Episode 7: Silk Road

The Silk Road was an ancient trade route that significantly increased globalization by linking China to the west. The 4,000 mile-long route was active for about 1,500 years, from when the Han dynasty of China opened trade in 130 B.C.E. until 1453 C.E., when the Ottoman Empire closed off trade with the West. Despite its name, the Silk Road was not a single road, but a network of routes. For this reason, some historians prefer the term “Silk Routes.”

Merchants carried goods such as precious stones, tea, spices, and - you guessed it - silk, from the East, and glassware, textiles, and manufactured goods from the West. Despite the high traffic of the route, very few people ever traveled the whole path. Rather, middlemen carried goods from trading post to trading post, often traveling in caravans to protect themselves from robbers. These trading posts, along with large inns called “caravanserai” built along the route, provided venues for increased cultural exchange. Thus, the Silk Road was a major hub for spreading ideas, religion, and even music. Of the music of the Silk Road, Theordore Levin, author of The Silk Road as Jam Session, Then and Now, writes “The musical past of the vast Silk Road region, based on copious archaeological and iconographic evidence that extends back to early antiquity, included an exceptionally rich and diverse array of musical instruments, styles, and repertoires.”

Because of the constant mixing and movement of people, the route also allowed for the spread of disease. According to National Geographic, “some research suggests that the Black Death, which devastated Europe in the late 1340s C.E., likely spread from Asia along the Silk Road.” Additionally, many of the technologies and innovations that traveled the Silk Road were used to exert power and divide nations. “The horses introduced to China contributed to the might of the Mongol Empire, while gunpowder from China changed the very nature of war.”  

The Silk Road no longer acts as a trade route, but many of its historic buildings and monuments still stand, and it continues to act as a symbol for cross-cultural fusion. In the present day, this symbolism is “routinely appropriated by high-profile cultural, political, and business luminaries to brand initiatives ranging from road-building to marketing vodka,” but despite the overuse of the Silk Road as metaphor, it remains a historical driving force in the formation of diverse societies across Eurasia and beyond.

Use the interactive below to take a walk along the Silk Road!

The Silk Road Visual Dramaturgy