Casey Taylor
World History 105
05/03/2015
How Middle Age Trade Changed the World
Nowadays, if you need something, you go to the closest store, spend a few dollars and then head home. Thousands of years ago, the process wasn't nearly as simple. If you or someone in your city didn't grow it, herd it or make it, you would have to travel for it, sometimes over great distances. Long-distance trade played a major role in the cultural, religious, and artistic exchanges that took place between the major centers of civilization in Europe and Asia during the Middle Ages. Trading in one way or another has always been a huge part of human society.
Rome was famous for was their system of roads. Romans built over 53,000 miles of roads that connected every part of their empire. The roads were originally built for military purpose, and were soon established and used for commercial activities The system of roads connected together every province in the empire. This infrastructure has remained an important transport network for later merchants to well into modern times.
The trans-Saharan trade was the route that was traveled by many people, but in referring to the section of time we studied, the Arabs used this route to move across the Sahara to trade with Africans, they traded with each other for the needs and desire of goods that each other could provide for each other. With routes leading south for the exchange of gold, ivory, and slaves within Africa, they also traveled north. History shows the most constant commodity crossing the Sahara was slaves, although Africa was rich in natural resources.
Merchants began establishing an extensive network of trade routes by land that linked much of Eurasia and northern Africa. These routes were what everyone knows as the “Silk Roads”, and made trading with other areas more readily available than ever before. In addition to the cultural and religious exchanges, trade on the Silk Routes also played a large role in the...