...Shadow of the Silk Road records Colin Thubron’s journey along the greatest land route on earth. He passes through China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey and describes the history, cultures and people along the way. The Silk Road was described as a huge network of arteries splitting and converging across the breadth of Asia. To travel it is to trace the passage not only of trade and armies but also of ideas, religions and inventions. Shadow of the Silk Road encounters Islamic countries in many forms. Overall it explains changes in China that transformed since the Cultural Revolution. Throughout this book, Thubron discovers and identifies the transformation of history that transpired. He begins to reminisce and expresses drastic cultural changes that occurred throughout his life experience and throughout his journey on the Silk Road. Thubron portrays his journey to be momentous, but yet anonymous. He states, "Sometimes a journey arises out of hope and instinct, the heady conviction, as you finger travels along the map". (p. 2) Thubron witnessed the turmoil of a society racing to catch up with the future. At the beginning of my reading, I wondered if Thubron was associating his journey to the Cultural Revolution as pathway to his purpose. "During the Cultural Revolution I was struggled badly" (p. 56) It seems as if he felt the need to face the past and think of what was needed for the future. "After the Cultural Revolution, anything is happy." (p...
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...500 BC and again in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Silk Road has enriched culture for 2500 years. Exploration of the Taklimakan desert's edges was first spurred by the Han Dynasty's desperation to defend itself from the Xiongnu. Thousands of years later, European empires saw the trade potential Chinese leaders had seen previously. Archeologists made the perilous journeys of Silk Road traders and began to uncover ancient manuscripts, all the while keeping their own record that very closely paralleled those which they discovered. Sir Aurel Stein, a foremost archeologist in the area, saw the Silk Road as a "… special meeting ground of Chinese civilization, introduced by trade and political penetration,...
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...between different lands from the year 200 BCE to 1450 CE, the Silk Roads experienced many patterns of interaction. During this period of time, the roads changed such as the amount they were used, which changed as nations and empires rose and fell; the goods and ideas that traveled the roads after Europe and Asia increased their trading; and lastly the safety of the roads varied throughout this time period. However, the Silk Roads still experienced many continuities as well, for example their original purpose which was to facilitate the exchange of goods between Asia and Europe never changed; they continued to influence many cultures especially with the traveling of religions; and the Silk Roads have always had long term affects and influence on powerful empires. Towards the beginning of their patterns of interaction in 200 BCE, the Silk Roads were minimally used in East Asia. As time progresses, the roads increase as did empires such as Rome and Han who grew both economically and culturally due to usage of the roads. But, instability and economic pressures took a toll on the two empires, and when Rome fell in 476, the Silk Roads were used far less than how they originally were. The roads managed to pick up again as the Byzantine Empire in the east emerged and was able to prosper from usage of the already available roads. However, the Mongols come into play and invade the empire and end Byzantine’s era with the Silk Roads. In Western Europe, society was in the period called the Middle...
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...From 200 B.C.E. to 1450 C.E., the Silk Road has gone through major changes such as economy and diseases as well as continuities such as Rome and China not being able to trade directly, the major goods, its basic purpose, and the spread of religion. While the original purpose of the Silk Road remained intact by being a connecting platform and trade route between various countries in Central Asia, the major goods traded on it and the civilizations it went through also did too. The road consisted of many different routes leading to different cities and countries, such as the Chinese, Kushan, Parthian, and Roman civilizations. Due to the interactions between various, distinct cultures, the Silk Road facilitated the exchange of many distinct...
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...Ever wondered how the Silk Road got it’s name? Ever wondered what the point of the Silk Road was? Ever wondered how the Silk Road effect’s us now? Well, prepare to be amazed. The Silk Road was an ancient trade route that connected China to the west and it wasn’t 1 road it was a series of roads. The Silk Road traded not only silk, gunpowder, food but also ideas. To begin with, the Silk Road was a series of trade routes going through all sorts of countries in Eurasia. The Silk Road was located from China to the Mediterranean. Now that you know what it is and where it’s located you can understand it’s importance. The Newsela article stated, that many different things were traded. According to the BrainPop video, “the Silk Road has been there...
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...During the time of the Han Dynasty, many ideas, innovations, religion, and other luxury items were spread on the Silk Road. The Silk Road was a network of trade routes established during the Han Dynasty of China. Cultural diffusion played a major role during this time. Cultural diffusion is the spread of beliefs or ideas to another place. The Silk Road spread many innovations around, including silk. However, the title is misleading because ideas were the most significant thing exchanged, not luxury items. The name “silk road” is very misleading, the name was not even used until 1877 by a German geographer, Baron von Richtofen.The Silk road were a series of “short irregular hops, rarely following any fixed or time-worn pathway…” The main thing...
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...“A Silk Road Legacy: The Spread of Buddhism and Islam*” is written by Xinru Liu, a professor at the College of New Jersey. Xinru Liu is an associate professor of history on that campus. He has written many other peer reviewed history journals in his past. This specific article of his that I chose was a part of The Journal of World History in 2011 and was published by The University of Hawai’i Press. It was first presented at the 2009 Numata Conference “Buddhism and Islam,” in May of 2009 at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. A professor by the name of Lynda Shaffer has been Liu’s coauthor and the first reader of his writings for the past decade. She also edited, revised this article as well. This article endeavors the challenge of examining...
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...Interconnected: History & theory of Network 15 October 2013 The Silk Road: Past and Present Huang 1 Starting from the 2nd century BC, to the end of the 14th century AD, a great trade route stretched from Chang'An in the East and ended at the Mediterranean at Antioch in the West, linking China and the Roman Empire. Ferdinand von Richthofen – a well-‐known German geographer, named it the Silk Road in 1877. The Silk Road has been one of the most important trade routes since the connection between Europe and Asia was established; however, what are the differences between its past and present forms? How can we compare today’s trade network with the ancient one? What makes the new network possible and how can we make it better today? There are some similarities between the old and the new; something...
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...Take Home Exam # 3 What is the Silk Road? How did the Silk Road commerce? What were some of the major economic, social, and cultural consequence of Silk Road commerce? As classical empires reduced the costs of long-distance trade, merchants began establishing an extensive network of trade routes that connected much of Eurasia and northern Africa. These routes are known as the “Silk Roads” because high-quality silk from China was one of the principal commodities exchanged over the roads. Connected China and the Roman Empire. Started in the Han capital of Chang’ an and went west to Taklimakan Desert. There the road split into two main branches that separated the desert to the north and south. The Silk Roads avoided the Taklimakan Desert “The Desert of Death” and passed through the oasis towns on its outskirts. There one branch separated off to Taxila and northern India while the main branch continued across northern Iran. There it met roads coming from Arabia and ports on the Red Sea. The Silk Roads also provided access at ports like Guangzhou in southern China that led to maritime routes to India and Ceylon....
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...The Silk Road is not known as a road, but firmly identified as a route used to conduct exchanges between major countries. The empires that benefitted from the trade route are the Han Dynasty of China, Rome, Mesopotamia, India and Egypt. The Chinese created silk, paper and gun powder which made them beneficial to the trade route because they had many countries interested in forming a trade with them. The created empire during the Silk Road trade is Greco- Bactrian who was form by the Macedonian warriors having relationships with the indigenous population. During the Silk Road trades, many countries would use the camel as a transportation method of moving goods to the route in order to make deals with other countries. Buddhism benefitted from the Silk Road by expanding their religion over the Chinese, Central Asia and India....
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...The Silk Road 1. Introduction Silk road is a road that connects China with those countries of central and western Asia. It starts from Chang’an, the capital of ancient China, to Mediterranean ending at Rome. The overall length of this road is about 6440 kilometers. As the main commodity transported on this road is Chinese silk, it is called Silk Road. It is an important trade channel for those people of China, central Asia, western Asia, southeastern Asia, Europe, Africa, and America to friendly exchanges. The physical and spiritual communication caused by the Silk Road not only riches the physical lives of these regions around this road but also hugely impacts their culture and social structure. One of the most important contributions made...
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...Ancient Chinese Contributions Humanities 111 World Cultures 1 05/27/2012 In the days of Ancient Chinese, inventions were created using different techniques and styles by using things that we use in our everyday living. There are many contributions that I thought were important. Those inventions that were created by the Ancient Chinese were Umbrella’s. Umbrellas were invented by the Chinese. They made umbrellas from oiled paper. It was made from oiled paper because it repelled water. The frames of the umbrellas were made from mulberry bark and bamboo. Chinese used the umbrellas to keep the sun off of their skin. The common people used blue umbrellas and people that were of royal used red and yellow umbrellas. (This was cited from The Ancient Chinese Contributions, published by Deng Yinke. Information came from pages 1-23). The Seismograph was created by an astronomer during the Han Dynasty. The astronomer created the seismograph to give warning of an earthquake. The seismograph color was bronze and the vase was covered with dragons and toads. A long medal pendulum hung inside the vase. On the outside it had eight dragon heads; each was mounted onto its sides. Each dragon had a ball in its mouth and the dragon’s head was mounted onto its side as well. The pendulum swung in the direction in which the earthquake occurred. The pendulum would strike a rod inside the vase, the rod would then knock a ball out of the dragon’s mouth, and then it would drop into the...
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...Trade Routes 1. Indian Ocean Maritime Trade- A key factor in the trade of the East and West. Thanks to dhows and other long distance ships, this trade route spread from Indonesia to East Africa, and many cities in between. 2. Silk Road- Being 6,400 miles long, the Silk Road connected the East to the west through the vast lands of asia, and up and through Europe. It added many contributions to the development of many civilizations and countries, such as China, Persia, and India. Not only goods were spread through the known world, many philosophies and religions were spread, because of the vast land the Silk Road traveled through. 3. Trans-Saharan Trade- When gold came in demand for the needs of coinage for the mediterranean nations, Berbers...
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...In my selected opinion editorial, the author argues that the countries along the silk road are “both welcoming and wary of Beijing’s ‘one-belt, one-road’ initiative,” because some local people express their concerns that China’s influence expands and “this is an imperialistic move.” To respond to this argument, I turn to the Qing dynasty’s policy to stimulate trades in the Central Asia. In the eighteenth century, the Qing empire conquered the West Regions, and the Manchus tended to maintain the routes of trade in Tarim and Zungharian Basins which were parts of the overland silk road in Xinjiang, though the overland one was not as prosperous as earlier time. This inspires me to seek the answer to a series of questions as follows. To what extent...
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...security borders and gather information. With corruption of law enforcement, also an issue in these countries, the agency combats the problem by giving their officers a salary well above that of local officers. Another problem shown is that the United Nations, rather than the countries fund the program. Countries banding together to assist each other to help prevent further narcotic movements are future goals sought after by the program. Osh and Brussels states that according to their article, "opiates have fueled conflict throughout the region and are likely to have been a significant source of financial support for terrorist organizations with a global reach" (Osh/Brussels, 2001). The strain on security and social issues caused by the Silk Road drug trade have begun to affect the neighboring nations of Afghanistan. "Afghanistan is generally regarded as the world's largest exporter of heroin" and that "there are direct links between the drug business, arms purchases for the country's civil war, and the activities of terrorists" (Osh/Brussels, 2001). They believe that...
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