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The Silk Road was a network of connecting roads and trading outposts; it was not just one, single, intercontinental road. An example of a branching route from the main road was the pathway into the India subcontinent; where it opened up many other opportunities and a whole new geography for traders along the subcontinent.

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The Silk Road is generally thought of as an "eastern terminus," connecting China and other eastern nations to the Byzantine Empire (Constantinople) and Middle Eastern cities. "Beyond these endpoints," trade routes extended to the Mediterranean Sea, Europe and eastern Asia.

"When thinking about the Silk Road, one must consider the whole of Eurasia as its geographical context."

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Asia can be thought of as a collection of smaller subcontinents, which occupy Eurasia's major geography.

"Over the course of history, these regions have interacted with each other through trade, religion, and other factors, while a wide range of cultural differences and formidable geographical boundaries have also separated them."

Separating "Europe" and Asia" from Eurasia makes it possible to see where the geographical and cultural regions are separated, as well as the trade routes that linked them together.

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1. The Intermontaine Desert and Oasis Belt

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1. The Intermontaine Desert and Oasis Belt

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"The main zone" of the Silk Road, it is a broad area of oasis-dotted deserts

Extends across Central Asia to northwestern China, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the Middle East

High, dry terrain

Infrequent and sporadical water supplies

Scarcity and absence resources and forage for caravan animals

"Other difficulties this zone poses is only passable to highly skilled Silk Road caravaneers."

Held the most clearly defined segment of the Silk Road - leading northwest from Chang'an through the Gnasu Corridor.

Segment passed through Lanzhou, Wuxi, Dunhuang, Yumen, and the deserts and oases of Central Asia. This formed a narrow corridor for all trading passing through the Silk Road for China.

Beyond this segment, it opens up a number of branching routes and alternative trails

Alternative routes can pass by Hami, Turfan and Urumqi, the Tian (Heavenly) Mountains through Dzungaria, and Fergahan Valley's  Kokand and Tashkent.

Terrain of the Silk Road was difficult, routes were numerous and complex. Dangers also posed serious, deadly obstacles.

Journey was only possible because of the substantial oases across Central Asia

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Western civilisations were especially affected.  

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Western civilisations were especially affected.  

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a. Paper making and printing techniques spread knowledge
b. Compasses made ocean navigation easier
c. Dynamite was used a lot in Europe in wars eventually leading to more knowledge on chemistry

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One of the most important ideas/commodities spread along the silk road was paper, which originated in China during the Han Dynasty, just around when the Silk Road was starting off. However, it didn't spread particularly far (it did spread through East Asia however), primarily because the Chinese, who invented the technology, tried to prevent others from taking their idea. They tried to conceal that they had manufactured paper. However, when the mongols took control of China, the idea spread along the silk road.

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China used to rule the world for a while because of their technology's influence on other cultures

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China used to rule the world for a while because of their technology's influence on other cultures

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a. Compass, dynamite, paper making, printing techniques, water well drilling, cast iron technologies, alchemy, sericulture, Chinese medicine are some examples

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a. Buddhism was created in NE India, and spread to Pakistan and Afghanistan by 100 BCE. Buddhist merchants built shrines everywhere they went in the silk road. Due to these shrines, chinese people were soon exposed to buddhism. This lead a few Chinese monks(namely faxian) to travel to India to copy scriptures, leading to the buddhazisation of China.
It also interacted with daosim, and hinduism, and he is now worshipped by three religions

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China drew knowledge from the rest of the world as well

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China drew knowledge from the rest of the world as well

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a. Emperor Gaozong and Jian Zhen, a monk, received treatment from doctors from India because ophthalmology was advanced there
b. Ming and Qing Dynasties imported cannons from the Portuguese and attempted to replicate it
c. The Jesuit Missionaries helped introduce western knowledge to the Chinese such as astronomy, mathematics, and mechanics
d.  Jean Adam Shall von Bell made many things for the Ming & Qing empires {sundial (made of tusk), compass, planetarium projector, piano, steel cannon}

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a.
Many in the middle east worshiped the gods and godesses of the greco-roman pagan pantheon

b. The Persians (Zoroastrians) used light to show the struggle between good and evil, an idea that was likely borrowed by Brahmins in ancient India.

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Stimulus                                (idea spread/collective learning): Printing

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Stimulus                                (idea spread/collective learning): Printing

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Printing, an innovation whose invention was stimulated by the creation of paper, originated in similar countries in East Asia. The spread of paper through the silk road led to the spread of more innovations, and thus the creation of more ideas, which led to more innovations, such as printing. Printing itself was later spread through the silk road. This goes to show how important the silk road was. It didn't just spread commodities, but it also spread ideas, which created more commodities. It is the prime example of collective learning.

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Europe surpassed China in the fields of natural science and engineering

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Europe surpassed China in the fields of natural science and engineering

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silk-reeling machines, matches, cement, electricity, leather, rubber, tobacco, refinery spread to China through the Maritime Silk Road, planting a new chapter of Chinese modern history.

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A zone of rolling grassland: a treeless, grassy plain

Extends from Eastern Mongolia to the very distant Romania and Hungary

Inhabitants included hunter-gatherers who lived off of big game in the prehistoric times

Gradually domesticated cattle, horses, sheeps and goats

Hunters became herdsmen, they adopted a "pastoral, nomadic" lifestyle

Using horses and ox-powered vehicles, the steppe became a highway facilitating the diaspora of populations, languages and culture across Eurasia before the Silk Road

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Source C: Valerie Hansen, description of the legacy of the Silk Road, "The Legacy of the Silk Road" (excerpt), Yale Global Online, 2013

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Talks about the "revival" of the Silk Road and trade among Central Asia, despite these routes in the actual Silk Road being the least traveled

"The Silk Road found a place in history because of its rich cultural legacy in written records and artifacts, and because trade and tolerance were so intertwined."

Trade was not the principal purpose of the Silk Road - more a network of pathways instead of a road - in its beginnings.

"Travelers along the Silk Road planted their cultures like seeds of exotic species carried to distant lands"

The term "Silk Road" is used to refer to the exchanges between China and the east, to places farther in the west (India, Iran, rarely Europe)

Silk Road legacy can still be seen in countries like Khotan and Kashgar in Xinjiang, China

Silk Road trade was often local and "small in scale"

An important facet of the Silk Road's legacy was its toleration and acceptance of different types of faiths, religions and ethnicities

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Source A: Warwick Ball, historian's essay on the Silk Road, "Following the Mythical Road" (excerpts), Geographical (Campion Interactive Publishing), 1998

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9. Mainland Southeast Asia

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Another significant innovation that spread through many countries due to the silk road was the irrigation waterwheel. Initially developed in Roman Syria, it rapidly spread to many countries, even those that were extremely distant. This was an extremely beneficial invention, as it greatly aided nations and civilisations with farming.

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10. Island Southeast Asia

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On the silk road, a lot of handicrafts were exchanged

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On the silk road, a lot of handicrafts were exchanged

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a. Silk, porcelain, lacquer ware, ironware, gold & silver ware were China's biggest exports
b. European aristocratic men wore silk to be more fashionable
c. The Koran thought that silk came from paradise
d. Porcelain was a major commodity for the West
e. Wealth and education was determined by the number of chinaware one had in his home for Mexican noblemen
f. French King Louis XIV, lover of Oriental arts, had his court rooms full of Chinese furniture, chinaware, vases, and lacquer ware.

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Christianity was disliked in Rome, but spread quickly through the silk roads

Promised salvation and promoted equality

Gregory the Wonder Worker (Missionary) who performed miracles and popularized Christianity in Central Antonia

Christianity spread as far as Mesopotamia and Iran

After 5th century, communities in South West Asia and Mediterranean Basin went separate ways and became Nestorian

Some Christians lived as hermits and withdrew from society

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Silk Road gave China a wider range of handicrafts. 

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Silk Road gave China a wider range of handicrafts. 

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a. Emperor Lingdi addicted to clothes, tent, bed, stools, konghou, flute, dancing

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Source:: Richard Kurin, description of the role, value, and uses of silk, “Silk Road: Connecting
People and Cultures” (excerpts), Smithsonian Institute, 2002.

Silk was used for sail boats, bandana

keeps one cool in the summer and warm in the winter

used for music

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Eurasian Silk Roads spread people, goods, ideas, beliefs and inventions.

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Eurasian Silk Roads spread people, goods, ideas, beliefs and inventions.

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a. Paper, created in China, became the writing material throughout China and East Asia.
b. Throughout Eurasia, there was the spread the noria (irrigation waterwheel) which was invented in Roman Syria.

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Many great nations and civilisations in the past used the silk road to give away the things they had an excess of and in return gain things they lacked. Examples of commodities traded along the silk road include ivory, fur, and coins. It also spread important ideas, however. For example, it is likely that the spread and creation of ideas along the silk road (collective learning) gave birth to the timurid style of ceramics. Many other inventions and ideas were also spread.

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Long-distance trade can also have bad side effects 

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Long-distance trade can also have bad side effects 

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a. The Black Death plague, devastating Europe in the 14th century, is believed to have come from the Silk Road from Central Asia because the plague is endemic among local rodents.

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What	else could	this	trade	network	be	called?

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What	else could	this	trade	network	be	called?

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The greatest value of the Silk Road to geography is as a lesson-- and a very important one at that-- in how quickly and how thoroughly a myth can become enshrined as unquestioned fact.

The arrival of silk in the West was more a result of a series of accidents rather than organised trade. When it did come, it was via India and the sea routes-- and certainly not overland. Both ancient Rome and China had only the haziest notions of each other's existence and, more importantly, even less interest.

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-  The Silk Road's main purpose wasn't trade
- Instead, the Silk Road changed history because of the cultures that were implemented in different cultures

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- Khotan and Kashgar are famous because of this  for their Sunday markets
- A realignment to religon in the Buddhist Kingdom happened after the Islamic conquest in 1006