Think As Historian: THINK AS A HISTORIAN: MAKING CONNECTIONS BY ANALYZING CAUSATION

One way to make connections across cultures and eras is to analyze cycles of cause and effect. For example, improved agricultural production often leads to increased population. Increased population, in turn, requires even more agricultural production. Efforts to fulfill agricultural and other needs associated with increased population, in turn, may lead to pressure on resources, including environmental degradation, and the population may decline as a result or be vulnerable to disease or conquest. However, with the next improvement in agriculture or another economic advancement, the population may grow again, and so the cycle continues. Recognizing this somewhat predictable cycle of cause and effect can help you make connections by seeing it in action in different geographic areas at different times in history.

Describe a similar cycle of cause and effect related to increased demand for goods rather than for food. Then, analyze cause- and-effect connections between cultures that were involved in transregional exchange networks from c. 1200 to c. 1450.