Post-Classical Trade Routes
WHAP/Napp
“Between the two major civilizations of the world, those of Rome and China, lay a
wide geographical gap. The land route between western China and the nearest
ports of the Black Sea was, even before the time of Christ, the longest in the world.
It crossed mountains and plateaus, stony plains and salty deserts, fast streams and
gorges, and immense pastures. The route was more like a relay race than a
procession, for the goods being exchanged were handed from merchant to
merchant, from bazaar to bazaar, and so they made their slow way across the
continent in carts or on the backs of horses and camels moving in long convoys.
The ultimate price of these goods travelling across Asia was heavily increased by
the profits taken, and the taxes and tributes demanded, along the way. To cut out
half a dozen middlemen, European merchants would occasionally dispatch a brave
agent halfway to China to act as expediter and negotiator. As early as 300 BC,
Greek merchants could be seen in the market of Samarkand in central Asia.
The main cargo carried from the east was silk. To the Romans the Chinese were
“the Seres,” the people of the silk. Few presents gave more delight to a rich Roman
matron than the Chinese silk which arrived in tiny quantities after the hazardous
journey across Asia.
…A roll of silk was a magical textile. Light in weight, capable of being stretched
without breaking, easily dyed with bright colors such as Tyrian purple, and soft
when rubbed against human flesh, silk was prized by the few Romans who had a
chance to touch it or wear it. Being expensive, it was not worn by the average
person in China; and being farm more expensive by the time it reached the
Mediterranean it was regarded as a high luxury when landed in Rome.” ~ A Short
History of the World
1- Describe trade on the Silk Roads.
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2- Why were prices of goods from the Silk Roads so high?
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3- What was the main cargo on the Silk Roads?
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4- Why was silk such a desirable product?
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5- Why were goods transported on the Silk Roads luxury items?
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6- Of course, trade is not merely the exchange of products. Ultimately, trade
brings diverse peoples into contact with one another. How does this contact
change world history?
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7- Why was travel on the Silk Roads dangerous?
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8- Describe the geographic features that traders encountered on the Silk Roads.
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9- How did trade on the Silk Roads differ from trade in the Indian Ocean?
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Notes:
I. The Silk Roads
A. Land-based trade routes that linked pastoral and agricultural peoples
B. More of a “relay trade” in which goods were passed down the line
C. Outer Eurasia (China, India, Middle East, Mediterranean)
1. Relatively warm, well-watered, and suitable for agriculture
D. Inner Eurasia (Central Asia)
1. Harsher and drier climateNot conducive to agriculture
2. Inhabited by pastoral peoples herding animals from horseback
E. Silk Road trading networks prospered most when large and powerful states
provided security for merchants and travelers
1. Trade flourished during the classical era - Roman and Chinese empires
2. Flourished7th and 8th centuries CE  Byzantine, Abbasid, T’ang
3. Flourished  13th and 14th centuries: Pax MongoliaMongol Empire
F. Most of the goodsluxury products for an elite/wealthy marketsilk
came to symbolize this exchange
1. Chinese originally held a monopoly on silk-making, by the sixth century
C.E., knowledge and technology for producing raw silk had spread
2. Symbol of high status – gift to monasteries (symbol of high honor)
G. Conduit of Culture
1. Buddhism spread on Silk Roads – owing much to merchants
2. Buddhism had appealed to merchants  its universal message
3. But Persian Zoroastrianism blocked spread of Buddhism to west, except
oasis cities of Central Asia: Merv, Samarkand, Khotan, and Dunhuang
4. Buddhism changed on the Silk Roads
a) More devotional Mahayana form of Buddhism flourished
b) In northwest India, statues of Buddha revealed Greek influences
5. Diseases
a) Diseases traveled the trade routes of Eurasia too
b) Smallpox and measles devastated populations of both the Roman
Empire and Han dynasty, contributing to their political collapse
1. Diseases may have strengthened appeal of Christianity/Buddhism
c) Bubonic plague ravaged the coastal areas of the Mediterranean Sea
between 534 and 750 CE
1. Preventing Byzantium from reintegrating Italy into empire
2. Most well-known Mongol Empire during 13th and 14th
centuriesBlack Death from China to EuropeBetween 1346
and 1350, about one-third of Europe perished from plague
II. Indian Ocean Trade
A. Until the creation of a genuinely oceanic system of trade after
1500represented largest sea-based system
B. Transportation costs were lower on the Sea
C. Monsoons with their alternative wind currents that blew predictably
eastward during the summer months and westward during winter
D. Operated across an “archipelago of towns”Dates back to First
CivilizationsIn Classical Era, learned to use monsoon winds
E. The fulcrum of this growing commerce lay in India itself
F. Significant impact-Southeast Asia/East Africa: Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam
G. Malay sailors opened an all-sea route between India and China through the
Straits of Malacca around 350 CE
1. Malay kingdom of Srivijaya dominated choke point from 670 to 1025
H. Sailendra kingdom in central Java, an agriculturally rich region  between
the 8th and 10th centuries featuring Hindu temples/Buddhist monuments
(most famousBorobudur: largest Buddhist monument-world)
I. In East Africa, civilization known as Swahili (also a language) emerged in the
8th century CE, stretching from present-day Somalia to Mozambique
1. With rise of Islam, increased commerce on western Indian Ocean
2. Language: grammatically African within Bantu family but Arabic script
III. West Africa
A. Trans-African trade connected North Africa and West Africa, part of
sub-Saharan AfricaSalt for GoldCamel introduced 300 to 400 CE
B. Islam entered along trade routesAlso Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and
SonghaiUrban and commercial centers – such as Koumbi-Saleh, Jenne,
Timbuktu, Gao, Gobir, and Kano
IV. Americasgeographic obstacles to tradeNorth/South Orientation
Complete the Graphic Organizer Below:
The Power of Trade
Silk Road 
Facts and Significance:
Indian Ocean Trade 
Facts and Significance:
Trans-Saharan
Trade  Facts
and
Significance:
Trade
Obstacles:
Americas
Strayer Questions:
 What lay behind the emergence of Silk Road commerce and kept it going?
 What made silk such a highly desired commodity across Eurasia?
 List major economic, social, and cultural consequences of Silk Road trade.
 What accounted for the spread of Buddhism along the Silk Road?
 What was the impact of disease along the Silk Road?
 How did Indian Ocean trading network differ from that of the Silk Roads?
 What lay behind flourishing of Indian Ocean commerce in postclassical era?
 What is the relationship between rise of Srivijaya and Indian Ocean trade?
 What was the role of Swahili civilization in world of Indian Ocean trade?
 What changes did trans-Saharan trade bring to West Africa?
 In what ways did trade in differ in Western and Eastern Hemispheres?
1. Why were trade routes
4. Where were there no slave markets
particularly extensive in Eurasia? prior to 1000 C.E.?
(A) Because a wide variety of
(A) Antarctica
communities, from Europe to
(B) Africa
East Asia, were linked by
(C) China
trade.
(D) the Mediterranean region
(B) Eurasia was where most goods
were produced.
5. The truths that the Buddha claimed
(C) Europeans did not yet know
either draw on or depart from the
how to build roads.
fundamental principles of which belief
(D) Russian tsars built all these
system?
routes using forced labor.
(A) Christianity
(B) Hinduism
2. What is diffusion?
(C) Islam
(A) The assimilation of a minority (D) Judaism
ethnic group into the
population
6. The Indian Ocean
(B) The splitting of the atom
I. Is the world’s second-largest
(C) The conquering of one
ocean
civilization by a more
II. Is the site of thousands of years
powerful one
of travel and economic exchange
(D) The spread of foods, trade
III. Can be reached from the Atlantic
goods, concepts, norms,
and the Pacific Oceans
practices, and inventions
IV. Extends only as far south as the
among different peoples
eastern coast of Africa
Which are correct?
3. Leading up to 1000 C.E., what was the
(A) I, III, and IV
most vital overland trade route?
(B) I, II, and IV
(A) The Silk Road
(C) II, III, and IV
(B) The Sahara Desert
(D) II and III
(C) The Sahel
(E) All of the above
Thesis Practice: Create a thesis incorporating the concepts of continuity and change
along a significant trade route.