Unit 2 Maps: Networks of Exchange, c. 1200 to c. 1450 (Topics 2.1–2.7)

Unit 1 placed the states. Unit 2 connects them. Most of this unit is about trade: what moved, how it moved, and what happened because of it.

2.1 Silk Roads: overland routes for luxury goods like silk and porcelain, through cities such as Kashgar and Samarkand. Caravanserai, bills of exchange, banking houses, and paper money made long-distance trade easier.

2.2 The Mongol Empire: the largest contiguous land empire in history. Mongol rule protected trade across Eurasia and moved technology and ideas between East and West.

2.3 Indian Ocean: monsoon winds, the compass, the astrolabe, and better ship designs. Port cities like Kilwa, Calicut, and Malacca grew, along with merchant communities living far from home. Zheng He's Ming voyages (1405–1433) belong here.

2.4 Trans-Saharan routes: camels and camel saddles carried gold and salt across the Sahara. Mali grew rich and powerful, and Mansa Musa's 1324 pilgrimage to Mecca made it famous.

2.5 Cultural consequences: Islam and Buddhism spread along trade routes, and travelers like Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo wrote about what they saw.

2.6 Environmental consequences: crops like Champa rice spread to new places, and so did disease, most famously the bubonic plague.

2.7 Comparison: compare two networks by their goods, technology, and effects.

Study tip: trace each route with your finger and say what moved along it.