Download Townsend Harris High School Mr. Barbetta, Principal Humanities

Townsend Harris High School
Humanities Department
AP World History II
Mr. Barbetta, Principal
Mr. Olechowski, Humanities AP
Mr. O’Malley
Homework Assignments. Chapter 7: Commerce and Culture, 500-1500
1) Introduction
a. Why was trade important?
b. How did trade generate change within the societies that it connected?
c. In what ways did trade affect social mobility and political life?
d. To what extent was trade in private hands, or controlled by the state?
e. In what ways did long-distance commerce act as a motor of change in premodern world history?
f. What were carried on the trade routes besides trade goods?
2) Silk Roads.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
What lay behind the emergence of Silk Road commerce, and what kept it going for so many centuries?
When did Silk Road trade flourish?
What made silk such a highly desired commodity across Eurasia?
What were the major economic, social and cultural consequences of Silk Road commerce?
What accounted for the spread of Buddhism along the Silk Road?
What was the impact of disease along the Silk Road?
How did the Black Death affect:
1. Europe
2. China
3. The Islamic World
4. Central Asia
3) Sea Roads: Exchange across the Indian Ocean
a. What regions were linked together by the Indian Ocean trade network?
b. Why did Indian Ocean trade flourish in the postclassical (500-1500) era?
c. How did Indian Ocean trade affect Mesopotamia/southern Iraq in the Abbasid era?
d. How did India affect Southeast Asia (politically, culturally, socially, religiously)?
e. Describe the rise of Srivijaya. What factors led to its expansion?
f. Describe the rise of the Khmer kingdom of Angkor.
g. Why were Indian (Hindu or Buddhist) beliefs useful for Southeast Asian rulers?
h. Why did Srivijaya become a center of Buddhist scholarship and study?
i. How did elements of Indian culture become part of Southeast Asian culture? Give examples from:
i. Buddhism
ii. Hinduism
j. How does the “Indianization” of Southeast Asia resemble/differ from the “Hellenization” of the Middle East
and Mediterranean?
k. How did the status of women in Southeast Asia differ from other adjacent regions?
4) Sea Roads as a Catalyst for Change: East Africa
a. What was the role of Swahili civilization in the world of Indian Ocean commerce?
b. What items were in demand from East Africa?
c. How did the coastal region of East Africa differ from the East African interior?
d. What other cultures became mixed into Swahili civilization? Cite evidence that other cultures became part of
Swahili culture.
e. To what extent did the Silk Roads and the sea Roads operate in a similar fashion? How did they differ?
5) Sand Roads: Exchange across the Sahara
a. What products were in demand from the Sahara desert and south of the Sahara?
b. What changes did trans-Saharan trade bring to West Africa?
c. What new political structures emerged in central and western Sudan in the era 500-1500?
d. How did the rulers of Mali come to control the import/export trade?
e. How did gender roles in West Africa change in the postclassical (500-1500) era)
f. What role did slavery play in West Africa?