1 00:00:06,704 --> 00:00:09,444 A banker in London sends the latest stock info 2 00:00:09,444 --> 00:00:12,459 to his colleagues in Hong Kong in less than a second. 3 00:00:12,459 --> 00:00:14,759 With a single click, a customer in New York 4 00:00:14,759 --> 00:00:16,854 orders electronics made in Beijing, 5 00:00:16,854 --> 00:00:19,082 transported across the ocean within days 6 00:00:19,082 --> 00:00:21,603 by cargo plane or container ship. 7 00:00:21,603 --> 00:00:23,650 The speed and volume at which goods and information 8 00:00:23,650 --> 00:00:27,486 move across the world today is unprecedented in history. 9 00:00:27,486 --> 00:00:30,581 But global exchange itself is older than we think, 10 00:00:30,581 --> 00:00:34,170 reaching back over 2,000 years along a 5,000 mile stretch 11 00:00:34,170 --> 00:00:36,521 known as the Silk Road. 12 00:00:36,521 --> 00:00:39,065 The Silk Road wasn't actually a single road, 13 00:00:39,065 --> 00:00:41,134 but a network of multiple routes 14 00:00:41,134 --> 00:00:43,494 that gradually emerged over centuries, 15 00:00:43,494 --> 00:00:45,934 connecting to various settlements and to each other 16 00:00:45,934 --> 00:00:47,311 thread by thread. 17 00:00:47,311 --> 00:00:51,045 The first agricultural civilizations were isolated places 18 00:00:51,045 --> 00:00:52,615 in fertile river valleys. 19 00:00:52,615 --> 00:00:54,905 Their travel impeded by surrounding geography 20 00:00:54,905 --> 00:00:56,521 and fear of the unknown. 21 00:00:56,521 --> 00:00:57,744 But as they grew, 22 00:00:57,744 --> 00:01:00,541 they found that the arid deserts and steps on their borders 23 00:01:00,541 --> 00:01:02,868 were inhabited, not by the demons of folklore, 24 00:01:02,868 --> 00:01:05,234 but nomadic tribes on horseback. 25 00:01:05,234 --> 00:01:08,258 The Scythians, who ranged from Hungary to Mongolia, 26 00:01:08,258 --> 00:01:10,121 had come in contact with the civilizations of 27 00:01:10,121 --> 00:01:13,129 Greece, Egypt, India and China. 28 00:01:13,129 --> 00:01:15,517 These encounters were often less than peaceful. 29 00:01:15,517 --> 00:01:17,891 But even through raids and warfare, 30 00:01:17,891 --> 00:01:20,719 as well as trade and protection of traveling merchants 31 00:01:20,719 --> 00:01:22,256 in exchange for tariffs, 32 00:01:22,256 --> 00:01:25,775 the nomads began to spread goods, ideas and technologies 33 00:01:25,775 --> 00:01:28,576 between cultures with no direct contact. 34 00:01:28,576 --> 00:01:31,591 One of the most important strands of this growing web 35 00:01:31,591 --> 00:01:33,160 was the Persian Royal Road, 36 00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:36,993 completed by Darius the First in the 5th century BCE. 37 00:01:36,993 --> 00:01:41,399 Stretching nearly 2,000 miles from the Tigris River to the Aegean Sea, 38 00:01:41,399 --> 00:01:43,937 its regular relay points allowed goods and messages 39 00:01:43,937 --> 00:01:48,251 to travel at nearly 1/10 the time it would take a single traveler. 40 00:01:48,251 --> 00:01:50,965 With Alexander the Great's conquest of Persia, 41 00:01:50,965 --> 00:01:54,699 and expansion into Central Asia through capturing cities like Samarkand 42 00:01:54,699 --> 00:01:57,994 and establishing new ones like Alexandria Eschate, 43 00:01:57,994 --> 00:02:01,563 the network of Greek, Egyptian, Persian and Indian culture and trade 44 00:02:01,563 --> 00:02:04,455 extended farther east than ever before, 45 00:02:04,455 --> 00:02:07,978 laying the foundations for a bridge between China and the West. 46 00:02:07,978 --> 00:02:11,029 This was realized in the 2nd century BCE, 47 00:02:11,029 --> 00:02:13,306 when an ambassador named Chang Chian, 48 00:02:13,306 --> 00:02:15,517 sent to negotiate with nomads in the West, 49 00:02:15,517 --> 00:02:17,605 returned to the Han Emperor with tales of 50 00:02:17,605 --> 00:02:20,709 sophisticated civilizations, prosperous trade 51 00:02:20,709 --> 00:02:23,909 and exotic goods beyond the western borders. 52 00:02:23,909 --> 00:02:26,313 Ambassadors and merchants were sent towards 53 00:02:26,313 --> 00:02:29,943 Persia and India to trade silk and jade for horses and cotton, 54 00:02:29,943 --> 00:02:32,864 along with armies to secure their passage. 55 00:02:32,864 --> 00:02:35,358 Eastern and western routes gradually linked together 56 00:02:35,358 --> 00:02:38,323 into an integrated system spanning Eurasia, 57 00:02:38,323 --> 00:02:40,240 enabling cultural and commercial exhange 58 00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:42,506 farther than ever before. 59 00:02:42,506 --> 00:02:44,736 Chinese goods made their way to Rome, 60 00:02:44,736 --> 00:02:48,281 causing an outflow of gold that led to a ban on silk. 61 00:02:48,281 --> 00:02:51,430 While Roman glassware was highly prized in China. 62 00:02:51,430 --> 00:02:53,892 Military expeditions in Central Asia 63 00:02:53,892 --> 00:02:57,267 also saw encounters between Chinese and Roman soldiers. 64 00:02:57,267 --> 00:02:59,547 Possibly even transmitting crossbow technology 65 00:02:59,547 --> 00:03:01,812 to the Western world. 66 00:03:01,812 --> 00:03:04,187 Demand for exotic and foreign goods 67 00:03:04,187 --> 00:03:05,389 and the profits they brought, 68 00:03:05,389 --> 00:03:07,699 kept the strands of the Silk Road in tact 69 00:03:07,699 --> 00:03:09,989 even as the Roman Empire disintegrated 70 00:03:09,990 --> 00:03:13,258 and Chinese dynasties rose and fell. 71 00:03:13,258 --> 00:03:16,151 Even Mongolian hoards, known for pillage and plunder, 72 00:03:16,151 --> 00:03:19,588 actively protected the trade routes, rather than disrupting them. 73 00:03:19,588 --> 00:03:22,642 But along with commodities, these routes also enabled 74 00:03:22,642 --> 00:03:27,087 the movement of traditions, innovations, ideologies and languages. 75 00:03:27,087 --> 00:03:30,644 Originating in India, Buddhism migrated to China and Japan 76 00:03:30,644 --> 00:03:32,989 to become the dominant religion there. 77 00:03:32,989 --> 00:03:36,278 Islam spread from the Arabian Penninsula into South Asia, 78 00:03:36,278 --> 00:03:37,888 blending with native beliefs 79 00:03:37,888 --> 00:03:40,704 and leading to new faiths like Sikhism. 80 00:03:40,704 --> 00:03:43,427 And gunpowder made its way from China to the Middle East 81 00:03:43,427 --> 00:03:48,258 forging the futures of the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughul Empires. 82 00:03:48,258 --> 00:03:51,214 In a way, the Silk Road's success led to its own demise 83 00:03:51,214 --> 00:03:54,272 as new maritime technologies, like the magnetic compass, 84 00:03:54,272 --> 00:03:57,990 found their way to Europe making long land routes obsolete. 85 00:03:57,990 --> 00:04:00,622 Meanwhile, the collapse of Mongol rule 86 00:04:00,622 --> 00:04:04,032 was followed by China's withdrawal from international trade. 87 00:04:04,032 --> 00:04:06,851 But even though the old routes and networks did not last, 88 00:04:06,851 --> 00:04:08,936 they had changed the world forever 89 00:04:08,936 --> 00:04:10,848 and there was no going back. 90 00:04:10,848 --> 00:04:13,023 Europeans seeking new maritime routes 91 00:04:13,023 --> 00:04:15,639 to the riches they knew awaited in East Asia 92 00:04:15,639 --> 00:04:17,381 led to the Age of Exploration 93 00:04:17,381 --> 00:04:20,488 and expansion into Africa and the Americas. 94 00:04:20,488 --> 00:04:24,286 Today, global interconnectedness shapes our lives like never before. 95 00:04:24,286 --> 00:04:27,557 Canadian shoppers buy t-shirts made in Bangladesh, 96 00:04:27,557 --> 00:04:30,500 Japanese audiences watch British television shows, 97 00:04:30,500 --> 00:04:34,436 and Tunisians use American software to launch a revolution. 98 00:04:34,436 --> 00:04:38,577 The impact of globalization on culture and economy is indisputable. 99 00:04:38,577 --> 00:04:40,563 But whatever its benefits and drawbacks, 100 00:04:40,563 --> 00:04:43,246 it is far from a new phenomenon. 101 00:04:43,246 --> 00:04:45,501 And though the mountains, deserts and oceans 102 00:04:45,501 --> 00:04:46,688 that once separated us 103 00:04:46,688 --> 00:04:49,452 are now circumvented through super sonic vehicles, 104 00:04:49,452 --> 00:04:51,576 cross-continental communication cables, 105 00:04:51,576 --> 00:04:53,789 and signals beamed through space 106 00:04:53,789 --> 00:04:56,116 rather than caravans traveling for months, 107 00:04:56,116 --> 00:04:57,863 none of it would have been possible 108 00:04:57,863 --> 00:04:59,385 without the pioneering cultures 109 00:04:59,385 --> 00:05:01,842 whose efforts created the Silk Road: 110 00:05:01,842 --> 00:05:04,115 history's first world wide web.