Period 3 600 CE-1450

Existing trade routes: Silk Road, Mediterranean Sea, Trans-Sahara, Indian Ocean Basins. New trading routes in Latin America and the Andes

New Trading cities: Novgorod, Timbuktu, Swahili city-states, Hangzhou, Calicut, Baghdad, Melaka, Venice, Tenochtitlan, Cahokia

Trade in Luxury goods: silk and cotton textiles, porcelain, spices, precious metals and gems, slaves, exotic animals

Caravan organization: caravanserai, camel saddles

New Forms of credit & monetization: bills of exchange, credit, checks, banking houses

Trading organizations (Hanseatic League) and state sponsored commercial infrastructure like the Grand Canal in China, minting of coins, use of paper money

Expansion of Empires esp facilitated by trans-Eurasian trade and communication: China, Byzantine Empire, Caliphates, Mongols

Movement of people (Migrations) their environmental knowledge and technological advancements: Scandinavian Vikings used longships to travel, Arabs and Berbers adapted camels to travel across Sahara, Central Asian pastoral groups used horses to travel steppes

Migrations: Bantu who transmitted iron and ag to sub-Sahara, maritime migration of Polynesians who cultivated transplanted foods and domesticated animals. Diffusion of language by migration: Bantu including Swahili, Turkic and Arabic languages

Islam developed and their interaction with Jews, Christians, Zorastrians. Muslim rule expanded to Afro-Euroasia due to military expansion, missionaries and merchants

Diasporic communities: Muslim merchant communites in Indian Ocean region, Chinese merchant communities in Southeast Asia, Sogdian merchant communities throughout Central Asia, Jewish communities in Med, Indian and along Silk Road

Interregional travelers illustrate both extent and limitation of intercultural knowledge: Ibn Battuta, Marco Polo, Xuanzang

Diffusion of literary, artistic and cultural traditions: influence of NeoConfucianism and Buddhism in East Asia, Hinduism and Buddhism in Southeast Asia, Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, Toltec/Mexica and Inca traditions in Mesoamerica and Andean regions

Diffusion of science and technological traditions: influence of Greek and Indian mathematics on Muslim scholars, return of Greek science and philosophy to Western Europe via Muslim al-Andalus in Iberia, spread of printing and gunpowder technologies from East Asia into the Islamic empires and Westerns Europe

Diffusion of crops (new foods and agricultural techniques) and pathogens throughout trade routes (ex: Black Death): Bananas in Africa, New rice varieties in East Asia, spread of cotton sugar and citrus throughout Dar al-Islam and the Mediterranean basin Empires collapsed and were reconstituted: Byzantine and Chinese dynasties (Sui, Tang, and Song) Traditional sources of power and legitimacy including patriarchy, religion, land owning elites. Innovations better suited to current circumstances; new methods of taxation, tributary systems, adaptation of religious institutions

New forms of governance esp in Islamic states, the Mongol Khanates, city states and decentralized governments (feudalism). Islamic states: Abbasids, Muslim Iberia, Delhi Sultanates. City states: Italian peninsula, East Africa, Southeast Asia, Americas (Mayan region, Aztec and Inca).

Persian traditions that influences Islamic states, Chinese traditions that influences states in Japan

Technological and cultural transfers: between Tang China and Abbasids, across Mongol empires, during Crusades

Increased production capacity esp social and gender structure and environmental processes-rising productivity supports population growth and urbanization but strained environment. New labor practices. Agricultural production increased due to technological innovation: Champa rice variation, chinampa field system, waru waru agricultural techniques of Andean region, improved terracing techniques, horse collar

Transport of crops from indigenous to equivalent climates in other regions

Chinese, Persian and Indian artisans and merchants expanded their production of textiles and porcelains for export, industrial production of iron and steel expanded in China

Fate of cities-yo-yo effect of decline and increased urbanization. Multiple factors led to decline in urban areas: invasions, disease, decline of agricultural productivity, Little Ice Age. Urban revival: end of invasions, availability of safe and reliable transport, rise of commerce and warmer temperatures between 800-1300, increased agricultural productivity and subsequent rising population, greater availability of labor

Forms of labor organization: Free peasant agriculture, nomadic pastoralism, craft production and guild organization, various forms of coerced and unfree labor, government imposed labor taxes, military obligations

Social structure shaped largely by class and caste hierarchies. Patriarchy persisted-but in some areas women exerted more power and influence: Mongols, West Africa, Japan and Southeast Asia

Diffusion of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Neoconfucianism often led to significant changes in gender relations and family structure

New forms of coerced labor: serfdom in Europe and Japan, elaboration of mit’a in Inca. Demand for slaves for military and domestic purposes increased particularly in central Eurasia, parts of Africa and Mediterranean.

Free peasants attempts to raise dues and taxes by staging revolts. Regions where free peasants revolted: China, Byzantine Empire