1. Early Cultural Diffusion: African Bantu and China

2. Desertification- land dries out until plants cant grow
Bantu Migration
The Bantu are an African tribe from West Africa
A Neolithic group- focused on growing crops
Overpopulation, drought and desertification forced them to migrate away
Desertification- land dries out until plants cant grow

3. Bantu desertification
As the farming lands began to turn to deserts the Bantu could not grow enough food.
Slowly, groups of Bantu migrated away
As they migrated they took their way of life, or culture with them

4. Bantu Effects -1/3 of Africa speaks a Bantu language
-Iron tools improved farming and created new tools
-Bantu created settled villages throughout Africa
-subsistence Agriculture (growing enough food to get by)

5. China’s Silk Road What is China’s geography?
What effect does this have on China?
Mountains, deserts, and oceans
Keeps them isolated

6. China’s Silk Road
Eventually outsiders filter into China bringing goods, technology and new ideas
They find China a unique culture with many new goods and beliefs
As demand grows for goods from the East a series of trade roads develop

7. Silk Road
The Silk Road is MANY roads connecting China to the Middle East (Mesopotamia) over 4,000 miles
Chinese goods like Silk would travel to the East
Glass, new foods and cotton would flow to China

8. Middle Eastern Merchant
Silk Road Merchants
The merchants would only travel a few hundred miles at a time, then exchange their goods. EVERY time the goods change hands the price goes up $ $
Consumer
Chinese Merchant
Indian Merchant
Middle Eastern Merchant $ $

9. Silk Worms?! Silk is made from the cocoon of the silk worm
The process was extremely secret…so secret that the penalty for telling outsiders was DEATH

10. Crash Course Silk Road

11. Monsoon Marketplace The Indian Ocean also became a center of trade.
Ships bearing large loads of spice, silk and other goods would travel during the Monsoon seasons
The winds from the Monsoons would push the ships

12. Review
The Bantu migrations in Africa (500 BCE-1500CE) had the greatest impact on modern African
1) Languages
2) Market Systems 3)Transportation Systems
4) Architecture

13. Review
What categories could the Silk Road fall under?

14. Map