AP World History Unit 2 - Networks of Exchange

May 14, 2024

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AP World History Unit 2 - Networks of Exchange 🌏

Big Picture (1200 - 1450 CE)

  • Focus: How various states were connected through networks of exchange.
  • Key idea: Networks of exchange facilitated economic interactions and cultural diffusion.

Major Networks of Exchange

  1. Silk Roads
  2. Indian Ocean Network
  3. Trans-Saharan Trade Network

General Developments Across All Networks

  1. Expansion of geographical range.
  2. Innovations in commercial practices and technology.
  3. Growth and wealth of states due to increased connectivity.
  4. Rise and fall of powerful states and cities.

Silk Roads

  • Major luxury goods: Chinese silk and porcelain.
  • Innovations in transportation: Caravanserai - inns/safe houses (facilitated cultural and technological transfers).
  • Innovations in commerce:
    • Money economies (paper money, flying money system in China).
    • New forms of credit (Bills of exchange, banking houses in Europe).
  • Rise of trading cities: Kashgar (increased power and wealth due to strategic location and commerce).

Indian Ocean Network

  • Trades: Common goods like textiles, spices (more cargo space in ships).
  • Key technological innovations: Magnetic compass, improved astrolabe, new ship designs (Chinese junk).
  • Swahili city-states: Grew from trade (Africans providing goods like gold, ivory, and enslaved people).
  • Diasporic communities: e.g., Arab and Persian communities in East Africa, led to spread of Islam and emergence of Swahili language.
  • Example of cultural diffusion: Zheng He (Chinese maritime technology spread).

Trans-Saharan Trade Network

  • Technological innovation: Improved camel saddle (carried more cargo).
  • Empire of Mali: Grew wealthy through gold trade and taxation, peak under Mansa Musa.

Effects of Increased Connectivity

Cultural Effects

  1. Religion spread (e.g., Buddhism to China via Silk Roads).
  2. Literary and artistic transfers: Translation of Greek and Roman texts into Arabic (spread to Europe, contributed to Renaissance).
  3. Scientific and technological innovations: Gunpowder from China, spread to Muslim empires and Europe.
  4. Rise of travelers: Ibn Battuta (documented travels, spread Dar al-Islam's culture).

Environmental Effects

  1. Crops transfer: Champa rice to China (increased food production, population growth).
  2. Disease spread: Bubonic Plague (1340s, spread via trade routes, devastated populations in Mid-East and Europe).

The Mongol Empire (Facilitators of Connectivity)

  • Established the largest land-based empire; replaced powerful empires (e.g., Song Dynasty, Abbasid Empire).
  • Pax Mongolica: Increased safety and trade along the Silk Roads (encouraged international trade).
  • Cultural and technological transfers:
    • Greek and Islamic medical knowledge to Western Europe.
    • Uyghur script: Adopted for Mongol administration and diplomacy.

Key Points:

  • Mongols ruled via four khanates.
  • They mandated increased communication and cooperation across regions.

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