Silk Road

The Silk Road was given its name by a 19^th century Austrian geologist, Ferdinand von Richthofen. He named the road after the main form of currency the Chinese used, silk.[1]  There are no written records that mark the beginning of the Silk Road but there are some educated guesses as to how it began.  The Silk Road might have begun when nomadic people would trade goods with one another over the course of their wanderings.  Valued trade items were tin, gold, turquoise, rubies, cotton, jade, camels, and horses.  Not only were goods traded but also ideas such as metalworking, the wheel, the chariot, and writing. 

Around the 3^rd century B.C., in response to the threat of invasion by the Huns, the Ch’in dynasty began constructing the Great Wall to keep invaders out of China.  The Great Wall kept the Huns out of China, but they were still a threat. Around 140 B.C., the Chinese Emperor, Wu-Ti of the Han dynasty sent an expedition lead by Chang-Ch’ien to seek an alliance with the Yueh-Chih.  Emperor Wu-Ti hoped to form an alliance with the Yueh-Chih against the Huns and the expedition was also charged with finding out more about the outside world.   

Chang-Ch’ien returned 12 years later after a very arduous journey. Unfortunately he could not made any alliance made with the Yueh-Chih. However, Chang-Ch'ien reported on distant lands and established a few friendly relatiohships with some of the people.   He reported going as far as the land of India and the land of Li-chien, possibly Petra the edge of the Roman Empire.  Chang-Ch’ien suggested that it would be in the best interests of China to establish trade with some of these territories and to enter into alliances.   Wu-Ti ordered trade to be established with the people that Chang-Ch’ien spoke of and Chang-Ch’ien was sent on an expedition ten years after he had returned. Chang-Ch’ien set out once again with more goods to trade with and was ordered to bring back envoys from the countries that he encountered in order to promote trade.  Chang-Ch’ien met great success and returned with many envoys and different trade items.

Traders did not just bring reports on the foreign lands but also something that the Chinese would highly esteem and would go to war over, horses.  The Chinese did have horses before Chang-Ch’ien but they for some reason highly valued the horses that came from land of Kokand.  The Chinese offered silver and gold for horses from Kokand but were refused the horses by the Kokand who viewed the Chinese with disdain and believed them to be too far away to be any sort of threat.  The Chinese did invade and took control of Kokand however at a great lost losing 1/6 of their force.[2]

Along the Silk Road the Chinese would establish trade with Persia, sometime around 115-105 B.C.[3]  Also the Chinese began to build forts and garrison soldiers, along the Silk Road, to protect travelers.  The Chinese used the Silk Road for nearly 200 years to trade silk for various goods, until about 100 A.D.  Around 100 A.D. the Huns were able to retake the western lands that the Chinese had taken from them and lost those lands again towards the early 2^nd century. 

Not only was, silk and other material goods were carried along the Silk Road but also ideas and religions, such as Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and Islam.  For the next few centuries the Silk Road flourished under different rulers.  But under the Chinese Ming Dynasty, China was closed to the world in the mid 1300’s.    What was traded over the Silk Road varies from culture to culture.  The Chinese traded their ample supply of silk for exotic objects such as furs, horses, woolen carpets, spices, pearls, crystals, and perfumes.  The Romans traded gold, cotton, and grain for silk, spices, glass, perfumes, and slaves. 

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