To raise the question of globalization, how connected we are in our current culture and where it comes from, one of the main ways that has evolved over time is through trade routes and The concept of all trade routes is the Silk Road. Evidence indicates that some of these paths existed during the Founding Age, but during the Classical Era, when strong empires served as producers, clients, and protectors, they reached a new level. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Being something of a relay system, the Silk Roads evolved over time, it is essential to remember that no group of travelers made the entire journey, instead they traveled back and forth through a specific section trading as they went . The Eurasian landmass that is home to most of the world's population and many of its most economically productive fields are divided by geography and historical growth into India, China, the Middle East, and a host of economically diverse urban centers, countries, and empires. These countries were located on the outskirts of the continent or called Outer Asia, between them were the cooler plains and steppes of Inner Asia, these territories were home to nomadic pastoral communities of livestock animals, these nomadic shepherds of Inner Asia raised livestock and traded animal products with individuals from the outer area. They also began to transport products from one region to another, thus serving as freight transport over Eurasia. These herders functioned as an indirect approach of communication between the outer zone empires, for example during the classical era a Roman never directly met a Han Chinese, but through the indirect connections that nomadic travelers formed over time, they taught each other . System created in which travelers on the Silk Road, the journey of days long gone, stop to rest and stay overnight in a caravanserai of tourists such as these inns that dotted the Silk Roads and post-classical era trails through the desert of the Sahara. Due to the price of long-distance travel, basic necessities and other foodstuffs were too heavy to transport on the Silk Roads, the trade network therefore transported light, low-cost products, particularly silk, spices and porcelain from East, wine, gold and other products. Western products. Chinese silk has been produced for centuries by Chinese peasant women and consumed by leading Chinese women, progressively leading men such as public officials and religious figures in China and elsewhere began to demand silk. For clothes and tapestries, Europeans used soap. For millennia, China enjoyed a monopoly on silk production, but understanding how to make soap spread to the Byzantine Empire and numerous sites in Asia by the 6th century AD. As the supply improved, so did the different types of silk and the different uses for it. Of course, along the Silk Roads, religions in general were transported more than products, but Buddhism in particular also spread. He acquired converts among pastoral peoples and in oasis cities as Buddhism spread. There were many monasteries that became centers of wisdom and learning and performed financial functions. The universal message of Buddhism exerted a strong attraction on the cosmopolitan merchants of Inner Asia. When the doctrine moved from Buddhism to India, the Mahayana branch became the predominant one. Mahayana Buddhism viewed the Buddha as a divine figure, promoted the veneration ofBodhisattva and emphasized different rituals. Rich monasteries along the Silk Roads began to engage in political and economic affairs. Buddhist art and culture influenced Greek culture in Bactria. Not all that spread, however, had also spread beneficial pathogens or disease-causing microbes. In the classical era, at both ends of Eurasia, smallpox and measles triggered several epidemics. These epidemics resulted in population declines in both cases and led to the collapse of empires. Between 534 and 750 of the Common Era the bubonic plague broke out in different locations in the Mediterranean at different times, sometimes these epidemics could kill thousands of people in a day, as in the 40-day epidemic of Constantinople in 534. The case better known than an epidemic disease, it was however a black death, spread from China to Europe and the Middle East during the Mongol control of the Silk Roads. Between 1346 and 1350 a third of the European population was murdered. As crucial as trade on the Silk Roads was, a strong argument can be made that trade in the Indian Ocean was at least equally if not more important to the economies of the Eastern Hemisphere. . Evidence indicates that some trade took place in the Indian Ocean during the founding period, for example the Indus Valley Civilization had trade contacts with Mesopotamia and traded up and down the Red Sea with Egypt. The periodic patterns of Indian Ocean monsoon winds allowed the classical era to travel relatively easily and consistently. These patterns allow the Romans, for example, to trade indirectly with black pepper from Southeast Asia. Towards the end of the era Malay sailors began making long-distance voyages across the oceans bringing various crops such as bananas and coconuts as far as East Africa. The development of new shipbuilding and navigation techniques allowed sailors from different places in the Indian Ocean to participate in maritime trade. These techniques included boats known as dows that used late-teen sails to allow the boats to face the wind, Chinese modifications called junks that used the stern rudder for greater accuracy, and instruments such as the astrolabe and compass for better navigation. Thanks to its main Thanks to its geographical location and its vibrant economy, India became the hub of trade in the Indian Ocean basin. Access to trade-related riches in the Indian Ocean sheds light on why southern India was never truly integrated into the multiple empires centered in northern India. The financial recovery in China during the Tang and Song periods gave an enormous financial boost to Indian Ocean trade. China has produced a number of export products to the rest of the world, increasing the amount of trade on these ocean routes. China has also served as a market for a number of Indian and Southeast Asian products. The spread of Islam had a beneficial effect on trade for a number of reasons, first of all because the Prophet Muhammad was a trader who served as a favorable role model for other traders unlike in China where merchants were considered to be of questionable value moral, secondly with the rapid expansion of the kingdom of Islam, the notion of Dar al-Islam, incorporating a series of distinct financial centers, established a single political system. Islam developed a global maritime culture in the Indian Ocean. Although India has prospered as the trading center of the Indian Ocean, it is also true that this trade has helped spur change on the eastern and western sides of the ocean basinIndian. This led to the rise of several new nations in Southeast Asia. The first of these was a Buddhist kingdom based in Sumatra, which possessed its own authority to regulate the flow of trade through the Straits of Malacca. Sri Vijaya became a fabulously wealthy and cosmopolitan place thanks to taxes collected from ships passing through this vital point in the trade between the Indian Ocean and East Asia. The second was a Hindu state centered on what is now Cambodia, the Khmer had powerful agricultural power. base but also traded forest products with Chinese and Indian traders. They also created a way to manage monsoon rains to generate fresh water reserves for a growing population. However, the population eventually outgrew the water resources and the Empire would dissolve. Islam had spread to Southeast Asia by the end of the post-classical era, and an Islamic state was formed at the Straits of Malacca. For exactly the same reasons as Sri Vijaya had done earlier, she became prosperous. While Islam penetrated the eastern part of the Indian Ocean basin relatively later, it soon spread to the western part, producing a distinctive hybrid culture that would become a major feature of the Indian Ocean. Trade in the Indian Ocean. This was the civilization of the Swahili people on the east coast of Africa, while initially a Bantu lineage, through their involvement, this civilization developed a new identity. Trade networks in the Indian Ocean. While the Swahili coast had traded with northern merchants for centuries, the rise of Islam marked a drastic turning point in the region's fortunes. Swahili merchants exported African interior products and sometimes slaves to markets in India, Southeast Asia, and China. Instead, products such as Indian art and Chinese porcelain were imported. The Swahili culture was an urban culture composed of approximately 2 to 20,000 autonomous city-states. These societies had intense social stratification between elites and commoners, despite a common language and culture, there was no political unity. There was a rich fusion of different cultures from Africa, the Middle East and Asia in the Swahili city-states. For example, the Swahili language is of Bantu origin, but uses the Arabic script and has many words borrowed from Arabic that would become the lingua franca of Indian Ocean trade, that is, it was the unofficial official language of trade across the 'Indian Ocean. . Therefore, traders would have learned Swahili as the prevailing language of trade throughout the world. As Islam spread, the east coast of Africa was home to a large population of Muslims who did not trace their origins to the Arabian Peninsula but considered themselves part of a larger group. dar al-Islam Islamic community. They saw fellow black Africans as Muslims who did not practice Islam as outsiders, that is, if you were not Muslim even if you were African, they thought you were distinct from them. They therefore thought they had more in common with Arabs and Persians than with Africans, many of whom continued to practice animism. Swahili merchants established links with individuals within the continent and further south to the south and inland of the coast lay the remarkable Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe, with large stone structures in its capital showing a great deal of wealth and organization social. another example in West Africa, in addition to the Indian Ocean, the local trading system allowed the people of West Africa to connect to a larger network. The origins of West African trade date back to the Classical Age, but it is essential to note that distinct environments exist in and around the Sahara,.