Emerging Trans-regional Networks of Communication and Exchange Flashcards
Transregional interaction
Interations among states, as well as between states and nomadic societies
Coastal navigation
● Short distance sea trade
● Mediterranean route
● Used galleys
Galleys
Ships used in the Mediterranean Sea trade
Open-water Navigation
● Long distance sea trade
● Indian Ocean network
● Used dhows with lateen sails
Dhows
● Ships with triangular tateen sails
● Used in Indian Ocean network
● Able to travel long distance and go against the wind
Lateen sails
Triangular sails used in dhows
Overland trasport
● Require more time and effort and was more subject to outlawry and political disruption
● Less expensive and hte only way to reach places far from rivers and coastlines
● Dpended on domesticated pack animals, wheeled vehicles
Domesticated pack animals
● Overland transport depended on this
● Horses, ox are common in silk road
● Llama is common in Americas
● Camels were vital to trade in the sub-Saharan caravan
Wheeled vehicles
● Useful on roads and on flat ground
- carts, wagons
● Rough terrain rendered them uselss
Caravans
Large processions of pack animals and/or vehicles
Stirrup
● Emerged in Central Asia and China between the 200s B.C.E. and the 100s C.E.
● Added greater stability for those riding camels and horses
Yokes/Collars
Allowed animals to pull heavier loads without choking
Specialized pack saddles
● Enabled pack animals to carry more cargo on their backs
● A crucial function in mountains, deserts, and rough gound that made it hard or impossible to use wheeled vehicles
Water trasnport
● Easier and preferable to overland transport
● Generally cost more to outfit ships than to organize caravans
Junk
Chinese ships capable of open-water navigation and of carrying large amounts of cargo
Intensive agriculture
Use of technology to maximize productive potential of every square foot of a given area
Swidden / shash-and-burn
● Method of intensive agricultrue
● Cleared field by chopping down trees and bushes, and then burned the foliage to fertilize the soil
● Once the soil’s nutrients ran out, villagers cleared more forest or moved on to another location
Terracing of hillsides
● Method of intensive agriculture
● Common in Mesoamerica and hte Andes
Rice-paddy cultivation
● Method of intensive agriculture
● Originated in Southeast Asia
Drining of swmaps and wetlands
Method of intensive agriculture
Building of elevated fields / Floating islands / chinampas
● Method of intensive agriculture
● Teotihuacan’s chinampas
Horse collar
● Chinese pioneered the use of it to agriculture
● Made plowing easier
Aqueducts
● Most famous in Rome but also constructed in India and the Middle East
● Require huge investments of money and labour
Qanat
● Originated in Persia, but used widely throughout Eurasia
● Sank vertical rainwater shafts in the grounds, connecting them to a horizontal but gently downward-sloping underground pipe that carried the collected rainwater toward the area to be irrigated
● Required huge investments of money and labour
What gave rise to greater transregional interaction?
Movement of peopls throughout Afro-Eurasia and the Americas facilitated by the new technologies and greater familiarity with larger parts of ther world
What resulted in a greater network of communication and exchange?
● War
● Migration
● Trade
What were hte consequences of networks of communication and exchange?
● Transfer of technology and knowledge ● Spread and mixing of religious beliefs ● Redistribution of plants and animals ● Waging of war over longer distances ● Spread of diseases
Why did trade operate mainly on the local or regional elvels in some places?
● No means to travel between regions
- No packed animals – in the Americas, they only had llama (no horses)
● A wide assortment of foods and resources could be obtained from not very far away (esp where climate and terrain varied widely)
- Islands of Oceania
- Americas
What were the four major transregional trade routes from 600 B.C.E. to 600 C.E.?
● The Mediterranean
● The Indian Ocean Basin
● Thans-Saharan Caravan Routes
● Eurasia’s Silk Roads
Where does the Mediterrannean Sea facilitate communication and exchange?
● Southern coast of Europe
● Shores of present-day Turkey and the Levant
● the Entirety of North Africa, including Egypt
What were the societies that took special advantage of Mediterranean trade?
● Persians
● Greeks (who colonized widely between Italy and Turkey)
● Phoenicians (based in the Levant, but colonizers of southern Spain and North Africa)
● Romans
How did Rome use the Mediterranena Sea during the pax Romana?
● The Med became virtually a private lake for hte Romans
● It was used to move goods, passegners, and armies over long distances with relative ease
● It connected Italy and Egypt, a key source of grain for the Roman Empire
What type of ship was used in the Mediterranean Sea and why?
● Galleys – oared ships with small square sails
● The rowing was sometimes done by slaves or prison convicts
● It was suitable for coastal navigation and it tended to travel short distances, relying on the growing number of port ciites to support trade
● Traders stay close to home base
How did the Mediterranean trade network conect with other trade routes?
● Many of the trans-Saharan caravan routes led to the southern Mediterrannean
● The Turkish straits linked the Mediterranean with the Black Sea to the northeast
● Via Egypt and the narrow land bridge known as the Suez isthmus, traders could pass between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea to the southeast, and from there to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean basin
● From faraway East and Central Asia, Silk Road trade extended to the port cities of the eastern Mediterranean
Where does the Idian ocean maritime network connect?
● East Africa ● Middle East ● South Asia ● Southeast Asia with China and Japan - The trade extended to the SOuth China Sea and the western Pacific
What goods came from East African ports?
● Ebony
● Ivory
● Animal products
● Wood carvings
What goods came from Arabia?
● Copper
● Myrrh
● Frankincense
● Dates
What goods came from India, the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia?
● Spices and food stuffs
● Jewels
● Cotton textiles
What goods came from China?
● Porcelain
● Silk
● Mainly from the key port of Canton
What type of ship was used in the Indian Ocean trade route and why?
● Dhows, using triangular lateen sails were used
● They can cross large marine expanses, especially once sailors there learned how to take adavantage of seasonal monsoon winds
- Open-water Navigation
● The ships could go against the wind easier and were bigger than galleys
How was the Indian trade route laissez-faire?
● No one country control the trade route
● Merchants operate on their own
● Volume is much lower than the Mediterranean trade route – longer distance
What are the differences between Indian Ocean trade and the Mediterranean trade?
● Dhows vs galleys
● Open-water navigation vs coastal navigation
● Diasporic communities vs connection with homelands
Why did traders form diasporic communities in India Ocean trade route?
● Greater distances meant greater separation for those trading in the India Ocean
● Foreign traders began to settle permanently in cities throughout this trade network
- Among the more famous are hte Chinese minority who still reside on the Malay Peninsula and the Arab merchants who came to live in China’s port of Canton
● The cultural, linguistic, and religious interchange encouraged by Indian Ocean trade immensely influenced societies throuhgout hte region
What was a barrier to movement and trade in Africa?
● The Saharan desert has been a barrier between sub-Saharan African and the Mediterranean
● Animals capable of carrying large loads over long distances through such arid conditions were rare
● Specialized knowledge of where to find oases, or sources of water, was crucial
What are some routes that link sub-Saharan Africa with the Mediterranean?
● The Nubian city of Merow, a prosperous producer of iron, projeted from this trade until topsoil erosion caused by deforestation plummeted it into decline
● In western Africa, a trickle of overland trade made its way from the south to ports like Carthage, both before and after its conquest by the Romans
What were some reasons that boosted trans-Saharan trade route?
● Rome’s decline and collapse caused North African societies, which had previously traded with Rome, to look southward for new commercial partners
● Organized states, such as Ghana, bgan to take shape in sub-Saharan Africa and wished to trade northward
● Domestication of camels during the 200s C.E., particularly among the desert Berbers of northwest Africa
What goods came from southern Africa?
● Nuts ● Oil ● Foodstuff ● Gold ● Ivory ● Eventually slave
What goods came from north?
● Salt
● Manufactured goods
How did the trans-Saharan caravan route connect to the Middle East?
● Islam’s expansion throughout Africa caused an explosive growth in the size and importance of the trans-Saharan trade network
● Slavery would eventually become a major part of hte northbound trade
Where did the Silk Road pass through?
● Persian empire of the Parthians
● Central Asian city-states of Bukhara and Samarkand
● China, whose chief economic hub was the city of Chang’an
How did the Silk Road connect to all the other trade routes?
● The cities on its western and lay within economic reach of the Mediterranean and trans-Saharan networks
● Goods traveling ablong the Silk Road found their way to and from the India Ocean basin, either via north-south trade between the road itself and South Asia or via maritime traffic between China’s Pacific shores and South and Southeast Asia
Contrast overland transport with water transport.
● More time-consuming
● Passed through perilous widerness
● Cheaper
● Only way to gain access to the Central Asian interior at the time
What goods were transported along the Silk Road?
● Spices, jewels, and cotton from India and Southeast Asia
● Porcelain and silk from China
● Glassware, perfumes, and slaves
How did the Silk Road transfer knowledge of technology and religions?
● It spread the knowledge of technology throughout Eurasia
● The sharing of cultural traditions and religions was remarkable – particularly Buddhism and Christianity (later Islam)
What are the packed animals used in the silk road?
● Horses
● Donkeys
● Oxes
What insured the first flourish in the silk road?
● Three empires to keep it safe, secure, and easy to move
- Han China, Rome, Parthians in the middle
What geographicalknowldge made trade and travel easier?
● Reliable maps
● Understanding of weather patterns
What are the four consequences of trade?
● Technology transfer
● Environmental and medical impact
● Religious and cultural borrowing
● Spread of disease
What changes does exchange of crops and foodstuffs bring?
● Change in people’s dietary habits
● Farming and irrigation techniques
● Cultivation of different crops/foodstuffs
What are some methods of water management?
● Complex irrigation system
● Aqueducts
● Qanat
What were the major diseases spread by the trade routes?
● Bubonic plague
● Smallpox
● Measles
What were the main methods to spread religions?
● Gradual cultural borrowing
● Active missionary activity
● War and forced conversion
