Intro to Part three and Chapter 7 were an interesting read.
I learned a lot from these readings starting with the fact the long-distance
trade had a time where it became “more important than ever” which was in
500-1300. In this time, it linked and shaped societies and peoples. I also
learned about how commerce altered consumption and shaped daily life. Trade
also had many impacts on societies such as: diminishing economic
self-sufficiency in local societies, becoming means of social mobility,
capacity to transform political life. Trade also had an impact on wealth in
many societies. I learned that Silk Roads had economic and political
consequences such as: civilizations giving up on food crops to focus on
producing silk and this had an impact on the lives of ordinary farmers. Also,
that it had an impact on culture and that Buddhism spread widely through
central and east Asia due to these roads. I also learned that disease had an
impact on a spike in Buddhism and Christianity, and it also prevented the
Byzantium from reintegrating Italy INTO ITS VERSION OF A RENEWED roman empire that
encompassed the Mediterranean basin. I also learned that the tang and song dynasties
were when change re-established itself as an effective and unified state. I
also learned that donkeys were used to transport gold for short distance and
camels for longer distances. I thought this reading was more interesting
because I did a closer reading than I have done on the other chapters, and I took
notes on my blog while I was reading which made my reading take about 25-30
minutes longer, but I feel like it was worth it because I understood the
chapter in much more detail than before. I liked how I could understand the
positive impact of the Silk Roads and also the consequences. It was also cool
to see how Buddhism really flourished through the silk roads and how even
though the spread of diseases was a bad thing, it saved Italy but also weakened
Christendom from standing against Muslims. I think this is relevant to today’s
society because we do a lot of trading and transporting things, and a lot of
shipping. From books for school, to dog food, to clothes. Back home on Guam we
used to have a lot of poisonous insects found and spread throughout the island
from ships and the department of agriculture had to inspect the insects and do
all they could to demolish the species on the island. There was also an
incident where a certain kind of snake was transported from somewhere in the
world to Guam and it started to eat up our Islands COCO or KOKO’ birds, which
was an important symbol on the island, and the KOKO’ or COCO birds are now an
endangered species and are not typically seen throughout the island anymore. We
also had a spread of rhino beetles in which are beetles who dig to the root of
our Coconut trees and kill them, Coconut trees are important on Guam not only
because they island like, but our ancestors utilized Coconut trees as their
source of life and used it for food, fires, to build huts (which were their
homes back in the day) and as clothing. The Rhino beetles have killed many of
our Coconut trees back home and many of them have fallen onto the roads or have
been cut down because they were dead, and now the island is doing their part on
trying to kill or keep all rhino beetles away from the coconut trees and
re-planting Coconut trees around the island because it is an important part of
our culture and we still use them today for cultural dances, to weave, and for
cooking.
NOTES ON OCTOBER 22, 2017:
- 500-1300: LONG DISTANCE TRADE BECAME BECAME MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER BEFORE IN LINKING AND SHAPING DISTANT SOCIETIES AND PEOPLES
- LONG-DISTANCE TRADING WAS MORE INDIRECT: A CHAIN OF SEPARATE TRANSACTIONS IN WHICH GOODS TRANVELED FATHAR THAN INDIVIDUAL MERCHANTS
- COMMERCE OFTEN ALTERED CONSUMPTION AND SHAPED DAILY LIFE
- TRADE ALSO IMPACTED THE WORKING LIVES OF MANY PEOPLE: ENCOURAGING THEM TO SPECIALIZE IN PRODUCING PARTICULAR PRODUCTS FOR SALE IN DISTANT MARKETS RATHER THAN FOR USE IN THEIR OWN COMMUNITIES
- TRADE ALSO DIMINISHED THE ECONOMIC SELF-SUFFICIENCY OF LOCAL SOCIETIES
- TRADE BECAME A MEANS OF SOCIAL MOBILITY IN SOME SOCITIES
- TRADE ALSO HAD THE CAPACITY TO TRANSFORM POLITICAL LIFE
- WEALTH AVAILABLE FROM CONTROLLING AND TAING TRADE MOTIVATED THE CREATION OF STATES IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE WORLD AND SUSTAINED THOSE STATES ONCE THEY HAD BEEN CONSTRUCTED
- COMMERCE POSED A SET OF PROBLEMS TO GOVERNMENTS EVERYWHERE
- **AZTEC EMPIRE- TRADE LEFT IN PRIVATE HANDS**
- **INCA EMPIRE- TRADE CONTROLLED BY THE STATE**
- **TRADE BECAME A VEHICLE FOR THE SPREAD OF RELIGIOUS IDEAS, TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS, DISEASE-BEARING GERMS, AND PLANTS AND ANIMALS**
SILK ROADS: EXCHANGE ACROSS EURASIA
- SILK ROAD TRADING NETWORKS PROSPERED MORE WHEN LARGE AND POWERFUL STATES PROVIDED SECURITY FOR MERCHANTS AND TRAVELERS
- FLOURISHED AGAIN DURING THE SEVENTH AND EIGHTH CENTURIES - BYZANTINE EMPIRE, MUSLIM ABBASID DYNASTY, AND TANG DYNASTY
-TECHONOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS: YOKES, SADDLES, STIRRUPS
- MOST LUXURIOUS GOOD: SILK WHICH SYMBOLIZED EURASIAN NETWORK OF EXCHANGE.
- SILK = CHINA IN 3000 B.C.E OR EARLIER
- 6TH CENTURY - KNOWLEDGE OF PRODUCING RAW SILK SPREAD BEYOND CHINA
- CENTRAL ASIA AND SILK - USED AS CURRENCY AND ACCUMULATING WEALTH
- CHINA AND BYZANTINE EMPIRE AND SILK - SYMBOL OF HIGH STATUS, LAWS PASSED THAT RESTRICTED SILK CLOTHING TO MEMBERS OF THE ELITE
- ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES:
-- YANGZI REIVER DELTA GAVE UP CULTIVATION OF FOOD CROPS TO FOCUS ON PRODUCING SILK, PAPER, ETC.
-- IMPACTED LIVES OF ORDINARY FARMERS
---CONDUIT OF CULTURE:
- BUDDHISM: PRODUCT OF INDIA, SPREAD WIDELY THROUGHOUT CENTRAL AND EAST ASIA
--OWED MUCH TO THE ACITIVITES OF MERCHANTS ALONG SILK ROADS.
--MERCHANTS PREFERED ITS UNIVERSAL MESSAGE
-SOGDIANS: LANGUAGE BECAME MEDIUM OF COMMUNICATION
-- FOUND IN BUDDHISM THAT LARGER, WEALTHY, AND PRESTIGIOUS CIVILIZATION OF INDIA
---DIEASE IN TRANSIT:
-PARADOXICALLY: THESE DISEASES MAY WELL HAVE STRENGTHENED THE APPEAL OF CHRISTIANITY IN EUROPE AND BUDDHISM IN CHINA
-BOTH OFFERED COMPASSION IN THE FACE OF IMMENSE SUFFERING
-BUBONIC PLAGUE
-PLAYED A BIG ROLE IN PREVENTING BYZANTIUM FROM REINTEGRATING ITALY INTO ITS VERSION OF A RENEWED ROMAN EMPIRE ENCOMPASSING THE MEDITERRANEAD BASIN
-ALSO WEAKENED THE ABILITIY OF CHRISTENDOM TO RESIST MUSLIM ARMIES FROM ARABIA
- BLACK DEATH: IDENTIFIED VARIOUSLY WITH THE BUBONIC PLAGUE, ANTHRAX, OR PACKAGE OF EPIDEMIC DISEASES: FROM CHINA TO EUROPE
- THE EXCHANGE OF DISEASES GAVE EUROPEANS A CERTAIN ADVANTAGE WHEN THEY CONFRONTED THE PEOPLES OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE TO EURASIAN DISEASES
SEA ROADS: EXCHANGE ACROSS THE INDIAN OCEAN
--WEAVING THE WEB OF AN INDIAN OCEAN WORLD:
- ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL REVIVAL OF CHINA
- TANG AND SONG DYNASTIES: CHINA RE-ESTABLISHED AN EFFECTIVE AND UNIFIED STATE, ACTIVELY ENCOURAGED MARITIME TRADE
- SUDDEN RISE OF ISLAM, SUBSEQUENT SPREAD ACROSS MUCH OF THE AFRO-EURASIAN WORLD
- ISLAM WAS FRIENDLY TO COMMERCIAL LIFE
--SEA ROADS AS CATALYSTS FOR CHANGE IN SOUTHEST ASIA:
- SRIVIJAYA: CONNECTION BETWEEN COMMERCE AND STATE BUILDING
--SEA ROADS AS CATALYST FOR CHANGE: EAST AFRICA
- GOLD, IVORY, QUARTZ, LEOPARD SKINS, SOMTIMES SLAVES
- SWAHILI: COMMERCIAL CENTERS THAT ACCUMULATED GOODS FROM THE INTERIOR AND EXCHANGED THEM FOR THE PRODUCTS OF DISTANT CIVILIZATIONS
-GENERATED CLASS-STRATIFIED URBAN SOCIETIES WITH SHARP DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN A MERCANTILE ELITE AND COMMONERS
SAND ROADS: EXCHANGE ACROS THE SAHARA
--COMMERICIAL BEGINNINGS IN WEST AFRICA
- CLOTH, GLASSWARE, WEAPONS, BOOKS
- TWO ECOLOGICAL ZONES:
--THE SAVANNA GRASSLANDS-PRODUCED GRAIN CROPS SUHC A MILLET AND SORGHUM
--FOREST AREAS-ROOT AND TREE CROPS SUCH AS YAMS AND KOLA NUTS
--GOLD, SALT, AND SLAVES: TRADE AND EMPIRE IN WEST AFRICA:
-GOLD: TRANSPORTED BY DONKEY THEN BY CAMEL
- IN RETURN RECIEVED: HORSES, CLOTH, DATES, SALT
- ORDINARY WOMEN: CENTRAL TO AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION AND WEAVING
- ROYAL WOMEN: IMPORTANT POLITICAL ROLES, ORAL TRADITIONS, MYTHOLOGIES
- SLAVERY
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