So apparently the Christian guy is gonna try to one-up me by doing Africa and North America…
BAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Yeah, he ain’t gonna win. Cause we get to do everywhere else in the world in this chapter. :D(PSH PLEASE)
So who else is pumped? BECAUSE I’M SO READY FOR THIS CHAPTER!
Wait… I’m not… (cries in a corner while typing up your study guide)
And now it’s time for one of the most important chapters in WHAP, COMMERCE AND CULTURE!
Let’s get started!
Intro
If there’s one big thing about WHAP, it’s that trade is important. Trade means interaction and interaction means history, and it also leads to change. Trade is an enormous way to facilitate new cultures without the use of warfare (although wars do get involved often).
So how did trade affect civilizations? Well, trade lead to changes in diets for many people, as new crops spread around the world to new areas. Herbs and spices were widely traded, and medicine and religious rituals grew. Also, different societies that used to be all isolated became encouraged to trade with others. Valuable items soon became commodities, and served as class distinctions.
Also, trade affected politics, as many new states popped up off of the idea of taxing and controlling trade in their area, and states were altered or destroyed as trade patterns shifted. There was the debate of how much states should control trade, as don’t forget, trading is suddenly the most advanced economic practice in the world nowadays, and is starting to worry governments. Different governments had different reactions, and we’ll get to those later.
And finally, trade is the reason why ideas, technologies, and diseases spread so far from their places of origins. Buddhism was dying in India, but experienced an enormous revival in Southeast Asia (expect a decent amount about that on the Test) and Islam spread to West Africa through trade (and if you read that study guide, you’ll know it was epic.) Also, the Black Death spread from city to city and devastated entire states. Trade has its benefits, and it has its drawbacks, sorta like how you’d drawback in terror from someone covered in buboes…
Silk Roads
Hey guys, I’ve got a question for y’all! I know you’re grumbling because now you actually have to use your brain and you can’t just learn off of this guide, but what product is the Silk Road named after? I’m sorry if you answered porcelain, you may want to see a doctor for that. The correct answer is SILK! :D
And yes, silk is important. Mostly because the Chinese monopoly on it brought about the Silk Road, which is what we’re about to discuss.
The Growth of the Silk Roads
So here’s yet another way to divide up Eurasia (as if you don’t already know 20). There’s Outer Eurasia and Inner Eurasia. Outer Eurasia is pretty much everywhere besides Central Asia. This area is full of every major civilization ever, like China, India, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean. These places have big governments and they also have nice agricultural societies and religions and good stuff. Inner Eurasia however is places like Central Asia. The big deal about these dudes is that they’re pastoral, so they’re tribes, and heavily disunited. When the second-wave civilizations pop up one by one, the pastoralists suddenly start losing power, and are conquered by pretty much everybody at once. The sudden size of these new civilizations made it far easier to trade with others.
Now, trade doesn’t last forever of course. After time, people stop like usual. It’s a cycle. Some major events however that revived trading included the Byzantine Empire, the Abbasid dynasty, the Tang Dynasty, and also, the creation of the enormous Mongol state. It encompassed almost the entire Silk Road at one point.
Goods in Transit
As the Silk Road grew, a lot of goods were obviously exchanged. The most famous of these, again obvious, is silk. So silk is discovered in 4,000 BCE, which is so old that it has its own CREATION MYTHS. Like that’s really, really old. Of course, because silk is actually a pretty beautiful cloth and all, every civilization wants to get their hands on it. As such, China begins selling a lot of silk. Now who makes this silk? It’s the women! (Ugh girls- Christian Dude) So the Chinese women are stuck doing all the stuff involved in silk making, and these are peasant Chinese women. They’re making one of the most valuable products known to man at that point, and they live in poverty. Oh well.
Now at some point in the 6th century CE, and we don’t know how, but the secret of silk gets out of China and spreads around the world. Rather sad for the Chinese. Rather awesome for everyone who takes advantage of it. Namely all the other Southeast Asian countries, India, and Persia. Now as the Islamic Empire jumps in popularity around the world, Europe, which never made silk for no reason, decides to buy tons of silk from the Muslim world, opening an enormous market over in that area. Silk spreads to Africa, and their kings wear it, and soon, the entire world has got silk.
Compared to nowadays, trade in the Silk Road was in okayish amounts. It’s not like some business deal happened every five minutes, or every hour for that matter. Things went sorta slow and steady, but obviously insanely fast compared to before. In some farms in China, they gave up agriculture and food production to make instead silk and other products that would make the Silk Road.
Cultures in Transit
So this whole thing is basically about Buddhism… so we should probably just call it
Buddhism in Transit
There, now that we have an actually accurate name...
So Buddhism spreads all over the place once the Silk Road gets started. It doesn’t get further than Persia, thanks to Zoroastrianism, but it finds a decent footing in Central Asia, where people peacefully convert so they can take advantage of the new connections they’ll have to Indians. (Everyone just wants to be with us.)(AYEEE-Christian Dude)
Soon Buddhism gets taken up by Pastoral people across Central Asia. And through the Silk Road, Buddhism first landed in China, and then exploded outwards into the rest of Southeast Asia, where it is still popular to this day.
As Buddhism was spreading around the world, it also changed itself. The original religion was all about saying screw life and just doing whatever, but now, monks were starting to get rich, and all of a sudden, the teachings got a lot more materialistic and all (We’re not trying to say anything obviously- Both Monotheist Dudes) This form of Buddhism was called Mahayana Buddhism, and worshipped Buddha as a deity, among other things. The original Buddhism didn’t do as well on the Silk Road, so now you see a lot more of this newer type around the world. Also, Buddhism picked up some cultural hints along the way, such as changing one of Buddha’s protectors to be kinda like Hercules, and using the gods of many people on the Silk Road as Buddhist gods.
Disease in Transit
We found out about goods spreading, we found out about ideas spreading. What about the one thing which does nothing but literally spread? That’s right: disease. And yeah, if you’ve played Plague Inc., you should know exactly what I mean, especially because the game is a lot more accurate than you think. Human populations have their own separate diseases that they’re all immune to and all, but if they get introduced to a new disease… it’s never been pretty. Smallpox and measles both crashed the Roman and Han Empires, but also ironically lead to the rise of Christianity and Buddhism as they were both great religions for dying people to convert to. Of course, we all know what the main disease of this era we’re all thinking about is:
Damn you Plague Inc. for making that the only free scenario, but I guess we all had fun destroying the modern world with an army of rats and buboes. Check that sentence again. Modern world. Did you have trouble on the Black Death scenario? Don’t worry, people died a whole lot easier back in Unit 3 (that’s not necessarily a good thing- Christian Dude)(Shut up I’m about to get a high score on Mega Brutal- Muslim Dude) So what happened? Most of the populations of these states were wiped out. In the goriest way possible. Buboes just aren’t a fashion statement, no matter how you look at them. They were hideous, gross, and it would be stupider to treat a patient with super primitive medical techniques compared to just loading up a body into a cart and burning it, as inhumane as that sounds. Black Death has affected a lot of the things that happened in Unit 3, but the biggest was probably the epidemics during the Mongol Rule, where insane amount of Europeans (UP TO HALF OF THEM. 1 IN 2!) died from the disease, and things were only barely better in other places in Eurasia.
If there’s any good news to Eurasians about all of that, when they conquered the Americas, they spread the diseases to the Native Americans and the natives perished instead. (Again, not necessarily a good thing.- Christian Dude)(I couldn’t handle it. I had to buy the rest of the Scenarios- Muslim Dude)
Sea Roads: Exchange across the Indian Ocean
So the Sea Roads are this enormous, enormous trade route. It’s basically the Indian Ocean which is the size of TWO Indias (TWICE THE CURRY- Christian Dude) It connects the Southeast Asian Islands along with China along with India along with Arabia along with East Africa. Yep, it’s humongous. I’m sure we’ve all heard of the Mediterranean Sea between North Africa and Europe now, right? It was also an enormous place of trade, but once Egypt became a trading spot with a port and grew in popularity, the Egyptian port of Alexandria managed to link the Mediterranean Sea network with the colossal Sea Roads. These next few pages are on the Sea Roads, and the diversity you could find there in states.
The Sea Roads also had advantages as the ships could hold more items, and soon, they carried mass items such as foods, unlike the solely luxury based trade on the Silk Road. One main reason why the Sea Roads worked were because of predictable monsoon wind currents that blew east to Malaysia in the summer and west to Africa in the winter. It’s important to remember that these expansive Sea Roads didn’t happen between 5 or 6 huge states, but it was actually hundreds of interconnected towns on the coast full of merchants that pulled off this gargantuan trade route. (You used five different words to say the Sea Roads were big by now. We get it.-Christian Dude)
Weaving the Web of an Indian Ocean World
People have been trading in the Indian Ocean for a while, like how the Mesopotamians had a whole thing going with the Indus Valley People. But it was really in the era of second-wave civilizations when sailors figured out how to ride the monsoon winds to travel larger distances across the Indian Ocean, and improved sailing technologies rapidly developed.
After some time, most of the cultures along the coastlines of this network started settling in and preparing for trade, but they obviously didn’t know how crowded it was about to get in a few hundred years (Or did they? ILLUMINATI- Christian Dude)
Now the Sea Roads are going all well and everything, but it takes two major world events to really bring the trade to the levels it was at in its peak. The first is the revival of the Chinese state after four centuries of war. This involves the Tang and Song Dynasties. Technically, like the Qin Dynasty, it’s the Sui Dynasty that does the uniting, but both were Legalist Dynasties and so both were quick and fast. I guess it’s important to note that both of China’s Legalist Dynasties were short-lived and unpopular, but in the end, they both brought China together after long periods of disunity, both times. You gotta hand them some credit for that. So the Tang and the Song give us some of the inventions the Chinese are famous for, but they also jumpstart the economy so well that Chinese products start flooding the market (Like nowadays? -Christian Dude) and that provides a huge boost to trade levels.
The second thing is what makes the Sea Roads basically the Silk Road’s elder brother. What could it be that unites the Sea Roads so well? Perhaps the religion that spreads rapidly to nearly every area in the Silk Road? Yep. If you were guessing Christianity, sorry, but it was only in Africa, and didn’t spread anywhere in the other parts of the Silk Road much. We’re talking about the rise of Islam, that just explodes in popularity everywhere there are traders. One main reason why is that Muslims are huge fans of trading, unlike the Confucian Chinese, so they really stimulate a strong trade system. They also colonize and conquer practically every place along the Sea Road, further spreading their religion and ideals. At one point, even Non-Muslim lands start adopting Muslim practices so they can get in on the trade too. The rise of the Islamic Empire is what really solidifies the Sea Roads, and makes them equally important to the Silk Road. (Could you technically call it the Silk Interstate, cause it kinda connects…-Christian Dude)
Sea Roads as a Catalyst for Change: Southeast Asia
So most of the Eurasian civilizations were all great and all thanks to the Sea Roads, but we all know the main factor in those areas was the Silk Road. That was what really spread ideas, goods, diseases but especially change throughout the countries. What about places like East Africa and Southeast Asia? For one, you can’t take a camel over the water (unless it’s named Jesus-Christian Dude), and it probably wouldn’t be worth insanely long trip through Arabia and Egypt just to trade with the East Africans. So the only trade routes these areas had were the Sea Roads, and we see major changes happen thanks to these roads.
The first Kingdom we’ll be taking a look at is the Srivijaya. As sailors opened a route through the Strait of Malacca (Indonesia) in 350 CE, all these tiny city states on the coast of Sumatra begin to compete intensely to get the most trade. Somehow, the kingdom of Srivijaya wins this whole power struggle and they maintain control of this critical trade point from 670 to 1025. One more small thing: they had a huge supply of gold. That probably had a SMALL (just a little) effect on the way the economy turned out there. (If you guys couldn’t figure out that was a joke, you probably shouldn’t be in WHAP- Christian Dude)
The state of Funan flourished in Southern Vietnam and Eastern Cambodia and the Khmer Kingdom of Angkor dominated its lands around 800-1300 CE.
If there’s one place that influenced Southeast Asia besides the obvious China, it was India. The sudden explosion of trade in the area allowed for another close neighbor to send over a variety of ideas across to different kingdoms. We can see scripts like Sanskrit influence Southeast Asian languages, and we see an explosion of Buddhism in the area. The rulers of these lands want to be associated with the superior Indians (Heck yea- Christian Dude) so they adopt a bunch of Indian practices and stuff.
Some more important stuff to remember is the state of women’s rights (We’re supposed to learn FACTS in history, not fiction… JKJK - Christian Dude) So Southeast Asia is actually pretty chill with women, as they aren’t as patriarchic and allow women to manage property, initiate divorce, and be concerned with commerce. One big thing is that women are allowed to be warriors and soldiers, and also some take up high ranking positions as court officials.
Sea Roads as a Catalyst for Change: East Africa
So here’s an important word for this part of the chapter: Swahili.
…
…
…
Now you’re probably confused, because Swahili is the African language and all (which it is), but what we’re talking about are the people who created that language. The Swahili civilization was a collection of small city-states along the East African coast, that started in the 8th Century CE. The early ancestors of the Swahili lived in small villages and spoke Bantu languages, but as Islam made the Sea Roads exponentially grow in size, the Swahilis quickly jumped in to supply the market with exotic African products. A freaking giraffe found its way to India and then to China. Like dang.
Between 1000 and 1500 CE, the Swahilis then moved into large urban cities like Lamu, Mombasa, Kilwa, and Sofala. These city-states were all independent (kinda like Greece) and was in sharp competition with each other. There was nothing that really managed to unite the Swahili states and no city actually managed to control any strait, unlike Srivijaya’s Strait of Malacca (Hey, the Swahilis played life on Hard Mode. #Respect - Christian Dude)
Soon after, Swahili civilization became rapidly Islamic. Introduced by Arab traders, Islam spread through East Africa without any problems or conflict, and quickly became connected to the rest of the world through its Islamic connections. The sudden conversion of this area to Islam separated it from West African states, but after time the areas started trading, with East Africa acting as a mediator for trade for West African products. One kingdom in West Africa, Great Zimbabwe, reigned around 1250 to 1350, and had control of the gold industry. You know what that means.
Sand Roads: Exchange across the Sahara
We learned about the Silk Road, we were forced to memorize the Sea Roads. Now we have another set of roads? Come on people. So these Sand Roads, as the name suggest, connected the lands of North Africa and Mediterranean with the lands of West Africa deep on the other side of the Sahara Desert.
Commercial Beginnings in West Africa
So the first people to trade in West Africa weren’t long distance traders, but people trading with each other in the land of Sudan (“The Land of Black People” We kid you not - Christian Dude) Aaaaaaaand that’s it for that part.
Gold, Salt, and Slaves: Trade and Empire in West Africa
So how was the Sahara Desert of all places conquered? This is the largest desert on the planet aside from Antarctica that we’re talking about here. Guess what. It was the camel. (WHAT DOES THE CAMEL SAY? Ring ring ri- Christian Dude) So this amazing creature that can trek for long distances in the deserts with almost no resources gets introduced to Africa, and BOOM caravans are organized fast. We especially see a huge increase when Islam rises up and sends caravans through North Africa, converting the whole area.
Now, the Sahara isn’t just a barrier. It’s an international trade route, one that people in Western and Central Sudan could easy take advantage of by regulating and taxing merchants and trade. And that’s what happened. We see enormously rich states like Ghana, Mali, Songhay, and Kanem rise up and just dominate that part of the economy. Mansa Musa anyone? He gave out so much gold on his pilgrimage to Mecca that he managed to CRASH THE WORLD’S GOLD ECONOMY IN 1324. 1324! That’s the year Marco Polo died, like dang, we didn’t even know about America then.
So as these empires grow, we see the usual social repercussions of civilization occur. As always, a gender hierarchy appears, but this is a pretty loose one. While the Africans don’t like powerful women, they value the contributions of the normal housewife and worker woman. (Kinda good IG?- Christian Dude)
Now here’s another part of West African History. Slavery! So slavery is pretty much everywhere and eh well. They started out as mostly female concubines (wink wink-Christian Dude) and female domestic servants, but slowly, there were a lot more male slaves who did lots of hard labor for the states.
An American Network: Commerce and Connection in the Western Hemisphere
Before Columbus, the lands of the Americas developed pretty differently from Eurasia and Africa. The only real contact with the Americans was a few Viking expeditions here and there, but it was really Columbus’s discovery that soon got everyone into this new land. The special thing about the Americas is that there wasn’t much contact between civilizations. Yep, that’s right. You’ve memorized the Silk Road, Sea Roads, and Sand Roads, and now you need to memorize the American Not-A-Road. It’s like it’s just as bad without actually being as bad.
Anyways, we’re looking at barely any contact between Aztecs and Incas, and the absence of any horses, donkeys, camels, wheeled vehicles, or ships, and these all stopped contact with other civilizations, probably cause you can’t get to them in the first place, ya know? We also see problems with geography, as the Panama isthmus makes it hard to cross between both continents (Dang it Panama-Christian Dude) One big thing to remember (besides the Wheeled Vehicles) is that the Americas have a North-South orientation, where both Americas have the same longitude (time zone sort of) but completely different latitudes. In Eurasia though, we see that it’s spread clearly across the world, giving a East-West orientation. Why is this important? World Geography time! (And yes, we didn’t pay attention either in that class, so you’re not alone.) Different latitudes mean different climates meaning different lands meaning different crops! Everything is different! That means that even if the Aztecs discovered something useful in terms of agriculture, it would probably be useless to the completely different climate of the Incas. The civilizations rarely had any reason to contact each other. In Eurasia on the other hand, let’s say the Spainiards discover something. They’ll just contact their homies in Byzantium, and let them know about the cool things they found (although it’s not like they really got anything done during that time period) (HEY- Christian Dude). This allows Eurasia to spread ideas faster, but also manages to stop the Americas from really sharing any ideas. With a lack of reasons and ways to spread trade, no trade actually happened, and as such, no ideas really spread around the world.
Now, there were still small regional networks of trade in America, as seen in parts of North America. While overall, everyone was separate, you still see a little bit of contact here and there. The biggest network, however, was in between the Americas, with the Mesoamerica and Andes. Around 200-900 CE, the Mayans and Teotihuacans maintained connections and all.
Finalamente, it’s important to note that while the Aztecs used private traders called pochtecas, the Incas had a more state-run operation, with trade managed by the government.
Have a great day everyone, and make sure to comment on any suggestions you have on how to improve the guides, anything you want to say about our efforts, and really anything you want to say about the site!
Remember, while writing these guides DOES help us study ourselves, we still have better things to do with our lives, meaning that we would REALLY appreciate some gratefulness from our readers. If y’all would just let us know you’re there and spread the word to your friends, that would be great!
What’s up next? Well, we need to finish updating the rest of the chapters, and slowly replacing the Key Points Answers (we’re done with those), and we’re going to implement an ALL-NEW SYSTEM for Chapter 10! We hope it’ll work and we also hope that you’re just as excited for it as we are!
See y’all later!
BAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Yeah, he ain’t gonna win. Cause we get to do everywhere else in the world in this chapter. :D(PSH PLEASE)
So who else is pumped? BECAUSE I’M SO READY FOR THIS CHAPTER!
Wait… I’m not… (cries in a corner while typing up your study guide)
And now it’s time for one of the most important chapters in WHAP, COMMERCE AND CULTURE!
Let’s get started!
Intro
If there’s one big thing about WHAP, it’s that trade is important. Trade means interaction and interaction means history, and it also leads to change. Trade is an enormous way to facilitate new cultures without the use of warfare (although wars do get involved often).
So how did trade affect civilizations? Well, trade lead to changes in diets for many people, as new crops spread around the world to new areas. Herbs and spices were widely traded, and medicine and religious rituals grew. Also, different societies that used to be all isolated became encouraged to trade with others. Valuable items soon became commodities, and served as class distinctions.
Also, trade affected politics, as many new states popped up off of the idea of taxing and controlling trade in their area, and states were altered or destroyed as trade patterns shifted. There was the debate of how much states should control trade, as don’t forget, trading is suddenly the most advanced economic practice in the world nowadays, and is starting to worry governments. Different governments had different reactions, and we’ll get to those later.
And finally, trade is the reason why ideas, technologies, and diseases spread so far from their places of origins. Buddhism was dying in India, but experienced an enormous revival in Southeast Asia (expect a decent amount about that on the Test) and Islam spread to West Africa through trade (and if you read that study guide, you’ll know it was epic.) Also, the Black Death spread from city to city and devastated entire states. Trade has its benefits, and it has its drawbacks, sorta like how you’d drawback in terror from someone covered in buboes…
Silk Roads
Hey guys, I’ve got a question for y’all! I know you’re grumbling because now you actually have to use your brain and you can’t just learn off of this guide, but what product is the Silk Road named after? I’m sorry if you answered porcelain, you may want to see a doctor for that. The correct answer is SILK! :D
And yes, silk is important. Mostly because the Chinese monopoly on it brought about the Silk Road, which is what we’re about to discuss.
The Growth of the Silk Roads
So here’s yet another way to divide up Eurasia (as if you don’t already know 20). There’s Outer Eurasia and Inner Eurasia. Outer Eurasia is pretty much everywhere besides Central Asia. This area is full of every major civilization ever, like China, India, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean. These places have big governments and they also have nice agricultural societies and religions and good stuff. Inner Eurasia however is places like Central Asia. The big deal about these dudes is that they’re pastoral, so they’re tribes, and heavily disunited. When the second-wave civilizations pop up one by one, the pastoralists suddenly start losing power, and are conquered by pretty much everybody at once. The sudden size of these new civilizations made it far easier to trade with others.
Now, trade doesn’t last forever of course. After time, people stop like usual. It’s a cycle. Some major events however that revived trading included the Byzantine Empire, the Abbasid dynasty, the Tang Dynasty, and also, the creation of the enormous Mongol state. It encompassed almost the entire Silk Road at one point.
Goods in Transit
As the Silk Road grew, a lot of goods were obviously exchanged. The most famous of these, again obvious, is silk. So silk is discovered in 4,000 BCE, which is so old that it has its own CREATION MYTHS. Like that’s really, really old. Of course, because silk is actually a pretty beautiful cloth and all, every civilization wants to get their hands on it. As such, China begins selling a lot of silk. Now who makes this silk? It’s the women! (Ugh girls- Christian Dude) So the Chinese women are stuck doing all the stuff involved in silk making, and these are peasant Chinese women. They’re making one of the most valuable products known to man at that point, and they live in poverty. Oh well.
Now at some point in the 6th century CE, and we don’t know how, but the secret of silk gets out of China and spreads around the world. Rather sad for the Chinese. Rather awesome for everyone who takes advantage of it. Namely all the other Southeast Asian countries, India, and Persia. Now as the Islamic Empire jumps in popularity around the world, Europe, which never made silk for no reason, decides to buy tons of silk from the Muslim world, opening an enormous market over in that area. Silk spreads to Africa, and their kings wear it, and soon, the entire world has got silk.
Compared to nowadays, trade in the Silk Road was in okayish amounts. It’s not like some business deal happened every five minutes, or every hour for that matter. Things went sorta slow and steady, but obviously insanely fast compared to before. In some farms in China, they gave up agriculture and food production to make instead silk and other products that would make the Silk Road.
Cultures in Transit
So this whole thing is basically about Buddhism… so we should probably just call it
Buddhism in Transit
There, now that we have an actually accurate name...
So Buddhism spreads all over the place once the Silk Road gets started. It doesn’t get further than Persia, thanks to Zoroastrianism, but it finds a decent footing in Central Asia, where people peacefully convert so they can take advantage of the new connections they’ll have to Indians. (Everyone just wants to be with us.)(AYEEE-Christian Dude)
Soon Buddhism gets taken up by Pastoral people across Central Asia. And through the Silk Road, Buddhism first landed in China, and then exploded outwards into the rest of Southeast Asia, where it is still popular to this day.
As Buddhism was spreading around the world, it also changed itself. The original religion was all about saying screw life and just doing whatever, but now, monks were starting to get rich, and all of a sudden, the teachings got a lot more materialistic and all (We’re not trying to say anything obviously- Both Monotheist Dudes) This form of Buddhism was called Mahayana Buddhism, and worshipped Buddha as a deity, among other things. The original Buddhism didn’t do as well on the Silk Road, so now you see a lot more of this newer type around the world. Also, Buddhism picked up some cultural hints along the way, such as changing one of Buddha’s protectors to be kinda like Hercules, and using the gods of many people on the Silk Road as Buddhist gods.
Disease in Transit
We found out about goods spreading, we found out about ideas spreading. What about the one thing which does nothing but literally spread? That’s right: disease. And yeah, if you’ve played Plague Inc., you should know exactly what I mean, especially because the game is a lot more accurate than you think. Human populations have their own separate diseases that they’re all immune to and all, but if they get introduced to a new disease… it’s never been pretty. Smallpox and measles both crashed the Roman and Han Empires, but also ironically lead to the rise of Christianity and Buddhism as they were both great religions for dying people to convert to. Of course, we all know what the main disease of this era we’re all thinking about is:
Damn you Plague Inc. for making that the only free scenario, but I guess we all had fun destroying the modern world with an army of rats and buboes. Check that sentence again. Modern world. Did you have trouble on the Black Death scenario? Don’t worry, people died a whole lot easier back in Unit 3 (that’s not necessarily a good thing- Christian Dude)(Shut up I’m about to get a high score on Mega Brutal- Muslim Dude) So what happened? Most of the populations of these states were wiped out. In the goriest way possible. Buboes just aren’t a fashion statement, no matter how you look at them. They were hideous, gross, and it would be stupider to treat a patient with super primitive medical techniques compared to just loading up a body into a cart and burning it, as inhumane as that sounds. Black Death has affected a lot of the things that happened in Unit 3, but the biggest was probably the epidemics during the Mongol Rule, where insane amount of Europeans (UP TO HALF OF THEM. 1 IN 2!) died from the disease, and things were only barely better in other places in Eurasia.
If there’s any good news to Eurasians about all of that, when they conquered the Americas, they spread the diseases to the Native Americans and the natives perished instead. (Again, not necessarily a good thing.- Christian Dude)(I couldn’t handle it. I had to buy the rest of the Scenarios- Muslim Dude)
Sea Roads: Exchange across the Indian Ocean
So the Sea Roads are this enormous, enormous trade route. It’s basically the Indian Ocean which is the size of TWO Indias (TWICE THE CURRY- Christian Dude) It connects the Southeast Asian Islands along with China along with India along with Arabia along with East Africa. Yep, it’s humongous. I’m sure we’ve all heard of the Mediterranean Sea between North Africa and Europe now, right? It was also an enormous place of trade, but once Egypt became a trading spot with a port and grew in popularity, the Egyptian port of Alexandria managed to link the Mediterranean Sea network with the colossal Sea Roads. These next few pages are on the Sea Roads, and the diversity you could find there in states.
The Sea Roads also had advantages as the ships could hold more items, and soon, they carried mass items such as foods, unlike the solely luxury based trade on the Silk Road. One main reason why the Sea Roads worked were because of predictable monsoon wind currents that blew east to Malaysia in the summer and west to Africa in the winter. It’s important to remember that these expansive Sea Roads didn’t happen between 5 or 6 huge states, but it was actually hundreds of interconnected towns on the coast full of merchants that pulled off this gargantuan trade route. (You used five different words to say the Sea Roads were big by now. We get it.-Christian Dude)
Weaving the Web of an Indian Ocean World
People have been trading in the Indian Ocean for a while, like how the Mesopotamians had a whole thing going with the Indus Valley People. But it was really in the era of second-wave civilizations when sailors figured out how to ride the monsoon winds to travel larger distances across the Indian Ocean, and improved sailing technologies rapidly developed.
After some time, most of the cultures along the coastlines of this network started settling in and preparing for trade, but they obviously didn’t know how crowded it was about to get in a few hundred years (Or did they? ILLUMINATI- Christian Dude)
Now the Sea Roads are going all well and everything, but it takes two major world events to really bring the trade to the levels it was at in its peak. The first is the revival of the Chinese state after four centuries of war. This involves the Tang and Song Dynasties. Technically, like the Qin Dynasty, it’s the Sui Dynasty that does the uniting, but both were Legalist Dynasties and so both were quick and fast. I guess it’s important to note that both of China’s Legalist Dynasties were short-lived and unpopular, but in the end, they both brought China together after long periods of disunity, both times. You gotta hand them some credit for that. So the Tang and the Song give us some of the inventions the Chinese are famous for, but they also jumpstart the economy so well that Chinese products start flooding the market (Like nowadays? -Christian Dude) and that provides a huge boost to trade levels.
The second thing is what makes the Sea Roads basically the Silk Road’s elder brother. What could it be that unites the Sea Roads so well? Perhaps the religion that spreads rapidly to nearly every area in the Silk Road? Yep. If you were guessing Christianity, sorry, but it was only in Africa, and didn’t spread anywhere in the other parts of the Silk Road much. We’re talking about the rise of Islam, that just explodes in popularity everywhere there are traders. One main reason why is that Muslims are huge fans of trading, unlike the Confucian Chinese, so they really stimulate a strong trade system. They also colonize and conquer practically every place along the Sea Road, further spreading their religion and ideals. At one point, even Non-Muslim lands start adopting Muslim practices so they can get in on the trade too. The rise of the Islamic Empire is what really solidifies the Sea Roads, and makes them equally important to the Silk Road. (Could you technically call it the Silk Interstate, cause it kinda connects…-Christian Dude)
Sea Roads as a Catalyst for Change: Southeast Asia
So most of the Eurasian civilizations were all great and all thanks to the Sea Roads, but we all know the main factor in those areas was the Silk Road. That was what really spread ideas, goods, diseases but especially change throughout the countries. What about places like East Africa and Southeast Asia? For one, you can’t take a camel over the water (unless it’s named Jesus-Christian Dude), and it probably wouldn’t be worth insanely long trip through Arabia and Egypt just to trade with the East Africans. So the only trade routes these areas had were the Sea Roads, and we see major changes happen thanks to these roads.
The first Kingdom we’ll be taking a look at is the Srivijaya. As sailors opened a route through the Strait of Malacca (Indonesia) in 350 CE, all these tiny city states on the coast of Sumatra begin to compete intensely to get the most trade. Somehow, the kingdom of Srivijaya wins this whole power struggle and they maintain control of this critical trade point from 670 to 1025. One more small thing: they had a huge supply of gold. That probably had a SMALL (just a little) effect on the way the economy turned out there. (If you guys couldn’t figure out that was a joke, you probably shouldn’t be in WHAP- Christian Dude)
The state of Funan flourished in Southern Vietnam and Eastern Cambodia and the Khmer Kingdom of Angkor dominated its lands around 800-1300 CE.
If there’s one place that influenced Southeast Asia besides the obvious China, it was India. The sudden explosion of trade in the area allowed for another close neighbor to send over a variety of ideas across to different kingdoms. We can see scripts like Sanskrit influence Southeast Asian languages, and we see an explosion of Buddhism in the area. The rulers of these lands want to be associated with the superior Indians (Heck yea- Christian Dude) so they adopt a bunch of Indian practices and stuff.
Some more important stuff to remember is the state of women’s rights (We’re supposed to learn FACTS in history, not fiction… JKJK - Christian Dude) So Southeast Asia is actually pretty chill with women, as they aren’t as patriarchic and allow women to manage property, initiate divorce, and be concerned with commerce. One big thing is that women are allowed to be warriors and soldiers, and also some take up high ranking positions as court officials.
Sea Roads as a Catalyst for Change: East Africa
So here’s an important word for this part of the chapter: Swahili.
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Now you’re probably confused, because Swahili is the African language and all (which it is), but what we’re talking about are the people who created that language. The Swahili civilization was a collection of small city-states along the East African coast, that started in the 8th Century CE. The early ancestors of the Swahili lived in small villages and spoke Bantu languages, but as Islam made the Sea Roads exponentially grow in size, the Swahilis quickly jumped in to supply the market with exotic African products. A freaking giraffe found its way to India and then to China. Like dang.
Between 1000 and 1500 CE, the Swahilis then moved into large urban cities like Lamu, Mombasa, Kilwa, and Sofala. These city-states were all independent (kinda like Greece) and was in sharp competition with each other. There was nothing that really managed to unite the Swahili states and no city actually managed to control any strait, unlike Srivijaya’s Strait of Malacca (Hey, the Swahilis played life on Hard Mode. #Respect - Christian Dude)
Soon after, Swahili civilization became rapidly Islamic. Introduced by Arab traders, Islam spread through East Africa without any problems or conflict, and quickly became connected to the rest of the world through its Islamic connections. The sudden conversion of this area to Islam separated it from West African states, but after time the areas started trading, with East Africa acting as a mediator for trade for West African products. One kingdom in West Africa, Great Zimbabwe, reigned around 1250 to 1350, and had control of the gold industry. You know what that means.
Sand Roads: Exchange across the Sahara
We learned about the Silk Road, we were forced to memorize the Sea Roads. Now we have another set of roads? Come on people. So these Sand Roads, as the name suggest, connected the lands of North Africa and Mediterranean with the lands of West Africa deep on the other side of the Sahara Desert.
Commercial Beginnings in West Africa
So the first people to trade in West Africa weren’t long distance traders, but people trading with each other in the land of Sudan (“The Land of Black People” We kid you not - Christian Dude) Aaaaaaaand that’s it for that part.
Gold, Salt, and Slaves: Trade and Empire in West Africa
So how was the Sahara Desert of all places conquered? This is the largest desert on the planet aside from Antarctica that we’re talking about here. Guess what. It was the camel. (WHAT DOES THE CAMEL SAY? Ring ring ri- Christian Dude) So this amazing creature that can trek for long distances in the deserts with almost no resources gets introduced to Africa, and BOOM caravans are organized fast. We especially see a huge increase when Islam rises up and sends caravans through North Africa, converting the whole area.
Now, the Sahara isn’t just a barrier. It’s an international trade route, one that people in Western and Central Sudan could easy take advantage of by regulating and taxing merchants and trade. And that’s what happened. We see enormously rich states like Ghana, Mali, Songhay, and Kanem rise up and just dominate that part of the economy. Mansa Musa anyone? He gave out so much gold on his pilgrimage to Mecca that he managed to CRASH THE WORLD’S GOLD ECONOMY IN 1324. 1324! That’s the year Marco Polo died, like dang, we didn’t even know about America then.
So as these empires grow, we see the usual social repercussions of civilization occur. As always, a gender hierarchy appears, but this is a pretty loose one. While the Africans don’t like powerful women, they value the contributions of the normal housewife and worker woman. (Kinda good IG?- Christian Dude)
Now here’s another part of West African History. Slavery! So slavery is pretty much everywhere and eh well. They started out as mostly female concubines (wink wink-Christian Dude) and female domestic servants, but slowly, there were a lot more male slaves who did lots of hard labor for the states.
An American Network: Commerce and Connection in the Western Hemisphere
Before Columbus, the lands of the Americas developed pretty differently from Eurasia and Africa. The only real contact with the Americans was a few Viking expeditions here and there, but it was really Columbus’s discovery that soon got everyone into this new land. The special thing about the Americas is that there wasn’t much contact between civilizations. Yep, that’s right. You’ve memorized the Silk Road, Sea Roads, and Sand Roads, and now you need to memorize the American Not-A-Road. It’s like it’s just as bad without actually being as bad.
Anyways, we’re looking at barely any contact between Aztecs and Incas, and the absence of any horses, donkeys, camels, wheeled vehicles, or ships, and these all stopped contact with other civilizations, probably cause you can’t get to them in the first place, ya know? We also see problems with geography, as the Panama isthmus makes it hard to cross between both continents (Dang it Panama-Christian Dude) One big thing to remember (besides the Wheeled Vehicles) is that the Americas have a North-South orientation, where both Americas have the same longitude (time zone sort of) but completely different latitudes. In Eurasia though, we see that it’s spread clearly across the world, giving a East-West orientation. Why is this important? World Geography time! (And yes, we didn’t pay attention either in that class, so you’re not alone.) Different latitudes mean different climates meaning different lands meaning different crops! Everything is different! That means that even if the Aztecs discovered something useful in terms of agriculture, it would probably be useless to the completely different climate of the Incas. The civilizations rarely had any reason to contact each other. In Eurasia on the other hand, let’s say the Spainiards discover something. They’ll just contact their homies in Byzantium, and let them know about the cool things they found (although it’s not like they really got anything done during that time period) (HEY- Christian Dude). This allows Eurasia to spread ideas faster, but also manages to stop the Americas from really sharing any ideas. With a lack of reasons and ways to spread trade, no trade actually happened, and as such, no ideas really spread around the world.
Now, there were still small regional networks of trade in America, as seen in parts of North America. While overall, everyone was separate, you still see a little bit of contact here and there. The biggest network, however, was in between the Americas, with the Mesoamerica and Andes. Around 200-900 CE, the Mayans and Teotihuacans maintained connections and all.
Finalamente, it’s important to note that while the Aztecs used private traders called pochtecas, the Incas had a more state-run operation, with trade managed by the government.
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