The Silk Routes and its Influences on Ancient and Medieval Commerce Essay

The Silk Routes and its Influences on Ancient and Medieval Commerce and International Relations - Essay Example â€Å"Silk Road†: Its Expansion over Different Centuries Indeed, the term, â€Å"Silk Road†, is a modern adoption which is used to refer to the commercial communication networks existing among the countries of the world during the ancient and medieval periods. Especially, it was a set of communication routes which were connected to the main route between Changan and Europe (especially the Port of Venice). Since the â€Å"Silk Road† was not any single route of communication, modern historians have preferred using the term, â€Å"Silk Routes† in order to refer to the whole communication network between China and the West. Many people claim that the name, ‘Silk Road’, has been used because ‘Silk’ was the most precious product which was being traded along the road. Indeed, such assumption about the name is not wholly true. Rather, it is a partial truth. Though ‘Silk’ was the most attractive product which the Chinese were selling the whole world, it was not the only important products where were being traded among the nations. Indeed, this name became popular in the modern world after Ferdinand von Richthofen had introduced the East-West communication network as `Seidenstrasse’ (silk road) or `Seidenstrassen’ (silk routes). In this regard, Joshua Mark notes, â€Å"Both terms for this network of roads...were coined by the German geographer and traveler, Ferdinand von Richthofen, in 1877 CE, who designated them `Seidenstrasse’ (silk road) or `Seidenstrassen’ (silk routes)† (Pars. 1). Commodities and Ideas, Exchanged by the Nations