by Adam Sprott

Created on: September 06, 2008   Last Updated: September 17, 2009

The Silk Road is one of the greatest and most important trade routes of all time. It was the overland route that connected China and the East to Europe and the West. Our present name of the Silk Road was coined by the geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen in 1870.
The Silk Road began in the 2nd century BCE with the diplomatic missions of Zhang Qian sent by the Han Emperor. Zhang Qian was sent to seek out an alliance with a nomadic tribe against the Xiongnu who were hostile towards the Han dynasty. After many encounters and delays, Zhang Qian finally managed to return to China without succeeding in establishing this alliance. However, he brought information back to China about the cultures and kingdoms of Central Asia that he discovered, and provided these cultures with their first contact with China. This contact created a demand for goods and materials at both ends of the route, and trade began to be established. Eventually, the trade route reached South West Asia and the Mediterranean, where Silk and Eastern goods became in very high demand in the Roman Empire.

The Silk Road was largely fragmented and very few merchants travelled the whole route. Goods were passed from one merchant to another until it reached the final buyers, most often the nobility of Europe. As most of the area was unstable or hostile, due to raids by nomadic tribes and unrest in the established kingdoms along the route most importantly during dynastic struggles in China and Persia - the route was quite dangerous and the supply of silk and other goods was often limited.
It was not until the Mongol Conquests of the 13th century CE that the Silk Road was united. Despite their villainous perception, the Mongols were actually the most influential in the Silk Road's history. Marco Polo made his historic journey to Yuan China during this time, and brought back one of the first accounts of the East to Europe in centuries. As nomads who had depended on trade for some of their essential materials, the Mongols were very aware of the value of trade and took steps to help it flourish. With the stability of the Mongol Empire, merchants could travel the entire route and the Khans established ortoghs, group caravans funded by several merchants so that if the caravan was lost, these merchants could absorb the loss instead of individual merchants going bankrupt. The roads themselves were improved, to facilitate the movement of the army as well as of trade. The Mongols also spread ideas from the various regions

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