Download The Silk Roads

The Silk Roads and the First
'World System'?
HST 203: Lecture 17
Craig Benjamin
Where were the Silk
Roads?
What is their
importance to
world history?
What were the
Silk Roads?
Part One: The Significance of Silk
Roads Exchanges
Cultural Evolution
• Human history is characterized by periods of great
change or cultural (rather than biological) evolution
• These have included:
a. The Upper Paleolithic (50,000 BP)
b. The appearance of agriculture (from 11,500 BP)
c. The emergence of cities and states (from 3,200 BCE)
• Cultural evolution is thus one of the fundamental
features of all human history
• There are several
causal factors (or prime
movers) that have
resulted in change and
technological evolution
• E.g. climate change
and population pressure
• But change also
generally occurred in
areas characterized by
high levels of trade
and exchange
• So contacts between
different groups and
cultures are also an
important prime
mover in instigating
change
Cultural Exchange as a
‘Prime Mover’
www.pitt.edu/classics/conf-main
Inter-cultural contacts are in fact ‘the main drive wheel of
history’ W.McNeill, The Rise of the West (Chicago 1963) p. xv
Exchange Networks of the
Late Agrarian Era • Cross-cultural
contacts between
different peoples of
the ancient world are
thus of great
importance to
subsequent human
history
• Most significant
trade networks of
the Late Agrarian
Era were the Silk
Roads
• They resulted in
unparalleled levels of
cultural exchange
Silk Roads Exchanges
www.blogblogblog.com
• The routes existed from
3000 BCE to 1500 CE
• Today we focus on a
much shorter period:
50 BCE – 250 CE
• During this 300-year
period cultural
exchange took place
between the Chinese,
Indian, Iranian, GrecoRoman and pastoralist
worlds
• This profoundly
effected the shape and
direction of human
history
The Silk Roads and Agrarian Civilizations
• These exchanges made
possible because of the
evolution of the huge
agrarian civilizations:
Han, Kushan,
Parthian and Roman
• They established
order and stability,
coinage and extensive
land and sea routes,
creating conditions
ripe for exchange.
History.binghampton.edu/hist130/maps
www.dailyrepublican.com
www.rbi.org.in/currency/museum
Intellectual Exchanges
www.edepot.com/graphics/buddha
Not only material goods were
‘traded’, but intellectual ‘property
as well, including:
a. Greek and Hellenistic culture
b. Buddhism and other world
religions
c. Art
d. Plagues
All were disseminated in a
syncretic form throughout
Afro-Eurasia
www.mala.bc.ca/mcneil
Questions
• What exactly were the Silk Roads?
• Where and when did they exist and
operate?
• How did they evolve and develop?
• Who were the key players in Silk
Roads exchanges?
www.onlineworkshop.com
Die
Seidenstrasse
• Die Seidenstrasse ( the ‘Silk
Roads’) a relatively new term
• Coined in late 19th C by
German geographer Baron
Ferdinand von Richthofen
• He used it to describe the
trade routes linking India,
China and the Mediterranean
world through Central Asia
www.uni-leipzig.de
Brilliant 19th Century German
Geographer, Baron Ferdinand
von Richthofen
Part Two: Development of the Silk Roads
Expansion of Han China into Central Asia
www2s.biglobe.ne.jp
Han Emperor Wudi –
the ‘Martial Emperor’
• You will remember that
Chinese history developed in
relative isolation before the
Han
• Han Empire established in 206
BCE and lasted for 400 years a great era of internal Chinese
unity and imperial expansion
based on trade.
• 17-year old Emperor Wudi sent
envoy Zhang Qian on a
mission to the west in 139 BCE
• He returned after 12 years
and told Wudi about the
possibility of trade and
conquest in Central Asia
Wudi and the Han Empire
• Wudi was enthusiastic :
The emperor thought that
he could then extend his
domain by 10,000 li … and
his might would become
known to all the lands
within the four seas
(Sima Qian, Shi Ji)
• Link between commerce
and imperialism common
motivation to all great
empires
• Led to Chinese expansion
into Central Asia, and
dramatically increased
levels of trade with the west.
The Han Empire (after western
expansion under Wudi)
Xenohistorian.faithweb.com/china/ch03
Ancient Routes
• Trade took place along the
same routes followed by
humans and migrating
hominids for over a million
years
• Limited trade had been taking
place along the routes
• Once China became involved,
the pace and scale intensified
www.acrossthedivide.demon.co
www.bbc.co.uk/history/genes/asch
Sunset in the Taklamakan
The Route from China
www.goldenbridge.net/Xinjiang-the
• Route from China left Han capital at
Xian and headed beside Great Walls to
Dunhuang
• Then either side of the Taklamakan
Dessert –’people go in but don’t
come out’ – using oasis towns for
supplies and rest
• Routes met at Kashgar, then across the
Pamirs to Samarkand
• Or south along the Karakoram
Highway to India
• Either route led directly into the
Kushan Empire
A Caravan Crosses the Pamirs
www29.homepage.villanova.edu
Dunhuang and
the
Taklamakan
www.guxiang.com/zhuanti
Silk and Other Goods
• Silk was the main commodity
traded – worn by the aristocrats
of the Roman Empire
• Chinese guarded the secrets of
silk production
• Other Chinese good included
jade, lacquer and iron
• Imports were horses, Roman
glass, and new agricultural
produce and technology
Roman Togas
made of silk
Silk
www.leeds.ac.uk/acom/cgi-bin
www2.oneonta.edu
Cross-Fertilization
• Result a two-way fertilization: China’s neighbors
were ‘Sinotized’, but Chinese culture ‘barbarized’
(Sima Qian, Ban Gu)
• Similar experience at the western end of the routes:
Roman elites concerned about the ‘pollution’ of
pure Greco-Roman culture (Horace, Ovid)
‘Barbarians’??
www.hobbylinc.com/special
The Silk Roads
www.unesco.org/culture/dialogue/eastwest
Roman Trade with the East
• Following establishment of Pax
Romanum under Augustus in 31 BCE
demand for luxury goods increased
greatly
• Led to expansion of both land and maritime
trade routes with the east
• Land route departed from Palmyra in Syria,
crossed the Euphrates and passed the
Parthian capital at Ctesiphon
• Then climbed over the Iranian Plateau and
entered Kushan territory at Merv and
Bactra in ancient Afghanistan.
• From here the paths linked up with the
route from India or China.
Roman Imperator
Augustus
libarts.wsu.edu/history
The Crossroads of Ancient Eurasia: Market in Yarkand Today
The very heart and centre of all commerce for the
Old World, and the most ancient meeting place on
the whole earth. Along the Yarkand Valley the way
ran eastward to China … to the southeast another
route lay open by Srinagar and Taxila to the Indus
Valley; westwards there was a way to Europe by
Samarkand, down the Oxus Valley and across the
Caspian Sea, as well as the route through Parthia
and Asia. At this lonely point three civilizations,
those of China, of India, and of the Hellenized
Orient, met and gave in exchange their products,
their wares and their painting and art’
(Charlesworth, Trade Routes and Commerce of the Roman Empire,
Cambridge, 1924, pp 103/4).
www.peres.biz/routed
Sea Routes
• Land route from Palmyra to Merv
constantly threatened by conflict
between Rome and Parthia
• A maritime route from Egypt to
the Indus River (Pakistan
today) became more important
• Periplus of the Erythrian Sea is a
1st Century CE sailors handbook
showing how the trade winds
were used to dramatically
increase maritime trade between
Roman Egypt and India
• Goods mentioned are precious
stones, cotton, silk, wine,
metals, pepper, glass and coins
Roman Ships – Mural
www.history forkids.org/learn/romans
Roman Coins –
a mystery?
• Mention of coins significant –
huge volumes of trade very
expensive
• This trade drained 100 million
sestercii (about 6 million gold
denarii) per year from the
Roman Empire (Pliny the Elder)
• Most of these coins have
disappeared
– what happened to them?
• Melted down by the Kushans
for their own coinage!
Kushan Coin of Kanishka the Great
Roman Coins
www.museum-london.org.uk
Part Three: The Kushan Empire
• At the heart of the Silk Roads was the Kushan Empire –
one of the great ‘lost civilizations’ in history
• Friendly relations with China, India, Parthia, the pastoralists
and the Greco-Roman traders.
• Kushans the facilitators of Silk Roads exchanges
(‘middlemen’) – the ‘Great Unifiers of the Ancient World’
• During the first two centuries CE Kushans controlled Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Tazhikistan,
Kyrgyzstan, much of
Uzbekistan and Xinjiang,
and most of northern and
central India.
•See C. Benjamin, ‘Introduction to
Kushan Research’, in D. Christian and
C. Benjamin eds., Worlds of the Silk
Roads: Ancient and Modern (Brepols,
Turnhout 1998) pp. 31 ff.
Kushan Empire: Map
depts.washington.edu/uwch
Early Kushan History
Heraus of the Yuezhi
www.grifterrec.com/coins/heraus
• Descended from a confederation of
ancient Indo-Europeans (Yuezhi) who
were forced to migrate from western
China to Afghanistan between 162 and
130 BCE.
•
See C. Benjamin, ‘Origins of the Yuezhi’, in C.
Benjamin and S. Lieu, eds, Walls and Frontiers in
Inner Asian History (Brepols, Turnhout 2002)
• Under the first Kushan king Kujula
Kadphises and his son Vima, they
expanded into India and China and
established their vast empire in the 1st
Century CE
Vima Kadphises
Headless Statue of King
Vima Kadphises
Mathura
© Asian Art 2002
http://www.asianart.com
The Great
Kushans
• Under Kanishka the
Great (c.129-152 CE)
Kushans were one of
the four ‘Great
Powers’ of Eurasia
• Described by Narain
as the ‘Golden Age of
Central Asia’
• Kushan hereditary
kings provided stable
rule for about two
centuries
Headless Statue of Kanishka
www.hp.uab.edu/image_archive/uck
Kushan
Royal
Palaces
• Kushan royal palaces discovered
early in the 20th C at Begram in
Afghanistan, and Taxila in Pakistan
• Excavations reveal a preoccupation with art and religions
• The collection included glass
from Syria and Egypt, gold
jewelry, carved bone and ivory
from the steppes and India,
bronze owls from Rome, and
Chinese lacquer bowls
• A Kushan Royal Art Museum?
Views of Taxila, Pakistan
www.piac.com.pk/pia_tour/tour_6a
Central Asian Art
Under the Kushans
• Kushan kings were great patrons of art schools at Gandhara
(Pakistan) and Mathura (N. India)
• Output of both schools profoundly influenced the subsequent
development of Asian art
• Sculpture a perfect example of cultural syncretism through
exchange
• Workshops brought together the talents of Bactrian Indian and
Greek artists in the service of Buddhism
• Before this the Buddha had only ever been represented by
symbols – footprint, umbrella etc
Gandharan
Art
Ancient Gandhara
www.columbia.edu/fp7
• At Gandhara the first ever image of the Buddha was created
through a synthesis of Indian spirituality and western art
techniques, all under the patronage of Central Asian kings
• The first ever Buddhas were modeled on Greco-Roman gods
• This representation then spread into East Asia along
the Silk Roads
• Mathura located on a tributary
of the Ganges in N. India
• Renowned for the royal
portrait gallery
• Classic headless statue of
Kanishka may have been
destroyed by the Taliban
• Also developed a humanistic
and realistic style that
profoundly influenced later
Indian art
• Both schools an excellent
example of the coming
together of different cultural
traditions along the Silk
Roads, and the creation of a
whole new synthesized
tradition
www.indiatravelite.com/holyplaces/mathura
Mathuran Art
www.humnet.ucla.edu/echo/volume3-issue1
Gandharan and Mathuran Buddhas
© San Antonio Museum of Art, 2001
http://www.samuseum.org
© Metropolitan Museum of Art 2002
http://www.metmuseum.org
Buddhism and the Kushans
•Kushan coins minted in their thousands; depict a range of gods indicating a broadminded attitude towards religion by the kings – an all-inclusive ideology?
• Several world religions spread along the Silk Roads – Christianity, Zoroastrianism,
Mancihaeism, Buddhism and later Islam
• Kanishka personally devoted to Zoroastrianism, but also convened the great Buddhist
synod in Kashmir where the scriptures were rewritten in a popular accessible language –
led to the emergence of the popular Mahayana (Great Vehicle) school of Buddhism
The Spread of Buddhism along the Silk Roads
• As we have seen, Buddhism was founded in India in the 6th C BCE as a reaction
against the caste system
• Like Christianity it offered the hope for salvation and the attainment of
heaven (Nirvana)
• Following Kanishka’s support, it
spread along the Silk Roads carried by
Chinese traders and Indian monks
• By 166 CE the Chinese Emperor
was a Buddhist
• By late-4th Century 90% of the
population of N. China had converted
to Buddhism
• By 6th Century most of Korea,
Tibet, Mongolia and S.E. Asia had
also converted to Buddhism
• Buddhism one of the great civilizing
influences in Eurasian history, and a
great cultural bond that unites the
peoples of Asia
Conclusion –
Significance?
• Silk Roads thus of
fundamental importance in
human history – linked all of
the regions and peoples of
Afro-Eurasia into a single
system of exchanges
• The first ‘world system’?
• This has led to an
underlying unity in
Eurasia, expressed in
common technologies,
religions, cultures and
diseases
• All profoundly influenced
the subsequent evolution of
human history
History at Both Scales
• Silk Roads as an historical ‘subject’
also offers the opportunity to study
history on both the micro and
macro level
• Need a big history view to appreciate
the long-term and global significance
• But large perspective only possible because of the
work of specialists in languages, art, coins and
archaeology
• Silk Roads Era the springboard to our
understanding of modernity!
www.galafilm.com/1812/e