Unit 2: Networks of Exchange (1200-1450)

Unit 2 is about how trade connected Afro-Eurasia from 1200 to 1450. The Silk Roads carried luxury goods like silk and porcelain, aided by caravanserai, paper money, and banking. The Mongol Empire, the largest land empire in history, made these routes safer and spread technology, ideas, and disease (including the Black Death). The Indian Ocean was the busiest network, driven by monsoon winds, new ship technology, and diasporic merchant communities, while the trans-Saharan trade linked West Africa's gold to the Mediterranean using camels and caravans. Track the cultural and environmental effects of all this connectivity: spread of religions, travelers like Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo, and the movement of crops and disease.