Silk Road Info!

The Silk Road began during the First Golden Era which was from the Second Century BCE to Second Century CE after Alexander the Great's empire fell to new powers. A Chinese general and representative of China became the first man to travel to Central Asia. Thus allowing his reports to serve as a guide for China to extend it's influences to the far west all the way to Sogdiana (modern day Uzbekistan) which was the easternmost boundary of Alexander's empire. Chinese ruling over the region lasted a short time but created the official trade routes for Silk and other products.

Alexander The Great

Some items that were traded along the Silk Road were fabrics, spices, and stones (from India). Fragrances, jewelry, spices and silk were traded to Rome in return for European pictures and luxury goods. Furs, skins, honey, and slaves were exported from eastern and northern Europe to China and central Asia. Silk was traded by the Chinese to the Parthians who traded it to the Romans in exchange for gold during the first century BCE. Because silk was very valuable due to it being a beautiful, strong, lightweight fabric that could be used for clothing, China controlled the trade by keeping the secret of making silk hidden from other countries. The diffusion of culture and exchanges occurred as part of the trading through the Silk Road. Between the second and seventh centuries BCE, Central Asia discovered the secret behind how to make silk after China had kept it a secret in order to maintain their global monopoly on Silk. In the Second Golden Era, (Seventh Century to tenth century) during the seventh century, China was very powerful under the Tang Dynasty while the Islam religion began to dominate Central Asia as Arab arms made conquests and unified from Arabia in the west to Kashgar and China in the east.

Animal Furs

Indian Fabric

Gold

Honey

Silk

Spices

Contact with the Silk Road helped spread different types of religions, customs, traditions, foods, and ideas. For example, during the first century CE, Buddhist missionaries introduced Buddhism to China from Central Asia. The Islam religion began to spread to Central Asia during the seventh century as well, many Muslim merchants proceeded through different regions sharing their wares and beliefs with others. A Buddhist monk named Xuang Zang, also traveled from China to India and back introducing new Buddhist schools along the way. 

Buddhist Monks

Islam Religion Symbol

The Silk Road trade declined after the Mongol empire fell because of differences that developed among the Mongol rulers of Russia, Central Asia, and China. Soon after, many European powers tried to develop an alternative route to reach the Silk Road through the Sea to more accurately predict costs and profits of goods. After a  Portuguese sailor named Vasco da Gama sailed successfully from Europe to India from 1497 to 1499, sea trade became the new established way of trading goods. As Silk Roads began to be used less, China completely stopped their silk trade during he 1400's because many parts of Central Asia and Europe had already known how to make it. When trading abstained, cities like Samarkand and Chang'an, and Antioch shrank in size, were ruined by war, or lost value.

Silk Road Map including Sea Routes

Renewed interests has inclined many archaeologists, explorers, travelers, adventures and tourists to visit the once flourishing Silk Road since the beginning of the nineteenth century. Many of these people travel to find lost treasures and find evidence of the once diffused cultures that existed among the silk roads like manuscripts, statues,temples, and murals. Travelers can actually travel along the roads and see where civilizations once used to thrive. Recent conflicts have made it a challenge for travelers to complete the journey across Eurasia (full extent of the Silk Road). 

Tourist attractions/destinations along the Silk Road