survey of world history

Chapter 2 Summary Chapter 2 treats the period from 200 B.C. to A.D 400: the consolidations and initial expansions of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Christianity. Bentley book emphasizes the role of merchants generally, the role of elites in voluntary conversions, the syncretic nature of all results, and the importance of imperial peace in promoting cross-cultural encounters. Such encounters briefly declined with imperial collapses. Silk Road is a modern term referring to a historical network of interlinking trade routes across the Afro-Eurasian landmass that connected East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean and European world, as well as parts of North and East Africa. The Silk Road gets its name from the lucrative Chinese silk trade along it, which began during the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD). The central Asian sections of the trade routes were expanded by the Han dynasty largely through the missions and explorations of Sima Qian but earlier trade routes across the continents already existed. Trade on the Silk Road was a significant factor in the development of the civilizations of China, India, Persia, Europe and Arabia. Though silk was certainly the major trade item from China, many other goods were traded, and various technologies, religions and philosophies also traveled along the Silk Road. The expansion of Scythian cultures stretching from the plain and to the Chinese and linking Iran, and the Middle East with Northern India, undoubtedly played an important role in the development of the Silk Road. Scythians accompanied the Assyrian Esarhaddon on his invasion of Egypt, and their distinctive triangular arrowheads have been found as far south as Aswan. These nomadic peoples were dependent upon neighboring settled populations for a number of important technologies, and in addition to raiding vulnerable settlements for these commodities, also encouraged long distance merchants as a source of income through the enforced payment of tariffs.