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TED-Ed Silk Road

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A TED-Ed video discussing the ancient Silk Road by Shannon Harris Castelo.

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a banker in London since the latest stock info to his all leagues in Hong Kong in less than a second with a single click a customer in New York orders Electronics made in Beijing transported across the ocean within Days by cargo container ship is speed and volume at which goods and information move across the world today is unprecedented in history but Global exchange itself is older you think reaching back over 2000 years a lot of 5000 Mile Stretch known as the Silk Road the Silk Road was an actually a single Road button pack of multiple routes that gradually emerged over centuries connecting to various settlements and to each other thread by thread the first agricultural civilizations were isolated places in Fertile river valleys their travel impeded by surrounding geography and fear of the unknown but as they grew they found that the Arid desert sand steps reporter swearing habitat not by the Demons of folklore but nomadic tribes on Horseback The citians Who range from Hungary to Mongolia had come in contact with a sibling chance of Greece Egypt India and China these encounters were off in less than peaceful but even through raids and warfare as well as trade and protection of play merchants in exchange for Terrace the nomads began to spread Goods ideas and Technologies between cultures with no direct contact one of the most strands of this growing web was the Persian Royal Road completed by Darius the first in the fifth century BCE stretching nearly 2,000 miles from the Tiger refer to the Aegean Sea it's regular relay points allowed goods and messages to travel and nearly one-tenth the time it would take a single traveler with Alexander the Great's quest of Persia and expansion into Central Asia through capturing cities like summer Khan and establishing new ones like Alexandria is shot the network of Greek Egyptian an Indian culture and trade extended farther east than ever before laying the foundations for a bridge between China and the West this was realized in the second country BCE what an ambassador name changchien sent to negotiate with no meds in the west we return to the Han Emperor with tails of sophisticated civilizations trade and exotic Goods beyond the Western borders ambassadors and Merchants were sent towards Persia and India to trade silk and Jade for horses and cotton along with armies to secure their passage eastern and western routes gradually linked together into an integrated system spanning Eurasia enabling cultural and Commercial change farther than ever before Chinese goods made their way to Rome causing an outflow of gold that led to a ban on silk while Roman glassware was highly prized China military Expeditions in Central Asia also saw on counters between Chinese and Roman soldiers possibly even transmitting crossbow technology to Western world  demand for exotic and foreign goods and the profits they brought kept the strands of the Silk Road intact even if the Roman Empire dis and Chinese dynasties Rosenfeld even Mongolian hordes known for pillage and plunder actively protected the trade routes rather than disrupting them but along with commodities these roots also enabled the movement of traditions Innovations ideologies and languages originating in India Buddhism migrated to in Japan to become the dominant religion there Islam spread from the Arabian Peninsula into South Asia blending with Native beliefs and leading to new face like Sikhism a gunpowder made its way from China to the Middle East forging the futures of the Ottoman safavid and Mughal empires in a way the Silk Road success led to its own demise as new Maritime Technologies like the magnetic compass found their way to Europe making long land routes obsolete meanwhile the collapse Mongol rule was followed by China's withdrawal from international trade but even though the old routes and networks did not last they can change the world forever and there was no going European seeking new Maritime routes to the riches they knew awaited in East Asia led to the age of exploration and expansion into Africa and the Americas today Global interconnectedness shapes our lives like never before Canadian Shoppers buy t-shirts made in Bangladesh Japanese audiences watch British television shows and tunisians use American software to launch a revolution the impact of globalization on culture and economy is indisputable but whatever its benefit drawbacks it is far from a new phenomenon and though the mountains deserts and oceans that once separated us are now circumvented through supersonic vehicles Continental communication cables and signals beamed through space rather than Caravans traveling for months none of it would have been possible without the pioneering cultures efforts created the Silk Road history's first world wide web

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