Unit 3: An Age of

AcceleratingConnections

500 – 1500 CE

Chapter 7Commerce and Culture

Must-Know Terms

Silk RoadsLand-based trade routes

that linked Eurasia

Silk Road

The Goods

Side Notes: “The Silk Road” is a historically

important international trade route between China and the Mediterranean.

Because China silk compromised a large proportion of the trade along this ancient road, in 1877, it was named the “silk road” by Ferdinand von Richthofen, a German geographer. It stuck!

Silk – its value A luxury item (cloth) of great

comfort and status

Was used as currency and as a means of accumulating wealth in Central Asia.

Became a symbol of high status in China and the Byzantine Empire

Black Death

May have been the bubonic plague, anthrax, or a collection of epidemic diseases

One of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 – 200 million people and peaking in Europe between 1346-1353

Name given to the massive epidemic that swept Eurasia in the 14th c CE

k

Indian Ocean Trading Network

The world’s largest sea-based system of communication and exchange before 1500 CE, the Indian Ocean commerce stretched from southern China to Eastern Africa and included not only the exchange of luxury and bulk goods but also the exchange of ideas and crops.

Up Close

Arabian SeaWater body east of the Arabian Peninsula and west of India

Aka “Sea Roads” in the Indian

Ocean Network

Persian GulfWater body between the

Arabian peninsula and Persia

NE of modern day Saudi Arabia and

SW of Iran

Red Sea Water body

between NE Africa, Israel, and the Arabian Peninsula

*Today the Suez Canal links the Mediterranean Sea to this water body

Bay of Bengal Water body east of

India – south of Bangladesh and west of SE Asia

A part of the Indian Ocean Trade Network

Featured “sea roads”

South China Sea Water body east of China and Vietnam and

west of the Philipines

Srivijaya (empire)

A Malay kingdom that dominated the Straits of Malacca between 670 and 1025 CE; noted for its creation of a native/ Indian hybrid culture.

Sriv

ijaya

BorobudurThe largest Buddhist

monument ever built; is a

mountainous ten-level monument with an elaborate carving program; probably built in

the 9th c CE by the Sailendras rulers of central Java; it is an

outstanding example of cultural

exchange and syncretism.

Borobudur: home to 100s of Buddhist

statues

Angkor Wat The largest religious structure in the

premodern world

Construction began on this temple which is located in modern Cambodia in the early 1100s CE

Was built to express a Hindu understanding of the cosmos centered on a mythical Mt. Meru, the home of the gods in the Hindu tradition

Angkor Wat

Swahili civilization An East African

civilization that emerged in the 8th century CE from a blending of Bantu, Islamic, and other Indian Ocean trade elements.

Great Zimbabwe A powerful state in

the African interior that apparently emerged from the growing trade in gold to the East African coast

Flourished between 1250-1350 CE

Sand RoadsA term used to describe the routes of the

trans-Sahara trade in Africa

Ghana, Mali, Songhai A series of important states

that developed in western Africa in the period of 500 – 1600 CE in response to the economic opportunities of trans-Saharan trade (and especially control of gold production)

Trans-Saharan Slave Trade

A fairly small-scale trade that developed in the 12th c C.E., exporting West African slaves captured in raids across the Sahara for sale mostly as household servants.

American web A term used to describe the network of trade

that linked parts of the pre-Columbian Americas

Although less intense and complete than the Afro-Eurasian trade networks, this web nonetheless provided a means of exchange for luxury goods and ideas over large areas.

Thorfinn Karlsfeni A well-born, wealthy merchant & seaman of

Norweigan Viking background

Led an unsuccessful expedition to establish a colony on the coast of what is now Newfoundland, Canada, in the early 11 c CE.

“Viking voyager”

pochteca Professional merchants among the Aztecs

This concludes chapter 7 vocabulary.

Start parphrasing.