SILK ROAD Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

SILK ROAD - Essay Example ccording to David Christian, the trans-ecological exchanges made possible by the Silk Road routes contributed greatly to the growth of trade within the Afro-Eurasian region, specifically, trade between the region’s agrarian communities, steppe pastoralists, and woodland foragers. The natural features of the Silk Road indicate that ecological factors have played a great role in intensifying trade along the Silk Road. For one, the Silk Roads cross the borders of desert areas or barren steppes inhabited by pastoralists. These kinds of ecological borders create the necessity for trade because the essential goods needed by the people living on very different environments are also different. In fact, given these ecological factors, it would be astonishing if trade did not flourish along the Silk Road. The products traded along the Silk Road routes prove how dynamic trade was in the Afro-Eurasian region. Many of the products traded came from the woodland or steppeland, whilst several of the products made by the agrarian communities were sold to the steppes. David Christian emphasises that the Silk Roads naturally are sea and land routes connecting east and west, particularly, connecting the agricultural communities of inner Asia and functioning as channels transporting products, ideas, religion, and even diseases. Moreover, Christian views Steppe Roads, which connect the Eurasian agricultural and grassland areas, as trade routes, stimulated by a natural commercial barter of goods from pastoral and agricultural regions. Trade products were perhaps bartered most intensely across the ecological boundary dividing agrarian and pastoral areas, although a number of products certainly crossed the steppes. The Silk Road linking China and the Middle East cultivated trade of agricultural products, specially made goods, ideas, and religious beliefs. But because of the dynamic evolution of civilisations in China, the Silk Road ceased to be merely a connecting link between