Notes

A. Because many of the empires of the second civilizations had fallen, or experienced some disaster leading to a decline, historians decided to end the second wave and begin a new era. Furthermore, Columbus' discovery of the Americas is generally regarded as a turning point in history, especially since the Americas we no longer isolated and their isolation was an important factor in how they developed throughout the second wave.
B. While merchants exchanged goods, they also were exchanging many intangible things, such as religion, cultural, political, and social norms, technology, and germs. They would then take these principles back to their home land and influence daily life with their knowledge.
C. I think in this chapter women will keep their role staying at home, as they did in the second wave.
D.
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2. While it spread religious ideas such as Islam and Buddhism, and diseases such as the plague, it also had significant impact on the political structure of the world and had a big impact on social class, leading to a more stratified society in many areas with a new merchant class emerging and the rich being distinguished by their acquisition of luxurious goods, while the poor had to work even harder to produce the products the rich had come accustom to.
3.Before the second wave, pastoral nomadic people had been trading with, and raiding, agricultural societies for some time, so the connections had already been established. Because the Silk Road goes from China to India to North Africa, it almost naturally flows between empires. As empires developed, they began to trade with one another, because it is impossible to have every resource. The Silk Road provided a way for societies to gain these resources and market what they had, which made the empire rich of it's surplus and gain enough resources to live comfortably.
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5. Because silk is lightweight, but insulated, it can keep you cool in the summer and warm in the winter. This, paired with the fact that it can hold color very well made it a suitable match for the clothes of the elite. In Europe, purple dye was already a mark of money and silk provided a way to express this, even more vibrantly.
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8. -new social group=traders
-more job opportunities
-spread disease, religion, and ideas
-new states were formed
-state protected trade routes helped them last
9. silk was associated with buddhism and wealth which promoted the expansion of buddhism.
merchants brought buddhism to the lands they traded with because it appealed to all classes.
doctrines and artwork were changed to connect with the new followers of buddhism.
10. BAD: indirectly caused the fall of the Roman Empire=population and army population decline
GOOD: increased appeal to religions-christianity & buddhism.
tenant farmers/urban workers demanded higher prices and became wealthy.
gave the eastern hemisphere immunity
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12. Because it is on the Malaysian Peninsula, it has easy access from the Bay of Bengal, the South China Sea, and the Indian Ocean. It also had it's on straight for direct connection that eased transportation. Since it is so accessible by sea and in the middle of the SIlk Road it housed many cultures and became a hotspot for merchants.
13. The Monsoon Winds provided a reliable way to ease trade. Since they went eastward every summer and westward every winter, added a cyclical pattern, and relative timeline to trade. Because of the strength of the winds they also quickened the boats pace to faster than what manpower alone was capable of. Knowledge of these winds helped strengthen African/Indian trade.
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16. India! Because India was in touch with Southeastern asian cultures, through the similarities between Buddhist and Hindu principles, and since it was a successful empire, being in the middle of the Silk Road, it attracted the attention of neighboring societies. They strived to model themselves after Indian life, following South Asian political systems and Indian cultural norms.