Cross-Cultural Interactions And Inter-Regional Trade In Southeast Asia

During the Post-Classical Era, many inter-reigonal networks were created, and many other trade networks that became gateways for the spread of religion, as well as the development of cultures, were expanded. With these expansions came the development of economic integration and a market economy. Increased agricultural production helped facilitate the development of trade. Along with the expansion of the Tang and Song dynasties in China, the influence of Chinese goods, inventions and religion became evident in many distinct parts of the Indian Ocean Basin. Contacts were thus created, as a result of increased trade and state expansion. These Chinese goods often influenced the cultures that they reached. They also brought along ideas, as well as things that would revolutionize cultures.

It must be initially noted that the documents given today are either historical artifacts, or excerpts that cannot fully describe the vastness of the trade. What is lacking in the given documents are documents from the African point of view. The documents given cannot fully encapsulate the complexities of the trade without documents from the African point of view. Furthermore, it should be noted that none of the documents provided were created by women. The lack of women in the authoring of the documents provides a strictly patriarchal view. This view hinders the understanding of the social aspect of this prompt.

The expansion of Ancient China in the Post Classical Era, in the Tang dynasty, lead to a lot of Chinese goods being exchanged to parts of the Indian Ocean Basin even reaching to parts of Africa. The spread of these goods created inter regional networks. Analyzing Doc 1, it is a piece of paper with Chinese calligraphy on it. Paper was inve...

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...nal aspect of cross cultural interactions and inter-regional trade is the vastness of which items and inventions spread. In the Song dynasty, the expansion of economy as well as agricultural production prompted the development of roads. With these roads, the people could travel easier, and further. This is the case of Doc 5, in which a Chinese vase was found in Kenya. Because this vase was found thousands of miles away from China, it can be inferred that the Chinese were able to trade very far away, even further than the Indian Ocean Basin, entering into Africa. In Doc 6, Ibn Battuta, the traveller, notices that the ships in the port of Yemen were very developed. He describes the many goods that were traded, as well as the Indians that worked at the ports. These facts added together represent the vastness of the cross cultural interactions in the post classical era.