In What Ways Did The Silk Roads Affect The Spread Of Civilizations

Throughout the centuries there has been many different ways to travel between countries to spread their culture and goods. Even before the invention of the steam engine, railroads or the pony express there was an even older way of transport, the Silk Roads.The Silk Roads were a way of transport throughout Eurasia. They also heavily impacted the spread of goods and culture throughout Asia and how it impacted the spread and growth of civilizations. Before the Silk Roads were widely used, it was first traveled by Zhang Qian. Zhang Qian was an ambassador sent by Emperor Wudi to recruit the Yuezhi as an ally against the Xiongnu, who were a nomadic group who tried to invade the Kansu province (Cohen). Zhang Qian had to cross across the Xiongnu’s
were not the only things that were traded; culture spread rapidly throughout Eurasia. Buddhism and Islam were two major world religions being spread along the Silk Roads (Cohen). Buddhism was a religion created by Siddhartha Gautama and spread easily due to the fact many people accepted it and studied it. In China many of their sacred books on Buddhism was found to be mistranslated and they sent Hsuan Tsang to India and retrieve the texts so that they can translate it properly, since many people were afraid of not finding the truth to Buddhism (Cohen). Later on Hsuan Tsang managed to retrieve the texts and since he did a great job the current emperor offered to promote him as the advisor of the emperor, but he rejected saying that he wanted to fulfill his task of translating the texts( Cohen). When the texts were finally translated Buddhism was most likely studied and spread. Islam was another religion that spread along the silk road and it was founded by the prophet Muhammad. Islam was a popular religion due to the fact that it was very tolerant to other religions which made it very popular among the people, while at the same time they discriminated a little to the non-Islamic believers which also pushed them a little during time when they had horrible caliphs (Waugh). Christianity and Manichean were also cultures that managed to spread along the route, but did not do it as successfully due to the little amount of artifacts that scientists
The Maritime Silk Roads was established all the way back to around the 8th century and was regarded as a secondary route until it was included into the silk road during the Han Dynasty (Moussa-Iye), when Zheng He, an admiral of the Chinese Navy and his fleet began to trade with other countries (Waugh). This part of the silk road consisted of routes along the Indian Ocean, by using ships and boats. This way of trading became more popular probably, due to the advancement in shipbuilding and navigating. Another name for the Maritime Silk Roads were the Spice Route, it was called the Spice Route because it traded and exported many different spices around the world (Moussa-Iye). The Spice route was really popular due to the fact of these spices being very exotic and expensive to foreign countries and were really desired. Some of the spices that were sent included cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. These ingredients were probably incorporated into many different type of cuisines from other countries (Nabhan). Spices weren’t the only trade across the ocean, they also included textiles, incense, woodwork etc. (Moussa-Iye). All in all the Maritime Silk Roads were used in addition with the land routes to help spread different goods and cultures throughout