Unit 2: Networks of Exchange

Chapters

Context

• Economic activity along existing trade routes increased

Factors that Increased Trade

• Rise of powerful states and empires like the Mongol Empire promoted trade

• Growing demand for luxury goods like silk and porcelain (China) and gold (Africa)

• Improvements to existing commercial systems like credit

Consequences of Trade

• Powerful new trading cities on trade routes arose

• Trade facilitated significant cross-cultural interactions
• Religious beliefs like Islam introduced to new places
• Technologies like paper and gunpowder also spread

• Disease also spread, most notably the bubonic plague