BDDAB
1.who emperors reigned from about 200 BCE to about 200 AD.
2.Since they were still troubled by northern barbarians
3.brought back news of previously unknown peoples in the west
4.and so more expeditions were nt out
5.Zhang Qian is considered by many to be the father of the Great Silk Road
Professor: You know, class, today we live in what's becoming esntially a single, worldwide civilization. There're still a few isolated areas that haven't hooked up to it yet, I guess, but the Africans are driving Toyotas, the Americans love sushi, the Chine are shopping for Gucci bags, and the young people of Russia and Iran and Peru all wear Levi jeans and listen to rock music.
The greatest impetus for this globalization today is no doubt the internet, but one of the first
major drivers of globalization came into being about two thousand years ago. It was the Great Silk Road, which was the oldest, longest, and most historically significant trade route in the world, and it significantly changed the cultures of almost all of continental Eurasia.
The Silk Road wasn't actually a single road, though. It was actually a network of trade routes between China and Italy, and it ran thousands of kilometers through and over and around the Taklimakan and Gobi Derts, the Himalayas, and the Karakorum and Kunlun mountain ranges, through some of the most inhospitable geography on earth. Travelling across this vast area was difficult, to say the least, and it took centuries for the trade routes to reach completion.
The route from the West apparently began developing earlier. The Persian Empire controlled a large portion of the Middle East- from Syria to the kingdoms of India- so trade between the nations was already affecting, uh, influencing, their cultures. Then, when Alexander the Great conquered Persia in 330 BC, trade expanded into southern Europe,
and Greek culture was extended as far east as what is now Afghanistan. Alexander's empire itlf did not actually last very long, but waves of succeeding ruling peoples in this crossroads area brought their cultural elements into the mix, too. In the Gandara culture of northern Pakistan, for instance, Buddhist and Greek art was fud into a unique form, where many of the carved Buddhist idols strongly remble statues of the Greek hero, Herakles.
The Silk Road developed more slowly from the East. Its first big impetus came during the Han Dynasty in China, who emperors reigned from about 200 BCE to about 200 AD. China's warring states had just been united, and the Great Wall of China had just been begun. Since they were still troubled by northern barbarians, the Han emperors extended the Wall westward and nt out emissaries even farther west in arch of allies. In 125 BC, one of their generals, Zhang Qian, brought back news of previously unknown peoples in the west, and of a new, large breed of hor that would be invaluable for the Han cavalry. The emperor was very interested, and so more expeditions were nt out. The "heavenly hors", as they were called, were obtained, and Chine trade missions
eventually pushed through to Persia, bringing back many wonderful gifts for the emperor. Zhang Qian is considered by many to be the father of the Great Silk Road.
Actually, the Silk Road's name wasn't coined until the nineteenth century, and silk was never its main commodity, though that fabric must have been very remarkable to Europeans, and it was certainly in demand. The road's most significant commodity was probably religion- primarily Buddhism, but to a lesr extent, Christianity and Islam as well. Buddhism surged east from northern India in the fourth and fifth centuries AD, where it later reached its height of development in China and Japan.
Meanwhile, the cret of silk production - which had been carefully hidden from foreigners- was finally discovered. In the mid-sixth century, the Byzantine emperor, Justinian, quickly nt cret agents to China to bribe silk experts and bring back some silkworm eggs. A Christian monk smuggled the eggs out, and after this time, silk was also produced in southern Europe.
The Silk Road's greatest years of art and civilization came in the venth century, during t
he Tang Dynasty. In 754 AD, one of the largest Asian cities, Changan, at the eastern end of the road, boasted a population of more than five thousand foreigners from all over Eurasia. After this time, however, the internal stability of China began dissolving, and robbers and neighboring states increasingly pillaged the Silk Road caravans. Eventually, a trade and a travel began to superde the slow, unsafe land routes.
Nevertheless, five hundred years later, the Silk Road was still viable enough to inspire its greatest chronicler, Marco Polo, who book, "Book Million", so famously told of his nearly twenty-five years of travel- from 1271 to1295- along its length, and his travelogue still captivates the reader with the wonders he saw along the Great Silk Road.
