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Trade Networks of Asia
and Africa
Chapter 1.3
Muslim Link in Trade
• Trade linked groups who lived at great distances from one another.
• Merchants carried their cultures with them as they traveled.
• The growth in trade was also linked with the rise of the religion of Islam.
Rise of Islam.
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The founder was Muhammad.
Muhammad taught about one true God.
Followers of Islam call themselves Muslim.
Quran
• The sacred book of Islam.
• Believed to be the exact word of God as reveled to Muhammad.
• Transmitted rapidly through conquest and trade.
Advances in Learning
• Arab scholar contributions:
• Helped develop algebra, later passed on to Europe.
• Astronomers measured the size of Earth, supporting Greek belief that the Earth was a
sphere.
• Built large ships with triangular sails that allowed captains to use the wind even if it
changed direction.
African Link in Trade
• Egyptian sailers brought to Egypt cedar logs, silver, and horses.
• Following routes from Egypt, they traded for ivory, spices, copper, and cattle.
Zimbabwe
• Became the center if a flourishing empire in the 1400s.
• Lay on the trade route between the east coast and the interior of Africa.
• Traders passing through had to pay taxes on their goods.
Kilwa
• The chief trading center along the east coast of Africa.
• Attracted merchant ships from as far away as China.
• Kiowa traders did a brisk trade with the African interior, exchanging both
clothing, pottery, and manufactured goods for gold, ivory, and furs.
• An active slave trade also developed between East Africa and Asia across the
Indian Ocean.
West African Trade Centers
• Ghana was the first major center of trade in West Africa.
• Gold and salt trade
• Shifting trade routes and disruptions caused Ghana to weaken.
• Empire of Mali took over.
Mali
• Reached its height with Muslim ruler Mansa Musa.
• As it prospered, it's great city of Timbuktu became a center of learning.
• Rulers of Songhai captured Timbuktu in 1468 and restored it as a center of
Islamic learning.
East Asian Link in Trade
• The China empire had expanded and so had its trade.
• 1200s, the city of Hangzhou was one of the world's largest cities.
• China had a higher level of technology at the time.
• Made great advances in navigation.
• Invented the magnetic compass.
Spice Trade and the Silk Road
• Chinese silks, bronze goods, pottery, and spices flowed west from China
along a route known as the Silk Road.
• Silk Road was one of the great trade routes of ancient times.
• Series of roads that stretched over 5,000 miles.
• The Silk Road declined in importance when alternative se routes were
discovered.