ch 8 commerce and culture
TRANSCRIPT
Chapter 8Commerce and Culture
500 – 1500
Growing Importance of Long Distance TradeWhat is needed? What is in abundance?
More than just physical goods----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Politics, philosophy, religion, disease, etc.
A new powerful class of people (sometimes distrusted and disliked)
Luxury goods as a status symbols
Silk = status and the sacred across cultures
Chinese monopoly broken by the 500s(Japan, Korea, India, Persia, Byzantine)
The Spread of Buddhism500s BCE – 600s CE
Blocked by Zoroastrianism
Adopted by anti-caste Indian merchants
Slowly adopted in China
Buddhism adopted and altered by different cultures (ex. Greco-Buddhism)
The Buddha and Heracles/Vajrapani
Disease in Transit – plague, smallpox, etc.
Political effects of epidemics? Long term impact?
Care for the sick may have increase appeal of Christianity and Buddhism
Indian Ocean - “Southernization”
Mass Market Goods and Heavy Cargo
Islam spread among merchants and traders much more than Confucianism and Buddhism
Why?
Srivijaya - SW Asian trading empireSpices, Buddhism, and Islam
East Africa-----------------------------------------------------------------
Arab culture and language blend
with Bantu African
to form Swahili language and culture
Great Zimbabwe
c. 1250-1350 trade center rich in gold
West Africa - Sahara “Ocean”Islamic kingdoms of Mali and Ghana
Gold richGhana Empire
c. 300-1200
Arab traveler Ibn Battuta
(1304-1368)
Pre-Columbian Americas
Regional trade
No sustained interaction
Maize = exception