The Americas
Land-based trade routes that linked many regions of Eurasia. They were named after the most famous product traded along these routes.
What are the Silk Roads?
Introduced to North Africa and the Sahara in the early centuries of the Common Era, this animal made trans-Saharan commerce possible by 300 to 400 CE.
What is the Arabian Camel?
The name of the first Mongol ruler who unified Mongolia and led it in conquering large parts of Asia.
Who is Chinggis/Genghis Khan?
A term used to describe the network of trade that linked parts of the pre-Columbian Americas, providing a means of exchange for luxury goods and ideas over large areas.
What is the American Web?
The world's largest sea-based system of communication and exchange before 1500 CE. Centered on India, it stretched from southern China to eastern Africa.
What are the Sea Roads?
A massive pandemic that swept through Eurasia in the early fourteenth century, spreading along the trade routes within and beyond the Mongol Empire and reaching the Middle East and Western Europe by 1347. Associated with a massive loss of life.
What is the Black Death?
A term used to describe the routes of the trans-Saharan trade, which linked interior West Africa to the Mediterranean and North African world.
What are the Sand Roads?
Grandson of Chinggis Khan who ruled from 1271 to 1294.
Who is Khubilai Khan?
A South/Central American Empire composed of independent city-states, famous for their hieroglyphic writing, precise calendar system, and grand stone temples.
What is the Mayan Empire?
Chinese dynasty (1368-1644) that succeeded the Mongol dynasty; noted for its return to traditional Chinese ways and restoration of the land after the destructiveness of the Mongols.
What is the Ming Dynasty?
The Mongol Dynasty of China from 1271 to 1368 that unified the country, but eventually collapsed due to rebellions against foreign rule.
What is the Yuan dynasty?
A powerful Central American Empire in present-day Mexico built through military force and the extraction of tribute, known for building enormous pyramids, practicing agriculture, and performing human sacrifice to honor their gods, conquered by Spanish conquistadors.
What is the Aztec Empire?
A major commercial city on the Silk Road trading network and a center of Buddhist learning and art. Located in western China.
What is Dunhuang?
A term used to describe the "holy wars" waged by Western Christendom, especially against the forces of Islam, could be declared only by the pope; participants swore a vow and received in return an indulgence removing the penalty for confessed sins.
What are the Crusades?
A muslim port city that came to prominence on the waterway between Sumatra and Malaya in the fifteenth century CE; it was the springboard for the spread of a syncretic form of Islam throughout the region.
What is Melaka?
The Islamic group that the Mongols defeated in 1258, after the capital city of Baghdad was sacked.
What is the Abbasid Caliphate?
The largest pre-Columbian empire based in South America with sophisticated stone construction, an extensive road network, and quipu (knotted strings) for record-keeping instead of writing.
What is the Incan Empire?
The great Chinese admiral who commanded a huge fleet of ships in a series of voyages in the Indian Ocean that began in 1405.
Who is Zheng He?
A powerful state in the southern African interior that apparently emerged from the growing trade in gold to the East African coast; flourished between 1250 and 1350 CE.
What is the Great Zimbabwe?
The term used to describe half a century of military campaigns, massive killings, and empire-building pursued by Chinggis Khan and his successors in Eurasia after 1209.
What is the Mongol World War?