Part 3: An Age of Accelerating Connections, 500-1500 - The "Silk Road"

The “Silk Road”. The initial flourishing of the Silk Road commerce was 200 B.C.E – 2oo C.E. The example of placing an order and 40 hours later it was shipped from China. What is more amazing? The fact that the order was shipped out within 40 hours across the world or the fact that we can go onto the internet and place an order?   I look at the Silk Road as an old school way of networking across communities and cultures. Silk became the golden product for consumers and merchants but it was not the only thing traded on the “Silk Road”. Even though we can’t really say it is a road, instead, we have to look at it as a network of trade routes. In my opinion, that still requires a road or a path with a destination in mind. From what I read and heard, it was so popular that there were attempts to ban silk but obviously that didn’t happened.

I see how this linked civilization between the Western & Eastern Eurasia by land and water. From the reading it along with some additional reading outside the text the overview I got was that there were 3 major outcomes that came from the Silk Road: 1) wider economic impact – as the market grew people chose to pursue going into business using silk; 2) Trading ideas – this goes back to the Greeks where they were full of ideas but the Romans were great at implementing them. Being exposed to so many different types of people’s and cultures of course there would be an exchange of knowledge. We humans are a very curious species and must make every effort to keep up with the latest. Goes back to the competition piece; 3) Diseases – this vast of worldwide connection brought diseases. Being exposed to the new and the unknown for one community was deadly. There was no hand sanitizer then. This still holds true for our countries. Customs will determine if goods are allowed to enter their country. One of the most deadly diseases that came about from the Silk Road was the plague that killed about half of the European population over a span of 4 years. Along with spreading other disease such as measles and small pox.

Going back to the network trading at the time. There was a table in the book that listed the sort of items that were traded during this period. The Forest lands of Siberia and grasslands of Central Asia were the only regions that seemed to be slightly aggressive. That region traded dead animals, livestock and slaves. No other region  traded people or animals. This could raise the question that these could have been a major contribution to the diseases. Especially if the other regions were not big meat eaters. It seems like the other regions were our gathers while Siberia and Central Asia were our hunters. It is a reach but again history is based on interpretation and assumptions. Below is the table from the text that outlined a snapshot of what was traded along the Silk Roads:

I do have to admit that trading and getting items today is definitely a lot quicker and easier now than it was 20 years ago. I remember that sending a letter overseas would take weeks. Now it can take a matter of days. Amazing!