AP World Unit 2: Networks of Exchange

This event unfolded in Delhi, the city sitting on the flat Indo-Gangetic Plain in northern India, exactly where the Himalayas to the north give way to the vast lowlands stretching toward the Deccan…

The pin belongs at Kouroukan Fouga, in what is now southern Mali — right where the upper Niger River winds through the West African interior, deep in the Saharan borderlands that the clue called the…

This is Kiev, now the capital of Ukraine, sitting on the western bank of the Dnieper River — the great waterway that drains much of Eastern Europe southward into the Black Sea, exactly the flat, open…

This is Baghdad, the capital of modern Iraq, sitting on the Tigris River in the broad lowland plain of Mesopotamia — the ancient 'land between the rivers' flanked by the Zagros Mountains to the east…

Karakorum sits in the grassland steppe of central Mongolia, north of China and south of Siberia, in the empty middle of Asia where the Mongol Empire built its capital. By 1260 that empire, stitched…

Ain Jalut is a spring and valley in what is now northern Israel, sitting in the land bridge that links Africa to Asia — with the Mediterranean Sea to the west and the Jordan River valley to the east…

This event unfolded in Khanbaliq, the city now known as Beijing, in northern China — sitting on the North China Plain where the terrain flattens out just south of the mountains that separate China…

This battle took place at Yamen, near the mouth of the Pearl River delta on the southern coast of China, where sheltered coastal waters meet the South China Sea — the bay the title clue anchored on…

Beijing (then called Dadu), China — set on the North China Plain roughly 150 km inland from the Bohai Gulf — became the terminus of an extended Grand Canal in 1289 when Kublai Khan completed the…

This event unfolded at Trowulan, on the island of Java in present-day Indonesia — sitting between the South China Sea to the north and the Indian Ocean to the south, at the maritime crossroads of…

In 1324 CE Mansa Musa, ruler of the Mali Empire, departed from Niani — his capital on the upper Sankarani River (a Niger tributary) in what is now northeastern Guinea — on hajj to Mecca, crossing the…

Kilwa Kisiwani, Tanzania — a small island separated from the East African mainland by a narrow tidal channel in the southwestern Indian Ocean — was described by the Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta in…

This site is near Lake Issyk-Kul in present-day Kyrgyzstan — a deep, high-altitude lake sitting on the Central Asian plateau, east of the Caspian Sea and north of the great Himalayan wall…

This event took place at Caffa, modern Feodosia, on the Crimean Peninsula in present-day Ukraine — a port on the northern Black Sea coast, exactly where the Eurasian steppe grasslands reach the water…

This is Baghdad, the capital of modern Iraq, sitting in the flat alluvial plain where the Tigris River flows southward toward the Persian Gulf — exactly the river-valley heartland the title clue…

Florence, Italy — a prosperous city on the Arno River in the northern half of the Italian peninsula, sheltered by the Apennines and within reach of the Tyrrhenian Sea — was devastated when the Black…

Weymouth, on the southern coast of England, sits on the English Channel — the narrow strip of water separating the island of Great Britain from mainland Europe — and it was through this busy port…

Niani, Guinea — the probable capital of the Mali Empire, situated along the upper Niger River where it bends northward in the Manden heartland of present-day Guinea — was visited by the Moroccan…

Trowulan, Indonesia — located on the fertile volcanic plain of eastern Java, roughly 60 km southwest of present-day Surabaya and positioned between the Java Sea to the north and the Indian Ocean to…

This event unfolded in Nanjing, China — a city on the lower Yangtze River plain, roughly where that great river curves toward the East China Sea, deep in the heart of eastern China. In 1368, Zhu…

This achievement took place in Palma, on the island of Mallorca, Spain — sitting in the western Mediterranean, west of Italy and north of the African coast across a narrow sea. In 1375, Abraham…

This is Malacca, on the southwestern coast of the Malay Peninsula in modern Malaysia — sitting precisely at the strait where the Indian Ocean's trade winds funnel ships into the South China Sea…

This event began in Nanjing, the great city on the Yangtze River in eastern China, exactly where a powerful dynasty launched its fleets toward the Indian Ocean world. In 1405, Admiral Zheng He led…