Mason McMillan
10/10/14
AP World History DBQ Essay

Analysis of the documents indicates that communication, goods and ideas exchanged on the Silk Road and Indian Ocean trade routes spread cultures and religions quickly. Of the many things that were traded on the Silk Road, goods and religion were the most notable. The quantity of the goods traded on the Indian Ocean was not as much as on the Silk Road or Mediterranean Sea, but that was mainly from the huge distance difference. The idea and invention of smelting iron and metals was also spread along the trade routes, very few cultures developed it on their own. Communication along these trade routes helped spread religion because of how monks would travel along the Silk Road telling people about their faiths.
In document two it is a poem about an Iranian whirling girl who has to relocate her business because of how she is not a very good Iranian whirling girl to the standards of where she came from. ‘And in a contest of abilities, you would not be there equal’ (Doc 2). So when she comes into a new territory she is then the best Iranian whirling girl due to how she is the only one there. Document three has three musicians sitting on a camel playing their instruments. ‘The musicians playing Iranian instruments confirm the migration if Iranian culture across the Silk Road’ (Doc 3). These men would probably be moving for the same reason as the Iranian whirling girl; there were too many musicians in Iran so they would go somewhere that didn’t have any yet.
Document one depicts an Indian Ocean sailing vessel, ‘probably carried colonists from Indonesia to Madagascar’ (Doc 1). These colonists would be spreading and mixing their culture and religion with the Natives of Africa. Document two is a Hellenistic style sculpture from the Persian Gulf, ‘The crude craftsmanship of this effigy indicates that it was locally made and not imported from Greece’ (Doc 6). From Alexander the Great’s conquests he spread Greek culture everywhere, including Iran. From military conquests culture can be spread even faster than though normal conventional trade due to how some rulers can rule with an ‘iron fist’. They will implement rules and the culture of an area might not change completely but there would be a difference. Document three is also a result of this. Persians would probably not start using Greek like sculpture styles on their own. But from Alexander the Great’s conquests that