The Black Death

The intention of the new trade routes, like the Silk Road, was to create a means of transportation for goods between lands. However, not only did these new trade routes supply new products to areas, but also unknown diseases. Eurasian Empires brought diseases east, and the Chinese brought devastating diseases west. The most commonly known disease brought to Europe because of trading, is the “Black Death.”

Our textbook, Ways of the World by Robert Strayer, states that the “era of intensified interaction facilitated the spread of the Black Death – identified variously with the bubonic plague, anthrax, or a package of epidemic diseases – from China to Europe.” The plague quickly spread throughout Europe, devastating the populations of the nations. On a website, Medicine Net, they say that the 1300s Black Death “killed approximately one-third (20-30 million) of Europe’s population.”

Oriental rat fleas from infected rats were the means of transportation for the plague. However, this is not the only reason that it spread at such high rates; living conditions during the Middle Ages were not the best, just as the disposal of bodies was not the sanitary. Therefore, due to the improper disposal of the infected deceased, the plague was able to spread to the greater public. TheMedicine Net website lists the symptoms that the people would have faced as “bleeding below the skin which darkened (“blackened”) their bodies” hence the nickname the Black Death, and it was “characterized by gangrene of the fingers, toes, and nose.”

In addition, because the plague also infected the farmers, there were great food shortages for those left uninfected by the plague. There was no one to harvest the crops, so whole crops were lost. However, according to the Strayer text, “some among the living benefited. Tenant farmers and urban workers, now in short supply, could demand higher wages or better terms.” Thus, following the epidemic, people faced inflated prices for common necessities.

Although the new trade routes created cross-cultural trade of goods and religions, they also traded diseases. These were diseases that people were not prepared for, and yet the trading continued and still continues to this day.

*Fun Fact* - some believe that the nursery rhyme "Ring around the Rosie" refers to the Black Plague
"Ring around the Rosie" - red sores on the body - first signs of infection
"Pocket full of Posies" - some used herbs, flowers etc. to show others they were infected, so people could stay away
"Ashes Ashes" - the bodies of the infected were burned after death
"We all Fall down" - it was believed that the Black Death was the end of the world.
- However interesting this may sound, it is not proven, only a myth -

Works Cited - http://www.medicinenet.com/plague/article.htm, Ways of the World by Robert W. Strayer, image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f1/The_Plague%2C_1898.jpg/419px-The_Plague%2C_1898.jpg (found through Creative commons)

The Highways of Ancient Times

It is remarkable how many different trade routes were used to connect ancient civilizations other than the notorious silk road. Not only were mere goods traded in ancient times, but ideas and religion began to spread as a result of trade connections as well. I have found a few sites that provide great information about various trade routes, the commodities traded over such routes, and the history of religions that spread as a result of trade in ancient times.



The Ambassador Road crossed over China from the east coast to present day Burma. It started as a dirt path made by Chinese peasants in order to communicate with distant villages.

The Appian Way and the Egnation Way were sea and land routes that connected the Roman Empire and the Middle East. It is said to have been constructed to more efficiently move people and armies throughout the Roman Empire.

The Incense Road was a trade route that, as you may have guessed, was largely used for transporting incense. It connected Egypt with the Indies by taking a land route over Arabia because the Red Sea was considered very dangerous for travel due to shallow waters, uncharted rocks, and pirates.

Roman and Indian trade also occurred, not by means of a specific trade route, but by various forms of transportation. Merchants traveled from Rome to Egypt and then to India to trade precious items by means of numerous land and sea paths, depending on weather conditions and the time of year.

There are also many trade routes over bodies of water such as the Arabian Sea, Red Sea, Bay of Bengal, and the China Sea. These ancient water routes came to be known as the Maritime Sea Route. The following site about the Maritime Sea Routes is my favorite because it is incredibly informative and interactive. The site has so many links for information about what was traded over specific bodies of water that one could spend hours looking it over.

The goods traded along ancient trade routes were often metals and they varied widely along with their purpose or use. Although, raw metals were of very little use to ancient people, and they therefore had to undergo a series of transformations to make different goods and weapons. Metallurgy, annealing, and smelting, are all processes that involve working with heated metal in order to achieve a goal. A site describing how ancient people worked with metals in these ways can be found here.

Copper was one of the very first metals to be used by humans. It was originally used for decorative purposes and to embellish clothing.

Bronze was first used for decorative means as well, but it was found to be more malleable than copper and was highly valued.

Iron was more plentiful than bronze in ancient times, but it was not used until later because it has a much higher melting point. Early furnaces could not achieve a high enough temperature to allow the workers to rid the metal of all its impurities. Iron eventually lead to the use of steel, which had an enormous impact on ancient civilizations.

Salt was also widely traded in ancient times because the human body requires it. With the rise of agriculture, early humans began eating less meat and therefore were consuming less and less salt in their regular diet.

Religions such as Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism were spread largely as a result of ancient trading networks. This site provides a useful history of where each religion originated, and how they began to spread. There are also many links within the site that lead to even more detailed information.

Image from:
http://www.releasing.net/featurefilmproduction/1/heavens.htm

Linking Asia to Europe

The Silk Road

Origins

The Chinese began trading silk internally, within the empire. To carry the silk to the western regions they would use Caravans. The Caravans were often attacked by, Central Asian tribes, who were looking for valuable goods. This resulted in the Han Dynasty expanding their military defense further into Central Asia from 135 to 90 BC in order to protect these caravans.

Chan Ch'ien was the first known Chinese traveler to make contact with the Central Asian tribes, later came up with the idea to expand the silk trade to include these lesser tribes and therefore forge alliances with these Central Asian nomads. This lead to the creation of the Silk Road. The Chinese were able to use their silk to give as gifts to Roman Asian governments.

Connecting

The Silk Road was 700 miles long, spanning from and connection China, Central Asia, Northern India, and the Parthian and Roman Empires. It connected the Yellow River Valley to the Mediterranean Sea and passed through places such as Chinese cities Kansu and Sinkiang and present-day countries Iran, Iraq and Syria.

Indians in the Ganges River valley played the role of the Middlemen. This helped to increase the Han expansion into Central Asia.

The Silk Road's Decline

By 760 AD, during the T'ang Dynasty, trade along the Silk Road had declined.The Chinese used silk to trade for medicines, perfumes, and slaves as well as rare stones. As overland trade became increasingly dangerous, and overseas trade became more popular, trade along the Silk Road declined. While the Chinese did maintain a silk-fur trade with the Russians north of the original Silk Route, by the end of the fourteenth century, trade and travel along the road had decreased.

The Importance of the Silk Road

This week in class, we discussed cross-cultural trade connections in the post-classical era. This reminded me immediately of the Silk Road trade routes, which we also talked and read about. I decided to do some more research on the topic because I thought it was unique in that goods, cultures, religions, and technology interacted globally for the first time. The information I found mentioned the history of the Silk Road, the goods that traveled it, how they traveled, and the social and cultural effects. Overall, one may say that the trade of the Silk Road became a foundation for the trade of the current world.

Brief Historical Overview

The Silk Road opened around the Second Century B.C.E. through Han Dynasty China Emperor Wu Di. One informational website I found states that there were actually many different trade routes, including Northern, Central, and Southern routes (across desert lands). The Road covered China, Asia, India, the Roman Empire, and other areas. The total length of the Silk Road was around 6, 500 kilometers. It reached its peak in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) in which China became united under a strong government. The Mongols strengthened the Silk Road as well because they made it more secure from nomad raiders. A third website states that the Silk Road declined in the latter half of the Tang Dynasty, partly as a result of conservative reactions to Buddhist integration in Chinese Culture.

What goods spread on the Silk Road?

China traded silk, furs, ceramics, spices, stones, and bronze with other countries. They traded many goods, like silk, iron, and bronze, with Rome. Rome used silk for looms, clothing, altar coverings, and burials. Porcelain, which found its way to central Asia from China in the 800s B.C.E., was also quite important. Horses came to China from Rome. China traded silk with India for goods like gold, silver, and jade.

How did the goods travel?

Much like the modern UPS system, trade goods on the Silk Road traveled through many different hands. The trader stayed within a specific area and passed the goods on to another trader who stayed within a specific area nearby. In this way, the goods traveled all the way from the Mediterranean to Central and Eastern Asia. The third website, imperialtours.net, states, “When the trader arrived at the edge of his operational region, he would sell the goods across a border usually to a different nationality and ethnic group who would continue the goods' passage along the east-west axis. Thus, going westwards from China, Chinese traders would sell to Central Asians, who would deal with Persians, who connected with Syrians, who did commerce with Greeks and Jews, who supplied the Romans.” Overall, this interesting quote reveals that the trade led to the travel of cultural ideas as well as goods.

Social and Cultural Effects?

The Silk Road trade system had cultural and social effects. It led to the expansion of Buddhism to China. The third website I recommended earlier said that around ninety percent of the population was exposed to Buddhism and many of them converted to it. Also, other religions, like Zoroastrianism and Islam, spread to China. The Silk Road further led to stronger, more centralized states that provided more protection. It was at this time in the Han Dynasty that Emperor Wu Di began to rebuild the Great Wall of China.

Therefore, one can clearly see the importance and effects of the Silk Road. It had a unique history, goods that moved on it and an interesting way in which they traveled, social effects, and cultural effects. The Silk Road became a foundation for the trade system that the world uses today.

Shipwrecks: Under the Sea

Walk into any retail store today and look at the tag on an item, and you will very likely find that it was produced in China. Many people think of China as a relatively new player on the world market, but China’s role as an influential trading partner is not a new phenomenon. During the first century C.E., trade among China, Europe, and Africa expanded over a growing network of silk roads. Trading occurred not only across the Eurasian landmass but also across the seas. The Indian Ocean was integrally linked to the South China Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Persian Gulf. Strategically located coastal cities along the major sea routes across these oceans became wealthy from handling and taxing trade goods. One can gain a basic understanding of the maritime trade routes from an encyclopedia or a world history book, but I am curious about the information historians use to understand trade networks.

One way historians develop hypotheses about these early maritime trade networks is from the study of marine archaeology. Ancient shipwrecks are excellent sources of information about the items traded between ancient empires. Until modern technology made it possible to reach and retrieve items under great depths of water, many of the artifacts on the ships were preserved from looting and dispersal from the rest of the ship’s cargo. This allows marine archaeologists to study the artifacts contextually with all of the other items found on the ships (unlike many artifacts on land where looting has removed them from their original location and where evidence may not be available to link them back to their origins). Recent shipwreck discoveries have led to an even greater understanding of the trade that occurred across the Indian Ocean between the Chinese, African, and Mediterranean cultures. The following links provide information on some of the recent shipwrecks discovered in and near the Indian Ocean.

Nanhai 1: This shipwreck in the South China Sea was discovered 1987 and recovery of the ship, along with its surrounding silt, began in 2007. The ship, built during the Song dynasty (960-1279), is thought to contain over 70,000 artifacts from this time period including porcelain, gold, and silver. Chinese archaeologists will excavate the ship in an underwater storage tank on a nearby beach so as to preserve the surrounding sediments. Keeping the sediments underneath and around the ship may lead to new discoveries also.

Quanzhou: The NOVA (PBS television series) website describes this shipwreck and gives background on Chinese trade during successive dynasties. This shipwreck was not found in the ocean, rather it was discovered as the Houzhou Canal in Fujian Province was being dredged. The artifacts found on this ship include copper coins, fragrant wood from Southeast Asia, assorted materials from Somalia, and provisions for the sailors on the ship. The NOVA site also describes the Brunei shipwreck discovered off the coast of South Korea where over 16,000 items and 7 million brass coins were found. Both of these discoveries attest to the diversity of trade among peoples and the riches that empires could enjoy.

Tanjung Simpang: This wreck is described by Nahai Marine Archaeology, a private organization that excavates and sells the artifacts they find. The Tanjung Simpang shipwreck site is located only 400 meters from the shore of Sabah in Malaysian waters. The artifacts discovered include pottery, pottery shards, and Chinese gongs from the Song dynastic era. Unfortunately, looting plagued the site after its discovery because it was so close to shore. The artifacts from this site are not as intact as at other sites because of the looting and because of the rough surf on coral reefs, most of the artifacts were found interspersed among the reef.

Source: Beaujard, Philippe, and S Fee. " The Indian Ocean in Eurasian and African World-Systems before the Sixteenth Century ." Journal of World History 16.4 (2005): 411-65. Web. JSTOR. Zumber Library, Grand Valley State University. 28 Oct. 2009 .