The Silk Road

The historical Silk Road was a series of trade routes. The Silk Road criss-crosses Eurasia for
almost two-thousand years until about the year 1500 C.E while its name suggest routes over
lands, the Silk Roads sea routes were also important for communication and trade. The
extent exchange of art, ideas and innovations between cultural groups trading on the routes
is illustrated by the eighth-century Shosoin collections of artefacts. The Silk Road is a
historically important international trade route between China and the Mediterranean.
The Silk Road was also called silu in Chinese. It was a general name for the ancient strategic
transportation channel which started from china and passed through central Asia west Asia
Africa and Europe. In the 19
th
century when the Name of the Silk Road was first used by a
German geographer it just included the land road from chinas Xinxiang to central Asia. Later
it was expanded gradually and reached west Asia Europe and Africa. It took in land and
water routes. It is not only an important transportation route connecting the ancient world.
But also a synonym for economic and cultural exchanges between the western world and
the oriental world.The Silk Road was an international passage with a historical significance.
The ancient Silk Road helped to integrate the old Chinese Indian Persian Arabian ancient
Greek and Rome cultures and promoted the exchange of the western and oriental
civilizations. Half of the Silk Road which winded along between Xian to the east bank of the
Mediterranean was located in Xinxiang. Xinxiang was a place where the ancient western and
oriental cultures met and many famous historical people visited.
Students co-developed by The Silk Road project and the Stanford program on internationals
and cross-cultural education (S.P.I.C.E).Along the Silk Road curriculum is just one of the tools
used in Silk Road connect our arts-integrated educational approach for middle school
students designed to inspire passion-driven learning. The distance between ancient Rome
and ancient china was about 4000 miles by land. There were fierce deserts and high
mountains in the way. It was a very dangerous trip for all of though people who walked
etc. the Silk Road was nicknamed for any route that any trader took from china to Rome.
For a very long time people didnt know who made all of the amazing wonderful fabrics
called silk. The Romans first discovered pieces of silk in the goods they took from some of
the people they conquered. But those people did not know where the Silk was made. They
had traded for the Silk.
The Romans tried to find the traders as they can into different villages to trade the ilk for
other good. But the traders hid from the Romans. They did not know who made the silk
either. They had traded for it themselves. The trading along the Silk Road was a relay
system. One trader would travel for while stop and trade and then return home. And so it
went. No trader made the whole trip. It was too dangerous. The desert had little or no
water. The mountains were brutal. Sand storms would blow out of nowhere. The snakes
were very poisonous. On top of the natural barriers there were pirates.
From the second century BC at the end of the fourteenth century ad a great trade route
originated from changan (no Xian) in the east the and ended at the Mediterranean in the
west linking china with the roman empire. Because Silk the major trade product which
travelled on this road it was named The Silk Road in 1877 by Ferdinand von richthofen a-
well-known German geographer. This ancient route not only circulated goods, but also
exchanged the splendid cultures of china India Persia Arabia Greek and Rome.
This route was opened up by Zhang Qian in the western Han Dynasty and the routes were
gradually formed throughout the Han Dynasty. This trade route spent its childhood and
gradually grew up in this Dynasty. With the establishment of the Tang Dynasty which saw
rapid development of economy and society, this famous trade route reached its most
prosperous stage in history. During the reign of Yuan Dynasty, it experienced its last
flourishing period. The great Mongolian in 1271 ruler Kublai khan established a powerful the
Mongol empire Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) at Dadu (the present Beijing).
By Alyssia