Alex Gall

Mrs. Havelka
AP World History
23 October 2016
Chapter 7 Vocabulary: Network of Communication and Exchange 300 BCE to 600 CE
1) Silk Road is the caravan routes connecting China and the Middle East across
Central Asia and Iran. It was one of the main trade routes that connected
numerous empires that experienced several periods of heavy usage
2) Parthians were Iranian ruling dynasty between 250 BCE and 226 CE. They
became a major force and helped foster the Silk Road, seeing the potential to
share customs with nomads in the East. They left few written sources, and
recurring wars with Greeks and Romans to the west prevented travelers from
gaining knowledge of their kingdom.
3) Sasanid Empire is the Iranian empire established in 224 CE with the capital in
Ctesophon, Mesopotamia. The Sasanid emperors established Zoroastrianism
as the state religion. Overthrown in 640 CE. They saw the Silk Road as an
avenue to transfer religious ideas.
4) Stirrup is a device for securing a horsemans feet, enabling him to wield
weapons more effectively. First evidence of the use of stirrups was among
the Kushan people of northern Afghanistan.
5) Indian Ocean Maritime System is a network of seaports, trade routes, and
maritime culture linking counties on the rim of the Indian Ocean from Africa
to Indonesia. This supported the beginnings of worldwide trade. Kingdoms
forged increasingly strong economic and social ties between empires using
this system.
6) Trans Saharan caravan routes are trade networks linking North Africa with
sub-Saharan Africa across the Sahara. This trade route led to the usage of
the camel for long distance trade with little water.
7) Sahel is the belt south of the Sahara; literally coastland in Arabic. It was
were a majority of farming occurred. Middlemen were natives and played a
key role in trade from the two different systems in the north and south.
8) Sub-Saharan Africa is the portion of African continent lying south of the
Sahara. The Indian Ocean trade across the Sahara provided few external
contacts. The most important African network of cultural exchange arose
within the region and took the form of folk migration
9) Steppes are treeless plains, especially the high, flat expanses of northern
Eurasia, which usually have little rain and are covered with coarse grass.
They are good land for nomads and herds since it promotes the breeding of
horses and the development of military skills that were essential to the rise of
the Mongol Empire
10)
Savanna is a tropical or sub-tropical grassland, either treeless or with
occasional clumps of trees. Eastward travel was comparatively easy in these
regions (Steppe and savanna)

11)
Tropical rain forests is a high precipitation forest zone of the Americas,
Africa, and Asia lying between the Topic of Cancer and Capricorn.
12)
Great Tradition is the Historians term for a literate, well
institutionalized complex of religious and social beliefs and practices adhered
to by diverse societies over a broad geographical area. Cultural heritages
shared by the educated elites within each region of the world including
writing legal and belief system, ethical code and other intellectual attitudes.
13)
Small Tradition is the Historians term for a localized usually
nonliterate, set of customs and beliefs adhered to by a single society, often in
conjunction with a great tradition.
14)
Bantu is a collective name of a large group of sub-Saharan African
languages and of the peoples speaking these languages. They were likely to
have established an economic basis for new societies capable of sustaining
much denser populations than could earlier societies dependent on hunting
and gathering alone.
15)
Armenia is one of the earliest Christian kingdoms, situated in eastern
Anatolia and the western Caucasus and occupied by speakers of the
Armenian language. It served recurrently as a battleground between Iranian
states to the south and east and Mediterranean states to the west. Each
imperial power wanted to control this region since it was so close to the Silk
Road
16)
Ethiopia is east African highland nation lying east of the Nile River.
Christian emperors sent missionaries along the Red Sea trade route to seek
converts here and Yemen. Christianity spread through and had a significance
in societies emerging in Armenia and Ethiopia.