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# Silk Road

## Overview
The Silk Road was a network of overland trade routes connecting China to the Mediterranean world, facilitating the exchange of goods, ideas, religions, and technologies for over 1,500 years. It was not a single road but a web of interconnected routes across Central Asia, with no single traveler traversing the full length. [^3]

## Key Facts
- Period: ~130 BCE – ~1450 CE (ancient period focus: ~130 BCE – ~400 CE) @t[~130 BCE..~1450 CE]
- Length: ~6,400 km (main overland route)
- Named by: Ferdinand von Richthofen (1877) @t[=1877 CE]
- Key goods: Silk, spices, gold, glass, horses, precious stones

## Route
- Eastern terminus: Chang'an (Xi'an), China
- Western terminus: Rome, Antioch, Constantinople
- Key waypoints: Dunhuang, Kashgar, Samarkand, Merv, Ctesiphon, Palmyra
- Crossed the Taklamakan Desert, Pamir Mountains, and Iranian Plateau [^1]

## Key Empires and Intermediaries
- The **Han dynasty** (China) and **Roman Empire** were the primary producers and consumers of silk, but direct contact between them was rare [^3]
- The **Parthian Empire** (~247 BCE – 224 CE) controlled the middle section of the route and acted as the principal intermediary between Rome and China, profiting from transit trade @t[~247 BCE..224 CE] [^4]
- The **Kushan Empire** (1st–3rd century CE) facilitated trade across Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, connecting the overland and maritime routes @t[~30 CE..375 CE] [^3]
- **Sogdian merchants** from Samarkand dominated commercial activity along the route from roughly the 4th to 8th century CE, operating trading colonies as far east as China @t[~300 CE..~750 CE] [^5]

## Cultural Exchange
- Buddhism spread from India to China via the Silk Road, carried by monks and merchants from roughly the 1st century CE onward @t[~1 CE..~400 CE] [^1]
- Nestorian Christianity, Manichaeism, and Islam traveled eastward in later centuries
- Technologies transferred: Papermaking (China → West), glassmaking (West → East), and later gunpowder
- Diseases also spread along the routes, possibly including the Antonine Plague (165–180 CE) and Plague of Cyprian (249–262 CE) [^2]

## Maritime Silk Road
A complementary sea route — the Maritime Silk Road — connected China's southern ports to Southeast Asia, India, the Arabian Peninsula, and East Africa, beginning by the 2nd century BCE. [^6] During the Han dynasty, maritime trade relations with Southeast Asia and India were established alongside the overland routes.

## Key Periods
- **Han dynasty** (206 BCE – 220 CE): Zhang Qian's first mission to the Western Regions in 138 BCE (dispatched by Emperor Wu) opened diplomatic contact; his second mission followed in 119 BCE. These missions catalyzed the formal opening of the route ~130–114 BCE. @t[206 BCE..220 CE] [^1]
- **Kushan Empire** (1st–3rd century CE): Facilitated trade across Central Asia @t[~30 CE..375 CE]
- **Pax Romana / Pax Sinica** (~50 BCE – 250 CE): The four empires of Rome, Parthia, Kushan, and Han simultaneously stable, enabling peak ancient Silk Road trade @t[~50 BCE..~250 CE] [^4]
- Roman demand for Chinese silk was so great that Roman writers complained of gold draining eastward [^2]

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[^1]: Hansen, V. *The Silk Road: A New History* (Oxford, 2012)
[^2]: Frankopan, P. *The Silk Roads: A New History of the World* (2015)
[^3]: Wikipedia contributors. "Silk Road." *Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia*. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road (accessed 2026)
[^4]: "The 4 Powerful Empires of the Silk Road." *The Collector* (2022). https://www.thecollector.com/four-empires-silk-road/
[^5]: "Sogdian Traders Along the Silk Road." *ResearchGate* (2023). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/371261395
[^6]: Wikipedia contributors. "Maritime Silk Road." *Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia*. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maritime_Silk_Road (accessed 2026)