Third-Wave Civilization Trade Routes

138 BCE - China
needs horses, trades
silk in return; mulberry
bushes are a limiting
resource for silkworms

Gandhara culture; Zhang Qian
is the father of the Road; defense
against the Xiongnu by alliance
with the Yuezhi

Chinese capital of
Chang'an (Tang)

connected the Middle East
with China/India

Spread of the Black Death,
Bubonic plague, etc.

Genghis Khan supports
international trade

Pax Mongolica

commerce between China and Persia

animal
domestication

South Saharan
salt deposits

exchanged salt
for kola nuts and
palm oil

moved from cattle breeders
to horse&chariot, then camels

limited interaction
among large areas

Mainyly Pochteca and
Cahokian trading

Panama's bottleneck inhibited
contact bettween North/South
America

No "great traditions"

south-to-north diffusion
of maize, originating
in Mesoamerica; also a
north-to-south into
the Andean civilization

spices, aromatic resins,
pearls, Chinese pottery,
wine, ivory, porcelain, etc.

"The Periplus of the
Erythrean Sea"

South China Sea, Southeast Asia,
west coast (India), Persian Gulf,
East Africa (Zanzibar)

sailors seldom retained
ties to homeland

Srivijaya

Major Buddhist
center in Asia

Swahili civilization; influenced
heavily by Bantu culture

called the
Mare Nostrum

minimal trade
occurred before
fall of Rome
(476 CE)

involved Arabs
(Muslim world)
and Byzantines
(Gaul, Iberia,
Moaghreb)

wine was a
commodity

Baltic to North Sea,
on the coast of
Northern Europe;
"merchant guilds";
13th-17th centuries

timber, wax,
amber, resins,
fur, wheat, rye

trade with
Scandanavia
and Kiev Rus