The Making of a Global World

Lesson

Part 1 — how goods, people, ideas and germs tied distant lands together, from ancient coastal trade to the conquest of the Americas. (Board syllabus: these two topics only.)

In this lesson you will

Describe how silk routes and the movement of foods linked distant parts of the world
Explain how European conquest of the Americas, germs and trade reshaped the world economy
Explain why the centre of world trade moved westwards
Answer a source-based question and a 5-mark question the way examiners mark them

Part 1 at a glance

Concept

Who travelled, and why?

A global world grows when people, goods, money, ideas and even germs move between distant regions.

Table: traders travelled for profit, workers for a living, priests and pilgrims for faith, and refugees for safety; they carried goods, skills, ideas and values, and without knowing it, germs and diseases
Who travelled	Why	What they carried
Traders	Profit	Goods, money, skills
Workers	Jobs and a living	Skills, customs
Priests and pilgrims	Faith, spiritual purpose	Ideas, beliefs
People fleeing persecution	Safety and freedom	Values, culture
All of them, unknowingly	—	Germs and diseases

Diagram

Ancient links across the seas

Table of early evidence: Indus to West Asia trade around 3000 BCE shows ancient sea trade; Maldivian cowries in China and East Africa show shells used as money far away; germs spreading along trade routes from at least the seventh century show disease travelling with trade
Evidence	What it shows
Coastal trade between the Indus valley and West Asia, about 3000 BCE	Sea trade is at least five thousand years old
Cowrie shells from the Maldives found in China and East Africa	Cowries worked as money over huge distances
Germs spreading along trade routes, traced to at least the seventh century	Disease travelled with trade; by the thirteenth century the link is clear

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