Key Concept 3.1

Expansion and Intensification of Communication and Exchange Networks

Although Afro-Eurasia and the Americas remained separate from one another, this era witnessed a deepening and widening of old and new networks of human interaction within and across regions. The results were unprecedented concentration of wealth and the intensification of cross-cultural exchanges. Innovations in transportation, state policies, and mercantile practices contributed to the expansion and development of commercial networks, which in turn served as conduits for cultural, technological, and biological diffusion within and between various societies. Pastoral or nomadic groups played a key role in creating and sustaining these networks. Expanding networks fostered greater interregional borrowing, while at the same time sustaining regional diversity. The prophet Muhammad promoted Islam, a new major monotheistic religion at the start of this period. It spread quickly through practices of trade, warfare, and diffusion characteristic of this period.

I. Improved transportation technologies and commercial practices led to an increased volume of trade, and expanded the geographical range of existing and newly active trade networks.

• Existing trade routes flourished and promoted the growth of powerful new trading cities.
  • Existing Trade Routes
  • Silk Roads
  • Mediterranean Sea
  • Trans-Saharan
  • Indian Ocean basins
  • New Trading Cities
  • Novgorod
  • Timbuktu
  • The Swahili city-states
  • Hangzhou
  • Calicut
  • Baghdad
  • Melaka
  • Venice
  • Tenochtitlan
  • Cahokia
• New trade routes centering on Mesoamerica and the Andes developed.
• The growth of interregional trade in luxury goods was encouraged by significant innovations in previously existing transportation and commercial technologies, including more sophisticated caravan organization; use of the compass, astrolabe, and larger ship designs in sea travel; and new forms of credit and monetization
  • Luxury Goods
  • Silk and cotton textiles
  • Porcelain
  • Spices
  • Precious metals and gems
  • Slaves
  • Exotic animals
  • Caravan Organization
  • Caravanserai
  • Camel saddles
  • Credit and Monetization
  • Bills of exchange
  • Credit
  • Checks
  • Banking houses
• Commercial growth was also facilitated by state practices, trading organizations, and state-sponsored commercial infrastructures like the Grand Canal in China.
  • State Practices
  • Minting of coins
  • Use of paper money
  • Trading Organizations
  • Hanseatic League
• The expansion of empires facilitated Trans-Eurasian trade and communication as new peoples were drawn into their conquerors' economies and trade networks.
• China
• The Byzantine Empire
• The Caliphates
• The Mongols

II. The movement of peoples caused environmental and linguistic effects.

• The expansion and intensification of long-distance trade routes often depended on environmental knowledge and technological adaptations to it.
  • The way Scandinavian Vikings used their longships to travel in coastal and open waters as well as in rivers and estuaries
  • The way the Arabs and Berbers adapted camels to travel across and around the Sahara
  • The way Central Asian pastoral groups used horses to travel in the steppes
• Some migrations had a significant environment impact
  • The migration of Bantu-speaking peoples who facilitates transmission of iron technologies and agricultural techniques in Sub-Saharan Africa.
  • The maritime migrations of the Polynesian peoples who cultivated transplanted foods and domesticated animals as they moved to new islands.
• Some migrations and commercial contacts led to the diffusion of languages throughout a new region or the emergence of new languages.
  • The spread of Bantu languages including Swahili
  • The spread of Turkic and Arabic languages

III. Cross-cultural exchanges were fostered by the intensification of existing, or the creation of new, networks of trade and communication.

• Islam, based on the revelations of the prophet Muhammad, developed in the Arabian peninsula. The beliefs and practices of Islam reflected interactions among Jews, Christian, and Zoroastrians with the local Arabian peoples. Muslim rule expanded to many parts of Afro-Eurasia due to military expansion, and Islam subsequently expanded through the activities of merchants and missionaries.
• In key places along important trade routes, merchants set up diasporic communities where they introduced their own cultural traditions into the indigenous culture.
  • Muslim merchant communities in the Indian Ocean region
  • Chinese merchant communities in Southeast Asia
  • Sogdian merchant communities throughout Central Asia
  • Jewish communities in the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean basin, or along the Silk Roads
• The writings of certain interregional travelers illustrate both the extent and the limitations of intercultural knowledge and understanding.
• Ibn Battuta
• Marco Polo
• Xuanzang
• Increased cross-cultural interactions resulted in the diffusion of literary, artistic, and cultural traditions.
  • The influence of Neo-confucianism and Buddhism in East Asia
  • Hinduism and Buddhism in Southeast Asia
• Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia
  • Toltec/Mexica and Inca traditions in Mesoamerica and Andean America
• Increased cross-cultural interactions also resulted in the diffusion of scientific and technological traditions.
  • The influence of Greek and Indian mathematics on Muslim scholars
  • The return of Greek science and philosophy to Western Europe via Muslim al-Andalus in Iberia
  • The spread of printing and gunpowder technologies from East Asia into the Islamic empires and Western Europe

IV. There was continued diffusion of crops and pathogens throughout the Eastern Hemisphere along the trade routes.

• New foods and agricultural techniques were adopted in populated areas.
  • Bananas in Africa
  • New rice varieties in East Asia
  • The spread of cotton, sugar, and citrus throughout Dar al-Islam and the Mediterranean basin
• The spread of epidemic diseases, including the Black Death, followed the well established paths of trade and military conquest.