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.

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  • 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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