Key Concept 3.1
Communication and Exchange
Networks
Expansion, Intensification, and
Innovations
"Improved transportation technologies and commercial
practices led to an increased volume of trade, and expanded the
geographical range of existing and newly active trade networks."
New trade routes centering on Mesoamerica and
the Andes developed.
New Trading Cities
• Novgorod (Russia)
• Timbuktu
• The Swahili city-states
• Hangzhou
• Calicut (a.k.a. Kozhikode)
• Baghdad
• Melaka
• Venice
• Tenochtitlan
• Cahokia
River port of Hangzhou
Growth of Trade in Luxury Goods
• Silk and cotton textiles
• Porcelain
• Spices
• Precious metals and gems
• Slaves
• Exotic animals
Transportation/Commercial
Technologies: Caravan Organization
• Caravanserai
• Camel Saddles
New Forms of Credit and Monetization
• Bills of exchange
• Credit
• Checks
• Banking houses
http://www.ancientmoney.org
/
State Practices
• Minting of coins
• Use of paper money
• Grand Canal in China
Trading Organizations
• Hanseatic League
Expansion of Empires
How does the expansion of an empire influence trade and
communications?
• China
• The Byzantine Empire
• The Caliphates
• The Mongols
Environmental Knowledge and
Technological Adaptations
• The way Scandinavian Vikings used their longships to travel
•
•
in coastal and open waters as well as in rivers and estuaries
The way the Arabs and Berbers adapted camels to travel
across and around the Sahara
The way Central Asian pastoral groups used horses to travel
in the steppes
Migrations and Their Environmental
Impacts
• The migration of Bantu-speaking peoples who facilitated
transmission of iron technologies and agricultural techniques in
Sub-Saharan Africa
• The maritime migrations of the Polynesian peoples who
cultivated transplanted foods and domesticated animals as they
moved to new islands
Diffusion of Languages
• The spread of Bantu languages including Swahili
• The spread of Turkic and Arabic languages
Cross-Cultural Exchanges- Islam
• Based on revelations of the 'prophet' Muhammad
• Arabian peninsula
• Reflected interactions among Jews, Christians, and
Zoroastrians
• Military Expansion
• Also spread through trade activity and missionaries
Diasporic Communities
• Cultural traditions were introduced into indigenous cultures
• Muslim merchant communities in the Indian Ocean region
• Chinese merchant communities in Southeast Asia
• Sogdian merchant communities throughout Central Asia
• Jewish communities in the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean
basin, or along the Silk Road
Interregional Travelers
Ibn Battuta
Marco Polo
Xuanzang
Diffusion of Literary, Artistic, and
Cultural Traditions
• The influence of Neoconfucianism and Buddhism in East
•
•
•
Asia
Hinduism and Buddhism in Southeast Asia
Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia
Toltec/Mexica and Inca traditions in Mesoamerica
and Andean America
Diffusion of Scientific and
Technological Traditions
• The influence of Greek and Indian mathematics on Muslim
•
•
scholars
The return of Greek science and philosophy to Western
Europe via Muslim al-Andalus in Iberia
The spread of printing and gunpowder technologies from
East Asia into the Islamic empires and Western Europe
New Foods and New Diseases
• Bananas in Africa
• New rice varieties in East Asia
• The spread of cotton, sugar, and citrus throughout Dar al-
•
Islam and the Mediterranean basin
The spread of epidemic diseases, including the Black Death,
followed the well established paths of trade and military
conquest.
Key Concept 3.2
Continuity and Innovation of
State Forms and Their
Interactions
Empires Collapse and Reconstitute
• Combined traditional sources of power and legitimacy
with innovations
o Patriarchy
o Religion
o Land-owning elites
Islamic States
• Abbasids
• Muslim Iberia
• Delhi
Sultanates
City-States
• In the Italian peninsula
• In East Africa
• In Southeast Asia
• In the Americas
What are city-states?
Synthesis by States
• Persian traditions that influenced Islamic states
• Chinese traditions that influenced states in Japan
Technological and Cultural Transfers
• Between Tang China and the Abbasids
• Across the Mongol empires
• During the Crusades
Key Concept 3.3
Increased Economic
Productive Capacity and Its
Consequences
Increased Agricultural Production ->
Technological Innovations
• Champa rice varieties
• The chinampa field systems
• Waru waru agricultural techniques in the Andean areas
• Improved terracing techniques
• The horse collar
Horse collar (early form of
Terracing in China
• Crops were transported from their indigenous
•
•
homelands to equivalent climates in other
regions.
Chinese, Persian, and Indian artisans and
merchants expanded their production of
textiles and porcelains for export
Industrial production of iron and steel
expanded in China.
Factors of Decline
• Invasions
• Disease
• The decline of agricultural productivity
• The Little Ice Age
As older cities declined,
numerous new cities emerged to
take on established roles
Factors of Revival
• The end of invasions
• The availability of safe and reliable transport
• The rise of commerce and the warmer temperatures
between 800 and 1300
• Increased agricultural productivity and subsequent
rising population
• Greater availability of labor also contributed to urban growth
Labor Organization
• Free peasant agriculture
• Nomadic pastoralism
• Craft production and guild organization
• Various forms of coerced and unfree labor
• Government-imposed labor taxes
• Military obligations
Social Structures
• Still shaped by class, caste, and/or hierarchy
• Patriarchy, BUT
• In some areas women gained power and influence, such as:
o The Mongols
o West Africa
o Japan
o Southeast Asia
Slaves and Peasants
• New forms of coerced labor
• Serfdom
• Mit'a
• Demand for slaves for military and domestic purposes
increased
• Free peasants resisted attempts to raise dues and taxes by
•
staging revolts. Areas:
o China
o The Byzantine Empire
Diffusion of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and
Neoconfucianism often led to significant changes in gender
relations and family structure.
CCOT
Identify important changes/continuities for each of the
following regions:
Europe, Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, Sub-Saharan
Africa
Identify CCOT in terms of SPICE
Review Questions:
1. Compare the impact of the Mongol Empire on cultures and institutions in Eastern Europe, Middle
East, and East Asia
2. Contrast the economic, social, cultural, and political role of cities such as Guangzhou (Canton),
Samarkand, Timbuktu, Cairo, and Venice played vital roles in the development of in the period
1100-1368. Choose two the urban centers and analyze how their location, and other factors,
contributed to their role as a member of the interregional networks of this era.
3. Compare schisms in Christianity (Roman Catholic-Orthodox) and Islam (Sunni-Shia).
4. Compare and contrast the developments in political and social institutions in two of the following
regions from 600 to 1450: Pre-Columbian Americas, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Islamic
World, East Asia, South Asia.
5. Compare the significance of Indian Ocean trade patterns to those of the so-called “Silk Road” and
the trans-Saharan caravan routes. Do land-based transportation networks impact adjacent peoples
differently from maritime networks?
6. The era of 600-1450 was marked by different forms of treatment of women and the different roles
they played in society. Choose two different cultures below and compare and contrast the role and
treatment of women in them.
East Asia
Americas
Western Europe
Sub-Saharan Africa
Middle East
7. Compare and contrast the impact of Islam on two gender systems in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast
Asia or South Asia.
8. Compare and contrast the social, cultural, political and economic structures of the Aztec Empire and
Inca Empire.
9. Compare and contrast European and sub-Saharan African contacts with the Islamic world
10. Describe and analyze the cultural, economic, and political impact of Islam on ONE of the following
regions between 1000 CE and 1750 CE. Be sure to discuss continuities as well as changes: West
Africa, South Asia, Europe