The Silk Roads
Along with silk, China exported this delicate ceramic used to make dishes and decorative objects.
Porcelain
These seasonal winds helped merchants sail across the Indian Ocean.
Monsoon winds
This animal carried merchants and goods across the Sahara Desert.
Arabian Camel
This leader united the Mongol tribes and launched their major conquests.
Genghis Khan
This deadly disease spread through trade networks and killed millions across Eurasia during the 1300s.
Black Death / bubonic plague
These roadside inns provided merchants with shelter, supplies, and protection.
Caravanserai
These East African coastal city-states included Kilwa, Mombasa, and Mogadishu.
Swahili city-states
West African merchants exchanged gold for this mineral, which helped preserve food.
Salt
DOUBLE JEOPARDY
This grandson of Genghis Khan completed the conquest of China
Kublai Khan
Merchants and Sufi missionaries helped spread this religion into West Africa and Southeast Asia.
Islam
This financial system used in Tang and Song China allowed merchants to deposit money in one location and withdraw it elsewhere, reducing the need to carry coins.
Flying cash
DOUBLE JEOPARDY
This instrument helped sailors estimate latitude by measuring the position of the sun or stars.
Astrolabe
This ruler of Mali demonstrated his wealth during his famous pilgrimage to Mecca.
Mansa Musa
This term describes the period of relative stability under Mongol rule that encouraged trade across Eurasia.
Pax Mongolica
This Moroccan Muslim traveler recorded his journeys through societies across Africa and Asia.
Ibn Battuta
This trading city in present-day Uzbekistan became a major crossroads connecting China, Persia, and other regions.
Samarkand
This term describes communities of merchants who settled abroad while maintaining connections to their homelands.
Diaspora communities
This city in Mali became a major center of caravan trade and Islamic scholarship.
Timbuktu
This Mongol khanate ruled over Russian territories and collected tribute from Russian princes.
Golden Horde
Swahili developed from these two linguistic influences.
Bantu languages and Arabic.
This alliance of northern European merchant cities protected trade and dominated commerce in the Baltic and North Seas.
The Hanseatic League.
This trading kingdom rose during the 1400s by controlling a strategic strait between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.
Malacca / Melaka
This was Mali's founding ruler.
Sundiata
Founded by Hulagu, this Mongol khanate ruled Persia and ended the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad in 1258.
The Ilkhanate.
The blending of Mahayana Buddhist beliefs with Daoist influences helped produce this Chinese Buddhist tradition, later known as Zen in Japan.
Chan Buddhism.