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Silk was not the only thing that was traded along the Silk Road. Many other products were traded & created along the route. It's name was created by Ferdinand von Richtofen, a German geographer in 1877. It's name was supposed to represent how it was one of the most influential products traded along the route; however, there were thousands more products and ideas that have been exchanged along the road. Things like technology, food, spices, and sciences have spread and traded along the Silk Road.

China's inventions like dynamite, medicine, printing, and compasses were widely popular. Many of the inventions spread across the countries, with printing reaching Europe and iron reaching central Asia. Natural sciences, products, and ideas were cast all throughout the Afro-Eurasia zone, and those ideas helped develop into necessities for the modern world. Things like alchemy (which travelled from China to Europe) had formed the basis and helped develop modern day chemistry.

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Globalization and collective learning were two major products of the Silk Road. Ideas, information, products, and food were exchanged throughout the Afro-Eurasia zone, making it one of the major dominating zones of it's time. The trade between different countries allowed communication, transportation, and collaboration to increase and develop drastically.

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China's main exports and trades were silk, porcelain, iron, gold and silver. Silk quickly became a luxurious fashion statement among men in Europe. Art, fabric, and religion were traded along the multiple trades routes, rapidly exchanging ideas and products to obtain new and different ideas and products. The act of collective learning and the spreading of ideas helped the Afro-Eurasia zone develop/expand quicker than ever before.

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The Silk Road served as a network for communication and transportation. Although traveling from one end to the other could take months, the Silk Road was the most efficient way to transport goods from China to other parts of the world. This trading route first began when the Chinese invented silk, a luxurious cloth in high demand. The Silk Road was formed so that the Chinese could trade silk with other countries and continents, such as Europe. This route of transportation led to globalization, as it "wove together the peoples of the Earth".

Conclusion:
This piece of writing demonstrates how back in early days, before we had the technology we have now, globalization occured due to the ability to trade goods and information through communication and transportation. One way this was shown was through the Silk Road, which connected Asia and Europe.

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The term "Silk Road" was created by a German explorer named Ferdinand von Richtofen as a means to refer to a network of trade routes. In the 7th century Buddhist traders were influential in the Silk Road economy. The religion Islam spread through the Silk Road and became a dominant religion on the western half of the Silk Road through the protection of local Muslim rulers. Chinggis Khan was a Mongol chieftan who attained the loyalty of clans across Inner Asia. Today, there are only some archaeological remains of Nestorianism and Manichaeism.

The Silk Road was mainly a movement of Westerners toward the East, with religions Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Islam. There was a lot of cultural and technological exchange such as wheeled transportation and metallurgy from the Westerners to the Chinese and paper and gunpowder to the West. In conclusion, the Silk Road towns had many different cultures.

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The Silk Road is connected to globalization. It not only allowed us to communicate with people of different cultures, but also transport and trade goods. This was important for the development of various countries because it allowed them to spread their culture and learn about other cultures.

Communication + Transportation = Globalization

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Although there were many products being imported in and out of China, silk was the most important item of trade because it symbolized luxury. The silk road was originally formed to trade silk between other nations and continents, such as Europe. It is not only an important part of Chinese culture, but helped form bonds between different countries. The silk road allowed people to trade their goods through transportation and communicate with other cultures, this led to globalization.

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Good Ideas and innovation travel easily along trade routes. One example of an idea spreading is the invention of paper. Paper was first invented during the Han Dynasty (around the time silk road trading began to flourish). Paper was one of the main reasons we know about the silk road today. Another main reason we know about the silk road today is printing. "In China, the invention of paper stimulated the invention of printing." These two were the main reasons people traveling the silk road could take account of their travels and read other accounts.

Another invention that spread entirely across Eurasia was irrigation waterwheel. This invention, created in Roman Syria, was one that could benefit everyone for obtaining water was very important for some of these early civilizations. This inspired invention was obviously a good idea, and rapidly spread along the Silk Road. Food and other good go in with the category of the sharing of innovation and ideas. Apples, oranges, and grapes were traded from china to the Mediterranean.

These examples of ideas and innovation 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."

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The silk road connects to and is a great example of globalization because the silk road allowed people from around the world zone to share ideas and innovation. The trade and sharing of these ideas and innovation is what made the silk road so important.

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Sharing of ideas and innovation is one of the main definitions of globalization and this is what was going on on the silk road. Silk is one main thing that China is famous for and it was traded and shared with others. However, many other innovations and ideas were shared and it makes me think: why wasn't it called the printing road or the fruit road?

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No, it shouldn't be called the Silk Road. While silk was an incredibly valuable product along the Silk Road, other products were more popular/had more value. They not only traded silk and other products along the network, but they also transferred ideas, technology, sciences, and so much more.

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Should we call it the silk road?
Yes, we should call it the silk road because the route was originally made for silk trade. Silk was a luxurious cloth, therefore it was in high demand all throughout parts of Europe and Asia. The Silk Road was then created to connect China to other trading posts. While silk was the first item to be traded along this route, it certainly wasn't the only one.

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The culture that moved to different parts of the world along the Silk Road was crucial in terms of globalisation. This is because some technological advancements may have only been recognised globally due to the Silk Road such as wheeled transportation, paper production and gunpowder. Furthermore, cultures actually merging together and exchanging beliefs led to increased collective learning.

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Cultural exchanges were some of the most important products of the Silk Road, due to that fact that different cultures using the Silk Road meant that technology and innovations were passed along, like from the Chinese to the West and vice versa.

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In my opinion it should not be called the Silk Road. Even if the route was first created due to silk, over time it evolved to not be the most vital part of the Silk Road. Instead, other components such as culture, ideas, and other forms of trade took over. A quotation from the article is "The Silk Road is often depicted as an incredible crossroads of ideas, religion, and art", which in itself explains that the main concept and product of the Silk Road is not actually silk, but all of those mentioned. Moreover, another part of my article is "We often define the Silk Road as a movement eastward with Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and later, Islam, spreading east". This is another statement that expresses silk is not the most crucial part, even if it was what started it. Without religions being passed on the Silk Road, they may never have crossed to other parts of the world even today.

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The Chinese were influential in terms of science and technology toward other cultures on the Silk Road. Some of their most crucial inventions or advancements were the compass, dynamite, paper-making & printing techniques, water well drilling, cast iron technologies, alchemy, sericulture and Chinese medicine. A lot of this technology had a positive impact on other countries and cultures such as Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

Along with spreading their advancements, China also received information and technology such as medicine from India, cannons from the Portuguese and other knowledge from the West.

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No, it should not be called the silk road because more important things were shared along the 'silk road'. Even though silk was one of the things that made the trading route famous, printing, paper, and different foods. Ideas and innovation were the main things shared on the silk road, so we shouldnt have to call it the silk road as silk wasn't the main thing being traded at the time.