Chinese, Mandarin

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Persian, Dari

Persian, Western

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek, Modern

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

World History 1

<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Throughout history, economic opportunity and access to new and varied resources have inspired merchants and traders to travel. In the premodern world, this was especially the case along the trade routes of North Africa and the <OpenstaxTerm>Silk Roads</OpenstaxTerm>, an active network of trade and commerce that attracted merchants and traders from across Afro-Eurasia (<a href="#fig-00004">Figure 16.12</a>).
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00004" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/c9adca261ea94f25dae23b7d9f884943a4e47b55" alt="An image of a drawing is shown on a brown spotted off-white background. Green and red lines crisscross the image. At the top right, a thick wavy blue line is drawn in a curve and above it are two yellow flags, one with a red square in the middle and triangle end with fringes. An upside down circular white castle is in the corner with three towers at the top and a red roof. In the middle top of the image, another white upside down castle shows with a very tall pole with a yellow flag atop. Script in black is written to the right in two rows. In the middle of the image, a rocky brown, black and beige path is drawn across the image tilted up at the left. At the front of the path, eight dark blue horses are shown with red reins walking to the left. One has a red covering on its back with a white sack hanging off the side. A few in the back have white square items at their sides. Behind the horses, a tight group of six people walk in pointed green, red, and light blue caps and matching colored robes and black shoes. Behind them at the right eleven figures ride blue and black scalloped horses toward the left. They wear bright red, blue, and green clothing as well and caps. In the lower third of the image, eight white and red castles are drawn, with one sideways. Four have black flags flying on the long poles. Red script is written by all the castles on the map and in this lower portion, black script is written vertically below the rocky path above. A backward “B” shaped blue and white area is shown in the bottom middle of the image." mediaType="image/jpg" width="1100" height="929" />
<OpenstaxFigureText width="1100">
	<strong>Figure 16.12</strong> This detail from a page of the Mallorquin (meaning “from the island of Majorca off the coast of Spain”) Atlas of 1375 shows the type of trade caravan that traveled through various legs of the Silk Roads journey. Given the length of the route, few merchants covered it in its entirety. (credit: “Caravan on the Silk Road” by Gallica Digital Library/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)
</OpenstaxFigureText>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Travel was also a common requirement of religious devotion in the tradition of pilgrimage. Muslims desired and were even obligated, by one of the “pillars” of Islam, to complete the <OpenstaxTerm>hajj</OpenstaxTerm>, a visit to Mecca and Medina, the holy sites of their faith in modern Saudi Arabia. Many Christian faithful wanted to travel to sacred sites containing relics of the saints, believed to be imbued with special power, and also to the Holy City of <OpenstaxTerm>Jerusalem</OpenstaxTerm>, believed to be the site of Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection. The surrounding area was the birthplace of the Christian Church. Jerusalem was also the site of the holiest of holies of Judaism, the most sacred of spaces where the Temple of Solomon had stood until its destruction by the Romans.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Beyond the demands of trade and religion, however, travel was far less possible for all but a small elite who could afford the time and expense required. Travel narratives and journals written by the select few who could embark on voyages provide much of our knowledge of premodern travel. In particular, the chronicles of <OpenstaxTerm>Ibn Battuta</OpenstaxTerm>, a Moroccan scholar who traveled across much of the Muslim world of Asia and Africa in the fourteenth century, offer much insight into the conditions and challenges travelers faced.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxNote>
	<OpenstaxNoteTitle> Link to Learning </OpenstaxNoteTitle> 
	<OpenstaxParagraph>
		This interactive web resource from the University of California, Berkeley provides a virtual tour of <a href="https://openstax.org/l/77Battuta">Ibn Battuta’s travels</a> in the fourteenth century. It also describes their historical context and offers suggested readings and links to related videos and primary sources.
	</OpenstaxParagraph>
</OpenstaxNote>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	At the same time, worsening environmental conditions necessitated travel by many who would rarely have ventured beyond their immediate surroundings but now migrated in search of the resources they needed to survive. Leaving behind all that was familiar in the hope of finding a more stable and hospitable environment, they faced a variety of perils, including regional disputes, adverse weather conditions, illness, and banditry. It was difficult to arrange travel between the many different political entities that existed in the fourteenth century, and crossing borders could be exceptionally risky without the security provided by the presence of established networks or patrons, especially when it came to bandits and lack of access to safe waystations to rest. Moreover, at a time when people were struggling to secure basic necessities, travel was very expensive. Horses, carts, camels, and seafaring vessels were beyond the means of most people, so walking became the most common means of transportation for those in search of new opportunities and resources. Walking eight to ten hours a day, on poor roads and at times in poor weather conditions, likely made the experience all the more grueling for migrants who were already malnourished, weak, and vulnerable to opportunistic infections.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Although some people traveled back and forth across borders, the difficulties and expense of fourteenth-century travel made round trips uncommon. Many were forced to abandon their homes knowing they would likely never return. In times of drought and food shortages, these climate refugees faced precarious situations and uncertain prospects. They could become “strangers in strange lands,” foreigners whose unique customs and cultural practices—including religious traditions, dress, and language—marked them as “other” and worthy of scorn.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	For those participating in commerce and bringing luxury goods over long distances for sale in faraway markets, however, the experience of travel could be very different. Though merchants and traders too were often seen as “other,” the goods they carried and their need for logistic support along the way, like food and <OpenstaxTerm>caravansaries</OpenstaxTerm> (inns along the common trade routes), directly enriched local societies and gave these travelers a different status.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Whether they were pilgrims, refugees, merchants, or soldiers traveling great distances in the premodern world, people on the move brought with them both the goods and traditions of their homelands. In the fourteenth century, an increase in this long-distance travel by a greater swath of people across Afro-Eurasia helped bring new technologies and traditions over geographic and cultural divides, but the desperation of some travelers meant the process was not without tensions. Beyond this, however, a growing threat in the form of infectious disease traveled with them, too, and it soon had a disastrous impact on society even beyond the droughts and famine that had caused many to abandon their homes.
</OpenstaxParagraph>

16.2.2 Mobility and Human Society

1 Understanding the Past

1.1 Developing a Global Perspective

1.1.1 World History as Preparation for Life after College

1.1.2 World History and Global Citizenship

1.1.3 Features of This Textbook

1.2 Primary Sources

1.2.1 Learning to Evaluate Documents and Images

1.2.2 Documentary Sources: Competing Narratives

1.2.3 Textual Sources: The Importance of Language

1.2.4 Hidden in History

1.3 Causation and Interpretation in History

1.3.1 Levels of Causation

1.3.2 Interpretation in History

2 Early Humans

2.1 Early Human Evolution and Migration

2.1.1 Human Evolution

2.1.2 Why Did Humans Move and Where Did They Go?

2.1.3 Early Human Technologies

2.2 People in the Paleolithic Age

2.2.1 Ice, Ice, and More Ice

2.2.2 Life in the Paleolithic Age

2.2.3 Diverse Paleolithic Peoples

2.3 The Neolithic Revolution

2.3.1 The Development of Agriculture

2.3.2 How Farming Changed the Human Experience

2.3.3 Neolithic Peoples

3 Early Civilizations and Urban Societies

3.1 Early Civilizations

3.1.1 Attributes of Early Civilizations

3.1.2 The First Urban Societies

3.2 Ancient Mesopotamia

3.2.1 The Rise and Eclipse of Sumer

3.2.2 The Rise of the World’s First Empire

3.2.3 Later Empires in Mesopotamia

3.2.4 Society and Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia

3.3 Ancient Egypt

3.3.1 The Origins of Ancient Egypt

3.3.2 The Age of Pyramid Building

3.3.3 A Second Age of Egyptian Greatness

3.4 The Indus Valley Civilization

3.4.1 The Origins of the Indus Valley Civilization

3.4.2 Trade, Writing, and Religion

3.4.3 The Era of Decline

4 The Near East

4.1 From Old Babylon to the Medes

4.1.1 Power Politics in the Near East

4.1.2 Foreign Affairs and Trade

4.1.3 Daily Life and the Family in the Near East

4.2 Egypt’s New Kingdom

4.2.1 The Hyksos in Egypt

4.2.2 The Pharaohs of the New Kingdom

4.2.3 Egypt’s Foreign Policy

4.3 The Persian Empire

4.3.1 The Rise of Persia

4.3.2 Darius I and the Reorganization of the Empire

4.3.3 Persian Culture and Daily Life

4.4 The Hebrews

4.4.1 The History of the Hebrews

4.4.2 The Culture of the Hebrews

5 Asia in Ancient Times

5.1 Ancient China

5.1.1 Prehistoric China

5.1.2 Early Dynastic China

5.1.3 The Zhou Dynasty

5.1.4 The Warring States Era and Qin Unification

5.2 The Steppes

5.2.1 The Nomadic Culture of the Steppes

5.2.2 Tribes, Confederations, and Settled Neighbors

5.3 Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia

5.3.1 Ancient Korea

5.3.2 Ancient Japan

5.4 Vedic India to the Fall of the Maurya Empire

5.4.1 Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro

5.4.2 The Aryans and Brahmanism

5.4.3 Buddhism

5.4.4 The Mauryan Empire

5.4.5 The Gupta Dynasty

6 Mediterranean Peoples

6.1 Early Mediterranean Peoples

6.1.1 The Late Bronze Age World

6.1.2 Phoenicians, Greeks, and Etruscans

6.2 Ancient Greece

6.2.1 Archaic Greece

6.2.2 Sparta and Athens

6.2.3 Classical Greece

6.3 The Hellenistic Era

6.3.1 The Kingdom of Macedon

6.3.2 Hellenistic Culture

6.4 The Roman Republic

6.4.1 The Foundation and Function of the Roman Republic

6.4.2 The Expansion of the Roman Republic

6.5 The Age of Augustus

6.5.1 The First Triumvirate

6.5.2 From Republic to Principate

7 Experiencing the Roman Empire

7.1 The Daily Life of a Roman Family

7.1.1 The Structure of Roman Families

7.1.2 A Day in the Life of a Roman Family

7.1.3 What Family Meant in Rome