SIlk, Sea, and Sand

Silk roads

- For 2,000 years, goods, ideas, tech, and diseases made their way across Eurasia on the several routes of the Silk Roads.
China- Silk, bamboo, mirrors, paper, ginger, etc.
India- Cotton, Herbal meds, precious stones, spices.
Mediterranean basin- artworks, gold coins glassware, grapevines, wool and linen textiles.
Middle east- dates, nuts, almonds, dried fruit, swords.

- Silk came to symbolize this Eurasian exchange system. China had a monopoly on the silk producing technologies. It was used as a source of currency and a means of accumulating wealth.

Silk was for members of the elite and not everyone could where silk.

As buddhism spread the silk roads from India to Central Asia, China, and beyond, it aslo changed. Buddhist monastaries in the rich towns of the silk roads found themselves very much involved in secular affairs.

Disease within Eurasia
Beyond goods and wealth came diseases that began to spread through Eurasia.
People of the culture would become immune to the diseaese but when foriegners came in the diseases would continually spread.
534- 750 C.E outbreaks of the bubonic plague spread through the coastal areas of the Mediterranean Sea.

Sea Roads

- Exchange across the Indian Ocean.
Sea-based trade routes connected distant peoples all across the Eastern hemisphere.
The Indian Oceanafter 1500's was the largest sea based system of communication and exchange. Stretched from southern China to Eastern Africa. The trade was different from the sand and Silk roads because these resources could only be brought by boat.

Med. Basin- Ceramics, glassware, wine, gold, olive oil
East Africa- Ivroy, gold, iron goods, slaves, leopord skins.
Arabia- Frankincense, perfumes.
China- Silks, porcelain, tea

Sand Roads- Exchange across the Sahara

- Long distant trade had an impact, stimulating and enriching west African civilization.
- Gold, Salt, and slaves were being traded on the Sand Roads.
- Used camels and slaves to carry goods for trade across the desert land.
- Sahara became a major international trade route that fostered new relationships with distant people.