Silk Roads - Essay Example

Silk Roads Silk roads are also known as silk routes. These roads act as series of trade and cultural. Additionally, theseroads were central to the cultural interaction. The Silk Roads can be also be defined as complex network of trade routes that gives people chances to exchange goods and culture. These cultural interactions happened to occur in regions of the Asian continent and other continents such as African continent. The main theme was to connect these regions by linking traders, monks, soldiers, urban dwellers, merchants, and pilgrims from different continents. The whole process happened in a period. Traders who operate on the Silk Roads, however, they take great interest mostly in the safety of the products that they are particularly interested and in products that they trade in. This assures them of the protection of the trade route i.e. the Silk route or the Silk Road (Elisseeff 222). This paper will give detailed information on the silk roads including all the aspects. This means that the importance of silk roads will be covered in detail. Additionally, the history and the origin of these roads will be covered. On the other hand the disadvantages or the pros of the roads will also be given. Many researchers have conducted researches on these types of roads thus giving relevant information about Silk roads. The Silk Roads as discussed above are said to have originated during the 1st century. It came to this because of the efforts of the country China. China at first consolidated a road to the Western world and India. The two routes were obtained through direct settlement in the area of the Tarim Basim and diplomatic relationship countries of the Parthians, Dayuan and Bactrians further west. People used these routes to extract opportunities to exchange culture and other behaviors (Elisseeff 243). After the Roman conquest that happened in Egypt in 30 BC, the regular communications and the trade between several countries blossomed on an unprecedented scale. The countries that were on this blossom were China, India, Africa, Europe, and Southeast Asia. It was found that the Roman Empire inherited the eastern trade routes from the earlier Hellenistic powers and the Arabs. After the Roman Empire took over the Silk Roads, the citizens of the Roman Empire would have the opportunity of receiving luxuries and greater prosperity for the empire as a whole. With the presence of the Silk Roads, the Greco-Roman trade kept on rising to new levels. This trade was started by Eudoxus of Cyzicus in 130 BC. The trade rose to about 120 ships setting sail every year from Myos Hormos in the Roman Egypt to India (Elisseeff 342). Later, the Roman Empire intended to connect the Asian Silk Road to the city of Bharuch and the cities of Karachi, Pakistan and Sindh, which continued along the western coast of India. This increased the extension of the Silk Roads to other parts where there was no such roads. The Silk Roads was only effective in the areas where trade was active and the market was available for the goods. The Maes Titianus who became travelers used the Silk Road from the Mediterranean world. The main role of this Silk Road along the Mediterranean world was to regulate contacts and reduce the role of the intermediaries. The role of intermediaries was to negotiate between sellers and buyers during trade. However, the lulls in Rome’s intermittent wars with the Parthia offered obstruction to the movement along the Silk Road. On the other hand, the international trade became more regular, it was organized, and the ‘Great Powers’ protected it. It is noted that many activities followed this issue of this Silk Road. One of the activities was the intense trade with the Roman Empire, which was confirmed by the Roman craze for the Chinese Silk. This issue occurs despite the fact that the Romans thought Silk was obtained from a number of trees (Elisseeff 332). In early times, the Silk Roads gave a representation to several issues. For example, the Silk Road represented an early phenomenon of political and cultural integration due to inter-regional trade. During trade, individuals kept on exchanging the cultural practices and cultural traits and social norms. Individuals help each other on ideas of expanding businesses thus teaching themselves on trade issues. The Silk Road sustained an international culture during its Heyday. During this time, the Silk Road strung together groups as the Magyars, Armenians and Chinese. The route experienced its prime periods of popularity and activity in differing eras at different points along its length (Elisseeff 202). When it came to the western regions, the Silk Road hit its peak during the time of the Byzantine Empire. This happened in the Nile-Oxus section from the Sassanid Empire period to the period of Il Khanate and in the Sinitic zone from the period of the three Kingdoms to the period of Yuan Dynasty. There was development of trade between the East and the west especially on the sea. It also occurred between Alexandria in Egypt and Guangzhou in China. This fostered across the Indian Ocean. During the trade along the Silk Road, the Persian Sassanid coin emerged as the main way of currency, which was a s valuable as Silk yarn and textiles. The tribal societies that lived in isolation along the Silk Road previously were subjected to the riches and important opportunities of civilization, which are connected to or by the Silk Road. This happens under the strong integrating dynamics of the Silk Road on one hand and the impacts of change that Silk Road transmitted on the other. The societies and or pastoralists were barbarian but were benefited by the introduction of the Silk Roads. After these societies became literate, they took trade of marauders and mercenaries. With this in mind, many barbarian tribes became skilled warriors who were able to conquer rich cities, take over fertile lands and forge strong military empires (Elisseeff 192). The main driving force of the Great Silk Road was carrier of a mixed Sogdian-Turkic culture that often comes from mixed families but not just the Sogdian. This was according to A.V.Dybo. After the 4th century up to the 8th century, Sogdians dominated the East-West trade. At the moment, Suyab and Talas ranking among their main centers in the north. They were also time main caravan merchants of the Center Asia. The Gokturks resurgent military powers were the once providing protection for their commercial interests, whose empire has been described as ‘the joint enterprise of the Ashina clan and the Soghdians’. Despite this, their trades with some interruptions continued in the 9th century within the framework of the Uighur Empire, and by 840, they extended across northern Central Asia and obtained from China enormous deliveries of silk in exchange for horses. At this time, the Chinese sources mentioned the caravans of Sogdians traveling to Upper Mongolia. Part of the data about eastern Asia provided by Muslim geographers of the 10th century actually goes back to Sogdian data of the period 750–840 and thus shows the survival of links between east and west. As they, all played an equally important religious and cultural role. However, Sogdian trade went through a crisis after the end of the Uighur Empire. The trade of the Samanids was the one that was mainly issued from Muslim Central Asia. This led to the restart of the northwestern road leading to the Khazars and the Urals and the northeastern one toward the nearby Turkic tribes (Elisseeff 434). Silk Roads have a great importance to perticular countries as they are connected with their continents. Silk Roads are very important factors that they are for development of the civilization of most the countries in the particular continent. The importance of Silk Roads is that they open long-distance, political, and economic interactions between these civilizations. For instance, Silk Roads was certainly the major trade item from China, many other goods were traded, and various technologies, religions and philosophies. Silk Roads also had its own negative effects. One negative thing about the Silk Roads was that it transferred many deceases from one part of the world to another. In China, a plague namely the Bubonic Plague such as “Black Death” was introduced the country, which also traveled along the Silk Routes. More so, to the economic trade, the Silk Road served as a ways of cultural trade between the networking civilizations (Elisseeff 112). By naming them, Romans, Indians, Persians, and Bactrians were the main traders during Antiquity. Later on, during the fifth to the 8th century, is then the Sogdians became one of the main traders. Thereafter, during the coming of age of Islam, Arabs traders became even more prominent. Generally, the Silk Road generated many benefits to the economies of the continent that participated or took part in the trade. Works cited Elisseeff, Vadime. The silk roads: highways of culture and commerce. New York: Berghahn Books ;, 2000. Print Read More