Chapter 7 Part 3: An Age of Accelerating Connections; Commerce and Culture Swahili civilization and a string of thirty or more city-states appeared along the coast of East Africa. The west African civilization began from trade across the Sahara the kingdoms of Ghana, Mali and Songhay helped kick-start this. East and Southeast Asia also became civilizations as a result of trade. Across all of the civilizations starting and flourishing so was Islam it was the most expansive and was widely influential. Trade and the trade networks, the most known and most active was the Silk Roads, it was a trade network that merchants would travel along. On the Silk Roads, Silk was the most sold product on this route. This large land route linked pastoral and agricultural people to others all along the continent. Culture and religion were also practiced and passed. Buddism saw a widespread of widely through Central and East Asia. Diseases in transit also lead to bringing dangerous viruses into cities with little immunity as they have never interacted with these foreigners. The next road discussed is the Sea road which travels across the Pacific down into the Indian ocean and connects Africa, Arabia, Persia, India, and China. The products that traveled along this road were ceramics, ivory precious metals, and skins from animals. With the sea road, the progression of language in southeast Asia and they began to develop an alphabet. Hinduism and Buddhism were spread along this route of trade. Sand roads started trade across the Sahara. Gold salt and slaves were traded across this route.