Test on 10/22-23 (Short Answer)

Question 1

What lay behind the emergence of Silk Road commerce, and what kept it going for so many centuries?

Answer 1

• hard-to-find luxury goods
• remained important to later empires
• rise of eurasian empire
• demand for products of the forest and the grasslands

Question 2

What facilitated the spread of Buddhism along the Silk Roads?

Answer 2

• Buddhism appealed to Indian merchants
• Buddhism changes making it appeal more to others by earning spiritual merit.

Question 3

What was the economic and cultural impact of the Silk Road trading network?

Answer 3

• led to increased trade in luxury items
• led to increased urbanization
• major religions were spread

Question 4

What were the primary influences on the process of Mongol state building?

Answer 4

• Temujin’s personality, charisma, military skill, and ruthlessness
• The relative weakness of Mongol opponents such as China and the Abbasid Caliphate
• The discipline, organization, and loyalty of the Mongol armies attacked their opponents with surprising quickness

Question 5

What accounts for the political and military success of the Mongols?

Answer 5

• The Mongol army was better organized, better led, and better disciplined than the armies of its opponents.
• The Mongols made up for their small numbers by incorporating huge numbers of conquered peoples into their military forces.
• The Mongols fostered commerce.

Question 6

How did the Mongol Empire lead to cross-cultural interactions?

Answer 6

• The Mongols actively promoted international commerce and provided a relatively secure environment for merchants making the journey across central Asia.
  -its religious tolerance and support of merchants, facilitated the spread of religions.
• The Mongol authorities actively encouraged the exchange of ideas and techniques

Question 7

What was the significance of the Mongol Empire in world history?

Answer 7

• Mongols created one of the largest empires in History
• Because of the size the silk road led to a more connected asia.
• led to wider spread of major diseases (Black Death)

Question 8

In what ways did the Sea roads network generate political, economic, and cultural changes in the region?

Answer 8

Politically:
-developed as rulers took advantage of the tax money flowing through the Indian Ocean coast cities.

Economically:
- Led to increased trade and not everyone felt this was beneficialso it led to more economic inequalities

Culturally:
- led to the spread of culture, religions, and language

Question 9

What changes did trans-Saharan trade bring to West Africa?

Answer 9

• provided incentives and resources for the development of new and larger political structures
• established substantial urban and commercial centers where traders congregated and goods were exchanged.

Question 10

How did the Sand Roads contribute to the spread of Islam in West Africa?

Answer 10

-Islamic merchants brought Islam from North Africa to West Africa
- Spread through cities with merchants where they had their businesses

Question 11

In what ways was the Islamic world an arena of cross-cultural interaction?

Answer 11

• merchants were held in high esteem due to Muhammad
• Merchants spread ideas and knowledge as well as scientific and mathmatical learning

Question 12

What kinds of cross-cultural interactions took shape in the Americas?

Answer 12

• fewer organized trade routes
• geographic conflicts (rainforests and mountains) and lack of pack animals

Question 13

Why did the peoples of the Eastern Hemisphere develop long-distance trade more extensively than did those of the Western Hemisphere?

Answer 13

• The western hemisphere didn’t have as many domesticated animals or oceanic vessels.
• Geographical issues such as narrowness of waterways, and dense rain forests

Question 14

All of these sources were created by outsiders to the people or societies they described. What different postures toward these foreign cultures are evident in the sources? How did the travelers’ various religions shape their perception of the places they visited?

Answer 14

• Marco Polo describes a culture more completely foreign to him than the other writers. China did not adhere to the same religious tradition as the region that he came from.
• Leo Africanus notes that the rulers of Timbuktu patronized Islamic schools and learning, which likely speaks to his own background as a scholar.
• Kwon Kun’s map shows deference to China’s place in the world by showing it as much larger relative to Persia and Africa

Question 15

a) Identify the main argument made in the passage about Indian Ocean ports.

Answer 15

A)Indian Ocean port cities were large trading centers and visited by merchants from many different places across the Indian Ocean. The ports were culturally diverse.

Question 16

b) Identify ONE factor that facilitated the regional trade in Calicut, as illustrated in the passage.

Answer 16

As illustrated in the passage, regional trade in Calicut was facilitated by the establishment of a community of Muslim merchants in the city who were in contact with other Muslim merchants across the Islamic world.
(Monsoon Winds, compass, etc.)

Question 17

c) Describe ONE similarity between the commercial interactions in the regions mentioned in the passage and commercial interactions along the overland Silk Roads in the period circa 1200–1450.

Answer 17

The method to exchange goods multiple times during the journey