Think As Historian: THINK AS A HISTORIAN: IDENTIfY AND DESCRIBE CONTEXT

When you contextualize a historical development or process, you place it within a larger historical perspective—a “bigger picture.” Sometimes to get this perspective you look at the causes of a development or process. For example, the historical development of intercultural connections was possible in the Classical Era because of the interregional trade along the Silk Roads. In the “bigger picture,” these intercultural connections bridged the East and the West and began the foundations of a global community.

Identify and describe a context, or “bigger picture,” by looking for a cause of each of the following developments during the Song Dynasty.

1. China developed new financial systems in response to increasing trade with Arab merchants from the Abbasid Empire.

2. Russia was able to exchange goods and services with other cultures farther west.

3. The demand for exported silks and Chinese porcelain in Europe and India grew as the Indian Ocean trade grew.

4. Thriving cities developed in Asia.

5. Guns and gunpowder spread from China to all parts of Eurasia.