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Historic Trails Blogs

Short accounts of historic trails of the world and the people who traveled them for trade or migration.




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The Silk Road

4/21/2019

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Picture
A simplified version of the Silk Road network of land and sea routes.
PictureThis caravanserai, or roadside inn, provided Silk Road travelers a place to rest and recover during journeys. It was built between the third and fifth centuries CE.
Roger M McCoy
    When China and ancient Persia (present day Iran) were the two world centers of power, wealth, and culture during the sixth century BCE, it was natural that trade would develop between them. With the rise of the Roman Empire, trade extended westward into Europe. Changes came about when the Romans gained control over much of western Asia and discovered the many luxuries from the Far East. Citizens of Rome gladly embraced these new luxuries and prosperity grew for the Empire as a whole. Eventually the chief Asian export, silk, led to such a change in Roman lifestyle that the writer Seneca, around 60 BCE, claimed that silk caused a decline into social decadence because the new clinging Asian fabric showed too much of the female figure, but few people listened to his rant. In the first century CE, Pliny the Elder complained that the cost of silk was so inflated that an excessive amount of money was being sent to foreign countries. There is ample evidence, however, that Roman goods traveled the trail eastward as well. For example Roman glassware, silver and gold objects, and other artifacts have been discovered in archeological sites in China and the Korean peninsula. Clearly silk was a driving force in international trade.
     Naturally Europeans thought of starting their own silk industry. The Byzantine Emperor Justinian, who ruled from 527–565 CE, sent monks to China to steal some highly guarded silkworm eggs. Thus silk production entered into the Mediterranean area centered on Constantinople. Because the quality of Chinese silk was still far superior to anything produced in Europe, silk trade along the trail continued to thrive.
     The routes known as the Silk Road eventually formed a widespread network including sea routes from India and China. Goods moving eastward included dates, nuts, and saffron from Persia, glass bottles from Egypt, myrrh from East Africa, and European goods such as fine glassware and objects of gold and silver. In return the caravans brought bolts of silk cloth, lacquerware, and fine porcelain from China, and sandalwood and spices from India via southern routes. Several southward spurs allowed traders to reach the sea and continue the journey by ship. The ocean route of the Silk Road connected China to Southeast Asia, Indonesia, then on to India, Persia, and Egypt. After a short overland transfer at the neck of land where the Suez Canal is now located, goods were carried on to Europe. Not surprisingly silk was used as the common currency along these routes. Towns and merchants along the route also prospered by the passing caravans. On the land routes a network of shelters were built with accommodations and provisions for camels and people, like early-day motels.
     In 1271 Marco Polo, who went to China to visit the Kublai Kahn, traveled most of his journey overland along the Silk Road. Polo gave some idea of the immensity and emptiness of the land of Central Asia when he later wrote, “You can ride for twenty days without finding any inhabited spot, so that travelers are obliged to carry all their provisions with them, and we are constantly falling in with those wild beasts which are so numerous and dangerous.” Some analysts of Polo’s writing have found that he sometimes exaggerated and manufactured details. The book of his experiences is titled, Book of the Marvels of the World, usually called, The Travels of Marco Polo.
    
    Although the primary use of the Silk Road was commerce, other important movements also used the Road. Mainly the network of routes making up the Silk Road became important in the spreading and mixing of Greek, Persian, Indian, and Chinese cultures. One example is the spread of religions. Buddhism and Christianity each moved into China along these routes beginning as early as the first century CE. After the seventh century Islam also spread to the east. Unsurprisingly the interaction of these Eastern and Western cultures also influenced their art. One example is the influence of Greek art on India’s Buddhist art, during the period between the conquests of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BCE and the spread of Islam in the seventh century CE. During the seventh century Persian craftsmen emigrated along the road into China bringing finely made works of silver to the great Tang Dynasty. 
    Part of the Silk Road still exists as a paved highway connecting Pakistan and China. The existing old road was the impetus behind a United Nations plan for a trans-Asian highway and railway. Today the Silk Road has taken a renewed importance as China has made plans to develop improved transportation and trade in Central Asia. In 2013 President Xi Jinping announced that the Silk Road would be reborn as the Belt and Road Initiative, a very ambitious infrastructure project.

Sources
Frankopan, Peter. The Silk Roads: A New History of the World. New York: Vintage
      Books, 2017.

Harris, Kate. Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road. New York: Harper
      Collins Publishers, 2018.

Kurlansky, Mark. Salt: A World History. New York: Walker Publishing, 2002.
Monteleone, Davide. A New Silk Road. The New Yorker. January 8, 2018


     



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How Historic Trails Came To Be.

4/12/2019

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PictureThe Silk Road. Fifteenth century illustration on a portolan map.




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​    
Roger M McCoy   
    What first prompted groups of humans to leave a place they had occupied for thousands of years and begin the migrations that populated the world? Perhaps food sources disappeared. Perhaps they were driven out by neighboring tribes who had been forced from their own homeland. The thing is that ever since humans first left east Africa about 75,000-100,000 years ago, they have continued wandering from place to place. Most of those migrations left no permanent trail, even though researchers using DNA analysis now know the general direction and sequence of movements.            

    Other migrations have created permanent trails, many of which are still in use today as highway or railroad routes. Some well-known examples in North America are the Oregon Trail, the Santa Fe Trail, and the California Trail, which migrants or merchants followed in hope of better opportunity. Each of these are well-known routes of movement from east to west across parts of North America and continue to be in use today in approximately the same locations. Similar trails exist in many other parts of the world.
    One of the oldest historic trails is the Silk Road used by tradesmen carrying goods from East Asia to Persia and Syria. It is more correct to call the Silk Road a network of trails moving goods from both China and India.  Travel and trade began along segments of the route began over 2,000 years ago and continued through the rise and fall of various kingdoms. Eventually the various segments began to connect into a complete trail between China and Europe. During the Middle Ages east-west trade had to pass through the Ottoman Empire which imposed stiff tariffs on Eastern goods (cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and fine fabrics). In the fifteenth century European importers saw strong economic advantages to finding a sea route to the East and urged the rulers of Spain and Portugal to support efforts by Christopher Columbus and Vasco de Gama to reach India by sea. Thus we see that the ancient Silk Road has a connection to the discovery of the New World. 
    Not all trails were created by people seeking new opportunity or economic gain. An especially tragic movement of people was a forced relocation of Native Americans from various parts of the southeastern United States into an area designated as Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. Many people died on that forced march known as the Trail of Tears. Other forced movements did not leave trails, such as the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492, or the diaspora from Israel. Religion was also a basis for certain movements or pilgrimages beginning in the Middle Ages. Some of these movements also left trails.            
    Before humans had knowledge of other places, the primary cause of migration would have been some change that forced them to leave, e.g. climate change, depletion of necessary resources, or the expulsion of unwanted populations by existing rulers or by invaders. Later as global awareness grew, migration could be prompted by some perceived opportunity in another place…better resources and the potential for trade. Therefore the primary reasons for human migration can be reduced to being forced from a region or being drawn away by distant opportunities. Two other elements that have often led to movement are the expectation of fame and glory and simple human curiosity to know what is in back of beyond.           
​     In most cases these migrations left trails that have endured through time, and they were used by pilgrims, nomads, merchants, and warriors. They formed a great communication network, and could be called the world’s central nervous system. This series of blogs will look at the origin and purposes of historic trails with insight into real experiences by first person descriptions when available. A thread throughout will be the idea of trails as bridges: bridges between eastern and western cultures; bridges between centers of civilization; bridges between markets; and bridges between religious centers.



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