The Pre-Modern World

The Pre-Modern World

Throughout history, human communities have become increasingly intertwined. Travelers, businessmen, priests, and pilgrims have traveled long distances for a variety of purposes since ancient times:...

Silk Routes Link the World

Silk route is defined as the route taken by traders to carry silk cargoes from china to the west. The Silk Routes are an excellent illustration of pre-modern trade across different areas of the world. The name silk road also refers to the prominence of westbound Chinese silk shipments over this route....

Food Travels

Food offers many examples of long-distance cultural exchange, Many traders and travelers introduce new crops to the market they travel to. In distant parts of the world, even ready foodstuffs might share common origins For Example, spaghetti, and noodles. Noodles traveled west from china to become spaghetti or Arab traders took pasta to Sicily an island in Italy in the fifth century. Some of the trade foods like potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, etc these foods were unknown to our ancestors in India, five centuries ago. After Christopher Columbus found the enormous region that would later become the Americas, these cuisines were brought to Europe and Asia. After the introduction of potatoes in Europe, the poorer have begun to start eating better and live longer. Even the poorest peasants of Ireland depended upon potatoes. In the mid-1840s around 1 million people of Ireland have been starved to death when the Irish famine struck and many had migrated in search of work. This is also clear that the introduction of the new crop can lead to making a difference between death and life....

Conquest, Disease, and Trade

In the sixteenth century, the pre-modern world shrank greatly after the European sailors found a sea route to Asia and also successfully crossed the western ocean to America. For centuries Indian ocean was the central trade point but after entry of Europeans helped to expand this trade towards Europe. After this discovery, America’s vast lands and abundant crops and minerals began to transform trade and lives everywhere.   Silver the precious metal found in Peru and Mexico has enhanced Europe’s wealth and financed its trade with Asia. Many expeditions have started in search of EL DORADO, the fabled city of gold in South America. In the mid-sixteenth century, The Spanish and Portuguese were the first Europeans to conquer America. European conquest was done not because of their gun power. In fact, their superpower or super weapon was not a conventional military weapon at all. This conquest was possible through the deadly disease smallpox that they carried on their persons because of the low immunity of America’s original inhabitants. It wiped out the whole community and proved to be a deadly killer even before reaching the European troops.   Until the nineteenth century, there was food and hunger were common in Europe, and deadly diseases spread all over the city, therefore Europeans fled to America, and slaves captured in Africa were growing cotton and sugar for the European market. Until the 18th century, India and China were the richest countries and the main centers of world trade, but Indian colonization and China restricted overseas contacts as a result of these....

FAQs on The Pre-Modern World

Q 1. Describe the importance of silk routes in pre-modern trade, cultural interaction, and religious exchange....