Track 10

Unit 6

History

The Silk Road

Pages 56 and 57

Listen for main ideas and listen for details

Today were going to continue with the discussion of the silk Road.

One of the most historically important trade routes in the world.

Now, as you know, the silk Road was a major trade route between Europe and Western China for about 1500 years. It was used for about 100 BCE until about 1400 C.

There’d been some trade across central Asia before that, but it wasn’t until about 100 BCE, that trade between Europe and China increased significantly.

So, were going to look at how the silk Road developed?

First, I want to mention three dynasties in China that were in power at significant points in the silk Road history.

dynasty here means a group of rulers or family with political control. First, the Han dynasty. They ruled from 206 BCE to 220 C approximately when the silk Road started second is the Tommy dynasty empower from 618 2907, the peak period of the silk Road.

And third, the Ming Dynasty in 1368, they took control and soon thereafter, the use of the silk Road basically ended.

Now this is just a quick overview so I’ll go into more detail about these three groups later.

know most people save the silk Road but it wasn’t only one route was a network of routes between China and the Mediterranean Sea.

The roots and China all started in Sian that spelled XI’ and actually lived in Sian a few years back when I was working in China and from Xian, I traveled way out at Western China just to get a sense of what the silk Road was really like.

Was an easy place to travel which raters did it for many years?

Going forward, you should know that Sian was actually called Jang on during the time the silk Road.

So, from Jang on the route went west until traders reach the top of Marcon Desert to avoid some routes oneself to Wong and someone north of the Gobi Desert and over into central Asia.

The roots all reconnected further west, though, and eventually they lead to some big trade centers in Europe and Rome and what is now called Istanbul in Turkey.

There are different estimates about how long the silk Road was altogether going to go with about 5000 miles or a thousand kilometers.

So, what you think was the main reason the silk Road developed?

Well, the short answer is that people in Europe wanted goods from China and people in China wanted goods from Europe.

Focus now on the west end of the root in Europe and then will go the standing China. On the West End at the Mediterranean Sea were the Romans by about 100 BCE, the Romans had learned about luxury goods from China silk particular which is very popular in Roman.

So, the Roman started building roads to the east so they could get luxury goods from China.

Meanwhile, from the East End and China the Han dynasty was in power.

We have to reveal little history at this point, the Han dynasty ruled China from 206 BCE to 220 CE as I mentioned in Jang on was the capital.

But because China was so big it was very difficult to defend, especially against the Mongol invaders from the north.

So, when 138 BCE Emperor Wudi that’s W-U-D-I sent a group out to Western China to recruit fighters for the conflict with the Mongol invaders.

The group leader was captured and when he returned a decade later, he told the Emperor about a type of big strong horse and Western China.

The Han Dynasty decided to make a big push west to get these horses in order to make the Han Army stronger. So, you see in about 100 BCE, the Romans and the Chinese were pushing east and west, respectively, and thus the silk Road developed.

According to historical records the Romans didn’t go all the way to China and the Chinese traders didn’t go all the way to Europe.

Instead, many of the traders were from central Asia. The traders mostly when short distances and caravans in bought and sold goods along the way.

Europe wanted silk, spices and furs and other goods from China. China wanted horses initially, but later wanted goods from Europe like golden glass and traders exchanged both goods and information.

For example, there were trade secrets like where to get the best silken where the grassroots work.

The supper was very difficult to travel and traders tried alternate routes mainly to avoid two things, bad weather, bad people; there were many robbers who tried to steal the traders silk and other goods.

Traders also want to avoid towns that force them to pay a fee when passing through, the peak for the silk Road was in the 600s during the Tang Dynasty. Jan was very big and very prosperous.

Then about 2 million people live there, including 8000 foreigners from many places including what is today, Iran, Turkey, Japan and Korea.

By the early 900, the Tang Dynasty lost power and trade in the silk Road decline sharply because there was fighting and it became much too dangerous for the traders, by about 1400 trade on the silk were basically stopped.

Are two main reasons:

One in 1368 the Ming Dynasty to control and they didn’t want any contact with foreigners.

And two European traders began to prefer ships for faster and safer than the silk Road.

So, to wrap up the silk Road developed because people in one part of the world one summit from another part of the world. In recent years, people talk about globalization is creating new silk roads.

We’ll take of this idea next time.

Okay