Transcript Cross-Cultural Exchanges

Cross-Cultural Exchanges
Chapter 12
Long-Distance Trade and the Silk Roads
Network
• LD trade was risky: bandits, pirates -> high costs
• 2 developments: roads/bridges and empires
• Hellenistic empires: more trade due to colonies
– monsoon winds = access to Indian Ocean Basin
– Maritime trade required military forces, construction,
bureaucracy
Hellenistic Trade
• Costs paid off by stimulating economy and tax
revenue
• Caravans and ships carried goods from China to
Mediterranean, linking empires, as well as smaller
societies
– Overland routes = Silk Roads
• Traded manufactured goods, agricultural
commodities, slaves
– Silk, spices, cotton, horses, glassware, art, jewelry,
olive oil, wine
The Organization of LD Trade
• Few travelled far distances (e.g., Roman trading
posts in India)
• Travelled to cities with markets, bought/sold,
returned home, etc.
Cultural and Biological Exchanges
• Merchants, missionaries, and travelers carried
beliefs, values, and religions with them
• Buddhism: spread by merchants into C Asia (esp.
in oasis towns, where monasteries were built), by
nomads into E Asia (Chinese began to convert by
5th century CE), and by mariners into SE Asia
• Hinduism: along with other Indian elements,
spread into SE Asia by mariners and was used by
leaders to build power
Cultural & Biological Exchanges (cont.)
• Christianity:
– 1st century CE: persecution by Romans, but spread
along roads and sea lanes
– 2nd-3rd centuries: became popular, Christian
communities throughout the Empire
• Spread into SW Asia to India – not dominant, but influenced
Med. With practices of asceticism and abstinence
– By 5th century: Med and SW Asian Christianity
diverged (Nestorians)
Cultural & Biological Exchanges (cont.)
• Manichaeism:
– Mani = Zoroastrian prophet from Babylon
– Combined Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and Christianity
– Good vs. evil, rejection of worldly pleasures , personal
salvation
– “the elect” and “the hearers” – strict moral code
– Appealed to merchants, spread in Sasanid and Roman
Empires, but faced persecution in both
Cultural & Biological Exchanges (cont.)
• Infectious diseases also spread along trade routes
(e.g., small pox, measles, bubonic plague)
• Infected populations with no inherent or acquired
immunity
– Especially bad in Rome and Han China -> population
decrease -> decrease in trade, contracting of
economies, move toward regional self-sufficiency
Fall of Han Dynasty
• Internal decay: factions, land distribution
issues (-> peasant rebellions)
• Generals (-> warlords) fought for power, set
up puppet emperor
• 220 CE: abolished dynasty – split into 3 large
kingdoms
Post-Han Culture Change
• Disorder: warring kingdoms, nomadic invasions,
destruction of Han heartland and capitals
• 2 major changes:
– Nomads adopted many elements of Chinese culture
– Confucianism lost credibility: many turned to Daoism
(became religion) or Buddhism (brought in by
nomads)
The Fall of Rome
• Combination of internal and external issues
• Internal: factions/opposition to the emperor,
unmanageable size
– Diocletian divided empire in 2 (with co-emperors and
other leaders), took control of armies, economic
reforms (spent less, strengthened currency, decreased
inflation -> stabilized econ.)
– But, once he retired -> civil war
Constantine
• 340 CE: moved capital from Rome to
Constantinople and reunified E and W
• But, with econ. problems, it was difficult to
govern and W part fell to invaders
Germanic Invaders
• Settled along borders of the Roman Empire
(buffer societies)
– Mid-5th century: Attila the Hun (Turkic) invades and
attacks Germanic groups
– Forced Germanic groups to migrate into Roman
Empire to seek refuge – est’d settlements
– 410 CE: Visigoths sacked Rome
– 476 CE: imperial authority ended in west (but,
continued in east as the Byzantine Empire)
• Germanic groups built kingdoms (incorporated Roman
elements) -> Medieval Europe
Christianity and Rome
• 312 CE: Constantine’s conversion -> Edict of
Milan
• 380 CE: Theodosius made Christianity the official
religion of Rome
• Converts increased, esp. among elites
• St. Augustine of Hippo tried to reconcile
Christianity with Greco-Roman philosophy ->
intellectualized
Institutional Church
• Standardized: hierarchy of officials (5 top
bishops/patriarchs – eventually, pope in Rome
emerges as leader of W. Christianity), bishops
over dioceses
• 325 CE: Council of Nicaea (ironed out beliefs)
• Missionary campaigns