Cultural Diffusion

Countries or Civilizations What was diffused? Cause of Diffusion? Roman Empire and Chinese Empire Chinese traded silk for horses, and camels. Languages, ideas, and chariots were also exchanged. The Roman merchants and Chinese merchants created the ‘Silk Road’. The merchants traveled along this road to trade their goods.

Europeans Gain New Inventions During the Middle Ages in Europe, the Chinese were developing gunpowder, the compass and the ability to print. Marco Polo traveled to China and brought the inventions back to Europe. Europeans took these ideas and modified them with their own technology. They adapted the compass to allow for sea travel and used the gunpowder for cannons. With these inventions Europe was later to travel to, explore and conquer parts of the Americas.

Columbian Exchange In 1492, Europeans landed in the Americas. This was the first time that Europeans and Native Americans had ever had contact with each other. At this time they exchanged products, ideas, and foods. This later became known as the Columbian Exchange. Europeans brought horses, goats, cattle, pigs, chickens, cannons, wheat, and steel. Native Americans shared their goods and resources such as tomatoes, chocolate, potatoes, beans, peppers, pumpkins, peanuts and corn.

Technology In the 1980’s the United States developed personal computers which did not exist before this time. Through trade and travel the personal computer spread quickly throughout the world. Additionally, the United States, Europe and Japan made the personal cell phone a popular idea for people and through trade and travel this technology has spread to even remote villages around the world.

The Rise of Islam Islam began in the Arabian Peninsula. As Arab peoples traveled and migrated they took their religion with them to other places including the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain. As technology increased and travel became easier Islam spread to parts of Asia.

Asian Culture Japan’s culture is closely connected to China due to their close proximity. China’s culture has greatly influenced Japan’s cultures over the years. Japan adopted the Chinese religions of Buddhism and Confucianism. Japan also used the Chinese characters to develop their own written language. Japan’s art, music, pottery, and cooking were also greatly influenced by China’s culture.

American Pop Culture America’s early culture was a product of many different influences including British, French, Spanish, African, and Asian. However, after American gained independence it began to develop its own unique culture. During the 20th century the creation of new technology such as the radio, movies, and television caused American culture to change even more. After WWII American movies, and music became popular throughout Europe. Additionally, American pop music and casual dress and American style fast food have become popular throughout the world. American style English is often spoken as a second language in many countries world wide.

The Black Plague The Black Plague was a disease that was extremely contagious, very deadly and spread all throughout Europe in the 14th century. The bacteria that caused the plague was spread by fleas that lived on rats. As ships traveled from port to port trading goods they unknowingly transported these rats with the disease. In less than 10 years almost one third of Europe’s population had died from this horrible disease

Old and New World When the Spanish settled in the America’s they brought their goods, ideas and technologies but they also brought their diseases such as small pox, typhus, and measles. Native Americans had never come into contact with these diseases before and did not have an immunity to them. A large percentage of Native Americans died from exposure to these diseases.

Avian Flu Recently, in 2004 there was a series threat of a pandemic (an epidemic over a wide geographical area) flu outbreak. The Avian flu was a virus detected in birds that could mutate to infect humans. Scientists feared that if this virus combined with the human flu virus there would be a deadly outbreak. There were some cases that were detected and in Asia and later in Europe. Fortunately, a global pandemic did not occur with this virus.