Exchanges as a Theme in World History A. Significance Exchanges as a Theme in World History A. Significance - When is it significant enough to study? -When it is new. -When it affects large numbers of people and places -When it changes the history of the world.

B. When does it occur in world history? -since the beginning of time -intensifies when the following historical factors occur -encouraging governments -technological improvements -prosperity that elevates supply and demand -improving mechanisms of exchange

C. Kinds of exchange -goods and technology -culture and thought -disease -biota -people

D. Agents of Exchange -Merchants -Missionaries -Adventurers and explorers -Government missions -War -Migrations

E. Geography of exchange -overland -maritime -air -direct and intermediary -location--the city or town

Exchange in the Classical Age 500 BCE-500 CE Prevalent in the Classical Age due to supportive centralized governments and empire

Royal Road of Achaemenid Persia [558-330 BCE]

-Greek Aegean trade networks

Roman roads and Mediterranean networks

Mauryan and Gupta routes

Maya-Olmec-Teotihuacan networks

Austronesian

Bantu migrations

B. The Silk Road 1. Prologue--trade networks of Hellenistic Age a. Seleucid rulers of Persia and Bactria—land routes from Indian markets to ports in Syria and Palestine/ spread of Greek culture b. Ptolemies land routes from Egypt to Nubia and Meroe and sea lanes in the Red Sea/knowledge of monsoon wind patterns

2. The Silk Road Overland and Maritime

The light tans of the Taklimakan Desert are bounded by the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas in this image of Western China. To the North is the snow-covered Tian Shan Mountain range and to the South are the rugged Kunlun Mountains. The lower left corner of the image is the Karakoram Mountain range, where the world's second highest mountain, K2, casts a shadow. The desert is one of the driest in the world, receiving less than 10 millimeters (0.5 inches) of rainfall annually. According to National Geographic, temperature is extremely variable on both a daily and a seasonal basis, changing by as much as 20 degrees Celsius (36 degrees Fahrenheit) from day to night and 30 degrees Celsius (54 degrees Fahrenheit) from summer to winter. The region is also subject to severe dust storms, tornadoes, and shifting sand dunes. Because of these factors, the desert is virtually devoid of vegetation; biological diversity is mostly limited to wild camels and asses. Desertification, or the degradation of dry land, is a major concern for the farmers and herders who live at the Taklimakan's edge. At the bottom of the image lies the Tibetan Plateau.

Photograph by Robert PooleThe ancient city of Kashi, China, still buzzes with commerce at its open-air market. Kashi was an important stop along the Silk Road. http://java.nationalgeographic.com/studentatlas/clickup/silk.html

Slow Progress Photograph by Michael Yamashita “They live on the fruit which they get from the land, but at trade they do not work at all,” wrote Marco about the inhabitants of northern Gansu Province, where medieval sights still inscribe the landscape. Outside the town of Wuwei, along the old Silk Road traveled by Marco, a camel pulls a plow for a poor wheat farmer. Man and beast labor beneath a sky stained by a dust storm blowing from the Gobi desrt. In the background rises a mud fragment of China’s Great Wall, humbled by centuries of harsh weather. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0106/feature2/zoom4.html

                                                                                                     The Huang He (Yellow River) stretches across varied terrain in northern China. West of Beijing the river picks up silt as it passes through a desert region, which gives the water a yellowish color. Noboru Komine/Photo Researchers, Inc. http://encarta.msn.com/media_461523949_761577214_-1_1/Desert_Bordering_the_Huang_He.html

Group Effort Photograph by Michael Yamashita Bucking heavy surf off India’s Kerala coast, a fishing boat relies on muscle power alone in a scene probably little different from when Marco Polo sailed along this coast at the end of the 13th century. He reported that large merchant ships from China and the Middle East plied this stretch of the Arabian Sea, anchoring at ports to load up on pepper, ginger, indigo, and incense. Western traders quickly followed Marco into China and South Asia, but political upheavals sealed off overland routes to these regions by the late 1300s. Not until the 19th century did Western travelers again visit many of the places described by the medieval adventurer. http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/data/2001/07/01/html/zm_20010701.2.2.html

Items of Exchange East to West West to East Silk Spices Horses Olive oil Manufactured goods Gold and silver

Significance Improved technology Increased wealth and power Rise of cities and towns Spread of Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Manichaeism Spread of disease [small pox, measles, bubonic plague leads to decrease in population of Han and Rome by 1/4-1/3