What was the Silk Road?
The Silk Road was a set of connected routes between various points across Asia and Europe, and was used mainly between 200 CE and 1400 CE. People from all over traveled parts of the road so they could trade at predetermined cities. Exchange between people included, but was not limited to goods, skills, technology, beliefs, ideas, and disease. The Silk Road benefited all civilizations involved, from higher production rates, a more intellectual society, and over all, a better world.
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Why Was It So Important?
This is a solar eclipse, Cha'ng Ch'un learned about these in his travels by exchanging knowledge with others.A prime example of exchange of knowledge on the Silk Road was one I found in a diary entry by Cha'ng Ch'un writing about how he was taught what an eclipse was by a foreigner. There are many other entries like this, but I found this one most prominent because it is such widespread knowledge now.
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Many different skills were spread on the Silk Road as well, like the art of silk making from the Chinese. The Chinese had kept this a secret from outside nations for centuries, and they had no plan of changing that. Because of how open the Silk Road was, it was impossible to keep that exclusive to China. This was a huge part of the Silk Road, giving it its name.
But the Silk Road wasn't actually named until the 1800's by a German historian. Back then it didn't have an official name, it may have been given nicknames by travelers, but none that I could find in my research.
This also means that there was no official, set path for the Silk Road to follow. People knew the trading cities and just traveled between those. Most of these traders would only travel parts of the road, but the further away they traveled, the more value their goods would have. Most of the maps you see of the Silk Road are just common paths people took. However these can't always be trusted, not many travelers documented their trip, only those who were ordered to by their rulers.
Most of my primary sources were diary entries by missionaries from China. Chinese rulers would often send people to travel the Silk Road in order to expand their knowledge of the outside world. China did not realize how vast the land outside their own was, and thought that anyone outside was far inferior than themselves.. The missionaries would gather information about everything from what the trail looked like, how many people they saw, cities they went through, and the kind of people they met whilst trading. This was how the art of silk making was leaked into the world outside of China, these missionaries would trade their knowledge of silk making with people they met, unaware that they had spoiled a long kept secret of Chinese culture.
But the Silk Road wasn't actually named until the 1800's by a German historian. Back then it didn't have an official name, it may have been given nicknames by travelers, but none that I could find in my research.
This also means that there was no official, set path for the Silk Road to follow. People knew the trading cities and just traveled between those. Most of these traders would only travel parts of the road, but the further away they traveled, the more value their goods would have. Most of the maps you see of the Silk Road are just common paths people took. However these can't always be trusted, not many travelers documented their trip, only those who were ordered to by their rulers.
Most of my primary sources were diary entries by missionaries from China. Chinese rulers would often send people to travel the Silk Road in order to expand their knowledge of the outside world. China did not realize how vast the land outside their own was, and thought that anyone outside was far inferior than themselves.. The missionaries would gather information about everything from what the trail looked like, how many people they saw, cities they went through, and the kind of people they met whilst trading. This was how the art of silk making was leaked into the world outside of China, these missionaries would trade their knowledge of silk making with people they met, unaware that they had spoiled a long kept secret of Chinese culture.