Trade Networks, Empires & Disruption — Problem set, Grade 9
Five focused units, followed by an evidence workshop, chapter review, and chapter quiz.
Review the key ideas
Silk Roads: Intermediaries, Ideas & Institutions
Trade operated before, during, and after particular empires. Local production and short-distance exchange connected with longer routes through intermediaries. A map of arrows should therefore be read as a schematic network, not proof of a single traveler, constant safety, or equal benefits at each stop.
Indian Ocean: Monsoons, Ports & Maritime Communities
African, Arab, Persian, Indian, Southeast Asian, Chinese, and other participants had varied roles. Port communities could include multiple languages and religious institutions. Travelers and merchants adapted to local rules rather than operating in an ocean without politics, conflict, or organized societies.
Mongol Empires: Conquest, Administration & Connections
The empire divided into related successor states with differing histories, including Yuan rule in China and the Ilkhanate in Iran. Religious policies, elite relationships, taxation, and local institutions varied. The phrase Pax Mongolica describes some periods of facilitated exchange; it does not mean universal peace or equal treatment.
The Black Death: Evidence, Responses & Uneven Effects
Mortality was severe but varied by place, timing, and evidence. Communities responded through religious practice, care, flight, regulations, and other actions. False accusations against Jewish communities led to persecution and killings; those accusations were not explanations of the disease and should not be reproduced as plausible alternatives.
Korea & Southeast Asia: States, Water & Cultural Choice
Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, Confucian, and local traditions moved through contacts and were selectively adapted. The Goryeo and Joseon periods in Korea similarly show changing relationships among political authority, learning, and religion. These societies should be studied as active participants rather than recipients of a uniform outside culture.
Problem 1
Answer and explanation
The goods show an A–B–C connection through intermediaries. Their presence at C does not prove that A’s trader reached C. The example also does not establish whether similar historical networks used these exact places or terms.
Trace each supplied transfer.
Distinguish connected exchange from direct travel.
Identify records needed to study price, risks, and motives.
Response criteria
- Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
- Connect relevant evidence to an explained conclusion.
- Represent particular perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
- Identify an evidentiary limitation or a distinction that qualifies the claim.
Problem 2
Answer and explanation
A distant object shows a connection but not necessarily direct travel between its origin and findspot. Investigate intermediate markets, dates, and routes. Goods, techniques, and people can move at different speeds and through different connections.
Problem 3
Answer and explanation
Waiting can create demand for services and sustained local relationships. The winds influence timing, while storage costs and local rules shape choices. This invented case illustrates a mechanism without establishing a universal historical voyage schedule.
Connect waiting time to wind conditions.
Identify lodging, storage, sales, and local contacts.
State other information needed to judge costs or safety.
Response criteria
- Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
- Connect relevant evidence to an explained conclusion.
- Represent particular perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
- Identify an evidentiary limitation or a distinction that qualifies the claim.
Problem 4
Answer and explanation
Seasonal winds influence possible timing but do not guarantee a voyage’s success. Storms, currents, ship condition, political access, and human decisions matter. A route should be explained through a combination of environmental knowledge and institutions.
Problem 5
Answer and explanation
Protected movement on one route does not establish peace everywhere or erase earlier destruction. A bounded claim can describe facilitated travel during a defined period while identifying coercion and unequal effects.
Separate conquest from later route administration.
Identify places and periods rather than one universal condition.
Seek traveler, tax, and local records to assess who benefited.
Response criteria
- Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
- Connect relevant evidence to an explained conclusion.
- Represent particular perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
- Identify an evidentiary limitation or a distinction that qualifies the claim.
Problem 6
Answer and explanation
Describe the particular coalition and military arrangements rather than contrasting intelligent settled societies with disorganized outsiders. Pastoral and urban economies often exchanged goods and services. Their institutions differed without forming a hierarchy of human worth.
Problem 7
Answer and explanation
The registered sample yields 20 percent, but incomplete coverage and unknown migration prevent a secure whole-town estimate. More burial, household, and population evidence could improve the reconstruction. The invented figures are an exercise, not historical mortality data.
Compute 120 ÷ 600 = 20 percent.
Identify the missing residents and unrecorded migration.
Keep the denominator and limitations explicit.
Response criteria
- Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
- Connect relevant evidence to an explained conclusion.
- Represent particular perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
- Identify an evidentiary limitation or a distinction that qualifies the claim.
Problem 8
Answer and explanation
A pathogen finding at one site strengthens a specific claim, not every route or transmission mechanism. Combine dated genetic, historical, and ecological evidence. Avoid asserting that all Chinese or African regions experienced identical effects when regional evidence differs.
Problem 9
Answer and explanation
Maintenance suggests ongoing institutional demands, while continued settlement challenges a claim of total disappearance. Neither establishes the complete cause of political change. More precise dates and evidence of labor, climate, and administration would help.
Separate maintenance needs from proof of a single collapse cause.
Identify continued settlement as a different question from royal authority.
Compare dating, environmental, and political evidence.
Response criteria
- Describe the historical context and institutions accurately.
- Connect relevant evidence to an explained conclusion.
- Represent particular perspectives without stereotypes or invented testimony.
- Identify an evidentiary limitation or a distinction that qualifies the claim.
Problem 10
Answer and explanation
A resource base creates possibilities rather than one automatic state form. Compare how an institution mobilized labor and income. Monumental water systems and port commerce require different evidence to assess administration and public effects.