The environment shapes human societies, and as populations grow and change, these populations in turn shape their environments.

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

Explain the environmental effects of the various networks of exchange in Afro-Eurasia from c. 1200 to c. 1450.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS

K.C.-3.1.IV.--There was continued diffusion of crops and pathogens, with epidemic diseases, including the bubonic plague, along trade routes.

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES

Diffusion of crops:

§ Bananas in Africa

• native to New Guinea (cultivated in New Guinea at least 6500 years ago)

• bananas were first introduced from New Guinea into southeast Asia. From there sea traders could have brought them to East Africa across the Indian Ocean.

• in southern Cameroon, which has found evidence of banana cultivation dating back about 2500 years ago

§ New rice varieties in East Asia

• Champa rice

  • • Under the Tang dynasty, fast ripening rice was added to Chinese agricultural surpluses.

    • Native to Northern Vietnam.

    • Allowed peasants, in the warmer agricultural region of Southern china to grow two crops a year.

    • land redistribution and food surpluses spread China's prosperity.

§ Spread of citrus in the Mediterranean

• citron and lemon

  • • originated in Southeast Asia

    • earliest surviving evidence of citrus (dating back some 2,500 years) in the remains of a royal garden in Jerusalem, which was part of a Persian province at the time.

    • Lemons were a sign of privilege and wealth in ancient Rome.

    • It wasn’t until the 10th century A.D. that other citruses such as the sour orange, lime and pummelo were introduced to the Mediterranean Basin by invading Muslims, and sweet oranges and mandarins didn’t arrive until even later still (in the 1400s and 1800s, respectively, as part of lucrative new trade routes).

• The Apple

  • • 46 percent of the domestic apple genome comes from the Kazakhstan population of the Malus sieversii, while 21 percent comes from the European crabapple, Malus sylvestris; the other 33 percent of the domestic apple’s genome comes from uncertain origins.

    • As traders on the Silk Road traveling to the West ate these apples, they either planted their seeds deliberately or tossed their cores onto the roadside. The apple trees that resulted cross-pollinated with local species of crabapple.

    • Kazakhstan apples headed east as well, cross-breeding with other species, which resulted in the soft, sweet dessert apples found today in China.

Source the following images in one way (H.I.P.P.)

H-Historical Context

I-Intended Audience

P-Purpose

P-Point Of View (limitations of using the document)

The Gothic-lettered Latin text from the original source is only partial. They render the text as:

Accidit anno predicto quod in die assumptionis virginis gloriose venerunt a vill brugensi circiter CC homines, quasi ora [prandii. Ipsi autem adunaverunt se i foro, et statim rumor magnus fuit per totam civitatem, unde omnes veniebant. Catervatim venerunt ad locum supradictum, quia super hoc rumores audeirant et idcirco factum videre affectabant. Illi autem de Brugis interim se preparaverunt et ritum suum, quam penitantiam vocabant, facere inceperunt. Pupulus autem utriusque sexus, qui nunquam talk quid viderant,] ceperunt compati personis et penitentie condolore et deo gratias reddere super tanta penetencia quam gravissimam re[putabant. Remanseruntque dicti Brugenses in civitate tota illa die et nocte.]

... translated there as:

In the aforesaid year it came to pass that on the day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin (Aug. 15) some 200 persons came here from Bruges about [noon. These remained assembled on the market-place, and immediately the whole town was filled with curiosity as to why these folk had come. The burgesses came in small bodies to the market-place when the heard the news in order to convince them of the fact by their own eyes. Meantime the folk from Bruges prepared to perform their ceremonies which they called “penance”. The inhabitants of both sexes, who had never before seen any such thing], began to imitate the actions of the strangers, to torment themselves also by the penitential exercises and to thank God for this means of penance which seemed to them most effectual. [And the people from Bruges remained in the town the whole of that day and night.]

In the inscriptions at the bottom of the painting, each living character addresses a skeletal figure, who in turn makes a reply. Here is the exchange between the empress (shown in a red dress at the far right of the image) and Death.

First, the empress speaks:

I know, Death means me!

I was never terrified so greatly!

I thought he was not in his right mind, after all, I am young and also an empress. I thought I had a lot of power, I had not thought of him or that anybody could do something against me.

Oh, let me live on, this I implore you!

And then Death replies:

Empress, highly presumptuous, I think, you have forgotten me. Fall in! It is now time.

You thought I should let you off?

No way! And were you ever so much, You must participate in this play,

And you others, everybody-

Hold on! Follow me, Mr. Cardinal?"

The captions, from top to bottom, read:

Christ figure: "Tho it be late ere thou mercie came: yet mercie thou shalt have."

Priest figure: "Commit thy body to the grave: pray Christ thy soul to save."

Death figure: "I have sought thee many a day: for to have thee to my pray."

Key Takeaways

A) Positive -- Intensification of interaction resulted in a diversification of diet and the introduction of new staple crops enabling population growth and food stability

B.) Negative -- Intensification of interaction resulted in the introduction of new diseases resulting in devastating global epidemics.

C.) Thinking about the future: How will the growth of interaction provide examples of continuity through history?