To learn more about earning college credits with Study Hall courses, visit GoStudyHall.com or click the link in the description. Sometimes, when I'm lying in my bed on my mattress, eating my homemade meal from and reading a book I ordered on, I often wonder, where did all this stuff come from? The easy answer is, I ordered it online and it just showed up.
But the real answer is more complicated. Someone made the materials, and then someone else used those materials to make the product, and then someone else had to ship it. And all of those steps can happen at different places all over the globe.
That complex answer reflects the robust trade systems we have access to. From satellite internet, to online banking, to robots delivering sneakers. Our want for stuff has driven us to achieve logistical marvels.
And while the way we buy things might be new, The desire for stuff is as old as humanity itself, and we've been finding new ways to trade for a long time. Great empires come and go, but two-day shipping is forever. I'm Rob Fuller, and this is Study Hall Modern World History. Trade isn't just a fancy word for getting cool stuff, although I do like cool stuff like guitars.
Trade is about exchanging goods and potentially making money doing it. But more importantly for us, trade fosters connections between people, leading to advances in technology, the spread of religions, the migrations of people, world-changing events that often happen because of trade. So when trade booms, change is likely to follow.
And one of the biggest examples of this is the way trade evolved and grew after the fall of the Mongols. But first, we have to defeat the Mongols. After unifying the Mongol clans and becoming their ruler in 1206, Genghis Khan expanded Mongol territory to create the largest land empire in history. And as part of his new empire, he also crafted policies that created a massive free trade zone during the time known as the Pax Mongolica, or Mongolian Peace. Unfortunately for the Mongols, that peace wouldn't last.
To efficiently rule his massive empire, Genghis Khan gave four of his sons authority over different parts of the empire. These smaller territories, called Khanates, made up the larger Mongol Empire. And then the universal ruler, Genghis Khan, died in 1227. Thanks for the trade, Genghis, but we could have done without all those atrocities.
The Mongol Empire continued for a while after his death, but by 1260 the Khanates had drifted apart, as his family fought over territory, money, respect, you know, the normal family drama. This drama sometimes involved open warfare and wasn't great for empire building. And it was made even worse when the Black Death struck in the mid-14th century.
The plague weakened the Mongol armies and disrupted trade. Rebellions broke out, and in one place after another, the Mongols were overthrown, replaced by local rulers like the Ming Dynasty in China or the Rurik Dynasty there in Russia. Their fall didn't happen all at once, though.
The first of the four major Khanates fell in 1335, while the last held out for almost 200 more years. But really, by the end of the 14th century, the Mongols weren't a major world power anymore. What's interesting though is that the end of the Mongols didn't mean the end of trade. The people were already connected and they still wanted stuff, so trade continued to expand.
Most long-distance trade during the Pax Mongolica was for luxury goods, which is kind of a relative term. Black pepper was a luxury in the Mediterranean because it didn't grow there, compared to, say, the Far East where it was more commonplace and didn't fetch such a high price. So if merchants wanted that premium upcharge, they had to trade their goods somewhere far away.
And the places that produced these luxury goods weren't about to let go of a huge source of income, so trade networks were still critical. For example, when the Mongols invaded Russia in the 1230s, the Russian fur trade had largely dried up as competitors stole or conquered their trade routes. The Mongols used their military prowess and trade connections to fight back, though, restoring and even expanding Russia's fur trade. The money they made helped enrich local Russian lords like Ivan the Great, who in turn overthrew the Mongols in 1480. But even he continued to maintain these new trade routes because they were extremely profitable. So there were invasions, rebellions, changes in governments, and through it all, trade kept going.
Like we said before, trade is an opportunity, to share goods, connect with other people, and make money. Basic human desires. When the Mongols left, Russia didn't stop trading, and we can see this all throughout the former Mongol territory.
Once people are connected through trade, it's hard to disconnect them. Even when obstacles arise, we fight through them. Even like bad internet connections. But But trade continuing after the fall of the Mongols is only part of the story.
The Mongol Empire, while massive, didn't reach places like East Africa, Western Europe, or Southern India. Trade obviously already existed in these places, but they were, at first, largely unaffected by the events of the Pax Mongolica. A perfect example of this is the Indian Ocean Trade Network. Trade on the Indian Ocean dates back to at least the Romans and the Han Dynasty of China.
this network connected a vast array of city-states and empires, from East Africa to empires in the Middle East, India to Indonesia, and merchants even traded as far away as China and Venice. But there were also other trade networks beyond the Mongol Empire and the Indian Ocean. In North Africa, the Trans-Saharan Trade Route allowed the resource-rich kingdoms of West Africa to connect with the Middle East. The famous African ruler Mansa Musa actually traveled from his empire into the Middle East.
The trade routes were also connected to the Middle East. in Mali to Mecca in 1324 on a religious pilgrimage. But it was also a chance to build political and trade relations in Cairo and other major trade cities.
At the same time that Mansa Musa was on his journey across the Sahara Desert, Europe established multiple trade networks, from the Venetian and Genoan trade on the Mediterranean Sea to the Hanseatic League up north on the Baltic. In the past, these various trade routes were less connected from each other, but As trade expanded around the world, these separate trade routes would start to connect. Trade was expanding beyond the established networks to become, well, a phenomenon that connected all of Afro-Eurasia.
To get a sense of just how trade worked over such vast territories, let's meet Abraham, a 15th century merchant from Tunisia. Abraham's father was a rabbi in a coastal city, but instead of following in his father's footsteps, he decided to become a merchant, moving to Cairo to establish himself. From Cairo, he moved to Yemen. Then to India, where he spent most of his life.
Each step of the way, Abraham made business partners. Merchants who would buy what he sold and who would sell him what he needed. These business relationships were an important part of long-distance trade. Without modern communication or transportation or even Yelp reviews, merchants relied on and trusted each other to do business.
In India, Abraham found a wealth of spices for sale. Nutmeg, cloves, black pepper, ginger, and more. And he found these spices weren't just flavors to put in your food. They were used to make medicines, skin lotions, perfumes.
These spices weren't necessities, I mean, what do you even do with cardamom? But they were very profitable luxuries. Abraham would buy these spices, load them onto ships to Aden or Cairo, and there his business partners were waiting for them. This trade made him wealthy. And as wealthy businessmen sometimes do, he fed the trade of luxury goods by buying nice things for himself.
Robes from Egypt. rugs from Somalia, cooking pots from Aden, and all the cardamom his sweet little heart could desire. Abraham is just one potential example of the merchants who made up this vast network of trade, connected to one another through partnerships even across oceans.
The growing connection between formerly separate trade routes allowed him to trade all throughout Afro-Eurasia. He suddenly found himself in a world that was smaller than before. Places that were mostly isolated from each other were starting to join together in trade.
All of that culminated into a phenomenon historians now call the Global Bazaar. The Global Bazaar is the general term to describe the vast network of marketplaces and people who traded luxury goods across long distances during the late medieval era. Many were merchants like Abraham, but there were also craftsmen making the goods like silk and porcelain, laborers who loaded and unloaded ships, government officials who took bribes, and wealthy nobles who fueled trade with their spending. And, while some working class people like those laborers profited a bit off the global exchange, it's important to remember that this change didn't really impact the lives of your average person.
These were luxury goods, so it was mostly rich people who got rich selling to other rich people. Yes, these goods became more accessible to some people, just not everyone. And it's not just merchants involved. Governments get in on the action too, because they profit from trade through taxes. We can see this dynamic with Chinese porcelain.
Under the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, Chinese porcelain became extremely popular around the world. As it became cheaper to make and sell porcelain, the cost went down and the demand went up. So the Chinese government, especially later under the Ming, invested heavily in manufacturing porcelain, especially in the city Jingdezhen.
The city grew in size and wealth and broke production down into an early example of the assembly line, which arguably made it the first industrial city in history. Items that were once incredibly rare were becoming much more accessible around the world. Well, they were becoming more accessible for the wealthy, which brings up an important point. While it's nice to say that trade was booming around the world and people were making a lot of money, It's important to remember who was making the money and getting all the cool stuff. Even with this boom in trade, most people still couldn't afford the kinds of luxury goods that were traveling along these trade routes.
In some ways, the global bazaar is a legacy of the Mongols, whose policies of making travel cheaper and protecting merchants all made long-distance travel safer and cheaper. The Mongols might have faded from importance by the early 1500s, but the policies they established remain popular because they support trade. In other ways, the global bazaar is much bigger than the Mongols ever were. Extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific and including millions of people, with much less bloodshed.
Even though it wasn't quite yet global, since it didn't yet reach the Americas, these trade routes and connections continued to expand and evolve throughout the centuries. The global bazaar reflects some very human wants and desires. The quest for wealth, a curiosity about the world, a thirst for knowledge, and our truest passion. Stuff. People choose to trade, and that choice connects them in shared history.
The global bazaar was a catalyst that didn't just spread goods and money. It also spread ideas like religion and technology, like we'll learn in our episode on gunpowder. And as new ideas spread across the globe, they spark more change that people will have to choose how to respond to. While it's easy to look at a map of the world and see individual countries with crisp borders, trade reminds us that we're all more connected than we think. And if you don't believe that, Just take a look at the labels on your clothes or where your cell phone was made.
The global bazaar isn't just history, it's the world we live in today. If you're enjoying Study Hall Modern World History and are interested in taking an online course and earning college credit, visit GoStudyHall.com or click on the button to learn more. Thanks for watching, see you next time.