In the period 600-1450 CE, many technological innovations led to increased economic growth.

A few of those innovations would be the camel in Northern Africa and the horse collars used to
control them and ride them along with the short bow in Eurasia.

Before this time period, the trade networks were mostly just Asian with some trading to Europe,
and Africa was barely involved. This period lasted up until near the year 1200, when they are
finally able to trade with the other areas of the known world, like Europe and Asia. On the other
hand, the Mongols used the horses and the short bow to conquer Asia and parts of Eastern
Europe. Doing this led to an increase of trade and therefore economic growth along the silk
road.

A technological innovation that led to economic growth in Africa was the ability to harness the
camel to use in similar ways to the horse. The people there could use the camel to get across
their biggest environmental barrier, which was the Sahara desert. Because the camel could go
around a week with no water, it made traveling across the desert much easier. The ability to
travel across the desert brought them into the Eurasian trade network, which allowed them to
trade their main natural resource, gold, for many other things used to grow their economy. This
advancement of using camels for travel and trade is similar to the way people in Asia and
Europe had been using horses to trade, except the camel specifically worked well for the North
African climate.

Another technological advancement that increased economic activity was the Mongols using
trained horses in battle and short bows. These technologies were used mostly for conquering
other areas, mainly China and other part of Asia and Europe, but they also increased trade,
which increases economic activity. When they conquered this areas and connected them
together to make one giant empire, they increased trade in many areas like the Silk Road, and
made trade safer and easier, especially for the people going all the way from Europe to China.
So therefore when the Mongols conquered everywhere around 1200, they made all the areas
into one empire connected and linked with trade, and none of this would have been possible
without the advancement of the short bow or trained horses.