Changes

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.