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Why Was The Silk Roads Important In World History

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The Silk Roads are incredibly important to world history. The Silk Roads were a network of many roads generally going East from China to Rome in the West. The connections formed along the Silk Roads transformed the world in a drastic way. They radically extended the reach of trade, spread and adapted many of today’s modern religions, and created immunities as a result of disease exchanges. The Silk Roads hold significance in world history due to those three factors.

The Silk Roads are most commonly known for trade and commodity exchanges. While silk from China was the most popular export, in some instances it became quite controversial in the Roman Empire. Evidence of this is “I can see clothes of silk, if materials that do not hide the body, nor even one’s …show more content…

Diseases such as measles travelled along the Silk Roads, as did the Bubonic plague. In addition to disease, travellers along the Silk Roads also exchanged immunities. Afro Eurasian societies predominantly obtained diseases through their animals, and exchanges along the Silk Roads thus enabled the swapping of immunities to such diseases. Christian argues that these shared immune systems could explain the reason for Eurasian colonialisms becoming so successful, as the populations that lacked immunities to foreign diseases died in the first contacts with invaders.

The Silk Roads had a significant role in world history. Arguably trade along the Silk Roads played the most significant role in China’s developments as a society and culture. Through the use of envoys, missionaries and diplomats, the Silk Roads unfolded political and economic relationships between Eastern and Western civilizations. Not only were the Silk Roads vital to economic trade, but they were also a route for cultural and disease trade. These developments have had a substantial impact on world

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Have you ever wondered what the places along the Silk Road did that was so important? Marakanda and Many other areas along the Silk Road had been very helpful to the travelers because of all the items that were flourished in them. Marakanda and Many other areas along the Silk Road had been very helpful to the travelers because of all the items that were flourished in them. In Document D, it says that “The soil is rich and productive and yields abundant harvests.” The soil that is kept there can grow foods that may be unavailable or unfamiliar to other countries.

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Why did the Silk Road encourage the trade?The Silk Road trade had good ideas and culture past between the eastern and the western civilizations. First of all, the goods and ideas spread throughout the Silk Road. For example, in the Document A shows from all over the countries like China, Central Asia, Africa, India, and Europe trade items on the Silk Road. This explain the way of the Silk Road connect the countries to trade with each other. When walking through the Silk Road to country to country, there is a lot of trade around the civilizations selling silk, ores, seeds, and other items.

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The map titled “Trade Routes 7th-15th centuries” shows the Silk Road with many other trade routes branching off of it which means that the Silk Road increased the scope of exchange (Doc. 2). There is no possibility of bias since it is a map. The map titled “Trade Routes 7th-15th centuries” shows the Silk Road branching from South-Eastern Europe to Northern China which creates a more direct path to many places near the Silk Road, therefore increasing the pace of trade (Doc.2). There is no possibility of bias since it is a map. The map titled “The Routes of the Plague, 14th century” shows the spread of the ‘Black Death’ going from Western China into Europe and by having a plague that kills 25 million people, there is an extremely high possibility to have large decrease in the pace of exchange since if you don’t have people, you don’t have trade (Doc. 8).

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The silk road was helpful to the people in china, central asia, Africa, and India/all the way to Rome and beyond because of the trade routes the silk road was able to have the right resources to make it successful and helpful to others who trade. Transition + Your own original Reason, Detail, or Fact For example, where the trade routes went across most of the whole entire world. For, trading horses, orange seeds, grape seeds, or anything popular or needed during their time made the trade routes easier so they wouldn’t have to travel all the way to go trade and get what they had needed. One supporting Example or Evidence from text or source document To explain, in the article “The Silk Road” it says, the silk road has been an important part of success domestication of the camel which was an animal that could carry heavy loads over

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During the time period of 600 CE to 1450 CE, people on the Indian Ocean sea lanes and on the Eurasian Silk Roads traded luxury items and used their new technology to help trade prosper. Although they were both trade routes, the Indian Ocean sea lanes traded overseas and the Eurasian Silk Roads were land routes. Indian Ocean sea lanes connect Southeast Asia, India, Arabia, and East Africa. The Eurasian Silk Roads connected East and West China to the Mediterranean. Trade was greatly increasing in these two trade routes around this time.

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Silk was considered a highly desired commodity across Eurasia. One reason behind this was the fact that silk was used as currency and as a means of accumulating wealth in Central Asia. It then became a symbol of high status in other parts such as China. It also became associated with the sacred expanding world religions of Buddhism and Christianity. There were various major economic, social, and cultural consequences of Silk Road commerce.

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But during the Silk Road, they would use caravans, camels, horses, and boats. In the Colombian exchange they usually traded people, plants, animals, and diseases. In the Silk Road they mainly traded silk, plants, and animals. There were many important people during these times such as Ibn Battuta, Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus,

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Silk cloth was the secret of the central and western Asia using Chinese thread. The Silk Road is one of the primary factors that has shaped the world of the past and created the world of today. Without it, many ideas would not have spread throughout Eurasia, and the Europeans would not have embarked on their Age of Discovery and Exploration that propelled them to their position of power.

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The Silk Roads played an important role in connecting Afro-Eurasia, both culturally and economically. The term “Silk Roads” was first used by Baron Ferdinand von Richtofen, a German geographer from the 19th century. He created the phrase to describe the routes between India, China, and the Mediterranean, which were used to transport items such as silk, livestock, glass, and precious metals. Historians have speculated that the roads might have been used as early as 2000 B.C.E. In the last century B.C.E., the Silk Roads experienced a golden age.

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The Silk Road was a complex network of trading routes that spanned from eastern Europe to China, that allowed many goods to travel from city to city. During the Silk Road’s main prominence from around 200 B.C.E. to 1450 C.E., many changes took place - including ones that have drastically altered societies with change in both social hierarchies and major religions. However, even with the plethora of cultural changes that took place, a few aspects of the societies of the time stayed consistent, most noticeably the desire for luxury goods by the upper class. The Silk Road resulted in many changes to the social hierarchies of the time, especially in the treatment of women and merchants. In the second-wave civilizations prior to the road’s prominence, women and merchant were viewed as much lower members of society.

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However, many Mongol practices were shunned due to the major distrust that the Chinese developed for them. On the other hand, Yuan relations with the Muslims benefitted the next dynasty. Muslim contributions of astronomy and mapmaking was very important to Ming continuation of the sciences (“Yuan dynasty”). Last, with the loss of major overland trade routes such as the Silk Road, came the rise of the Indian Ocean trade routes (Fitzgerald 238). Oversea trade was heavily linked to newer practices of large-scale slavery and the interest that many countries had in exploration of the new world.

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This lead to the exponential growth of trade from Europe to Asia. The Mongols re-established the Silk Road as an important method of transportation of goods for trade. Since such a large part of the continent was under the rule of the Mongols this ensured secured trade routes and made merchants more likely to use them. Silk, pepper, ginger, and spices were a few of the physical goods traded, scientific and cultural ideas were also passed along. Trade routes by sea were also in effect with new technology in navigation and map making, routes were able to reach out more to the Arabian Sea, Red Sea, and Persian Gulf.

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Disease became a large part of trading on both the Silk Road and the Mediterranean Sea Trade Complex. They both were trading the Bubonic Plague all around their trading routes. Although they both had it, the plague was more relevant on the Silk Road because the Mediterranean Sea Trade Complex only received it from interacting with the Silk Road, so it wasn’t as impactful. The bubonic plague killed many people in its travels and also leaders of civilizations, as well as leprosy, which was another disease spread along the Silk Road. The Silk Road was also significantly more difficult to travel across than the Mediterranean Sea Trade Complex.

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