The Silk Road Was More Than a Vast Trade Route

The Silk Road is important because it enabled religions, new technologies, and ideologies to crisscross Eurasia for centuries of its existence.

By Nathaniel Scharping
Nov 21, 2020 6:00 AMNov 30, 2020 6:45 PM
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Credit: hasachai/Shutterstock

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To most Westerners, the Silk Road conjures images of exoticism: caravans of spices and silks, open-air markets filled with brightly-clothed hawkers and merchants, rolled carpets stacked high, turbaned travelers and monks from mountain monasteries.

To someone from the historical East, encompassing central, south and south-east Asia, the legendary trade route that linked the two civilizations would have done the same, if in reverse. Knights and Roman legionnaires, castles and Christianity — foreign concepts carried by traders and missionaries from the mysterious lands past the Eurasian Steppes.

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