1. Trade in the Early World
Patterns of Interregional Unity

2. Beginning in the year 300, numerous inventions, goods, ideas, and religions were starting to spread from their regions of origin.

3. …That spread of ideas and things is part of cultural exchange.
By the end of the 1300s, many of these important ideas and useful things had spread all across Africa, Europe and Asia…
…That spread of ideas and things is part of cultural exchange. …

4. Trade was closely linked to cultural exchange.
Empires supported trade in Africa, Europe and Asia. Merchants traveled great distances in search of wealth.

5. Trade Routes
A trade route is a path along which goods are transported from one area to another.

6. Medieval Trade Routes

7. The number of cities grew, as well as trade networks between them.

8. Microsoft®Encarta®Reference Library 2002
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From , trade routes extended farther and were used by more travelers.

9. Marco Polo
Discovered new information about other cultures as the result of trade.

10. Born to wealthy Italian merchants
Left Italy in 1271 and traveled for 27 years.
When he returned to Italy he brought information about other cultures.

11. The Route of Marco Polo

12. The discoveries of Marco Polo, and others like him, changed the world by making people more interested in other cultures.

13. The Silk Road The Silk Road connected China and Europe
It connected these regions from around 100 BC to the 1500s AD.

15. The following items were traded along the Silk Road:

16. Porcelain, silk, ivory, gold, spices, musical instruments, grain, fruit, cloth, herds of horses, and many other things.

17. How did expanding trade networks bring about cultural exchanges in Africa, Europe and Asia?

18. Trade helped spread religions, languages, ideas, and arts.
Cities and manufacturing centers grew bigger.

19. If you had to put the changes in this time into one sentence, what would it be?

20. You might say that by 1500 the world was connected, right?

21. But wait! We still haven’t said much about the Americas!

22. When Columbus set sail across the Atlantic . . .
Well…the Americas and Africa, Europe, and Asia were not yet permanently linked together.
…not until
When Columbus set sail across the Atlantic . . .
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23. The Americas had fewer people than Africa, Europe, and Asia - the two land masses were geographically isolated from each other. Developments in the two regions were similar in some ways and different in others.

24. In any case, the Americas were also a region of active human connections.

25. Sciences like astronomy, mathematics and engineering were developed.
Cultural development and exchange in the Americas: The Maya, Inca, and Aztec Empires
Sciences like astronomy, mathematics and engineering were developed.
Mayans developed a writing system and the Aztecs developed a calendar.
Trade routes connected regions.
Mining, irrigation, and agricultural technologies developed.
Crops like potatoes, maize, tomatoes, cotton, and chocolate were grown.
Mississippian Mica
Moche Ceramic
Mayan Calendar
Inca Gold
Corn & Potatoes

26. States and Empires in the Americas in 1500
Mayan States
Aztec Empire
Inca Empire
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27. It had to happen sooner or later!
At the very end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the next era (the Renaissance), European mariners set out on trans-oceanic voyages to the Americas.
Those voyages linked the Americas with Africa, Europe and Asia for the first time since the migrations of people over 13,000 years earlier!
It had to happen sooner or later!

28. This began when Columbus returned to Spain in 1493
Columbian Exchange
This began when Columbus returned to Spain in 1493

29. This is the exchange of plants, animals, and people between Europe and the Americas

31. Sparked the migration of people
Spread new European diseases to Native American populations

32. The exchange of new products and ideas prompted economic growth in Europe

33. Stern-rudder
Compass
Lateen Sail
Mapmaking
Cultural exchange in Africa, Europe and Asia before 1500 CE made possible the technologies that in turn permitted transoceanic voyages.
Is that why people from Africa, Europe and Asia discovered the Americas, and not the opposite?