Understanding Sand Roads in History
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DuezAPUnderstanding Sand Roads in History
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DuezAPPART 3
AN AGE OF ACCELERATING CONNECTIONS
Chapter 8. Commerce and Culture, 5001500
Chapter 9. China and the World: East Asian Connections, 5001300 Chapter 10. The Worlds of European Christendom: Connected and Divided, 5001300 Chapter 11. The Worlds of Islam: Afro-Eurasian Connections, 600 1500 Chapter 12. Pastoral Peoples on the Global Stage: The Mongol Moment, 12001500 Chapter 13. The Worlds of the Fifteenth Century
5001500
It is difficult to see when one phase of human history ends and another begins.
Beginning of the Period: Between about 200 and 850 c.e., many classical states and civilizations were disrupted, declined, or collapsed. End of the Period: Columbuss transatlantic voyages around 1500 mark a new departure in world history for most people.
How should we understand the millennium that stretches from the end of the classical era to the beginning of modern world history?
3rd Wave Civilizations
Hard to define a distinct identity for this period. some say postclassical, ? some call it medieval, but that term is Eurocentric and also suggests it was just a lead-in to modernity Strayer sometimes uses the phrase 3rd-wave civilizations
The Ties That Bind: Trans-regional Interaction Postclassical Era Increasingly, change was caused by contact with strangers and/or their ideas, armies, goods, or diseases Cosmopolitan regions emerged in a variety of placesmini-globalizations
Silk Roads Sand Roads Sea Roads American Roads
Chapter 8 Commerce and Culture
5001500
What is the impact of long distance trade?
Write out a list of the ways in which people and regions can be affected, directly or indirectly, by commerce.
What was traded in the long-distance trade of the pre-modern world?
In 2011 - The average distance that a food item has traveled to reach an American plate is about 1,000 miles. Massive quantities of trade that occur today was NOT happening in the pre-modern world of 500-1500 .
wine (transported in barrels or pottery
vessels, usually by ship because of the weight) beer (couldnt have been transported long distances, because it would spoil after a few days on the road) wheat (occasionally profitable to ship, but only by sea; consider the problem of it getting wet) horses or cattle (Ill leave you to imagine the problems with this one)
porcelain spices silk
Silk & Sand Roads
How heavy a load can a horse carry?
camel? a donkey? a human? A common measure is that the reasonable load for 1 man to transport on foot is 50 pounds
On a good road, how heavily laden a cart can a horse pull?
the same energy compared to 1 mans power will move around 500 pounds on wheels on a road 5,000 pounds on rails & 50,000 pounds on water.
Silk production
Silk & Sand Roads
What actual roads existed at this time?
There was still the system of Roman roads Andean roads had been established with protective walls and bridges; and many other communities provided some sort of paved roads and bridges. But for interstate commerce, what we are talking about is routes, unpaved and undeveloped, for which a traveler needed to hire a guide or follow the traces left by earlier travelers. Wheeled carts could not travel on most of these long-distance routes; what was needed was pack animals or human bearers.