Silk Road

The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. It stretched over 6,400 km (4,000 mi) on land and helped people in the Eastern and Western worlds trade goods and share ideas, culture, politics, and religion. The name "Silk Road" was coined in the late 19th century, but some historians of the 20th and 21st centuries prefer the term Silk Routes. They feel it better describes the complicated web of land and sea routes that linked Central, East, South, Southeast, and West Asia, as well as East Africa and Southern Europe. Some scholars criticise the idea of silk roads altogether and call for a new definition or a different term. Their view is that the older writings on the topic focused on the settled, reading-and-writing empires at either end of Eurasia, and so overlooked the steppe nomads. The classic definition also leaves out important civilisations such as India and Iran.

The Silk Road got its name from the very profitable trade in silk textiles that were primarily produced in China. The network began when the Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE) expanded into Central Asia around 114 BCE. The missions and travels of the Chinese imperial envoy Zhang Qian helped bring the region under unified control. The Chinese cared a great deal about keeping their trade goods safe, so they extended the Great Wall of China to protect the trade route. The Parthian Empire acted as a vital bridge connecting the network to the Mediterranean, and the rise of the Roman Empire in the west set up the western end of this connected trade system. By the first century CE, Chinese silk was in high demand in Rome, Egypt, and Greece. Other valuable goods from the East included tea, dyes, perfumes, and porcelain. Western exports included horses, camels, honey, wine, and gold. The trade created great wealth for rising merchant classes, and goods such as paper and gunpowder greatly changed the course of political history in many parts of Eurasia and beyond.

The Silk Road was used during a time of huge political change across the continent, marked by major events such as the Black Death and the Mongol conquests. The network was very decentralized, and there was little security. Travelers faced constant threats from bandits and nomadic raiders, as well as long stretches of harsh land. Few people travelled the whole length of the Silk Road. Instead, they relied on a chain of middlemen based at different stopping points along the way. Besides goods, the network carried an unprecedented exchange of especially Buddhist religious, philosophical, and scientific ideas, and many of these were syncretised by the societies along the way. A wide variety of people used the routes. Diseases such as plague also spread along the Silk Road, and may have helped cause the Black Death.

From 1453 onwards, the Ottoman Empire began competing with other gunpowder empires for greater control over the overland routes. This pushed European states to look for other paths, while also gaining more influence over their trade partners. This marked the start of the Age of Discovery, European colonialism, and a further increase in globalization. In the 21st century, the name "New Silk Road" is used to describe several large infrastructure projects along many of the historic trade routes. Among the best known are the Eurasian Land Bridge and China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). UNESCO named the Chang'an-Tianshan corridor of the Silk Road a World Heritage Site in 2014, and the Zarafshan-Karakum Corridor in 2023. The Fergana-Syrdarya Corridor, the Indian and Iranian portions, and the remaining sites in China remain on the tentative lists. Despite popular imagination, the Silk Road was never a single east-west route linking China to the Mediterranean, and there was no unrestricted trade before the Mongol Empire. It was a network of routes. Even Marco Polo, who is often linked to the Silk Road, never used the term, even though he travelled during a time when the Mongols made movement easier.

Name and contested significance

The Silk Road gets its name from the trade in silk, first developed in China, which was a major reason the trade routes joined into a large network across continents. The German term Seidenstraße (literally "Silk Road") was first made popular in 1877 by Ferdinand von Richthofen, who made seven trips to China between 1868 and 1872. The name was already in use for some decades before that. Some people also use the translation "Silk Route." Although the name was created in the 1800s, it did not become widely accepted by scholars or the public until the 1900s. The first book called The Silk Road was written by Swedish geographer Sven Hedin in 1938.

Not everyone likes the name. Warwick Ball argues that the sea spice trade with India and Arabia mattered much more to the economy of the Roman Empire than the silk trade with China. He even calls the idea of one Silk Road a "myth" of modern scholars. The southern parts of the route, from Khotan (Xinjiang) to eastern China, were used for jade as early as 5000 BCE, long before silk, and people still use them for this today. Some believe "Jade Road" would have been a better name, but silk trade was much larger and reached much farther.

Routes

Further information: Cities along the Silk Road

Two important Silk Road paths from Merv went through Nisa and Sarakhs. They joined together in Mashhad, a big religious and trade city in Khurasan. The Silk Road had several routes. As it went west from the ancient trading centres of China, it split into northern and southern routes that bypassed the Taklamakan Desert and Lop Nur. Merchants on these routes took part in "relay trade," in which goods changed "hands many times before reaching their final destinations." The northern route started at Chang'an (now called Xi'an), an ancient capital of China, and was defined around the 1st century BCE, when Han Wudi put an end to harassment by nomadic tribes. It travelled northwest through Gansu from Shaanxi Province, and its routes met again at Kashgar and passed through Turpan and Talgar. The southern route, also called the Karakoram route, is still seen today as the Karakoram Highway, which connects Pakistan and China through Khunjerab Pass. It crossed the Hindu Kush into Afghanistan and rejoined the northern route near Merv, Turkmenistan. From there it went west to the Levant, where Mediterranean ships sailed to Italy.

Main article: Northern Silk Road

See also: Tea Horse Road

The southwestern route is believed to be the Ganges/Brahmaputra Delta, which has drawn international interest for over two millennia. Roman beads and other materials have been found at the Wari-Bateshwar ruins, an ancient city being slowly excavated in Bangladesh. Gemstones and other goods from Thailand and Java were traded through the delta. Some writers suggest a Sichuan–Yunnan–Burma–Bangladesh route, and the ancient cities Mahasthangarh, Bhitagarh, Bikrampur, and Sonargaon are believed to have been international trade centres.

Main article: Maritime Silk Road

The Maritime Silk Road was the sea section of the historic Silk Road. It connected Southeast Asia, East Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian Peninsula, eastern Africa, and Europe. It began by the 2nd century BCE and flourished until the 15th century CE. It was mainly run by Austronesian sailors, who sailed large ocean-going trade ships. The dhows of Persian and Arab traders and Tamil merchants in South Asia also used the route, and China built its own trade ships (chuán) and followed the routes from the 10th to the 15th centuries CE. Ships could carry far larger amounts of goods than caravans, and traders could travel the whole distance instead of passing goods along in relays. Traders faced different dangers, such as weather and piracy. Despite its modern name, the Maritime Silk Road involved a wide variety of goods, not just silk.

History

Main articles: Protectorate of the Western Regions, War of the Heavenly Horses, Han–Xiongnu War, and History of the Han dynasty

See also: Sino-Roman relations, China–India relations, and Zhang Qian

Further information: Byzantine–Mongol alliance

Further information: Tang campaigns against the Western Turks, Conquest of the Western Turks, Tang campaign against the Eastern Turks, and Tang dynasty § Trade and spread of culture

Further information: History of Islamic economics

See also: Mongol Empire, Pax Mongolica, and Fonthill Vase

Long before the Silk Road, people traded along older routes. From the 2nd millennium BCE, nephrite jade was carried from mines near Yarkand and Khotan to China, and horse breeders in Central Eurasia used the Steppe Route. Silk from China reached as far as Ancient Egypt and the Mediterranean. Around 130 BCE, China's Han dynasty opened a land route across the Tarim Basin, after the ambassador Zhang Qian reported on the lands he had visited. Trade also grew by sea. By the time of the Roman Empire, Roman merchants bought silk, spices, glassware, and perfumes, and traveled by ship to India and beyond. The Roman Empire later declined, and the trade routes changed over time.

Later, the Byzantine Empire learned how to make silk, and Emperor Justinian sent monks to obtain silkworm eggs. The Silk Road was reopened by the Tang Empire in 639, and it reached a golden age under the Tang dynasty. Baghdad became the most important city along the route during the Islamic era. The Mongol Empire brought political stability and re-established the Silk Road, and Marco Polo was one of the first Europeans to travel it to China. The Silk Road declined after the 15th century, when the Mongol Empire broke apart and its regions became separated. The silk trade continued until it was disrupted by the collapse of the Safavid Empire in the 1720s.

Expansion of religions

Further information: Nestorianism and Church of the East

Richard Foltz and Xinru Liu have described how trade along the Silk Road carried not only goods but also ideas, culture, and religions. Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Manichaeism, and Islam all spread across Eurasia through these trade networks. Buddhist monasteries along the Silk Road offered a place to stay and a new religion for foreigners. Jerry H. Bentley said that this spread also led to syncretism, where cultures mixed. The Xiongnu nomads adopted Chinese farming methods, clothing, and lifestyle, while the Chinese adopted some Xiongnu military methods, clothing, music, and dance. Some Chinese soldiers even defected to live the Xiongnu way of life. Christianity spread along the Silk Road mainly as Nestorianism, and a stone monument from 781 shows Nestorian Christian missionaries arriving. Buddhism is said to have reached China in the 1st century CE, according to a semi-legendary account of an envoy sent by the Chinese Emperor Ming. The three main forms of Buddhism that spread across Asia were Mahayana, Theravada, and Vajrayana.

Merchants played a large role in spreading religion, especially Buddhism, during the 5th and 6th centuries CE. They supported Buddhist monasteries, which gave them places to stay as they traveled between cities, and they helped spread Buddhism to the places they visited. Judean merchants also took part in Silk Road trade, and a group called the Radanites built trade networks from China to Rome. Religious ideas traveled too. Richard Foltz noted that Iranian influence on Jewish ideas was stronger than the reverse, and concepts such as heaven and hell are linked to Iranian beliefs. The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism essentially ended around the 7th century with the rise of Islam in Central Asia.

Expansion of the arts

Many artistic influences were passed along the Silk Road, especially through Central Asia, where Hellenistic, Iranian, Indian and Chinese influences could mix. Greco-Buddhist art is one of the clearest examples of this mixing. Silk was also a representation of art and a religious symbol, and it was used as money for trade.

These influences can be seen in the development of Buddhism. For example, the Buddha was first shown in human form during the Kushan period, which many scholars have linked to Greek influence. Greek and Indian styles also appear in later Buddhist art in China and other countries along the Silk Road. Many art products were traded from east to west, such as lapis lazuli, a blue stone with golden specks that was ground into powder and used as paint.

Commemoration

On 22 June 2014, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) named the Silk Road a World Heritage Site at the 2014 Conference on World Heritage. Since 1993, the World Tourism Organization of the United Nations has worked to develop sustainable international tourism along the route, with the stated goal of fostering peace and understanding.

To commemorate the Silk Road becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the China National Silk Museum announced a "Silk Road Week" for 19–25 June 2020. Bishkek and Almaty each have a major east–west street named after the Silk Road (Kyrgyz: Жибек жолу, Jibek Jolu in Bishkek, and Kazakh: Жібек жолы, Jibek Joly in Almaty).