Most of the products being traded around the world at this point are being done on the Indian Ocean (not the Silk Road). Why? The Indian Ocean is cheaper and faster to trade on (and safer) while the Silk Road takes longer and well isn't the safest route to travel (until the Mongols control the whole thing). The Silk Road also was primarily focused on luxury items, while the Indian Ocean was a more commercialized and every day item trade. The average person could USE these items - like lumber, textiles (cotton), coffee, spices. These items could be carried in BULK as well.

For this topic you should be able to:

(ECN) Explain the causes of the growth of networks of exchange after 1200.

• Improved transportation technologies and commercial practices led to an increased volume of trade and expanded the geographical range of existing trade routes, including the Indian Ocean, promoting the growth of powerful new trading cities.

• The growth of interregional trade in luxury goods was encouraged by significant innovations in previously existing transportation and commercial technologies, including the use of the compass, the astrolabe, and larger ship designs (junk and dhow ships).

• The Indian Ocean trading network fostered the growth of states such as:

  • City-states of the Swahili-Coast

  • Gujarat

  • Sultanate of Malacca

(CDI) Explain the effects of the growth of networks of exchange after 1200.

• In key places along important trade routes, merchants set up diasporic communities where they introduced their own cultural traditions into the indigenous cultures and, in turn, indigenous cultures influenced merchant cultures.

• Interregional contacts and conflicts between states and empires encouraged significant technological and cultural transfers, including during Chinese maritime activity led by Ming Admiral Zheng He.

• Diasporic communities:

• Arab and Persian communities in East Africa

• Chinese merchant communities in Southeast Asia

• Malay communities in the Indian Ocean basin

(ENV) Explain the role of environmental factors in the development of networks of exchange in the period from c. 1200 to c. 1450.

• The expansion and intensification of long distance trade routes often depended on environmental knowledge, including advanced knowledge of the monsoon winds.