“To follow the Silk Road is to follow a ghost. It flows through the heart of Asia. But it has officially vanished leaving behind the pattern of its restlessness: counterfeit borders. Unmapped peoples. The road forks and wanders wherever you are. It is not a single way, but many: a web of choices.”
Colin Thubron
Shadow of the Silk Road
The Silk Road is not an actual road, nor was it covered with silk. It was a route that many people used to travel to other countries in order to trade. It connected the eastern mediterranean to central Asia, and then on to China. Mostly the nomadic people of these regions passed goods along to each other, with rarely any single merchant traveling the entire journey.
In ancient times, silk was only produced in China. Their method of creating silk was by growing silkworms. The worms would produce cocoons, its threads then spun into silk. When made into clothes, they could keep you cool in the summer and warm in the winter. But beyond being useful, the fabric was very beautiful, shiny and soft, and not something you could find in other fabric of the ancient age. It was considered a luxury in the west. In Rome, the desire to own silk clothes was so high that the famous philosopher Seneca considered the excessive purchase of silk as a sign of moral failure.
But silk was not the only thing that traveled on this road. Spices, papers, noodles, ceramics and other rare items not found domestically also traveled. But the road was also used for trading not just material goods, but also ideas. Religions like Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam were also spread on the road. Dances, music and arts were also shared.
However, it was famously difficult to travel. Not only did it take a long time to pass goods from one end to the other, the land that you had to pass through consisted of many kingdoms that didn’t always get along with each other. If a war broke out between the countries that sat in the middle of the Silk Road, the roads would close. These disruptions of trade could go on for years, even centuries. In the time when the Roman Empire thrived in the west, and the Han Empire flourished in the East, this could be reasonably maintained. But once both empires fell, it would take several ages to pass until both ends of the road could make trade happen again.
Furthermore, there was a limit to what you could carry on a camel’s back through the deserts in between. Large amounts of goods were best carried by sea. The only problem was that the entire continent of Africa stood in between Rome and Han. More than a thousand years had to pass for technology to allow sailing vessels to go around the African continent. But once that happened, the Silk Road became useless.
The Silk Road of the ancient world doesn’t exist today. Having lost its importance as the focus of trade through central Asia, what had once been the route of riches is now a collection of the least developed nations in the world.
Still, there is much eagerness for these countries to develop. From Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, then into the west to Iran, Iraq, the Balkans and Eastern Europe, the countries that once gave shelter to the traders between East and West are entering today with eagerness to open up the Silk Roads.
One of the reasons behind it is the vast amounts of natural resources that are now being developed throughout central Asia. Rare and valuable earth elements like monazite, zircon, apatite, xenotime, pyrochlore, allanite, columbite and more, each used in silicon chips, lasers and communications devices, are mined here. Natural gasses and uranium are also being found, these resources fuel the power plants of more developed countries.
These resources are attracting the attention of more developed countries, especially those with lack of natural resources, more money, decreasing industries and populations. Eager to receive resources, and manpower from younger developing countries, a new form of trade is developing along the ancient roads.
But developing countries also have problems. Namely, they suffer from being less developed. Industries fall into the hands of greedy dictators, and national decisions are bought and sold, usually resulting in poor results. Developed countries are also eager to take advantage. Many economical agreements are being formed, but not all of them are in the best interests of the countries that are receiving help.
It will be a long time until these countries of central Asia will flourish again like old. But the important thing is that change is on its way. It is probably not because land travel suddenly became better than sea travel. It might be only because of resources, which may not turn out so well.
But it might also be because the East and the West wish to share culture and opinions, ideas and goods more closely than before, like in the ancient days. If that is the case, then the future may look bright for the inhabitants of the ancient Silk Road.
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