Unit 4 Reading Packet 2022 PDF

name: __________________________________ ASIAN HISTORY Unit 4: Trade and Globalization The Historical Silk Road and Indian Ocean Trade Networks  Asian History 9 Unit 4 Key Terms Bandit Caravan Catalyst Commerce...

name: __________________________________ ASIAN HISTORY Unit 4: Trade and Globalization The Historical Silk Road and Indian Ocean Trade Networks  Asian History 9 Unit 4 Key Terms Bandit Caravan Catalyst Commerce Cultural diffusion Economy Exchange Goods Globalization “Indianization” Merchant(s) Pilgrim(s) Raw Material Sea Road(s) Silk Road(s) Supply chain Trader Transregional Key Concepts Continuity and Change over Time Inputs Manufacturing Transport(ation) Point of Sale  How Long Would It Take You to Walk the Silk Road? Instructions: With your partner, calculate how long it would take you to travel the Silk Road from Chang' an (now Xi' an) to Antioch as part of a trading caravan. You will need to follow tlu'ee steps to do so: 1. Use the information below to fill in the equations on the next page. 2. Solve each of the equations on the next page. 3. Combine the equations to obtain your final answer. Given information Keep in mind the following factors: o The length of the Silk Road between Chang' an and Antioch was approximately 5,200 miles. o Caravans usually traveled on camelback or horseback, but use walking time as the basis for your calculation. o On flat land, you can walk an average of four miles every hour. o Your rate of travel and the amount of hours you can travel during one day will vary per each of the three most common types of terrain along the Silk Road: flatlands (steppes and grassland), desert, and mountains. Flatlands On the flatlands, caravans advanced quickly and easily, traveling 10 hours per day. Seventy percent of Silk Road travel was through flatlands. Desert One-quarter of the Silk Road passed through desert, where caravans could not travel during the daytime due to excessive heat. The tall sand dunes limited them to half the speed of travel on flat land, and they could travel only eight hours each night. Mountains About 260 miles of the Silk Road passed through the Pamir and Zagros Mountains, where caravans only traveled one-fourth as fast as they did on flatland. Due to the difficulty of traveling through these high mountains, they could only withstand traveling seven hours a day. Rest and Bad Weather Set aside 20 days to rest and wait out bad weather such as blizzards and sandstorms. Time in the Markets Schedule 10 days to sell and buy goods in market towns. 22 ©SPICE Complete the equations on this page, then combine them to determine how many days it will take your caravan to travel the length of the Silk Road. FLATLANDS miles X( 1 hour 1day ) - days 4 miles )x( hours DESERT milesx( 1 hour )x( 1 day ) days miles hours MOUNTAINS miles X( 1 hour )x( 1 day ) days miles hours REST AND BAD WEATHER _ _ days MARKET TIME _ _ days TOTAL = _ _ days - ___ weeks = ___ months Note: These Illlllzbers are merely rough estimates of how long it took to travel the actual Silk Road alld are provided only to simplifij calculations. The actunl time that it took caravans to make it across certaill sectiolls of the Silk Road and the relative distallces through different types of terrain differed cOllsiderably. ALONG THE SILK ROAD 23  The Dynamics of Trade along the Silk Road Major Sections along the Silk Road Because Silk Road trade involved such long distances, goods had to be light and valuable. This meant that the goods traded along the Silk Road were often luxury goods such as silk, precious stones, felt, glass, coins, and dyes. The Silk Road can be divided into three major sections representing different geographical regions and different aspects of Silk Road trade. The tlU'ee sections of the Silk Road trade routes are: 1) an eastern section beginning in Chang'an, China, and running along the northern and southern borders of the Taklamakan Desert to the Pamir Mountains; 2) a Central Asian section crossing the Pamirs and the Central Asian region of Samarkand; and 3) a western section running through Persia to the Mediterranean. Along the eastern section of the Silk Road, the Chinese produced silk to trade 01' sell to Central Asian traders and merchants. Merchants from Central Asia would go to the western borders of China and trade their herbal medicines and pieces of jade from Khotan for luxurious Chinese silks. These traders would then transport the silk by caravan through the oasis towns of Central Asia. In the oasis town markets, the traders would exchange the silk for other goods from traders from the other side of the Pamir Mountains, who would then transport the silk through the region of Samarkand. Other Persian, Armenian, and Jewish traders handled the silk trade through Persia to the Mediterranean regions, where the silks were finally purchased with gold from Rome. Trade Resembled a Chain Trade from the eastern end of the Silk Road (Chang' an, China) to the western end (the Mediterranean) was indirect. Goods passed from one trader to another in short segments. Trade resembled a chain, with each trader and segment of the trade route representing a crucial link in the trade. The trading that occurred along each trade route segment was known as peddling trade. The h'ader would cany his goods, selling them and buying others while traveling from one market to another. Sometimes, traders would exchange their goods for other goods without the use of money. This is called bartering. For example, a Middle Eastern trader might set out on an eastward trade route with goods he knew were unavailable farther east, such as colored glass. He would trade these goods for a profit and then buy other goods, such as silk, that could be sold for a high price in Europe. Preparations A trader 01' merchant who wished to make a profit from trading at the different centers along the Silk Road would initiate a trade expedition. He would save 01' borrow the money he needed for his trip. If he borrowed the money, the lender expected him to give back more than he borrowed at a high interest rate. This made the trip riskier and more costly. After the trader had obtained enough money, he had to decide which trade routes to take. Each route had advantages and disadvantages. Some routes were more dangerous; other routes took longer to travel. Deciding on the routes was velY important to the success of the trade expedition. If one section of the route fell prey to bandits or was impassable because of the weather, then the trader would have to alter his plans and would lose valuable time and energy. For the trader to make money, he had to sell his goods at a price high enough to cover his travel expenses. Because it was costly to transport his goods from his original location to the final destination, he needed to estimate his expenses. This was difficult because information concerning ALONG THE SILK ROAD 111 trade routes and market conditions could easily change by the time he had reached that location. The trader had to plan for travel and transportation costs, taxes, and money for protection of his goods against bandits. Sea trade routes become popular later on precisely because it was easier to estimate expenses for sea journeys. Embarking on the Journey The trader often traveled in a caravan, a group of traders with a line of camels, to carry the goods to be traded. The caravan would move from one trading center to anothel; from market to market. When the caravan reached a town, it would go to the caravanserai, a special place for the traders to stay and leave their animals. The traders would eat, drink, and socialize together. They would I exchange stories about different regions and travel conditions along the Silk Road. Two popular destinations, Bactria and Samarkand, were filled with bazaars-large and bustling centers of trade. Traders from many different regions would barter and sell their goods. Some large bazaars were said to spread across entire towns for miles. Local merchants would exchange goods with the caravan traders, who would buy goods to sell further along the Silk Road. Goods Traded A wide variety of goods was available at these bazaars. Coming from the west would be items like gold, grapes, pomegranates, woolen rugs, and colored glass. From China came silk, gunpowder, paper, compasses, and bamboo. It was often advantageous for traders to buy a diverse range of goods in case the price of one item fell below the price necessary for the trader to make a profit. The trader had to be clever in order to exchange goods quickly and gauge the demand for the item at the market. Chang' an, the capital of China, was a major destination for most Western travelers during the Tang (618-906) and Yuan (1279-1368) Dynasties. Sogdians" Turks, Persians, Indians, Arabs, and other peoples of Central Asia and Europe crowded a section of the city called the Western Market, where they traded and sold their wares at innumerable bazaars. Different products and exotic goods from many places were peddled in this bustling center of trade, where foreign traders profited handsomely. Temples and taverns also lined the market. Western performers entertained the visitors and helped them forget their loneliness by reminding them of the delights of their homes. Importance of the Silk Road Trade A large volume of goods traveled along the Silk Road. Successful trading meant high profits for the trader and also for the towns along the Silk Road trade routes. Local town people profited from trade by catering to the needs of the passing traders. Regional governments made a profit as they levied taxes on foreign traders passing through their regions. The revenue (money) from taxes was so great that wars were fought to see who would control the lucrative trade along different sections of the trade routes. Beyond emiching people, trade along the Silk Road also contributed to rich cultural exchange. Pilgrims and monks traveled along the trade routes to spread their beliefs. Envoys of the different kingdoms also traveled along the Silk Road to bring gifts to other rulers. Traders and other travelers gathered at the marketplaces, caravanserais, and teahouses and learned about the cultures of one another. Consumers who bought goods from different lands were introduced to the cultures of the people who made those goods. 1The Sogdians were a tribe who specialized as caravaneers. They lived in the area of Samarkand and Bukhara (modern- day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan) and served as middlemen in Silk Road trade. 112 ©SPICE  j I Impact of the Silk Road The Historical Impact of the Silk Road People who traveled on the Silk Road interacted with each other in the markets, teahouses, and caravanserais (hms where caravans rested at night) of great trade centers. Their contact led to the exchange of both goods and ideas. I. Sometimes these exchanges were deliberate; for example, Zhang Qian brought alfalfa to China. At other times, the exchanges were more gradual and less direct. The long periods of time involved I and the lack of adequate records make it difficult to assign specific dates to the spread of culture; consequently, historians can only estimate when certain exchanges occurred. The first official recognition of Buddhism in China, for example, was in 65 CE, when the Chinese emperor requested that two Indian missionaries bring sacred texts and relics to China. a golden statue of Buddha has been discovered in China dating back to 121 BCE. Likewise, it is difficult to know which ideas traveled over land and which came by sea. 1 Plants and Foods When people visit a foreign place one of the first things they notice is how different the food tastes. 1 Chinese food, for example, incorporates different flavors than Middle Eastern food. Travelers along the Silk Road undoubtedly found some of the new tastes excithlg, and they brought back new foods to share with their own people. With increased contact over the Silk Road, more and more foods were exchanged. From China to the West. Plants and foods known to have corne to the West from China are: peach mandarin orange rice chrysanthemum rose apricot cinnamon From the West to China. Following is a list of plants and foods known to have corne to Chitla from the West. These foods have played an important role in the development of Chinese cuishle. alfalfa garlic coriander sesame grapevine pepper cane sugar cucumber chive, onion, and shallot pear tomato turnip sphlach The Chinese name for tomato, xihallgshi (pronounced approximately as she-hung-sure), literally means "red western persimmon." The Chinese name for a turnip, huluabo (pronounced approximately as who-low-bo), means "barbarian radish." The names of both foods reflect their Western origins. Technology and Inventions Durhlg the period of the Silk Road, China's mechanical teclmology was mum more advanced than that of the West. The most notable of China's contributions to the West have been scientific and technological. Many inventions made their way to the West and positively affected the development of Western society. China also received many "exotic goods" from the West. 248 ©SPICE  From China to the West: Silk manufacturing. For more than 2,000 years, the Chinese kept the secret of sericulture (silk production). Modern-day production of silk still uses much of the technology that the Chinese invented. Wheelbarrow. The wheelbarrow made agricultural work more efficient. Iron chain suspension bridge. Suspension bridges improved transportation in areas that could not be crossed by normal bridges. Magnetic compass and its use for navigation. The magnetic compass made long distance sea navigation safer. Equipped with the compass, Arab and European sailors could sail farther than they had before. Paper. Paper had an enormous impact on the world. It made written communication possible on a great scale. Can you imagine what it would be like trying to go for a day without using paper? Printing. Printing also impacted the world's ability to communicate. Printing made it possible to make more than one copy of a book at one time, consequently increasing the amount of written material available to the public. Movable-type printing. Movable-type printing quickened the process of printing a book and thus contributed to the spread of information. With printed material available, more people could read and share their knowledge with others. Crossbow and gunpowder. The crossbow and gunpowder were adopted by the West out of the need to compete with the Chinese and other people who had them. Gunpowder changed warfare in Europe. Spinning Wheel. The spinning wheel made the production of tlu'ead for weaving textiles more efficient. From the West to China: Polychrome (many colored) silks. Many Chinese silks were carried to the Mediterranean where they were dyed by Romans and Jews in Egypt and Syria. The quality of tlus dyed fabric was unavailable in Cllina, and was considered to be very valuable. Drugs and medicine. China received many medicinal goods from Indian Buddhists who traveled on the Silk Road. These Buddlusts brought with them many different drugs that contributed to the development of Chinese herbal medicine. Religion Different religions influenced the art, architecture, customs, habits, and language of the people of the Silk Road. The major religious influences on the people of the Silk Road were Buddhism and Islam. Buddhism and Its Effects on East Asia Although the influence of Buddlusm in Central Asia declined with the rise of Islam, Buddhism remained a significant part of the cultures in East Asia (China, Korea, and Japan) and many Southeast Asian countries (Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Vietnam). ALONG THE SILK ROAD 249  Language. Over 60,000 Chinese words can be attributed to Buddhism, including words for fate, monks, and glass. Chinese scholars translating Buddhist texts also invented a phonetic system to transcribe words not found in Chinese. Tins system, which survives to tins day, has been important in absorbing many foreign words and ideas into the Chinese language. Art and Architecture. Buddhist motifs are abundant in Chinese art, as are many stylistic influences that find their roots in the Buddhist Indian art that spread along the Silk Road. Tins Indian art had been influenced by Greeks; as a result, Chinese art ) indirectly adopted many of the techniques of Greek art. Buddhist influence in ' architecture can be seen in pagodas, which resemble Indian buildings known as stupas. Islam and Its Effects on Central Asia Central Asia today is mostly populated by Muslims, Islam dictates the way many Central Asians live their lives. Language. As Islam spread throughout the world, Arabic began to be spoken by many people. Today, millions of people throughout the Middle East, South Asia, and the Muslim communities in China use Arabic language and script to communicate. Architecture. ArclUtecture along the Silk Road has many Islamic influences, notably dome-shaped mosques and high minarets (towers). Knowledge. From the ninth to the eleventh centuries, Islamic writers and scientists made invaluable contributions to philosophy, history, astronomy, math, and literature, Demographics People on today's Silk Road are the descendants of the many past populations that lived on the i, Silk Road. Some examples are: Iranians: descended from the Scythians and Persians Afghans: descended from the Bactrians and the Kushans Iraqis: descended from Medes (a tribe that once controlled part of the Middle East where Iraq is now located) ! Today's Silk Road inhabitants are the heirs of many cultural influences. The people living along the Silk Road adopted characteristics from each successive wave of conquering people, Because of the invasion of Turkic tribes, a significant percentage of the Silk Road people still speak Turkish dialects, Silnilarly, because of Muslim control over the region, most of today's Silk Road inhabitants believe in Islam. Most of the lands that formed the maill Silk Road land route lay in the autonomous region occupied by the Uighurs in China and in the Central Asian nations of the former Soviet Union. There had been a large movement of Russian and Chinese peoples into these two areas since their territorial annexation in the twentieth century. The result is cultural mixes of people who speak both their own native language as well as Russian or Chinese. When one visits these regions today, it is clear that many aspects of the previous Silk Road culture are still visible in today's Silk Road populations. The cultures of these populations, however, are constantly under pressure to modernize and develop, Cultural exchange continues to transform the cultures of those who live along the ancient Silk Road as well as our own. ) 250 ©SPICE  SEA ROADS: EXCHANGE ACROSS THE INDIAN OCEAN 291 facilitated the spread of the Black Death — identified variously with the bubonic plague, anthrax, or a package of epidemic diseases — from China to Europe. Its con- sequences were enormous. Between 1346 and 1348, up to half of the population of Europe perished from the plague. “A dead man,” wrote the Italian writer Boccac- cio, “was then of no more account than a dead goat.”6 Despite the terrible human toll, some among the living benefited. Tenant farmers and urban workers, now in short supply, could demand higher wages or better terms. Some landowning nobles, on the other hand, were badly hurt as the price of their grains dropped and the demands of their dependents grew. A similar death toll afflicted China and parts of the Islamic world. The Central Asian steppes, home to many nomadic peoples, including the Mongols, also suffered terribly, undermining Mongol rule and permanently altering the balance between pastoral and agricultural peoples to the advantage of settled farmers. In these and many other ways, disease carried by long-distance trade shaped the lives of millions and altered their historical development. (See Chapter 11 for more on the Black Death.) In the long run of world history, the exchange of diseases gave Europeans a certain advantage when they confronted the peoples of the Western Hemisphere after 1500. Exposure over time had provided them with some degree of immunity to Eurasian diseases. In the Americas, however, the absence of domesticated ani- mals, the less intense interaction among major centers of population, and isolation from the Eastern Hemisphere ensured that native peoples had little defense against the diseases of Europe and Africa. Thus, when their societies were suddenly con- fronted by Europeans and Africans from across the Atlantic, they perished in appall- ing numbers. Such was the long-term outcome of the very different histories of the two hemispheres. Reading #1 Starts Here Sea Roads: Exchange across the Indian Ocean If the Silk Roads linked Eurasian societies by land, sea-based trade routes like- wise connected distant peoples all across the Eastern Hemisphere. For example, since the days of the Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans, the Mediterranean Sea had been an avenue of maritime commerce throughout the region, a pattern that con- tinued during the third-wave era. The Italian city of Venice emerged by 1000 c.e. as a major center of that commercial network, with its ships and merchants active in the Mediterranean and Black seas as well as on the Atlantic coast. Much of its wealth derived from control of expensive and profitable imported goods from Asia, many of which came up the Red Sea through the Egyptian port of Alexandria. There Venetian merchants picked up those goods and resold them throughout the Mediterranean basin. This type of transregional exchange linked the maritime commerce of the Mediterranean Sea to the much larger and more extensive net- work of seaborne trade in the Indian Ocean basin. Until the creation of a genuinely global oceanic system of trade after 1500, the Indian Ocean represented the world’s largest sea-based system of communication 292 CHAPTER 7 / COMMERCE AND CULTURE, 500–1500 R. llo w Ye Baghdad Chang’an Luoyang Alexandria PERSIA Basra Hangzhou Cairo Siraf Hormuz CHINA Per an si ARABIA Gulf Delhi Quanzhou e R. Cambay Red Guangzhou Mecca PAC I F I C l Ni Surat (Canton) OCEAN Sea INDIA Adulis Arabian Masulipatam Bay of South PHILIPPINE Sea Bengal China ISLANDS Aden Calicut Sea Quilon CEYLON AFRICA Mogadishu Malacca STRAIT OF MALACCA s on BORNEO so s on on Malinda Palembang MALUKU so yM on SUMATRA ISLANDS Mombasa INDIAN OCEAN ar rM ru be Zanzibar eb tem r–F Kilwa e p mb Se ril– ve No Ap Mozambique Trade routes Sofala Route of colonization to Madagascar 0 250 500 miles MADAGASCAR Monsoons 0 250 500 kilometers Map 7.2 and exchange, stretching from southern China to eastern Africa (see Map 7.2). Like The Sea Roads the Silk Roads, these transoceanic trade routes — the Sea Roads — also grew out of Paralleling the Silk Road the vast environmental and cultural diversities of the region. The desire for various trading network, a sea- based commerce in the goods not available at home — such as porcelain from China, spices from the islands Indian Ocean basin con- of Southeast Asia, cotton goods and pepper from India, ivory and gold from the nected the many peoples East African coast, incense from southern Arabia — provided incentives for Indian between China and East Africa. Ocean commerce. Transportation costs were lower on the Sea Roads than on the Silk Roads because ships could accommodate larger and heavier cargoes than cam- els. This meant that the Sea Roads could eventually carry more bulk goods and products destined for a mass market — textiles, pepper, timber, rice, sugar, wheat — whereas the Silk Roads were limited largely to luxury goods for the few. What made Indian Ocean commerce possible were the monsoons, alternating wind currents that blew predictably northeast during the summer months and southwest during the winter (see Map 7.2). An understanding of monsoons and a gradually accumulating technology of shipbuilding and oceanic navigation drew on the ingenuity of many peoples — Chinese, Malays, Indians, Arabs, Swahilis, and others. Collectively they made “an interlocked human world joined by the com- mon highway of the Indian Ocean.”7  SEA ROADS: EXCHANGE ACROSS THE INDIAN OCEAN 293 But this world of Indian Ocean commerce did not occur between entire regions and certainly not between “countries,” even though historians sometimes write about India, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, or East Africa as a matter of shorthand or convenience. It operated rather across an “archipelago of towns” whose merchants often had more in common with one another than with the people of their own hinterlands.8 These urban centers, strung out around the entire Indian Ocean basin, provided the nodes of this widespread commercial network. Weaving the Web of an Indian Ocean World The world of Indian Ocean commerce was long in the making, dating back to the time of the First Civilizations. Seaborne trade via the Persian Gulf between ancient Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley civilization is refl ected in archeological finds in both places. Perhaps the still-undeciphered Indian writing system was stimulated by Sumerian cuneiform. The ancient Egyptians, and later the Phoenicians, likewise traded down the Red Sea, exchanging their manufactured goods for gold, ivory, frankincense, and slaves from the coasts of Ethiopia, Somalia, and southern Arabia. These ventures mostly hugged the coast and took place over short distances. Malay sailors, however, were an exception to this rule. Speaking Austronesian languages, they jumped off from the islands of present-day Indonesia during the first millen- nium b.c.e. and made their way in double-outrigger canoes across thousands of miles of open ocean to the East African island of Madagascar. There they intro- duced their language and their crops — bananas, coconuts, and taro — which soon spread to the mainland, where they greatly enriched the diets of African peoples. Also finding its way to the continent was a Malayo-Polynesian xylophone, which is still played in parts of Africa today. A casualty of this migration, coupled with the later arrival of Bantu-speaking Africans, was the extinction of the “elephant bird,” a huge fl ightless bird weighing up to 600 pounds and found only in Madagascar. The tempo of Indian Ocean commerce picked up in the era of second-wave civilizations during the early centuries of the Common Era, as mariners learned how to ride the monsoons. Various technological innovations also facilitated Indian Ocean trade — improvements in sails, new kinds of ships called junks with stern- post rudders and keels for greater stability, new means of calculating latitude such as the astrolabe, and evolving versions of the magnetic needle or compass. Around the time of Christ, the Greek geographer Strabo reported that “great fl eets [from the Roman Empire] are sent as far as India, whence the most valuable cargoes are brought back to Egypt and thence exported again to other places.”9 Merchants from the Roman world, mostly Greeks, Syrians, and Jews, established settlements in southern India and along the East African coast. The introduction of Christianity into both Axum and Kerala (in southern India) testifies to the long-term cultural impact of that trade. In the eastern Indian Ocean and the South China Sea, Chinese and Southeast Asian merchants likewise generated a growing commerce, and by 100 c.e. Chinese traders had reached India. 294 CHAPTER 7 / COMMERCE AND CULTURE, 500–1500 Snapshot Economic Exchange in the Indian Ocean Basin Region Products Contributed to Indian Ocean Commerce Mediterranean basin ceramics, glassware, wine, gold, olive oil East Africa ivory, gold, iron goods, slaves, tortoiseshells, quartz, leopard skins Arabia frankincense, myrrh, perfumes India grain, ivory, precious stones, cotton textiles, spices, timber, tortoiseshells Southeast Asia tin, sandalwood, cloves, nutmeg, mace China silks, porcelain, tea The fulcrum of this growing commercial network lay in India itself. Its ports bulged with goods from both west and east, as illustrated in the Snapshot above. Its merchants were in touch with Southeast Asia by the first century c.e., and settled communities of Indian traders appeared throughout the Indian Ocean basin and as far away as Alexandria in Egypt. Indian cultural practices, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as South Asian political ideas began to take root in Southeast Asia. Change In the era of third-wave civilizations between 500 and 1500, two major pro- What lay behind the flour- cesses changed the landscape of the Afro-Eurasian world and wove the web of ishing of Indian Ocean Indian Ocean exchange even more densely than before. One was the economic commerce in the post- classical millennium? and political revival of China, some four centuries after the collapse of the Han dynasty (see Chapter 8). Especially during the Tang and Song dynasties (618–1279), China reestablished an effective and unified state, which actively encouraged mari- time trade. Furthermore, the impressive growth of the Chinese economy sent Chi- nese products pouring into the circuits of Indian Ocean commerce, while provid- ing a vast and attractive market for Indian and Southeast Asian goods. Chinese technological innovations, such as larger ships and the magnetic compass, likewise added to the momentum of commercial growth. A second transformation in the world of Indian Ocean commerce involved the sudden rise of Islam in the seventh century c.e. and its subsequent spread across much of the Afro-Eurasian world (see Chapter 9). Unlike Confucian culture, which was quite suspicious of merchants, Islam was friendly to commercial life; the Prophet Muhammad himself had been a trader. The creation of an Arab Empire, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean through the Mediterranean basin and all the way to India, brought together in a single political system an immense range of economies and cultural traditions and provided a vast arena for the energies of Muslim traders. Those energies greatly intensified commercial activity in the Indian Ocean basin. Middle Eastern gold and silver fl owed into southern India to purchase pep- per, pearls, textiles, and gemstones. Muslim merchants and sailors, as well as Jews  SEA ROADS: EXCHANGE ACROSS THE INDIAN OCEAN 295 and Christians living within the Islamic world, established communities of traders from East Africa to the south China coast. Efforts to reclaim wasteland in Mesopo- tamia to produce sugar and dates for export stimulated a slave trade from East Africa, which landed thousands of Africans in southern Iraq to work on plantations and in salt mines under horrendous conditions. A massive fifteen-year revolt (868– 883) among these slaves badly disrupted the Islamic Abbasid Empire before that rebellion was brutally crushed. Beyond these specific outcomes, the expansion of Islam gave rise to an inter- national maritime culture by 1000, shared by individuals living in the widely sepa- rated port cities around the Indian Ocean. The immense prestige, power, and prosperity of the Islamic world stimulated widespread conversion, which in turn facilitated commercial transactions. Even those who did not convert to Islam, such as Buddhist rulers in Burma, nonetheless regarded it as commercially useful to assume Muslim names. Thus was created “a maritime Silk Road... a commercial and informational network of unparalleled proportions.”10 After 1000, the culture of this network was increasingly Islamic. Reading #1 Ends Here Reading #2 Starts Here Sea Roads as a Catalyst for Change: Southeast Asia Oceanic commerce transformed all of its participants in one way or another, but nowhere more so than in Southeast Asia and East Africa, at opposite ends of the Indian Ocean network. In both regions, trade stimulated political change as ambi- tious or aspiring rulers used the wealth derived from commerce to construct larger and more centrally governed states or cities. Both areas likewise experienced cul- tural change as local people were attracted to foreign religious ideas from Confu- cian, Hindu, Buddhist, or Islamic sources. As on the Silk Roads, trade was a con- duit for culture. Located between the major civilizations of China and India, Southeast Asia was Connection situated by geography to play an important role in the evolving world of Indian In what ways did Indian Ocean commerce. During the third-wave era, a series of cities and states or king- influence register in Southeast Asia? doms emerged on both the islands and mainland of Southeast Asia, representing new civilizations in this vast region (see Map 7.3). That process paralleled a similar development of new civilizations in East and West Africa, Japan, Russia, and West- ern Europe in what was an Afro-Eurasian phenomenon. In Southeast Asia, many of those new societies were stimulated and decisively shaped by their interaction with the sea-based trade of the Indian Ocean.11 The case of Srivijaya (SREE-vih-juh-yuh) illustrates the connection between commerce and state building. When Malay sailors, long active in the waters around Southeast Asia, opened an all-sea route between India and China through the Straits of Malacca around 350 c.e., the many small ports along the Malay Peninsula and the coast of Sumatra began to compete intensely to attract the growing number of traders and travelers making their way through the straits. From this competition emerged the Malay kingdom of Srivijaya, which dominated this critical choke 296 CHAPTER 7 / COMMERCE AND CULTURE, 500–1500 point of Indian Ocean trade from 670 to 1025. A num- INDIA CHINA ber of factors — Srivijaya’s plentiful supply of gold; its PAGAN access to the source of highly sought-after spices, such Pagan VIETNAM as cloves, nutmeg, and mace; and the taxes levied on passing ships — provided resources to attract support- Bay of ers, to fund an embryonic bureaucracy, and to create Bengal Indrapura KHMER the military and naval forces that brought some secu- EMPIRE Angkor rity to the area. CHAMPA The inland states on the mainland of Southeast F UNAN South Asia, whose economies were based more on domesti- Strait of China cally produced rice than on international trade, none- Malacca Malay Sea Peninsula theless participated in the commerce of the region. The state of Funan, which flourished during the first six centuries of the Common Era in what is now south- S R I V I J AYA BORNEO ern Vietnam and eastern Cambodia, hosted merchants Sumatra from both India and China. Archeologists have found Palembang Java Sea Roman coins as well as trade goods from Persia, Cen- Borobudur tral Asia, and Arabia in the ruins of its ancient cities. Java INDIAN OCEAN The Khmer kingdom of Angkor (flourished 800–1300) SAILENDRA exported exotic forest products, receiving in return Map 7.3 Southeast Asia, ca. 1200 C.E. Chinese and Indian handicrafts, while welcoming a Both mainland and island Southeast Asia were centrally considerable community of Chinese merchants. Trad- involved in the commerce of the Indian Ocean basin, and ers from Champa in what is now central and southern both were transformed by that experience. Vietnam operated in China, Java, and elsewhere, prac- ticing piracy when trade dried up. Champa’s effort to control the trade between China and Southeast Asia provoked warfare with its commercial rivals. Beyond the exchange of goods, commercial connections served to spread ele- ments of Indian culture across much of Southeast Asia, even as Vietnam was incor- porated into the Chinese sphere of infl uence. (See Chapter 8 for more on Chinese infl uence in Vietnam.) Indian alphabets such as Sanskrit and Pallava were used to write a number of Southeast Asian languages. Indian artistic forms provided models for Southeast Asian sculpture and architecture, while the Indian epic Ramayana became widely popular across the region. Politically, Southeast Asian rulers and elites found attractive the Indian belief that leaders were god-kings, perhaps reincarnations of a Buddha or the Hindu deity Shiva, while the idea of karma conveyed legitimacy to the rich and powerful based on their moral behavior in earlier lives. Srivijayan monarchs, for example, employed Indians as advisers, clerks, or officials and assigned Sanskrit titles to their subor- dinates. The capital city of Palembang was a cosmopolitan place, where even the parrots were said to speak four languages. While these rulers drew on indigenous beliefs that chiefs possessed magical powers and were responsible for the prosperity of their people, they also made use of imported Indian political ideas and Buddhist religious concepts, which provided a “higher level of magic” for rulers as well as the prestige of association with Indian civilization.12 They also sponsored the crea-  SEA ROADS: EXCHANGE ACROSS THE INDIAN OCEAN 297 tion of images of the Buddha and various bodhisattvas whose faces resembled those Borobudur of deceased kings and were inscribed with traditional curses against anyone who This huge Buddhist monument, constructed probably in the would destroy them. Srivijaya grew into a major center of Buddhist observance and ninth century C.E., was sub- teaching, attracting thousands of monks and students from throughout the Bud- sequently abandoned and dhist world. The seventh-century Chinese monk Yi Jing was so impressed that he covered with layers of volcanic ash and vegetation as Java advised Buddhist monks headed for India to study first in Srivijaya for several years. came under Islamic influence. Elsewhere as well, elements of Indian culture took hold in Southeast Asia. It was rediscovered by British The Sailendra kingdom in central Java, an agriculturally rich region closely allied colonial authorities in the early nineteenth century and has with Srivijaya, mounted a massive building program between the eighth and tenth undergone several restorations centuries featuring Hindu temples and Buddhist monuments. The most famous, over the past two centuries. known as Borobudur, is an enormous mountain-shaped structure of ten levels, Although Indonesia is a largely with a three-mile walkway and elaborate carvings illustrating the spiritual journey Muslim country, its small Buddhist minority still cele- from ignorance and illusion to full enlightenment. The largest Buddhist monument brates the Buddha’s birthday anywhere in the world, it is nonetheless a distinctly Javanese creation, whose carved at Borobudur. (© Luca Tettoni/ Robert Harding World Imagery/ figures have Javanese features and whose scenes are clearly set in Java, not India. Its Alamy) shape resonated with an ancient Southeast Asian veneration of mountains as sacred places and the abode of ancestral spirits. Borobudur represents the process of Bud- dhism becoming culturally grounded in a new place. Hinduism too, though not an explicitly missionary religion, found a place in Southeast Asia. It was well rooted in the Champa kingdom, for example, where Shiva was worshipped, cows were honored, and phallic imagery was prominent. But it was in the prosperous and powerful Angkor kingdom of the twelfth century c.e. that Hinduism found its most stunning architectural expression in the temple complex known as Angkor Wat. The largest religious structure in the premodern 298 CHAPTER 7 / COMMERCE AND CULTURE, 500–1500 Angkor Wat Constructed in the early twelfth century, the Angkor Wat com- plex was designed as a state temple, dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu and lavishly deco- rated with carved bas-reliefs depicting scenes from Hindu mythology. By the late thir- teenth century, it was in use by Buddhists, as it is to this day. This photo shows a small section of the temple and three Buddhist monks in their saffron robes. (© Jose Fuste Raga/Corbis) world, it sought to express a Hindu understanding of the cosmos, centered on a mythical Mount Meru, the home of the gods in Hindu tradition. Later, it was used by Buddhists as well, with little sense of contradiction. To the west of Angkor, the state of Pagan likewise devoted enormous resources to shrines, temples, and librar- ies inspired by both Hindu and Buddhist faiths. This extensive Indian infl uence in Southeast Asia has led some scholars to speak of the “Indianization” of the region, similar perhaps to the earlier spread of Greek culture within the empires of Alexander the Great and Rome. In the case of South- east Asia, however, no imperial control accompanied Indian cultural infl uence. It was a matter of voluntary borrowing by independent societies that found Indian traditions and practices useful and were free to adapt those ideas to their own needs and cultures. Traditional religious practices mixed with the imported faiths or existed alongside them with little confl ict. And much that was distinctively Southeast Asian persisted despite infl uences from afar. In family life, for example, most Southeast Asian societies traced an individual’s ancestry from both the mother’s and father’s line in contrast to India and China, where patrilineal descent was practiced. Fur- thermore, women had fewer restrictions and a greater role in public life than in the more patriarchal civilizations of both East and South Asia. They were generally able to own property together with their husbands and to initiate divorce. A Chinese visitor to Angkor observed, “It is the women who are concerned with commerce.” Women in Angkor also served as gladiators, warriors, and members of the palace staff, and as poets, artists, and religious teachers. Almost 1,800 realistically carved images  SEA ROADS: EXCHANGE ACROSS THE INDIAN OCEAN 299 of women decorate the temple complex of Angkor Wat. In neighboring Pagan, a thirteenth-century queen, Pwa Saw, exercised extensive political and religious influ- ence for some forty years amid internal intrigue and external threats, while donating some of her lands and property to a Buddhist temple. Somewhat later, but also via Indian Ocean commerce, Islam too began to penetrate Southeast Asia as the world of seaborne trade brought yet another cultural tradition to the region. Sea Roads as a Catalyst for Change: East Africa On the other side of the Indian Ocean, the transformative processes of long-distance trade were likewise at work, giving rise to an East African civilization known as Swahili. Emerging in the eighth century c.e., this civilization took shape as a set of commercial city-states stretching all along the East African coast, from present-day Somalia to Mozambique. The earlier ancestors of the Swahili lived in small farming and fishing commu- Connection nities, spoke Bantu languages, and traded with the Arabian, Greek, and Roman What was the role of merchants who occasionally visited the coast during the second-wave era. But what Swahili civilization in the world of Indian Ocean stimulated the growth of Swahili cities was the far more extensive commercial life commerce? of the western Indian Ocean following the rise of Islam. As in Southeast Asia, local people and aspiring rulers found opportunity for wealth and power in the growing demand for East African products associated with an expanding Indian Ocean com- merce. Gold, ivory, quartz, leopard skins, and sometimes slaves acquired from inte- rior societies, as well as iron and processed timber manufactured along the coast, found a ready market in Arabia, Persia, India, and beyond. At least one East African giraffe found its way to Bengal in northeastern India, and from there was sent on to China. In response to such commercial opportunities, an African merchant class developed, villages turned into sizable towns, and clan chiefs became kings. A new civilization was in the making. Between 1000 and 1500, that civilization fl ourished along the coast, and it was a very different kind of society from the farming and pastoral cultures of the East African interior. It was thoroughly urban, centered in cities of 15,000 to 18,000 people, such as Lamu, Mombasa, Kilwa, Sofala, and many others. Like the city- states of ancient Greece, each Swahili city was politically independent, was gener- ally governed by its own king, and was in sharp competition with other cities. No imperial system or larger territorial states unified the world of Swahili civilization. Nor did any of these city-states control a critical choke point of trade, as Srivijaya did for the Straits of Malacca. Swahili cities were commercial centers that accumu- lated goods from the interior and exchanged them for the products of distant civi- lizations, such as Chinese porcelain and silk, Persian rugs, and Indian cottons. While the transoceanic journeys occurred largely in Arab vessels, Swahili craft navigated the coastal waterways, concentrating goods for shipment abroad. This long-distance trade generated class-stratified urban societies with sharp distinctions between a mercantile elite and commoners. 300 CHAPTER 7 / COMMERCE AND CULTURE, 500–1500 Culturally as well as economically, Swahili civilization participated in the Zeila Berbera larger Indian Ocean world. Arab, Indian, and Persian merchants were wel- Ras Hafun come visitors, and some settled permanently. Many ruling families of Swahili A F R I C A cities claimed Arab or Persian origins as a way of bolstering their prestige, Mogadishu even while they dined from Chinese porcelain and dressed in Indian cot- tons. The Swahili language, widely spoken in East Africa today, was gram- Lamu I N D I A N matically an African tongue within the larger Bantu family of languages, Malindi OCEAN Mombasa Pemba Island but it was written in Arabic script and contained a number of Arabic loan Zanzibar Island words. A small bronze lion found in the Swahili city of Shanga and dat- Kilwa ing to about 1100 illustrates the distinctly cosmopolitan character of Swahili culture. It depicted a clearly African lion, but it was created in a distinctly Indian artistic style and was made from melted-down Chinese copper coins.13 GREAT Furthermore, Swahili civilization rapidly became Islamic. Introduced ZIMBABWE by Arab traders, Islam was voluntarily and widely adopted within the Swa- Sofala MADAGASCAR hili world. Like Buddhism in Southeast Asia, Islam linked Swahili cities to the larger Indian Ocean world, and these East African cities were soon dotted with substantial mosques. When Ibn Battuta (IH-buhn ba-TOO- The Swahili Coast of East Africa tuh), a widely traveled Arab scholar, merchant, and public official, visited the Swahili coast in the early fourteenth century, he found altogether Mus- lim societies in which religious leaders often spoke Arabic, and all were eager to welcome a learned Islamic visitor. But these were African Muslims, not colonies of transplanted Arabs. A prominent historian of Ibn Battuta’s travels commented on Swahili society: “The rulers, scholars, officials, and big merchants as well as the port workers, farmers, craftsmen, and slaves, were dark-skinned people speaking African tongues in everyday life.”14 Islam sharply divided the Swahili cities from their African neighbors to the west, for neither the new religion nor Swahili culture penetrated much beyond the coast until the nineteenth century. Economically, however, the coastal cities acted as intermediaries between the interior producers of valued goods and the Arab merchants who carried them to distant markets. Particularly in the southern reaches of the Swahili world, this relationship extended the impact of Indian Ocean trade well into the African interior. Hundreds of miles inland, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers, lay rich sources of gold, much in demand on the Swahili coast. The emergence of a powerful state, known as Great Zimbabwe, seems clearly con- nected to the growing trade in gold to the coast as well as to the wealth embodied in its large herds of cattle. At its peak between 1250 and 1350, Great Zimbabwe had the resources and the labor power to construct huge stone enclosures entirely without mortar, with walls sixteen feet thick and thirty-two feet tall. “[It] must have been an astonishing sight,” writes a recent histo- SUMMING UP SO FAR rian, “for the subordinate chiefs and kings who would have come there to seek favors at court.”15 Here in To what extent did the Silk Roads and the interior of southeastern Africa lay yet another the Sea Roads operate in a similar fashion? How did they differ? example of the reach and transforming power of Indian Ocean commerce.