What did the camel saddle the dhow ship the stirrup and the lateen sail have in common?

Networks of Communication and Exchange, 300 B.C.E. - 1100 C.E.

The Silk Road

• Intro
• First onset of trade, 100 b.c.e. - 1400/1500 c.e. - several periods of heavy use.
• The silk road was NOT a "highway".
• Silk Road consisted of many minor trade routes and included many different routes.
• Silk Road connected Asia, Africa, and Europe indirectly.
• The 7,000 mile route spanned China, Central Asia, Northern India, and the Roman Empire.
• It connected the Yellow River Valley to the Mediterranean Sea and passed through the present-day countries of Iran, Iraq, and Syria.
• It also provided a "Cross Road" of cultural exchange and cultural diffusion (synchronism).
• Many goods from Europe will usually take weeks or months to get to China.
• Origins and Operations
• Parthians - Persian Empire
• Dominant power in Northeastern Iran by 247 b.c.e. - 224 c.e.
• Fostered trade along the Silk Road - "Middle Men".
• China - General Zhang Jian - Han Dynasty, 128 b.c.e.
• 18 exploratory missions - Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tarim Basin.
• His missions opened China to many kingdoms and products.
• Lifestyle of nomads suited for long distance trade.
• 100 b.c.e
• Greeks and Romans bought silk from Parthian traders in Mesopotamian entrepots.
• Samarkand and Bukhara flourished from trade routes.
• China: alfalfa and wine; many different vegetables and fruits; horses.
• Rome: fruits and spices.
• Nomads -
• Silk Road could NOT have flourished without pastoral nomads.
• Provided animals, animal handlers, and protection.
• Scythians - superb riders, herdsmen - North of the Black and Caspian Seas.
• Established the custom of yurts.
• Nomads existed on self-sufficiency - all things consumed came from animals.
• Traded for metal items - bridles, stirrups, cart fittings, and weapons.
• The Impact of the Silk Road
• Buddhism spread from India to China because of the trade along the Silk Road.
• By the 6th century, nomads from the Altai Mountains became the dominant pastoral group.
• Spoke Turkish languages.
• Yurts.
• Some became wealthy from the silk trade.
• Converted to Buddhism, and other religions like Christianity and Zoroastrianism.
• Military strategies spread east and west from Central Asia.
• Chariot warfare and mounted bowmen.
• Stirrup - Kushan in origin - greater stability in the saddles.
• Armored knights in Europe.
• Tang superiority of cavalry.

The Indian Ocean Maritime System

• The Silk Road included not only land, but also sea lanes in the Indian Ocean.
• Multilingual, Multicultural.
• Forged strong economic and social ties between Africa and Asia.
• The Indian Ocean Trade Network:
• South China Sea - dominated by Chinese and Malays.
• East Coast of India to Southeastern Islands - dominated by Malays and Indians.
• West Coast of India to Persian Gulf to East Coast of Africa - Persians and Arabs.
• Some Chinese did venture to East Africa.
• Some Arab/Persian traders reached South China.
• Origination and Contact of Trade
• First ocean that humans could cross rather than clinging to shore lines.
• Evidence suggests that Southeastern Asians (Malays) migrated to Madagascar.
• Atlantic and Pacific Ocean migration was impossible for some time.
• Early trade between Mesopotamia and India; and then Mesopotamia and East Africa.
• The Nature of the Indian Ocean
• Sailor's Ocean:
• Warm,placid waters - big storms stay south.
• Wind system - monsoons reverse directions in a predictable way.
• Sailing Technology
• Different boats - planks were pierced and tied together.
• Lateen sails - triangular sails as opposed to ancient square sails.
• Dhow - "Arab lateen-rigged boat, usually having a long overhang forward, a high poop, and a low waist."
• Varied Environment Leads to Trade Stimulus
• Wood shipped to Persian Gulf from India.
• Horses from Arabia shipped to India.
• Pepper and spices from India and Southeast Asia to Africa and beyond.
• Slaves from Africa to the Middle East and India.
• Port cities were diverse and cosmopolitan.
• Impact of the Indian Ocean Trade
• The variety of trade was diverse.
• Sailors often lost political contact with homelands; intermarried with locals.
• Port cities did not have intimate connection to inland populations.
• Spread of Islam to Southeast Asia.

Routes Across the Sahara

• Early Saharan Cultures
• Theory: Pre-2500 b.c.e., "The Great Dry-Out" or desertification.
• Trade and travel slowed to a trickle.
• Topography
• Sand dune fields, but also arid mountains, plateaus, sand and gravel covered plains, shallow basins, and large oasis depressions.
• Cave paintings found in cave.
• Believed these people thrived as cattle herders before the desert developed.
• Trade - Bottom Line - Unclear of its Orign
• Rock art depicts chariots.
• Most likely developed as the result of camel domestication - Latin text - 46 b.c.e. - first to mention camels which probably came from Arabia in the 1st millennium b.c.e.
• Trade Across the Sahara
• Link between trade system in the North and the one in the South was slow.
• Traders in the southern Sahara had access to desert salt deposits and exported salt to the sub-Saharan regions in return for Kola nuts and palm oil.
• Traders in the north exported agricultural products and wild animals to Italy.
• The earliest evidence for domesticated camels in the region dates from the 3rd century.
• Used by the Berber people, they enabled more regular contact across the entire width of the Sahara.
• Regular trade routes did not develop until the beginnings of the Islamic conversion of West Africa in the 7th and 8th centuries.

• A Challenging Geography
• Great variety in environments.
• Noteworthy - Sahel, the tropical rainforest of lower Niger, the savanna south of the rainforest, the steppe and desert below that, and the temperate highlands of South Africa.
• African Cultures are diverse.
• 2,000 languages spoken.
• Many food production systems that reflect ecological diversity.
• No foreign power conquered all of Africa to impose cultural unity.
• African Cultural Characteristics
• Despite diversity - certain common features of underlying cultural unity.
• Kingship - kings are ritually isolated, age group and kinship divisions.
• Common features - digging sticks, rhythm in music, dancing, and masks.
• Explanation - Sub-Saharan Africans are descendants of Saharans that migrated south.
• The Advent of Iron and the Bantu Migrations
• Agriculture and iron working began north of the equator and spread south in the 1st millennium b.c.e.
• Bantu Migration - 
• Common linguistic group that perpetuated the spread of iron and technology.
• Homeland - modern area of Nigeria and Cameroon.
• Spread east and south through migrations over the first millennium c.e.

The Spread of Ideas

• Challenges of Ideas and Material Evidence
• Dissemination is difficult to trace in preliterate societies.
• Coins - Did people influence each other or invent in isolation coincidentally?
• The Spread of Buddhism
• Spread of ideas and belief system became deliberate during the 1st millennium c.e. - Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam.
• Royal sponsorship, pilgrimages, and missionaries.
• King Ashoka of Maurya dynasty (3rc century c.e.).
• King Kanishka of the Kushan Kingdoms.
• Missionaries traveled to Egypt, Syria, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, and Tibet.
• Buddhism changed as it spread to reflect local cultures.
• The Spread of Christianity
• Mediterranean states spread Christianity to Armenia and Ethiopia.
• Armenia - important entrepot for the Silk Road.
• Spread to both locals purposely to circumvent influence of Iran on those places.