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• 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
• Temujin


  According to legend, was born holding a giant blood clot in his fist, which was a sign he would grow up to be a mighty leader
• Temujin


  • He was a Mongol, part of a pastoral nomadic people living around the Gobi desert
  • He grew up to be a powerful leader, uniting the various Mongol groups under himself in 1206
  • He assumed the title Chingus Khan (also known as Genghis Khan)
• Chingus Khan's conquests


  1. Attacked and conquered northern China

  2. Conquered territory in Central Asia

  3. Conquered up to Southern Russia

  4. Died in 1227, his sons continued expanding the empire until its peak in 1279
• Mongol military


  • Organized forces into groups of 10,000, 1,000 and 110 for efficient control and command
  • Used superior weaponry like large bows that could shoot arrows further
  • Were highly skilled horse riders, often outriding their opponents
  • Benefited from the decline of other empires like the Song Dynasty and Abbasid Empire
• Mongol brutality


  In some cases, Mongol armies would slaughter nearly everyone in a settlement and leave just a few alive to warn the next town, so they didn't even have to fight in some places
• Even though the Mongol body count was staggering during their wars of expansion, once they ruled everything they were pretty peaceful, a period known as the Pax Mongolica
• Mongol Empire organization after Chingus Khan's death


  1. His grandsons organized the empire into several khanates or military regions

  2. Mongol rulers often adopted the cultural norms of the people they ruled, like Kublai Khan establishing the Yuan Dynasty in China
• Mongol rule


  • Facilitated the flourishing of the Silk Road trade routes by keeping them safe and improving infrastructure
  • Encouraged the transfer of technology, ideas and culture across the empire, including the transfer of medical knowledge to Europe and the adoption of the Uyghur script to write the Mongol language
• As the Mongol Empire fell, many people under Mongol rule worked to install powerful centralized leaders and create unified cultures, paving the way for the rise of the modern world
• Indian Ocean trade


  Network of sea routes that connected various states throughout Afro-Eurasia through trade
• Indian Ocean trade network


  • Expanded significantly during the time period around 1200
  • Used for a long time before the start of the time period
• 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 lateen sail
  • Knowledge of monsoon winds
• 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, facilitating 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
• Diaspora communities became a connective tissue holding the Indian Ocean network together and increasing its scope
• Cultural and technological transfers were as significant as the goods exchanged over the trade routes
• Admiral Zheng He's voyages brought the latest military technology like gunpowder cannons to regions around the Indian Ocean
• 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 for trade
• Empire of Mali


  • Powerful state that grew wealthy from participating in the Trans-Saharan Trade Network
  • Gained wealth by taxing merchants traveling through its territory
• Mali converted to Islam


  Became connected to the economic trade partnerships throughout Dar al-Islam
• Mansa Musa, the most powerful and influential ruler of Mali, embarked on the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) with a giant entourage and injected so much gold into the Egyptian economy that the value of all existing gold plummeted
• Under Mansa Musa, Mali further monopolized trade between the North and the interior of the continent, both increasing the wealth of Mali and facilitating the growth of existing trade networks