Silk Road Journal

The Colombian Exchange and Silk Road were very similar, but at the same time they are very different. They both were a global system of exchange. The Silk Road was around from 3000 B.C. to the 15th century, and the Colombian Exchange was around from 1492 to 1789. Also, the Colombian Exchange was a land and sea trade route, but the Silk Road was land and sea. During the Colombian Exchange, they would use boats to travel. But during the Silk Road, they would use caravans, camels, horses, and boats. In the Colombian exchange they usually traded people, plants, animals, and diseases. In the Silk Road they mainly traded silk, plants, and animals. There were many important people during these times such as Ibn Battuta, Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus,

Going back to the early 13th century, The Mongols were nomadic people who often found it hard to settle in locations. They were destructive but, created a new beginning. Advances lead by Genghis Khan spread across Central Asia. The Mongols ruled for 300 years, the largest continuous land empire in History. They were large, long lasting, world shaking and were apart of the most successful economic times (pax mongolica). So revolutionary it inspires military strategists today. The Mongols have conquered more land in 25 years then the romans did in 400. They have basically formed and created nations of today like Russia and Korea.

It seems like years since I last saw my family in China. It was hard to leave them, but I knew I had to leave and try and support them through trade. In the beginning, my travels were very harsh. Before our first trading post, we came close to completely running out of supplies. Fortunately, we made good friends with fellow traders from a northern Chinese village. They shared some of their rations with my group and decided to travel with us. While I myself was nervous about traveling with more strangers, my fears were soon dissolved. Somehow after a few days of travel, I felt more at peace. Then I had my whole trip. The safety in numbers has made me sleep better at night, which is very important for how much travel we must complete in a day. One of my biggest fears on this journey is that our caravans will be attacked and raided. Inside we carry precious jewels, like jade, as well as valuable metals. We have many things to trade, and taking them all with us, has

The networks of trade and exchange revolutionized the way ideas and goods were traveled in the western hemisphere during the period of 300 B.C.E. to 600 C.E. Such trade networks include what is known today as the Silk Roads and the Indian Ocean Maritime System, which have evident overlap in the ideas and goods traded, yet deviate in likeness when studying their methods of trade

The Silk Road was an important trade route because it connected many countries together which many people traded to get something new that the country did not have.

It also became known as the Silk Road because Silk was the main product being traded on the route.

“Because nearly all economic activity has environmental consequences, roads also foster[ed] environmental change [in the region]” (Marks, 81). Agricultural develop in these new areas opened up allowing for more settlements throughout those regions and the expansion of the Chinese empire of the time. As roads and civilization expanded, a network of roads connecting China to the Central Asian trade was established, “this network of roads and trade routes later became known as ‘the silk road,’ ultimately going all the way to the eastern Mediterranean and the Roman

In 1271 Marco Polo set sail from Venice with his father and uncle, for China on an adventure that would last twenty-four years. Marco Polo arrived in China with his father and uncle in 1275 and returned to Venice in 1295. He brought back many riches from his travels to China, including silks, spices, jewels, and ideas, such as the concept of paper money, and the burning of coal for fuel. Marco Polo, his father, Niccolo and uncle, Maffeo were among the first Europeans to travel the Silk Road, the historic trade routes between Asia and Europe that connected China to the West. They traveled further along the Silk Road than any other European of their time, and were instrumental in

The Silk Road began during the Han Dynasty to trade goods to and from China. “ The network was used regularly from 130 B.C.E., when the Han officially opened trade with the west, to 1453 C.E., when the Ottoman Empire boycotted trade with the west and closed the routes.” The Chinese started using the Silk Road to mainly transport and trade their precious silk. It ran from China to the Mediterranean Sea and lasted about 1,583 years. It branched out and extended in different ways all across West Asia and Europe, and was named by the Silk Road by Ferdinand von Richthofen, a German geographer.

After 600 CE there were many different adaptions of trade. First there is the the Silk road, maritime networks of the Indian Ocean, as well as the straights of Malacca and Sunda straights. The Silk Road was the general term for a web of overland routes. These roads were not the same as the type of roads one would think of when thinking of Roman roads. These roads that were comprised within the Silk Road were in fact worn paths. The path a traveler and their goods took on the Silk road depended on where they came from and where they were going mainly, as it was not common until after about 1,200 CE for one to travel the full length of the Silk Road. Typically, goods that moved east moved the full length of the Silk Road. These goods came

The nomads or the Mongols in the north took over China and established their own dynastic period, the Yuan dynasty. Genghis Khan was the leader of the Mongol empire and his conquest of Eurasia was astonishing, but it was not until Genghis Khan 's grandson Khubilai Khan that the Mongol started establishing trading routes throughout the vast Mongol Empire. Since the Mongols were nomads, they understood the importance of trading with neighboring tribes and nations for goods. It was why the Mongols encouraged foreign diplomacy, they also utilized the ideas established by the Tang dynasty and combined it to their own (Bentley, The Mongol Empire).

Indian Ocean trade was one of the key trade routes in the Eastern half of the world. There were many periods of trade including the Chinese, the Gujaratis, and the Romans. Many religions such as Islam, Hindu-Buddhism, and many other cultures and ways of life. The Chinese under their ruler used the ocean for military and for diplomacy, but in the process they exchanged many goods and many great relationships. This ocean was also home to a ¨Monsoon Season¨, that helped sailors get across ocean because of the predictability of the wind. That is what it is most known for cheap trade because of low demand from ease of travel. This connection of trade routes included Swahili coast cities, Islamic empires in the Middle East, India, China, Southeast Asia, and did not include Europe. Many of the things exported were ivory, timber, and books because of the wide variety of needs in these lands.

The Silk Road was a series of land and sea trade routes that stretched from China to Rome in a journey that last two or more years. Many merchants traveled in caravans and did not make the whole journey, instead they traded only a certain distance from which they started and exchanged goods along the way. They would then trade the materials they had to the next merchant who would take it farther in the road. This replicated a relay system that progressed throughout time. I am lucky to be along this road as one of the most wanted and the most expensive items. Everyone wants me and whoever has me is obviously the picture of elegance and very important in their respective countries. I started in the cocoon of a silkworm who was then boiled to kill the insect and then this process also softened

Did you know that gunpowder was made in Ancient China? Gunpowder was later traded along the silk road. There were many other objects exchanged along the silk road that have an impact on life today, including Gunpowder, Paper, and Silk.