Period 3: Trade Networks and Cultural Diffusion

Question 1

What were developments that made trade more prominent?

Answer 1

• better boats and roads

- monetary systems, lines of credit, and accounting systems

Question 2

What is the Bubonic Plague?

Answer 2

• started in Asia in the 14th century
• carried by merchants along trade routes to Europe
• destroyed entire communities and killed 1/3 western Europeans
• quickened decline of feudal society because manors weren’t able to function

Question 3

What is the Indian Ocean Trade?

Answer 3

• dominated by the Persians and the Arabs
• connected ports in western India, the Persian Gulf, and eastern Africa
• boats were resilient to large waves in Indian Ocean
• traders learned to understand monsoon seasons and direction of winds
• relatively safe (compared to Mediterranean where constant warfare was a problem)

Question 4

How did the Indian Ocean Trade impact cultural diffusion?

Answer 4

Sailors often married the local women at the ends of their trade routes, causing cultures to intermix. Many sailors took foreign wives home and created bilingual and bicultural families.

Question 5

What was the Silk Road?

Answer 5

• used heavily from 1200 to 1600 during reign of the Mongols

- carried silk, porcelain, paper, military technologies, religions (Buddhism, Islam, Christianity), and food

Question 6

What was the Hanseatic League?

Answer 6

The Hanseatic League was a collection of city-states in the Baltic and North Sea regions of Europe that banded together in 1241 to establish common trade practices, fight off pirates and foreign governments, and essentially establish a trade monopoly. Over 100 cities joined the league and it worked for a few hundred years.

Question 7

How did the Hanseatic League impact Europe?

Answer 7

• resulted in substantial middle class in northern Europe

- set a precedent for large, European trading operations that profoundly affected the Dutch and the English