Regional study: exchanges within the Silk Roads world system

doi:10.1017/CBO9781139059251.019

17 - Regional study: exchanges within the Silk Roads world system

from Part II - Trans-regional and regional perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2015

Xinru Liu

Edited by

Craig Benjamin

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Craig Benjamin: Affiliation:
Grand Valley State University, Michigan

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Summary

The Eurasian continent was roughly divided into two ecological domains: the agricultural settlements that stretched from China to the Mediterranean, and the nomadic groups who lived mostly on the northern steppe. The north-south interactions often led to east-west migrations, as well as to trade and cultural exchanges, which ultimately resulted in the formation of a major artery of communication that historians now call the Silk Roads. The conflicts between the Xiongnu on the Mongolian steppe and the Han Empire of China initiated the organized trading networks on the Silk Roads. Between the Han imperial presence in the eastern section of Central Asia and the Kushan dominance in Bactria and India, oasis city-states spread on the land between the Syr and Amu rivers, a region known as Sogdiana. By the period of the Chinese Tang Dynasty Persian silks sold in China that some Chinese weaving shops actually specialized in making Persian silk brocade.

Keywords

pastoral nomads Hunnic Empire Central Eurasian steppes Scythian era Sarmatians Xiongnu

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge World History , pp. 457 - 479

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139059251.019 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2015

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