Trade Routes in the Medieval World

Columbian Exchange

Trade Routes in the Medieval World

New World Trade Routes

Old World Trade Routes

Dunhuang:

One of the major outposts of the Silk Road, Dunhuang was known for the trade of materials from India to Mongolia and Siberia. Today multiple cave systems show an elaborate Buddhist tradition.

"Kashgar"

Florence:

Florence led Europe in trading, banking, and the arts. The Medici family, especially, helped launch the Renaissance era in Europe.

Banking:

Modern day banking has its roots in the city-states of Italy. Florence, Venice, and Genoa were led by families who had their roots in banking. Through loans these families were able to fund various traders, explorers, and the arts.

Constantinople

Florence

Constantinople:

Watch without sound:

What do you think the Columbian exchange is? What is happening in the video?

Chichén Itzá:

Watch the video again, with sound:

The bridge between Europe and the Middle East, Constantinople was major trading port and the capital of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire.

Kashgar:

A conquered capital, much like Tikal, Chichén Itzá was a powerhouse in the northern Maya territories. The elite of Chichén Itzá eventually left, but the commoners stayed. When the Spanish came, they found no local rulers to fight against their rule, thus they did not devastate the city, simply claiming it as their own.

Chichén Itzá

Black Death:

*Show after activities

Discuss:

Perhaps the most devastating disease that ran through the world the Black Death took the lives of over 200 million people. Sometimes refereed to as the Bubonic Plague (one of its more deadly variations) the Plague killed approximately 25% of the Old World population (Asia, Africa, and Europe). As it traveled along the trade routes 40-70% of the people at each site would die off, devastating whole civilizations. It did not follow the trade paths just once, but three major waves of the disease devastated generation after generation.

• What is the Columbian exchange?
• What is happening to the red fish and the blue fish?
• What do each fish symbolize?
• What were the positive and negative effects of Columbian Exchange?

Over 2,000 years old, Kashgar is a major trading site between China, the Middle East, and Europe. It has been fought over by every major empire since its inception.

Caravans:

Camel caravans were the best way to travel through the deserts. While many think of the Sahara deserts, Asia contained the Taklamakan Desert, one which needed to be crossed if one wanted to make a profit. Double humped camels (Bactrian) were able to carry lots of goods and need little water for the excursions.

Tenochtitlán:

Tenochtitlán became the largest city in Mesoamerica, having trade routes from the Pacific ocean, to the Gulf of Mexico, possibly all the way to the Inca Empire. With a population of over 200,000, it was the capital of the Aztec people. All kinds of good were traded throughout this city.

Trade in the Aztec Empire:

Trade was at the heart of all the Mesoamerican culture. In an area where physical "money" was nonexistent, people traded goods in oer to obtain food, clothing, and extras to show their wealth. The Aztecs came closest to what we would consider "money" with cacao beans, using them to trade for small items.

Tenochtitlán

Baghdad:

Tik'al:

The jewel of Arabia, Baghdad had universities, libraries, hospitals and more. It was the intellectual powerhouse of the known world...until the Mongols came......

Tik'al was a massive capital before the Maya came through and conquered the city. Not much is known of those they conquered. Tik'al was an economic powerhouse of the Maya period and has the most complete records of any Maya kingdom.

Oasis:

The oasis was the saving grace of caravan travelers. Spots in the desert where water well up from the ground, these were explosions of life in otherwise barren deserts. The provided water, fuel for fires, and if ther were developed by the traders, even food.

Cairo:

Tik'al

Ships trying to sail from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea were unable to find a sea route. They either had to sell their goods in Cairo or transport their entire ship across land to Berenike.

Markets:

Markets were where people went to buy not just exotic goods, but also the day to say supplies they needed. Traders were a to sell their goods that came from near or afar and hopefully make a profit. This was where you could find all the world's goods in a single place.

Copán:

A major Maya city, Copán was inhabited for over 2,000 years. In the lowland Maya territory, the Maya rulers built an elaborate city showing off their culture to all nearby tribes.

Cairo:

The gateway between Africa and the Middle East, traders in Cairo traded every type of good, from coffee, to gold, to slaves, to spices.

Copán

Cairo

Guangzhou:

Guangzhou was the starting point of many major trade routes, both from land and by sea. Traders would not travel the whole route, just a part of the distance where they would trade their goods to another set of traders, who took them further along the route.

Guangzhou:

Inventions:

Traders came to China for their goods, such as silk and porcelain. However, these goods could not exist without technological innovation which made it possible. Further development in seafaring would make it possible for traders to travel much further by sea, expanding national influence.

As China became more insular, foreign traders were banned from entering the country, except in specific cities in specific areas, like Guagzhou. Thus, the city became very western looking in appearance.

Art and Religion

Foreign Traders:

Foreign traders were not always welcome with open arms. Governments sometimes feared the results of outside involvement in their civilization and confined these traders to single ports. Both Japan and later-Ming China were known to be insular, and made sure the outsiders did not enter their nations.

Timbuktu:

The formation of the Gupta Empire solidified land and sea trade routes for a period of time, allowing the spread of Buddhism and art throughout SE Asia and China. While waiting for the monsoonal winds to change, cultures had an extended period of time to absorb each other's styles art and religion.

The Buddha in India

The Buddha in China

Timbuktu was the star of the Malian Empire. It boasted a university that scholars from far away traveled to for knowledge. At the center of the gold and salt trade, it was extremely prosperous.

How has the Indian Buddha influenced how the Buddha looks in Southeast Asia and China?

How has Southeast Asia and China kept their own aesthetics yet still created the Buddha?

The Buddha in Southeast Asia

Gold and Salt:

Gold from the southern mines and salt from the northern dunes made the West African empires extremely wealthy. An extremely wealthy king of Mali, Mansa Musa, spread the wealth though on a Hajj, opening up West Africa to the rest of the known world.

Djenne

Calicut

Gao:

Gold mines in the south were traded up into Gao and Timbuktu. Gold became a predominant display to show weath and involved intricate jewelry.

Djenne:

A city of adobe, Djenne was a major city of all the West African empires. It had close ties to Timbuktu and traded in gold, salt , and slaves.

Calicut:

At the tip of the Indian subcontinent, Calicut was the perfect place for traders from the far east to exchange goods with traders from the far west.

Spices:

In an era without refrigeration, salting meat was the only was to save it without going bad. Salt, as well as all other spices, were worth their literal weight in gold. A fortune could be made off small bags of spice, many of which were unfamiliar in Europe, making them even more exotic.

"Malacca"

Malacca:

The Straits of Malacca were a safer route than sailing through the Indian Ocean, and Malacca was the main port to trade goods. It also saw many different types of ships from all over the known world.

Ships:

New technology in sailing led to explorers being able to sail further out from the coast then before. Changes in sails and rudders, the invention in the compass, all plus more led to humans becoming able to cross whole oceans and survive.

Quito:

The Inca fought hard against the native tribes in order to build what would become their capital, Quito. At the end of the Inca Road, goods from the Inca would travel north through smaller tribes, reaching Central America.

Quito

Cuzco

Cuzco:

The religious capital of the Inca world, Cuzco was built to be impressive and show the surrounding tribes the might of the Inca empire. Cuzco is also known fro being closest to Machu Picchu, one of the only sites not devastated by the Spanish conquistadors. It was built as a palace for Emperor Pachacuti.

There were many artifacts left behind not just at Machu Picchu, but also other sites. Lets look closely at the Feathered Headdress.

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/indigenous-americas/v/feathered-headdress-aztec

Santiago:

The Santiago region was the furthest extent of the Inca roads. The Inca used preexisting roads along with their own to stretch over 25,000 miles both inland and along the coast

Santiago