Hi and welcome back to Heimler's History. Now in a previous video we talked extensively about trade routes and their importance throughout Afro-Eurasia. But as I mentioned briefly in that video, there was more carried along trade routes than goods and services.
And in this video we're going to look closely at the cultural consequences of the growing global interconnectivity from 1200 to 1450. Let's get to it. Alright, let's begin by talking about the cultural exchanges that occurred along these trade routes. And first, let's talk religion. As merchants carried their various religions along these trade routes and introduced them to new areas, one of two things usually happened.
Either the new religion took hold in those new places and served to unify the people and provide a justification for the leadership, or the religion syncretized with the religions they encountered. When I say syncretized, I just mean that the two religions came together and produced something new. The Buddhism spread into China met with Taoist beliefs about the way of nature and produced a new baby religion called Zen Buddhism, sometimes known as Chan Buddhism. Now some of the Confucian scholar gentry in the Song Dynasty opposed such religious baby making. That's probably not the best way to put that.
But in spite of that opposition, Zen Buddhism became very popular among the common folk. Another example of religious syncretism was the advent of Neo-Confucianism. This was basically a fusion of rational thought with Taoist beliefs and Buddhist beliefs that originated in China but soon spread to Korea and Japan.
If we're talking about trade and religion, we GOTS to talk about the Muslims. Muslims merchants showed up in droves on the shores of East Africa out of the Indian Ocean trade routes, and when they did, they couldn't help but share about Allah and his prophet Muhammad. A major cultural consequence of that sharing was the birth of the Swahili language. When the Muslims encountered the Bantu-speaking Africans, they gladly became believers in Islam and because many of the merchants spoke Arabic, the Bantu language and the Arabic language had a baby language called Swahili.
Alright, I gotta come up with a new metaphor. This is getting uncomfortable. But not only were there religious and linguistic consequences of trade, there were also scientific and technological consequences as well. For example, if we check in with the folks in Cairo, Egypt, we can see that medical advances led to improved care and high quality medical care. hospitals.
And physicians and pharmacists took pains to standardize their profession by studying for medical examinations and licensing. Which is great because I hate to think about what it would have been like to receive medical care before the advent of licenses. Oh doc, I feel like I'm going to die from this infection. No problem, my cow just gave birth.
I want you to eat this placenta, you'll be fine. Do you even have a medical license? What's a medical license?
Now, some of the most significant technological consequences of trade had to do with ships. It was during this time that the Latine sail was invented, and this large triangular sail allowed sailors to tack into the wind and therefore they had much more flexibility to travel. Also during this time, the stern post rudder was invented, which gave a ship much more precision in turning. And in other videos I've mentioned the advent of the magnetic compass and the astrolabe, which essentially gave sailors the ability to navigate.
without relying on the stars and other visual aids. And yet another cultural consequence of merchant activity was the growth of cities. Let's go visit our friends over in Hangzhou, China for a good example. In Hangzhou, the increase in trade led to increasing urbanization. During this period it became one of the largest and most metropolitan cities in China, boasting a population of over a million people.
And as is always the case, when a place becomes prosperous and people don't have to think about food and shelter, great art, rises to the surface. In Hangzhou, poetry and literature flourished. Some of the most significant literary work came from the poets Liu Yu and Qin Qiji. And finally, Hangzhou was a diverse city as we can see, for example, with its thriving Arab community.
And the last thing I'll say about cultural consequences of trade has to do with travelers, and we're going to mention Chu, Marco Polo, and Ibn Batuta. Now these folks weren't merchants exactly, but because of the security of long-distance trade routes thanks to the Mongols, they were able to travel far and wide. So in the late 13th century Marco Polo, who in addition to being the inventor of fun pool games for children, left his home in Venice and traveled for many years among the Chinese. He arrived at the court of Kublai Khan, who was Genghis Khan's grandson, and the Khan was very interested to hear this traveler's stories. In fact, he was so taken with Marco Polo's stories that he convinced Polo to stay and become his ambassador to various parts of China.
and Polo served in this capacity for 17 years. And after he was done with that, Marco Polo traveled home to Venice and was captured by the enemies of the Venetians. And as he sat in prison, he entertained his fellow prisoners with stories of his travels. And eventually these stories were written down and published and became very popular with the European population. And as they read these stories, they were astonished that such places could exist and it awakened their desires to travel to those places, or if they couldn't do that, at least procure goods and services from those places.
All right, that's Marco Polo. Let's talk about Ibn Battuta. He was a Muslim traveler and made it his ambition to travel all throughout Dar al-Islam, which is to say everywhere Islam is. Ibn Battuta made his pilgrimage to Mecca and eventually traveled throughout Persia, the East African coast, India, Mali, Spain, and elsewhere. He kept a detailed journal and made much commentary on the people whose lands he visited.
And the subsequent publication of those journals had a similar effect on the Muslim population as the writings of Marco Polo had. on the Europeans. Alright, that's what you need to know about the cultural consequences of trade from 1200 to 1450. And if you're into this kind of thing then subscribe and I hope you get an A in your class and a 5 on your exam in May.
And if you like hearing about linguistic coupling and the baby languages that they make then hit the like button and let me know. Heimler out.