Chapter 12: Cross-Cultural Exchanges on the Silk Roads

Vocabulary

• • Monsoons: The monsoon systems were a system of winds that blew certain directions during certain parts of the year. They blew generally southwest during the summer, and generally northeast during the winter. They helped mariners to navigate the Indian ocean more successfully. 

  • Kashger: A town (now known as Kashi) where the two branches of The Silk Road came together after splitting up before the Taklamakan Desert (one of the most inhospitable deserts in the world). One went north of it, the other south, and they both went through many oasis towns on the way. Kashger was located in the westernmost corner of modern day China. 

  • Rajas: Rulers of Southeast Asian states called themselves Rajas, which translates literally to Kings. Most adopted Sanskrit as a means of written communication and many converted to Buddhism, while others promoted the Hindu cults of Shiva and Vishnu. 

  • Nestorians: Followers of the Greek theologoian Nestorius. Nestorius was alive during the early fifth century and his main emphasis was on that of humans, “as opposed to Jesus’ divine nature”. Most Nestorians were found in Southwest Asia. 

  • Manichaeism A religion that was founded by, or based off of, the prophet Mani (216-272 C.E.), who was a Zoroastrian from Babylon and drew many of his beliefs from Christianity and Buddhism. He believed that this mixture of Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Buddhism would serve the needs for the increasingly cosmopolitan world. Some characteristics of strict adherence to Manichaeism were an ascetic lifestyle and an observation of high ethical standards. 

  • Yellow Turban Rebellion: The Yellow Turban Rebellion was a peasant uprising that occurred in 184 (C.E.) and was one of the numerous factors contributing to the decline of the Han Dynasty. It was named such because the rebels, who were in reality the peasants of the society, would wear yellow headbands. They wore them because they represented the Chinese earth and symbolized their peasant origins. This rebellion was quickly smothered by the Han Dynasty’s massive military force however.

  • Period of Warring States: Occurred in East Asia from 403-221 (B.C.E.). What happened was that regional warlords began to control their own regions, and at this time, the Zhou Dynasty, was really not in control.

  • Germanic Peoples: Military peoples that posed serious threats to the Roman Empire and were eventually what terminated it in the western half. These included the Huns, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Franks, Vandals, Lombards, and the Angles and Saxons. The Visigoths were the most notorious of the lot. 

  • Constantine: The son of Diocletian, who took over as sole emperor in 306 (C.E.). He united the Roman Empire, and defeated all of their enemies by 324 (C.E.). Also created the new capital city of the Roman Empire, Constantinople. But in ruling, they still faced the same problems of maintaining such a large empire after combining both halves again, that his father, Diocletian had originally split up. 

  • Emergence of Papal Authority: Papal translates to father, and this person was known as the Pope. He was the leader of the Christian Communities in the Roman Empire.

Focus Question #1

            Compare the goods, diseases, and religions on the sea trade routes with those of the Silk Roads.

            The Silk Roads and the sea trade routes primarily carried high quality silk and spices west towards the Roman Empire, while on the return trip glassware, jewelry, artwork, perfumes, bronze goods, textiles, pottery, iron tools, wine, and many other manufactured items were brought. The diseases that were suffered were pretty universal— the measles, small pox, and outbreaks of bubonic plague all showed up in all places between these two centers of trade. Buddhist and Hindu merchants took their items west, while Christians generally came east from the Roman Empire with their items.

            The Silk Roads and the sea trade routes were both a part of a very large, very complex, long distance organized trade system between the Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire. The Silk Roads allowed for safe passage over land, while the sea trade routes, after mariners understood the monsoon system, offered reliable sea navigating.

            Although being used primarily for trade, the Silk Roads offered a unique opportunity to missionaries, as well as travelers, and merchants. This unique opportunity was tat they could carry their “beliefs, values, and religious convictions to distant lands”. The three major religions at the time— Buddhism, Christianity, and Hinduism— were all carried along the Silk Road and all three obtained new followers through the process.

            Also travelling the Silk Road however, were epidemic diseases. Some of the most devastating of these diseases were the measles, small pox, and the bubonic plague. Later on these diseases caused massive population decline in China and the regions surrounding the Mediterranean.

Focus Question #2

            Compare the changes and collapses of the Han Dynasty in China with the Roman Empire.

            The Han Empire and the Roman Empire differed in many aspects, such as religion, the Han Empire had Confucianism, Buddhism and Hinduism while the Roman Empire had Christianity, Judaism and other Greek cults, and forms of government, the Han Empire was a largely centralized state while the Roman Empire was much more decentralized and democratic. The collapses of the two, however, were similar in many ways, both had economic problems, nomadic invaders, and in the end, the size of their empires were too large to maintain.

            The Han Empire modeled itself after the short lived Qin Empire, and was based largely on Confucianism at first, and later on Buddhism and Hinduism were diffused to the Han people. The Roman Empire is different in the fact that as a state there was never one dominant religion; there was Judaism, Christianity, Roman Mythology, and cults such as Mithraism and the Cult of Ibis— but each had their most prevalent phase, and in the end, Christianity was left standing. A specific example of religious conflict in the Roman Empire is the Jewish Uprising that was squelched by the large military power of the empire. Therefore, religious conflict in both the Han Empire and the Roman Empire played roles in their collapses.

            Another factor contributing to the collapse of the Han Empire and Roman Empire were social conflicts. In the Roman Empire, the class conflict between the Plebeians (lower class) and Patricians (upper class) played a part in the empire’s collapse. And in the Han Empire, the Yellow Turban Uprising, thus dubbed because the rebels wore yellow turbans representing they were peasants, was also overrun by the Han Empire’s military power. However, it still served as a decentralizing factor of the state.

            Two more similarities in the falls of both state powers were their economic problems and land reform policies. Both the Han Empire and the Roman Empire faced economic problems from maintaining their large militaries over the extended periods of time that the states were around. The second similarity is the land reform policies. Emperor Wang Mang proposed the agricultural reform in the Han Empire, which eventually led to such small farms that they were not economically viable. The Land Reform in the Roman Empire was proposed by the Gracchi Brothers and was similar to the Wang Mangs proposal. Both of these ideas cost each respective empire a lot of money.

            One very important difference to the collapses of these two empires however, was how they ended. The Han Dynasty came to a gradual end, decentralizing slowly over time. While the Roman Empire was cut off at the head at one time, transforming its government into a ghost— this was done by the Germanic peoples who invaded the Roman Empire.