How did The Silk Road Actually Work?
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- Опубликовано: 7 янв 2022
- How did The Silk Road Actually Work?
The Silk Road was the ultimate route for messengers, merchants, and explorers alike. The roads were used in a few manners, with the main being for commercial trade.
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♦Music by Epidemic Sound
♦Sources :
www.worldhistory.org/Silk_Road/
Boulnois, Luce (2004). Silk Road: Monks, Warriors & Merchants on the Silk Road
Hill, John E. (2009) Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd centuries CE
web.archive.org/web/201309062...
♦Script & Research :
Skylar Gordon
#History #Documentary #SilkRoad
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Full of inaccuracies and western bias
If you believe that story you also believe man been on the moon .
Please tell the narrator "hr·aa·duh·tuhs"
I am banishing you from my algorithm for 2 reasons;
a) you pruposely mispronounce things to generate comments (or are truly incompetant)
b) everything you say is wrong
Telling a story doesn't mean you have to lie about it.
If I remember correctly the Ottomans didn't shut the silk road to Europe but they demanded more money for it and only the Venetians can trade with them thus allowing venice a monopoly on trades to Europe which in return angered the Europeans which allowed their travels to find new roads
Yes something like this happened. You are right
yep,, this story more plausible and believable.
and then the Portuguese were like "alright no problem, let´s go all the way around Africa"
@@yousandro1999 it did help that the pope gave half the world to Portugal, which included most of Venice claims
@@jamesmeppler6375 it was the other way around
the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed *half a century* after the Ottomans took Constantinople and the Portuguese was already going around Africa and making new trade posts and colonies
The technology and ideas that travelled along the silk road alone shaped history as we know it. The impact of the silk road is incredibly underrated.
I think it's actually overrated.
The silk road was very important indeed, but many others have been used over the centuries and most of the people don't seem to really bother that much.
Sometimes in history things get an importance much more from feelings towards a matter than by what they actually did.
The Atlantic trade routes in the colonization of Americas for example, were insane and don't get as much attention, only Brazil in aprox 250 years bought about as many slaves from Africa as the Roman Empire have had on over a thousand (both about 5 million people, not counting the ones that had died on Sea).
@@rimanpele HAhahaha what you have said (Atlantic trade routes) was a direct result of the silk road... but saying its overrated.. facepalm..
@@yvngschopenhauer atlantic trade routes were not result of silk road. it was result of ottoman dominating eastern mediterranean
@@QWERTY-gp8fd yeah becuz Europeans didn't have the access of the skill road and Indian spices lol
And don't forgot all the slaves they used who died mate
Ottomans didnt just completely shut down the Silk Road rather they demanded enormous taxes that led to its decease, eventually triggering the age of European expansion
@@talaltariqq_
why they block the straits lol. they did not blocked anything.
they just gain profit and helped to boost economy.
they allied with venice and protected the port state ragusa in modern croatia,
then they conquered egypt too and completely one handed the european trade.
and raised prices.
even milan duchy and france tried to declare war on venice about that situation. but venice threated them by saying they will invite ottoman army to italy, and with that threat they had truce with pope.
europe couldnt be alive against that economic power if they didnt discover the other way.
ottoman economy got huge load of infliation after discoveries
and with french revolution nationalism, empire completely dissolved into ethno/national pieces.
Yeah, that makes more sense. It would make no sense for them to just shut it down entirely if they thought they could profit off of it instead. Why would they even do that? What's the motivation? It makes more sense that they just weren't that business savvy and as a result got too greedy with their taxation, introducing enough friction into the system that it finally became easier for the Europeans to seek their own routes where before it wasn't worth the cost and they just paid the markup.
@@chriswhinery925 , a lot of people get confused by the use of vocabulary regarding the Ottoman control of trade routes to the East. Core reason behind that is most speakers aren't proficient in English. So they substitute words they use from their own language, which in itself may not be entirely accurate. For clarity - the Ottomans maintained a monopoly on the trade routes, extorting heavy prices. Those who couldn't pay or wanted to compete on the same trade routes, where shut down through warfare, piracy or banning access. There are some idiots who will come here to defend the Ottomans with their convoluted beliefs, portraying it like a fantastical Empire like Gondor that progressed in Science, Culture, etc. But all the Ottomans did was piggyback on the developments of the Selucid and Byzantine. As the Ottomans no longer continued investing in those areas, or rather never invested there to begin with whatever remnants of scholars, thinkers, and craftsmen that existed, simply died or migrated.
@TheKingimport , I don't know where you're coming from but you definitely sound like someone who's been giving the Ottomans plenty of hand jobs.
Tariffs
The fact that you had the 2 monks clothes change as they went between east and west is a great attention to detail. I really appreciated that little bit.
I feel like the mission of those 2 men would make for an amazing movie
you watched them change clothes and was appreciative
@@olhasum4721 it could have been like "what happens in the silk road, stays in the silk road".
😂😂
Also Marco Polo's journey on water with boat and back to land no boat
The two agents sent by the Justinian to steal silk production secrets/materials in China is such a good movie idea.
Would like to see that.
Thats the Greek for you
they steal gun founder production techniq
A historical comedy in contrast to the fated mission
@@arolemaprarath6615 Justinian wasn't ethnic Greek, he was either Romanized Thracian or Romanized Illyrian which were the ancestors of modern Romanians. So you cound say "that's the Romanian for you"
Thank you so much for your program, really enjoyed it. I am Chinese, but also have the DNA of all the ethnicities along the silk road including Turkey, Iran, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, northern India, and northern Thailand. this episode made me feel that I am visiting my silk road traveler ancestors. thank you.
DAMN bro DAMN, you are
genetically strong and diverse then
你是那里人？！
我爸爸是黑龙江人，妈妈是湖南人。
lol me too, my mom and I have curly brown and dark red hair, if we're not some kind of mutant my family must have an ancestor from the far west
@@sheilawang7563 那里测的基因？
Marco Polo was not the only travelled person. He writes in his memoir about meeting a next-village friend in China. He writes about many other such travellers from all over the world. Marco Polo's name remains because he recorded his travels.
And also because he is european. There are many more middle eastern traders that kept record. But caliphate and roman war has its effect even now.
Ibn Battuta during the same era travelled to more lands than Marco Polo ever did!!!
All his travels were well documented, Europe just hates giving credit to the Middle East that's a fact!!!
@@GholamFareed while ur right about history favoring Europeans, the fact is, Marco Polo did all the shit he did first, he was born in 1254 while Ibn Battutu was born in 1304, Marco Polo was discovering lands and cultures before Ibn Battutu was even born, Ibn’s travels took him to places that were already written or known about the only exceptions was Sub Sahara Africa and the East Coast of Africa, other than that Marco Polo actually discovered the places he went to while Ibn Battutu went to lands already discovered other than the two I listed above
@@DudeMan2805 Marco Polo also visited lands that were already known to the Islamic world namely the silk route so what are you on about??? The silk route was well traversed since ancient times, Marco Polo discovered nothing. 🤣🤣🤣
@@GholamFareed the lands Marco Polo went to may have been known to the Islamic world but they weren’t known to the European World which is who he was doing this for, by ur logic Ibn Battutu only discovered Sub Sahara Africa and The East Coast of Africa all the other lands he went to we’re already found and discovered by Marco Polo, Marco Polo discovered all he did first and that’s why he’ll go down in history as the more famous individual, saying he discovered nothing is just ignorant
Before the conquest of Constantinople, trade to Europe through Silkroad was mainly done by Genoese and Venetian traders. After the conquest, Ottomans dispelled Genoese traders from their ports and banned them from trading goods as well, because of the help Genoese provided to Byzantium in the siege (they had sent their fleet to blockade the golden horn, if I'm not mistaken). To damage Geneose in Mediterranean even more, Ottomans gave Venetian traders -competitors of Genoese - privileges in trading. Any other foreign trader had to pay much more taxes contary to their Venetian counterparts. That said, trading goods from Venetians was almost much more cheaper than paying taxes to Ottomans. The first capitulation in Ottomans' history, later they gave such and more privileges to French in Suleiman's reign.
100%
Confirm
Interestingly it was a Genoese who went on the desperate search for a new western route to Asia: Christopher Columbus.
There were a lot of venetian mercenaries at Constantinople also, like the infamous Giustiniani
That's so FASCINATING!! I was wondering why it was the rest of Western Europe that capitalized most in the age of exploration that was kicked off by the Ottomans taking over trade thru the silk road. It always seemed weird to me that some Italian city didn't lead the way. They already had the ship building capability. But I guess like blockbuster vs Netflix, they already had their method and it was working for them. The future didn't scare them. Ironic how that deal with the Ottomans worked against them in the long run
Turks 😡
Persians pretty much never get credit for their historical contributions to humanity. Good that they were at least mentioned at the beginning of the video. Even though they created much more of this concept (e.g., the whole concept of Caravanserai and hubs) and many of the goods described as Western exports were actually Persia's exports to both East and West. Still, respect for mentioning something.
As an Arab, I couldn't agree more.
Same for arabs and south asians
@@s.a.s5838 i feel like it’s the middle east, NA, and east-south asia in general as a whole. There’s a lot that Turks persians arabs greeks Egyptians akkadians sumerians assyrians indians Chinese and many others that don’t get their recognition enough.
@@yousifbk8165 What are you talking about. In Italy, when we study history, we start from Sumer and Egypt. Then is Crete, Babylon, Hatti. Then Persia and Greece. And only THEN, we start with Rome. Even Alexander greatest contribution is considered to have opened more the road between east and west. If we considered Persia irrelevant (and how could we, after all the history shared with Rome) why remember him like that? Do you think we don't know where the modern numbers come from? Or that the arabs saved a lot of greek classics?
@@Kaiyanwang82 Im not talking about East and South Europe education cultures, Im addressing the west (Canada, US, Uk, and a few other countries). I know that because I literally study there and never have I ever heard about the achievements of the middle east, south-east asia, Rome, and the greeks. I am very sure that Italian Greek Baltic (East and South Europeans basically) people educate themselves about the people I mentioned.
The world seemed so much bigger back then, so many untold stories and experiences ... Man I love history 😊
What I've learned with these series is that humanity truly thrives when there is open trade and times of peace. Why can't we just all get along?
Because people are, at heart, wicked.
Because every nation want to be served by the others, just like the USA and west Europe now.
The US only want goods with cheap price which they don't want to produce themselves. At the same time they don't want sell high-end products to others, or sell them at very high price. So the US benefits from both ways. And the US enforces this using its navy plus US dollars.
Because the one who lost money in the trade now has the best gun
@@YQFang well said. All it can do now is use navy to enforce the US dollars as currency for world trading.
It saddens me to think how many war-torn cities were once bustling trading hubs along the Silk Road.
This is how the world works. Cities that are big and powerful today, would probably be extinct in 200/300 years, new cities will emerge or the cities that are poor today, may become the big hubs. 🤷🏻♀️
They can return to power any moment
Yep those forgotten ancient kingdoms along the Silk Road were of the most diverse and rich cultural hub of teh ancient world
@@fraskf6765 Time
@@anneneville6255 i think its more like 750 years i mean rome was founded nearly 3000 years ago but is still a major city and so is constantinople/istanbul and so much more
Glad someone finally gave credit to the Persians. Thank you
Alexander spanked the Persians and took their lands 😂😂😂
For anyone interested, I heartily recommend Peter Frankopan's 2015 book, The Silk Roads, I read it just before visiting Uzbekistan and it provided superb context to the visit.
How did silk road work?
Chinese trader: *sell items to Turkic trader*
Turkic trader: *sell items to Persian trader*
Persian trader: *sell items to Levantine trader*
Levantine trader: *sell items to Greek trader*
And that's how terracotta was made.
Stunning and great piece of history: My teacher didn't mention how early the silk road started to exist, so I learned something new to me and am able to understand a bit more about the world we're living in today. Good job 👍.
brilliant, you painted the whole picture and the history including the details around inns and accommodation. It probably goes to show that business, explorers and travelers have been in touch between east and west much longer than the regular population understands it to be.
He totally missed the caliphate though.
a truely remarkable demonstration of ingenuity and a reminder of how important principles are
As a world-traveler I've been halfway around the planet 11 times and finally made it completely around back in 2011. I lived and worked in half a dozen cultures, done educational tours around the US/Central America/Middle East and some in Asia. But living at the time of Marco Polo seems to me a much more fresher, adventurous and real time experience than anywhere I've been. Nice presentation!
Half way around 11 times? So, like 5 times and a bit? Or each time you made it halfway and then turned back? 2011 you said, wow, not making that mistake 12 times, nosirree.
@@ZacLowing Sorry its been awhile since I've been back here- re: Halfway 'round'- well my goal my first time traveling seemed to circle the globe was a worthy endeavor. But as one 'learns' as you go- you soon Discover much of the planet was nicer where you had just come from i.e. jobs, opportunities- women (The latter will really turn your head!) Through the years going and returning to the US my local friends that essentially know nada about culture or travel just didn't want to hear about my travels and adventures! Today, as I am married I had to obviously STOP the many female connections I've made through the years and my only real friends are somewhat like myself- well traveled and quietly go about their biz as we all have more of a world-view of how we fit in it all! Hope this helps you!
That is because due to westernization most places often feel the same.
@@ArtilleryAffictionado1648 yep modernism killed travelling. everywhere has the same soulless look
@@marusdod3685 thats why when i get money to travel i go to Europe. At least they have pretty Buildings i can look at.
An extremely so fascinating story of how the Silk Road was being built for mainly the trading of almost all the sectors to be exported and imported via China to some of the respective European countries and I am extremely so happy to see the construction workers to build that road of variety routes to save cost,good friends!!!:-D
It was not made to reach europe. It spread first to central asia, then india and muddle east. At last middle east took it to europe.
Roads were only built in the roman empire. Because camels are far more efficient in middle east africa central asia west india.
It was made to reach Europe, and other regions. China knows about the Romans and rich people in thr West.
@@vidarodinson5246 pretty much E. Europe. W. Europe wasn't such a good place to be at the time.
Ive found the best way to describe the silk road and how it works is by comparing it to a good old fashioned bucket brigade. Nobody moves very far but they still do their part passing their goods from one person to the next in the long chain.
Correction: Before the formation of the Franco-Ottoman Alliance and England turned away fro mthe Catholic Church to Anglicanism, the Ottoman Empire was willing to trade with Venice only.
"Qian was drawn to the horses"
Genghis Khan: Ah I see you're a man of culture as well
Pharaoh Piankhi say hi too
When the Kushite king Piankhi put down a rebellion in northern Egypt he was said to be enraged that his horses there had been starved in his absence.'His complaint was not that they had rebelled against him, but they had mistreated his horses,' he said.
Hey it’s rocket man!
It is called a horsepower
It's because of this network that Han China and the Roman Empire were aware of each other's existence. Still, the distance and time between the two powers was too great for anything substantial to come about. Communication was just too difficult over such vast distances.
Also, for those powers that straddled the Silk Road, it gave them a large amount of wealth. While this network existed, a number of Middle Eastern and Central Asian kingdoms were large and extremely rich. You see this throughout the video with large empires like the Achaemenid Empire, Seleucid, Parthia, Bactria. The Sassanid Empire would straddle a lot of the network in the center, would get rich from it, so rich that it made them a major power strong enough to be mortal enemies with the Eastern Roman Empire. Genghis Khan would lead his Mongols here eventually, campaigning even in the Middle East causing devastation. Eventually the Mongols would keep the Silk Road going. From what I've gathered, with the Mongols there, traders were very safe because the Mongols were determined to keep the trade going for taxation.
Now here we are in the modern day, me replying to your comment despite being in Australia. How far we've come from this is bloody amazing dont ya think mate
Before the Romans, the Sassanids began trading with China
@@Amen-Magi yeah no shit. They were closer
@@Amen-Magi first it spread from china to central asia, then to india and middle east, then to europe. Also the video totally missed the time of caliphate.
@@Amen-Magi caliphate was one the best empires the world has seen. But never spoken of because they defeated byzantines and took half of the whole roman empire's territory it had at its peak. They just totally removed it.
Why do you perpetuate the myth that the Ottomans cut off trade to Europe?
They kept constantly trading with the Italian city states.
The Spaniards and Portuguese sought new trade routes because the Italians hat a monopoly on the trade and hiked up the prices.
because white people always demonize other cultures that aren't european
Jews were heavily involved with the silk road having a near monopoly on Indigo Dye and Silk Dyeing in the Mediterranean and having merchants in every port to receive the goods from the east (merchant of Venice). They were also some of the few permitted to bring goods straight to the Frankish Kingdoms in Central Europe. Many terms for weights and exchange come from Hebrew or various Jewish dialects as they had a strict law guided by the Torah on transactions and how they should be handled. They could also generally read, write and calculate numbers because of the tradition of reading and writing the Torah.
I learned a lot. Thanks for posting!
And today China has the Belt and Road initiative, a new "Silk Road".
若干年后，一带一路蔚然壮观，人们对它将有更正面的评价，包括西方人
Very well done documentary! PBS and BBC could learn a lot! Succinct, good visualization, no repetition, decent narration. Best of all no narcissistic presenter 😀.
i just love this type of vids on these subjects, realy makes some sence of things
this really helped, i needed to do a project the silk road and i added this video at the end and got a great grade!
The Silk Road was far from being the first trade route, but it did have the greatest impact cultural impact on our species
Wow :0 Best video you have ever made!
abim seni dışişleri bakanlığı mı yolluyor
@Gigachad Biz sadece Bulgar videolarında değil hemen hemen tüm yabancı videolarda varız
Knk ben trol avlayacağım
@@scourgeofgodattila579 niye böyle yapıyorsunuz. Bence gereksiz bir şey. Bulgarlardan bize ne.
@@sktt1488 böyle bir şey yapmazsak,gelen gidene eyvallah dersek ortada tarihimiz falan kalmaz,adamlar göktürklerden Osmanlıya kadar hepsini çalıyorlar
I like how your channel seems to be growing in 2021. I remembered subbing this channel not too long ago with 200k sub. I hope you will do about Italy of How they maintain their Geography
This is a really good video. Good pace, good script, good voicing. Just the right level of information for me, and very good maps and images to support the text. Tying in the balance of payment issues, the obtaining of the silk worms and the age of discovery made it next level in expanding my understanding of history. Thank you.
Question: how many days (approximately) did it take for a trader to travel over land from Southern Song to, say, Amsterdam, Paris or Madrid? Surely it can't be that long if the reverse path is used to trade fruit?
It took years. I don't know exact number
@@utsavjha7915 yeah most likely. They probably used fruits that might not rot easily, not that I can think of a example right now.
@@leadharsh0616 Or maybe they used seeds and planted them in Asian soil when reached the destination. I think it’s more logical…
Dried or otherwise preserved fruit. Long lasting preserves were common foods. Also, seeds.
Well, it doesn't mean that fruit grown in China would end up in Europe, or vise versa. They traded it along the route, so it could be relatively close to them.
I Really Really love your Videos knowledgia when ever I Open RUclips I always first see the Notification Just to see if you already Upload New Videos🤗.Love Your Channel from Philippines😘🇵🇭. I wish you can make more video about like this About trade and Economy.
Thank you for the kind words and support!
I am learning a lot from your channel. Thank you!
Loved this concise history that packs a lots of information and perspective!
ottomans made alliance with venice. and venetians asked for exclusive trading rights which ottomans gave them. basically only venetians were able to trade with ottomans
The allies took your empire and gave you turkey 😂😂😂
I would have said that the silk road went all the way from China to England. Navigation on the Russian Rivers and then on the Baltic and North Sea was an important part of the silk road. English wool played an important role in this trade.
It also went as southeast as Java in modern-day Indonesia. The trade routes were longer and more complicated than what most people think.
@@DaGizza indonesia is the indian ocean trade route the sea variant of the silk road they're similar and always connected but not the same.
@@abdiabdi3225 its still part of the silk route. Arabs traders discovered during the time of silk route under caliphate's order for better routes.
It's actually more of a spoke-hub network, what is shown are more like the major arteries of the silk road. But at each point their are more localized routes, and at their centres again a further outward movement.
I guess the main route went to Italy, and from there several smaller networks distributed the goods all over Europe.
I love your channel keep up the great stuff
Great video man. Respect !
The silk road, and in general Central Asia has always fascinated me. As an American you never hear of how it impacted the world and you never really hear about the countries and cultures that Central Asia is made of. You hear of the Greeks, the Romans, the Middle East, and of Europe, but all you hear about Central Asia is trade with the east. Nothing else. That’s why it feels like I found a missing puzzle piece watching these videos and studying about Central Asia.
Many rich Bostonian families became rich by involving (silk, tea, opium) trades with China, then used the money to found a few prestigious Ivy universities, and later invested in building railroads in the US.
Там обитали воинственные народы, кочевники тюрки.Как я слышала мало иследовано прошлое даже сейчас.
A Turkmen city of Merv located along the Silk Road in Western part of Central Asia was in 12th century the capital of the Turkmen-Seljuk empire and the largest city in the world. It was later destroyed by the Mongols and Tamerlane.
@@mbayatab4326 see I had no idea this city existed, and I just read about it for an hour.
You couldnt hear due to Turkofobia of western world
8:05 Myth busters: The Ottomans didn't shut down trade, it was a very pro-commerce empire, they increased tax rates to a point that many Europeans found unprofitable.
Increasing taxes shuts down a lot of trade even today.
@@robfromvan lol too bad Arthur Laffer wasn't around then*
* That's a joke, trickle down economics is just modern day feudalism
@@Thvndar myth busters: trickle-down economics is just a political term and is based on a misunderstanding of supply-side economics. There is no such theory or term as trickle-down economics used in economics
Thank you for the video, good content!
amazing video appreciated for your hard work!!!
from this I have learnt that the greatest work of the Chinese people in ancient times was not the great wall, but the great road and trade networks associated with it.
From this I infer that the Chinese people shine most brightly not when they cut themselves off from the world, but when they expand through peaceful sharing and free trade.
I also infer that the greatest degree of progress in Europe happened when the Europeans benefited from this peaceful and prosperous Chinese expansion.
Sadly it seems that in modern times neither east, nor west has much interest in anything other than walls
Even worse, nowadays China is considered to be a threat to the West civilization by the West media. But it was the armed fleets of Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, British, and the USA that disturbed and killed the lives of the East Asian people in history, not the other way around.
well, the romans stole the silk worms and the british stole the tea plants.
There is the new silk road called Belt and Road Initiative or OBOR, One Belt One Road.
china is in the process of reform and opening up, they are committed to a peaceful rise, shared future for humanity, and common prosperity
the usa led west is stuck in cold war mentality, zero sum games, and will do anything to maintain global hegemony
the difference is striking
@@strongbrain3128 You're forgetting China's repeated expansionary attacks on the various peoples to the northwest. Many of them genocidal attacks. The list is long when emperor Wu attacked the XiongNu that lead to the Avars and Tokharians to move west, this has repeated up to the present. The repeated waves of influx of nomads into the Danube basin and Hungary typically trace back to Chinese expansion into the steppes and Tarim Basin. The current Uighuars, a generic term for muslim turkic speaking turko/mongols in Xinjiang were named by the Soviets for an historical actual turkic ethnic group slaughtered to near extinction in the 800's AD by the late Tang.
Very cool graphics! Historically, however, the Persian "royal road" was more like the American pony express. It had a series of stations and rest houses, and was directly funded by the state. The silk road was a much more informal set of trade routes, not really a "road" at all in the modern sense.
The Indian Ocean served as the main highway connecting East and West for 1000's of years .
excellent video, thanks for making it
Silk road 100bc : 🥰🌱🍂🍃🌾
Silk road 2000 : 💀
Great video. Always thought a route went over the Caspian Sea along the north side.
Genoa had a trading outpost in Kaffa which is north of black sea (roughly same latitude as caspian sea northernmost point) so it makes sense that there would have been a northern route too
@@JohnnyLodge2 yeah, an immensely famous trading post where the black plague perhaps originated. That may have been a way to trade with the traditional sycthian people's of Siberia and the Asian steppes rather than from China per se, but of course there'd be some form of a corresponding land route connecting the port to the silk road, no doubt
Absolutely excellent
So well explained
Love this channel ❤ Just subscribed thankyou 🙏
"bought horses" just skipped the entire war fought over those horses when the owners refused to sell.
Let's be fair, the Greco-Bactrians did kill the Han emissaries.
I remember that episode of Kings and Generals , gotta rewatch it
@@426mak that is a good point. This video said it was a central asian civilization, not the greeks who had the horses.
I wonder why.
@@sethbartley2212 Strictly speaking the area is right, I think the video makers just did not bother going into too much details.
@@426mak In the Greco-Bactrians defence, the Han emissaries didn't speak Greek like any civilised person of their experience. They wanted to negotiate in some barbarian jabber. Absolutely uncivilised!
The Muslims pinching off the Silk Road, after conquering Byzantium, probably doomed the entire rest of the world to the "Age of Colonialism" and Imperial assertion by Europe. This is the fact that almost nobody points to, as the triggering event that saw the rise of the West.
The Portuguese sailing around Africa, to find way to China by Sea, led to the European realization of the continent of Africa's vast potential, and probably started the Slave Trade that would come to define the West, for the next four centuries.
Columbus discovering the Western Hemisphere was entirely motivated by a desire to find "an alternate route" to Chinese goods, without having to go through "Istanbul". The discovery was an accident, that would kill millions of Native Americans through disease transfer, and lead to Spanish, French, and British domination that defines the entire hemisphere's existence today.
India was only imperialized, and basically subjugated by the Dutch, and later the British, after Byzantium fell. Not before. Why? Because the Silk Road was off-limits.
If the Silk Road had been allowed to remain open, by the Ottoman Turks, it's a good bet that none of this, or at least most of this, would not have happened in the first place. And the things that did would not have happened until much later in history.
Hey 👋
Wonderful channel and wonderful content!
Man, I love these videos
The silk road sort of ended when the Roman empire fell. Then silk became a valued commodity when the Spanish empire, the French empire and British empire came about. The Chinese only accepted silver as payment for trade, which may have indirectly led to the search for silver mines by the Spaniard.
why did they for only silver
@@h.i7544 because gold and silver were used as currency. They probably would rather have gold. But Gold is more scarce than silver.
@@vatsalsrivastav5195 why?
@@Justiceforall3799 idk. They prob had a f*cking abundance and thus the less common one was more valuable
@@vatsalsrivastav5195 sounds like asia or east Asia at least has less silver to me
The Silk Road was great in it's day and will continue to capture the popular imagination for generations to come.
The China's belts and roads initiative nowadays continues this tradition to maintain trades globally.
Great video! Very well done thank you
All I remember about the Silk Road is that it was a central trade route over several areas pertaining to the trade of silk and other items, mainly silk. This was done through the usage of silk worms turning into silk moths which had its own effect on silk cloth, which was considered a rare gem in this time period. I'm interested in seeing this topic again, it's been a while.
China, running massive trade surplus for the last 2000 years...
@@user-pf4tn2rl9n Massive doesn't have to be the largest, never said China was the largest all the time. Now stop dreaming and go build more toilets.
It is a lovely and informative video. Well done!
A few suggestions:
6:40 - 7:38 - I would suggest putting the name of the purple area above the 'Byzantine' empire for historical and chronological accuracy - Bulgaria, while Hungary - can be replaced with its original endonym - Magyar
Thank you in advance.
Excellent video, especially map, animations and narration. All history fact are true, you are one and only❤😂. Silk Road is one of the grestest “things” that have shaped the world that we know today. Because of impact that has on world in history, nowdays, building of Second Silk road creates a lot of pressure and controvery, in fact Trade war between China and USA. Thanks for great video🎉❤
Beautiful documentary. Thank you.
Very interesting and well done. One important clarification: Kublai Khan was not Chinese but Mongolian, an entirely different ethnic group.
It is an interesting question. The Chinese in your thinking is only Han ethnic. In Kublai's time, he is a Mongolian and the king of China, most subjects in his kingdom is Han ethnic, so is he only Mongolian or both Mongolian and Chinese. There are 56 ethnics in China. Besides Han, are the other 55 ethnics Chinese? Nowadays, Kublai's lineal descendants is living in Inner Mongolia, China. Are they Chinese or not? All I want to say is that imposing the present national system on ancient times is wrong.
As the founder of Yuan Dynasty, the government structure of which was modelled after previous dynasties, he proclaimed the Mandates of Heaven and became a Chinese emperor. He is considered a Chinese emperor by himself, by Chinese people, and by historians. He did not rule other parts of the Mongol Empire.
His national titles come from ancient Chinese books
You should learn more about the world. Chinese are made up of many ethnicities Han Chinese, Manchurian Chinese, Mongolian Chinese...Outer Mongolia was part of China for hundreds of years but broke away in the 20th century.
The idea that the Silk Road was cutted by the Ottoman Empire is quite an eurocentric point of view, considering the large portion of it inside Asia and the amount of trading that would still be possible just in that part of the original route.
Well... this video is produced in a European language by someone who is descendent of Europeans. Why shouldn't it be Eurocentric?
@@SwingAxleLover Because as a history channel, it shouldn't be eurocentric but try to be as neutral and stick as close to the facts as possible?
@@KHANSTER1029 But it does stick to facts. It's a fact that the silk road was mostly closed to Europeans. Just because something is eurocentric doesn't mean it isn't true
They are even trying to brainwash the viewers that the Black Death plague came from Asia where it literally originated from Europe.
I had an exam about this subject last week. Could have made good use of this video.
Great video with a wealth of information about a fascinating topic. Aside from all that, I now know where the term "middle man" came from.
Love the channel but had to dislike the video, sorry. Ottomans didn't "shut off" trade. Sea voyages of Portuguese started way before 1453(Azores was settled in 1439!) And none of sea voyages references "lack of spices".
Constantinopole wasn't that important in silk road trade anyway, the real deal egypt and syria was only become a part of ottomans in 1517.
In fact Ottomans tried its best to give capitulations and trade agreements to many European states only to be remembered as "trade blockers" centuries later...
Edit: Also every comment talks about ottomans demanded too much tax but this has no record neither. RUclips does not allow links but other than ottoman-portuegese wars of indian ocean spice prices didn't even change that much.
I wish there were more details about all the stuff traided on silk road. Like for example how chickens and charry trees got to europe from China. Also there were other travelers that made the journey. And Marko polo stories are very iffy as he talks about half human half fogs living in China lol. I was also hopping to hear how it impact europe African trade and Viking settlements.
WHAT A VIDEO !! THANK YOU
Nicely informative video.
Wicked cool, thanks for sharing!! Why were the Chinese interested in trade so early on, but they refused to deal directly, saying they didn't want anything western except silver
Keep in mind that the Silk Road was running for well over a thousand years. Quite a few Chinese dynasties rose and fell during that time, and each dynasty had their own foreign and trade policies. The last dynasty - the Qing - was not as open to trade and foreign influence as the earlier dynasties that had created and expanded the Silk Road.
Because the European countries at that time did not produce anything that Chinese wanted because Chinese were self sufficient and had everything they needed for daily life. So Chinese only accepted silver as currency for trading.
Can you name something that Europe could produce and China wanted at that time?
@@strongbrain3128 The Chinese at that time were very interested in glass，However, glass is not suitable for transportation, and cannot be popularized and satisfied at all.
@@jackzhou4813 "Interested" but still the transparent glass is useless for the chinese people at that time.
4:32 So Justinian's envoy just marched across the entirety of the silk road, stole some worms, and marched all the way back, centuries before Marco Polo and you're just gonna skate over it?!
world's first spies
@@cjyoung4080 spies existed much before as well, it was probably the first recorded act of corporate espionage.
Nicely explained.
Thanks for the general knowledge
Damn this map is so cool-looking. Is it possible to get a full image of it?
This map is wrong. In the era of the Silk Road, the Han Dynasty had defeated the Xiongnu and established the Western Province. If the Western Province was not part of the Han Dynasty, but was close to the Xiongnu, or the territory of the Xiongnu, then the trade route would be difficult to pass. After all, the Huns were the enemies of the Han Dynasty.
Xiongnu blocked the access from East to West at BC200. The slik road was unblocked, after Han Chinese defeated Xiongnu around BC100 and Han Empire fully control the western reign (i.e. today Xinjiang). Actually, after BC100, Han Empire territory should include today Xinjiang, Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujin.
Bravo and thank you...very informative...we need your Channel as the world becomes more screen bound and stay at home in Cyber Reality!!!
Great video. I loved it. 👏👏👏👏👏
Great presentation, but very incomplete. For instance, there is almost no hint of the coastal silk road (silk routes, rather) that quite efficiently connected the Far East to Africa/Middle-East/Persia and then to Europe, through the Malay-speaking world (present day Indonesia, Malaysia etc.) and India.
The maritime trading was quite established and especially the Chinese had really large ships (in particular, during the times of the famous admiral Zheng He), so much larger and effective than the 15th/16th century Portuguese ships.
It just sat there and people walked up and down it.
Very interesting and well made video
Just when you think you know so much, and along comes Persia and that wild and crazy kid Darius as an initial road creator. Surprise ! Thanks !
Not much different than today, China is the hottest destination always.
Disappointed that he hardly mentioned India despite it being one of the biggest centres of International Trade. India exported the finest cotton, textiles, wootz steel, jewelry, ceramics, ivory, diamonds, pearls etc, not just spices. It was the Roman Senate that complained about how much Roman Gold was being sent to India. India was where Roman merchants purchased Chinese Silks. India also imported Roman Glassware, ceramics from China and Middle Eastern Horses. It was Hinduism and Buddhism that travelled along the Silk Road to become dominant forces in Central Asia and China. Along with these religions, Indian Architecture and Art travelled too. Students and Monks from across the world to visit Ancient Indian Universities like at Takshashila, Nalanda, Somapura, Vikramshila, Sharada and Odantapuri etc. Finally, he missed Marco Polo's travels in India where he describes the Kakatiya Kingdom, its Queen Rudramadevi and its capital at Warangal full of beautiful architectural splendours like the Rudreshwara Temple.
They still fans of opium?
@@RockSmithStudio Not much more than the West is of sloth & drugs
@@RockSmithStudio no,but American seems...
Most problematic is part of the road that goes north from Tibet ... very harsh environment for travelers. It is full of sandy deserts.
Better than the tropical rainforests through India and Southeast Asia
@@lamlam-bw7ev rain session there is a problem
@@lamlam-bw7ev environment of india was what everyone wanted,
Food, water, shelter but as other invaded india for those things there wasn't peace
That map background is a nice, clean view. Is there a site where I could get that map? Great video as well!
I love this channel
Darius invented the Royal road for trading and made them safe also as you said created the post organization also he ordered to Persian engineers to dig the Suez canal
Let me, a Chinese, tell you the history of the Silk Road! After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, the XiongNu in the north had been the biggest threat to the Han Dynasty. After the governance of the previous Han Emperors, the Han Dynasty accumulated a lot of wealth and built up a strong army, so they started to attack the XiongNu during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (141 BC-87 BC) as a way to sweep out the threat on the northern frontier. It was a long war that lasted for 40 years and used millions of troops and people. In the last war, Emperor Wu used 100,000 cavalry and 500,000 infantry, eventually driving the XiongNu into Central Asia, the Middle East and even Europe. The passages you see between China and the Central Asian countries were also manned and protected by the Han army, so trade between East and West began to flow smoothly, which started the Silk Road for thousands of years thereafter.
These roads were also partly protected by some stretches of the Great Wall I believe
There's also the view from the other side. Namely that the Han expanded into the steppe lands to their north, the Ordos region (Yellow River Loop to the north into steppes) where the the XiongNu and other steppe people lived and had traded with the locals to the South for centuries prior. When the Han occupied the steppe areas they forbade the locals from trading with the steppe nomads and treated the steppe nomads poorly. This led to the steppe nomads making retaliatory raids to re-establish their ability to trade with the steppe border locals. So "the threat to the Han by the XiongNu" was primarily the XiongNu retaliating for the Han expanding into their traditional pasture land and blocking trade with the local border land people. To sum, "the threat to the Han" was the Han perspective of the nomads' resistance to Han expansion north into their steppe pasture lands.
XiongNu were Turks who migrated west and became Ottomans.
@@herneyse11 Ottomans were from a much later Turkish migration.
XiongNu might have been Turks, but that's speculation. No one knows. Also, Turks tended to be pretty heterogeneous groups, there were various "flavors". You'd be closer in time if you said they were Khazars, but they're later as well.
@@herneyse11 The ancestors of today's Turks are the Huns?
fantastic video
I live for these vidéos
This video totally missed the part where caliphate existed and how they were the main people in exchanging and collecting goods and ideas from india, europe, africa and central asia. Ibn battuta also travelled the whole thing. Caliphate's vast and wide amount of books and knowledge they collected and used and worked upon is because of silk route. How they became a superpower different from europe who focussed on couple things that they had or created is that they took a wider approach to everything. Creating studies such as biology, chemistry, optics, modern medicine. Etc. They completed trignometric maths started by indians(aryabhatta to be specific) and started using it.how they combined ayurvedic(indian) and chinese medicine along with the mediterranean communities(middle east, europe and africa). They also created algebra.
They also defeated byzantines and sassanids among their war accomplishments. They won due to their excellence in creating new tactics. Also appreciated for winning with no proper armour and bows.
There was also the Maritime Silk Road which was safer and linked Africa (eastern parts) with the Mediterranean, Middle East, South and East Asia.
Superb Sir Ji
Highly beneficial knowledgeable
Good video 👍 thanks