Name____________________________________________________________
Per.______
Robert W. Strayer
Ways of the World: A Brief Global History
Ways of the World: A Brief Global History with Sources
Chapter Eight, Commerce and Culture, 500 C.E.-1500 C.E. (pp.333-341)
Big Picture:
 Early 2004, 23 nations signed an agreement to build a network of highways all across Asia
o Ultimately linking Tokyo with Istanbul and enabling a # of landlocked countries of
Central Asia to participate more fully in the world economy
o Part of the accumulating infrastructure of contemporary globalization
 That exchange among distant peoples is not altogether new & roots of economic globalization
lie deep in the past
 Exchange of goods among communities occupying different ecological zones has long been a
prominent feature of human history
o Societies have been able to monopolize the production of particular products (silk)
which others have found valuable
o Uneven distribution of goods has motivated exchange
o 500-1500: long distance trade became more important than ever before
 In What ways was trade significant?????
o Often altered consumption
o Trade also affected the day to day working lives of many peoples, encouraging them to
specialize in producing particular products for sale in distant markets
o Trade diminished the economic self-sufficiency of local societies
 Trade shaped societies:
o Traders often became a distinct social group
o Long-distance trade also enabled elite groups in society to distinguish themselves from
commoners by acquiring prestigious goods from a distance (silk, tortoiseshells,
feathers)
 Political life also sometimes transformed by trade
o Wealth from controlling and taxing trade motivated the creation of states
o Commerce posed a set of problems to governments everywhere
o Should trade be left in the private hands or should it be controlled by the state????????
 Trade became the vehicle for the spread of religious ideas, technological innovations, diseasebearing germs, and plants and animals to regions far from their places of origin
o Buddhism made its way from India to Central & East Asia & Islam crossed the Sahara
into West Africa
Silk Roads: Exchange across Eurasia
 Eurasian landmass has long been home to the majority of humankind as well as to the world’s
most productive agriculture
 Eurasia also gave rise to the one of the world’s most extensive and sustained networks of
exchange
o Known to scholars as the Silk Road- Land based trade routes linked pastoral &
agricultural peoples as well as the large civilizations on the continent’s outer rim
The Growth of the Silk Roads
 As a geographic unit, Eurasia is often divided into inner & outer zones
o Outer Eurasia consists of relatively war, well-watered areas suitable for agriculture
(China, India, Middle East, Mediterranean)
o Inner Eurasia-Lands of Eastern Russia & Central Asia has a harsher & drier climate,
much not conductive to agriculture
o Pastoral people of this region had for centuries traded with & raided agricultural
neighbors to the south
 By early centuries of the Common Era, indirect trading connections, often brokered by pastoral
peoples, linked the classical civilizations in a network of transcontinental exchange
 Silk Road trading networks prospered most when large & powerful states provided security for
merchants & travelers
o Such conditions prevailed during the classical era when the Roman & Chinese empires
anchored long-distance commerce at the western & eastern ends of Eurasia
Goods in Transit
 A vast array of goods made their way across the Silk Roads often carried by large camel
caravans that traversed the harsh steepes, deserts, & oases of Central Asia
 Of all these luxury goods, it was silk that came to symbolize this Eurasian exchange system
 6th Century CE, knowledge & technology for producing raw silk had spread beyond China
o Koreans, Japanese, Indians, Persians learned how to produce this precious fabric
 Central Asia, silk was used as currency and as a means of accumulating wealth
o China & Byzantine Empire- silk became a symbol of high status & governments passed
laws that restricted silk clothing to members of the elite
o Buddhist pilgrims took silks as gifts to the monasteries they visited & monks received
purple silk robes from Tang dynasty
 Because no independent silk industry developed in Western Europe until 12 Century CE, a
considerable market developed for silks imported from the Islamic world
 Compared to contemporary global commerce, the volume of trade on the Silk Roads was small
o It had important economic & social consequences
o Peasants in Yangzi River delta sometimes gave up the cultivation of food, crops,
choosing to focus instead on producing silk, paper, porcelain, lacquerware or iron tools
o Impact of long distance trade trickled down to affect the lives of ordinary farmers
Cultures in Transit
 Silk Roads role was as a conduit of culture
 Buddhism spread widely throughout Central and East Asia
o Beginning in India during 6th Century BCE
o By 1st Century BCE, many of the inhabitants in towns (Merv, Samarkand, Khotan,
Dunhuang) converted to Buddhism
o Well-to-do Buddhist merchants could earn religious merit by building monasteries &
supporting monks
o Many of the cities became cosmopolitan centers of learning & commerce
o Scholars have found thousands of Buddhist texts in the city of Dunhuang
o Buddhism progressed only slowly among pastoral peoples of Central Asia
o The Jie people who controlled much of northern China after Han became acquainted
with Buddhism through ruler Shi Le
o Shi Le led to the conversion of thousands and the construction of hundreds of Buddhist
temples
o Only slowly did Buddhism become popular among Chinese themselves
 As Buddhism spread, it also changed
o Buddhist monasteries in the rich oasis towns of the Silk Roads found themselves
involved in secular affairs
o Buddhism picked up elements of other cultures while in transit on the Silk Road
o In area northwest of India that had been influenced by Alexander the Great, statues of
the Buddha reveal distinct Greek influences
o Greco-Roman mythological figure of Herakles was used to represent Vajrapani, one of
the divine protectors of the Buddha
Disease in Transit
 Diseases too traveled the trade routes of Eurasia
 Eurasian world had developed characteristic disease patterns, mechanisms for dealing with
them, & in some cases immunity to them
o People were exposed to unfamiliar diseases for which they had little immunity
 Widespread diseases affected the Roman Empire & Han Dynasty during the classical era as
Silk Roads promoted contact all across Eurasia (EX: Small pox & measles)
 534-750 CE, intermittent outbreaks of bubonic plague ravaged the coastal areas of the
Mediterranean Sea as the black rats that carried the disease arrived via the seaborne trade with
India
 Constantinople lost 10,000 people per day
 Disease play an important role in preventing Byzantium from reintegrating Italy into its version
of a renewed Roman Empire
 Most well known dissemination of disease was associated with Mongol Empire (13 Century)
o Era of intensified interaction facilitated the spread of the Black Death
o 1346-1350: 1/3 or more of the population of Europe perished from the plague
 The exchange of diseases gave Europeans a certain advantage when confronted the peoples of
the Western Hemisphere after 1500
o Exposure over time had provided them with some degree of immunity to Eurasian
diseases
o In the Americas, the absence of domesticated animals from the Eastern Hemisphere
ensured that native peoples had little defense against the diseases of Europe and Africa