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By the end of Unit 8, students should be able to: commerce has spread. 3. Explain how new networks of exchange accelerated collective learning and innovation. | 8.0 ExpansionIn 1400, the world was divided into four world zones. The expansion, exploration, and the desire toexpand trade led these world zones to be connected. The resulting connections dramaticallyincreased the opportunities for collective learning. 8.1 Exploration and Interconnection Exploration required crossing dangerous deserts and deep ocean waters. Connecting the fourworld zones posed many challenges, but after 1400, innovation and collective learning took a giantleap forward.8.2 Commerce and Collective Learning Systems of exchange and trade made the world a smaller place. |
WHY DID CIVILIZATIONS productivity. Similarly, roads built to allow armies to move from region to region also allowed merchants to |
Ancient Rome THE FOUR People settled the three other zones much later in this age. While farming was critical to life in the Americas, foraging was still the dominant lifestyle for much of this age in the Australasian and Pacific zones. |
HOW DID THE WORLD this growth to a halt. |
The building of roads helped connect different communities which helped speed up collective learning. THE FIRST SILK ROADSExchange networks not only facilitated the movement of goods, but they also stimulated innovation because they helped spread collective learning further and create more diverse networks.Agrarian civilizations were critical to the operation of the Silk Road because they created stability and security, built and maintained road networks, and innovated to support traders.Important trade goods moved in both directions along the Silk Road. The Romans imported Chinese silk, Han iron, Arabian and Indian spices, and agricultural products. The Chinese imported agricultural products, art, glassware, and horses from Central Asia, India, and the Mediterranean.Innovations like the use of the Bactrian camel and the discovery and use of the trade winds across the Indian Ocean were critical to the success and expansion of the Silk Roads. Trade on the Silk Road stimulated economic growth, which benefited the agrarian civilizations involved. The Silk Road also made the Afro-Eurasian zone more connected and its networks more diverse than those of the other world zones. These benefits, coupled with the many advantages that Afro-Eurasia already enjoyed over other world zones, allowed it to dominate the others after 1492 when the world became interconnected. |