Shelk Since ancient times, people who lived in different parts of our planet traded among themselves. At first it was just an exchange of objects that were in one place, but they were not in another: salt, precious stones and gold, medicinal herbs and incense. Then people began to exchange goods: food, livestock, items made of bronze and iron, valuable furs, fabrics, cattle and many, many others.
Initially, there was an ordinary exchange, and then buying and selling for money began, trade appeared, and with it there were trading markets - bazaars, fairs, trade routes that connected countries, cities and peoples. Separate sections of the paths merged, the roads lengthened to the west and east, north and south, capturing more and more territories.
This is how the Great Silk Road appeared in Europe and Asia (Eurasia). In the middle of the 2nd century BC. e. it passed through the ancient Kazakh steppes and cities as a transcontinental highway, providing a dialogue of cultures and civilizations for many centuries.
The ancient Chinese official Zhang Qian played a decisive role in the formation of the Great Silk Road as a trans-Eurasian highway. In 138 BC. e. he went on a dangerous diplomatic mission to the nomads of the Yuezhi tribe to persuade them to become allies of the Chinese Han empire in the fight against the Xiongnu nomads. Zhang Qian became the first Chinese to visit Central Asia - Sogdiana and Bactria (now Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan). There he learned about the great demand for Chinese goods, and saw many things that the Chinese had no idea about. Returning to China in 126 BC. BC, he presented to the emperor a report on the benefits of direct trade between China and the states of Central Asia. Although Zhang Qian could not get military assistance from the Yuezhi in the fight against the Xiongnu, the information he collected was considered extremely important. In 123-119 BC. e. Chinese troops independently defeated the Xiongnu, securing the path from China to the west. It was from this time that we can talk about the functioning of the Great Silk Road as a through route that connected all the great civilizations of the Old World - China, India, the Middle East and Europe. This huge system of caravan routes, more than 7 thousand km long, existed for more than one and a half thousand years - much longer than other long-distance land trade routes (such as the route "from the Varangians to the Greeks"). This huge system of caravan routes, more than 7 thousand km long, existed for more than one and a half thousand years - much longer than other long-distance land trade routes (such as the route "from the Varangians to the Greeks"). This huge system of caravan routes, more than 7 thousand km long, existed for more than one and a half thousand years - much longer than other long-distance land trade routes (such as the route "from the Varangians to the Greeks").
The Great Silk Road included the "lapis lazuli road" along which the beautiful blue lapis lazuli (lapis lazuli) stone was transported. The gem was highly valued in Egypt, Babylon, Iran. "Jade Road", which became the road for the transportation of beautiful jade stone to China. It was used to make jewelry for emperors and nobles. "Sable Road" - furs spread along it. In the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. the "steppe path" began to develop, along which silk began to be exported to Western countries.
The name "The Great Silk Road" is not an ancient name. The term "Great Silk Road" entered the historical science at the end in 1877 and was coined by the famous German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen. Silk, invented in China, was the main trade item, and it determined the name of the path. Since then, this apt name has become a kind of visiting card of the amazing achievement of mankind, thanks to which peoples began to trade, transfer scientific achievements to each other, and exchange cultural and religious values.
Although the routes of the Silk Road have changed, there are two main routes connecting East and West: the southern road (from northern China through Central Asia to the Middle East and Northern India); the northern road (from the north of China through the Pamirs and the Aral Sea region to the Lower Volga and to the Black Sea basin). There were several connecting and intermediate routes between the southern and northern roads.
In the commodity exchange between East and West, goods went mainly from east to west. In the Roman Empire during its heyday, silk fabrics and other oriental goods were in great demand. Since the XI century, the whole of Western Europe began to actively buy oriental goods. After the Arab conquests, they began to be consumed throughout the southern Mediterranean, up to Spain.
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For the successful functioning of the Great Silk Road, political stability was necessary along its entire length. This could be achieved in two ways - either by creating a huge empire controlling all the most important Eurasian caravan routes, or by "dividing the world" between major powers capable of ensuring the security of trade. There were three short periods in the history of the Great Silk Road when it was almost completely controlled by one state: the Turkic Kaganate at the end of the 6th century, the empire of Genghis Khan at the end of the 13th century. and the empire of Timur (Tamerlane) at the end of the XIV century. However, due to the high length of the tracks, it was extremely difficult to unite them under a single control. More often, there was a "division of the world" between several large countries.
The decline of the Great Silk Road is associated, first of all, with the development of merchant shipping along the coasts of the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia. In the XIV-XV centuries, sea trade became more attractive than the dangerous overland caravan routes: the sea route from the Persian Gulf to China took about 150 days, while the caravan route from Tana (Azov) to Khanbalik (Beijing) took about 300 days; one ship carried the same amount of goods as a very large caravan of 1,000 pack animals. As a result of these factors, by the XVI century. The Great Silk Road finally ceased to exist. Only some of its parts continued to function for a long time (for example, the caravan trade between Central Asia and China ceased only in the 18th century).
Silk fabrics and raw silk were the main commodities on the Great Silk Road. They were most convenient for long-distance transportation, since silk is light and very valuable - in Europe it was sold for more than gold. China, the birthplace of silkworm breeding, maintained a monopoly on silk products until about the 5th – 6th centuries. n. e., but even after that it remained one of the centers of silk production and export along with Central Asia. During the Middle Ages, China also exported porcelain and tea. The countries of the Middle East and Central Asia specialized in the manufacture of woolen and cotton fabrics that went along the Silk Road to the east, to China. From the countries of South and Southeast Asia, merchants brought to Europe spices (pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, etc.), which were used by Europeans to preserve food and make medicines.
Western Europe in trade with the East has always had a passive balance of trade: when buying expensive eastern goods, the Europeans could not offer in exchange goods of equal quality and were forced to pay in gold and silver. From ancient times to the end of its functioning, the Great Silk Road acted as a channel for "pumping" precious metals from Europe to the East. As this leak of high-grade money worsened the monetary system, European rulers tried to impose restrictions on the consumption of eastern goods and on the export of gold and silver to the east. However, these administrative measures had a low impact. It was only after the industrial revolution that it was possible to achieve the competitiveness of its products in comparison with eastern Western Europe.
The functioning of the Great Silk Road led to the acquaintance of different peoples with new consumer goods. Western Europe benefited the most from their distribution. Silk fabrics enhanced the personal hygiene of Europeans by ridding them of lice. Spices were widely used for the manufacture of medicines and for the preservation of shelf-stable products. Paper made according to recipes from China and Central Asia began to supplant parchment and papyrus, reducing the cost of copying handwritten books.
But along the Silk Road, not only the goods themselves were distributed, but also information about their production and existence. Initially, silk was produced only in China, but already in the 1st – 2nd centuries. n. e. Sericulture penetrated into East Turkestan, in the 5th century. - to Iran. In the VI century. The emperor of Byzantium was able to organize silkworm breeding in Greece, persuading, according to legend, the monks-travelers to secretly bring him silkworm eggs in a hollow staff. Buying first paper from merchants from the East, Europeans from the XIII century. began to make it independently.
Some new products have emerged as a result of a kind of "collective creativity" of different peoples. So, gunpowder was discovered in China in the 9th century. In the XIV century. a gun was invented that shoots with gunpowder - a cannon. The place and time of their invention are not known exactly - experts name China, Arab countries, and Western Europe. Information about a new type of weapon quickly passed along the Silk Road, and already in the 15th century. artillery was used in all countries of Eurasia, from Europe to China.
The Great Silk Road played an important role in the development of geographical knowledge. It was only after the formation of this end-to-end trade route that Europeans and Chinese first learned about each other's existence and got at least a rough idea of all the civilizations of Eurasia. Western Europe received relatively accurate knowledge about the size of Eurasia and about the features of various countries of the East only at the end of the 13th - beginning of the 14th centuries, after some European merchants and missionaries (including the famous Marco Polo) were able to walk the Silk Road from end to end and to write books about it, which enjoyed great interest in Europe.
Along with goods, art, architecture, culture, the art of music and dance, and spectacular performances spread along the Great Silk Road. The spread of world religions followed it: Buddhism and Islam from the East, Christianity from the West. Missionary work and pilgrimage also contributed to the spread of such faiths as Judaism, Manichaeism, Zoroastrianism. But none of them, however, could become popular among Asian peoples for a long time.
Thus, as a result of the functioning of the Great Silk Road, there was a tendency for the convergence of cultures in the process of intensive and regular world economic ties. And today, the history of the Great Silk Road can be considered as an actual experience of mutually beneficial trade and peaceful cultural communication between different countries and peoples.