The Silk Road and Ancient Trade: Crash Course World History #9 – Flashcards
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Silk Road
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Overland route where merchants carried goods for trade
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What were the two routes of the Silk Road
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- One that connected to Eastern Mediterranean to Central Asia - One that went from Central Asia to China
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What was the sea route used to reach Rome
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- The Mediterranean
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What was the sea route used to reach Japan
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- The Pacific
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What was traded on the Silk Road mostly by the Mediterraneans
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Olives, olive oil, and wine
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What was traded on the Silk Road mostly by the Indians
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Fine cotton textiles
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What was traded on the Silk Road mostly by the East Africans
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Ivory
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What was traded on the Silk Road mostly by the Arabians
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Incense and spices and tortoise shells
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What was traded on the Silk Road mostly by the Chinese
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- Silk (only produced in China for a millennium) - Raw materials like jade, silver, and iron
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What was the process used by the Chinese to create silk
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It was spun from the cocoons of mulberry tree-eating worms. The process was kept secret
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Why did the Chinese keep the formula to create silk secretive
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The lion's share of Chinese wealth came from slk production
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What did the Chinese use silk for
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Fishing line, to buy off nomadic raiders to keep things peaceful, and to write on (before they invented paper)
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What was silk mostly used for and why (as an export)
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- Clothing - It felt light in the summer and warm in the winter - Wearing clothes made of silk was a way of showing wealth
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Who were used for taking items from point A to point B
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Central Asian Nomadic Herders
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What was the Silk Road's wider economic impact
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- Very few people could afford silk but a lot of people devoted their lives in making silk - As the market grew more and more people wanted to go into silk production
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What were the ideas traded on the Silk Road
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- Primary route for the spread of Buddhism
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Mahayana Buddhism
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- The variation of Buddhism that took root in China, Korea, Japan, and Central Asia - Differed from Buddha's teachings in many ways - The Buddha is divine - Idea of Nirvana changed to a more heavenly perspective (in some cases there are many heavens)
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What were the diseases that spread through the Silk Road
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- Measles and Smallpox - Bubonic Plague
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Bubonic Plague
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- Also known as the Black Death - Came from the from the East to the West in 534, 750, and- most devastatingly- in 1346 - Resulted in the largest population decimation in human history
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How many Europeans died in the four-year period of the Bubonic Plague.
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Nearly half of European population
