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AP World History Unit 2 Lecture Notes

May 14, 2024

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AP World History Unit 2 Lecture Notes 🌍

Overview

  • Time Period: 1200-1450 CE
  • Key Focus: Connections between states and empires through various networks of exchange
  • Types of Exchanges: Trading routes (goods, religion, languages, technology)

General Developments in Networks of Exchange

  1. Geographical Expansion: Increased range of networks
  2. Innovations: Growth due to advancements in commercial practices and technology
  3. Economic Growth: Increased wealth and power of states participating in networks
  4. Impact on States: Rise of some powerful states and cities; collapse of others

Major Networks of Exchange

Silk Roads

  • Primary Goods: Luxury items (silk, porcelain)
  • Reason: High cost and risk of travel required high-value goods
  • Innovations:
    • Transportation: Caravanserai (inns and guest houses)
    • Commercial Practices: Money economies (paper money), flying money system, credit systems, banking houses (bills of exchange)
  • Key City: Kashgar (emerged due to trade route convergence and resource availability)

Indian Ocean Network

  • Primary Goods: Bulk goods (textiles, spices), also luxury items
  • Key Knowledge: Understanding of monsoon wind patterns
  • Innovations:
    • Technological: Magnetic compass, improved astrolabe, Chinese junk ships
    • Commercial Practices: Similar to Silk Roads (credit systems)
  • Key State: Swahili city-states (facilitated gold, ivory trade; became Islamic due to Muslim merchants)
  • Diasporic Communities: Arab and Persian settlements in East Africa, intermarriages
  • Notable Figure: Zheng He (Chinese explorer who spread Chinese maritime technology)

Trans-Saharan Network

  • Primary Goods: Gold, salt
  • Key Innovation: Improved camel saddles for transporting larger cargo
  • Key State: Mali Empire (wealth from gold trade, taxation under leadership of Mansa Musa)

Effects of Increased Connectivity

Cultural Effects

  1. Religion Spread: Buddhism spread via Silk Roads
  2. Literary & Artistic Transfers: Greek and Roman classics translated to Arabic in Baghdad's House of Wisdom; influenced European Renaissance
  3. Scientific & Technological Transfers: Spread of gunpowder from China to Muslim empires and Europe
  4. Rise & Fall of Cities: Hangzhou (China) rose due to trade; Baghdad fell to Mongol conquest
  5. Traveler Accounts: Ibn Battuta documented his travels across Dar al-Islam

Environmental Effects

  1. Crops: Introduction of Champa rice to China increased food production
  2. Diseases: Spread of Bubonic plague via trade routes, decimating populations in the Middle East and Europe

The Mongol Empire

  • Empire Establishment: Largest land-based empire, replaced states like Song Dynasty, Abbasid Empire
  • Impact on Trade: Led to Pax Mongolica (peaceful trade), increased safety and connections along trade routes
  • Cultural Transfers: Promoted exchange of Persian and Chinese knowledge, facilitated transfer of Uyghur script for administration

Summary

  • Importance of Connectivity: Boosted economic, cultural, and technological development across regions
  • Key Figures & States: Mansa Musa (Mali), Zheng He (China), Ibn Battuta (Moroccan explorer)

For more resources and practice, refer to the AP World History review guide and other unit review videos.

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