GKT Task 1

Have you ever wondered what it was like to travel across the country to get what you want? The Silk Road was a treacherous journey that spanned from Asia all the way to Rome. People carried their countries goods in large caravans to exchange them with other people across the country. The Silk Road helped people get what they want by traveling there. The Silk Road took a huge part in history because it helped a number of cultures get closer to each other and share part of them, for example traditions and beliefs. The Silk Road was a difficult and dangerous trek, eventually traders found out the Silk Road increased the kingdom’s economy and the wealth of an individual. In addition, it spread culture, ideas and goods.

Study of the Silk Road has made it obvious that Eurasian history was more than isolated histories of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Europe, India, Southeast Asia, and China. In reality, for several thousand years, the Silk Road ensured that these regions were never

Long before there were trains, ships and airplanes to transport goods from one place to another, there was the Silk Road. Beginning in the sixth century, this route was formed and thus began the first major trade system. Although the term “Silk Road” would lead one that it was on road, this term actually refers to a number of different routes that covered a vast amount of land and were traveled by many different people. Along with silk, large varieties of goods were traded and traveled along this route both going to and from China. Material goods were not the only thing that passed along this path, but many religions were brought into China via the Silk Road. These topics will be discussed in detail in this paper.

The Silk Road played a vital role in aiding the interaction between India and China and multicultural transmissions, however, its purposes were primarily used to increase trade. Ferdinand Freiherr von Richthofen created the term “Silk Road” in 1877

During the period of time between 200 BCE to 1450 CE, the silk road underwent copious amounts of changes. The silk road was a network of trading routes that comprised of the trading of goods between many of the colonizations, cities, and kingdoms of Eurasia. It spanned from the Mediterranean all the way to China. The major commodities of this passage included gold, jade, tea, spices, and as expected, silk. It’s other products comprised of religion, ideas, and deadly diseases.

Established in 200 BCE, the Silk Road was a very prominent influence on the trade and the spread of ideas throughout Eurasia. Its original purpose was to link faraway lands and make trade a more accessible and important part of society, and while it served that purpose, it also had many other drastic effects on the societies and cultures of the involved lands. During the period 200 BCE - 1450 CE, the order of social structures and gender roles fluctuated, while the concept of the social construct remained unchanged in most societies. Culturally, religious customs and beliefs continued to play a prominent role throughout the region, but many traditions and values of different religions were influenced and altered due to their exposure to foreign cultures along the Silk Road.

The Silk Road united China and the Roman Empire economically, but the territories and cities in-between the two empires truly were the backbone of the Silk Road. The webbed trade routes had a strong impact that they lasted for over 1000 years. The greatness of both nations and their accomplishments economically are astonishing and have changed the history of the world through culture, war, disease, religion, and technology. Culturally the spread of languages and major religions in the world today traversed the Silk Road including Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Also, the scope of ideas and inventions like the crossbows, sail designs, infrastructure, and government. However, the main purpose for the use of the silk road was its economic impact of transferring and acquiring foreign goods.

Margaret Sanger, a nurse during the era, noticed many desperate pregnant immigrant women struggling to feed their many children. She realized the government did not pay enough attention to these women who were exhausted of abuse and manipulation, so she became an advocate for birth control, which caused outrage and controversy across the nation. Indeed, she opened the first birth control clinic and was arrested for violating the Comstock Law, but her push for birth control saved the lives of many women. If the government hadn’t been so sensitive and offended over touchy subjects concerning women speaking up about their bodies, Sanger could have saved even many more lives then.

Throughout history, women have been fighting for their rights. They fought for their right to speak publicly, their right to work, and their right to vote. Today, women have the rights to control their lives as they wish. However, as close as the early 1900’s, women still did not have the basic right to control their fertility. Working as a nurse, Margaret Sanger believed that women should maintain the right to protect themselves against unwanted pregnancies. Margaret Sanger is The Woman Rebel who, despite overwhelming opposition, pioneered the way for modern family planning and, more importantly, the female sexual revolution.

The events of the Russian Revolution made dramatic changes in the world’s history but it is still not clear if the First World War caused the Russian Revolution in 1917; it is obvious that domestic situations were reaching the crisis point before August 1914; state and society were tilting toward dramatic confrontation. In 1915-1916 the country was headed toward disaster economically and financially as enterprises were converting to military production when it became obvious that the war would not be over soon. There were problems with transportation, and the undersupply of raw materials. People began to voice their discontent at government’s incompetence. Members of the Duma formed the political association Progressive Block that was calling for the tsar to be replaced with a government of public confidence- by which they meant themselves. The pressure for the tsar’s resignation was rising. The population was mobilizing itself to continue revolutionary

Since violating the law was a crime that would lead to jail, Sanger fled to Europe to learn how other countries dealt with pregnancy and contraceptives. Sanger noticed that it was unfair to lower-income families that they were uneducated about health education and always had to have abortions, where a lot of the time women would die, compared to higher-income families that had more access to this education and they could prevent pregnancies. After many attempts of providing information to the public and getting in trouble with the law, Sanger decided to have a new conservative approach to the public. She was getting aggravated that laws were not being passed, so she created the National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control (NCFL). Birth control could be prescribed by doctors at this time, but because of the Comstock laws many doctors did not like sharing this information. This is why Sanger created the NCFL, so she could get more attention to legislators that would then create an amendment that would allow doctors to share this crucial health information with the public. After years and years of birth control propaganda and social reform, Sanger finally saw the day where the Comstock law was dropped in the 1965 Supreme Court Case in Griswold v. Connecticut. The court finally ruled that it was a constitutional right have a private use of contraceptives. Sanger also provided the start of researching the

The transportation of goods is very important for the developmental influence towards people, societies and regional areas. The two sides of the world the East and the West, had been connected to each other by a trade route called the Silk Road, which brought exposure to new goods that weren’t originally known.

but in the early 20th century, Chinese society was far from perfect. The women in China,

My name is Barbara Ambers and I am a Chinese trader during 206 Bc to 220 AD. I have been working as a trader for many years on the Silk roads. These roads where useful for selling and trading items besides silk. Chinese exported teas, salt, sugar, porcelain, and spices. They also bought goods such as cotton, ivory, wool, and gold. The silk trade was expanded and promoted by the Han Dynasty while trading between China and the rest of the world. This was a very long road than ran about 4,000 miles with limited people. There were also more than one route to take but some of the routes were dangerous. In the mid nineteenth century the Silk Road was named by the German geologist, Baron Ferdinand. These roads made me into the person I am and molded

“The Silk Road” coined by Baron Ferdinand, allowed the general public to travel for purposes other than survival for the first time. Starting in the second century AD, and ending in the fourteenth, the development and change experienced within in Eurasia was significant. The Silk Road allowed for not only silk, but also ideas for improving societies, religion, and nations to spread and develop. All of this is explained in Life along the Silk Road, written by Susan Whitfield. Her book delves into the lives of 11 people who lived at varying times throughout 730 AD and the end of the first millennia, and shows the many consequences and uses of the SIlk Road. Through these characters, we see how the Eastern Hemisphere was ever changing, and being constantly stimulated. Additionally it reveals how even though lots of people were traveling in generally speaking the same area and had common concerns, such as climate, soldiers or bandits, they all had totally different experiences because of their reason for being on The Silk Road.