SS.6.W.4.10 & SS.6.G.5.2

 A Chinese explorer named Zhang Qian is often called the Father of the Silk Road.  In 138 B.C.E., a Han emperor sent him west with 100 men to try to form an alliance with western peoples against China’s northern enemy, the Huns.  Although he was not able to form an alliance, he did bring back many goods and information from the people he met.

 The Silk Road was divided into 2 major sections: East and West.  The Eastern part traveled through both the Gobi and Taklimakan Deserts until it met with the Western part in Kashgar in the western part of the Taklimakan.  Before entering the desert, travelers formed long camel caravans for protection.  Caravan: a group of people traveling together  Bactrian camels were especially well-suited for desert travel.  They had double eyelids and nostrils that could close to keep out the blowing sand.

 The Western Silk Road ran from the midpoint at Kashgar to various ports around the Mediterranean.  Since the 1 st part of this journey involved crossing the Pamir Mountains, goods traveling westward went by yak rather than camel.  This part of the route was sometimes called the “trail of bones” because of the many animals and people who died there.  After the mountains, the route went through present day Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and the Syrian Desert before finally reaching the Mediterranean.

 Silk was such a valuable item to people in the west because at first only the Chinese knew how to make it.  It was also light which made it easy to transport.  To protect the trade value of silk, the Chinese tried to keep the process for producing it a secret.  Under the Han Dynasty, revealing the secret was a crime punishable by death!

 Besides silk, the Chinese also traded fine dishware which became known as China.  India sent various goods such as cotton, spices, pearls, and ivory back to China and other places along the route.  The Romans, in particular, eagerly traded valuable goods for silk.  Just as the Romans had never made silk, the Chinese were unfamiliar with glass production.  The Romans knew how to blow glass into delicate items that the Chinese desired.

 In Rome, Chinese silk was a luxury item which was rare and expensive.  Even the richest Romans could afford to wear only a strip or patch of silk stitched to their white togas.  In addition to fine glassware, the Romans also shipped massive amounts of gold to trade for silk.  In fact, so much gold was shipped out of Rome that in the 1 st century C.E., the Roman emperor Tiberius passed a law forbidding men to wear silk.  Despite the law, silk continued to flow into the Roman Empire.

 The Silk Road opened under the Han and remained an important trade route for more than 1,000 years.  Goods were not the only things to travel along the Silk Road; they also exchanged ideas.  For example, you learned before that Buddhism began in India.  Because the Silk Road passed through India as well as many other nations, religious travelers used the road to spread their beliefs.  Buddhism was introduced to China around the middle of the 1 st century C.E. and would eventually become a major religion of China.