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The Silk Road
Many of the most important developments of history—the ones with a lasting impact on human life and culture—come out of
the peaceful exchange of goods and ideas along trade routes. One such important historical trade route is the romantically
named Silk Road, which linked the East to the West and played a significant role in the transfer of knowledge from Asia to
Europe.
What Is the Silk Road?
The Silk Road During the Tang Dynasty
The "Silk Road" is a name historians use to describe the
first trade route that connected China with the
Mediterranean region in ancient and medieval times. The
Silk Road was a 4,000-mile network of routes that passed
through the entire Asian continent. The routes began in
the ancient Chinese capital of Chang‘an, split as they moved
west to go around the Taklimakan Desert in Central Asia,
and then came together again in the Near East. They ended
at cities like Antioch and Tyre on the Mediterranean Sea.
Over hundreds of years, trade and travel along the Silk
Road grew and declined based on the conditions in the
numerous regions through which it passed.
Once China was reunited under the Tang dynasty in AD 618,
trade along the Silk Road began to grow again. The Tang
not only encouraged trade but also protected and extended
the routes. They imported new styles of clothing, such
games as polo, new musical instruments, exotic plants, and
spices from the west.
The Silk Road was probably first used as early as 300 BC,
but the earliest recorded traveler was in the second
century BC. At that time, trade of silk and other luxuries
between central China and its borders was common, but the
nomadic tribes who lived on the northern and western
frontiers often raided trading parties.
Trade on the Silk Road
The Chinese were especially interested in reports of fine
horses that were raised in Central Asia because of their
military value. With Chinese silk, a valuable luxury, to be
traded in exchange, the Chinese government launched
western trading parties with military escorts for security.
Since they could now travel in relative safety, private
merchants often tagged along. They traded not only silk
but also Chinese herbs, paper, spices, tea, and jade carvings
for raw jade, gold, silver, wool, glass, ivory, grapes, and
bamboo. All sorts of exotic animals were also exchanged
between eastern and western Asia. As the Han dynasty
began to decline in the early third century AD, so did
state-sponsored trade along the Silk Road, although it
never died out completely.
Due to difficult terrain, early traders were unable to travel
the entire length of the road. Instead, they would travel a
certain distance, trade their wares at a trading post or
oasis, and then return home. In turn, traders at the oasis
would travel farther on to the next oasis to trade their
new items. Little by little, goods from the East and the
West made their way to the other end of the trade routes.
In that way, the West eventually learned of such Chinese
inventions as paper.
Under the Tang dynasty, merchants, craftsmen,
missionaries, religious pilgrims, entertainers, diplomats,
entrepreneurs, artists, and adventurers traveled the Silk
Road. Towns began to grow up around the main oases, and
the Tang capital of Chang‘an, located at the eastern end of
the Silk Road, became a culturally diverse, bustling city. In
Chang‘an, music, literature, poetry, calligraphy, painting,
and dance from many cultures thrived.
Religion
Beliefs also traveled the Silk Road. During the latter period
of the Han dynasty, Buddhist temples, shrines, and
sculptures were built along the Chinese portions of the Silk
Road. Buddhism continued to spread as monks came to
teach in China and students of Buddhism traveled to India
to learn more about the faith. During the Tang dynasty,
Islam spread from the Near East into Persia and Central
Asia, with outposts in China and India. Christianity also
arrived in China by 635.
Marco Polo
The most famous European to make the journey was Marco
Polo, who traveled to the court of Kublai during the Mongol
reign in China. Polo’s accounts of the culture and goods of
China eventually encouraged many European explorers to
set out for Asia.
The Decline of the Silk Road
By the late 1400s, the Silk Road was no longer the only
avenue connecting the East and the West. Europeans and
Asians both began making greater use of sea routes, which
were faster and therefore less expensive. Meanwhile, the
Ming dynasty, which regained control of China in 1368,
established a policy of isolationism that meant less contact
with the West. Some trade via the Silk Road persisted, but
it never was as active as it once had been.
The Gold-Salt Trade in Africa
The Geography
Measuring at least 800 miles from north to south and about 3,000 miles
from west to east, the Sahara Desert stretches across most of northern
Africa. Crossing it is a difficult task, but for several hundred years, it was
the site of a set of flourishing trade routes controlled by rich empires.
The Berbers
The traders who crossed the desert were known as Berbers. They
consisted of several groups of nomads who traveled across the Sahara in
camel caravans. There were several different camel routes, and each had
planned stops at specific oases—places with permanent access to water,
generally with a settlement nearby. The Berber tribes controlled (by
force of arms) the oases on particular routes, as well as key
territories both to the north and to the south of the desert.
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Trade on the Gold-Salt Roads
Map of Saharan Trade Routes
Salt was such an important import in the region south of the Sahara that
some sources said it was exchanged for an equal weight of gold. People of
sub-Saharan Africa used the salt to preserve food and more importantly
replace the salt their bodies would lose in the hot climate.
Just to the south of the Sahara were cities where the Berber caravans
traded salt, horses, copper, and dates from the north for gold, ivory, kola
nuts, and slaves from the rain forests and other regions to the south. Over
time, those rich cities became richer and more powerful, and they gained
control of larger territories to form empires. Those trading empires patrolled
the trading routes in their territory to keep them safe from bandits and
robbers. The source of their wealth came from tariffs levied on goods traded
in their cities and from their monopoly of much of the gold trade.
Islam expanded to areas of sub-Saharan Africa as a result of the gold-salt trade. Many of the Berbers were Muslim, and they
would introduce their beliefs to the states they traded with. Overtime the natives of the trading empires adapted parts of the
faith and some even converted altogether.
Early African Slave Trade
The term African slavery is most closely associated with the period after 1500 when European ships carried slaves from Africa
to the new colonies in the Americas. However, the slave trade had existed in Africa since ancient times and slavery as an
institution existed all over the world.
During trade for gold and salt, the Berbers in North Africa regularly raided farming villages south of the Sahara for captives.
Those captives were then taken northward and sold throughout the Mediterranean where some became soldiers and others
worked as domestic servants for the wealthy. In addition to the Berber raids, some African leaders saw the financial benefit
of slave trading and would trade prisoners of war, criminals and debtors to other nations. Some estimate that over 2.5 million
African slaves were traded during this time.