The Silk Road was a network of trade routes connecting China to Europe via Central Asia. This network was the main conduit of trade from the 2nd Century BCE to about the 15th Century CE. The term “Silk Road” was never used during its centuries of operation.
A German geographer named Ferdinand von Richthofen, an expert in Chinese geography, used the term Seidenstraße (SIlk Road) or Seidenstraßen (Silk Routes) in a massive multi-volume study published between 1877-1912. The phrase might have faded into obscurity had it not been seized on by Albert Herrmann, another German historian who used the term in his 1910 book Seidenstraße. After Herrmann published a second volume with the same name in 1938, the idea of the Silk Road slowly made its way into popular culture.
Origins of the Silk Road
Historians date the start of the Silk Road or Routes to 138 BCE when Emperor Wu sent an envoy named Zhang Qian to make contact with tribes in the Fergana Valley in Central Asia. The envoy was held captive for several years before making his way home with stories of the magnificent horses used in the region. Desire for these “Heavenly Horses,” as the emperor named them, led to the first formal trade along what would become a northern branch of the Silk Road.
The Silk Road had three main routes from China: the Northern Route, the Southern Route, and the Southwestern Route. The Northern Route started in the imperial city of Chang’an in central China and split into three routes circumventing mountains and deserts before reaching Kashgar in far western China. From there, travelers could choose any number of routes east to the Black Sea and beyond. The Southern Route, sometimes called the Karakoram Route, ran along the Karakoram mountain range that skirts the modern borders of China, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. The Southwestern Route ran from central China to the Ganges Delta in modern India. From these major points, goods could move via countless overland and sea routes all the way to Europe, the Mediterranean, and North Africa.
Very few people made the entire 4,000-mile journey across the harsh and dangerous terrain. Most trade between Europe and the East was conducted through middlemen spread across Central Asia. Goods were often carried in massive caravans made up of hundreds of men and mounts, in the hope that their sheer size would scare off the robbers and thieves that prowled the most heavily trafficked routes. Trading settlements called caravanserais sprang up at key points and major junctions. The settlements functioned as depots where goods could be sold to traders who could send them onto the next destination.
Chinese silk was arguably the most romantic item to travel across the continent. The manufacture of silk was a closely guarded secret within China for centuries, but once China began to open up for trade, it quickly became a prized luxury for the western elite. But ultimately, it was just one of countless items that moved along the roads of Central Asia. From the east came porcelain, ivory, tea, gunpowder, paper, rice, perfumes, spices, and precious stones. From the west came horses, camels, domesticated animals, glassware, armor, furs, saddles, and slaves.
Exchange
While primarily a trade network, the Silk Road also promoted the intermingling of languages, ideas, religions, and innovations. Christians and Jews trades were well-represented among those that traded on the route, although Islam became the primary religion along much of the network after the 7th Century CE. The Silk Road also allowed Buddhism to spread out of India and across the East. Diplomats used the network to build (or break) alliances between empires. Innovations like gunpowder reshaped warfare in Europe, while powerful Central Asian horses helped ambitious rulers build and expand empires in the East.
Some historians have theorized that diseases like anthrax and the bubonic plague may have been carried along the Silk Road. Recent research has shown that travelers may have carried parasites between populations, but it is still unclear if the road was also a conduit for illnesses like the Black Death.
Decline of the Silk Road
The Silk Road began to decline around the 10th Century CE. Historians point to several reasons: changes in the global weather patterns that increased desertification along large swathes of the route; the rise of Islam and the resulting friction with the Chinese; and the closure of major Central Asian borders as empires rose and feel in the 14th and 15th Centuries. On a more practical level, the establishment of new sea routes and better, faster ships made overland travel far less necessary than in previous centuries. The recognized “end” of the Silk Road is 1453, when the Ottoman Empire boycotted trade with the West and shut down the east-west trade routes through their lands.
In recent years, the Chinese government has promoted their Belt and Road Initiative as a reimagined version of the historic route, as they create a network of roads, rail lines, and seaports in more than 70 nations. The overland route is referred to as the “Silk Road Economic Belt” and the port network as the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road.” They plan to complete the project sometime in 2049.
FURTHER READING
Beckwith, Christopher I.. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton University Press, 2009.
Frankopan, Peter. The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World. United States, Alfred A. Knopf, 2019.
Hansen, Valerie. The Silk Road: A New History with Documents. Oxford University Press, 2015.
Vadim Elisseeff. The Silk Roads: Highways of Culture and Commerce. Berghahn Books, 2000.
Torr, Geordie. The Silk Roads: A History of the Great Trading Routes Between East and West. Arcturus Publishing, 2018.
Wood, Frances. The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia. University of California Press, 2002.