I was surprised to read...

            

I was surprised to read about how the understanding of monsoon patterns increased trade between India and East Africa. I had long known about the significant trade that occurred between the two areas, but I had never thought about the weather. When I learned Swahili, we had a culture day every Friday that was dedicated more to traditions and behavior and less to language. A part of this was food. Every week I learned to cook something new. What I quickly discovered was a striking similarity between Indian food and Tanzanian food. My instructor explained to me that this was because of the long history of trade between the two areas. 

          

  Another item related to weather, and definitely geography that was surprising to me was the impact of the North South orientation of the continents on trade routes in the Americas. Strayer previously mentioned this, but it was discussed more in terms of agriculture. Obviously being separated from Eurasia and Africa meant the Americas had very few of the 14 commonly domesticated animals, really just llamas and alpacas. I understood how this limited agriculture, but hadn’t thought about trade. Llamas aren’t bad for cargo, but they can’t carry much. I went on a hike last year with llamas (which was amazing) and the guide explained how they were training the llamas to carry picnics for an experience they wanted to offer their guests. It was enlightening to hear all about the challenges of training llamas. They are very stubborn. 

        

This was my guide llama, Jasmine

    Back to my point. The extreme changes in latitude, coupled with the lack of pack animals made it difficult for people to exchange good across great distances. The latitude change meant that bringing crops to new areas was not very rewarding. It’s all fine and well to bring a new crop to an area, but if you can’t get it to grow in the vastly different climate, what’s the point? I moved from Florida to California last year, and the climate is just different enough to aggravate me while I garden. And I have a powerful computer at my disposal to look up what I need to do. As of yet, archaeologists haven’t discovered any signs of computers in Americas during the third wave civilizations.