Commerce and Culture 500-1500 AP World History Notes Chapter 8

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!

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

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

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

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

What Else Was “Traded”?

 Religious ideas  Technological innovations  Disease-bearing germs  Plants and animals

The Silk Roads

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Silk Roads: Buddhism Buddhist temple in Dunhuang (an oases city)  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

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

The Silk Roads: Buddhism  What type of Buddhism spread? MAHAYANA!

 Buddha = a deity  Many bodhisattvas  Emphasis on compassion

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

The Silk Roads: Disease  Athens (430-429 BCE) = widespread epidemic; killed 25% of the army  Roman & Han Empires = measles and smallpox devastated both populations  Mediterranean World (534-750 CE) = devastated by bubonic plague from India

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  1346-1350 = killed 1/3 of European population  Similar death toll in China & parts of Islamic world