There are many driving forces that have been constantly steering the course of history, ever since human formed the first primitive society; undeniably, one of the most important factors that played such vital role is trading networks that spanned across Eurasia. Even though there are many various trade routes that took form during our latest 2000 years history; however, the two most important would be the Silk Road, which connected Rome to the far east (China and Japan,) and the Indian Ocean Trading Networks, which was the primary mean of trade for many states located near the Indian Ocean. Both the Silk Road and the Indian Ocean trade route have actively altered the social and political landscape across Eurasia by serving as a bridge to spread new ideas, technologies, and also changing the dynamics not only between classes within one state, but also between different states across Eurasia.
In his article, Christian offered a new possibility in explaining the origin of the Silk Road:
The Inner Eurasian steppelands were occupied, probably since the fourth millennium B.C.E, and certainly by 3000 B.C.E, by communities practicing extensive and mobile forms of horse pastoralism, which ensured that their contacts and influence would extend over large areas. Indeed, the emergence of mobile pastoralist life ways should probably be regarded as the real explanation for the origin of the trans-Eurasian network of exchanges that the Silk Roads came to symbolize.
However, knowing this, one may question how can such a trivial connections between small pastoralism and nomadic societies created one of the most important trade network ever existed? The key to this success was partially because of the important their geographical advantage (centr...
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...oods and tributes from various states. In another word, Indian Ocean trade route has acted as another bridge (an alternative to the ancient Silk Road) to connect the West and the Far East.
Even though the two Roads were completely different, from means of travel to the sphere of influence (with the Silk Road focused on the rise in importance of the Central Asia and the Indian Ocean focused on the states along the Indian Ocean;) however, it is undeniable that they both shared similar characteristics: Helped to spread ideas and technology across Eurasia, improved religious tolerance, created powerful states across its path… No matter how you look at history, both the trade routes have undoubtedly left profound impacts on the way of lives of the people, not just limited to just the Indian Ocean or the Central Asia, but as the world and its future as a whole.
In India, everyone traveled for spices as Christopher Columbus.attempted. But that was in the 1400’s. Around 50 C.E., the Kushan Empire started to take over these countries and the road after the Han Empire was overthrown. In the Background Essay, it says “Starting in 50 CE, another Asian Empire took shape and began profiting from the Silk Road. In the Background Essay Q’s, Doc B, Box 1, it mentions Hinduism.
As new ideas traveled main trade routes, such as the Silk Road and the Mediterranean, the effects of such were felt through an influx of contact between countries due to increased desire for new information and countries gaining a larger presence on the world stage. This phenomenon can also be seen through the lens of cultural exchange that took place during this same time period in Eurasia. A major component of the Eurasian trade networks, such as the Silk Road and Indian Ocean, was that they fostered interregional contacts that had ceased to previously exist. When a country had a desire for study or technology, they earned more respect on the global stage. This can be further examined by looking at Marco Polo’s voyage into Asia.
The Major religions spread across Eurasia and Africa through trade routes and conquest. Along with the religions came ideas and practices to new and distance places, changing local populations and create new traditional beliefs and customs. Beliefs and religions ebbed and flowed through the Silk Roads that was “an artery that for nearly a thousand years was the primary commercial network linking East Asia and the Mediterranean world. This trade route extended over 5000 miles and took its name from the huge quantities of precious silk that passed along it.” Nomads, monks and traders survived on these open roads selling goods, services, and ideas to other people and traders to pass on.
During the classical era, there were shifts worldwide with regards to economic imports and exports. As many societies transformed from hunting-gathering societies into specialization societies, global trade networks expanded. This led to the founding and growth of many complex trade networks, both on land and by sea. Two notable trade networks were the Mediterranean Sea network and the Silk Road. The Mediterranean Sea is in Europe, and the trade network lined the shores of Turkey and North Africa. The Silk Road was trans-Asian. It reached from China to the Eastern Mediterranean. While these networks had multiple similarities in their expansion and spread of religion and ideas, there were many differences. These included the type of materials
First, It connected most of the civilizations together. In document a It showed on the map were the silk road was. It shows it connects most of the civilizations together.
...r I. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the
During this time in China the Han dynasty was responsible for the greatest expansion of China, to what is now southern China, northern Vietnam, and parts of Korea and had trade with Central Asia, India, Persia. Because of the expansion of the territory they were able to trade with more countries. This was furthered by the discovery of the Silk Road in 2nd century BC. The Silk Road, discovered by a Chinese ambassador Zhang Qian, was a series of trade routes from China to the Mediterranean Sea. The Silk Road got its name from the amount of silk used for trade during the Han dynasty. This route was used to travel from West to East on land they traveled to India, Persia, Arabia, and Europe, while traveling by sea they traveled through Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. These paths were used by merchants, pilgrim, monks, soldiers, nomads, and urban dwellers.
In the play, Othello, by Shakespeare, there is a ferocious war going on. However, it is not the bloody war against the Turks that the audience anticipated. It is a more dangerous war than that: a psychological war that uses a person’s emotional state of mind and biggest fears against them. At the hands of all this is Iago, who stands by and watches his genius at work. Iago’s passion of war is what drove him to commit his acts of treachery, not his jealousy of Cassio nor his loathing of Othello. When he could not set sail to Cyprus with the other soldiers and participate in the war, he found a way to start a new war, one that he could be the general of. Through manipulation, he is able to start a psychological war that ends in bloodshed. His manipulation is the driving force of the play.
2.) The Asian sea trading network was traditionally divided into three distinct sections that each handled certain types of goods. With the arrival of the Europeans, these zones became blurred as there was an increase of trade between each zone and Europeans bolstered the textile and spice trade with their efforts in joining the trade system. Due to large amounts of trade, trading factories and ports were established all throughout Southeast Asia, establishing permanent points of trade, widening the area that the network influenced.
The Mongols influenced the world in many great ways, one of them was their vast trade system. They relied quite heavily on trade, not only to gain resources, but also to get their inventions and objects to the Europeans and then hopefully spread from there. The Mongols enhanced the trading system by composing the “Silk Road”. The Silk Road was a path/road that the Mongols had control of and it was a trade route that many travelers and traders took. Along the Silk Road, the main resource that was traded was silk, hence the name “Silk Road.” The
The Old World system was mainly Asia-centric. European states were far behind the Asian and Middle Eastern ones. According to the article of Janet Lippman Abu-Lughod which is named “The World System in the Thirteenth Century: Dead-End or Precursor”, beside the world system there were subsystems which were not “depending on each other for common survival in the thirteenth century”. There were three big circuits: Westers European, Middle Eastern, Far Eastern. “At that times the strongest centres and circuits were located in the Middle East and Asia. In contrast the European circuit was an upstart newcomer that for several early centuries was only tangentially and weakly linked to the core of the world system as it had developed between the eight and eleventh centuries.” As she mentioned, Europe joined the advanced world system of that time after 11th century, yet till 15th century it was not so effective. Although the states in east were developed, this did not reflect to political arena. Every state was powerful in its own niche and as a result of this there was not a hierarchical form of political balance. These states could be thought as pockets. Nature of this system was production. As Janet L. Abu-Lughod mentioned “the production of primary and manufactured goods was not only sufficient to meet local needs but, beyond that, the needs for export as well. Then, the way of function of this system can be understood: trade. Trade was the main economic activity of the Old System. Trade was mostly depending on exchange of goods. In spite of this, Chinese merchants were using paper money like a credit card and Arabic dinar was the dollar of that time. All of these show us that the trade was also Asia-centric. The popular trade ways were through Middle East and Asia. Beside the economic side, trade was integrating cities and societies.
In conclusion, many changes and continuities have occurred along the Silk Road but the main three are: products, cultural expressions, and religion. These patterns of interaction have shaped the Silk Road and the plethora of countries that have traded through it. Most of these interactions were positive, but not all. For example, the bubonic plague, or Black Death, was helped spread through the Silk Road as well as the fall of the Mongol Empire and the isolationism of the Ming Empire. The bubonic plague was one of several reasons for the Silk Road’s demise. The Silk Road was one of several early trade systems and each pattern of interaction has influenced it, paving the road for the world today.
As empires progressed in the ancient world, trade became necessary for expansion to continue. Towns and villages developed along the trade routes and became wealthy and powerful. Two specific routes, the Silk Road and the Indian Ocean trade network, were able to spread different aspects of culture, such as religion, but they both differed in the transfer of these ideas.
*History of population: What effect would a large population of individual tribes with large lands (rather than the fragmental distribution that was seen) have had on the way the Europeans traded with them?
There exists a time when major civilizations were once divided in nature and were unaware of each other’s existence. The major civilizations developed at an independent rate, and most of the technologies and ideas were innovated without the influence of other civilizations. The Chinese were famed for their production of silk, a valuable textile coveted for its splendid texture and color. The Roman Empire was known for its wealth and domesticated animals. India was famous for its spices [1]. However, this situation then took a drastic change when the Silk Road was established by the Han Dynasty. The main purpose of this establishment was to maintain political contact with the kingdoms located in Central Asia. This route soon evolved into a trade route that connected China, Central Asia and Constantinople [2]. Sometime between 206 B.C and 220 A.D, Silk Road was known to be the main trade route that linked the west and the east [2]. The Silk Road then became one of the most iconic symbols of trade in the world, as it became the first trade route of its kind that managed to connect the west with the east. Although the Silk Road disappeared after 220 A.D due to the fall of Constantinople, it remained to be one of the most important human systems in history. This is because it gave rise to globalization, expedited the development of great civilizations and inspired the rise of maritime exploration.