The Influence of Globalization as Exampled through the Silk Road - Essay Example

? The influence of globalization as exampled through the Silk Road Although it has become a buzzword of the 21st century, the idea of globalization is not a new concept. The Silk Road was an effort towards globalization within the framework of a set number of civilizations created by trade and commerce. Just as today’s globalization has set up an interchange of trade, ideological exchange, and technology information, the Silk Road allowed the world to develop and grow through the complexity of the evolution of the information exchange. The Silk Road also provided for issues of the transmission of disease, such as the Antonin and bubonic plagues. The roads also provided routes for conquest and violence, reorganizing boundaries. While there was a brief period of conquest such as the Mongolian invasion, during the 13th century the majority of exchange along the Silk Road was peaceful. The Silk Road provided a pathway for journeys that can be compared to today’s globalization as the distribution of information and commerce becomes a part of a system of interactions between nations. The Silk Road was the method of creating international trade before the notion of sea travel took over as a means towards expanding resource opportunities. Through international trade, a population has the potential to acquire luxury items from a distance through trade with other centers of population. The Silk Road created a connection between nations, spanning Europe in the Mediterranean Sea area, through Persia and into China and Korea, and then down into the Java area, back through India, Arabia, down to Somalia, and then back up through Egypt, using water routes that were not too far from destinations and the shoreline. Christian discusses the vast number of roles, such as teachers, pilgrims as well as merchants that occurred through the existence of the large numbers of trade opportunities within the ancient and medieval worlds. The trade routes provided for a complete and complex world that interconnected the African and Asian worlds with Europe, creating a great deal of technological development and influence.1 Despite modern contexts of understanding about the divisions between the West and the East, with a disconnected idea about Africa as a part of the development of Western society, these trade routes created deep influences and a great amount of world development that would eventually affect the New World as it was developed in the second millennia. Palmyra and Petra, as an example, were centers of art which flowed into the lower regions of Europe, influencing the development of artistic motifs in the West. As well, the concept of coins for trade was developed in Anatolia, which spread through the Silk Road worlds, including the Mediterranean. There were a great number of types of items that were traded along these routes of trade, but the reason that they were called the ‘Silk Road’ is because of the rich resources of silk that were available. Silk was developed at a very early time period within Asia and became a highly valued commodity for trade. Patterned silks are available from the regions of Persia and India from the 6th century, located in tombs that archaeologists have retrieved and been able to examine for the methods of weaving. Chinese silks are not readily available for modern study and are known primarily through literary referencing from that time period.2 Many of the problems with studying the ancient world is that so much is dependent upon reports, rather than through physical and tangible evidence. Because many nations appeared to have mastered the creation of silk fabric after the 6th century, it is likely that increases in trade occurred after that time, allowing samples and the technology to be transferred throughout the region.3 There are a great number of examples that explain the value of silk. There is little evidence that India held it as a valued commodity, but a great number of examples that show that China believed it to have great value. Xinru discusses the nature of silk and how it was transported. Buddhist teachers and academics were given silks, their journeys becoming connected to political emissary missions that provided silk to those kings that were intended to be impressed. Zinru relates a story in which a famous pilgrim by the name of Xuanzang stopped at the Buddhist statue at Gaochang in Turpan only to have the king of Goachang gave him enough silk and tribute to other kings that he needed thirty horses on which to take these gifts. He was given 500 bolts of silk, both plain and damask, in order to make an impression on the kingdoms through which he traveled.4 While this is a specific tale of a famous traveler, it is not unique to Xuanzang to discover historical writings with stories of travelers sent with donations of silk to give as tributes. Silk, gold, and other resources that have no real function became considered valuable because they have aesthetic value. Value can be an interesting idea when explored through what people will think is important. Silk and gold have no purpose other than they are shiny and beautiful. People of the ancient world were not only concerned with the value of food and shelter, their basic needs, but traded for items such as ivory, gold, silk, and items of artistic value in bronze and jade.5 None of these items have value based upon the needs of survival, but to fulfill a human need that seems to drive towards owning beauty. Value becomes assigned through socially relevant circumstances, and as those ideas are spread, they will retain that value as commodities for sale. As globalization began to emerge through the trade routes of the ancient and medieval times, it is clear that ideologies and distinctions were becoming aligned because of the exposure to beliefs and ideas that came from other cultures. Value became dependent upon regional divisions, such as the way in which India did not place silk as a commodity while China clearly valued the fine fabric. India provided China with a great deal of influence for the development of medicine. Most bodies of knowledge where medicine is concerned develop first through the concepts of mysticism. Magic soon gives way to rationalism, and as the Indian rationalism about medicine developed it was spread to other destination through travelers who picked upon the ideas about health that Indian healers supported.6 This can be compared to the way in which the internet provides people information about different ideas about healing that are outside of those known within their culture. As an example, Indian medicine can now be researched and used by an American via the internet. While the internet, as compared to the Silk Road, does not set up conquest in the traditional sense, the paths towards globalized economies with trade and information shared between different people does allow for corruption and shifts in social belief systems. Physical conquest and the corruption of ideologies were common during the time of the Silk Road trade route operations. The routes allowed for the expansion of empires through aggression, economic pressure, and through ideological transformations. Turkistan and the Arabian empires were able to create large centers of metropolitan life, while indulging in high levels of trade.7 The expansion of these regions was due to the value of the items that were the focal points of their trade. Through these routes, nations were built with the growth of population and the spread of territory, which was accomplished by the methods discussed. The Internet accomplishes a similar goal through the spread of information. While the Internet is a peaceful exchange of trade or ideas it can also be a form of aggression that sways opinions and builds communities. The idea of globalization and the ways in which the world changed during the time of the Silk Road can be compared to modern globalization and the spread of ideas and commodities. Silk, the commodity for which the route is named was assigned value, which provided for a spread of the item throughout the Eurasia world as it was interconnected through these trade routes. Information is a far more important commodity that is traded through routes that create globalized economies. The example of Indian medicine provides context for both the ancient and the modern world. In the ancient world, China was highly influenced by Indian medicine, and in the modern world Indian medicine is also influenced by the West and is easily accessible through the route of the Internet. Globalization of the ancient and medieval world through the Silk Road can be compared to the globalization of today as routes of goods and information provide influence between cultures. Read More