The Linking of the Eurasian World, c.200 BCE

This lecture was about the establishment of permanent links between the empires of Outer Eurasia and the nature of the Silk Roads. This meant looking at the new empires in China, India, Persia and the Mediterranean, and the linking of Eurasia.

The three empires of China, India, Persia and the Mediterranean developed in isolation, what little contact there was between them was mediated by the nomadic groups. There was very little interaction and exchange of ideas. This all changed about 200 BCE because of chinese growth westwards. The first links were, at first, tentative, but became substantial and permanent.

Eurasian Empires

China
There were 3 initial dynasties: Xia, Shang and Zhou. China was nominally unified but in practice it was divided into warring states. Qin Shihuangdi, or Ch'in Shih Huang-ti (r. 221-210 BCE) expanded out of his state and conquered the rest of China to form the Qin (Ch'in) Dynasty (221-206 BCE). This did not last very long, and was replaced by the Han dynasty, but China as a unified empire took root from this period.

The Han Dynasty lasted from 206 BCE to 220 CE and expanded westward into nomad country, dominated by the Xiongnu (Hsiung-nu). Technological developments began to filter out as contact developed with India and Persia. China was the sophisticated centre of civilisation, having iron & silk industries. Iron was an important development as copper and bronze were too soft to make strong weapons and tools. China developed faster because they werer able to make more useful agricultural implements and weapons, which were sought after by other civilisations. 2000 after the production of Iron in China, Europe learnt the secret of iron.

The domestication of the silk worm occured 3500 years ago and was developed to a very sophisticated level. Silk was very valuable because of its beauty and practicality and thus the trade routes used to sell it across Eurasia became known as the Silk Roads.

India
India had an Indus Valley civilization (c. 2500- c 1700 BCE), based on the Ganges River. The reasons for the collapse of this empire are unknown, possibly becase of nomad invasion, or possibly because of an ecological disaster such as a flood. Then came the Mauryan Empire (326-184 BCE), which was especially effective under Asoka [Ashoka](269-232 BCE), who expanded political control. He adopted buddhism and it spread from there to the rest of asia. There they developed wet-rice agriculture, an extremely production form of agriculture, which allowed for greater population growth. There also emerged a complex social system called "caste", and a great deal of religious diversity and tolerance.

Persia
Here was the Achaemenid empire, and then following that, the Macedonian empire ruled by Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE). Then came the Parthian Empire (c.140 BCE-224 CE)

Rome
Both Rome and the Qin state in China began expanding in the 3rd century BCE, both laying the foundation for empire. The Roman Empire was built on the foundation of the Greeks and their predecessors in the Mediterranean region. The Romans were pre-eminent in building roads and developing trade routes. Much of Rome's power and success came from its aggressive military campaigns. Continual war and conflict had a powerful impact on the nature of both the Roman state and its society, both of which came to revolve around the money, plunder, land and slaves that were obtained through warfare. Through its mitilary campaigns, Rome brought a new unity to the western part of Eurasia - especially the Mediterranean world and Europe - which had been pretty much an isolated periphery before this time.

The Linking of Eurasia

The Silk Roads were a Chinese initiative of the 2nd century BCE, during the Han Dynasty. The trade along these routes was difficult because of nomad groups like the Xiongnu confederation, but were extremely profitable because of the massive demand in Persia, the Mediterranean and Europe for the products of China and India - especially for silk. The Silk Roads were not just commercial networks: they facilitated the transmission of ideas just as much as they did commodities. Merchants, pilgrims and missionaries used the silk route, which began in Chang'an, the capital city of the Han dynasty and passed through the Tarim basin.

Not only did the Silk Roads facilitate the exchange of goods, technologies, and ideas between regions of agrarian civilisation, they also played a key trans-ecological role, facilitating exchange between the pastoral and agrarian worlds.

By the 3rd century CE both the Roman and the Han Chinese empires were in decline. But the commercial, religious and intellectual connections that had been established with this linking of Eurasia survived the fall of these particular empires.