Comparing the Networks
Three networks, one argument
- Explain the similarities and differences among the various networks of exchange in the period from c. 1200 to c. 1450.
- The CED's review sentence: a deepening and widening of networks of human interaction within and across regions contributed to cultural, technological and biological diffusion.
- Deepening and widening are two different claims — more traffic on old routes, and routes reaching further.
Select all the features shared by all three networks.
Only the Silk Roads had a single authority, and only for a time.
What all three shared
- All three grew from improved technologies and commercial practices, not from new discoveries.
- All three promoted the growth of cities or states that sat on them and taxed them.
- All three carried religion, disease and crops as well as goods — the diffusion the review sentence names.
"Deepening" a network means...
Widening is the other claim — routes reaching further.
Where they differed
- Environment: sand, sea and steppe demanded different technologies — camel saddle, compass and monsoon knowledge, caravanserai.
- Goods: the Sahara ran on a real complementarity (gold and salt); the Silk Roads ran largely on luxury demand.
- Political form: the Indian Ocean had no single power; the Silk Roads for a time had the Mongols.
Similarity or difference — and on which axis?
Sort each observation about the three networks.
A comparison asks one ____ of two networks, rather than describing each in turn.
Three axes, two networks, six sentences — and the essay is written.
"Deepening" and "widening" are two different claims. Deepening is more traffic and denser institutions on routes that already existed; widening is those routes reaching new regions and peoples. Evidence for one does not prove the other, and the CED's review sentence names both.
Select all the useful comparison axes this lesson gives.
Merchant counts are not recoverable and not what the objective asks.
Compare on a shared axis
- A comparison needs one question asked of two networks, not two descriptions in turn.
- Useful axes: what technology made it possible, what states it fed, what it carried besides goods.
- Three axes, two networks, six sentences — and the essay is written.
The difference that usually mattered most between the networks was...
Sand, sea and steppe demanded different technologies.
A network-comparison routine
- State the shared cause in one sentence: improved technologies and commercial practices raised volume everywhere.
- Run three axes across two networks.
- Close by naming the difference that mattered most — usually the environment, because it decided the technology.
Shared cause: better practices raised volume on all three. Technology: bills of exchange, the compass, the camel saddle. States fed: Samarkand, Malacca, Mali. Carried besides goods: Buddhism, Islam, the plague. Three axes across three networks, and the differences fall out of the environments.
A deepening and widening of networks of human interaction contributed to cultural, technological and biological diffusion. All three networks grew from improved technologies and practices, fed cities and states, and carried religion, disease and crops. They differed by environment, goods and political form — and environment decided the technology.