Silk Road

The Silk Road was a network of overland and maritime trade routes that linked East Asia, Central Asia, West Asia, and parts of Europe from antiquity to the early modern era. It emerged from the material development of early agrarian states, whose ruling classes accumulated surplus and created the infrastructure needed for long-distance exchange.

Rather than a single route, it consisted of shifting caravan paths, oasis towns, and ports. Chinese silk, ironware, and paper traveled westward, while horses, metals, glassware, and textiles moved eastward. Ideas and religions especially Buddhism spread alongside these commodities.

Kushan Empire at its height, showing its geographical extent and major cities and trade routes that connected the empire to the wider Silk Road network.

Empires such as the Han, Kushan, and Parthian profited from taxing trade and controlling strategic passes, making the Silk Road an instrument of class power and imperial competition. Its decline began with the rise of maritime commerce and the integration of Asia into emerging capitalist world systems.