Early Silk Road | World History | Khan Academy

- [Instructor] In our
study of world history

we have looked at many different empires

and several of them are depicted

on this map right over here.

We spent a lot of time on the Roman Empire

and in the highlighted yellow
you see the Roman Empire

at roughly its maximum extent.

And on this timeline you
see the Roman Kingdom

and then the Roman Republic
and then the Roman Empire

which ends in the fifth century

although the Eastern Roman
Empire, the Byzantine Empire,

continues on for roughly
another thousand years.

Now we also have depicted here

a significant Persian Empire.

You have the Parthian Empire

and they were preceded
by the Seleucid Empire

and they were succeeded
by the Sasanian Empire

but I have the Parthians depicted here

on the timeline and on the map.

I also show Han China,

both the Eastern and Western Han Dynasties

both the Eastern and Western Han Dynasties

you can see on this timeline as well.

And in India, I show the
Maurya Dynasty on the timeline

I don't depict it here on the map

but on the map I show the Kushan Empire

and I also show it on the timeline.

Now the reason why I
wanna depict these empires

at this specific time in the world

is to highlight the fact that

they weren't operating
in complete isolation.

In fact, as we get to the
second and first century BCE,

In fact, as we get to the
second and first century BCE,

especially as we get into the Common Era,

we start seeing a significant amount

of trade and interaction
between these empires.

Not to say that there wasn't trade

and interaction before that time

but it started to get accelerated

and to a large degree it got accelerated

because you had these continuous empires

that at least within their borders

were able to provide
some level of stability

for someone to travel across roads

or travel across borders.

And so you start to see the emergence

of these trading networks.

In red you see trading
roads or paths in red

and in blue you see those paths by sea.

And this isn't even comprehensive.

And even what I show on the empires

are many other smaller kingdoms

that also existed in the world

that I just don't have depicted here.

But what this contiguous
block of empires allowed

is for the trade of goods and ideas

and sometimes collectively

the routes that were used for this trade

is referred to as the Silk
Road or the Silk Roads

is referred to as the Silk
Road or the Silk Roads

or really you could say, the Silk Routes.

And so it's a collective number of paths

that people used to trade things.

Now why call it silk?

Now why call it silk?

Well it all boils down to silk

being a major commodity of
trade at this time period.

So if you wanna think
about the different things

that were traded around the world

that were traded around the world

this is just a sample of it.

Silk which comes from
cocoons of these silk worms

Silk which comes from
cocoons of these silk worms

that eat mulberry leaves

was considered a sign of wealth.

It was considered the finest cloth

and China had a monopoly
on how to make silk

for many hundreds of years

even after the period that we
were talking about right here.

So you can imagine around the world

people were interested in getting access

to that Chinese silk.

But silk wasn't the only
thing that was being traded.

In fact, in order to trade

you need to give something in
exchange for even that silk.

One of the Chinese motivations
for trading with others

is having access to horses.

is having access to horses.

Horses were valuable not
just for transporting goods

but also in wars

especially fighting some
of their northern enemies

who had access to horses.

They also were able to
get gold from Europe,

be able to get cotton from India.

In Europe you also had
other manufactured goods.

So you had this fairly
vast trading enterprise

emerge between these
different parts of the world.

And to be clear, some of
the things that were traded

allowed or facilitated the trade itself.

I mentioned horses were a
source of transportation

but camels in particular

were very powerful
sources of transportation

especially across Central Asia

and as you get into the
Middle East and Africa

because you have these
large swaths of desert.

Camels can not only carry a lot

but they had a lot of stamina

and they did not have to
stop for water as frequently.

In a lot of world history,

we focus on the large non-nomadic empires

like the Roman Empire and Han China

but as trade became more important

especially as you go through Central Asia,

you could imagine that many of the people

who were very good at trading

who were good at moving things

were people who were good
at moving themselves,

in particular, the nomadic
people in Central Asia.

Many of their cities
along these trade routes

became more and more wealthy

became more and more wealthy

and more and more powerful.

Now as I mentioned, goods
were not the only thing

that were transported along these routes.

One of the not so good things
was the spread of disease.

So in the historical record,

we have two major plagues in
Rome during the Roman Empire

we have two major plagues in
Rome during the Roman Empire

and we believe these
plagues were small pox

although some people believe
it might have been measles.

And it is believed that
it came from traders.

It came from Asia, from the Middle East,

and these were significant plagues.

And the reason why we think
that it was due to trade

is that there's some evidence in Han China

during this first plague

of similar symptoms of a similar plague.

But it really affected Rome.

In these plagues, it's estimated that

as much as 10% of the
population might have died.

In certain cities

it might have been 25,
30% of the population.

Some historians even
point to these plagues

as destabilizing the Roman Empire.

And this is a theme that you'll
see often in world history

where if you have a population

that doesn't have exposure
to something, say small pox,

and all of a sudden

they encounter a population
that does have exposure

well that small pox might wreak havoc.

But it wasn't just disease,

you also have the spread of ideas

and technology and religion.

And the two religions that perhaps

benefited the most from the early trade

along the Silk Route or the Silk Roads

were Christianity and Buddhism.

And Buddhism, in particular
was very appealing

to many of these Silk Road merchants.

The Kushan Empire, in particular

started to significantly spread Buddhism.

In previous videos we talk about
Ashoka sending missionaries

but the Kushan Empire help
spread Buddhism into China

and into the Far East.

So what we talked about in this video

was the very beginning of the Silk Road.

As we get into the first few centuries BCE

or the first few centuries
of the Common Era.

But as we'll see, the
Silk Road will continue on

for many hundreds or really
over a thousand years.