Should We Call It the Silk Road?

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The Silk Road created ties between people and places from all over Eurasia, constructing an age of mass cultural diffusion. The road expanded outside China over the Eurasian continent to the mediterranean and “influenced the emergence and development of trade as well as cultural ties between people located along the way(Voyakin 1 Q1C).” This comes to show that “trade was not the was not the primary purpose of the Silk Road”, it changed history considering the people who managed to spread their cultures to distant lands(Hansen 1 Q3C). Travelers along its routes obtained and shared ideas, beliefs, and traditions. These travelers included ambassadors, merchants, scholars, and musicians who flocked urban centers, “stocking markets with exotic things and filling the streets with sights and sounds from distant lands(Polo 1 Q1A).” Missionaries too, walked the routes spreading religious beliefs and ideas which influenced societies and brought change upon their people. For example, Buddhist monuments were discovered in numerous cities along the Silk Road. Christianity was also another religion that flourished, which penetrated from the Near East to Central Asia and further to China. People walked the Silk Road teaching and adopting faiths. “I have built a church in the city of Khanbaliq. Also I have gradually bought one hundred and fifty boys, the children of pagan parents, and of ages varying from seven to eleven, who had never learned any religion. These boys I have baptized, and I have taught them Greek and Latin after our manner(John of Monte Corvino 1 Q3A).” This is a prime example of the spread of religion, since this man had practiced the Catholic faith and brought it to eastern Asia. Technologies and inventions from all different societies were exchanged as well along with goods, art, architecture, music,dance, science, medicine, mathematics and theater. Paper was one of the most important inventions that “helped to transform the world(Major 1 QB3).” Other innovations and ideas included printing, gunpowder, astrolabe, compass, map-making, and seafaring. Economic and political ideas were developed likewise such as mercantilism. Silk is miniscule in terms of overall importance compared to cultural diffusion alone. The Silk Road allowed people to change each other's worlds and lifestyles, thus making it a major turning point in history without regards to silk.

As the Silk Road expanded, trade and cultural exchange strengthened with little help from silk all together. Its name does not give credit towards the numerous achievements the routes put forward. “Historians now agree that silk was only one of many valuable items transported and traded along the Silk Road and also that, in the final analysis, the most historically important “commodities” carried along these routes were ideas and culture and not goods(Andrea 1 Q4B).” Silk only dominated segments of the road which isn't enough compared to the trade routes overall success. The route should be renamed since it has outgrown its label by a long shot. A good new alias should illustrate the Silk Roads long-term significance in world history.

Works cited

- Mark, Joshua J. "Silk Road." Ancient History Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Feb. 2016.

- “Why Is It Called the "Silk Road?" N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Feb. 2016.

- Bishop, Isabella. "Chinasgreatroads.com." Ferdinand Von Richthofen (1833-1905). N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2016.

- "Goods of the Silk Road." - History of the Caravan Trade. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2016.