Changes

One very influential connection made between Europe and China in ancient periods was the so-called Silk Road (Figure 1). While this did not mean a specific road across long periods, it did represent a network of routes that connected much of the Old World between Europe and China for roughly 1500 years and brought about profound technical and cultural changes that had global ramifications.

==Early Phases==

With the expansion of Alexander the Great’s empire to India and Central Asia, the Greeks became more aware of the riches of the East.<ref>For more information on Alexander’s interactions with Eastern cultures, see: Bosworth, A. B. 1998. Alexander and the East: The Tragedy of Triumph. Oxford: Oxford University Press.</ref> Contacts between China and the Hellenistic world were likely made at this time, with Alexander having established the city of Alexandria Eschate (or Alexander the Farthest) that became an important trading city along the emerging Silk Road. By the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, the Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms were established, further promoting contacts between Greek, Indian, and Central Asian cultures.<ref>For information on Hellenistic-influenced kingdoms in Central Asia, see: Bactrian and Indian Hellenistic Dynasties: Greco-Bactrian Kings, Indo-Greek Kings, Demetrius I of Bactria, Euthydemus I, Diodotus I. Memphis: LLC Books. </ref>

However, formal establishment of the Silk Road can be argued to have begun under Parthian (247 BC-224 AD) leadership. We know that Mithridates II (121-91 BC) is the first known Near Eastern king to have established political and diplomatic relations with a Chinese ruler, to whom the Parthian king sent an ambassador.<ref> For more information on the relevance of the diplomatic connections between Parthia and China to the Silk Road, see: Edwards, Chris. 2015. Connecting the Dots in World History, a Teacher’s Literacy-Based Curriculum. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, pg. 90.</ref> This act paved the way for the establishment of long-distance trade contacts with China and created the long-term basis for the Silk Road along which silk was traded from China up to the Mediterranean, crossing Parthian lands. This made the Parthians key actors in the trade. What is significant is even in times of major conflicts, such as between Rome and the Parthians, trade was not as easily disrupted as it had been in earlier periods. This begins to show the importance of wealth and financial power traders had in maintaining strong trade ties despite volatile political conditions.<ref>For information during the Roman period with the East, see: McLaughlin, Raoul. 2010. ''Rome and the Distant East: Trade Routes to the Ancient Lands of Arabia, India and China''. London ; New York: Continuum.</ref> In fact, it was not just land routes across Asia that thrived but sea trade across the Old World also thrived.

During the Roman period, we begin to see wealthy Romans now having regular access to objects coming from China or Central Asia. Along with products such as incense (i.e. frankincense and myrrh) from southern Arabia, silk began to be the major commodity of desire by wealthy citizens.<ref>For information about the silk trade during the Roman period, see: The Roman Empire and the Silk Routes The Ancient World Economy and the Empires of Parthia, Central Asia and Han China. 2015. Pen & Sword.</ref> By the 5th century AD, with the decline of the Roman Empire, demand in Europe for Chinese silk and products declined. However, it continued to thrive in the Near East; in fact, for most of the history of the Silk Road it was the Near East empires, starting from the Parthians, and continuing to the Islamic empires that had a dominant role in facilitating trade along the Silk Road, which was to have a major effect on European thinking in later periods. Nevertheless, commodities and technologies such as gunpowder, paper, and the magnetic compass from China made their way to the Near East in the Middle Ages and then were transferred to Europe. Chinese porcelain ceramics also became influential and were imitated both in Europe and the Near East.<ref> For information about key technologies that were traded along the Silk Road, see: Christensen, Bonnie. 2013. ''A Single Pebble: A Story of the Silk Road''. First edition. New York: Roaring Brook Press.</ref>

It was not just trade of technologies or commodities that made the Silk Road important but it was major motivations for exploration and exchange of ideas that made the Silk Road influential. Religions such as Islam and Buddhism expanded along parts of the Silk Road and facilitated these religions in reaching China and Eastern Asia.<ref>For information on Islam expanding along the Silk Road, see: Elverskog, Johan. 2010. ''Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, http://ezproxy.viu.ca/login?url=http://muse.jhu.edu/books/9780812205312/.</ref> In Europe, with the beginning of the Renaissance, greater desire for luxury items from China once again reached levels seen during the Roman period. At this time, however, there was a realization that much of the trade was controlled by the Islamic states, including the rising Ottomans.<ref>For information on how the Ottomans influenced European sea exploration, see: Beckwith, Christopher I. 2011. ''Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present''. 7th printing and first paperback printing. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, pg. 208</ref> The desire to reach China and its riches motivated Europeans to find alternative routes, leading to the exploration of the New World. In effect, the discoveries by Columbus and later explorers in the 15th and 16th centuries were a reaction against the control of trade by Islamic powers in the Near East and Central Asia.