Chapters 7 and 13

1.

The nomadic people in the European and Asian continent played a very
important role in the histories of China, Rome, and other trading countries. These
people tended to live in the steppes and based on where they were, they affected
these empires in different ways. Some of the people who migrated throughout the
steppes helped to regulate and encourage trade on the Silk Road, while the
Germanic tribes often took advantage of the two empires and frequently invaded and
raided them. The settled people in these empires viewed the people as “barbaric”, or
dirty and uneducated. However these two groups depended greatly on each other for
trade and for excuses for military action.
The nomads in the steppes were a mainly pastoral group. They traveled the
hills close by the Silk Road, looking for water and food for their herds. These people
herded sheep and other pack animals. While these nomads didn’t trade very much,
they greatly facilitated the trade between the empires and countries such as Rome
and China. They sold their pack animals such as horses and in turn, that made it
easier for people and countries to transport their goods, and they could transport
more goods at one time. The obvious effect was the increase in trade over the Silk
Road. However these steppe nomads didn’t always make trade easier. They
sometimes blocked and controlled roads, setting up “toll roads”, hindering the
merchants.
There were also nomads who had no interest in trade or herding. These were
the Germanic tribes of the north. The spoke mostly German and traveled in small
nomadic groups. Their only interest was gaining land, food, and other goods. They
frequently invaded the empires of Rome and China, and helped bring the collapse of
the Roman Empire by attacking when the Empire was at its most unstable. These
tribes would wait until a town or region was vulnerable, and then launched an attack.
They had little or no military training, yet they regularly managed to escape the grasp
of armies. Military leaders complained of their tactics or lack there of, and while these
tribes never gained a significant victory against an empire, they regularly would
attack and raid where they could. The settled people viewed these people as
“barbarians.”(From the Greek word barbaroi, meaning basically “non-Greek”) The
settled peoples thought of these tribes as uncivilized, uncultured, savage, crude, and
primitive. Both Rome and China built walls, forts, and military outposts to repel these
peoples. Yet in a way, these nomads and empires were dependant on one another.
While the helpful nomads helped to facilitate trade, the more unhelpful ones actually
helped to force innovation. The empires had to find way around the tribes and
nomads, and had to find ways to repel their attacks. One great example of this is the
Great Wall of China. It was built in several sections, and its main purpose was to
repel these nomads. The nomads too, benefited from the raids and invasions
conducted, gaining food and necessary resources.
2.

Nomadic and settled people in ancient civilizations had very different lives
from each other. Nomadic people were hunters and gatherers, while all of the settled
peoples had an agricultural society. Settled people also had much more technology,
art, and culture than many of the nomads. However they both faced geographical
challenges. Both had to deal with hilly and rocky areas, dry and wet climates, and
lack of natural resources.
Nomadic people lived in a very different society than we are used to today.
Some nomadic groups led pastoral communities. Their lives revolved around
following and raising their animals, and they were always moving to areas with more
food for the animals. Other groups of nomads were hunters and gatherers. They
were a much more free society. They hunted and followed animal herds, and women
many times gathered edible plants. These people also conducted raids on many of
the settled people, looking for food, resources, and luxuries. Settled communities
lived off of the land, growing their food and sometimes hunting wild game. These
people tended to live in much larger communities than the nomads. The nomads
moved in small groups or tribes, while a settled region or country would be much
larger and spread out more, as it needed more land for farming and to support the
growing population.
Nomadic people also lacked art and technology, as there was very little
specialization. The settled people relied on crops for food, and didn’t need the whole
community to farm, so unoccupied people had time to create art and think of new
technology. Both of these lifestyles had religion, however. The religions varied based
on the people and area they were in, but almost all religions focused on magic or the
supernatural.
Both societies also faced geographic challenges. The European and Asian
continents were very hilly and mountainous, making hard for both the nomads and
farmers. Settled people could not make large cities and communities, as the hills
prevented their spread; it created many small city-states of farmers throughout the
entire region. Nomads also had a difficult time with the hills, as it hindered their
movements. It made it harder for them to follow herds of wild and domesticated
animals. Rocky and unfertile soil also affected both styles of life. It made it very hard
for farmers to grow anything in the soil; and for the nomads, it made finding food for
themselves and their animals harder. The climate too, also played a big role in the
lives of the settled and nomadic people. Hot and dry climates made travel hard, and it
also made farming difficult.

3.
 The Silk Road was on of the most important trade routes in the ancient world.
Running from the Pacific Ocean all of the way to the Mediterranean Sea, it linked
Europe and Asia, providing a route for the great Empires (Rome and China) and
other countries to trade and spread ideas. Merchants traveled along this road trading
with each other and stopping in other counties to trade, spreading their goods wide
and far. No one country ran it, but instead countries and nomadic groups controlled
bits and portions of it. Rome, being a large empire, controlled and provided security
for a large part of the Silk Road. Meanwhile, nomadic tribes controlled and influenced
very small sections of the route. Some areas even turned the Silk Road into a “toll
road”. Everything from including art, crops and animals, were traded along the trail
and it spread ideas and cultures to everyone who came into contact with it.
The Silk Road was one of the largest and most influential trade networks in the
world. It stretched from eastern China all the way into the Mediterranean villages,
empires, and counties like Rome and Greece. It provided a method of long distance
trade for these areas and all who used this trade route benefited. Merchants from all
countries would bring caravans of goods and trade it in the regions connected to the
Silk Road, as well as with other merchants traveling the Silk Road. No one country
controlled trade and security throughout the entire trail, but instead controlled bits
and pieces of it. Rome controlled a great deal of this path, and during the pax
romana, (or Roman Peace) Rome tried to stimulate trade by guaranteeing security
provide by the Roman army itself. Other small tribes of nomads controlled small
sections of the trail, and depending on the group, influenced the Silk Road in different
ways. Some groups had no interest in the trade, but sold pack animals to merchants
allowing them to travel farther along the Silk Road, carrying more goods. Other
nomadic tribes set up checkpoints, where merchants would have to pay in order to
pass.
Almost everything imaginable traveled along the Silk Road. Obviously, silk was
a major trade item coming out of China, but other things were traded as well. Crops
and trees were traded, some of which had never been seen before in other countries.
Art and other luxuries were traded, as well as resources such as wood and metal
were traded. Tools, animals, spices, foods, medicines, precious stones, oils, and
dyes were some of the things seen on the Silk Road. Trade became very important
because many of the spices and fruits were indigenous to certain regions, so other
regions could not grow them where they were. However some crops and plants that
were traded did end up being grown in other areas. China got alfalfa and wine grapes
from Rome, alfalfa being a main feed for pack animals. Other plants and flowers
were also taken and grown in other places. Ideas and religions were also spread
through this trade route. Buddhism and Christianity were spread and taught all
throughout the Silk Road. Also major military technology was spread. The advent of
the stirrup and crossbow were discovered and spread to all the countries using the
Silk Road for trade.
4.

The Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea were very important bodies of
water as they both provide methods of expansion and trade. They were different
systems however, and had they could be compared to large shopping center and a
mall. The Indian Ocean was much bigger than the Mediterranean Sea and had less
islands and stops in between the large areas of land. The Indian Ocean also had
many more technological advances than the Mediterranean. The traders also had a
different mindset depending on which system they traded in.
The Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea played very important roles in
ancient trade and expansion. They were both large bodies of water big enough to
support the cargo ships that traveled on them. Ancient civilizations and sea villages
lined the coasts of both, and colonies were created along their shores as well.
However the overall geography of these trade systems were different. The
Mediterranean Sea is dotted with islands and areas to rest and stop, while the Indian
Ocean’s islands are very scarce. The Indian Ocean is also much larger and vast,
trade routes stretching from African and the Middle East, all the way to Southern
China. The Mediterranean only had access to the ancient river-valley area and parts
of Arabia, Europe, and Africa. The Indian Ocean also was connected to the Pacific
and Atlantic Ocean, which would later provide pathways for early explorers. In
addition to all of this, the Indian Ocean also had monsoon winds. These made it
necessary to find different technologies, and to plan out each expedition in
accordance to these powerful winds.
All of these conditions discussed above made it necessary for the ancient
people of the Indian Ocean trading system to find new technologies, instead of
relying on the technology of the Mediterranean. Because of the powerful winds and
vastness of the sea, larger ships with engineered sails were needed. Monsoon winds
could propel a ship across the ocean without the use of oars; therefore longer
distances could be achieved, with more goods aboard. The Chinese made ships
called junks, basically large ships made for transporting large amounts of goods and
people. The larger ones could have up to 12 sail and hold over 1000 people. The
Chinese built special rudders so that they could control these huge ships. Also the
junks had separate watertight compartments, so that if there was any damage to the
hull, the entire ship would not necessarily sink. Also, because of the vastness, new
navigation technologies were needed. In the Mediterranean, people navigated using
the shoreline as a reference point, and some of the smaller ships in the Indian Ocean
used this navigation. However, the larger ships, and the ships that traveled long
distances used the stars and other navigational instruments in order to navigate the
seas.
The two system’s merchants and sailors also had a different mindset. In the
Mediterranean, people tended to be loyal and identify with their homeport or colony,
and tended to return there after their voyages. The people in the Indian Ocean
system tended to be freer and people tended to lose their political ties to their country
over time.
5.

Saharan trade developed slowly, and the main trade was between the north
and the south, trading resources with each other. They Saharan and sub-Saharan
people used camel caravans to transport their goods. This trade system was very
different from the maritime and Silk Road trade because it was a very closed and
isolated system, with the main trade between the north and south.
The Saharan desert stretches across the African continent from the Atlantic
Ocean to the Red Sea, and takes up the entire to half of Africa. The Saharan desert
is one of the harsher places in the world, with a dry, hot climate and vast areas of
emptiness. Sand dunes, sand plains, and dry rock cover the vast emptiness called
the Sahara, only interrupted by the Nile River flowing in the east. Lack of water and
resources made travel incredibly arduous, and very few trade routes existed in the
area. Cave painting suggested that this desert wasn’t once this dry, but instead was
sprawling grassland with cliffs and river, however now it is all dried up and there is
little archaeological evidence that suggests that it was once a fertile area. Today
there is a sub-Saharan area, a large tropical forest region on the edge of the desert.
In the south, there were salt mines that produced huge quantities of salt and
traded it with the other areas of the desert. We also know that sub-Saharan and that
other traders brought products from the forests such as kola nuts to the fringe of the
desert to trade with the north. These people traded many necessities with each other,
as there was a large lack of natural resources. Very few luxuries were needed;
therefore there was a lack of art and precious materials traded amongst these
people. To the north, the wealthy Roman Empire traded with Italy and northern Africa,
transporting mostly wheat and olives. There were probably middlemen involved in the
trade, however their role was very small in overall trade and did not provide a big
influence.
In order to cross a desert like the Sahara with trading goods, special pack
animals were needed. Camels were excellent animals well suited for the desert, and
they were used as soon as they were domesticated. The camel could travel long
distances in the desert without needing large amounts of water and food like horse,
and their feet could handle the hostile desert ground. Desert traders usually traveled
in caravans, with the trading goods and caravan leaders riding the camels other
people traveling usually walked. This desert trade system was very different from the
Silk Road and the expansive maritime trade system. The Saharan desert was an
extremely harsh area and hardly any luxuries were traded in this system. This made
it so that it was a very closed system; the north traded with the south and the south
trade with the north, and outside countries didn’t interfere or trade in the Saharan
desert.
6.

Buddhism was a popular and fast spreading religion in the early centuries of
civilizations. Kings of civilizations promoted Buddhism, as well as missionaries
traveling along the Silk Road. The “great traditions”, or in other words main and
dominating cultures, helped to spread Buddhism, but it also destroyed some (but not
all) local traditions.
Buddhism is based on a man named Siddhartha Gupta. A young prince of the
Sakyas, a small group of people in the Himalayas, he is said to have been
“enlightened” and found the way to reaching nirvana, or eternal peace. His teachings
quickly turned into a religion, and his followers practiced this religion throughout
India. Then in the third century BC and second century CE, King Ashoka of the
Maurya Empire in India and King Kanishka of the Kushans in northern Afghanistan
started to promote Buddhism in their empires. This caused a large majority of people
to all convert to Buddhism, but the spread of this religion was not totally dependant
on this event. During the period of trade over the Silk Road and trade in the Indian
Ocean system, Buddhism was spread though monks and missionaries traveling
these paths. Pilgrims and monks played a huge role in spreading this religion when
they boarded ships and sailed across the Ocean, spreading Buddhism to China,
Korea, and Japan. Thanks to the Buddhist merchants and missionaries traveling the
Silk Road, Buddhism was spread to Southeast China, the Middle East, Europe, and
Africa.
Scientists and archeologists who study the early centuries refer to the major
cultures, practices, religions, and languages as the “great traditions.” The “small
traditions” are the traditions of the local peoples of the area, or the minority cultures
of the time period. A good example is the Saharan nomads and pastoral steppe
herders who had their own religions and practices separated from the major
influences and cultures of the world. Some of the great religions during that time
period were Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism. These religions had the
most followers and the most influence over the politics and society of the time period.
When a large empire like the Romans or the Chinese conquered small tribes and
villages, usually the great traditions were forced upon them, and the small traditions
were pushed aside. However this was not the case in all areas. Some isolated areas
that were not conquered or explored by these large civilizations maintained their
small traditions and practices. Also, if the conquering empire showed religious
tolerance (like the Persians), then the small traditions would not be totally forgotten.