Analyze the three classical-era trade networks — Silk Road (overland Eurasia c. 130 BCE onward), Indian Ocean maritime trade (East Africa - Arabia - South Asia - Southeast Asia - China via monsoon winds), and trans-Saharan caravan trade (Mediterranean North Africa - sub-Saharan West Africa via camel after ~300 CE) — as the FIRST documented world-system per Andre Gunder Frank / Janet Abu-Lughod / Philippe Beaujard scholarship
Exercise Difficulty 4 ~8 min hist.g6.s.ex_39

Rubric Response

Prompt

Apply Frank / Abu-Lughod / Beaujard world-system argument — what specific evidence demonstrates that classical-era Afro-Eurasia was integrated into a single world-system? Name 3 evidences.

How it's presented
mode text
Answer criteria
type rubric scored
rubric
3 of: Roman gold-coin hoards in South India (Pattanam excavations, Roman amphorae); Buddhist diffusion from India along Silk Road to Han China by 1st-2nd century CE; Justinianic Plague 541-549 CE entered Mediterranean via Indian Ocean trade-network; Aksumite gold + ivory in Mediterranean markets; Chinese silk in Roman Egyptian funerary cloth at Antinoöpolis; Han Shu records Da Qin (Rome); Pliny silver-drain to India
Hints
  1. MG-4 + Lesson 20.
  2. World-system means goods + ideas + religions + pathogens move across networks.
Misconceptions to watch
  • Treating classical civilizations as isolated
Used in lessons