Silk Road Case

Silk Road DBQ

By

Leo Pawlika

        The Silk Road created a vast interconnected network throughout all of Asia, Europe and some of Africa. The Silk Road was not just one big network of roads, these roads are like veins in a human. There were major roads that then split off into smaller roads. The Silk Road to a great extent connected the whole eastern hemisphere allowing the opportunity for cultures to share religion, trade and culture.

        The Silk Road allowed for cultures to share religion. This fact is proven in a document where a Buddhist monk says as he traveled along the Silk Road he came in contact with may other people with many different forms of religions and this must have helped share religion from one culture to another. The fact that this was told by a Buddhist monk who was there at the time strongly helps to show how ideas, specifically religious, were passed along in the Silk Road. The point of view of this Chinese monk strongly contributes to show ho the Silk Road helped to make an interconnected network. This is because the monk travels from central Asia and goes through many monasteries and then ends up in India. The monk gives the point of view of a person from a middle class who is just trying to perform their dharma in order to live a better next life. Also, because this monk wrote this record about his travels around 400 CE I know that it was around that time where the Silk Road was most active.    In a letter to the west by Friar John he tried to persuade the Kahn into believing in Jesus Christ and Christianity. This connection of religion would have never come to be if not for the Silk Road. If had I been provided with a short excerpt from a religious text, it would have been used to show how different religions were combined and shared similar traits due to the interconnectedness of the Silk Road. The Silk Road strongly helped the civilizations connect religions with one-another.

        Second the Silk Road made it possible for cultures separated by great distances to be able to trade with each other. For example, an ancient Roman Historian was mentioned in a document about the Silk Road. This could allow for the reader to infer that the Silk Road spanned all the way to Rome. Second there was a written document from the assistant of a merchant that explains a market experience in an ancient city named Hangzhou. This assistant explains the different things that each society traded. For example pearls, jades and Talismans.  It is very helpful that a merchant’s assistant had written this because having his point of view of this situation helps give the reader the perspective of what is going on from someone other than a merchant. Also, because this is the assistant of a merchant I know that this person was not very high up in the social hierarchy. It is clear that the person that is writing this article was amazed by what was going on in the Hangzhou marketplace because he described it as, “all the rarities of the world seemed to be gathered here.” This shows how the Silk Road connected people with things that they have never seen before that come from distant vast areas. Additionally Marco Polo wrote about when he was in the market place in Hangzhou and how crazy and active it was. He said, “In three days in every week 40 to 50 thousand people would come to the market place and supply themselves with every article the desired.” This shows how much people desired trade and how much trade took part in people’s everyday lives. The idea that this record came from a merchant himself helps paint a better picture as to how trade helped make an interconnected network. In addition because Marco Polo was an Italian explorer who did a lot of traveling around the late 13th century it is clear when he was writing about China it was not his homeland so he did not have the perspective that a native Chinese person would have.  Lastly, writing this would have been easier if I were to be provided with a list of goods that were traded in the Silk Road and how much each of those things were worth. The Silk Road was the core connection of trade between all civilizations in ancient the eastern hemisphere.