The Impact of the Silk Road

The Silk road is one of the worlds oldest and great trade routes in history. The effect that the silk road had on trade in that time was massive, however impact it left on global trade and cross cultural boundaries was even greater. The Silk Road was one of the most massive and encompassing trade routes connecting China, Europe, and Western Asia. It branched out in almost every direction, not following one direct route, but many routes through towns and different settlements. So many good were traded using the Silk Road, and the area that these goods covered was massive. The effect that this route had on cultures across the world had quite an impact.

The Silk Road brought people far across Asia and Europe, bring different aspects of their culture with them. With these people came items and goods from different culture that some people of the west had not seen, and these things became more readily available for people of the west. Other than goods, religion traveled along the Silk Road. Buddhism spread great distances and much of the reason why it spread was because of the Silk Road.

The Silk Road was used in forms of communications as well. In the times of the Mongol Empire the Silk Road was used as a major route for communication and spreading of ideas for the Mongols, more than most were open to ideas and religions. Kubilai Khan, for example was one of the most sympathetic and understanding of most religions. During the mongol reign many people across Asia and other lands took part in this trade, spreading culture, religion and many other aspects of their lives all across the continent.

http://www.ess.uci.edu/~oliver/silk.html

The Silk Disaster

The Silk Road served as a large trade network connecting major empires from China to Rome. However, like Jordan said in the post before mine, it actually spread more than goods throughout Asia and Europe. Along with Buddhism, it also spread disease.

In Western Europe in the fourteenth century, a plague affected a large population. The plague earned the name the “Black Death” in the nineteenth century, but originally had the name the “Great Plague” or “Great Pestilence.” The spots on the skin of contaminated people inspired the name “Black Death,” since the spots were black and dark blue.

The disease originated in Central Asia. Traders that travelled across the Silk Road carried the disease all the way to Europe. It quickly infected Spain, England, Ireland, and France. Within five years, the plague had killed around one third of the European population.

It seems that people unintentionally spread the disease more than they knew. When the disease threatened a city, citizens frantically fled and unknowingly brought the disease with them. Also, people attended crowded parties in attempts to comfort themselves and relieve their stress. Instead, they ended up spreading the disease even more rapidly, since they were so close to so many other people.

The plague created major changes in Europe. There were fewer workers, and they demanded higher wages. Many teachers died, so uneducated people taught the schools. Also, people spoke Latin less often, since not all the survivors were familiar with the language. In total, the plague killed as many as seventy five million people.

Follow this link to read more in depth about the Black Plague:

http://www.theblackdeath.co.uk/

Buddhism's is Brought to China

In class today we learned about the Silk Road and its importance in Eurasia. The Silk Road was one of the first major trade routes in the world. It brought goods such as cotton textiles, ivory, and pearls from China to the Mediteranean and many places in between, but it also brought a large cultural influence into China. That cultural influence is the Buddhist religion.

Up until the creation of the Silk Road, in the second century BCE, Buddhism was found primarily in India and some Central Asian nations. With the creation of this major trade network Chinese merchants began traveling west in order to trade goods with Rome, Egypt, India, and the nations of Central Asia. While they were in India came upon this new religion called Buddhism. It is believed that Buddhism reached China sometime in the first and second century CE. Having heard of this religion many monks throughout the next centuries would traveled the Silk Road to India in order to study Buddhism, they would then return to China and teach others what they had learned. Some of these iffluental monks included Zhu Shixing from the Three Kingdoms (220-280CE), Fa Xian and Kumrajva in the Jin Dynasty (265-420CE), Song Yun and Hui Shang in the Northern Dynasty (420-589CE), and Xuan Zang in the Tang Dynasty (618-907CE).

. ">"Culture of Silk Road." Travel China Guide Travel China Guide.com, 2009. Web. 28 Oct. 2009

Russian shift after Mongol invasion

Cross culture contact was common by 1000 AD but still had strong and long lasting effects. The Mongol invasion of Russia in 1237 was no exception. The Mongolian army called the Golden Horde swept into Russia and conquered it easily. For the next 200 years Mongolians, called Tatars by the Russians, ruled over much of the territory. The occupation brought long lasting changes to Russia long after the Mongolians were driven from the lands.

Before the Mongolian invasion Russian society and power was divided into three levels. At the top there were many princes that were scattered around the country each ruling over his own territory. Bellow the princes were nobles who had a great deal of independence. At the bottom were merchants, shopkeepers, and free peasant farmers who met at times to decide local issues by popular vote. After the Mongol invasion and occupancy Russia would never return to this system.

The Mongolians were all united under a Khan or emperor. The Russians on the other hand were scattered across a large territory and each individual kingdom was power hungry. They princes were suspicious of there neighbor rulers intentions and often made war on each other. One by one the individual princes fell to the Mongolians. They were unwilling to band together to repel the invaders. The Mongolians killed most of the princes, nobles, and anyone else the felt like killing.

Eventually after the Mongolians were no longer united under one ruler there was a Russian uprising and they were able to take back their country. The country now was more accustomed to centralized authority and would be lead by tsars. This new beginning would not tolerate independence or democracy and would eventually become the Soviet Union. The culture of the Mongols including their idea of Khans spread to Russia through force and occupation.

The Olmec Civilization

In Mesoamerica, the first indications of complex life were that of the Olmec civilization. This civilization is thought to have been around since 1500 BCE until about 100 BCE or until sometime in the Common Era. The Olmec Empire was very small; at its largest, it had less than 1,000 people. The area where the Olmec people once lived, south of the Gulf of Mexico, is about 125 miles long and about 50 miles wide.
The word “Olmec” means “rubber people” in the Aztec language, Nahuatl. The Olmec people were given this name because they discovered how to make rubber by removing latex from a rubber tree, called Castilla Elastica, and then adding the juice from a vine, called Ipomoea Alba.
Making rubber is not the only accomplishment of the Olmec people. They also constructed great centers with sophisticated architecture and drainage systems. In these centers there were many public-ceremonial buildings, and also houses for both commoners and the elite, so it is obvious that the Olmec centers were for everyone.
It is also believed that the Olmecs where the original creators of the Mesoamerican ball game, played by many tribes in Mesoamerica, and the rubber ball that was use for it. There was a recent discovery of many rubber balls and a ball court where the Olmec people once lived. The Olmecs also might have been the first of the Mesoamerican civilizations to develop a written language, but this is not yet known for a fact.
If you would like to know more about the Olmec civilization, check out this website: http://www.crystalinks.com/olmec.html.