Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Silk Road

Starting point is 00:00:00 Despite having radically different cultures and being separated by thousands of kilometers, Asia and Europe have been connected for thousands of years. Through a series of overland and sea trade routes, goods, ideas, and people were able to move from east to west and vice versa. These routes were responsible for some of history's greatest cultural exchanges, as well as some of its greatest disasters. Learn more about the Silk Road and how it shaped history on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night.

Starting point is 00:00:53 And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. I should kick off this episode by explaining exactly what the Silk Road was because there's a lot of confusion surrounding it. The Silk Road was not a road, meaning it was not a singular route that connected Asia and Europe. Moreover, some of the things that fell under the Silk Road weren't even roads. At the time it was used, no one called the Silk Road the Silk Road, sort of like how the term Byzantine Empire was created after the fact. And to make it even better, the Silk Road wasn't even necessarily about silk.

Starting point is 00:01:36 The term Silk Road was popularized in 1877 by the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthoven, who called it the Zadensstraza, or literally the Silk Road. The term Silk Road is one that most people have probably heard and are familiar with, but it's fallen out of favor amongst historians simply because of all the inaccuracies it entails. The terms Silk Roads or Silk Routes is now often used simply because it's a bit more accurate. However, I'm going to continue to use Silk Road for the rest of this episode, but keep in mind that the term Silk Road is more of a metaphorical one than a literal one. It refers to all of the trade routes between east and west and not necessarily even trade routes on land,

Starting point is 00:02:16 even though the term is most closely associated with the land routes that went through Central Asia. So, that being said, the origins of the Silk Road are usually given to have started in the year 138 BC when the Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent an envoy by the name of Zhang Shien to establish diplomatic relations with the tribes and kingdoms of Central Asia. If you look at a map of the territory of the Han Dynasty, it covers most of eastern China, which was the traditional core of Chinese civilization. And then it extends westward in a very long salient, aka panhandle, all the way out into Central Asia. While there was no single Silk Road, there were points where mountain passes or other geographical features often focused travelers. The Silk Road could also be considered more of a chain with multiple links than a singular road.

Starting point is 00:03:05 When goods arrived from China and Central Asia, they would be bought and sold by merchants, who would then trade them with other merchants further to the west, who would in turn trade them with other merchants and so on and so on. Most of the trade from China began in several inland cities, but primarily from the city of Xi'an, which used to be called Chang'an. This was where the broad plains of eastern China started to meet the foothills and mountains of Western China. From there it was a pretty straight shot arching around the Tibetan Plateau until it reached the Taclamakan Desert. which is an enormous barren area in western China.

Starting point is 00:03:38 The route split into a northern and southern route, each of which went around the impassable desert. From there, it would pass through the Wakhan Corridor, in what is today Afghanistan. If you look at a map of modern Afghanistan, you'll notice a finger of land that extends to the east and has a tiny border with China. That is the Wakon Corridor.

Starting point is 00:03:58 The Wakon Corridor was and is an important pass between the Pomer Mountains to the north and the Hindu Kush Mountains to the south. From there, the main routes extended through the modern-day countries of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. Once you get into Central Asia, you encounter several bodies of water in succession, the Aral Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the Black Sea. There were major routes that went south of these bodies and routes which went to the north.

Starting point is 00:04:27 The southern routes went through Iran, with branches extending into the Caucasus to link up with the northern route. Palmyra in modern-day Syria is usually considered to be the end of the Silk Road to the south of the Black Sea, and from here would be connected to Egypt and Constantinople, with routes going even further to places such as Venice. Several major cities today were located on what is considered part of the Silk Road, including the aforementioned Shian, Samarkand, Tashkent, Baghdad, Aleppo, and Damascus. While these routes through Central Asia were considered to be the heart of the land part of the Silk Road, there were also routes going south as well.

Starting point is 00:05:02 Known today as the T-horse Road, these went from southern China into what is today Myanmar and ended up in Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal. From India, goods would then be distributed through trade networks in India and possibly loaded onto ships. Here I have to stress just how inefficient shipping material by land was. Even today, shipping pretty much anything by water is more efficient than shipping by land in terms of cost.

Starting point is 00:05:27 To illustrate the point, during colonial America, it cost as much to ship a piece of furniture from London to Boston as it did to ship the same piece of furniture 40 miles overland from Boston. And that was in an era of larger sailing ships. There's just only so much you can put on the back of a camel or in a cart. Conditions along any of the Silk Road routes were dangerous as you would be under constant threat from bandits. To protect themselves from bandits, traders would often group together in caravans. and they would stop for the evening in protected areas known as Caravan Sarize. Caravan Sarize were the Silk Road equivalent of truck stops, where travelers could rest and where they could do business. The actual roads were often in horrible condition, as there was often no authority that was responsible for the roads,

Starting point is 00:06:15 or worse, there were conflicting and warring states along the way. Almost no one traveled the entire length of the Silk Road, regardless of the route. Craters would have fixed routes between two points where they would buy and sell in each location, before moving on. Goods were also not necessarily sent directly from China to Europe. There were goods purchased and sold all along the way. Some goods that ended up in Europe may have come from China, but many of them may have originated in Central Asia, India, Persia, or the Middle East. One of the few people who did travel the entire length of the Silk Road was Marco Polo. Much of what we know of the Silk Road from the 13th century comes from Marco Polo's diaries.

Starting point is 00:06:53 One of the reasons why Marco Polo was able to travel the entire distance is because during this period, most of the entire Silk Road was under the control of the Mongol Empire, or at least various Mongol kingdoms. The Mongols provided the stability that resulted in the heyday of the Silk Road. A single government allowed for easier trade and for fewer bandits. It was very similar to how the Roman Empire facilitated trade during its peak. When Marco Polo took the Silk Road to China, it took him over three years of travel to get from Venice to the court of Kubla Khan. While he wasn't on the move constantly, it does illustrate just how slow the overland route was. While the overland routes received most of the

Starting point is 00:07:34 attention, there were probably far more goods shipped via sea. The maritime silk road is pretty easy to grasp. It basically followed the coast of everything in Asia, from China through Southeast Asia and the Straits of Malacca, around India, and then finally to the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and down the east coast of Africa. Here too, sailors would often travel, not for from China all the way to the Persian Gulf, but would rather stop at various ports to buy and sell goods. Chinese traders were common all throughout Southeast Asia, including many of the islands in the Malay and Indonesian archipelago. Gigantic Chinese treasure ships, the likes of which I discussed in my episode on Admiral Zheng He, actually were able to sail all the way from China to East Africa

Starting point is 00:08:13 and back. Perhaps the greatest seafarers in the region were the Arabs who sailed the waters of the Indian Ocean following the monsoon patterns. A trading trip might often take a full year in order to take full advantage of the seasonal wins. The goods transported on the Silk Road were many and varied. It wasn't just Silk, even though that was the one product that probably received the most attention in Europe. In addition to Silk, from the east came porcelain, tea, jade, precious stones, and copious amounts of spice.

Starting point is 00:08:43 From the West were sent incense such as Frankencents, glassware, silver, ivory, medical herbs, olive oil, wool, linen, and wine. All along both the land and maritime routes in both directions were shipped various grains, fruits, meats, and leather. It wasn't just goods that were transported either. Ideas were as well. Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity, and Islam were all spread through these trade networks. Books and manuscripts would often find their way to stops along the Silk Road. To illustrate the point, the city of Koshi India, due to its fantastic port and the many traders who visited, was the home of the first Christian church in India, the first Islamic mosque in India, and the first Jewish synagogue in India. Technical innovations, many of which I've covered in previous episodes, such as paper and gunpowder,

Starting point is 00:09:31 were all transmitted along the Silk Road by traders. People settled in these sports cities and trading posts as well, spreading culture and cultural practices across different countries. Many of the things that the Silk Road spread weren't necessarily positive. It's widely believed that the Black Death, which killed between 75 to 200 million people, may have been spread by traders on the Silk Road. The end of the classical Silk Road period can be attributed to a couple of things. The first was the decline in the Mongol Empire, which once again made the overland trading route subject to a host of different rulers and

Starting point is 00:10:05 increased banditry. The other thing was the rise of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire grew until it was able to control the land routes in the north as well as all of the maritime routes in the South. Everything that came to Europe from the east now had to go through the Ottomans, who are able to block most trade, or at least severely tax it. I'm often asked what's the most surprising thing that I've learned in the course of doing this podcast, and I would have to say it's this. The Ottoman control of trade from the east, along all of the routes of the Silk Road, was one of the most significant things in history that almost never gets mentioned. The reason why it's so important is that it was the event

Starting point is 00:10:45 that ushered in the European Age of Exploration. The Europeans set out to find alternate trade routes because they didn't want to pay the high prices that the Ottomans demanded. A very direct line can be drawn from the Ottoman control of the Silk Road trade routes to the European colonization of the Americas. The Silk Road system of trade between the eastern and western parts of Eurasia was one of the most important developments in human history. The Silk Road changed all of the civilizations that it touched, and its effects can still be seen today in our technology, religion, and culture.

Starting point is 00:11:18 The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. I have a couple of short reviews for you today. The first review comes from listener Wassum dudes over on Apple Podcasts in the United States. They write, really good. Thank you so much. This really helps me wake up. The next review comes from Shurek, also from Apple Podcasts in the United States.

Starting point is 00:11:44 They write, I have learned so much, thank you. Well, thank you both. I'm happy to serve as both your daily cup of coffee and your daily bit of knowledge. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostagram, no matter how short, YouTube can have it read on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Silk Road

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