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The importance of the silk road for spreading ideas & innovation...from Europe through China

Through trade routes, ideas and innovations travel through the globe efficiently. The silk road was a transmitter for people, goods, ideas and beliefs. The silk road was also a cultural interaction between East Asia to Southern Asia with east Africa, west Asia and Southern Europe. It also played a significant role in the development of civilizations of China, Korea, Japan, India and Africa through opening long-distance political and economic relations between the civilizations. Though silk was the major trade item exported from China, many other goods were traded, as well as religions, sciences, and technologies. Diseases, most notably plague also spread along the Silk Road.In addition to economic trade, the Silk Road was a route for cultural trade among the civilizations along its network.

Where the name Silk road derived from
The Silk Road derives its name from the trade in silk carried in the Han dynasty. The Han dynasty expanded the Central Asian section of the trade routes around 114 BCE through missions and explorations

Chinese invention - paper
A very famous example of an invention by the Chinese was paper. It was invented during the Han dynasty and during the process of the growth of the Sick Road. Through the spread of ideas and knowledge from the Silk road, paper became the writing material throughout China and East Asia. The invention of paper soon stimulated the invention of printing.

should we call it the silk road?
source I: Baron von Richtofen named it the Silk road. After that people in the world started calling it the silk road. Explorers and people who crossed it never called it the silk road. Silk was never the most popular commodity although it was of a very high value. High value objects in the past were pearls, silk, wood, ivory, stones, and rarely; exotic animals. Form the east spices were the main import through the silk road. There are lines drawn today which show the path of the silk road which were barely present/ visible in the past. Such routes as did exist went simply from city to city or, at best (and more rarely), from country to country. 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.The arrival os silk in the West was through a series of accidents more than organised trade. It was actually through sea routes and never overland. Rome and China never really knew that each country existed, and more importantly, they didn't care. Author believes that we should treat the Silk Road as a lesson to " how quickly and how thoroughly a myth can become enshrined as unquestioned fact."

source J: some contemporary world historians, who see the sea lanes of the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, and similar avenues of maritime transportation as integral parts of the network of long-distance interchange in Late Antiquity and following, favor the term “Silk Routes,” historians now agree that silk was only one of many valuable items transported and traded along the Silk Road and also that, in the final analysis, the most historically important “commodities” carried along these routes were ideas and culture and not goods, we still preface Road, Roads, or Routes with “Silk.” Silk is a symbol for strength hence why is is called the silk road to highlight the significance and power of it. Silk is also a metaphor to describe Asian and European culture interchange.  The term silk road is valid because of the expansion of our knowledge and perspectives over the past 137 years since Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen gave life to itThe current institutionalisation of Silk Road studies and its expanse on a global scale due to digital technology ensure that we are now in an era of profound advancement in our understanding of the Silk Road. The Silk Road lives on.

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The Geographic Setting of the “Silk Road”
"The major subregions are: the Intermontaine Desert and Oasis Belt; the Trans-Eurasian Steppe Belt; China; the Mediterranean; the Middle East; South Asia; Northeast Asia; Northern Europe; Mainland Southeast Asia; Island Southeast Asia; the Boreal Forest; and the Arctic Littoral. "

Intermontaine Desert and Oasis Belt
Northwestern China to Central Asia, the Caspian and Black Seas and later on to the middle east had deserts stretching across these zones. This zone has a mountain on both the north and south ends. With a few mountain ranges along the way, it featured high, dry terrain, infrequent water supply, small amount of animals and other difficulties that made this zone only crossable by the Silk Road's caravaneers.
The people who traveled through this zone had local knowledge which allowed for them to survive and deliver the cargo safely.
The most defined part of the Silk Road was from the "northwest from Chang’an through the Gansu Corridor. This segment passed through Lanzhou, Wuxi, Dunhuang, and Yumen (the famous Jade Gate ofantiquity) and thus to the deserts and oases of Central Asia. " It was bound by mountains and and deserts which formed the narrow funnels which passed in and out of China.
After the Jade Gate, it leads to a number of multiple paths. You could go through the Northwest or the Southwest. Either way, they both come together again at Kashgar which would later lead you to Afghanistan and northwestern India. The terrain was very difficult with the possible routes all being very complicated; there was a very high chance that someone would die along the way. There was a mixture of greenery with water and springs and deserts that were dry and isolating.

The Trans-Eurasian Steppe Belt:
This zone is filled with greenery but was treeless. It's from "eastern Mongolia west all the way into Romania and Hungary." This zone was also filled with agriculture which would later lead to Russia and Ukraine. This was filled with wheat lands which extended for over thousands of miles with some interruptions of forests and mountain ranges.

China:
Divided into south and north by the Han and Huai Rivers.
North China: Dry climate with crops like wheat is grown. It's "heavily eroded hills and valleys of loess soil."
South China: Monsoonal climate with heavy rains and the staple crop is rice.

The Mediterranean:
This spanned through western Eurasia. This zoned was filled with maritime transportation which meant water and ships.

The Middle East
This zone included territory from "eastern Mediterranean and the western reaches of Persia (modern Iran), extending from the Anatolian (Turkish) shores of the Black Sea in the north to the Arabian Peninsula in the south." This region didn't have many physical boundaries.

Should We Call it the “Silk Road”?
Source I:  It was named "The Silk Road" by Baron von Richtofen. The world started calling it and acknowledging it as the "Silk Road." But the explores and the people who were most known for crossing it never called it the "Silk Road."
Silk was never the major commodity, though it did produce high profit. Highly valued Items that were imported included, silk, pearls, precious woods, ivory, precious stones, and occasionally exotic animals. Above that, Spices was the main import from the east. The lines drawn with such confidence today showing the 'pathway' or the 'road,' was non existent in ancient times. Most routes just went from city to city or country to country. The arrival of silk in the West was through a series of accidents more than organised trade. It was actually through sea routes and never overland. Rome and China never really knew that each country existed, and more importantly, they didn't care. Author believes that we should treat the Silk Road as a lesson to " how quickly and how thoroughly a myth can become enshrined as unquestioned fact."

Source E:
The Silk Road has always been used as a metaphor to describe Asian and European culture interchange. Because of the Silk Road's symbolic meaning of charing and exchanging, it also shows the desire to control it's name, silk, was so strong. The ancient Chinese hid the production of silk from centuries. But through wars, the English and French competed to restrict it's markets, but silk still went around. Silk turned up everywhere with the Vikings wearing silk and the cowboys in the American West. Silk is used to describe history. Silk had many good qualities that made it a form of clothing for important people. Silk was very big and important in China. The growth of silk increased when silk was used for many other things. During the "third" silk road, silk was still a very highly valued item in China, but it wasn't the biggest commodity. Europeans wanted pearls, gems, spices, medicines, fabrics and more. They needed horses, weapons and armaments. Silk production has also spread to the middle east and southern Europe. Silk weavers and traders relocated to Northern Italy where Silk was prominent in the Renaissance Art.
Commercial trade and competition grew in the 15 century with the growth of European cities which also led to the want of more control over trade routes. When Vasco da Gama found a seat route to India, Europe's direct shipping links to China and Central Asia decreased a lot.
Silk became a huge symbol of cultural diffusion. Which it's high regard to importance, silk also stood for the higher things in life. It played a huge role in early trade development. It resonated with the growing distribution of silk use and the name at the time.

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The Products of the "Silk Road"
Science and technology:
- china's greatest inventions: compass, dynamite, alchemy, Chinese medicine, etc.
-  most of these exported inventions impacted western civilizations
- "drew from the pool of knowledge" from the whole world while spreading it's own knowledge overseas
- western modern history saw the blossom of natural sciences and engineering
- "fruits of the industrial age" spread to china via the silk road, opening a new chapter of Chinese modern history (eg- silk reeling machines, matches, cement, leather, rubber, tobacco, etc).
Handicraft
- rich diversity of handicrafts was exchanged on the silk road
- major exports included- silk, porcelain, gold and silver ware and other luxuries
- by the 4th century AD, fashionable for european aristocratic men to wear clothes made of silk
- porcelain became a major commodity to the west
- in return of all the commodities exported out of china, china got a wider range of handicrafts
- clothes, tent, bed, stools, konghou, flute, dancing etc, which was from the ethnic minoritiy populations in the north and west
- lifestyles influenced by the silk road
- ^^ eg- beginning in the northern and southern dynasties, Chinese started sitting on stools or chairs, glass was introduced to china from the middle east during tang dynasty. Chinese intrest in foreign commodities is manifested in the list of collectables of the late ming and early qing.
- western clocks, glasses, tobacco bottles and satin = popular items for upper class people
- in 18th and 19th centuries, furs from russia and north america and pearls and sandalwood from southeast asia found good market in china
Food, Spice, Drug
- chinese language- "hu" used in "hutao, walnut" "hugua, cucumber" "hujiao, pepper" etc is used in many different words in the Chinese language. people assume that the plant "hu" has too have been an exotic plant and was introduced to china from the western religions, as "hu" was the collective name given by ancient Chinese people to the ethnic peoples to the north and west of central china
- some other plants, but w/o the character "hu" was also imported from other places. other than veggies, dining cultures of other ethnic peoples were influenced by the chinese too.
- chinese contribution to food culture was TEA
- spice was another import that came to china via silk road
- in china, it's used in fields as medicines, cosmetics, scent, etc
main sources of spice in the world are the middle east, india, east africa
- foreign trade also had an effect on chinese medicines
- quantity of medicines has greatlt increased since tang dynasty
- over one hundred drugs were recorder in herbal medicine, a records by tang dynasty pharmacists which are still extensively used in Chinese medicines nowadays.

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The Spread of Religion & Philosophy along the “Silk Road”

- Through the silk road, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Islam spread East

- Much of the spread of Islam can be attributed to Muslim traders and Sufi missionaries

- Some religions which entered China were vastly altered in accordance with preexisting Chinese culture

Should we call it the Silk Road? (Source I)

- It was originally called "die Seidenstrasse", which translates to "The Silk Road"

- Around the late 1800s and early 1900s, many ancient artifacts were found under sand in near perfect preservation

- Many experts on the Silk Road, such as Edward Gibbon and Sir Aurel Stein, had never once used the term "Silk Road"

Should we call it the Silk Road? (Source J)

- It has been referred to as the Silk Road, the Silk Roads, and the Silk Routes

- Many contemporary Historian favour the term "Silk Routes", since it doesn't imply singularity or solely land-based roads

- There is no good reason to abandon the inexact term of silk