Silk Road & the Indian Ocean

The traders moved goods and ideas throughout eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia through a complex series of roads that traveled all throughout these places. In Africa, camels were mostly used for transportation because they were best suited for desert travel. This led to the invention of the camel saddle, which made the ride more comfortable, making it more efficient. Along with the physical goods that the traders were moving they moved religious ideas, new technologies, war tactics and sadly also diseases. The Silk Road connected the ancient world in an amazing was that would never would've happened without it. Without the Silk Road, many of the amazing technologies of Asia wouldn't have made it to Europe and the Mediterranean. The Asian civilizations were much more technologically advanced, even though the history books like to act like it was the other way around. One of the empires that benefitted from the Silk Road was the Sasanid Empire, because they saw the travel routes as a way that they could spread their religious ideas.

Silk Road

Nothing was more interesting to my than how dependent nomads were on settle regions and how dependent settle regions were on nomads, showing that one group really couldn’t have the same benefits in life without one another. Without nomads the Silk Road wouldn’t have been half as prosperous. The Silk Road stretched from Chine to the Mediterranean Sea, crossing thousands of miles and through completely different cultures. The ideas, culture, crops, and religion from Southeast Asia were able to reach and touch the lives of people living on the boarder of the Mediterranean Sea. The deep connection from the Silk Road to the lives of all the people involved is looking at the correlation between the rise and fall of major empires effected the Silk Road, showing that the trade route had a deeper impact on the world during the time then just being a source of trade from country to country. The Silk Road brought sailing advances (ocean trading), different spices, crops, art, and different metals to country all across the world showing how every country was now connected with each other in some sort of way even if the countries were completely different.  

Camel-Riding & Trade: Typical Asia

The Silk Road spanned numerous countries and had tremendous advantages for all of them. The route not only provided goods and supplies unknown to mankind till then, but also an impressive cultural and religious exchange. Moreover, the camel saddle was a major turning point at the time as it facilitated goods to be transported across vast areas in the region while also giving Arabs leverage over other tribes. Religions, beliefs, and languages intermixed a lot due to the route passing through so many different cultures and geographic locations. Basically, thank God for the Silk Road cause without it we would all be significantly behind on everything.

Its amazing that people who all spoke different languages and had different custom and beliefs were able to work out such a large scale trading network so long ago.  A feat like that is difficult nowadays, when we can communicate instantly and translate languages.  The Silk Road was way ahead of its time, and because of that, it helped to fill the technological gaps in many civilizations.  Since this was the first major way to spread ideas across a large distance, it used lots of changes.  China got new crop varieties.  Mesopotamia got african ivory, and indian spices.  Buddhism spread throughout southern Asia.  Sailing advanced significantly, because of the increased trading demand.  Everyone was blessed with the invention of the stirrup, which makes horseback riding much easier and more comfortable.  The silk road was a major advancement technologically and socially for the world.

The Rise of the Trader

The rise of the trader as a new social class during the time period of the silk road really caught my eye. The idea of a middleman between the producers like farmers, fisherman and herders between the city dweller, aristocrat and artisan has not been seen up to this point. Bulleit raises the question if they contributed more than kings to the rise of great societies and evidence does point in that direction. How else would porcelain pottery made it half way around the world without people spending their entire lives moving goods? Traders facilitated the success of the silk road. Without traders trying to compete with others for the best deals, quickest and safest routes around treacherous mountains and warring nations, nothing would have spread. The importance of the trader cannot be understated and should definitely be looked at more closely.

Camel Saddles and Other Less Important Events.

I thought it was interesting how there were specific times where the Silk Road would "thrive". This seemed to be based on whether or not there was of conflict in areas involved with the Silk Road. For example, between 340 and 628 the Byzantine and Roman empires launches various attacks against one another. However, during times of peace goods could easily be transported from the Silk Road and enter into Mediterranean trade. Ideas would move naturally as trade spread to new regions, resulting in cultural exchange. More over, the Silk Road did facilitate the exchange of religious ideas as missionaries travelled it in order to spread Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Buddhism. As religions spread and became more dominant they began to play a major role in defining community identity and political alignments. The Silk Roads correlation with the rise and fall of empires can be seen in the Sasanid Empire in Iran. Because Arabs had CAMEL SADDLES they played an important role in transportation along the Silk Road as well as in facilitating commerce in their region. (Basically, if you've got a camel saddle you can rule the world.) Additionally, if an empire is thriving then trade will prosper in the region. Whereas the fall of empires would stifle the flow of trade along the Silk Road because the priority would no longer be focused on the exchange of goods.

Silk Road was pretty cool

The Silk Road, which connected the Mediterranean and China,  played a major role in the spread of ideas, crops, religion, and humans. Caravans brought goods along the way, and pastoral nomads provided animals, handlers, and protection for the Silk Road. These Nomads' homes were on four-wheeled wagons dragged by oxen. The Silk Road later became an avenue to transport religious ides, which ended up playing a significant role in societies. The use of chariot warfare and mounted men by stirrup was spread by means of the Silk Road. Once the Mediterranean Ocean System was established, ocean trade became convenient and popular. For example, the Mozambique Channel spread crops and language. Sailor men often married women from port cities, therefore making families more cultured and diverse. With the expansion of territories and growing wealth in temples, traders were enticed to travel farther for goods. This effected the entire society, not just wealthy elites.