Trace goods, ideas, and people along the Silk Road and trans-Saharan trade routes, and explain how trade connected distant civilizations.
No civilization in this unit grew up alone. The Silk Road was not one road but a web of overland and sea routes stretching about 4,000 miles from China through Central Asia to the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Chinese silk and, later, paper traveled west; wool, glass, and silver traveled east; and along the way, so did ideas, religions, and diseases. Merchants rarely traveled the whole route themselves -- goods usually passed from trader to trader in short hops, changing hands, and prices, many times before reaching a final buyer.
A second great trade web crossed the Sahara Desert, connecting West Africa to North Africa and, from there, to the Mediterranean world. The key trade was gold for salt: West Africa had rich gold deposits but needed salt to preserve food and stay healthy, while the Sahara had salt mines (like Taghaza) but no gold. Camels, well-suited to desert travel, made large caravans possible. Berber traders guided caravans of hundreds or even thousands of camels across the desert, and the West African kingdoms that controlled this trade -- which you will study next unit -- grew extremely wealthy simply by taxing the goods that passed through.
Mastery looks like: They can describe at least one specific good traded in each direction on both the Silk Road and the trans-Saharan route, and explain why trade made middleman kingdoms wealthy.
Common stumbles: Picturing the Silk Road as a literal single road, or assuming trade only carried physical goods rather than also ideas, technology, and disease.