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.