Trade Routes During The Post-Classical Era

During the Post-Classical Era, trade was the center of societal life. Trade was the way the world started to connect and cultures started to mix. The Post-Classical Era (600 CE- 1450 CE) held many important trade routes including the Trans-Saharan routes in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Silk Roads connecting China and Southern Asia to the rest of the world. There are many similarities and differences between these two trade routes including the fact that both had leaders and rulers who, through trade, grew interest in other parts of the world and set out to learn more about other societies. They both also, as a result of trade, were introduced to other religions such as Islam. A difference that is found between the two is the differences between

During Mali’s reign from the 13th Century into the late 15th Century, Mali controlled and taxed almost all the trade passing through West Africa. As a result, their wealth grew tremendously. One of the most prominent leaders of Mali, Mansa Musa who ruled Mali from 1312 to 1337, strove to increase trade still more and set out in 1324 on a pilgrimage to Mecca. He did this not only because he was Islamic and wanted to visit Mecca but because he wanted to show off his wealth and attract more merchants to Mali. In the end, this worked against Mali because Songhai conquered Mali around 1464, but during Mansa Musa’s travels he not only spread out his wealth but learned about the rest of the world. Similarly in China Zhang Qian led many travels to Central Asia, India and to the outskirts of the Mediterranean. Though he wasn’t a leader or emperor he was sent on travels by Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty and many consider his travels to be the reason trade opened up in China and the Silk Road came to be. He made the first contact between the Far East and the Western Mediterranean Civilizations and he was also the first to bring a reliable source of information about Central Asia back to China. This was the first step in a long journey for China towards

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the comings of Muslim Merchants from the Islamic world brought much Islamic Influence. Not only did the Arab’s trade with Africa but they also led Jihads to try to convert people to Islam. These were usually very successful because of the Muslim’s drive to die for their faith and because they either forced converts or the West African people converted easily. There was a lot of appeal in Islam for rulers because of the gaining of leadership over religion and government and regular people liked it because of the Islamic belief that everyone is equal. In China, religion was also spreading because of the trade routes. Through trade religions such as Islam, Christianity and most importantly Buddhism influenced China. Buddhism then becomes the dominant faith of the Silk Roads from 200 BCE- 700 CE. Buddhism later overshadowed Daoism and at certain points even overshadowed Confucianism, though Confucianism remained the core of Chinese government for a long time. Buddhism also spread to Japan and Korea, where it became the center of economic and cultural growth. During this time, China’s elites were becoming more and more interested in religions of all kinds which set an open path for Buddhism to impact Chinese Society the way it