The Silk Road
Fifteen centuries of roads between China and the Mediterranean: envoys and monks, silk and paper, Marco Polo and the plague — and how sea routes took over from the caravans.
The globe flies from place to place and the timeline from year to year. Every step has its own link — handy for showing it in class.
Tour steps
-
138 BC–126 BC The envoy Zhang Qian
Emperor Wu sends Zhang Qian to look for allies against the Xiongnu. After years in captivity, the envoy reaches Ferghana and Bactria, and his mission opens the way west for China.
-
97 Gan Ying seeks Rome
General Ban Chao restores Han control over the Tarim Basin oases and sends Gan Ying to Daqin, the Roman Empire. Gan Ying reaches the “Western Sea” but turns back after local sailors warn him of a long voyage.
-
552 Silkworms reach Byzantium
Around 552, according to Procopius, monks smuggle silkworm eggs to the emperor Justinian. Byzantium starts making its own silk, and China's monopoly on the secret ends.
-
629–645 The monk Xuanzang
Defying an imperial ban, the monk Xuanzang leaves Chang'an and travels through Central Asia to India. Sixteen years later he returns with 657 Buddhist texts: the Silk Road carried ideas as well as goods.
-
751 Battle of Talas
An Abbasid army defeats Tang forces on the Talas river. According to tradition, Chinese prisoners bring the secret of papermaking to Samarkand, and from there it spreads across the Islamic world.
-
1271–1295 Marco Polo
Under Mongol rule the roads across Eurasia become safer. The Venetian Marco Polo spends about 17 years at Kublai Khan's court, and his book becomes Europe's main source on Asia for centuries.
-
1347–1351 The Black Death
Trade routes carry disease too. Genoese galleys from Caffa in Crimea bring the plague to Messina, and within a few years it kills an estimated third to half of Europe's population.
-
1370 Timur's Samarkand
Timur makes Samarkand the capital of his realm. Craftsmen are brought in from every conquered land, and the city at the crossroads of caravan routes fills with mosques and madrasas.
-
1405–1433 The maritime Silk Road
For centuries a sea route across the Indian Ocean ran alongside the overland roads. Admiral Zheng He's fleets sail it seven times, as far as Arabia and East Africa.
-
1453 Constantinople falls
The Ottomans take Constantinople, the western gateway of the Asian trade. Europeans look ever harder for a way to silk and spices that avoids the Ottoman Empire.
-
1498 Around Africa
Vasco da Gama rounds Africa and brings Portuguese ships to India. Direct sea trade with Asia gradually takes the lead from the caravans.
-
1877 A name for the road
The merchants themselves never used the words “Silk Road”. The name was coined by the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen in 1877, long after the caravan age had ended.