1. Cross-cultural Exchanges on the Silk Roads

2. Long-Distance Travel in the Ancient World
Lack of police enforcement outside of established settlements
Changed in classical period
Improvement of infrastructure
Development of empires

3. Trade Networks Develop
Dramatic increase in trade due to Greek colonization
Maintenance of roads, bridges
Discovery of Monsoon wind patterns
Increased tariff revenues used to maintain open routes

4. The Silk Roads Named for principal commodity from China
Dependent on imperial stability
Overland trade routes from China to Roman Empire
Sea Lanes and Maritime trade as well

5. The Silk Roads, 200 BCE-300 CE

6. Organization of Long-Distance Trade
Divided into small segments
Tariffs and tolls finance local supervision
Tax income incentives to maintain safety, maintenance of passage

7. Cultural Trade: Buddhism and Hinduism
Merchants carry religious ideas along silk routes
India through central Asia to east Asia
Cosmopolitan centers promote development of monasteries to shelter traveling merchants
Buddhism becomes dominant faith of silk roads, 200 BCE-700 CE

8. The Spread of Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity, 200 BCE – 400 CE

9. Buddhism in China
Originally, Buddhism restricted to foreign merchant populations
Gradual spread to larger population beginning 5th c. CE

10. Buddhism and Hinduism in SE Asia
Sea lanes in Indian Ocean
1st c. CE clear Indian influence in SE Asia
Rulers called “rajas”
Sanskrit used for written communication
Buddhism, Hinduism increasingly popular faiths

11. Christianity in Mediterranean Basin
Gregory the Wonderworker, central Anatolia 3rd c. CE
Christianity spreads through Middle East, North Africa, Europe
Sizeable communities as far east as India
Judaism, Zoroastrianism also practiced

12. The Spread of Epidemic Disease
Role of trade routes in spread of pathogens
Limited data, but trends in demographics reasonably clear
Smallpox, measles, bubonic plague
Effect: Economic slowdown, move to regional self-sufficiency