2.3 Emergence of Transregional Networks of Communication and Exchange
With the development of vast empires in the Eastern Hemisphere, long-distance trade increased. Demands for raw materials and luxury goods caused much of the trade. Various land and water routes linked much of the regions of the Eurasia and Africa. Alongside goods: people, beliefs, domesticated plants and animals, and diseases also traveled along these trade routes. Trade routes made it possible for diffusion of ideas, technology, etc. But in the Americas and Oceania, the networks were mostly localized
I. Land and water routes became the basis for transregional trade, communication, and exchange networks in the Eastern Hemisphere.
Various factors, like the climate and location, contributed to the distinctively of the trade routes:
I. Land and water routes became the basis for transregional trade, communication, and exchange networks in the Eastern Hemisphere.
Various factors, like the climate and location, contributed to the distinctively of the trade routes:
- Eurasian Silk Roads
- Trans-Saharan caravan routes
- Indian Ocean sea lanes
- Mediterranean sea lanes
II. New technologies facilitated long-distance communication and exchange.
The use of new technologies allowed domesticated animals to transport goods for longer distances.
Technologies such as:
The use of new technologies allowed domesticated animals to transport goods for longer distances.
Technologies such as:
- Yokes
- Saddles
- Stirrups
- Horses
- Oxen
- Liames
- Camels
- Lateen sail
- Dhow ships
III. Alongside the trade in goods, the exchange of people, technology, religious and cultural beliefs, food crops, domesticated animals, and disease pathogens developed across far-flung networks of communication and exchange.
Spread of crops like rice and cotton from South Asia to the Middle East prompted farmers to change their farming and irrigation techniques.
Spread of crops like rice and cotton from South Asia to the Middle East prompted farmers to change their farming and irrigation techniques.
the qanat system
"Classical (600 BCE-600 CE)." Freemanpedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2015. <http://www.freeman-pedia.com/classical-600-bce-600-ce/>.
"Classical (600 BCE-600 CE)." Freemanpedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2015. <http://www.freeman-pedia.com/classical-600-bce-600-ce/>.
Disease epidemics helped contributed to the decline of some empires:
- The effects of disease on the Roman Empires
- the effects of disease on Chinese empires
- Christianity
- Hinduism
- Buddhism