Silk Roads: luxury goods of high value that weighed comparatively little

Sea Lanes: steel, stone, coral, and building materials that weighed a lot

• The best-known long distance traveler of Mongol times.
• He traded throughout China and undertook diplomatic missions for Kublai Khan.
• Many other Europeans would be inspired to seek out the riches of the east by Marco Polo.
• His travels show how the Mongols pacified things to a degree.
  

• Elaborate trade networks and huge imperial states that interacted with each other.
  
• Christians and Mongols sent out lures to each other to form alliances against the Muslims.

• He was the best-known Muslim traveler of the Middle Ages. 
• He served as advisor and qadi to the Sultan of Delhi.
• He was a qadi in the Maldive Islands.
  
• He visited 44 modern countries, and traveled over 73,000 miles.
• He went to such places as Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Anatolia, Constantinople, Arabia, India, Ceylon, the Maldives, Granada, and the Mali Empire.
  

Who were some of the most active missionaries during the years from 1000 to 1500?

• Sufis traveled throughout India, SE Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa to spread Islam
• Christians were successful in the Baltic Sea region, the Balkans, Sicily, and Spain; they were not successful in China
• John of Montecorvino did convert about 6,000 Chinese in Khanbaliq where he served Roman Catholic expatriates
  

• Western Europe Troubadours drew on Muslim poetry,music, and love songs.
• European scientists consulted with Muslim and Jewish scholars.
• Muslims introduced new crops to sub-Saharan Africa
• Muslims introduced sugar to Europeans.
• Mongols spread the use of gunpowder, which was learned from the Chinese.

• There was a "little ice age" that hurt agriculture and caused hardship.
• The Bubonic Plague would spread from China to the west, and millions of people would be killed.

• Workers and peasants sought better conditions because of labor shortages.
• Masters and nobles tried to pass laws to control the workforces,and there were rebellions in some parts of Europe.
• The plague disrupted trade, and the established patterns of life.
  

What dynasty rebuilt China in 1368 and what was its accomplishments?

• Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644)
•  It reestablished  the Confucian educational system , centralized the government, rebuilt the economic system, and revived Chinese culture.
• It sponsored the Yongle Encyclopedia.
  
• It at first sponsored overseas exploration.
  

• Kings would weaken the feudal lords.
• Kings got new taxes that enabled them to create standing armies, further freeing them from depending on feudal nobles.

• It would end feudalism in France and England.
• It gave French and English kings more powers over taxes.
• It created a strong sense of nationalism in both countries.

• The marriage of Fernando of Aragon and Isabella of Castile united the two most powerful regions in that country.
• In 1492 they defeated the Muslims who held Granada.
• They spread Spanish power into southern Italy.
• They sponsored the voyage of Columbus, that would eventually result in Spain having a worldwide empire.
  

•  Major artists such as Masaccio, Leonardo da Vinci, Donatello, and Michelangelo made their work more realistic.
• Filippo Brunelleschi oversaw the construction of a dome for the cathedral of Florence.
• Humanists sought to reclaim the higher spirituality of the early Christian church.
• In general, Europe experienced a cultural and intellectual reawakening that would lead to tremendous advancements.
  

• Florentine scholar who discovered long- forgotten manuscripts from classical times.
• Known as the "father of Humanism."
• He typified the new sense of intellectual inquiry and activity that would emerge in Europe.
  

• Rebuilt China's navy
• Encouraged oversea trading ventures in Japan and      SE Asia
• Sponsered 7 massive naval expeditions around the Indian Ocean from 1405 to 1433

• Commerce
• Spread Christianity

• Prince Henry seized Ceuta in Morocco, and he encouraged Portuguese exploration into the Atlantic.
• Portugal discovered the Madeira and Azore Islands.
• They went to the Cape Verde Islands, Fernando Po, and Sao Tome off of Africa's west coast where they set up sugar plantations.
• Portuguese slave traders increased the volume of the African slave trade to the west.
• Eventually Portuguese slave traders took  African slaves to the Americas to work on commercial plantations.
• Portuguese explorers also sought an all water route to India.
  

• It cut out Muslim and Italian middlemen who plied the Mediterranean.
• Europeans could make direct contact with the sources of the goods they wanted.

• Reached the east by sailing west
• He found the New World which encouraged other expeditions, and resulted in dramatic global changes.