10/23/2020 Print - East Meets West: The Silk Road - Overview
From ABC-CLIO's World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras website https://ancienthistory.abc-clio.com/
Time Period: Central and East Asia, 500-1500 CE
East Meets West: The Silk Road
Overview
History often seems to be all about the rise and fall of governments and shifts in political and military power.
However, many of the most important developments of history—the ones with a lasting impact on human life and
culture—come out of the peaceful exchange of goods and ideas along trade routes. One such important historical
trade route is the romantically named Silk Road, which linked the East to the West and played a signi cant role in
the transfer of knowledge from China to Europe.
Travel on the Silk Road
The "Silk Road" is a name historians use to describe the rst trade route that connected China with the
Mediterranean region in ancient and medieval times. It would probably be more accurate to use the term "Silk
Roads" because the Silk Road was a 4,000-mile network of routes that passed through the entire Asian continent.
The routes began in the ancient Chinese capital of Changan, split as they moved west to go around the
Taklimakan Desert in Central Asia, and then came together again in the Near East. They ended at cities like
Antioch and Tyre on the Mediterranean Sea.
Since most of the Silk Road passed through desert or mountains, travel was di cult and dangerous. Travelers
journeyed in caravans and made their way from one desert oasis to the next. Goods traveled along with the people
from Central Asia across the Mediterranean Sea into Europe. Side routes ran into the Indian subcontinent.
Over hundreds of years, trade and travel along the Silk Road grew and declined based on
the conditions in the numerous regions through which it passed. The Silk Road was
probably rst used as early as 300 BCE, but the earliest recorded traveler was Chinese
general Zhang Qian in the second century BCE. At that time, trade of silk and other
luxuries between central China and its borders was common, but the nomadic tribes
who lived on the northern and western frontiers often raided trading parties. In 138 BCE, Han dynasty emperor
Wudi sent Zhang to the western nomads to attempt to create an alliance with them against the northerners.
Although that mission was unsuccessful, Zhang traveled as far west as modern-day Afghanistan and returned to
China with information about trade routes and new products.
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10/23/2020 Print - East Meets West: The Silk Road - Overview
The Chinese were especially interested in Zhang's descriptions of the ne horses that were raised in Central Asia
because of their military value. With Chinese silk, a valuable luxury, to be traded in exchange, the Chinese
government launched western trading parties with military escorts for security. Since they could now travel in
relative safety, private merchants often tagged along. They traded not only silk but also Chinese herbs, paper,
spices, tea, and jade carvings for raw jade, gold, silver, wool, glass, ivory, grapes, and bamboo. All sorts of exotic
animals were also exchanged between eastern and western Asia. As the Han dynasty began to decline in the early
third century CE, so did state-sponsored trade along the Silk Road, although it never died out completely.
Because the routes passed through such di cult terrain, early traders were unable to
travel the entire length. Instead, they would travel a certain distance, trade their wares at
a trading post or oasis, and then return home. In turn, traders at the oasis would travel
farther on to the next oasis to trade their new items. Little by little, goods from the East
and the West made their way to the other end of the trade routes. In that way, the West
eventually learned of such Chinese inventions as paper.
Trade and Cultural Exchange
Once China was reunited under the Tang dynasty in 618 CE, trade along the Silk Road began to
grow again. The Tang not only encouraged trade but also protected and extended the routes.
They imported new styles of clothing, such games as polo, new musical instruments, exotic
plants, and spices.
Under the Tang dynasty, merchants, craftsmen, missionaries, religious pilgrims, entertainers,
diplomats, entrepreneurs, artists, and adventurers traveled the Silk Road. Towns began to grow
up around the main oases, and the Tang capital of Changan, located at the eastern end of the
Silk Road, became a culturally diverse, bustling city. A census taken in 754 indicates the presence of Turks,
Persians, Indians, and 20,000 other non-Chinese residents. In Changan, music, literature, poetry, calligraphy,
painting, and dance from many cultures thrived.
Beliefs also traveled the Silk Road. During the latter period of the Han dynasty, Buddhist temples, shrines, and
sculptures were built along the Chinese portions of the Silk Road. Buddhism continued to spread as monks came
to teach in China and students of Buddhism traveled to India to learn more about the faith. During the Tang
dynasty, Islam spread from the Near East into Persia and Central Asia, with outposts in China and India.
Christianity also arrived in China by 635.
As the Tang dynasty weakened in the late ninth century, so did trade along the Silk Road. The Song dynasty, which
followed, controlled a much smaller amount of territory and therefore never controlled the trade routes either.
Silk Road trade rebounded during the time of the Mongols following the conquests of
Genghis Khan in the early 13th century. Although the invading Mongols initially
destroyed many oases and trading centers along the routes, the relative peace that
followed the establishment of the extensive Mongol Empire meant that the Silk Road
was once again comparatively safe for travel.
Genghis' grandson Kublai Khan brought China under his control by 1279. The security of trade routes was
extremely important to the Mongols. Trade between segments of the Silk Road grew as a result, and travelers
could make their way from one end all the way to the other. The most famous European to make the journey was
Marco Polo, who traveled to the court of Kublai. In addition to goods and people, new ideas, art, and literature
traveled the Silk Road during Kublai's reign.
By the late 1400s, the Silk Road was no longer the only avenue connecting the East and the West. Europeans and
Asians both began making greater use of maritime routes, which were faster and therefore less expensive.
Meanwhile, the Ming dynasty, which regained control of China in 1368, established a policy of isolationism that
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10/23/2020 Print - East Meets West: The Silk Road - Overview
meant less contact with the West. Some trade via the Silk Road persisted, but it never was as active as it once had
been.
Ellen Bialo
Further Reading
Beckwith, Christopher I. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009; Hansen, Valerie. The Silk Road: A New History Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2015; Whit eld, Susan, and Ursula Sims-Williams. The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith.
Chicago: Serindia Publications, 2004; Wood, Frances. The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia.
London: British Library, 2003.
Image Credits
Gao Zu: Instructional Resources Corporation
Han dynasty bronze horse: Instructional Resources Corporation
Kublai Khan presents golden seal to Polos: The Travels of Marco Polo by Marco Polo, 1958 reprint of the 13th-
century original
MLA Citation
Bialo, Ellen. "East Meets West: The Silk Road." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras, ABC-CLIO, 2020,
ancienthistory.abc-clio.com/Topics/Display/1185638?cid=41&sid=1185638. Accessed 23 Oct. 2020.
COPYRIGHT 2020 ABC-CLIO, LLC
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