1. AP World History Notes Chapter 8
Commerce and Culture
AP World History Notes
Chapter 8

2. Why Trade?
Different ecological zones = natural uneven distribution of goods and resources
Early monopolization of certain goods
Silk in China
Spices in Southeast Asia
I want what you have! Do you want what I have? Let’s trade!

3. Trade: 500-1500 Long-distance trade developed
This trade shaped culture and society
Trade = mostly indirect
Chain of separate transactions
Goods traveled father than merchants

4. Significance of Trade: Economic
Altered consumption
Ex: West Africans now able to get salt to flavor and preserve their food
Changed the day-to-day lives of individuals
Ex: trade specialization --> led to less self-sufficiency and more dependency

5. Significance of Trade: Social
Traders became their own social group
Sometimes viewed suspiciously --> why are they making money without making the goods?
Trade became a means of social mobility
Money = land = power and status
Trade used by elite groups to distinguish themselves from commoners
Only they could afford luxury goods from far away like silk or ivory

6. Significance of Trade: Political
Controlling and taxing trade motivated the creation of states and kingdoms
Wealth from trade sustained these states and kingdoms and facilitated their growth

7. What Else Was “Traded”? Religious ideas Technological innovations
Disease-bearing germs
Plants and animals

8. The Silk Roads

9. The Silk Roads: Growth
Eurasia = often divided into inner and outer zones with different ecologies
Outer Eurasia = relatively warm and well-watered
China, India, Middle East, Mediterranean
Inner Eurasia = harsher, drier climate
Eastern Russia, Central Asia

10. Hides, furs, livestock, wool, amber, horses, saddles
The Silk Roads: Growth
Result = steppe products traded for agricultural products and manufactured goods from inner Eurasia
Birth of the Silk Roads trade network
Hides, furs, livestock, wool, amber, horses, saddles

11. The Silk Roads: Growth
Construction of classical civilizations and empires added major players to this trade network
Persian Empire, Greek Empire, Roman Empire, Han dynasty, Gupta Empire
Result = Silk Roads continued to grow

12. The Silk Roads: Goods
Most goods traded = luxury goods rather than staple goods
Destined for an elite and wealthy market
Only goods worth transporting with such high transportation costs

13. The Silk Roads: Goods Silk = major product in high demand
China had a silk monopoly until the 500s --> then others gained knowledge of silk production
Increased the supply of silk along the Silk Roads

14. Silk Makes the World Go ‘Round
Used as currency in Central Asia
Became a symbol of high status in both China and the Byzantine Empire
Used in the expanding religions of Buddhism and Christianity
Ex: worn by Buddhist monks
Ex: silk altar covers in Christian churches

15. The Silk Roads: Goods Volume of trade = small
But social and economic impact of trade = big
Ex: peasant in China produced luxury goods instead of crops
Ex: merchants could make enormous profits

16. The Silk Roads: Cultures
Major result of trade along the Silk Roads = the spread of Buddhism
From India to Central & East Asia
Spread by Indian traders and Buddhist monks

17. The Silk Roads: Buddhism
Spread to oases cities in Central Asia
Voluntarily converted
Buddhism gave these small cities a link to the larger, wealthy, and prestigious civilization of India
Many of these cities became centers of learning and commerce
Buddhist temple in Dunhuang (an oases city)

18. The Silk Roads: Buddhism
Transformation of Buddhism
Original faith = shunned the material world
Now Buddhism = filled with wealthy monks, elaborate and expensive monasteries, and so on
Buddhist monastery in China

19. The Silk Roads: Buddhism
What type of Buddhism spread? MAHAYANA!
Buddha = a deity
Many bodhisattvas
Emphasis on compassion

20. The Silk Roads: Diseases
Long-distance trade = resulted in exposure to unfamiliar diseases

21. The Silk Roads: Disease
Athens ( BCE) = widespread epidemic; killed 25% of the army
Roman & Han Empires = measles and smallpox devastated both populations
Mediterranean World ( CE) = devastated by bubonic plague from India

22. The Black Death
Spread due to the Mongol Empire’s unification of most of Eurasia (13th-14th centuries)
Could have been bubonic plague, anthrax, or collection of epidemic diseases
= killed 1/3 of European population
Similar death toll in China & parts of Islamic world