Silk Road

(noun)

An ancient network of trade routes that for centuries were central to cultural interaction through regions of the Asian continent connecting the East and West from China to the Mediterranean Sea.

Related Terms

(noun)

An ancient network of trade routes that for centuries were central to cultural interaction through regions of the Asian continent connecting the West and East from China to the Mediterranean Sea.

Related Terms

Examples of Silk Road in the following topics:

  • The Silk Road

    • Control of the Silk Road would shuttle between China and Tibet until 737 CE.
    • This second Pax Sinica helped the Silk Road reach its golden age.
    • However, as the Mongol Empire disintegrated, so did the Silk Road.
    • Gunpowder hastened the failing integration, and the Silk Road stopped being a shipping route for silk around 1453 CE.
    • In this map of the Silk Road, red shows the land route and blue shows the maritime route.

  • Trade Under the Tang Dynasty

    • By reopening the Silk Road and increasing maritime trade by sail at sea, the Tang were able to gain many new technologies, cultural practices, rare luxuries, and foreign items.
    • Through use of land trade along the Silk Road and maritime trade by sail at sea, the Tang were able to gain many new technologies, cultural practices, rare luxuries, and contemporary items.
    • The Silk Road was the most important pre-modern Eurasian trade route.
    • The Tang dynasty established a second Pax Sinica and the Silk Road reached its golden age, whereby Persian and Sogdian merchants benefited from the commerce between East and West.
    • The Silk Road also affected Tang dynasty art.

  • Trade and Currency under the Yuan

    • During the Yuan dynasty, trade flourished and peace reigned along the newly revived Silk Road, contributing to a period known as the Pax Mongolica.
    • On the Silk Road, caravans with Chinese silk and spices such as pepper, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg from the Spice Islands came to the West via the transcontinental trade routes.
    • Along with land trade routes, a Maritime Silk Road contributed to the flow of goods and establishment of a Pax Mongolica.
    • This Maritime Silk Road started with short coastal routes in Southern China.
    • A closeup of the Mallorquín Atlas depicting Marco Polo traveling to the East on the Silk Road during the Pax Mongolica.

  • Overview of the Mongol Empire

    • In this environment the largest empire to ever exist helped one of the most influential trade routes in the world, known as the Silk Road, to flourish.
    • This route allowed commodities such as silk, pepper, cinnamon, precious stones, linen, and leather goods to travel between Europe, the Steppe, India, and China.

  • Break from the Seleucid Empire and Rise of the Parthian Empire

    • These military victories gave Parthia control of the overland trade routes between east and west (the Silk Road and the Persian Royal Road).
    • The empire, located on the Silk Road trade route between the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin and the Han Empire of China, became a center of trade and commerce.

  • Kingdom of Aksum

    • Covering parts of what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, Aksum was deeply involved in the trade network between India and the Mediterranean (Rome, later Byzantium), exporting ivory, tortoise shell, gold and emeralds, and importing silk and spices.
    • The economically important northern Silk Road and southern Spice (Eastern) trade routes.

  • The Black Death

    • The Black Death is thought to have originated in the arid plains of Central Asia, where it then travelled along the Silk Road, reaching the Crimea by 1346.
    • From Central Asia the Black Death was carried east and west along the Silk Road by Mongol armies and traders making use of the opportunities of free passage within the Mongol Empire offered by the Pax Mongolica.

  • Expansion and Decline of the Kushan Empire

    • Around 152 CE, Emperor Kanishka, a Buddhist, sent his armies north of the Karakoram Mountains to capture additional territories and subsequently opened a direct road from Gandhara to China that remained under Kushan control for more than a century.
    • The Kushan Empire linked the seagoing trade of the Indian Ocean with the commerce of the Silk Road via the Indus Valley, while providing security that encouraged travel across the Khunjerab Pass and facilitated the spread of Mahayana Buddhism to China.

  • The Role of Foreign Trade

    • The Portuguese bought Chinese silk and sold it to the Japanese in return for Japanese-mined silver; since silver was more highly valued in China, the Portuguese could then use Japanese silver to buy even larger stocks of Chinese silk.
    • The thriving of trade and commerce was aided by the construction of canals, roads, and bridges by the Ming government.

  • Centralization in the Maurya Empire

    • Like his father and grandfather, Ashoka sponsored the construction of thousands of roads, waterways, canals, rest houses, hospitals, and other types of infrastructure.
    • India's exports included silk, textiles, spices, and exotic foods.