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==Hellenistic and Parthian Developments==
[[File: Silk Route extant.JPG|thumbnail|left|Silk Road]]
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>
<dh-ad/> 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.
==Later Periods==
With the discovery of the New World, Europe now had a unique source of wealth that was less dependent on other regions controlling trade. This led to the large-scale growth of economic power in Europe and allowed it to reach major technical advantages by the early modern period in the 17th and 18th centuries. In effect, one can argue it was the Silk Road that motivated Europe to seek new access to the riches of trade with the East. That motivated early explorers to make new discoveries that paved the way for the rise of European powers to become dominant political actors across the world over the last four centuries. This, along with the technical achievements and ideas that spread along the Silk Road, had a lasting and profound effect on world history and shaping our modern world.
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