Emerging Transregional Networks of Communication and Exchange

* New technologies gave rise to **transregional interactions**, and n**etworks 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**

\