Essay On The Convergence Of Transregional Networks Of Communication And Exchange

Trade has been an important commodity since the settlement of mankind. Trade routes as the Silk Road, Turquoise Road, and Gold Road have connected communities and countries throughout the continents. Trading doesn’t always involve commodities; trading can include technology, disease, and religion. Early global trade experienced wealth and prosperity because of the demand for goods, knowledge of the sellers, and expanding trade routes. When it comes to trading, supply and demand are a key factor, as seen in Document 1, trade routes reach worldwide.

Economic relationships between classical China and India were similar and almost seemed to rely on one another. India was considered “the center of trade”. Most trade routes were all passing through and dependent on India. Indian emphasis on trade and merchant activity was far more than in China, and also greater in the classical Mediterranean world. During the Maurya rule, India expanded their trade between the main centers of civilization Eurasia and Africa. Some products produced at one end of the system, such as Chinese silks and porcelains, were carried the whole length of the trading networks to be sold at the other end of the routes, in Rome. As a result, China and India both had to work together and figure out a way to make sure and help each other because both civilizations depended on each other for different things.

This allowed for lots of different types of luxury goods, mainly in Asia, including silk, spices, gunpowder, etc, to be traded among many different areas spreading culture and diversity. According to Ralph Fitch, a British merchant, once an area would get silver from one region they would go spend and trade their items in new places, increasing connections and help spread goods (Doc 4). Furthermore as new technologies emerged, including junks (large ships) and new understandings of monsoons, maritime trade expanded allowing countries to expand their trading networks overseas, rather than just on land as they were previously doing with the Silk Road and Trans Saharan, and get new luxury goods (Doc 5). As different regions had different resources, countries would travel to different regions to supplement the goods they had already obtained (Doc 7). Overall the expansion of the trade of silver increased connections and relationships among different cultures and governments which positively affected interaction between

The trading routes, created by the desire from both the New and Old World for exotic foods and animals,

Throughout early history, civilizations often sought to receive resources from afar to sustain their societies and keep themselves thriving, and to this end trade relations and eventually trade routes began to emerge. This aided civilizations in their discovery of foreign items that they may use to better their societies. These items traded ranged from complex technology to something as simple as nutmeg. The main trade routes that were utilized in East and South Asia were the silk road and the Indian Ocean Trade Network. In the 7th- 12th centuries, both the silk road and Indian ocean trade route had affected east and south Asia by the introduction of religions such as Buddhism changing government forms and altering the belief systems of society and changing how individuals live their daily lives, however differences were present in the impact that these routes had on daily lives, such as the Indian Ocean Trade Route giving rise to an entire new culture in Africa known as the Swahili and leading to the innovation of the sailing boat known as the Dhow, and the silk road led to the transmission of religion and resources throughout Eurasia and it led to utilization of caravans and animals as a means of trade.

Trade networks were a vital part of the political, economical, and cultural developments of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and China. A trade route is a network used to transport goods to other countries. Trade networks made a huge impact on the political, economical, and cultural developments in China, the Middle East and Africa, and Europe.

From the Mediterranean, the Bubonic plague spread along the Indian Ocean and from the Indian Ocean, it spread to China. As the Bubonic plague spread to China, it became very easy to keep spreading along the Silk Road, and eventually hit Europe where the deadliest “Black Death” occurred in 1347. This plague killed approximately 25-35 million people, which made up a third of the human population. This whole thing began when the Mongols launched an attack on the Italian merchant’s last trading station in the region. Then in 1346, plague broke out among the besiegers and from them entered into the town. Later attempting to flee the plague, the Italian merchants fled to their ships, unknowingly carrying the diseases with them. The diseases were also spread from place to place by fleas on rats, or other kinds of rodents who traveled along these trade routes. The Indian Ocean and Silk Road are similar in that the Bubonic Plague spread throughout both trade networks because since trade was very popular and happened all the time, people unknowingly would catch the disease from one place, only to be spreading it to their next stop, causing it to spread across the regions very

Religion is a force capable of both strengthening and weakening an empire. It is also a source from which much of the literature, art, and government of the ancient and classic periods sprouted from. It can also be used as a way to form a commonality between two distinct cultures in order to facilitate trade and ensure safety. In Document 1, a missionary was attempting to convert a powerful ruler to the Roman Catholic religion. This may have been done for several reasons, but the most likely reason would be to ease the tensions between the two completely different cultures. Whatever the reason may be, missionaries played an important role in cultural diffusion. Ideas were easily spread to other people through missionaries, but the ideas of others were also seen by the missionaries. Missionaries travel the world with their ideas and come back to their homeland having seen new sights and ideas. Sharing the differences of other cultures with the ruler may result in an inspiration to model certain things in their kingdom, empire, or dynasty after the things that the missionaries have seen in completely diverse parts of the world.

Although key elements of the trade between Africa and Eurasia changed during the era of 300-1450, a few factors stayed the same. In 300 C.E., trade routes were primarily between Europe and North Africa. The way that they changed by the time of 1450 was that they expanded southward and westward. By 1450, these trade routes went through West Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Indian Ocean. One factor that stayed the same during this time period was that the northern coast of Africa was always involved in the trade between Africa and the rest of Eurasia.

The introduction of international trade throughout the continent provided the Americas with goods once thought unattainable. Different trade routes began to stem from the original triangle route. All of these routes had one goal; to transport the goods in high demand in the most time and cost efficient way. The different branches were trading systems between the America’s, Europe, and Africa. Through these routes, captains traded goods and services such as slaves, sugar, tobacco, cotton, textiles, and many other manufactured goods. One history changing route was the Middle Passage. The course of this route was used to transport kidnapped Africans so they could be enslaved in the Americas. Within a three hundred year period, it is

Long distance trading had made it possible for people from different cultures to interact. Silk roads were one of the famous trade routes that were used in the ancient time. It stretched from China to central Asia and westward. It merged into one big series of routes. Traders traveled segments of the route, passing their goods on to others who took them further along the road, and in turn, passed them on again. The effect of long-distance exchanges altered the political geography of Afro-Eurasia. The Middle East became a commercial middle ground between the Mediterranean and Indian. The horse-riding nomads of Inner Eurasia made long-distance trade possible. Kushan empire in Afghanistan and the Indus River basin embraced a large and diverse

During the time period 600 C.E. to 1450 C.E., trade networks were relied upon to transfer goods, ideas, and services. Both the Trans-Saharan and Silk Road trade routes depended on animals, luxury goods, and economic growth. However, the trade routes differed in animals, types of luxury goods, and success of economic growth.

Silk was an important item that was traded and began during the Han Dynasty. The Silk Road was a network of trade routes and the first marketplace that allowed people to spread beliefs and cultural ideas across Europe and Asia. Merchants and traders of many countries traveled technologies, diseases and religion on the Silk Road; connecting the West and East. They also imported horses, grapes, medicine products, stones, etc. and deported apricots, pottery and spices. The interaction of these different cultures created a cultural diffusion. The road consisted of vast and numerous trade routes that went between China and Europe.

The Trans-Saharan trade was at the peak of formation from the 8th century until the early 17th century. The trade route existed before those times but was not as predominant. The route required one to travel across the Sahara from North to South. They would go from sub-Sharan Africa to the North African Coast or Europe to the Levant and vis versa.

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