History of Exchange Along Silk Roads (PDF)

History of exchange along the Silk Roads -Major sections of Silk Road -Started with Romans in west, Parthians in east, and Central Asian societies -Developed into 3 major sections: Eastern section from Chang’an running along northern and southern borders of Taklamakan dessert to Pamir mountains, C...

History of exchange along the Silk Roads -Major sections of Silk Road -Started with Romans in west, Parthians in east, and Central Asian societies -Developed into 3 major sections: Eastern section from Chang’an running along northern and southern borders of Taklamakan dessert to Pamir mountains, Central Asian sections going from Pamir mountains to across Central Asian regions of Samarkand -Goods traded -Between China to West: Peach, mandarin orange, rice, chrysanthemum, rose, apricot, cinnamon, tomato, silk manufacturing, wheelbarrow, magnetic compass, paper and printing, crossbow and gunpowder, polychrome, drugs and medicines. -Cultural diffusion -Buddhism and Islam spread throughout Silk Road through monks and pilgrims, who would gather at trade centers and temples, etc to share and spread their religions. -Impact of cultural diffusion -Buddhism: 60,000 Chinese words originated from Buddhism, arts and architecture such as padoras were influenced by Buddhism. -Islam: Spread of Arabic language amongst Muslims, as well as contributions to philosophy, arts, literature, math, astronomy, and history. History of exchange along the Sea Roads -Major trading cities along Indian Ocean Trade Routes -Sea based trade routes connected distant peoples all across the eastern hemisphere; since the days of the Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans, the Mediterranean Sea had been an avenue of maritime commerce throughout the region. -Successful civilizations include: -Malay kingdom of Srivijaya which was a great place for monks and pilgrims to meet and settle in its extremely large temples, as well as studying and spreading religions. It used its valuable resources such as gold and spices to be extremely successful economically. -Swahili civilization in East Africa, which spoke Bantu languages, and found economic success trading with Arabian, Greek, and Roman merchants using its valuable resources such as gold, ivory, slaves, quartz, iron, and timber. Became Islamic and had many mosques and temples. -Identify the goods traded Important examples include: Porcelain from China, Spices from Southeast Asia, cotton goods and pepper from India, ivory and gold from East Africa, and incense from Arabia. -Benefits of trade along Indian Ocean  -Understanding of monsoons meant that travelling was safer and more predictable and led to improvements in navigation techniques such as better sails and ships, as well as magnetic compasses. -Ships could carry more bulk goods than camels for mass market. -Transportation costs were more predictable, and the costs were also lower. Similarities and differences in PECS impact between the two Similarities(everything stated applies to both sea and silk roads): -Political: Trade would lead to globalization and increase of supply chains that would connect and involve almost all governing parties at the time, through the different trade routes. -Economic: Trade improved the economy of all parties involved by providing them with a wide variety of resources and riches, and led to more changes in work classes, with merchants suddenly becoming extremely important to these societies in trade. -Cultural: The spread of Islam and Buddhism had a major influence of the arts, customs, beliefs, and architecture of the people in these societies. Religions were often spread through trade as people gathered at trading centers to share their religions and stories, as well as through monks and pilgrims who would travel to extremely far distances to share their religions across the world. -Social: Societies thrived and thus led to improvements in social classes such as an increase of merchants, and in civilizations, they had stronger military, more resources, and clan chiefs that had no power originally, were now kings with lots of power and wealth. Differences: -Political: Trade along the Indian Ocean Trade Routes had a stronger political effect on the eastern hemisphere where trade along the Indian Ocean flourished. On the other hand, in the Silk Road, it was able to have a stronger impact on political alliances and the way civilizations were governed with time periods such as pax mongolica being examples of how the politics influenced trade along the silk road, allowing traders and merchants to travel safely in a time of peace. -Economic: Trade along the Silk Road was expensive and the costs were hard to predict. Traders could only save up money which would take a very long time, or borrow money, but would have to pay back at a high interest rate. This made it so merchants sold and traded goods at extremely high prices. There were so many small towns that imposed different taxes, meaning it was costly and hard to predict. However, along Indian Ocean Trade Routes, the costs were a lot cheaper and easier to predict. Furthermore, ships could carry more bulk goods than camels and led to a mass market, where one trader could trade a wider variety of goods. -Cultural: Silk Road trade led to an increase of pilgrims and monks that would travel far distances and share stories and religious ideas. They would gather at temples and trading centers to study religions. On the other hand, pilgrims and monks did not really travel along sea routes, and religion was only mainly spread at trade centers or temples. Social: Indian Ocean Trade Routes found lots of economic success as civilizations had their own independent governed cities that each flourished and had a wide variety of resources. On the other hand, Silk Road civilizations found lots of economic success as well, due the taxes imposed on travelling traders, leading to fights between civilizations about the ownership of land.