Benjamin Epstein Nelson

Mr. Richard Lockton

LBST 2102-202
September 27, 2015
The Silk Road
The Silk Road (3rd century BCE 1450s CE) was a series of overland
and sea-going trade routes linking China in the East to Europe and Africa in
the West (September 14th PowerPoint). The Silk Road carried Chinas most
treasured products to Central, South, and West Asia and the Mediterranean
lands (textbook page 160). Before the generation of the Silk Road,
individual societies remained isolated from each other, preventing the
various things they had to offer to the rest of the world from spreading. This
changed, however, after the origination of the Silk Road and all the riches it
offered to the societies and cultures involved was recognized by those said
societies and cultures. Upon its generation, the Silk Road facilitated intercultural trade, spread scientific and technological ideas, spread disease,
spread religious beliefs, and allowed for inter-cultural understandings to be
developed.

Inter-cultural trade was the most identifiable purpose of the Silk Road.
The riches of such consistent and available trade attracted an expansive
amount of countries and cultures to partake in the trade of the Silk Road. All
of Afro-Eurasia had tradable goods to offer. Africa offered gold, iron and

leather. Europe offered wine and olives. Central Asia offered horses and
stirrups, as well as woolen goods, camels and silver. China offered silk,
spices and porcelain. The Silk Road also allowed countries to observe and
duplicate other countries tradable goods in some instances. For example,
the Chinese were able to witness the benefits of stronger horses from the
west. Upon making this discovery, the Chinese then began breeding these
newfound stronger horses for themselves, in order to better equip their
military.

The spread of scientific and technological ideas bore strong importance

to the Silk Road and its positive impact on the societies it involved. Though
not all scientific concepts were necessarily regarded as the truth by all
cultures they came in contact with, they were still an easily spread topic.
Astronomy was one of the more important scientific studies whose theories
were exchanged across the Silk Road. China particularly tied itself closely
with astronomy, as the Chinese tried to utilize astronomical phenomena to
make worldly predictions. There was an abundance of technological
advances present during this time period, such as the watermill which
originated in China and moved as far west as Europe. The Chinese also
invented horse collars that didnt constrict breathing, paper, and military
technology such as a reliable crossbow trigger. Another very historically
important innovation that came from the Chinese was gunpowder. This
innovation revolutionized the military consumer industry across Afro-Eurasia

as it spread along the Silk Road. The spread of all these Chinese ideas to the
west was extremely beneficial in allowing the rest of the world to become far
more advanced and developed. Architecture was another important concept
spread across the Silk Road. Its influence can be clearly seen in various
architectural structures, such as mosques, which could be observed in one
country as having combined architectural styles and techniques from a
variety of other countries along the Silk Road.

The Silk Roads most negative connotation was its facilitation of the
spread of disease. The Silk Road served as the primary passageway for the
Black Death disease, also known as the bubonic plague, to spread from Asia
to the Middle East, to Northern Africa, and to Europe. The carriers of this
deadly disease were rats, who were attracted to the Silk Road by the waste
that was left by livestock that was being transported along the road in
merchants caravans. These rats were typically bitten by fleas, whose
eventual interaction with travelers of the Silk Road allowed the Black Death
to quickly spread to the various areas that these travelers were destined to
reach, such as Jerusalem and Damascus in Central Asia, or Tunis in Northern
Africa. The same disease-spreading scenario was present in the port
locations along the Silk Road, as rats and fleas served as vectors for the
infestation of the merchants on the ships who would then bring the disease
inland upon arriving at their destinations. The rats also would disembark
from the ships upon arrival, further spreading the disease at a rapid rate.

The severity of this disease and its fatal side effects was so extreme that it
even led to the decimation of the Byzantine Empire, striking the empire at its
heart in Constantinople, and leaving a catastrophic mortality rate in its wake.

Religious beliefs were easily spread through the Silk Road, and used
the Road as a primary platform for gaining global intra-cultural influence.
Various religions utilized the Silk Road to facilitate their spread among
various peoples across Afro-Eurasia. Perhaps as early as the first century
C.E. Buddhism began to trickle into China. Originating in northern India in
the fifth century B.C.E., it slowly spread through South Asia and into Central
Asia, carried by merchants on the Silk Road (textbook page 164). Once the
Buddhist religion had entered China, it was able to quickly dissipate
geographically due to Chinas intense involvement in foreign trade through
the Silk Road. One of the worlds greatest religious sanctuaries is the town
of Dunhuang in China. This town was founded by the first emperor of the
Han dynasty in 111 B.C. The founding of Dunhuang was an effort aimed at
strengthening Chinese control over the Silk Road, as it was a main point of
passage for those leaving China to travel west through East Turkestan. As a
result, a significant amount of travelers and merchants utilizing the Silk Road
would pass through this religious sanctuary of Buddhism, where they would
be exposed to the teachings and concepts of the religion, and would then
spread it on their journeys back along the Silk Road. Islam was also spread

through the passageway of the Silk Road, in similar fashion to how the
Buddhist beliefs utilized the Road for its intra-cultural dispersion.
The Silk Road allowed for the developing of inter-cultural
understandings between various different cultures. A vast array of scientific
theories presented themselves through the Silk Road. The creation of
coinage and the implementation of a currency system was another intercultural exchange that invoked major societal change and spread quickly
from culture to culture as people began to understand the merits of such a
system. Yet another transaction of inter-cultural understanding involved the
learning of foreign languages. As the Silk Road connected various different
cultures with different languages, it was necessary for new languages to be
learned in order to better facilitate communication and improve the ease of
trade. These languages could then spread from the Silk Road back to the
origins of the merchants who began to learn and understand these foreign
languages and dialects. Art, wall painting, music, and dance were all other
inter-cultural concepts that spread across the Silk Road, which further
facilitated better understanding of one culture to another.
Upon its generation, the Silk Road facilitated inter-cultural trade,
spread technological ideas, spread disease, spread religious beliefs, and
allowed for inter-cultural understandings to be developed. Inter-cultural
trade included the transactions of African gold, European wine, and Central
Asian horses. The spread of technological ideas included paper, gunpowder,
and architecture. The spread of disease was most significant in the case of

the Black Death. The spread of religious beliefs included the spread of
Buddhism and Islam. Inter-cultural understanding that developed included
the spread of coinage, languages, and art.