Unit 2

• Networks of exchange


  Trading routes that facilitated not only economic interaction, but also cultural diffusion and transfers
• Major networks of exchange

  • Silk Roads
  • Indian Ocean Network
  • Trans-Saharan Trade
• General developments among the major networks of exchange

  • Geographical range expanded
  • Innovations in commercial practices and technological innovations
  • Increased connectivity caused states to grow wealthy and powerful, while also causing the collapse of others
• Silk Roads


  Network that stretched across Eurasia, mainly trading luxury goods like Chinese silk and porcelain
• Silk Roads


  • Merchants specialized in luxury goods due to the expense and difficulty of travel
  • Innovations in transportation (caravanserais)
  • Innovations in commercial practices (money economies, new forms of credit)
• Powerful trading city on the Silk Roads

  • Kashgar
• Indian Ocean Network


  Maritime trade network that expanded significantly, trading more common goods like textiles and spices
• Indian Ocean Network


  • Facilitated by understanding of monsoon winds
  • Technological innovations (improved compass, astrolabe, ship designs)
  • Innovations in commercial practices (credit, etc.)
• Swahili city-states


  • Acted as brokers for goods from African interior, grew in power and wealth, became Islamic
• Establishment of diasporic communities (Arab and Persian in East Africa) led to cultural intermixing and spread of Islam
• Zheng He's voyages spread China's advanced maritime technology and navigation tools throughout the Indian Ocean
• Silk Roads


  A vast network of roads and trails that facilitated trade and the spread of culture and ideas across Eurasia in and before the period 1200 to 1450
• Silk Roads


  • Mainly facilitated the exchange of luxury items, most notably Chinese silk
  • Expensive to haul goods from one end to the other, so selling luxury goods was the only way to earn large profits
• Cultural diffusion


  The exchange of various ideas and cultural traits across the Silk Roads
• Innovations in commercial practices that led to the expansion of the Silk Roads

  1. Development of money economies with the introduction of paper money by the Chinese

  2. Increasing use of credit with the introduction of 'flying money'

  3. Emergence of banks to facilitate trade
• Innovations in transportation technologies that led to the expansion of the Silk Roads

  1. Rise of Caravanserais - Inns and guest houses that provided safety and cultural exchange

  2. Introduction of saddles to make riding easier over long distances
• Effects of the expansion of the Silk Roads

  • Rise of powerful trading cities strategically located along the routes
  • Increased demand for luxury goods like Chinese silk and porcelain, leading to proto-industrialization in China
  • Cultural diffusion, including the spread of religions and diseases like the Bubonic plague
• Powerful trading cities on the Silk Roads

  • Kashgar
  • Samarkand
• The Mongols held the title for the largest contiguous land-based empire ever
• Indian Ocean trade Network

  A network of sea routes that connected the various States throughout afro-eurasia through trade
• The Indian Ocean trade Network was in use for a long time before the start of our time period around 1200 but during this time period the Trade Network expanded significantly
• Reasons for the expansion of the Indian Ocean trade Network

  • Collapse of the Mongol Empire in the 14th century
  • Innovations in commercial practices
  • Innovations in transportation technology
  • Increasing spread of Islam
• Money economies and ability to buy Goods on credit


  Made trade easier and increased use of trade routes
• Innovations in transportation technology

  • Improvements to the magnetic compass
  • Improvements to the astrolabe
  • Increasing use of the Latin sail
• Monsoon winds


  Predictably blew in different directions depending on the time of year, facilitating maritime trade
• Chinese junk


  • Massive ship that could carry large amounts of cargo
• Dows


  • Arab trading ships that were made bigger and better to haul more cargo
• Goods traded in the Indian Ocean trade Network

  • Luxury goods
  • Cotton textiles
  • Grains
• Islam was friendly to Merchants and facilitated increased trade along sea-based routes
• Powerful trading cities that grew due to the Indian Ocean trade Network

  • Swahili city states on the east coast of Africa
  • Malacca
  • Gujarat
• Diaspora communities


  Groups of people from one place who established a home in another place while retaining their cultural Customs
• Cultural and technological transfers were as significant as the goods exchanged over the trade routes
• Admiral Zheng He's voyages

  • Included 300 ships with Crews totaling more than 27,000 men
  • Equipped with the latest in military technology like gunpowder cannons
• The Ming Dynasty's insistence on state-led trade Partnerships led to various states around the Indian Ocean taking more significant roles in trade
• Trans-Saharan Trade Network


  Series of trade routes that connected North Africa and the Mediterranean world with interior West Africa and to some degree the rest of sub-Saharan Africa
• Trans-Saharan Trade Network began expanding

  Around 1200
• Causes of expansion of Trans-Saharan Trade Network

  • Innovations in transportation technology
  • Introduction of the Arabian camel about a thousand years before the period
  • Use of camel saddles for riding and carrying bigger loads
  • Establishment of caravanserais (rest stops) along the routes
• Goods traded in the Trans-Saharan Trade Network

  • Gold
  • Cola nuts
  • Horses
  • Salt
• Specialization of goods


  Different regions exported different goods, creating demand to trade with each other and expanding the trade networks
• Empire of Mali


  Important state that rose and expanded due to its participation in the Trans-Saharan Trade Network