POST-CLASSICAL TRADING CITIES AND ALLIANCES

1. POST-CLASSICAL TRADING CITIES AND ALLIANCES THE SWAHILI CITIES OF EAST AFRICA & THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE OF EUROPE

2. THEMES • Five Themes of Geography • Location • Movement • Regions • A.P. Themes • Interactions and Interconnections • War • Trade • Exchanges • Social • Urban Trading Societies • Syncretism • A.P. Skills • Compare and Contrast • Change and Continuities

3. WHEN TO TEACH UNIT • Snapshots: Western Europe, East Africa Compared • Pre-Reading • Students should have read chapters • Post-Classical Western Europe • Post-Classical East Africa • Post-Classical Crusades • Students should understand • Dar es-Islam as a region • Post-Classical Urban cultures • Post-Classical Trade and commerce • Regional Geographies of • Northern Europe • Indian Ocean • Critical Skills • Document Analysis • Free Response Essay Writing: DBQ or C/C

4. LOCATIONS COMPARED • The Baltic and North Seas • Scandinavia including Finland • Poland and Baltic States • Russia: Novgorod and Pskov • Northern Germany • Eastern Indian Ocean • Horn of Africa – Somalia • East Africa –Kenya, Tanzania • South Africa – Mozambique • Islands of Zanzibar, Comoros • Common Element • Cities • Urban Cultures • Merchants • Trade

5. COMPARATIVE TECHNOLOGY • The Cog • Central to the success of the Hanseatic League was the cog. Although the Norse had elegant and seaworthy vessels, they had too small a carrying capacity to satisfy the Hanseatic merchants. What emerged to fill this need was the cog, a simple, rugged, double ended, clinker built ship with a single mast amidships and setting a single square sail on a yard. • The Dhow • A dhow is a traditional Arab sailing vessel with one or more lateen sail. It was (is) primarily used along the coasts of the Arabia, India, and East Africa. A larger dhow may have a crew of approximately thirty while smaller dhows have crews typically ranging around twelve. For navigation, dhow sailors have used the kamal. This device determines latitude by finding the angle of Polaris above the horizon.

6. EARLY EAST AFRICA • Polynesian immigrants settle parts, introduce bananas • Egyptians and Sabaeans • Egypt referred to the area as Punt • Documentary evidence of trade between Egypt, Punt • Hatshepshut’s expedition to the area is quite famous • Products were spices, gold, ivory, animals, slaves • Indigenous Semitics Civilization in Southern Yemen • Called Sabaeans: created dams, terraced agriculture • Cities connected by trade to SW Asia • Specialize in gold, frankincense, myrrh • Axum-Ethiopia • Semitic Sabaeans settle along Ethiopian coasts, highlands • Civilization arose in Axum: records, coinage, monuments • Great power mentioned in Greek, Roman, Persian records • Controlled Bab-el Mandeb straits • 3rd Century conversion to Monophysite Christianity (Coptic) • In decline after rise of Islam in Red Sea, Arabian Sea

7. MOVEMENT IN AFRICA • Romans and Greek • Both knew of region: Greeks called it Periplus, Romans called area Azania • Greek, Roman, and Persian coins of 3rd century CE found in area • Three Movements Converge • Bantu Migration Down East African Coast • Arabic Merchants Along East African Coast • Polynesians of Indian Ocean • Bantu Migration • Introduces cattle, iron, slash-burn agriculture • Bantu exploit resources of gold, ivory, copper • Bantu’s begin to cultivate yams, bananas • Settlements coast, natural harbors, islands, rivers • Muslim Arab merchants • Arabs Muslims trade for slaves, gold, ivory • Link East Africa to wider Indian Ocean, Muslims • Arab merchants take Bantu wives • Mixed families link interior Bantu, coastal Arabs

8. SWAHILI COASTAL TRADE • Trade Winds • Monsoon winds dictate all movement • November to April: Asians can arrive • April to October: Swahili go to India • Imports and Exports • Ivory, gold were key exports for East Africa • Finished goods were imported especially cloth, blue dyes • Slaves increased in importance after 17th century plantations • Cosmas Indicopleustes, Greek merchant, 6th century CE • "They take with them to the mining district oxen, lumps of slate, and iron, and when they reach its neighborhood they make a halt at a certain spot and form an encampment, which they fence round with a great hedge of thorn. Within this they live, and having slaughtered the oxen, cut them in pieces, and lay the pieces on the top of the thorns, along with the lumps of salt and the iron. Then come the natives bringing gold in nuggets like peas, called tancharas, and lay one or two or more of these upon what pleases them - the pieces of flesh or the salt or the iron, and then they retire to some distance off. Then the owner of the meat approaches and if he is satisfied he takes the gold away, and upon seeing this its owner comes and takes the flesh or the salt or the iron.“

9. PRIMARY SOURCES • The Periplus of the Erithraean Sea, a Greek Sailors’ Guide from Alexandria, Egypt, c. 100 CE • "Two days' sail beyond the island lies the last mainland market town of Azania, which is called Rhapta, a name derived from the small sewn boats the people use. Here there is much ivory and tortoiseshell. Men of the greatest stature, who are pirates, inhabit the whole coast and at each place have set up chiefs.“ • From Compendium of Knowledge by the Chinese Confucian scholar, Tuan Ch'eng-shih, 8th century CE • "From of old this country has not been subject to any foreign power. In fighting they use elephant's tusks, ribs and wild cattle's horns as spears, and they have corselets and bows and arrows. They have twenty myriads of foot-soldiers. The Arabs are continually making raids on them.“

10. EL ZANJ: THE SWAHILI • Swahili is actually a language • Comes from Arabic “Sahel swahili” • Means dwellers of the coast • Bantu speakers borrowed loan words from Arabic • Came to symbolize a culture along East Africa • Bantu arrived in 1st millennium CE • Settled coasts • Muslims, Indians discovered wealth of area • 8th Century CE • Settlement Shirazi Arabs from the Persian Gulf • Small settlements of Sindi Indians • El Zanj: Land of the Blacks • Coastal areas come under the control of Arab Muslims • Muslims controlled coast from cities along strategic harbors • Northern Swahili: Mogadishu, Pate, Zanzibar, Malindi, Kilwa • Southern Swahili: Sofala pushed inland up to Zimbabwe, Mozambique

11. SWAHILI HISTORY • Swahili City-States • Muslim and cosmopolitan • Mix of Bantu, Islamic, and Indian influences • All politically independent of one another • Never a Swahili empire or hegemony control • Trade and Economics • Cities like competitive companies, corporations vying for African trade • Chief exports: ivory, sandalwood, ebony, and gold; later slaves • Trade linked to both Arabia and India; even Chinese goods, influence reached area • Social Construct • Arabs, Persians were significant players in the growth of Swahili civilization • Cities were run by a nobility that was African in origin • Below nobility: commoners, resident foreigners made up a large part of the citizenry • Large group of artisans, weavers, craftsmen • Slavery was actively practiced • The sixteenth century • Advent of Portuguese trade disrupted trade routes, made commercial centers obsolete • Portuguese allowed native Africans no share in African trade • Set about conquering the Islamic city-states along the eastern coast • The late seventeenth century • Oman (in the south of Arabia) conquered the Portuguese cities along the coast • Eastern African coast controlled by Omani sultanate for another two hundred years • Cotton, cloves, plantation agriculture thrived and used slaves for labor • European Imperialism: Germany, Portugal, Italy, Britain split control of Swahili lands

12. SWAHILI CITIES • Swahili Garden Cities • Built around palaces, mosques • Walled Cities • Many markets, harbors • Wealthy • Built homes within walls • Endowed mosques, schools • Wandering Muslims, Sufis create madrasas attached to mosques • Climate led to creation of gardens • Muslims transplanted many different plants, crops to area • Gaspar Correa, sailor and mercenary describing Vasco da Gama's arrival in Kilwa, 16th century • "The city comes down to the shore, and is entirely surrounded by a wall and towers, within which there are maybe 12,000 inhabitants. The country all round is very luxurious with many trees and gardens of all sorts of vegetables, citrons, lemons, and the best sweet oranges that were ever seen… The streets of the city are very narrow, as the houses are very high, of three and four stories, and one can run along the tops of them upon the terraces… and in the port there were many ships. A moor ruled over this city, who did not possess more country than the city itself.“

13. VISUAL SOURCES

14. GREAT ZIMBABWE • Called Mwenemutapa • dzimba dza mabwe = houses of stone • dzimba woye = venerated houses, describes a chief's house or grave. • dzimbahwe = court, home or grave of chief • Bantu-speaking people in Southeastern Africa • South of Zambezi River, North of Limpopo River • Migrated from East Africa • Brought iron smelting, agriculture, cattle-raising  • Importance of Gold and Red-Gold (Copper) • Area rich in both medals • Easily mined and obtained • Traded downriver to the coasts • Great Zimbabwe • Centralized state around 1300 CE • Huge fortification surrounded by stone walls • Dominated the Zambezi river valley • Influence of Sofala • Swahili coastal town in modern Mozambique • Dominated trade in the Mozambique Channel • Became the conduit for Zimbabwean gold to Indian Ocean • Supplied Zimbabwe with Arab, Indian, Chinese goods • Trade Changes History • Wealth led to centralization of Zimbabwean government • Original ruler-priests replaced by military-economic kinship • Islam, Swahili culture made no impact on region

15. EARLY NORTHERN EUROPE • The Amber Route of the Greeks • Largest world deposits in Baltic (Prussia) • Greeks spoke of route to Mediterranean • Keltic peoples in area participated in trade • Germanic and Viking Migrations • Germans • Goths moved from Gotland to mainland • Displaced Balts, Scythians • Settled southern shores of Baltic • Germans traded with each other, Mediterranean region • Arian missionaries active in area, convert many Germanic tribes • Viking Age • Vikings were active traders, explorers • Viking settlements attracted merchants, markets • Vikings establish trade routes throughout area

16. NEW STATES IN EUROPE • Charlemagne and The Church • Charlemagne subdues the Saxons • Incorporates areas into Frankish Empire • Establishes aristocratic hierarchy • Establishes church hierarchy • Church sends in missionaries to the area • Christian bishops established sees • Sees build on existing settlements • Conversions follow • Monasteries established • Ottonian kings establish Holy Roman Empire • Church hierarchy facilitated rise of cities around cathedrals • Cathedrals, church had need for artisans, services leading to rise of marketplaces • Few natural resources along coasts short of fish, salt, timber, pitch, tar • Cities developed large merchant classes, specialists outside feudal society • Rise of Imperial Cities: aristocrats, kings began granting charters to German cities • Cities began to exercise political control over own affairs: regulate city life • German cities assist emperors in eastern push along Baltic; granted privileges

17. HISTORY OF THE HANSA • Rise of Guilds (Hansa) in German cities • Established contacts with other guilds in other towns • Sought sources of timber, pitch, tar, wax, resins, furs, • Began to move rye, wheat, salt, fish, honey • Role of Visby (Gotland) • Germans traded under flag of Gotland • Journeyed throughout Baltic especially to Novgorod • Extreme competition of merchants led to conflict, rules • Germans began to build German cities to control trade • Forming of The Hansa • Lubeck founded in 1159 • Controlled transshipment across Jutland • Granted status as imperial city • Became Queen of Baltic Hansa 1227 • Formed alliance with Hamburg in 1241 • Hamburg controlled trade in Northern Germany to west of Elbe, Baltic • Already had system of alliances with German, Flemish, Dutch cities • Hamburg and Lubeck cooperated in alliances, with other cities • Formal Diet and Treaty signed in 1356 • More than 100 cities participated although few formally joined Hanseatic Diet • Established kontors or factories in area; became trading enclaves • Exchanges goods of Baltic with cloth, linens, manufactured goods of England, Netherlands • Member states adopted uniform Lubeck law code: heavily commercial

18. HANSA SOCIETY • Alliance State Structure • Hansa Diet • Treaties, Wars, Diplomacy • Economic Regulations, Coinage • Membership • Used Law Code of Lubeck as common law • Local State Structure • Imperial Cities owing allegiance to emperor • Charter from emperor established rights • Fiercely guarded rights against princes, bishops • Town Hall often imposing structure • Councils run cities • City patricians run councils • Patricians were masters of guilds • Guilds regulated neighborhoods • Labor Structures: Guilds, Monopoly, Mercantilism • Regulated all aspects of manufacture, trade • Extreme hierarchy with masters, apprentices, journeymen • Cooperate within cities and between cities • Set prices, limited competition • Social • Some guilds higher than others • Socialized within specific guilds • Marriages usually within guilds • Some guilds admitted women

19. PRIMARY SOURCES • Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor, 1188, one of the earliest references to the liberties of Lübeck is found in the charter wherein he mentions the rights given to that city by Henry, Duke of Saxony. • . . . For these reasons, in order that they may come and go freely with their wares through the whole duchy of Saxony, free from hanse and thelony, except at Ertheneborch, where they pay five denarii for wagons.... The Ruthenians, the Gothlanders, the Northmen, and the other eastern peoples may come and go freely to the oft-mentioned city without payment of thelony or hanse.... • Waldemar the Victorious, King of Denmark, who controlled much of the Baltic lands by reason of his conquests, was able to grant privileges in southern Sweden, the center of the herring trade, to Lübeck, since Scania formed a part of the Danish dominions, 1288 • In ancient times King Waldemar granted to the city of Lübeck that its citizens could, and should, at the markets at Skanör and Falsterbo, sell their wares, retail and wholesale, and buy whatever might be found for sale there. Also that they elect there any advocate they choose to judge all offenses and faults except those of "hand and neck": and so this law has been faithfully observed throughout the past up to the present day except for bla and blot, and this is beyond the jurisdiction of the citizens, and of those who live by the law of the city. But everyone must give lawful thelony to the officials of the lord King: they can sell cloth by the cubit; they can, also, sell other things by weight, both besemer and punder and this for the reason that the said King granted that such liberties should be observed in their free markets.

20. INFLUENCE OF HANSA • Cities • Started as independent or • Gained independence by power of the League • Such independence remained limited • Hansa cities owed allegiance to the Emperor • No intermediate tie to the local nobility • Influence • Economic • No trade moved in Baltic without their permission • States participate in trans-oceanic movements • Military = Ships, Armed Merchants • Equipped to protect themselves • Intimidate reluctant members, larger states • Waged war against pirates • Weaknesses • Hansa merchants, cities cliquish • Rise of nation states, modern cities threatened Hansa • Economic crises of 14th century wounded Hansa • Rise of Holland, Swedish Empire, Prussia destroyed Hansa

21. ALLIANCE WITH GERMAN ORDER • German Order (Teutonic Knights) • German hospitaler order found 1182 in Holy Land • 13th Century switched activities to Baltic • 1226: Launched Christianizing crusade against Prussia • Established military church state under imperial, papal jurisdiction • Waged war against Poland, Lithuania, Novgorod • Livonian Brotherhood • Sub-branch of German Order assimilated into Order • Conquered Latvia (Livonia), Estonia • Founded towns and encouraged immigration • Riga and Marienburg were centers of state • Society • German monk/knights formed military elite • German nobles carved out large landed estates with serfs • German towns, burghers graded rights, autonomy • Free German peasants cleared land, planted crops • Local Prussians “Germanicized” and granted equal rights • Local Livonians, Ests, Lithuanians became serfs • Relationship to Hansa • All cities in area were members of Hansa • Settlers often came from Hansa • German order formed military alliance with Hansa • Economic wealth flowed through Hansa

22. OTHER CITIES &ALLIANCES • Netherlands • Brugge • Ghent • Mediterranean • Venice, Genoa and Amalfi • Barcelona • Alexandria • Southwest Asia • Damascus • Baghdad • China • Chang-an • Hangchow • Southeast Asia • Cholan Empire • Srivijayan Empire • Malacca • Central Asia • Merv • Bukhara • Samarkand

23. EXTENSIONS: TRADE DIASPORAS • Definition: A trade diaspora is a dispersed ethnic community which exists in different geographic locations and specializes in trade. They are often religious minorities who are accorded certain protections by a state and perform many duties for the rulers of that state including diplomacy and long-distance trade. • Influence: Ethnic and family bonds help maintain strong links of communication and trust, as well as maintaining a kind of "brand" identity in relation to local peoples. Most major trade entrepots allowed trading groups to rule themselves under their own headmen. But traders also got involved in local politics through marriage and official positions, thus overlapping with state sponsored trade. Trade diasporas often introduced new ideas, faiths, and technologies into existing regions while assisting the formation of new cultures and languages. • Groups • Venetians and Genoese in Mediterranean • Swahili merchants in East Africa • Hansa German merchants in Northern Europe • Jews in Mediterranean, SW Asia, Europe • Muslims in areas outside Muslim rule • Armenians in SW Asia • Nestorians in Central Asia • Fukien Chinese in South, East China Sea • Hausa people in the Sahel, West Africa

24. INTERESTING LINKS • Old World Contacts • This tutorial focuses on the travelers of Eurasian and African history between 330 BCE and 1500 CE. It introduces students to the agents of contact: the merchants, military men, missionaries, and others who journeyed far from their homelands. It examines the foreign items and ideas these people transported with them across the vast landscape and surrounding seas of three continents. This tutorial explores how cross-cultural contacts/exchanges affected the Old World's diverse cultural communities through time. • http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/oldwrld/