Ancient Silkroad: Set of 7 Coins

The ancient Silk Road – a 10,000 kilometers long crucible of culture and economics

The Silk Road or Silk Route was an ancient network of trade routes that for centuries were central to cultural interaction through regions of the Asian continent connecting the East and West from China to the Mediterranean Sea. The German term Seidenstraße was established by Ferdinand von Richthofen, who made seven expeditions to China from 1868 to 1872.

While the term is of modern coinage, the Silk Road derives its name from the lucrative trade in Chinese silk carried out along its length, beginning during the Han dynasty (207 BC – 220 AD). The Han dynasty expanded Central Asian sections of the trade routes around 114 BC, largely through missions and explorations of the Chinese imperial envoy: Zhang Qian. The Chinese took great interest in the safety of their trade products and extended the Great Wall of China to ensure the protection of the trade route.

Trade on the Silk Road played a significant role in the development of the civilizations of China, the Indian subcontinent, Persia, Europe, the Horn of Africa and Arabia, opening long-distance political and economic relations between the civilizations. Though silk was certainly the major trade item exported from China, many other goods were traded, and religions, syncretic philosophies, and various technologies, as well as diseases, also spread along the Silk Routes. In addition to economic trade, the Silk Road was a route for cultural trade among the civilizations along its network.
The main traders during antiquity included the Chinese, Arabs, Turks, Indians, Persians, Somalis, Greeks, Syrians, Romans, Georgians, Armenians, Bactrians, and (from the 5th to the 8th century) the Sogdians.

As the domestication of pack animals and the development of shipping technology greatly increased the opportunities for prehistoric people to carry heavier loads over greater distances, cultural exchanges and trade developed. In addition, the vast grassland steppes of Asia provided fertile grazing, water as well as easy passage for caravans, enabling merchants to travel immense distances, from the shores of the Pacific to Africa and deep into Europe, without trespassing on agricultural lands and arousing hostility.

A major step in the development of the Silk Road was the expansion of the Greek empire of Alexander the Great into Central Asia. In August 329 BC, at the mouth of the Fergana Valley in Tajikistan across the mountain pass from the modern Chinese province of Xinjiang, Alexander founded the city of Alexandria Eschate or “Alexandria The Furthest”. This later became a major staging point on the northern Silk Route.

In sum, the Silk Road represents an early phenomenon of political and cultural integration due to inter-regional trade. In its heyday, it sustained an international culture that strung together groups as diverse as the Magyars, Armenians, and Chinese. The Silk Road reached its peak in the west during the time of the Byzantine Empire.