Chapter 7

Question 0

What accounted for the spread of Buddhism on the Silk Roads?

Answer 0

• Buddhist merchants built monasteries & supported monks to earn religious merit
• Buddhism progressed slowly among pastoral people of Central Asia. Great success when pastoral people engaged in long distance trade
• Buddhism changed as it spread & became more appealing to local populations
• as it spread, Buddhism picked up elements from other cultures
• many participants in long distance trade found Buddhism to be a link to the larger wealthy civilization of India.

Question 1

What were the major social, culture, and economic consequences of the Silk Road Commerce?

Answer 1

• tenants and urban workers benefited (could demand higher wages or better terms)
• some landowners got hurt (grain prices lowered and higher demands)
• Europeans had advantages from diseases
• diseases shaped lives
• cross simulation
• diseases & plagues spread

Question 2

What was the impact of disease along the silk roads?

Answer 2

• contact led people being exposed to unfamiliar diseases in which they had little immunity and effective means of coping
• spread of epidemics lead to death on a large-scale
• exchange of diseases gave Europeans certain advantages when they confronted the W. Hemisphere
• Americas had little defense against he diseases which lead to death on a large scale
• smallpox & measles in Roman & Han contributed to their political collapse
• strengthened Han & Romes Christianity & Buddhism

Question 3

What lay behind the flourishing of the Indian Ocean commerce in the post classical millennium?

Answer 3

• the political and economic revival of china
• China supplied products for & consumed products of the Indian Ocean trading network
• china provided technological innovations, like larger ships, which innovated trade
• sudden rise of Islam and it’s spread to the Afro-Eurasian world
• certain Arab empire brought together in a single political system and immense range of economics & culture & traditions

Question 4

In what ways did Indian influence register in Southeast Asia?

Answer 4

• Buddhism spread to Southeast Asia
• commercial connections spread Indian elements
  Like: Indian alphabets used to write SEAsian languages & Indian arts provided model
• southeast an rulers like and believed in the Indian belief system
• trade of tea to china

Question 5

What was the role of the Swahili civilization in the world of the Indian Commerce?

Answer 5

• Swahili cities provided commercial centers that accumulated goods from the interior sub Saharan Africa & exchanged them in the Indian Ocean network of trade
• Swahili civilization participated in the larger world of the Indian Ocean
• rulers often claimed Arab / Persian origins to strengthen authority
• Swahili elite dined of Chinese porcelain and wore Indian cotton
• Swahili language written in Arabic script

Question 6

What changes did the trans-Saharan trade bring to west Africa ?

Answer 6

• Islam accompanied trade and became an important element in the urban culture of west Africa
• sudanic states established urban & commercial centers where traders congregated & goods were exchanged
• it provided resources for the construction of new and larger political structures

Question 7

What ways did networks of interaction in the Western Hemisphere differ from those in eastern?

Answer 7

• direct connections among civilizations & cultures of Americas were less immerse in the Afro-Eurasian
• no silk or sea roads in the western hempishpere
• spread of agricultural products was much slower in the Americas than in Eurasia
• Americas had no spread of distinct cultural traditions like Christianity, Buddhism, or Islam