Chapter 7 WHAM Reading Questions

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People in inner Asia were unable to produce much of their own agriculture. What goods did they trade with their neighbors in order to get agricultural and manufactured products from them?

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In Central Asia, silk was used as a currency and as a means of accumulating wealth. In both China and the Byzantine empire, silk became a symbol of high status and governments passed laws that restricted silk clothing to members of the elite. Some silks were inscribed with passages in Arabic from the Quran, unbeknownst to their European buyers. By the 12th century, the west African king of Ghana was wearing silk and that fabric circulated in Egypt, Ethiopia and along the East African coast as well.

How did the Silk Roads affect the daily lives of Chinese farmers?

Peasants in the Yangzi River delta of Southern China sometimes gave up the cultivation of food crops, choosing to focus instead on producing silk, paper, porcelain, laquer-wave, or iron tools, much of which was destined for the markets of the silk roads.

What major cultural tradition spread due to the Silk Roads? In what form did it spread?

Buddhism spread widely throughout Central and East Asia strongly due to the merchants along the Silk Roads. Buddhism had appealed to merchants who preferred its universal message. Indian traders & Buddhist monks, sometimes supported by rulers, brought the new religion to the trans-eurasian trade routes.

How did Buddhism change as it spread along the Silk Roads?

The original faith had shunned the material world, but Buddhist monasteries in the rich oases towns of the Silk Road found themselves very much involved in secular affairs (Ex: Begging bowl became a symbol rather than a daily activity, sculptures and murals in the monasteries depicted musicians and acrobats, woman applying makeup, and even drinking parties)

Which diseases, spread along the Silk Roads?

Smallpox and measles affected the Roman empire and Han dynasty China as the silk road promoted contact all across Eurasia. The Black Death - identified variously with the bubonic plague, anthrax or a package of epidemic diseases spread from China to Europe.

How did the Black Death impact Europe?

Between 1346 & 1348, up to 1/2 of the population of Europe perished from the plague. Some people who survived, benefited. Tenant farmers and urban workers. now in short, could demand higher wages or better terms.

How did Indian Ocean transportation costs differ from those of the Silk Roads?

Transportation costs were lower on the Sea Roads then on the Silk Roads because ships could accomodate larger and heavier cargos then camel.

How did these costs affect the types of goods traded throughout the Indian Ocean?

This meant that the Sea Roads could eventually carry more bulk goods and products destined for a mass-market( textiles, pepper, timber, rice, sugar, wheat, etc. ) Whereas the silk roads were limited largely to luxury goods for the few.

What made Indian Ocean commerce possible?

What made Indian Ocean commerce possible were the monsoons, alternating wind currents that blew predictably eastward during the summer months, and westward during the winter.

What 2 major transformations lay behind the flourishing of Indian Ocean commerce between 500 and 1500 CE?

One was the economic and political revival of China, some 4 centuries after the collapse of the Han dynasty. Especially during the Tang & Song dynasties (618-1279), China reestablished an effective and unified state, which actively encouraged maritime trade. A second transformation involved the sudden rise of Islam in the seventh century CE and its subsequent spread across much of the Afro-Eurasian world.

What products did the following regions contribute to the Indian Ocean trade?
China, India, Arabia, Mediterranean basin, Southeast Asia, East Asia, East Africa.

China: silk
India: grain, cotton, textiles
Arabia: perfume
Mediterranean Basin: ceramics, glassware
Southeast Asia: cloves, sandlewood
East Africa: ivory, gold

Explain how the Malay kingdom of Srivijaya emerged.

When Malay sailors, long active in the waters around Southeast Asia opened an all route between India & China through Straits of Malacca and 350 CE, the many small ports along the Malay Peninsula & the coast of Sunatra began to compete intensely to attract the growing numbers of traders and travelers making their way around the straits. From this competition emerged the Malay kingdom of Srivijaya, which dominated this critical choke point of Indian Ocean trade from 670 to 1025.

Chapter 7 WHAM Reading Questions

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