UNIT TWO REVIEW

Topic 2.1: The Silk Roads

1. Improved commercial practices (inventions of credit and banks and paper money). This would lead to increased trade volume and several new trade routes, including the Silk Roads.

2. New cities rose up along the Silk Road (much like the USA along railroads during the 19th century) to provide services for merchants. Banks, money exchange, hotels, restaurants, and markets

3. Majority of what was traded on the Silk Roads were Luxury Goods. These goods would be in demand and the objects would be in HIGH PROFIT

4. These goods included textiles, porcelain, jewelry, iron, and steel.

Topic 2.2: The Mongol Empire and The Making of the Modern World

1. During the 1200s, the Mongol Empire would expand outwards of Central Asia, dominating until the 1400s

2. The Mongole would split up post Genghis and would make separate khanates (Ilkhan and the Golden Horde)

3. The Mongols would unify trade networks.

4. Great disruptors of empires

5. Conflicts with the Mongols led to the transferring of tech and knowledge between peoples

Topic 2.3: Exchange in the Indian Ocean

1. As the Mongols would dominate the Silk Road(s), the Indian Ocean would emerge as the world’s newest and most important trade region. 

2. Lateen sails, compass, and the astrolabe would made large-scale navigation possible and more efficient

3. Indian Ocean trade would be dominated by large, bulky products (spices and textiles)

4. While the Silk Roads would be dominated by mongols,Indian Ocean trade would be fragmented into several small trading kingdoms such as Gujarat, the Sultan of Malacca, and the Swahili Coast

5. CULTURAL DIFFUSION would dominate the Indian Ocean as merchants from disparate regions shared ideas with each other. Allowed the sharing of ideas with distant lands\

6. The most significant exchange of ideas occurred between the CHinese explorer Zheng He and the communities of India and Arabia during the 15th century.

7. Environmental factors were involved in trade, such as with increased knowledge of monsoon winds 

Topic 2.4: Trans-Saharan Trade Routes

1. Improved trade also enabled trade across the Sahara Desert into sub-Saharan Africa during the period 1200-1450, including the use cara \vans and a new saddle for the camel. (stirrup)

2. Mali and Songhai grew as centers or trade for GOLD, SALT,  AND SLAVES with Europe and the Indian Ocean

3. As a result, these kingdoms developed a highly syncretic form of Islam

Topic 2.5: Cultural Consequences of Connectivity

1. Ideas that spread between civilizations included religious ideas, inventions, technologies, and artistic ideas

2. Urbanization will increase in area of high economic activity (China, Persia, arabia, India, Africa)

3. Many wrote accounts of their travels during this period (Marco Polo, Ibn-Battuta, Margery Kempe)

Ideas that would spread:

1. Buddhism from Southeast to East Asia (China, Japan. Korea)

2. Hinduism into Southeast Asia

3. Islam into Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (and the Spice Islands)

4. Gunpowder would expand out of China due to Mongols

5. Paper expanded out of China

6. Paper money expanded out of Mongol China

7. Algebra spread out of the Middle East

2.6:Environmental Consequences of Connectivity

The environment was also affected by the expansion of trade during this time period.

Examples include: 

1. New crops (champa rice from vietnam, bananas from Indonesia to Africa citrus to the Mediterranean basin)

2. Epidemic disease (bubonic plague)