Silk Road

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.

• Defining Globalization

  • The Silk Road is a strong example of the evolution and historic significance of global trade, as achieving common and predictable trade routes and practices resulted in large increases in regards to cross-cultural exchange.
  • Europe and Asia, due to the enormous cultural diversity and relative ease of travel, played a substantial role in this development throughout the past 5,000 years. represents what a number of specific trade spheres looked like during the 13th century, highlighting the value in proximity to other nations. is slightly more specific and represents the Silk Road, one of History's most distinct examples of trade development.
  • The Silk Road stretched across Asia from the Mediterranean Sea to the Pacific Coast of China, making it one of history's strongest examples of international trade development.

• Mediterranean Trade and European Expansion

  • European economic growth and the Silk Road's decline, stimulated the creation of major commercial routes along the Mediterranean coast.
  • Although the Mongols had threatened Europe with pillage and destruction, Mongol states also unified much of Eurasia and, from 1206 on, the Pax Mongolica allowed safe trade routes and communication lines stretching from the Middle East to China—known as the silk road .
  • The silk and spice trade, involving spices, incense, herbs, drugs, and opium, made these Mediterranean city-states phenomenally rich.
  • In the 11th century, international production and trade was dominated by the exchange of silk, and thus countries along the silk route were the dominant participants in the "world-system. " Today, with vast communications and transportation technology, virtually every society participates in the world-system as either a source of raw materials, production, or consumption.

• 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.

• Islamic Textiles

  • The production and trade of textiles pre-dates Islam, and had long been important to Middle Eastern cultures and cities, many of which had flourished due to the Silk Road. 
  • These intricately knotted carpets were made of silk, or a combination of silk and cotton, and were often rich in religious and other symbolism.
  • Hereke silk carpets, which were made in the coastal town of Hereke, were the most valued of the Ottoman carpets because of their fine weave.
  • In the sixteenth century, carpet weaving evolved from a nomadic and peasant craft to a well-executed industry with specialization of design and manufacturing using quality fibers such as silk.
  • The Ottoman Turks were famed for their quality of their finely woven and intricately knotted silk carpets.

• 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.

• Art of the Middle Kingdom

  • Traditional painting involves essentially the same techniques as calligraphy; it is done with a brush dipped in black or colored ink and painted on paper or silk.
  • Much of what is known of early Chinese figure painting comes from burial sites, where paintings were preserved on silk banners, lacquered objects, and tomb walls.
  • Native Chinese religions do not typically use cult images of deities, and large religious sculptures are nearly all Buddhist, dating mostly from the 4th to the 14th century CE and arriving via the Silk Road.
  • Bronze, gold, silver, rhinoceros horn, Chinese silk, ivory, lacquer, cloisonne enamel, and many other materials had specialist artists working in them.