1 From 200 BCE to 1450 CE, the Silk Road was extremely important in connecting China in the East to the empires of the West. While goods traded, nations and people involved changed over time, the continuous flow of new technology, religions, customs, ideas, and the occasional plague never abated.

2 Circa roughly 200 BCE, the Silk Roads came into use 2 Circa roughly 200 BCE, the Silk Roads came into use. At this time, they linked to Roman empire to the Han Dynasty. Both empires dominated their respective regions and were very wealthy and powerful, so luxury goods such as silk were typically traded. The Roads were in heavy use especially during the Pax Romana and the Han Golden Age.

3 In 476 CE, Western Rome fell. Eastern Rome rose again as the Byzantine empire, which was to last for nearly a thousand years. They picked up trade where Rome had left off, albeit on a considerably smaller scale when the Han Dynasty fell. (Already fell – 220 CE)

4 The Silk Roads were revived once again under the Islamic Umayyad and Abbasid empires in the west, and the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) Dynasties in the east. The trade patterns were much the same as in previous years. Also just a or perhaps more, important than the goods traded was the cultural interaction and diffusion that took place. For instance, the Muslim empires adopted

paper money from the Chinese paper money from the Chinese. This was especially important when most of Asia was taken over by the Mongols. Kublai Khan expanded the network of the Silk Roads, trading heavily with the Delhi Sultanate and Ilkhanate to the South and south-west, respectively. This allowed for the rapid spread of the Bubonic Plague, which killed 35 million people in China, And up to 1/3 of the people of Western Europe.

The Silk Roads continued unabated even after the fall of the Mongols, until it was usurped by Atlantic Ocean trade at roughly the end of the fifteenth century CE.

5 While there were many changes in the pattern of trade through the silk road in this millennium and a half, some things remained the same. For instance, the spread of religion and culture was just as important as the trade itself. Religions such as Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism were spread this way. Ideas and technology were also often also spread among the participating peoples. This is how ship-

Building and navigational technologies found their way to Europe beginning the Age of Exploration.