The Silk Road

The silk road is not a road made out of silk, despite what some people think, even if they are just the uneducated. The silk road is trade. The silk road was the trade route that started around 100 B.C.. The trade route was humongous especially for the time period and the time it would take to get anywhere. they did however get good things out of the trade. There is down sides to every bonuses however and plagues are one of them. problem is how do you store it? 

imagine that when you only had chariots, boats, and horses you also have trade. not just any trade though trade stretching from your house in Bombay, India, too Kyoto, Japan and Venice Italy. Now think of the things that the Japanese have that you wouldn't normally, and do the same with Italy. Silks, noodles, religions, perfume and glass figures that you had  no idea how they did it. Food that is only grown in a specific area.  the things that people got, and were able to receive... the amount you would learn from a culture with just a finely decorated clay pot. You would have so many things to see. 

The problem with it? How do you store fruit from Japan for a voyage back to Italy when you have no planes, trains or trucks to drive. Instead you have caravans full of goods that are more durable. as fruit won't be able to be preserved for the months of journeying. What can you do, you don't have the supplies knowledge or power to make preservatives that are on anything we buy. So you can't bring this nice fruit to the Italian instead you stop at Beijing China hoping the demand is high enough for you. 

Not all trade is good however if you took someone from southern china and dumped them in Istanbuf for the winter with no supplies other than what he would have in southern china what would happen to said chinese? It wouldn't work. The poor person would die with know chance. the same thing happens when you dump some culture with a disease that you unknowingly have the amune system for? what happens to the culture? You have problems that can't be fixed because you don't know the cure for it anyways. It has never effected your culture yet unknowingly another. 

On the whole though this route started us in the new age where we trade from most of the countries and opened up North and South America for colonization and the eventual power of the west. we now have the technology to research plagues that come unknowingly from different  ethnic groups and can combat them more easily. We have the knowledge of preserving food for one another and we can enjoy things that different cultures love and can share in their joy as well. the Silk road has only expanded and will continue to expand as cultures expand as well. The Silk road has led us on to new knowledge and experiences.