EAST MEETS WEST: THE SILK ROAD
For thousands of years, prized trade goods and new ideas spread in and out of China, to and from the rest of Eurasia. This route became known as the Silk Road.
I. Getting from East to West
Getting from China to the West, and vice versa, was not an easy task. There were many barriers.
A. No direct sea route
B. Inhospitable land
1. Takla Makan desert
2. Himalayas
3. Gobi desert
II. Travel along the Silk Road
A. No single route
1. "Silk Road" a misnomer
a. Term coined in 1800s
It was first used by Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen, a German scholar.
2. Started in thousands of towns
a. Converged on trails across deserts and mountains
3. Travel from oasis to oasis
a. Travel safest by caravan
(1) Political unrest
(2) Bandits
(a) Great wall expanded
(b) Other fortifications built
4. Goods passed through several hands
a. One merchant sold to another
A single merchant passed goods along to another merchant. Few, if none, travelled the full length of the route.
(1) Prices went up
(2) Goods moved slowly
b. Middle East a vital link between East and West
III. Trade in goods, technology and ideas
A. From China
1. Silk and silk production
a. Produced by worms
b. A guarded secret for millennia
Although it was first produced in China around 3000 B.C., it was not until around 500 A.D. that the secret of silk production travelled to the West along the Silk Road.
c. Demand
(1) Romans loved silk
The Romans were especially fond of silk. Roman traders, realising the demand for this luxury item, embarked on missions to obtain silk from the East.
2. Gunpowder and gunpowder technology
3. Paper and papermaking
4. Porcelain
B. To China
1. Ivory
2. Buddhism
a. Spread from India to China by first century A.D.
(1) Introduced pagoda style of architecture
(2) Influenced spiritual life, diet and burials
(3) Buddhist influence in painting and sculpture
3. Gold and precious stones
4. Glass and glass making
IV. Decline of the Silk Road
A. Sea routes developed
1. Ship technology improved
B. Problems on land
1. Isolationism of Ming dynasty in China
2. Desert encroached on settlements
|
| |