The Asian And African Trade Systems

During the Post-Classical Era, the sacking of Baghdad in 1258 by the Mongols and the fall of Constantinople in 1453 by the Ottoman Turks greatly impacted and shaped the economy and political moves of Europeans, the Mongols provided important trade connections between Europe and Asia where, not only the trade of goods flourished but, also knowledge and technology, however as Mongol power declined and the Turks, who the Europeans saw as a threat, finally conquered the weakened Constantinople, they also cut off Europe’s overland trade route to Asia and the Middle East, prompting the expansion of Europe’s maritime trade routes and encouraging exploration.

“No nation was ever ruined by trade.” This quote was said by Benjamin Franklin in the late 1700s. These words are so simple, and it seems like anyone could have said them. However, this quote has a bigger meaning in that throughout world history, trade has been so important to so many countries and it has led to many empires successes. It has occurred for a very long time, and it has progressed dramatically. Trade has changed a lot, but some parts of trade stayed the same over a long periods of time. In the era between 300 CE and 1450 CE, trade between Eurasia and Africa changed because the empires and kingdoms in power were replaced and their control over trade differed;

The traditional way the slave trade is studied equates it with a triangle, or triangular trade. This triangle reduces each continent involved in the slave trade to one point, and leaves a student with an idea of a straightforward global trade that simply goes from point A to point B. This method of studying the slave trade omits all local civilizations, ports, and kings that a slave ship will undoubtedly interact with on a voyage. Robert Harms argues that these local factors are what shaped the slave trade, and that it is much deeper and more complicated than a triangle. Harms systematically describes in detail each stop of the Diligent's voyage, and although many of these kingdoms at first seem insignificant, he demonstrates to the reader

As stated in Document 5, “After those kingdoms collapsed, Muslim rulers still encouraged trade with European businessmen. Commerce with the West benefited both Muslims and Europeans, and it continued to flourish.” Even when the kingdoms collapsed, Muslims still continued trade with the Europeans, and trade then maintained to thrive. This shows how the course of the Crusades helped bring back the prosperous economic relationship between Europe and the Middle East. Also, Document 2 explains how merchants who used their fleets to carry Crusaders ended up using their fleets to set up markets in the East. Merchants took European goods and brought back goods from the Middle East. This illustrates how Western Europe reconnected themselves to a more vast selection of products through the trade during the Crusades. As seen above, the Western Europeans were positively impacted by the Crusades through a more connected trade relationship with the Middle

The Crusade made the Christians adopt many of the foodstuffs used by easterners such as, pepper, melons, apricots, sesame seeds, and carob beans. The Christians new fondness for these foods brought about wealth traders who sell these new goods. The Crusades cost countless Muslim lives lost and many buildings destroyed, but they did gain exposure to new European ideas like new weapons and new military tactics. Muslims especially in Egypt and Syria, earned riches from the Europeans. These political changes made the Muslims band together against one common foe, the Ayyabids. The Crusades also caused Europe to start trading with Asia, which brought with it the knowledge of the Easts foreign fruits and spices. The Crusades also brought about the

During the period of 1450 to 1700, Europe flourished economically, leaving a growing population craving access to lush Asian goods. However, with the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman Empire assumed control over the coveted trade routes, creating obstacles for European merchants who neither had goods to offer or shared a common religion with such folk. These hurdles, along with the religious zeal of Christian missionaries and curiosity of European mariners led Western Europe to look elsewhere, specifically the Atlantic, for new trade routes. Although the hypothetical “Northwest Passage” was never found, Atlantic trade, more commonly known as the Columbian Exchange, boomed. With its primary commerce in slaves, silver, and spices, this

Compare the cultures that could be found in the New World prior to the Europeans. Why were some groups more advanced than others throughout the same region?

Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel opens with a preface in which the creator shows an inquiry from a New Guinean legislator and companion named Yali: why were Europeans ready to vanquish such a variety of different social orders the world over? In the creator's perspective, the inquiry is similar to this: - How did the European whites accomplish a wide range of improvement, while the dim cleaned individuals didn't? The book goes ahead to examine the response to this inquiry, endeavoring to give clarifications to why Eurasian people groups added to the horticulture, innovation, and pathogens that empowered them to extend their impact far and wide. The least complex response to this inquiry is riches and influence. In any case, there is a

At first Native Americans, Europeans and Africans were separated by the vast oceans in between their continents, but as technologies and trade in Europe advanced the three region’s worlds collided. There were various similarities and differences in policy, economy and religion amongst the three regions but alas, contact between these empires reaped inevitable change among all these for the better or worse.

The spread of Europeans into the Western Hemisphere was an advancement because of the exchange of culture, goods, and technology yet it was also a step backwards for human civilizations because of the loss of Native American and African lives and culture as well as an increase in the slave trade.

Europeans were in a much closer proximity to the Americas than they were to asian countries. European societal groups, which included the competing merchants, impoverished nobles, monarchs, and commoners, Christian missionaries, and minorities different yet very strong motivations for having participation in empire building. European trading companies enabled the mobilization of both material resources like wood and crops as well as humans. The Disease in the Americas that had been brought by spanish conquerors made the natives weak and unable to stop the European invasion

1. What role did Africa play in the world trade system prior to Columbus’s famous voyages? Prior to Columbus’s famous voyages, Africa played an important role in the Afroeurasian trade system. Africa developed many large empires by 1450.

The Bubonic Plague, known more commonly as the Black Death, was a fatal disease that ravaged Asia and Europe during the mid-14th century. Although the destruction the Plague brought upon Europe in terms of deaths was enormous, the Islamic world arguably suffered more due to the fact that plague epidemics continually returned to the Islamic world up until the 19th century. The recurrence of the disease caused Muslim populations to never recover from the losses suffered and a resulting demographic shift that arguably helped Europe to surpass the Islamic world's previous superiority in scholarship.

Europeans traveled around the world in the search of goods and spices. Bringing back what they don’t have to their country and trading off what they do have. Sailors trying to find alternate routes to reach their destination, the brush upon new land they’ve never seen before and people that weren’t “normal” or have European features and mannerism. To Europeans they weren’t human at all. Europeans believed they were the only set of humans, and the new lands they’ve so happen to come across became the new world full of discoveries. Sailors such as Christopher Columbus and Hernando Cortes, study the new worlds they came across from the way they lived, tools and goods, down to the people themselves bringing those artifacts back to their own country.

The civilizations of America, Africa, and Europe each had their own political, economic, and religious systems that changed drastically when people from each continent encountered one another. In the Americas, the Native Americans had developed large and massive empires that would come to marvel the world. In Africa, there were are also large empires, home to millions of people. Western Europe on the other hand did not have any large empires or well organized societies. However, this would all change when the Europeans came in contact with the people in the Americas and Africa. It would be the Europeans that rose up while the other races fell.