The Silk Road

  • Silk Road - a series of interconnected trade routes

  • The Silk Road expanded during the Han Dynasty when military expeditions westward brought China into contact with Central Asia. This exposed the Chinese to new foods and materials, which they traded for

  • This trade eventually led to the rise of a trade route that stretched from China to the Mediterranean

  • The Silk Road was a series of routes that covered 4,000 to 5,000 miles

  • It was a long and challenging road to travel

    • robbers

    • natural disasters

    • diseases

Trade Along the Silk Road

  • Few merchants ever traveled the entire Silk Road

  • Goods were passed from trader to trader along the way

  • Each time the goods were traded, the price of them would increase

  • This led to many goods being very expensive by the end of the road

Goods Traded from West to East

  • Horses

  • Grapes and Grapevines

  • Domesticated Animals

  • Furs and Skins

  • Honey

  • Fruit

  • Glassware

  • Blankets, rugs, and carpets

  • Textiles

  • Gold and Silver

  • Camels

  • Slaves

  • Weapons and armor

Goods Traded from East to West

  • Silk

  • Tea

  • Dyes

  • Precious Stones

  • China/Porcelain

  • Spices

  • Bronze

  • Medicines

  • Perfume

  • Ivory

  • Rice

  • Paper

  • Gunpowder

The “Silk” Road

  • The Silk Road got its name for the most important good traded along the routes, Chinese silk

  • Silk - a valuable cloth that was originally only made in China

  • The Chinese kept the method of making silk secret and revealing it was punishable by death

  • Romans and other Europeans were obsessed with silk when it arrived and were willing to pay a high price. In return, the Chinese traded for glass, horses, ivory, and cloth from Europe

Spread Along the Silk Road

  • Not just goods were exchanged on the Silk Road. As merchants interacted they exchanged ideas and beliefs. These ideas then spread to new areas. Buddhism was a religion begun in India, but spread to China through the Silk Road

  • Many diseases, including the Black Death, were also spread by people traveling and interacting with each other

How the Silk Road Changed the World

  • Exchange of goods through trade made life better/easier

  • Spread of religious beliefs

  • Cultural diffusion: food, clothes, language

  • Spread of ideas about how to do and make (science, art, medicine, architecture, philosophy, literature, laws, etc.)