Silk - The Queen of Fibers Essay example

As the Mongols grew and expanded in Asia so did their control over the Silk Road. First the Mongols took over China [Song dynasty] in 1279, which allowed them control over silk and other Chinese exports; this allowed for greater control of trade along the Silk Roads; it prospered like never before under Mongol control (Smith). The so called “barbarian” leader Kublai Khan, who was ruling over China used money form an increase of trade to fund an expedition. He sent Marco Polo all over Asia to bring back ideas from other civilizations, such as Baghdad, Islam (Smith). Also, Kublai Khan brought together Muslim and Chinese weavers to share and expand ideas on silk weaving (Smith). Now, knowing that barbarians are very dumb and simple minded, this is a pretty well-thought out plan; one that a true barbarian would never be able to come up

and learned from them. By the 10th century mills that produced the paper could be found in Persia,

Scientists model the manner in which a liquid wets fibers, gaining useful insights for improving glass wool properties. Sandcastles are a prime example of how adding a small amount of liquid to a granular material changes its characteristics

The first art piece consists of a beautiful curtain fragment of coptic textile from the late Roman and early Byzantine 4th century. Woven textiles were commonly incorporated in Byzantine clothing tapestries, furniture coverings and curtains. The most expensive textiles were made of silk. Inexpensive textiles like the curtain fragment were made of linen and wool. Although dyed textiles were rare, they were colored with plant based dyes like saffron or minerals (Carrol, pg.57). The majority of textiles were created by the horizontal two-beam loom later to be replaced by the vertical loom and domed spindle whorl.

The Silk Road was not a single road, it was an entire network of trade routes connecting China and many other countries throughout Asia and the Middle East. This network acquired its name from the beautiful, fine desired silk fabrics from China although it was not called the Silk Road till later in 1877 by Ferdinand von Richthofen. The Silk Road stenches 4000 miles from China to Europe although the path stenches that far people almost never make the whole trip for the road had varying paths to stop on and hidden dangers. The Silk Road was a major accomplishment for ancient China because it allowed the spread of culture, technologies, goods and customs to the Middle East even as far as Egypt. The same was true for customs and traditions coming

Document #6 talks about people adapting to the Mongol Empire and the benefits of the silk industry. The Mongols did a lot for china for example their silk, the people of china liked silk but the problem was that the deliverers kept getting murdered and the silk stolen so the mongols lent a hand and created the Silk Road where people could walk without any thought about thieves or murderers coming for what they have because they feared Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan killed the people that stole or murdered on the silk road and their families, in other words “if you saw something someone dropped nobody touched it said Document

Some of the amazing qualities of these materials are that neptune balls don’t catch on fire, and spider silk can be used to make stuff like bandages, fishing line, clothes, rugs, blankets, and many more.

The reason the Chinese won’t let the outsiders know how to make these silk is because the process of it is hard and they depends mostly on trading these silk for the stuff they needed. Another continuities is the geography of the silk road. The silk road is consist of many route, some is shorter but dangerous while other is longer but safer. Even though some of the routes have changed and there is more variety of stuff that’s being traded than when it was started (e.g. Gunpowder) and the purpose of the road also expanded like people use it to spread religion and unfortunately is also been a route where disease easily spread (e.g. Black plagues) The continuity is the geography of the silk road never changed because both the European and Asia gained much profit from it that it doesn’t need to be change and the Silk Road remained the major trade route between Far Eastern Chinese and European cultures and sparked numerous conflicts in its existence.

      The Silk Road happened around 300 BCE and happened through Europe,the middle east and Asia. The reason for The Silk Road was to trade goods and get goods. It also was a place to get knowledge and idea. I think

Do you wonder how we went from trading with nearby countries to countries across the world.The silk road was the first superhighway that stared trade among other nearby regens.First, there had to be something to trade that other regens wanted for them self.In document A the chinese had silk,iron,bronze,gunpowder,and confucianism to trade and central asia had ferghana horse the chinese wanted the ferghana horse that central asia had and central asia want the chinese silk.In 1400 bce the queen of china was eating soup and a silk bug fell in her soup and she saw how beautifully the silk and demanded that her workers would make the silk and then werd got out that the chinese had a soft fabric and then other regions started to trade for the silk.Next,

Although a German scholar named von Richthofen coined the term ‘Silk Road’, many other goods and materials were traded along this route. According to Jona Lendering, “In the West, silk was considered more precious than gold and it remained very rare and expensive” (LIVIUS Articles on Ancient History). In fact, at this time in history, people in the West simply referred to the people of China as Silk People. Other goods that traveled along the Silk Road included such items as fur, jade, bronzed jewelry, iron, lacquer, and ceramics. These items flowed out of China towards the west along with silk. Fruits, such as apples, oranges and grapes, made an appearance on the Silk Road. It is said that: “Foodstuffs also count in this category of the travel of ideas and techniques. Apples spread, in prehistoric times via the steppe belt, in both directions from the region of modern-day Kazakhstan; oranges went (via the maritime route) from China to the Mediterranean world; grapes went from the western

2. The origins of the Silk Road trade may be located in the occasional trading of Central Asian nomads. Regular, large-scale trade was fostered by the Chinese demand for western products (particularly horses) and by the Parthian state in northeastern Iran and its control of the markets in Mesopotamia.

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

Though the routes of the Silk Road thrived in the second century, it is said that this thirst for trade is to have begun in 53 BC, during a battle between the Romans and the Parthian army. During this battle the Parthian’s unleashed large banners of a translucent material, material that the Roman army had never seen anything like before (video). Due to this confusion, the Romans fled from an otherwise definite victory over the Parthians causing 20,000 men to die on the battlefield. This confusion though, turned into curiosity and fascination, causing silk to become highly desired in ancient Rome. Parthian

Long distance trade came to action when rulers invested in making roads and bridges. “During the 1870s, silk