Name - Harsh

Class - 9th d

Roll no - 34

Geography Project

Silk Route

The Silk Road or Silk Route refers 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 land routes were supplemented by sea routes which extended from the Red Sea to East Africa, India, China, and Southeast Asia.Extending 4,000 miles (6,500 km), the Silk Road gets its name from the lucrative Chinese silk trade along it, which began during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE). The central Asian sections of the trade routes were expanded around 114 BCE by the Han dynasty, largely through the missions and explorations of Zhang

Silk Route

The expansion of the Han empire made the Silk road possible by opening up trade routes.

A Chinese explorer named Zhang Qian is often called the father of the Silk Road.

Zhang Qian was sent to make an alliance with the Huns, which was never successful. He did however learn about crops such as grapes, a more powerful horse for combat, and established trade relationships.

The Father Of The Silk Road

Zhang Qian father of Silk Road

• Silk was a valuable trade good because it was a cloth that was strong, warm, light, and soft.

• It was valuable because at the time only the Chinese knew how to make it.

• Under Han rule revealing the silk making process was punishable by death.

Silk as a goodtrade

ITEMS TRADED ALONG THE SILK ROADOUD

BACTRIAN CAMELS

GLASS

CARPETS

METAL WORK

PORCELAIN

JADE

SPICES

SILK

• When people of other culture learned about silk, it was a highly prized material.

• The roman wanted silk and it was considered luxury item.

• The Roman traded glassware and gold something the Chinese really wanted.

Rome Trades Glassware For Silk

The Eastern Silk Road

The Silk road was not one continuous route, but a series of shorter trade routes so the goods could change many time before reaching the final destination.

From Luoyang , the silk road led west along the Gobi Desert to Dunhuang in Northwestern China. Travelers rode a Camel on the eastern silk road.

From Dunhuang travelers choose either a northern or southern route across the Takliman desert to Kashgar.

Travelers faced many problems such as bandits often attacking sandstorms, and lack of water.

Goods Exchanged Along The Eastern Silk Road Silk was the perfect trading good, because it was light

and valuable. Goods had to be easily carried so that merchants could transport more goods on fewer animals.

Besides silk, the Chinese also traded fine dishware, ornaments, jewelry, cast iron products, and decorative boxes.

The Chinese received a variety of trades for their goods such as horses, jade, furs, gold, cotton, spices, pearls, and ivory.

The Western Silk Road

Kashgar was the central trading point and they traveled Westward. Instead of carrying goods by camel they carried goods by Yak.

The Western Silk road went through mountains, deserts, and then finally reached the Mediterranean ports.

The dangers of the Western Silk road were treacherous Mountains know as “Trail of bones.” In the Syrian Desert traders were threatened by tigers, lions, and scorpions.

Goods Exchanged Along The Western Silk Road

Rome sent a number of products to be exchanged for Chinese silk such as vases, trays, small bottles, asbestos, and gold.

Tiberius the emperor of Rome passed a law where it was illegal to wear silk.

It was believed that Tiberius though it would make the Romans look soft and weak, but many believed it was because of the shortage of gold.

Cultural Exchanges And The Silk Road

The trade between east and west created cultural diffusion.

By 500 B.C.E. the West and east had learned to make new products from each other such as glass and silk.

With the sharing of cultures such as India, Buddhism spread throughout china and other surrounding civilizations.

Food were also brought throughout the silk road. China imported new food such as grapes, figs, pomegranates, and walnuts. The West imported oranges, peaches, pears, and different flowers such as chrysanthemums.

After Mongols Silk Road disappears. Portugese look for a way to renew trade

routes This resulted in first maritime trade

post Europe China

Renewing The Trade

New developments of silk route which improves communication routes in high altitude :

As the world is becoming advanced so the facilities and communication level of silk route is also improving new things trains , vehicle and satellites are used it . A communications satellite, sometimes abbreviated to SATCOM, is an artificial satellite stationed in space for the purposes of telecommunications.

For fixed or point-to-point services, communications satellites provide a microwave radio relay technology complementary to that of submarine communication cables.

They are also used for mobile applications such as communications to ships, vehicles, planes and hand-held terminals, and for TV and radio broadcasting, for which application of other technologies, such as cable, is impractical or impossible.Modern communications satellites use a variety of orbits including geostationary orbits, Molniya orbits, other elliptical orbits and low Earth orbits. Low earth orbiting satellites are less expensive to launch into orbit than geostationary satellites and, due to proximity to the ground, don't require as high signal strength.With the growing demand for remote access broadband services, satellite networks are becoming increasingly popular. In remote and rural areas, where there is little or no terrestrial communications infrastructure, satellite communications becomes the only viable option.

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