Cultural Diffusion Dbq

Cultural diffusion is the spread of cultural beliefs, social activities, and items from one group to another. Cultural diffusion has played an enormous role in societies throughout history, as civilizations have thrived and grown on the spread of ideas throughout early nomadic times, medieval times, and even today in modern times. Cultural diffusion allows cultures to mix together in order to create a superior culture which improves society. Cultural diffusion played an enormous role in the creation and booming of civilizations, most importantly in the 1200’s to 1600’s. Throughout history, cultural diffusion has played an enormous role in societies as a result of trading and conquest for the better and for the worst. Trading is the act or

This is evident in the Columbian Exchange across the Atlantic Ocean where mass amounts of goods such as squash, pumpkins, turkeys, tomatoes, and corn from the Americas were exchanged to Europe and in return Europe exchanged items such as citrus fruits, bananas, sugar cane, honey bees, turnips, livestock (Doc. 1) This exchange had many benefits like cultural diffusion and for example, due to the Europeans providing citrus fruits, present day, Florida, an area that received these fruits was able to become a main producer of citrus fruits. Evidently, without the Columbian Exchange, present day Florida would not be able to produce the citrus fruits it does today which greatly improves the economy. Even though, the Columbian Exchange had multiple benefits and contributed greatly to trade and cultural diffusion, deadly diseases were also transported as rats were on board the trading ships which spread diseases such as smallpox, influenza, typhus, measles, malaria, diphtheria, and whooping cough to the Americas. Consequently,

Conquests throughout history have allowed civilizations to expand and grow by taking over areas in order to mix cultures with conquered lands to create a superior civilization. For example, the Crusades were launched by Pope Urban ll in order to retake the holy land (Jerusalem) from the Muslims (Moors). Pope Urban ll guaranteed eternal salvation to those Christians (Franks) who participated in these series of conquests. In the quickly rising populations of medieval Europe, many people were poor and were in desperation for eternal salvation. As a result for the post crusades, traded goods included much more valuable items such as spices, silk, cotton, porcelain, and this was done using coins, which resulted in wealth based on land and money as opposed to the pre crusade era when wealth was based on solely land (Doc. 6). These precious items were obtained during the crusades. These goods are seemingly more valuable than pre crusade traded items which include linen, fish, wool, and wheat, and a barter system was used as a form of currency (Doc. 6). Also, along with these crusades or a series of conquests came increased trade, which lead to more cultural diffusion, and more cities and towns sprouting across Europe. With this advanced cultural diffusion occurring across Europe, cultures from that of the Muslims Moors became enriched with the Christian Turks, for example,