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The Silk Road at first caused many pastoral groups to form. Eventually, rich families did settleand build large establishments.
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The Silk Road allowed the spread of religions ( see chart above
) such as Nestorian Christianity,Manichaeism, Zoroastrianism, and Buddhism.
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The stirrup spread though out the Silk Road. It allowed riders to be much more stable and thuscaused military innovation. i.e. the superiority of the Tang calvary in China.
The Indian Ocean Maritime System
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The Indian Ocean Maritime System was a society of seafarers established across the IndianOcean and South China Sea.
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This trade system linked a network of sea trade routes from Africa to China. The main playerswere Africans, South Arabian Persian, and the Southern Chinese people (including theIndonesians and Malays).
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Although much of the discoveries of new lands and waters were attributed to famous peoplesuch as Zhang Jian or Hippalus, we must not forget the the indigenous people of these areasalso greatly contributed to their expansions.
Origins of Contact and Trade
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Madagascar is the world’s fourth largest island.
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2000 years ago, people from one of the many Indonesian islands of Southeast Asia establishedthemselves in the mountainous land of Madagascar, 9,500 kilometers from home.
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These people kept much of their traditions but eventually lost most of it.
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The Impact of Indian Ocean Trade
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The precious materials wanted in trade included ivory and minerals.
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Evidence of ancient copper mines has been found in Oman in southeastern Arabia.
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However, this volume of trade was less than the amount occurring in the Mediterranean.
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In the Indian area, the ports were small due to geographical problems such as inland monsoonwater not by the sea.
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E India, the Malay Peninsula, and Indonesia afforded more hospitable and densely populatedshores with easier access to inland populations.
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The empires that existed