The Silk Road

The Silk Road was not a single road but a network of trade routes that connected China with Central Asia, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean world for more than a thousand years. The name was invented much later, in the nineteenth century, by a German geographer who was impressed by the importance of Chinese silk in this trade.

[A] In fact, silk was only one of many goods that moved along these routes. [B] Merchants also carried spices, glass, metals, horses, and paper. [C] Very few traders traveled the entire distance. Instead, goods usually passed from one merchant to another, changing hands many times and becoming more expensive at each stage of the journey. [D]

The Silk Road was just as important for the exchange of ideas as for the exchange of goods. Travelers spread religions, languages, and technologies, such as papermaking, from one region to another. Cities along the routes, like Samarkand, became wealthy centers where people from many cultures met. In this way, the trade network helped connect distant societies long before the modern era of globalization.