AP World Ch 7 Review

In what ways was Afro-Eurasia a single interacting zone, and in what respects was it a vast region of separate cultures and civilizations

Afro-Eurasia became a single interaction zone because of the sheer amount of trade going on and the eventual networks that developed out of it. These networks caused what happened in one state to directly affect another state. This cause Afro-Eurasia to seem like one large nation. However, because of the size and the amount of history in each are everywhere acted differently and had different customs as well as vastly different cultures and religions.

Thorfinn Karlsefni

He was a Viking explorer who in 1007 set course for the Americas. He had set course for the Americas on three ships with inspiration from Leif Ericsson and 160 people. When they hit land, they came into contact with the natives of the area and according to the story they just "stayed awhile in astonishment". However, they came back a year later to trade, but these deals went south when a bull came charging and the natives left once again but came back again 3 weeks later and they started waring. Eventually the Vikings left and there were possibly many other voyages to the Americas, there was never a permeant settlement there. There are most likely factual inaccuracies in this story because it was passed down orally for hundreds of years.

Great Zimbabwe

In the 13th and 14th centuries a powerful state came onto the global stage. Great Zimbabwe was in the middle of south Africa and became the intermediary between the mining states and coastal cities that would be able to export the gold all around the world. From 1250-1350 this nation had become very wealthy and had resources and labor power as well.

Ghana, Mali, Songhay

Over time the Sand Roads would lead to one of three major empires that all became very rich because of the ongoing trade via the Sand Roads (depending on the time). Ghana was the first of the three and had some of the wealthiest kings in history as a result of all the gold going around. Mali monopolized the import of goods and allowed for untaxed export of gold dust while they continued to grow their own wealth by hoarding large amounts of gold.

Sand Roads

Similar to the Silk Roads the Sand Roads linked West Africa to the Mediterranean Sea and Arabian Peninsula. These routes went through the Saharan Desert and the landed in West Africa. Similarly, to the Silk Road most trade was done via land so only high price luxury items would be transported. There would eventually be three main commodities to be traded. These being: gold, salt and slaves.

Swahili civilization

Swahili civilizations were mostly urban cities that were centered around trade. They would get goods from deeper inside Africa and then distribute them across the world, and they would also collect goods from the places they traded with. Because of their growing riches people would settle in Swahili civilization making it an extremely (for its era) diverse area. Because of the amount of people with Arab or Persian origins several Sahili cities became Islamic with people coming in and natives voluntary converting. Eventually Islam divided these cities when an important Arab scholar came and was disappointed at "African Muslims" who had darker skin and spoke Swahili or their native language at home.

Black Death

The Bubonic plague or more famously known as the Black Death, was an illness that spread from modern day Meyamar into the heart of Europe itself. The most likely way of transmission was rats aboard ships along the Indian Ocean trading network. This plague was devastating all across Europe. When it hit the Byzantine Empire, they had a 40-day period of absolute death with them loosing thousands by the day. During the time of the diseases reign Europe lost ½ of its population.

Indian Ocean trading network

The Indian Ocean trade network was another large trading network. However, this network spread further and was on the sea. This network ran through the Arabian Peninsula, Indian Ocean, South China Sea, and the eastern African Coast. This route traded both non-luxury everyday goods as well as luxury goods. Some main things traded were paper, ivory, gold, and spices. This trade route also enriched several port cities as well as became the basis of eventual European colonialism.

Why did the peoples of the Eastern Hemisphere develop long-distance trade more extensively than did those of the Western Hemisphere

The Western Hemisphere had one distinct difference and that was the fact that they did not have many large, domesticated animals or large ships for trading.. The Eastern Hemisphere had camels and horses which were crucial to the trade routes. There was also a problem going from South America to Central America and that is there is only a small area that could be used to cross, and it is very dense in forestry. There were also major climate differences between the Americas where you travel almost exclusively North-South instead of East-West, so it was difficult to adapt other agricultural practices because they were meant for that specific climate.

Compared to the cross-cultural interactions of earlier times, what was different about those of the third wave era

The scale of interactions that are happening at grew exponentially bigger. There were also more religions that spread and had large influence over these areas. Islam and Judaism had come onto the scene so there is now competition between religions to expand. Not necessarily related to these two religions but Hinduism and Buddhism had somewhat of a similar interaction where they were both gaining more and more people. There were also new states that existed just to mediate trade. This new trade became the ba

Silk Road

The silk roads were one of the largest land-based trade networks of its time. These routes spread across Eurasia and went from the Mediterranean Sea all the way to the eastern most part of China and spanned several empires. These routes were key to trade at the time; however, because they were so hard to cross only luxury goods were transported. One thing that did spread as well was religion. Traders would come into a new land with their religion and would spread their gospel. This is how Buddhism initially spread with people coming out of India and into Southeast China. Another thing that inadvertently spread was several different types of diseases, the most prominent ow which being the Black Plague.

Trans-Saharan slave trade

There had been slavery for a while. Women had been enslaved as servants and domestic caretakers. However, men later became sold into slavery for more laborious duties. Slaves were then used across the Sahara made to trek across the desert to then be put to work serving wealthy Islamic North Africans.

What sustained the long-distance commerce of the Silk Roads, Sea Roads and Sand Roads

These trade routes were most beneficial for everyone involved. The rich got exclusive luxury goods that were rare in their areas and as those items became rarer over time, they were just able to make more money off of them. These trade routes also enriched small states that would have otherwise just been blown off the map. One example of this would be the Swahili States that became extremely wealthy as a result of controlling the trade between African miner states and the rest of the world that eagerly awaited their gold and other goods. The combined good that these routes did for almost every state/nation/empire, the extremely wealthy and the merchants was enough for people to keep trading with one another.

Pochteca

These were merchants in the American web that undertook larger scale trading outside of their empire. These would be the men who spread the empires ways as well as their goods and brought back foreign goods and stories of the other nations. So they were considered in the highest regard among their societies.

Arabian camel

This animal was crucial to the Sand Roads. They are still one of the beast ways to travel the Saharan Desert because they require little water, can take immense loads, and eat plants native to the desert so there is no need to bring feed for them. Eventually when there were caravans going across the desert such as the one that Mansa Musa would make, camels would be needed to help carry and transport the hundreds of people going.

Srivijaya

This empire spanned from the tip of Southeastern Asia to western parts of what is now Indonesia. People came/invested in this empire because they had a high supply of gold and spices. They also had control over the movement from the Indian Ocean to the South China sea, and they imposed travel taxes on passing ships. They then created military forces and some level of government. They were also the only in the area that did trade at the level they did. One of the wonders of this empire is the Borobudur which is a Buddhist monument created around the ninth century and was also later abandoned. It was recovered by British authorities in the ninth century; this structure still stands today, but, it has gone under several rounds of restorations in order to keep it standing.

Angkor Wat

This is a Hindu temple built in the early 12th century. This was a state temple created for the Hindu God Vishnu, who is the protector of the universe. There was no cost prohibiting this temple from being built. There are carvings of scenes of Hindu mythology. However, by the time the late 13th century rolled around the temple as taken over by Buddhists and to our knowledge has never been taken back (still in Buddhist control).

American web

This was a trans cantonal trade network similar to all three of the trade networks in Eurasia where it spanned from the boarder of Chile and Peru to the southern ½ of Canada. This may have been less complex than any of the Eurasian trade routes, but it did get the job done when it came to trade across the contents.

"Cultural change often derived from commercial exchange in the third-wave era". What evidence from this chapter supports this observation

Trade results in people moving around. This means that ideas are spreading, and they are also growing and changing in these new areas. One example would be Swahili civilizations where Arabs and Persians came to theses enriched states. They brought along their religion and spread it around until that area was predominately Muslim. This is probably one of the best examples because these states were ports, and they would not have flourished causing people to come there without international trade.