Topic 2.5

📍Topic 2.5 Cultural Consequences of Connectivity

📖 AMSCO p.111 - p.117

Main Idea

Key Timeline

Image Courtesy of Rashmi Korukonda

Things to Know

AfroEurasian Networks of Exchange

• Extensive trade and cultural interactions occurred between 1200 and 1450.
• Reasons for exchange included stability and protection from the Mongol Empire.
• Trade led to diffusion of technologies, such as gunpowder and paper.
• Cultural exchanges and technological innovations were documented by travelers, such as Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta.

Cultural Fusion and Spread

• New religions and languages often unified and influenced local cultures.
• Religious merging
  • Buddhism from India merged with China’s Daoist principles to form Chan Buddhism.
  • Neo-Confucianism was created by the blending of rational thought with Daoism and Buddhism.
• Language merging
  • Swahili in Africa was a blend of Arabic and Bantu.
  • Urdu was derived from Sanskrit-based Hindi, along with the languages Arabic and Farsi (a Persian language).
• The spread of Hinduism and Buddhism
  • Religions spread through Southeast Asia via trade.
  • Sri Lanka’s Sinhala dynasties became centers of Buddhist study.
  • Buddhism influenced styles of governance and art.
• The spread of Islam
  • Islam spread through trade, missions, and conquests.
  • It influenced languages, cultures, and architecture in regions such as Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.

Scientific and Technological Innovations

• Islamic scholars translated Ancient Greek works into Arabic, allowing their knowledge to be preserved.
• Advancements in medicine and paper-making
• Crops, like Champa rice, improved agricultural efficiency.
• Printing technology and papermaking increased literacy rates.
• Seafaring technology, such as lateen sails and the magnetic compass

Cities’ Growth and Decline

• Cities grew because of political stability, commerce, safe transportation, and increased agricultural output.
  • Hangzhou and Kashgar in China, Novgorod in Russia, Timbuktu in Mali, Calicutn (modern-day Kozhikode) in India, and Samarkand in Uzbekistan prospered.
• Cities decline due to political instability, disease, and agricultural reduction.
  • Kashgar soon declined, as well as Constantinople.

Aftermath of Crusades

• Crusaders encountered Byzantine and Islamic cultures, increasing demand for Eastern goods in Europe.
• Significant population decline because of the Black Death’s spread through trade routes.
• Labor shortage impacted the feudal system.

Travelers and Their Tales

• Marco Polo: Italian traveler from Venice.
  • He visited Kublai Khan’s court in the late 13th century, impressing him.
  • Many people doubted his grandiose descriptions of China included in his travel book, until other Europeans traveled there and agreed with Polo.
• Ibn Battuta: Muslim scholar from Morocco.
  • He traveled extensively through Central Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, China, Spain, North Africa and Mali, primarily in Muslim lands.
  • His book on his travels detailed his visited locations and their cultures, as well as Islam’s role in them.
• Margery Kempe: English mystic.
  • She wrote a book on her pilgrimages to Jerusalem, Rome, Germany, and Spain as a medieval woman.
  • Her perspective was unique in it’s depiction of the challenges and spirituality of a woman in the 14th century.

Terms to Remember