CHAPTER 7: NETWORKS OF COMMUNICATION AND EXCHANGE

1. CHAPTER 7: NETWORKS OF COMMUNICATION AND EXCHANGE 300 B.C.E. – 1100 C.E.

2. The Beginning of the Silk Road • The Parthians located in central Asia and possibly helped foster the Silk Road • Zhang Jian (jahng jee-en), a Chinese general made a journey across the mountains of Inner Asia and finally reached Ferghana…brought back better horses and plants Why were the Chinese set on making the Silk Road work?

3. Silk Roads • As classical empires reduced the costs of long-distance trade, merchants began establishing an extensive network of trade routes that linked much of Eurasia and northern Africa • Collectively, these routes are known as the “Silk Roads” because high-quality silk from China was one of the principal commodities exchanged over the roads

4. Part 1: The Silk Road Map of Silk Road

6. http://intranet.dalton.org/groups/rome/RMap2.html- Map of Silk Road

7. Route of the Overland Silk Road • Linked China and the Holy Roman Empire • The two extreme ends of Eurasia • Started in the Han capital of Chang’an and went west to the Taklamakan Desert • There the road split into two main branches that skirted the desert to the north and south

8. China exported peaches, apricots, cinnamon, ad ginger What else was exported from China? What impact did these exports have on the rest of the cities on the silk road?

9. Chinese imported: Alfalfa Grapes New crops Medicinal products Metals Precious stones Chinese exported: Peaches Apricots Spices Silk Pottery Paper Stirrups Answer:

10. The Sasanids (suh-sah-nid) and the Silk Road • They intensified trade on the Silk Road • Defeated the Parthians around 224 C.E. • They had great silver works and silk fabrics • They exported cotton, sugar, rice, citrus trees, eggplants

11. Taklamakan Desert:“The Desert of Death” The Silk Roads avoided the Taklamakan Desert and passed through the oasis towns on its outskirts

12. Route of the Overland Silk Road • In northern Iran, the route joined with roads to ports on the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf and proceeded to Palmyra (modern Syria) • There it met roads coming from Arabia and ports on the Red Sea

13. Silk Road Trade to the West • Silk and spices traveled west from southeast Asia, China, and India • China was the only country in classical times where cultivators and weavers had developed techniques for producing high-quality silk fabrics • Spices served not just to season food but also as drugs, anesthetics, aphrodisiacs, perfumes, aromatics, and magical potions Chinese silk making

14. Silk Road Trade to the East • Central Asia produced large, strong horses and jade that was highly prized by Chinese stone carvers • The Roman empire traded glassware, jewelry, works of art, decorative items, perfumes, bronze goods, wool and linen textiles, pottery, iron tools, olive oil, wine, and gold and silver bullion • Mediterranean merchants and manufacturers often imported raw materials such as uncut gemstones which they exported as finished products in the form of expensive jewelry and decorative items

15. Spread of Buddhism and Hinduism • Merchants carried Buddhism along the Silk Roads where it first established a presence in the oasis towns where merchants and their caravans stopped for food, rest, lodging, and markets • Dunhuang was one such spot where the Silk Road splits into two paths • By the 4th Century A.D., a sizeable Buddhist community had emerged there • Hinduism also spread along the Silk Roads, primarily along the sea lanes

16. Spread of Christianity • Antioch, the western terminus of the overland Silk Roads, was an important center in early Christianity • Like other religions, Christianity followed the trade routes and expanded east throughout Mesopotamia, Iran, and as far away as India • However, its greatest concentration was in the Mediterranean basin, where the Roman Roads, like the Silk Roads, provided ready transportation St. Peter’s cave church in Antioch

17. Spread of Disease • The Antonine Plague (165-180 A. D.) was a plague of either smallpox or measles brought back to the Roman Empire by troops returning from campaigns in the Near East • Total deaths have been estimated at five million • Bubonic Plague • During the 1340s, Mongols, merchants, and other travelers helped to spread the disease along trade routes to points west of China • It thrived in the trading cities of central Asia where domestic animals and rodents provided abundant breeding grounds for fleas and the plague bacteria

19. Influences of Long-distance Trade • Brought wealth and access to foreign products and enabled people to concentrate their efforts on economicactivities best suited to their regions • Facilitated the spread of religioustraditions beyond their original homelands • Facilitated the transmission of disease

20. Indian Ocean Maritime System

21. Introduction • Linked lands bordering the Indian Ocean basin and the South China Sea. • Trade took place in 3 distinct regions: • South China Sea • Southeast Asia to the east coast of India • West coast of India to the Persian Gulf and East Africa

22. Made possible by and followed the patterns of seasonal changes in the monsoon winds. • Sailing technology included lateen sail and new shipbuilding techniques. • Because distances traveled were longer than in the Mediterranean, traders in these systems did not maintain political ties to homelands.

23. Lateen Sail

24. Origins of Contact and Trade • Evidence of early trade between ancient Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. • Trade appears to have broken off as Mesopotamia turned more toward trade with East Africa. • Two thousand years ago, Malay sailors migrated to Madagascar. • Did not maintain ties to homeland.

25. Impact of Indian Ocean Trade • What we know about it comes from The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea. • States goods traded included a wide variety of spices, aromatic resins, pearls Chinese pottery, and other luxury goods. • Volume of trade was not as high as in the Mediterranean. • Culture of ports was different then culture in their homelands, causing the development of different customs.

26. ROUTES ACROSS AFRICA

27. A. Early Saharan Cultures • Evidence of an early Saharan hunting culture that was later joined by cattle breeders who looked like contemporary West Africans. • Artwork indicates that the cattle breeders were later succeeded by horse herders who drove chariots. • Other artwork indicates that camel riders came after charioteers. • Camel was probably related to development of trans-Saharan trade. • South to north diffusion of camel riding.

28. Sahara Rock Wall Painting

29. Other Sahara Rock Wall Painting

30. Trade Across the Sahara • Developed slowly when 2 local trade systems linked. • Southern Sahara had salt and exported to sub-Saharan regions for kola nuts and palm oil. • Traders in north exported agricultural products and wild animals to Italy.

31. Invasion and Revolt • When Rome declined and the Arabs invaded North Africa (mid-7th century C.E.), trade of Algeria and Morocco was cut off. • Berber people of these areas revolted against the Arabs in the 700s and established independent city-states including Sijilmasa and Tahert.

32. The Berbers • After 740 the Berbers found that the southern nomads were getting gold dust from the Niger and other areas of West Africa in exchange for their salt. • A pattern of trade then developed in which the Berbers of North Africa traded copper and manufactured goods to the nomads of the southern desert in return for gold.

33. Kingdom of Ghana • One of the early sub-Saharan beneficiaries of this new trans-Saharan trade. • First description of kingdom is the eleventh century account by al-Bakri. • Described a city of two towns, Muslim merchant town and capital of animist king and his court. • After 1076, Ghana was weakened by invasion of Moroccan Almorovids. • Even after Almorovid retreat, Ghana never recovered.

34. Large area with many different environmental zone and many geographical obstacles to movement. Significant geographical areas: Sahel Tropical Savanna Tropical Rainforest Temperate highlands Geography of Sub Saharan Africa

35. Development of Cultural Unity • African cultures are highly diverse. • Estimated 2,000 languages spoken on continent. • Numerous food production systems. • Difficulty in communication and trade between groups. • No foreign power was able to conquer Africa and impose a unified culture.

36. African Cultural Characteristics • African cultures display certain common features that attest to an underlying cultural unity that some scholars have called “Africanity.” • One concept was a kingship in which kings were isolated and oversee societies in which the people are arranged in age groups and kinship divisions. • Other common features include: • Cultivation with hoe and digging stick • Use of rhythms in African music • Functions of dancing and mask wearing in rituals

37. Advent of Iron • Sub-Saharan agriculture had its origins north of the equator and then spread southward. • Iron working also began north of the equator and spread to southern Africa by 800 C.E. • Caused by the Bantu Migrations.

38. Sub-Saharan African Iron Work

39. Bantu Migrations • Original homeland of the Bantu people was in the area on the border of modern Nigeria and Cameroon. • Suggests that Bantu people spread out toward the east and south through a series of migrations over the period of the first millennium C.E. • By the eighth century, Bantu-speaking people had reached East Africa.

40. Bantu Migrations Map

41. THE SPREAD OF IDEAS AND RELIGION

42. Ideas and Material Evidence • Very hard to trace dissemination of ideas in preliterate societies. • Invention of coins – created in Anatolia and spread to Europe, North Africa, and India. • China made cast copper coins – was this inspired by the Anatolian example?

43. Spread of Religion • Spread of ideas in a deliberate and organized fashion such that we can trace it is a phenomenon of the first millennium C.E. • Case with spread of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam

44. Spread of Buddhism • Facilitated both by royal sponsorship and by the travels of ordinary pilgrims and missionaries. • In India, Mauryan king Ashoka and King Kanishka of the Kushans supported Buddhism. • Buddhist missionaries from India traveled to a variety of destinations: • West to Syria, Egypt, and Mesopotamia • Also went to Sri Lanka, southeast Asia, and Tibet • Buddhism changed and further developed as it spread.

45. Spread of Christianity • Armenia was an important trading center for the Silk Road. • Mediterranean states spread Christianity to Armenia in order to bring that kingdom over to its side and thus deprive Iran of control of this area. • The transmission of Christianity to Ethiopia was similarly linked to a Mediterranean Christian attempt to deprive Iran of trade.