Emerging Transregional Networks of Communication and Exchange

• New technologies gave rise to transregional interactions, and networks of communication and exchange increased. This process was driven by war and migration but mainly trade.

  \   * Transregional Trade Routes     * Trade operated mainly on local and regional levels     * In the Andes, trade was dependent on the llama     * Four major transregional trade routes emerged       * The Mediterranean         * Facilitated by the Mediterranean Sea         * Relied on galleys: oared ships with small square scales           * Suitable for coastal navigation rather than open-water navigation       * The Indian Ocean Basin         * The Indian Ocean maritime network connected East Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia with China and Japan.         * Traders benefited from open-water navigation         * Used dhows: ships with triangular lateen sails         * Took advantage of monsoon winds         * Trade led to the settlement of diasporic communities foreign traders settled in cities       * Trans-Saharan Caravan Routes         * Trade between the sub-Saharan and the Mediterranean         * Trade was over large distances over arid conditions, and finding an oases was important           * oases: sources of water           * Nubia: served as an avenue for north-south trade between Egypt and the South           * Domestication of camels became important         * Eurasia’s Silk Roads           * Silk Road: expanded from the Middle East and Mediterranean ports to China’s pacific coast           * Chang’an: China’s economic hub           * Overland transport helped share cultural traditions and religions   * Innovations in Transport     * Overland transport: less expensive and the only way to reach places far from rivers and coastlines

    * Domesticated pack animals: used to transport large amounts of cargo       * ox, horse, llama and camel       * Stirrup, yokes and collars, pack saddles: added greater stability for horseback riders     * Wheeled vehicles: carts and wagons, helpful on roads and flat grounds     * Water transport was more preferable to land transport       * Maritime technology and coastal navigation made transport easier and safer     * Chinese junk: capable of open water navigation and carrying large amounts of cargo   * Transmissions: The Effects of Communication and Exchange     * Consequences included: technology transfer, environmental and medical impact, and religious and cultural borrowing     * Intensive agriculture: the use of technology to maximize productive potential of every square foot of an area       * cleared fields by chopping down trees and bushes, then burning down the foliage to fertilize the soil       * terracing of hillsides: common in Mesoamerica       * rice-paddy cultivation: originated in Southeast Asia       * draining of swamps and wetlands       * building of elevated fields       * “floating islands”     * water management, complex irrigation systems and aqueducts     * qanat: sank vertical rainwater hafts in the ground to underground pipes that collected rainwater for irrigation       * Originated in Persia but used throughout Eurasia     * Horse collar: a technique pioneered by the Chinese that made plowing easier     * Spread of disease       * bubonic plague       * smallpox and measles     * Spread of religion       * cultural borrowing       * active missionary activity       * forced conversion

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