The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 km (4,000 mi) on land, it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the Eastern and Western worlds. The name "Silk Road" was coined in the late 19th century, but some 20th- and 21st-century historians instead prefer the term Silk Routes, because it more accurately describes the intricate web of land and sea routes connecting Central, East, South, Southeast, and West Asia as well as East Africa and Southern Europe. In fact, some scholars criticize or even dismiss the idea of Silk Roads and call for a new definition or an alternate term. According to them, the literature using this term has "privileged the sedentary and literate empires at either end of Eurasia," thereby ignoring the contributions of steppe nomads. In addition, the classic definition sidelines civilizations like India and Iran.
The Silk Road derives its name from the highly lucrative
trade of silk textiles that were primarily produced in China. The network began
with the expansion of the Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE) into Central Asia
around 114 BCE, through the missions and explorations of the Chinese imperial
envoy Zhang Qian, which brought the region under unified control. The Chinese
took great interest in the security of their trade products and extended the
Great Wall of China to ensure the protection of the trade route. The Parthian
Empire provided a vital bridge connecting the network to the Mediterranean.
Meanwhile, the rise of the Roman Empire in the West further established the
western terminus of the interconnected trade system. By the first century CE,
Chinese silk was widely sought after in Rome, Egypt, and Greece. Other
lucrative commodities from the East included tea, dyes, perfumes, and
porcelain; among Western exports were horses, camels, honey, wine, and gold.
Aside from generating substantial wealth for emerging mercantile classes, the
proliferation of goods such as paper and gunpowder greatly affected the
trajectory of political history in several theatres in Eurasia and beyond.
The Silk Road was utilized over a period that saw immense
political variation across the continent, exemplified by major events such as
the Black Death and the Mongol conquests. The network was highly decentralized,
and security was sparse: travelers faced constant threats of banditry and
nomadic raiders, and long expanses of inhospitable terrain. Few individuals
traveled the entire length of the Silk Road, instead relying on a succession of
middlemen based at various stopping points along the way. In addition to goods,
the network facilitated an unprecedented exchange of religious (especially
Buddhist), philosophical, and scientific thought, much of which was syncretized
by societies along the way. Likewise, a wide variety of people used the routes.
Diseases such as plague also spread along the Silk Road, possibly contributing
to the Black Death.
From 1453 onwards, the Ottoman Empire began competing with
other gunpowder empires for greater control over the overland routes, which
prompted European polities to seek alternatives while themselves gaining
leverage over their trade partners. This marked the beginning of the Age of
Discovery, European colonialism, and the further intensification of
globalization. In the 21st century, the name "New Silk Road"
is used to describe several large infrastructure projects along many of the
historic trade routes; among the best known include the Eurasian Land Bridge
and the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). UNESCO designated the
Chang'an-Tianshan corridor of the Silk Road as a World Heritage Site in 2014,
and the Zarafshan-Karakum Corridor in 2023. The Fergana-Syrdarya Corridor, the
Indian and Iranian portions, and the remaining sites in China remain on the
tentative lists.
Despite the popular imagination, the Silk Road was never a
singular east-west trade route that linked China to the Mediterranean, nor was
there unrestricted trade before the Mongol Empire. It was a network of routes.
Even Marco Polo, often linked to the Silk Road, never used the term despite
traveling during a time of Mongol-enabled ease of movement.
Name and contested significance
The Silk Road derives its name from the lucrative silk trade,
first developed in China, and is a major reason for the connection of trade
routes into an extensive transcontinental network. It derives from the German
term Seidenstraße (literally "Silk Road") and was first
popularized in 1877 by Ferdinand von Richthofen, who made seven expeditions to
China from 1868 to 1872. However, the term itself had been in use in decades before
that. The alternative translation "Silk Route" is also used
occasionally. Although the term was coined in the 19th century, it did not gain
widespread acceptance in academia or popularity among the public until the 20th
century. The first book, entitled The Silk Road, was written by Swedish
geographer Sven Hedin in 1938.
The use of the term 'Silk Road' is not without its
detractors. For instance, Warwick Ball contends that the maritime spice trade
with India and Arabia was far more consequential for the economy of the Roman
Empire than the silk trade with China, which at sea was conducted mostly through
India and on land was handled by numerous intermediaries such as the Sogdians.
Going as far as to call the whole thing a "myth" of modern
academia, Ball argues that there was no coherent overland trade system and no
free movement of goods from East Asia to the West until the period of the
Mongol Empire. He notes that traditional authors discussing east–west trade,
such as Marco Polo and Edward Gibbon, never labeled any route a "silk"
one in particular. William Dalrymple points out that in pre-modern times,
maritime travel cost only a fifth of overland transport, and argues for the pre-13th-century
primacy of an India-dominated "Golden Road" extending from Rome to
Japan.
The southern stretches of the Silk Road, from Khotan
(Xinjiang) to Eastern China, were first used for jade and not silk, as long as
5000 BCE, and are still in use for this purpose. The term "Jade
Road" would have been more appropriate than "Silk Road"
had it not been for the far larger and geographically wider nature of the silk
trade; the term is in current use in China.
Routes
The Silk Road consisted of several routes. As it extended
westwards from the ancient commercial centers of China, the overland,
intercontinental Silk Road was divided into northern and southern routes,
bypassing the Taklamakan Desert and Lop Nur. Merchants along these routes were
involved in "relay trade" in which goods changed "hands
many times before reaching their final destinations".
Northern route
The northern route started at Chang'an (now called Xi'an),
an ancient capital of China that was moved further east during the Later Han to
Luoyang. The route was defined around the 1st century BCE when Han Wudi put an
end to harassment by nomadic tribes.
The northern route traveled northwest through the Chinese
province of Gansu from Shaanxi Province and split into three further routes,
two of them following the mountain ranges to the north and south of the
Taklamakan Desert to rejoin at Kashgar, and the other going north of the Tian
Shan mountains through Turpan, Talgar, and Almaty (in what is now southeast
Kazakhstan). The routes split again west of Kashgar, with a southern branch
heading down the Alai Valley towards Termez (in modern Uzbekistan) and Balkh
(Afghanistan), while the other travelled through Kokand in the Fergana Valley
(in present-day eastern Uzbekistan) and then west across the Karakum Desert.
Both routes joined the main southern route before reaching ancient Merv,
Turkmenistan. Another branch of the northern route turned northwest past the
Aral Sea and north of the Caspian Sea, then on to the Black Sea.
A route for caravans, the northern Silk Road brought to
China many goods such as "dates, saffron powder and pistachio nuts from
Persia; frankincense, aloes and myrrh from Somalia; sandalwood from India;
glass bottles from Egypt, and other expensive and desirable goods from other
parts of the world."[29] In exchange, the caravans sent back bolts of silk
brocade, lacquerware, and porcelain.
Southern route
The southern route, or Karakoram route, was mainly a single
route from China through the Karakoram mountains, where it persists in modern
times as the Karakoram Highway, a paved road that connects Pakistan and China.
It then set off westwards, but with southward spurs so travelers could complete
the journey by sea from various points. Crossing the high mountains, it passed
through northern Pakistan, over the Hindu Kush mountains, and into Afghanistan,
rejoining the northern route near Merv, Turkmenistan. From Merv, it followed a
nearly straight-line west through mountainous northern Iran, Mesopotamia, and
the northern tip of the Syrian Desert to the Levant, where Mediterranean
trading ships plied regular routes to Italy, while land routes went either
north through Anatolia or south to North Africa. Another branch road travelled
from Herat through Susa to Charax Spasinu at the head of the Persian Gulf and
across to Petra and on to Alexandria and other eastern Mediterranean ports,
from where ships carried the cargoes to Rome.
Southwestern route
The southwestern route is believed to be the
Ganges/Brahmaputra Delta, which has been the subject of international interest
for over two millennia. Strabo, the 1st-century Roman writer, mentions the
deltaic lands: "Regarding merchants who now sail from Egypt ... as far
as the Ganges, they are only private citizens." His comments are
interesting as Roman beads and other materials are being found at
Wari-Bateshwar ruins, the ancient city with roots from much earlier, before the
Bronze Age, presently being slowly excavated beside the Old Brahmaputra in
Bangladesh. Ptolemy's map of the Ganges Delta, a remarkably accurate effort,
showed that his informants knew all about the course of the Brahmaputra River,
crossing through the Himalayas then bending westward to its source in Tibet. It
is doubtless that this delta was a major international trading center, almost
certainly from much earlier than the Common Era. Gemstones and other
merchandise from Thailand and Java were traded in the delta and through it.
Chinese archaeological writer Bin Yang and some earlier writers and archaeologists,
such as Janice Stargardt, strongly suggest this route of international trade as
Sichuan–Yunnan–Burma–Bangladesh route. According to Bin Yang, especially from
the 12th century, the route was used to ship bullion from Yunnan (gold and
silver are among the minerals in which Yunnan is rich), through northern Burma,
into modern Bangladesh, making use of the ancient route, known as the 'Ledo'
route. The emerging evidence of the ancient cities of Bangladesh, in particular
Wari-Bateshwar ruins, Mahasthangarh, Bhitagarh, Bikrampur, Egarasindhur, and
Sonargaon, is believed to be the international trade centers in this route.
Maritime route
The Maritime Silk Road or Maritime Silk Route is the
maritime section of the historic Silk Road that connected Southeast Asia, East
Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian Peninsula, eastern Africa, and
Europe. It began in the 2nd century BCE and flourished until the 15th century
CE. The Maritime Silk Road was primarily established and operated by
Austronesian sailors in Southeast Asia who sailed large long-distance
ocean-going sewn-plank and lashed-lug trade ships. The route was also utilized
by the dhows of the Persian and Arab traders in the Arabian Sea and beyond, and the Tamil merchants in South
Asia. China also started
building its own trade ships (chuán) and followed
the routes in the later period, from the 10th to the 15th centuries CE.
The network followed the footsteps of older Austronesian
jade maritime networks in Southeast Asia, as well as the maritime spice
networks between Southeast Asia and South Asia, and the West Asian maritime
networks in the Arabian Sea and beyond, coinciding with these ancient maritime
trade roads by the current era.
Austronesian thalassocracies controlled the flow of trade in
the eastern regions of the Maritime Silk Road, especially the polities around
the straits of Malacca and Bangka, the Malay Peninsula, and the Mekong Delta;
through which passed the main routes of the Austronesian trade ships to Giao Chỉ
(in the Tonkin Gulf) and Guangzhou (southern China), the endpoints (later also
including Quanzhou by the 10th century CE). Secondary routes also passed
through the coastlines of the Gulf of Thailand, as well as through the Java
Sea, Celebes Sea, Banda Sea, and the Sulu Sea, reconnecting with the main route
through the northern Philippines and Taiwan. The secondary routes also continue
onward to the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea for a limited extent.
The main route of the western regions of the Maritime Silk
Road directly crosses the Indian Ocean from the northern tip of Sumatra (or
through the Sunda Strait) to Sri Lanka, southern India and Bangladesh, and the
Maldives. It branches from here into routes through the Arabian Sea, entering
the Gulf of Oman (into the Persian Gulf), and the Gulf of Aden (into the Red
Sea). Secondary routes also pass through the coastlines of the Bay of Bengal,
the Arabian Sea, and southwards along the coast of East Africa to Zanzibar, the
Comoros, Madagascar, and the Seychelles.
The term "Maritime Silk Road" is a modern
name, acquired from its similarity to the overland Silk Road. Like the overland
routes, the ancient maritime routes through Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean
had no particular name for the majority of their very long history. Despite the
modern name, the Maritime Silk Road involved exchanges in a wide variety of
goods over a very wide region, not just silk or Asian exports. It differed
significantly in several aspects from the overland Silk Road, and thus should
not be viewed as a mere extension of it. Traders traveling through the Maritime
Silk Road could span the entire distance of the maritime routes, instead of
through regional relays as with the overland route. Ships could carry far
larger amounts of goods, creating greater economic impact with each exchange.
Goods carried by the ships also differed from goods carried by caravans.
Traders on the maritime route faced different perils like weather and piracy,
but they were not affected by political instability and could simply avoid
areas in conflict.
History
Precursors
Chinese and Central Asian contacts (2nd millennium BCE)
Central Eurasia has been known from ancient times for its
horse riding and horse breeding communities, and the overland Steppe Route
across the northern steppes of Central Eurasia was in use long before that of
the Silk Road. Archeological sites, such as the Berel burial ground in
Kazakhstan, confirmed that the nomadic Arimaspians were not only breeding
horses for trade but also produced great craftsmen able to propagate exquisite
art pieces along the Silk Road. From the 2nd millennium BCE, nephrite jade was
being traded from mines in the region of Yarkand and Khotan to China.
Significantly, these mines were not very far from the lapis lazuli and spinel ("Balas
Ruby") mines in Badakhshan, and, although separated by the formidable
Pamir Mountains, routes across them were apparently in use from very early
times.
Genetic study of the Tarim mummies, found in the Tarim
Basin, in the area of Loulan, located along the Silk Road 200 kilometers (124
miles) east of Yingpan, dating to as early as 1600 BCE, suggests very ancient
contacts between East and West. These mummified remains may have been of people
who spoke Indo-European languages, which remained in use in the Tarim Basin, in
the modern-day Xinjiang region, until replaced by Turkic influences from the
Xiongnu culture to the north and by Chinese influences from the eastern Han
dynasty, who spoke a Sino-Tibetan language.
Some remnants of what was probably Chinese silk, dating from
1070 BCE, have been found in Ancient Egypt. The Great Oasis cities of Central
Asia played a crucial role in the effective functioning of the Silk Road trade.
The originating source seems sufficiently reliable, but silk degrades very
rapidly, so it cannot be verified whether it was cultivated silk (which almost
certainly came from China) or a type of wild silk, which might have come from
the Mediterranean or the Middle East.
Following contacts between Metropolitan China and nomadic
western border territories in the 8th century BCE, gold was introduced from
Central Asia, and Chinese jade carvers began to make imitation designs of the
steppes, adopting the Scythian-style animal art of the steppes (depictions of
animals locked in combat). This style is particularly reflected in the
rectangular belt plaques made of gold and bronze, with other versions in jade
and steatite. An elite burial near Stuttgart, Germany, dated to the 6th century
BCE, was excavated and found to have not only Greek bronzes but also Chinese
silks. Similar animal-shaped pieces of art and wrestler motifs on belts have
been found in Scythian grave sites stretching from the Black Sea region all the
way to Warring States era archaeological sites in Inner Mongolia (at
Aluchaideng) and Shaanxi (at Keshengzhuang [de]) in China.
The expansion of Scythian cultures, stretching from the
Hungarian plain and the Carpathian Mountains to the Chinese Gansu Corridor, and
linking the Middle East with Northern India and the Punjab, undoubtedly played
an important role in the development of the Silk Road. Scythians accompanied
the Assyrian Esarhaddon on his invasion of Egypt, and their distinctive
triangular arrowheads have been found as far south as Aswan. These nomadic
peoples were dependent upon neighboring settled populations for several
important technologies, and in addition to raiding vulnerable settlements for
these commodities, they also encouraged long-distance merchants as a source of
income through the enforced payment of tariffs. Sogdians played a major role in
facilitating trade between China and Central Asia along the Silk Roads as late
as the 10th century, their language serving as a lingua franca for Asian trade
as far back as the 4th century.
Initiation in China (130 BCE)
The Silk Road was initiated and spread by China's Han
dynasty through exploration and conquests in Central Asia. With the
Mediterranean linked to the Fergana Valley, the next step was to open a route
across the Tarim Basin and the Hexi Corridor to China Proper. This extension
came around 130 BCE, with the embassies of the Han dynasty to Central Asia
following the reports of the ambassador Zhang Qian (who was originally sent to
obtain an alliance with the Yuezhi against the Xiongnu). Zhang Qian visited the
kingdom of Dayuan in Ferghana, the territories of the Yuezhi in Transoxiana,
the Bactrian country of Daxia with its remnants of Greco-Bactrian rule, and
Kangju. He also made reports on neighboring countries that he did not visit,
such as Anxi (Parthia), Tiaozhi (Mesopotamia), Shendu (Indian subcontinent),
and the Wusun. Zhang Qian's report suggested the economic reason for Chinese
expansion and wall-building westward, and trail-blazed the Silk Road, making it
one of the most famous trade routes in history and in the world.
After winning the War of the Heavenly Horses and the
Han–Xiongnu War, Chinese armies established themselves in Central Asia,
initiating the Silk Route as a major avenue of international trade. Some say
that the Chinese Emperor Wu became interested in developing commercial
relationships with the sophisticated urban civilizations of Ferghana, Bactria,
and the Parthian Empire: "The Son of Heaven on hearing all this
reasoned thus: Ferghana (Dayuan "Great Ionians") and the possessions
of Bactria (Ta-Hsia) and Parthian Empire (Anxi) are large countries, full of
rare things, with a population living in fixed abodes and given to occupations
somewhat identical with those of the Chinese people, but with weak armies, and
placing great value on the rich produce of China" (Hou Hanshu, Later
Han History). Others say that Emperor Wu was mainly interested in fighting the
Xiongnu and that major trade began only after the Chinese pacified the Hexi
Corridor.
The Chinese were also strongly attracted by the tall and
powerful horses (named "heavenly horses") in the possession of
the Dayuan (literally the "Great Ionians," the Greek kingdoms
of Central Asia), which were of capital importance in fighting the nomadic
Xiongnu. They defeated the Dayuan in the Han-Dayuan war. The Chinese
subsequently sent numerous embassies, around ten every year, to these countries
and as far as Seleucid Syria.
Thus, more embassies were dispatched to Anxi [Parthia],
Yancai [who later joined the Alans], Lijian [Syria under the Greek Seleucids],
Tiaozhi (Mesopotamia), and Tianzhu [northwestern India] ... As a rule, rather
more than ten such missions went forward in the course of a year, and at least
five or six. (Hou Hanshu, Later Han History).
These connections marked the beginning of the Silk Road
trade network that extended to the Roman Empire.
The Chinese campaigned in Central Asia on several occasions,
and direct encounters between Han troops and Roman legionaries (probably
captured or recruited as mercenaries by the Xiongnu Nu) are recorded,
particularly in the 36 BCE battle of Sogdiana (Joseph Needham, Sidney Shapiro).
It has been suggested that the Chinese crossbow was transmitted to the Roman
world on such occasions, although the Greek gastraphetes provides an
alternative origin. R. Ernest Dupuy and Trevor N. Dupuy suggest that in 36 BCE,
The Han dynasty army regularly policed the trade route
against nomadic bandit forces generally identified as Xiongnu. Han general Ban
Chao led an army of 70,000 mounted infantry and light cavalry troops in the 1st
century CE to secure the trade routes, reaching as far west as the Tarim Basin.
Ban Chao expanded his conquests across the Pamirs to the shores of the Caspian
Sea and the borders of Parthia. It was from here that the Han general
dispatched envoy Gan Ying to Daqin (Rome). The Silk Road essentially came into
being from the 1st century BCE, following these efforts by China to consolidate
a road to the Western world and India, both through direct settlements in the
area of the Tarim Basin and diplomatic relations with the countries of the
Dayuan, Parthians, and Bactrians further west. The Silk Roads were a "complex
network of trade routes" that gave people the chance to exchange goods
and culture.
A maritime Silk Route opened up between Chinese-controlled
Giao Chỉ (centered in modern Vietnam, near Hanoi), probably by the 1st century.
It extended, via ports on the coasts of India and Sri Lanka, all the way to
Roman-controlled ports in Roman Egypt and the Nabataean territories on the
northeastern coast of the Red Sea. The earliest Roman glassware bowl found in
China was unearthed from a Western Han tomb in Guangzhou, dated to the early
1st century BCE, indicating that Roman commercial items were being imported
through the South China Sea. According to Chinese dynastic histories, it is
from this region that the Roman embassies arrived in China, beginning in 166 CE
during the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Emperor Huan of Han. Other Roman
glasswares have been found in Eastern Han-era tombs (25–220 CE), further inland
in Luoyang, Nanyang, and Nanjing.
Roman Empire
(30 BCE – 3rd century CE)
Soon after the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BCE, regular
communications and trade between China, Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East,
Africa, and Europe blossomed on an unprecedented scale. The Roman Empire
inherited eastern trade routes that were part of the Silk Road from the earlier
Hellenistic powers and the Arabs. With control of these trade routes, citizens
of the Roman Empire received new luxuries and greater prosperity for the Empire
as a whole. The Roman-style glassware discovered in the archeological sites of
Gyeongju, the capital of the Silla kingdom (Korea), showed that Roman artifacts
were traded as far as the Korean peninsula. The Greco-Roman trade with India
started by Eudoxus of Cyzicus in 130 BCE and continued to increase, and
according to Strabo (II.5.12), by the time of Augustus, up to 120 ships were
setting sail every year from Myos Hormos in Roman Egypt to India. The Roman
Empire connected with the Central Asian Silk Road through their ports in
Barygaza (present-day Bharuch) and Barbarikon (near present-day Karachi) and
continued along the western coast of India. An ancient "travel
guide" to this Indian Ocean trade route was the Greek Periplus of the
Erythraean Sea, written in 60 CE.
The travelling party of Maës Titianus penetrated farthest
east along the Silk Road from the Mediterranean world, probably to regularize
contacts and reduce the role of middlemen, during one of the lulls in Rome's
intermittent wars with Parthia, which repeatedly obstructed movement along the
Silk Road. Intercontinental trade and communication became regular, organized,
and protected by the "Great Powers." Intense trade with the
Roman Empire soon followed, confirmed by the Roman craze for Chinese silk
(supplied through the Parthians), even though the Romans thought silk was
obtained from trees. This belief was affirmed by Seneca the Younger in his
Phaedra and by Virgil in his Georgics. Notably, Pliny the Elder knew better.
Speaking of the bombyx or silk moth, he wrote in his Natural Histories, "They
weave webs, like spiders, that become a luxurious clothing material for women,
called silk." The Romans traded spices, glassware, perfumes, and silk.
Roman artisans began to replace yarn with valuable plain
silk cloths from China and the Silla Kingdom in Gyeongju, Korea. Chinese wealth
grew as they delivered silk and other luxury goods to the Roman Empire, whose
wealthy women admired their beauty. The Roman Senate issued, in vain, several
edicts to prohibit the wearing of silk, on economic and moral grounds: the
import of Chinese silk caused a huge outflow of gold, and silk clothes were
considered decadent and immoral.
I can see clothes of silk, if materials that do not hide the
body, nor even one's decency, can be called clothes. ... Wretched flocks of
maids labor so that the adulteress may be visible through her thin dress, so
that her husband has no more acquaintance than any outsider or foreigner with
his wife's body.
The Western Roman Empire, and its demand for sophisticated
Asian products, collapsed in the fifth century.
The unification of Central Asia and Northern India within
the Kushan Empire between the first and third centuries reinforced the role of
the powerful merchants from Bactria and Taxila. They fostered multi-cultural
interaction as indicated by their 2nd-century treasure hoards filled with
products from the Greco-Roman world, China, and India, such as in the
archeological site of Begram.
The Silk Road trade did not sell only textiles, jewels,
metal, and cosmetics, but also slaves, connecting the Silk Road slave trade to
the Bukhara slave trade as well as the Black Sea slave trade, particularly
slave girls.
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