Travelers faced constant threats of banditry and nomadic raiders, and long expanses of inhospitable terrain. As a highly decentralized network, security was sparse. After these calamities, the Silk Road often emerged stronger than before, including after the Mongol Empire and its offshoot the Yuan Dynasty. Aside from generating substantial wealth for emerging mercantile classes, the proliferation of goods such as paper and gunpowder greatly altered the trajectory of various realms, if not world history.ĭuring its roughly 1,500 years of existence, the Silk Road endured the rise and fall of numerous empires and several major calamities including the Black Death and the Mongol conquests. Other lucrative commodities from the East included tea, dyes, perfumes, and porcelain among Western exports were horses, camels, honey, wine, and gold. By the early first century CE, Chinese silk was widely sought-after in Rome, Egypt, and Greece. The expansion of the Parthian Empire, which stretched from eastern Anatolia to Afghanistan, provided a bridge to East Africa and the Mediterranean, particularly the nascent Roman Empire. The information and goods gathered by these expeditions piqued Chinese interest and prompted formal diplomatic and commercial dispatches, as well as efforts to protect the routes with soldiers and an extension of the Great Wall.
Imperial envoy Zhang Qian was commissioned to explore the unknown lands beyond the region in search of potential trading partners and allies. The network began with the Han dynasty's expansion into Central Asia around 114 BCE, which largely pacified the once untamed region. The Silk Road derives its name from the highly lucrative trade of silk textiles that were produced almost exclusively in China. First coined in the late 19th century, the name "Silk Road" has fallen into disuse among some modern historians in favor of Silk Routes, which more accurately describes the intricate web of land and sea routes connecting East and Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, the Middle East, East Africa and Europe. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the East and West. The Silk Road ( Chinese: 絲綢之路) was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan
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