era witnessed a deepening and widening of old and new networks of human interaction within and across regions. The results were unprecedented concentrations of wealth and the intensification of cross-cultural exchanges. Innovations in transportation, state policies, and mercantile practices contributed to the expansion and development of commercial networks, which in turn served as conduits for cultural, technological, and biological diffusion within and between various societies. Pastoral or nomadic groups played a key role in creating and sustaining these networks. Expanding networks fostered greater interregional borrowing, while at the same time sustaining regional diversity. The prophet Muhammad promoted Islam, a new major monotheistic religion at the start of this period. It spread quickly through practices of trade, warfare, and diffusion characteristic of this period.

Improved transportation technologies and commercial practices led to an increased volume of trade, and expanded the geographical range of existing and newly active trade networks.

A.     Existing trade routes flourished and promoted the growth of powerful new trading cities. (Examples of new trading cities: Novgorod, Timbuktu, Swahili city-states, Hangzhou, Calicut, Baghdad, Melaka, Venice, Tenochtitlan, Cahokia)

Examples of existing trade routes:

• The Silk Roads

• The Mediterranean Sea

• The Trans-Saharan

• The Indian Ocean basins

The growth of interregional trade in luxury goods (Ex: silk and cotton textiles, porcelain, spices, slaves, precious metals/gems) was encouraged by significant innovations in previously existing transportation and commercial technologies, including more sophisticated caravan organization (Ex: caravanserai, camel saddles); use of the compass, astrolabe, and larger ship designs in sea travel; and new forms of credit and monetization (Ex: bills of exchange, credit, checks, banking houses).

Historical Developments

• Improved transportation technologies and commercial practices led to an increased volume of trade and expanded the geographical range of existing trade routes, including the Indian Ocean, promoting the growth of powerful new trading cities.

• The Indian Ocean trading network fostered the growth of states.

• The growth of interregional trade in luxury goods was encouraged by significant innovations in previously existing transportation and commercial technologies, including the use of the compass, the astrolabe, and larger ship designs.

In key places along important trade routes, merchants set up diasporic communities where they introduced their own cultural traditions into the indigenous cultures and, in turn, indigenous cultures influenced merchant cultures.

Diasporic communities:

• Arab and Persian communities in East Africa

• Chinese merchant communities in Southeast Asia

• Malay communities in the Indian Ocean basin

Interregional contacts and conflicts between states and empires encouraged significant technological and cultural transfers, including during Chinese maritime activity led by Ming Admiral Zheng He.

The expansion and intensification of long distance trade routes often depended on environmental knowledge, including advanced knowledge of the monsoon winds.

Indian Ocean Trade Routes

• The sea version of the Silk Roads

• Until the discovery the new world, it was the largest  sea-based system of communication and exchange

• Stretched from southern China to eastern Africa

• Cheaper to transport goods – cargo ships could carry more than camel caravans

• Traded goods for a mass market rather than just luxury goods (like Silk Roads) – b/c of increased cargo capacity of boats

• Monsoon winds (northeast during the summer months and southwest during the winter) made trade reliable

• Better technology in shipbuilding and oceanic navigation drew on achievements from:

  • Chinese

  • Malays

  • Indians

  • Arabs

  • Swahilis

• Didn’t deal in trading “countries” more like a network of urban centers strung out around the entire Indian Ocean

Monsoon Winds

• Indian Ocean trade was made possible by monsoon winds

• Winds blew eastward in summer and westward in winter

• Understanding the monsoon winds along with better shipbuilding = increased  trade

What Technology Facilitated Trade?

• Indian Ocean commerce increased around 200-300 CE as mariners learned the monsoon winds

• Improvements in sails

• New ships like Chinese junks and Indian/Arab dhows

• New means of calculating latitude such as the astrolabe

• Evolving versions of the magnetic needle or compass

Importance of the Lateen Sail

Dating back to Roman navigation, the lateen became the favourite sail of the Age of Discovery, mainly because it allows a boat to tack "against the wind". It is common in the Mediterranean, the upper Nile River, and the northwestern parts of the Indian Ocean, where it is the standard rig for dhows.

Astrolabe

• An inclinometer used to determine the latitude of a ship at sea by measuring the sun's noon altitude (declination) or the meridian altitude of a star of known declination

• In order to use the astrolabe, the navigator would hold the instrument by the ring at the top. This caused the instrument to remain in a vertical plane. He would align the plane of the astrolabe to the direction of the object of interest. The alidade was aligned to point at the object and the altitude was read off the outer degree scale.

• If observing a dim object such as a star, the navigator would observe the object directly through the alidade. If observing the sun, it was both safer and easier to allow the shadow of one of the alidade's vanes to be cast onto the opposite vane.

What states facilitated trade?

• Tang and Song dynasties (618-1279) revived sea trade after the collapse of the Han

• Provided unity and structure to support trade

• China’s population shifted southward due to heavy use of southern ports in Indian Ocean trade

• Chinese inventions like larger ships (junks) and magnetic compass facilitated trade

• Importance of the North/South link of the Grand Canal

• Islam was friendly to merchants (unlike Confucianism) and promoted commercial life

• Muslim merchants intensified commercial activity in the Indian Ocean

• Middle Eastern gold and silver flowed into southern India to purchase pepper, pearls, textiles, and gemstones

• Muslim merchants (as well as Jews and Christians) established communities of traders (diasporic communities) from East Africa to the south China coast

• Increased use of slaves in production of sugar and dates for export

• 15 year slave revolt disrupted the Abbasid Empire before being crushed

Ming Admiral Zheng He

• China undertook the largest and most impressive maritime expeditions the world had ever seen

• Since the 11th century, Chinese sailors had been a major presence in the South China Sea and in SE Asia

• Enormous fleet commissioned by Ming Emperor Yongle (YAHNG-leh) was launched in 1405.

  • Six expeditions in 28 years

  • First voyage had 300 ships

  • Captained my Muslim eunuch named Zheng He (JUHNG-huh)

  • Wanted to enroll distant peoples and states in the Chinese tribute system

  • Dozens of rulers accompanied the fleets back to China, where they presented tribute, performed submission rituals (kowtow), and received gifts in return from China

  • Described as “bringing order to the world”

• Click HERE to read more about Zheng He and his voyages

• On his fourth voyage, Zheng brought a giraffe from Africa that was a Malindi tribute gift to Emperor Yongle. He kept many exotic animals that were given as tribute from around the Indian Ocean in a special garden at his palace. Of all these animals, the giraffe was the one Emperor Yongle asked his artists to paint.

What States Developed due to Trade?

• Srivijaya came to power when Malay sailors opened an all-sea route between China and India through the straits of Malacca around 350 CE

• Many small ports along the Malay Peninsula and coast of Sumatra began to compete to attract traders and travelers

• Srivijaya dominated the choke point of Indian Ocean trade from 670 to 1025

• Levied taxes on passing ships

• Possessed spices like cloves, nutmeg, and mace

• Swahili city-states emerged in the 8th century CE

• Stretched from present-day Somalia to Mozambique

• Earlier ancestors were farmers who spoke Bantu languages

• Rise of Islam stimulated their trade in the Indian Ocean

• Gold, ivory, quartz, leopard skins, and sometimes slaves were acquired from the interior and found markets in Arabia, Persia, India, and beyond

• African merchant class developed

• Cities formed, became urban

• Each city was governed by their own king (like Greek city-states)

• Great Zimbabwe traded gold and ivory to the coast

• Became powerful and wealthy for serving as a middle between the interior of Africa and the Swahili city-states

• Wealth embodied in large herds of cattle

• Peaked around 1250-1350

• Known for the large stone enclosures built without mortar

Srivijaya

• Southeast Asian rulers and elites found attractive the Indian belief that leaders were god-kings, perhaps reincarnations of a Buddha or the Hindu deity Shiva.

• Srivijayan monarchs employed Indians as advisers, clerks, or officials

• Imported political ideas and Buddhist religious concepts which provided “higher level of magic” for rulers and a link to the prestigious Indian civilization

• Srivijaya became a major Buddhist center attracting thousands of monks

Borobudur

• Built in the Sailendra kingdom in central Java

• Closely allied with Srivijaya

• Built Hindu and Buddhist temples, Borobudur being the most famous

• Mountain shaped structure of ten levels, three mile walkway, and elaborate carvings illustrating the spiritual journey from ignorance and illusion to full enlightenment

• Syncretism = carved statues have Javanese features, scenes are set in Java, not India, resonated with mountain worship in SE Asia as homes of ancestral spirits

• Shiva was also worshipped and cows were honored

Syncretism in Swahili City-States

• Swahili language is grammatically African with Bantu roots

• Written in Arabic script with Arabic loan words

• Many ruling families claimed Arab or Persian origins

• Arab and Indian merchants settled on the coast creating new blended families

• Rapidly became Islamic, introduced by Arab traders

Diaspora Communites

What is a diaspora community?

A diaspora (from Greek meaning "scattering, dispersion") is a scattered population with a common origin in a smaller geographic area. Diaspora has come to refer particularly to historical mass dispersions of an involuntary nature, such as the expulsion of Jews from Judea, the African Trans-Atlantic slave trade, Europeans from north western Europe, the southern Chinese or Hindus of South Asia during the coolie trade, or the century-long exile of the Messenians under Spartan rule.

Recently, scholars have distinguished between different kinds of diaspora, based on its causes such as imperialism, trade or labor migrations, or by the kind of social coherence within the diaspora community and its ties to the ancestral lands. Some diaspora communities maintain strong political ties with their homeland. Other qualities that may be typical of many diasporas are thoughts of return, relationships with other communities in the diaspora, and lack of full assimilation into the host country.