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Silk Road Cultural Exchanges: Science and Technology

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The Silk Road was one of the essential trading network in the history. The network allows the trade of goods, religions and culture; it connected the world.

Trading goods were not the only thing the merchants brought back to Europe, they also brought the technologies of the East. From compass to gunpowder, these innovation changes the tide of history.

The west was not the only one who benefited from the trades. Knowledge of the west were spreading in China too. Medicine from all around the world were also practice in China, even to Emperor was treated by a doctor from India.

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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An Interview with author Richard C. Foltz.

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The article is an interview between a journalist and the author of a book on globalization. They discuss the term "Silk Road", the spread of religions and ideas, famous figures, and many other concepts related to movement on the silk road.

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by John Major

Good ideas and innovation travel easily-and far. Historically, these ideas spread along trade routes. This essay looks at the great Eurasian Silk Roads as a transmitter of people, goods, ideas, beliefs and inventions.

Good ideas travel easilyand far along trade routes, and the Silk Road was no exception to that rule. A famous example of a Chinese invention that helped to transform the world is paper. Paper was invented during the Han dynasty, probably just at the time the Silk Road trade was beginning to flourish. (Many accounts ascribe the invention of paper to a Latter Han official at the beginning of the 2nd century CE, but actual paper at least two centuries older than that has been archaeologically excavated from Han tombs.) Far superior to the narrow wooden strips or hard-to-handle rolls of silk that the Chinese had previously used for writing, paper soon became the writing material of choice throughout China and East Asia. It was found also in the Buddhist temples of China's northwest, but seemed not to make inroads beyond that for a long time, perhaps in part because the Chinese tried to protect the secret of its manufacture, and perhaps in part also because other writing materials, such as parchment and papyrus, were well established in the west.

But under the Mongols in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a group of Chinese workmen set up a papermaking establishment in Samarkand. Their product quickly spread by trade and imitation, and paper soon supplanted other writing materials in most of western Eurasia.

In China, the invention of paper stimulated the invention of printing, sometime during the 6th century CE-a development energetically supported by Buddhism, according to which the duplication of sacred texts was an act of religious merit. The re-invention of printing in Europe centuries later did not employ East Asian-style printing technology, but it may have been stimulated by accounts of Chinese printing that could have circulated in the Middle East.

Another invention that spread entirely across Eurasia was the noria, or irrigation waterwheel. This simple, ingenious device, invented in Roman Syria, consists of a vertical waterwheel to the rim of which are attached a series of pots or tubes. As the current of a river rotates the wheel, the pots fill with water at the bottom of the cycle and empty into a chute at the top; a large noria can lift water as much as forty feet with no input of human or animal energy. This inspired invention was obviously a good idea, and rapidly spread along the Silk Road and its tributaries. There is a famous example in Toledo, Spain, others along the upper reaches of the Yellow River in China, and many more in between.

Foodstuffs also count in this category of the travel of ideas and techniques Apples spread, in prehistoric times via the steppe belt, in both directions from the region of modern-day Kazakhstan; oranges went (via the maritime route) from China to the Mediterranean world; grapes went from the western reaches of the Silk Road to China.

These examples and dozens more that could be mentioned make the point clear: ideas, inventions, devices and techniques spread readily and far along the Silk Road, and the traffic was very much a two way, or perhaps one should say a multi-way, street. In the process the Silk Road enriched not just the merchants who carried and exchanged goods, but the people of countries and cultures all across Eurasia.

It is perhaps worth noting, however, that long-distance trade can have unexpectedly bad side effects as well as direct beneficial effects. For example, the Black Death plague that devastated Europe in the 14th century is believed to have come via the Silk Road from Central Asia, where plague is endemic among local rodents. One theory holds that a load of marmot pelts (destined to be used on fur-trimmed garments), contaminated with plague-bearing flea eggs, was brought from somewhere in Central Asia to a Middle Eastern port. There the eggs hatched into fleas that infested some local rats; some of the rats eventually went on shipboard and were carried to port cities in Italy. There the plague spread, via fleas, to other rats, and then to people; and a disaster was in the making.

Additional Background Reading on Asia

Why were there so many Chinese fans in the bleachers at this year's FIFA World Cup, when the Chinese team wasn't even on the field? Student Jerry Tian gives us his perspective.

by John Major
Good ideas and innovation travel easily-and far. Historically, these ideas spread along trade routes. This essay looks at the great Eurasian Silk Roads as a transmitter of people, goods, ideas, beliefs and inventions.

Good ideas travel easilyand far along trade routes, and the Silk Road was no exception to that rule. A famous example of a Chinese invention that helped to transform the world is paper. Paper was invented during the Han dynasty, probably just at the time the Silk Road trade was beginning to flourish. (Many accounts ascribe the invention of paper to a Latter Han official at the beginning of the 2nd century CE, but actual paper at least two centuries older than that has been archaeologically excavated from Han tombs.) Far superior to the narrow wooden strips or hard-to-handle rolls of silk that the Chinese had previously used for writing, paper soon became the writing material of choice throughout China and East Asia. It was found also in the Buddhist temples of China's northwest, but seemed not to make inroads beyond that for a long time, perhaps in part because the Chinese tried to protect the secret of its manufacture, and perhaps in part also because other writing materials, such as parchment and papyrus, were well established in the west.

But under the Mongols in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a group of Chinese workmen set up a papermaking establishment in Samarkand. Their product quickly spread by trade and imitation, and paper soon supplanted other writing materials in most of western Eurasia.

In China, the invention of paper stimulated the invention of printing, sometime during the 6th century CE-a development energetically supported by Buddhism, according to which the duplication of sacred texts was an act of religious merit. The re-invention of printing in Europe centuries later did not employ East Asian-style printing technology, but it may have been stimulated by accounts of Chinese printing that could have circulated in the Middle East.

Another invention that spread entirely across Eurasia was the noria, or irrigation waterwheel. This simple, ingenious device, invented in Roman Syria, consists of a vertical waterwheel to the rim of which are attached a series of pots or tubes. As the current of a river rotates the wheel, the pots fill with water at the bottom of the cycle and empty into a chute at the top; a large noria can lift water as much as forty feet with no input of human or animal energy. This inspired invention was obviously a good idea, and rapidly spread along the Silk Road and its tributaries. There is a famous example in Toledo, Spain, others along the upper reaches of the Yellow River in China, and many more in between.

Foodstuffs also count in this category of the travel of ideas and techniques Apples spread, in prehistoric times via the steppe belt, in both directions from the region of modern-day Kazakhstan; oranges went (via the maritime route) from China to the Mediterranean world; grapes went from the western reaches of the Silk Road to China.

These examples and dozens more that could be mentioned make the point clear: ideas, inventions, devices and techniques spread readily and far along the Silk Road, and the traffic was very much a two way, or perhaps one should say a multi-way, street. In the process the Silk Road enriched not just the merchants who carried and exchanged goods, but the people of countries and cultures all across Eurasia.

It is perhaps worth noting, however, that long-distance trade can have unexpectedly bad side effects as well as direct beneficial effects. For example, the Black Death plague that devastated Europe in the 14th century is believed to have come via the Silk Road from Central Asia, where plague is endemic among local rodents. One theory holds that a load of marmot pelts (destined to be used on fur-trimmed garments), contaminated with plague-bearing flea eggs, was brought from somewhere in Central Asia to a Middle Eastern port. There the eggs hatched into fleas that infested some local rats; some of the rats eventually went on shipboard and were carried to port cities in Italy. There the plague spread, via fleas, to other rats, and then to people; and a disaster was in the making.

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by John Major Good ideas and innovation travel easily-and far. Historically, these ideas spread along trade routes. This essay looks at the great Eurasian Silk Roads as a transmitter of people, goods, ideas, beliefs and inventions. Good ideas travel easilyand far along trade routes, and the Silk Road was no exception to that rule.

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According to this map and the article, religion could have spread far and wide thanks to the Silk Road. Africa and Europe were connected to Asia and the Middle East, and this shows how Buddhism spread to Afghanistan (evidence of this is the statues of the Buddha in Bamiyan), how Islam spread to China, and how Christianity spread to Africa.

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The silk road was essentially the first "internet". It linked a huge network of communication across vast distances. Goods and information would travel thousands of miles which connected different cultures. Travelers rarely completed the full length of the silk road due to harsh weather conditions and rough terrain. Although the silk road's main purpose was to transport goods, it developed cultural integration and innovation on a whole new level. Desire for trade and expansion resolved many conflicts between cultural groups along the silk road. Overall, the silk road shaped the lives of people in Afro-Eurasia and allowed new ways of expansion, growth, and connectivity.

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The Silk Road enriched the merchants who carried and exchanged goods, but also the people of countries and cultures all across Eurasia.

Ideas, devices and techniques spread far along the Silk road and the traffic was a multiway street.

The long distance trade had bad side effect. Bad side affects like diseases. An example of the side example would be the D

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Question: Did the Silk Road continue by land through Europe and Africa and bring goods to places like England, France, and the West Coast of Africa.

Connection: This reminds me of a map of the modern shipping routes. With better navigation today, we go by the fastest route instead of by sticking close to land, but the concept of moving goods in this manner is the same.

Insight: The Silk Road was a catalyst for the future as it sped up globalization in a way that hadn't ever been seen on this planet.

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Question: Why was the silk road key to the growth of Afro-Eurasia?

Connections: The silk road allowed a mass exchange of ideas all across Asia and Europe. This connects to the Columbian exchange, excluding the slavery and torture. New cultures, wildlife, and goods were discovered and exchanged amongst a large network of people.

Insights: The Silk Road and Columbian Exchange were both critical to the growth, whether positive or negative, of their continents. Afro-Eurasia thrived because different cultures were amazed by each other's materials and artifacts creating a balance of imports and exports. The large exchange allowed countries to grow, expand, and integrate other cultures which led to more economic success.

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We should not call this massive trade route the Silk Road as Silk was not the most important item traded on this route. Ideas, Religion, Art, and Culture were all traded along with goods. It is the abstract concepts that remain today such as religion and knowledge that influence us and are what we talk about when we mention the silk road. However, silk is one of the most valuable  concrete goods that were traded, and we tend to think more about concrete things that abstract ones, and so the name stuck. However, since the asbstract is of more significance, we should rename this trade route.

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No, although silk was a key factor in the expansion of trade, the Silk Road was mainly a global exchange of ideas and cultural awareness. Cultural, religious, artistic, and political ideologies were all traded amongst the Silk Road which is why society was able to progress so fast. The impacts of the silk road are prevalent in many countries. For example, there are many Muslim's residing in China today because of the past influx of traders from the Middle East. The Silk Road connected countries and people in ways that allowed new growth and innovation. It heavily sped up globalisation through the exchange of goods over thousands of miles. Overall, the Silk Road spread huge growth and diversity across Asia which sped up the process of globalisation.

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Question: Why did the silk road play such a big part in trade?
Connections: The silk road played such a big part in trade because it was a fast and efficient way to spread ideas and also get materials to other countries faster. This connects to why Singapore because it was a shortcut and a resting place when transporting materials
Insights: The Silk Road and how Singapore was found had greatly impacted trade, and while the Silk Road doesn't exist anymore, Singapore has become one of the greatest trading ports.

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No because it was not only silk that was traded. Ideas, inventions, devices, and techniques were exchanged and calling the trading system the Silk Road makes us perceive the Silk Road as a trading system for luxury items and silk only. There were many inventions that changed our lives that spread globally including the irrigation waterwheel and paper. Food was exchanged too, including oranges and grapes. As you can see, calling it the Silk Road narrows down the general idea and also is misleading.

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Question: How did the Silk Road impact the modern world?

Connection: Very much like modern day trading network. Goods are being import and export for all around the world, exchanges of goods for other goods from different country.

Insight: The Silk Road were essential to the development of Globalisation, The route allows the exchange of knowledge and technology.

The technology of the east also further develop the western world power and Four centuries after the introduce of Chinese gunpowder and compass, the west would dominate the entire world.

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We should not call the network "Silk Road". Even though silk was one of famous goods exchanged through the Silk Road, it was not the most significant goods. Culture and technology were spread by the merchants whom travel from all around the world. These knowledges leaded to many development of a lot for countries spanning. For example, the spread of gunpowder and compass, allowed the European power to dominate and influence the world, leading the world into modern era. The impact of the network from the knowledge and technology is far greater than impact of silk.