The Influence of Globalization as Exampled through the Silk Road Essay

The Influence of Globalization as Exampled through the Silk Road - Essay Example The roads also provided routes for conquest and violence, reorganizing boundaries. While there was a brief period of conquest such as the Mongolian invasion, during the 13th century the majority of exchange along the Silk Road was peaceful. The Silk Road provided a pathway for journeys that can be compared to today’s globalization as the distribution of information and commerce becomes a part of a system of interactions between nations. The Silk Road was the method of creating international trade before the notion of sea travel took over as a means towards expanding resource opportunities. Through international trade, a population has the potential to acquire luxury items from a distance through trade with other centers of population. The Silk Road created a connection between nations, spanning Europe in the Mediterranean Sea area, through Persia and into China and Korea, and then down into the Java area, back through India, Arabia, down to Somalia, and then back up through Eg ypt, using water routes that were not too far from destinations and the shoreline. Christian discusses the vast number of roles, such as teachers, pilgrims as well as merchants that occurred through the existence of the large numbers of trade opportunities within the ancient and medieval worlds. The trade routes provided for a complete and complex world that interconnected the African and Asian worlds with Europe, creating a great deal of technological development and influence.1 Despite modern contexts of understanding about the divisions between the West and the East, with a disconnected idea about Africa as a part of the development of Western society, these trade routes created deep influences and a great amount of world development that would eventually affect the New World as it was developed in the second millennia. Palmyra and Petra, as an example, were centers of art which flowed into the lower regions of Europe, influencing the development of artistic motifs in the West. A s well, the concept of coins for trade was developed in Anatolia, which spread through the Silk Road worlds, including the Mediterranean. There were a great number of types of items that were traded along these routes of trade, but the reason that they were called the ‘Silk Road’ is because of the rich resources of silk that were available. Silk was developed at a very early time period within Asia and became a highly valued commodity for trade. Patterned silks are available from the regions of Persia and India from the 6th century, located in tombs that archaeologists have retrieved and been able to examine for the methods of weaving. Chinese silks are not readily available for modern study and are known primarily through literary referencing from that time period.2 Many of the problems with studying the ancient world is that so much is dependent upon reports, rather than through physical and tangible evidence. Because many nations appeared to have mastered the creatio n of silk fabric after the 6th century, it is likely that increases in trade occurred after that time, allowing samples and the technology to be transferred throughout the region.3 There are a great number of examples that explain the value of silk. There is little evidence that India held it as a valued commodity, but a great number of examples that show that China believed it to have great value. Xinru