Networks of Exchange 1200-1450 Module Overview

Introduction

As societies continue to develop after 1200, they will affect and be impacted by how they produce, exchange, and consume goods and services. As they continue to interact with one another there will by continued improvements in commercial practices that will help lead to surges in trade volume and help to expand the geographical rage of existing trade routes, including the Great Silk Roads, thus helping to promote the growth of influential new trade cities. New innovations on transportation and commercial arenas, such as caravanserai, forms of credit, and the development of money economies, will emerge as the demand for luxury goods grows thus expanding the interregional trade routes. The demand for these luxury goods will continue to rise and expand throughout Afro-Eurasia impacting Chinese, Indian and Persian artisans and merchants greatly in the industries of textiles, porcelains, iron and steel.

Nomadic herders populated the steppes of Asia for centuries during the classical and postclassical eras and periodically came into contact and conflict with the established states and empires of the Eurasian land mass. It was not until the eleventh century, however, that the nomadic peoples like the Turks and Mongols began to raid, conquer, rule, and trade with the urban-based cultures in a systematic and far-reaching manner. While these resourceful and warlike nomads often left a path of destruction in their wake, they also built vast transregional empires that laid the foundations for the increasing communication and exchange that would characterize the period from 1000 to 1500 in the eastern hemisphere.

This unit also explores the cross-cultural networks that linked Europe, Asia and Africa between 1200 and 1450. The Mongol conquests of the thirteenth century disrupted commerce along the ancient silk route through central Asia, but eventually trade and travel were restored and even strengthened. Although travel was slow and costly, international trade grew significantly with the exchange of crops, technologies, and ideas.

Essential Questions

What were the causes and effects of growth of networks of exchange after 1200?
Explain the process of state-building and decline in Eurasia over time. Pay particular attention to the Mongols.
How did the expansion of empires influence trade and communication over time?
What was the significance of the Mongol Empire in larger patterns of continuity and change?
Explain the causes of the growth of networks of exchange after 1200. Pay attention to Indian Ocean trade.
Explain the effects of the growth of networks of exchange after 1200.
What was the role of environmental factors in the development of networks of exchange in the period from 1200-1450?
Explain the causes and effects of the growth of trans-Saharan trade.
How did the expansion of empires influence trade and communication over time?
Explain the intellectual and cultural effects of the various networks of exchange in Afro-Eurasian from 1200-1450.
Explain the environmental effects of the various networks of exchange in Afro-Eurasia from 1200-1450.
Explain the similarities and differences among the various networks of exchange in the period from 1200-1450.

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