Bridging World History - 73 - Unit 9 Unit 9 Connections Across Land Introduction to Unit This unit explores the Eurasian Silk Roads, the Mesoamerican Turquoise Road, and the trans-Saharan Gold Roads as rich examples of ancient connections as well as the intense determination of the humans who forged them. All three of these trading routes provided important linkages between diverse ecological zones, and they facilitated contact between societies that had access to diverse resources. Not all results of the contacts along these paths were intentional or even beneficial; bandits, invading armies, and disease also moved freely along these routes. But the richness and complexity of these cross-regional connections set the pattern for the globe-spanning inter- connections we know today as globalization. Learning Objectives · Determine how the rises and falls of empires and states affected the expansion and contraction of major trading networks such as the Silk Roads, the Gold Roads, and the Turquoise Roads. · Find evidence of trade contributing to the integration of the world’s regions. · Identify ways that trade and the spread of cultural traditions were related. · Determine what was transmitted across land trading routes besides commodities. Preparing for This Session Read Unit 9 in the Bridging World History online text. You may also want to refer to some of the Suggested Readings and Materials. If you feel you need more background knowledge, refer to a college-level world history textbook on this subject (look under the index for Silk Roads, Incan [Inkan], Empire, Inkan Empire).
Transcript
Bridging World History - 73 - Unit 9
Unit 9
Connections Across Land
Introduction to UnitThis unit explores the Eurasian Silk Roads, the Mesoamerican Turquoise Road, and the trans-Saharan Gold Roadsas rich examples of ancient connections as well as the intense determination of the humans who forged them. Allthree of these trading routes provided important linkages between diverse ecological zones, and they facilitatedcontact between societies that had access to diverse resources. Not all results of the contacts along these pathswere intentional or even beneficial; bandits, invading armies, and disease also moved freely along these routes.But the richness and complexity of these cross-regional connections set the pattern for the globe-spanning inter-connections we know today as globalization.
Learning Objectives· Determine how the rises and falls of empires and states affected the expansion and contraction of major
trading networks such as the Silk Roads, the Gold Roads, and the Turquoise Roads.
· Find evidence of trade contributing to the integration of the world’s regions.
· Identify ways that trade and the spread of cultural traditions were related.
· Determine what was transmitted across land trading routes besides commodities.
Preparing for This SessionRead Unit 9 in the Bridging World History online text. You may also want to refer to some of the Suggested Readings and Materials. If you feel you need more background knowledge, refer to a college-level world historytextbook on this subject (look under the index for Silk Roads, Incan [Inkan], Empire, Inkan Empire).
Unit 9 - 74 - Bridging World History
Before You Begin—15 minutesUse your background knowledge to begin a map showing trade routes across land from the time of the earlyempires to the fourteenth century. For areas of the world you know least, generate questions that you thinkshould be answered in the video.
Watch the Video for “Unit 9: Connections Across Land”—30 minutes
Activity 1: Silk Roads and Integration—60 minutesDiscuss the following questions with a partner:
· Which of the following sources show ways that trade and the spread of cultural traditions were related?
· Which of the following sources show evidence of trade contributing to the integration of the world’sregions?
· What conclusions can you draw about the extent to which the Silk Roads show evidence of an integratedworld?
Source 1: Roman historian Cassius Dio, 164–224 CE, commented on a celebration the Roman emperor JuliusCaesar staged in his own honor around 50 BCE:
If I mention one feature of his [Caesar’s] extravagance at that time, I shall thereby give an idea of all the rest. Inorder that the sun might not annoy any of the spectators, he had curtains stretched over them made of silk,according to some accounts. Now this fabric is a device of barbarian luxury, and has come down from themeven to us to gratify the fastidious taste of fine ladies.
Source 2: Sima Qian, The Records of the Grand Historian, a story about Zhang Qian, a diplomat who traveled to thecourt of the Yuezhi for the Han Emperor Wudi, first century BCE:
Zhang Qian was the first person to bring back a clear account of the Dayuan [present day Krygystan andUzbekistan].
Anzi [Parthian Persia] is situated several thousand li [a little more than a third of a mile] west of the region ofthe Great Yuezhi. The people are settled on the land, cultivating the fields and growing rice and wheat. Theyalso make wine out of grapes ....
Source 3: Faxian, A Chinese Buddhist Monk’s Travels in India and Ceylon, 399–411 CE:
From this place [Central Asia], we traveled southeast, passing by a succession of very many monasteries, witha multitude of monks .... When stranger monks arrive at any monastery, the old residents meet and receivethem ....
Source 4: Anonymous assistant to a Chinese merchant, A Record of Musings on the Eastern Capital, aboutHangzhou, capital of the Southern Sung Dynasty, 1235 CE:
During the morning hours, markets extend from Tranquility Gate of the palace all the way to the north andsouth sides of the New Boulevard. Here we find pearl, jade, talismans, exotic plants and fruits, seasonal catchesfrom the sea, wild game—all the rarities of the world seem to be gathered here.
Unit Activities
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Some of the hustlers are students who failed to achieve any literary distinction. Though able to read and write,and play musical instruments and chess, they are not highly skilled in any art. They end up being a kind ofguide for young men from wealthy families, accompanying them in their pleasure-seeking activities.
Source 5: Friar John of Monte Corvino, Letter to the West, one of two letters written to his fellow Franciscansaround 1295 CE. John was sent by Pope Nicolas IV to try to make an alliance with the Mongols against the Mamlukrulers of Egypt:
I, Friar John of Monte Corvino, of the Order of Friars Minor, departed from Tauris, a city of the Persians, in theyear of the Lord 1291, and proceeded to India. And I remained in the country of India, wherein stands thechurch of St. Thomas the Apostle, for 13 months ....
I proceeded on my further journey and made my way to Cathay, the realm of the emperor of the Mongols whois called the Great Khan. To him I presented the letter of our lord the pope, and invited him to adopt theCatholic faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, but he had grown too old in idolatry. However he bestows kindnessesupon the Christians, and these two years past I am abiding with him.
Source 6: Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo, a Venetian merchant who may have worked for the Yuan dynasty(the Mongol rulers of China) in the late thirteenth century. This excerpt is a description of Hangzhou, a southerncity that was part of the Yuan Empire:
There are within the city 10 principal squares or market places, besides innumerable shops along the streets.... On the nearer bank ... stand large stone warehouses provided for merchants who arrive from India and otherparts with their goods and effects. They are thus situated conveniently close to the market squares. In each ofthese, three days in every week, from forty to fifty thousand persons come to these markets and supply themwith every article that could be desired.
Activity 2: Empires and Trade—45 minutesUse the following sources to determine how the rises and falls of empires and states affected the expansions andcontractions of major trading networks such as the Silk Roads, the Gold Roads, and the Turquoise Roads.
· Ibn Kurdahbeh, ninth-century Persian geographer and postal official for the Abbasid Caliphate:
The Radanites’ network stretched from the Mediterranean to China, and they made use of both land andsea routes in conducting their business. They commanded Persian and Arabic as well as Western andSlavic languages, and they traded in a wide variety of commodities, such as silk, furs, swords, aromatics,spices, eunuchs, and slaves.
· Abu al-Fadl Ja’far bin ‘Ali ad-Dimashqi in his work A Guide to the Merits of Commerce and to Recognition ofBoth Fine and Defective Merchandise and the Swindles of Those Who Deal Dishonestly in ninth-century Damascus (Abbasid Caliphate):
There are three kinds of merchants: he who travels, he who stocks, he who exports. Their trade is carriedout in three ways: cash sale with a time limit for delivery, purchase on credit with payments by install-ment, and muqaradah (in Islamic law, a contract in which one individual entrusts capital to a merchantfor investment in trade in order to receive a share of the profits). The investor bears all of the financialrisks; the managing party risks his labor.
· This passage from the Florentine Codex, collected by Spanish monk Fray Bernadino de Sahagún, illustratesthe riches acquired by the Mexica (Aztecs) in the course of their conquests:
And in their time appeared gold lip and ear plugs and rings for the fingers…and necklaces with radiatingpendants, and fine turquoise and enormous green stones, and long quetzal feathers, and the skins ofwild animals, and long tropical feathers, and blue cotinga and red spoonbill feathers.
Unit Activities, cont’d.
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· The Anasazi settlement of Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico became a “distribution center” forthe trading networks that connected the mines with their Mesoamerican customers. Among the firstimporters of turquoise were the dwellers at Alta Vista, in modern-day northwestern Mexico. This area wascontrolled by Teotihuacán, the dominant city of Mesoamerica at that time. In Teotihuacán, artisansimported raw chunks of the precious mineral and created finished pieces for export to the wealthy marketsof central Mexico. Chaco Canyon’s reign as the hub of the turquoise trade lasted about 150 years; at itsheight, the distribution network stretched from the Pacific coast to the Yucatan Peninsula. The Anasazi leftno written memoirs, so our knowledge of them is very incomplete. But there are very tantalizing hints ofwhy these agrarian people invested so much energy in mining and trading vast amounts of turquoise tocentral Mexico. For example, at the north end of the Anasazi trade route, pens were discovered for holdingmacaws—tropical birds—suggesting that they were part of the deal. There’s also evidence of the impact ofToltec religious ideas among both the Anasazi and their later Hopi and Zuni successors, including adora-tion of Quetzalcoatl—the feathered serpent god—whose worship required a variety of tropical feathers.Other scholars have speculated that perhaps the Anasazi traded turquoise in exchange for food as a hedgeagainst famine in an unreliable desert environment. What we know is that the commodities that traveledin both directions along the Turquoise Road were sufficiently compelling to sustain that trade route for sev-eral centuries. At the high point of turquoise traffic from Chaco Canyon, around the mid-tenth throughtwelfth centuries, the Toltec culture in Central Mexico was reaching its zenith. Turquoise passed through theToltec city of Tula and continued south another 900 miles to the Mayan complex of Chichén Itzá. Around1050 CE, the vastly dispersed communities across the Colorado Plateau suddenly changed into a highlystructured, densely populated society. Their architecture began exhibiting features of Mesoamericanbuilding styles, and high-status imports such as macaws, copper bells, and worked obsidian began toappear. And now, for the first time, the Anasazi themselves began to use turquoise in their rituals.
· Tenth-century Muslim geographer al-Bakri left a detailed description of how vibrant trade in Ghana con-tributed to the ascension of a region Arab merchants would come to refer to as the “Land of Gold”: “Thenuggets found in all the mines of this country are reserved for the king, only this gold dust being left forthe people … the nuggets may weigh from an ounce to a pound. It is related that the king owns a nuggetas large as a big stone ….” (Alfred J. Andrea and James H. Overfield, The Human Record: Sources of Global History [Houghton Mifflin, 1998] 373.) Local merchants in ancient Ghana traded ivory, salt, fine leather, andlater slaves in exchange for horses, cloth, and manufactured goods from the north. As was the case alongthe Silk Roads, rulers in West Africa sought ways to encourage traffic along the routes that connected WestAfrica’s gold fields with the cities of Mediterranean North Africa and beyond. While archaeology provides apicture of indigenous expansion of trade long before Islam arrived, it’s through accounts such as these byArab traveler Al-Bakri that the spread of Islam along the trade routes can be clearly traced. “The king had ashis guest a Muslim who used to read the Qur’an … to this man the king complained of the calamities thatassailed him and his people. The man said: ‘O King, if you believed in God … and testified that He is One …and if you accepted all the religious laws of Islam, I would pray for your plight.’Thus he continued to pressthe king until the latter accepted Islam and became a sincere Muslim.” (ibid.) In the late eleventh century,struggles to control the lucrative caravan trade resulted in the disintegration of Ghana. In place of Ghana,the trading states of Mali in the thirteenth century and Songhay in the fifteenth followed as hubs of com-mercial power and prestige. They filled the African demand for salt, as well as the desire of the rest of thetrading world for gold.
Unit Activities, cont’d.
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Activity 3: Ideas and Beliefs Move Across Trade Routes—30 minutesUse the written and visual sources below to determine what else, in addition to commodities, was transmittedacross land trading routes.
Because Islamic tradition venerates learning and teaching, Muslim explorers also used the trade routes for accessto centers of learning. Through their travels, they imparted an immense body of scholarship in such areas as math-ematics, astronomy, and medicine. For centuries, the Gold Roads were conduits for rich multi-cultural exchangesacross Saharan Africa and beyond.
Turquoise was valued for its beauty, and it conferred status on its wearers, but for the peoples in Mesoamerica italso had another significance. Unlike the trade goods of the Eurasian Silk Roads—silk and gold—which werevalued largely for their rarity as well as for their beauty, turquoise also had a sacred significance, as did the feathersand the tropical birds—the parrots and the macaws—which traveled north along the Turquoise Road to theAnasazi in exchange for their turquoise. Excavations have led archaeologists to conclude that the Anasaziabsorbed many religious beliefs and ritual customs from the Toltec. Whether or not the Anasazi were formally partof the Toltec Empire, it’s clear that Mesoamerican practices had been accepted into their existing culture. TheMexica—or Aztecs—were the successors to the Toltec in Mesoamerica, and they adopted both the Toltec godsand the Toltec desire for turquoise.
Unit Activities, cont’d.
Item #5155. Anonymous, ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE FLORENTINECODEX (1905). Image donated by Corbis-Bettmann.
Item #4764. Anonymous, MUHAMMAD WITH FOLLOWERS(n.d.). Courtesy of the American Theological Library Association.
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Unit Activities, cont’d.
Item #2595. Anonymous Chinese, TANG DYNASTYCAMEL (c. 618–906). Courtesy of Portland Art Museum. Item #1506. Anonymous Chinese, POTTERY OF FOREIGNER
ON SILK ROAD,TOMB OF YONG TAI PRINCESS (c. 618–907 CE).Courtesy of Chinastock Photos.
Item #3812. Anonymous, TURQUOISE AND CORALMOSAIC, AZTEC (n.d.). Courtesy of Pictures ofRecord, www.picturesofrecord.com.
Read Unit 9 in the online text, Section 3, Reading 3: David Christian, “Silk Roads or Steppe Roads? The Silk Roadsin World History,” Journal of World History 11, no. 1 (2000): 1–26 and answer the following questions.
Reading Questions· What evidence does David Christian use to argue that trans-ecological exchanges have been as important
to the history of the Silk Roads as the more familiar trans-civilizational exchanges?
· In what ways do you think he makes a strong case for showing that the Silk Roads were much older than isusually recognized, specifically that their real origins lie in the emergence of Inner Eurasian pastoralismfrom the fourth millennium BCE?
· What similarities can you see between contemporary complex networks of exchange and those that developed in the Bronze Age?
Optional: Visit the Web SiteExplore this topic further on the Bridging World History Web site. Browse the Archive, look up terms in the AudioGlossary, review related units, or use the World History Traveler to examine different thematic perspectives.
