1. Networks of Communication and Exchange
Chapter 7
Networks of Communication and Exchange
300 B.C.E. – 1100 C.E.

2. Part One: The Silk Road

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

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

5. A. Origins and Operations
Part 1: The Silk Road
A. Origins and Operations
Overland route that linked China to the Mediterranean world via Mesopotamia, Iran, and Central Asia.
Two periods of heavy use:
150 B.C.E. – 907 C.E.
Thirteenth through seventeenth centuries C.E.
Regular large-scale trade needed to provide Chinese with western products.

6. B. Imports and Exports Chinese imported: Chinese exported:
Part 1: The Silk Road
B. Imports and Exports
Chinese imported:
Alfalfa
Grapes
New crops
Medicinal products
Metals
Precious stones
Chinese exported:
Peaches
Apricots
Spices
Silk
Pottery
Paper

7. C. Impact of the Silk Road Trade
Part 1: The Silk Road
C. Impact of the Silk Road Trade
Turkic nomads benefited from the trade
Their elites constructed houses, lived in settled villages, and became interested in foreign religions.

8. D. Military Technologies
Part 1: The Silk Road
D. Military Technologies
Central Asian military technologies like the stirrup were exported east and west.
This significantly impacted the conduct of war at this time.

9. Part Two: Indian Ocean Maritime System

10. Part 2: Indian O. Maritime System
A. 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

11. Part 2: Indian O. Maritime System
A. Introduction
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.

12. Part 2: Indian O. Maritime System
Lateen Sail

13. B. Origins of Contact and Trade
Part 2: Indian O. Maritime System
B. 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.

14. C. Impact of Indian Ocean Trade
Part 2: Indian O. Maritime System
C. 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.

15. TEA TRADE THROUGHOUT THE INDIAN OCEAN
While tea has been consumed in China for over 2000 years, it took many centuries before Europeans were introduced to this bitter beverage and learned to enjoy it, thanks to the addition of sugar. This lesson traces the history of tea (and tea-drinking accoutrements) within and beyond Asia, beginning in the Classical Era up through the 20th century.

16. The tea trade changed not only economies but also social rituals
The tea trade changed not only economies but also social rituals. Even as Europeans adopted their own tea-drinking habits, they enjoyed drinking tea from imported Chinese porcelain teacups and teapots typically designed with cobalt blue patterns. Eventually Europeans manufactured their own chinaware with designs that looked Chinese –– Chinoiserie–– but due to differences in geography, Europeans could never produce tea or sugar in Europe. European dependence on imported tea had world-wide consequences.

17. LETS GO TO THE FOLLOWING WEB PAGE!

18. Part Three: Routes Across the Sahara

19. A. Early Saharan Cultures
Part 3: Routes Across the Sahara
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.

20. Sahara Rock Wall Painting
Part 3: Routes Across the Sahara
Sahara Rock Wall Painting

21. Other Sahara Rock Wall Painting
Part 3: Routes Across the Sahara
Other Sahara Rock Wall Painting

22. B. Trade Across the Sahara
Part 3: Routes Across the Sahara
B. 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.

23. Part 3: Routes Across the Sahara
B.1. 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.

24. Part 3: Routes Across the Sahara
B.2. 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.

25. B.3. Kingdom of Ghana Part 3: Routes Across the Sahara
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.

26. Kingdom of Ghana Artwork
Part 3: Routes Across the Sahara
Kingdom of Ghana Artwork

27. Part Four: Sub-Saharan Africa

28. A. Geography Part 4: Sub-Saharan Africa
Large area with many different environmental zone and many geographical obstacles to movement.
Significant geographical areas:
Sahel
Tropical Savanna
Tropical Rainforest
Temperate highlands

29. B. Development of Cultural Unity
Part 4: Sub-Saharan Africa
B. 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.

30. C. African Cultural Characteristics
Part 4: Sub-Saharan Africa
C. 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.

31. C. More Characteristics
Part 4: Sub-Saharan Africa
C. More Characteristics
Other common features include:
Cultivation with hoe and digging stick
Use of rhythms in African music
Functions of dancing and mask wearing in rituals

32. Part 4: Sub-Saharan Africa
D. 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.

33. Sub-Saharan African Iron Work
Part 4: Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan African Iron Work

34. Part 4: Sub-Saharan Africa
E. 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.

35. Part 4: Sub-Saharan Africa
Bantu Migrations Map

36. Part Five: The Spread of Ideas

37. A. Ideas and Material Evidence
Part 5: Spread of Ideas
A. 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?

38. Part 5: Spread of Ideas
B. 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

39. B.1. Spread of Buddhism Part 5: Spread of Ideas
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

40. Part 5: Spread of Ideas
B.1. Buddhism Continued
Buddhism changed and further developed as it spread.
Theraveda Buddhism became dominant in Sri Lanka
Mahayana Buddhism in Tibet
Chan (Zen) Buddhism in East Asia

41. Bodhieattva at Barnian
Part 5: Spread of Ideas
Bodhieattva at Barnian
Carved into the side of a cliff at Bamiam, this was one of two monumental Buddhist sculptures near the top of a high mountain pass connecting Kabul, Afghanistan, with the northern parts of the country. Carved in the sixth or seventh century, the sculptures were surrounded by cave dwellings of monks and rock sanctuaries, some dating to the first century B.C.E. (Ian Griffiths/Robert Harding Picture Library)

42. B.2. Spread of Christianity
Part 5: Spread of Ideas
B.2. 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.