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The technology and ideas that travelled along the silk road alone shaped history as we know it. The impact of the silk road is incredibly underrated.

If I remember correctly the Ottomans didn't shut the silk road to Europe but they demanded more money for it and only the Venetians can trade with them thus allowing venice a monopoly on trades to Europe which in return angered the Europeans which allowed their travels to find new roads

Ottomans didnt just completely shut down the Silk Road rather they demanded enormous taxes that led to its decease, eventually triggering the age of European expansion

The fact that you had the 2 monks clothes change as they went between east and west is a great attention to detail. I really appreciated that little bit.

The two agents sent by the Justinian to steal silk production secrets/materials in China is such a good movie idea.

Before the conquest of Constantinople, trade to Europe through Silkroad was mainly done by Genoese and Venetian traders. After the conquest, Ottomans dispelled Genoese traders from their ports and banned them from trading goods as well, because of the help Genoese provided to Byzantium in the siege (they had sent their fleet to blockade the golden horn, if I'm not mistaken). To damage Geneose in Mediterranean even more, Ottomans gave Venetian traders -competitors of Genoese - privileges in trading. Any other foreign trader had to pay much more taxes contary to their Venetian counterparts. That said, trading goods from Venetians was almost much more cheaper than paying taxes to Ottomans. The first capitulation in Ottomans' history, later they gave such and more privileges to French in Suleiman's reign.

Thank you so much for your program, really enjoyed it. I am Chinese, but also have the DNA of all the ethnicities along the silk road including Turkey, Iran, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, northern India, and northern Thailand. this episode made me feel that I am visiting my silk road traveler ancestors. thank you.

Marco Polo was not the only travelled person. He writes in his memoir about meeting a next-village friend in China. He writes about many other such travellers from all over the world. Marco Polo's name remains because he recorded his travels.

Persians pretty much never get credit for their historical contributions to humanity. Good that they were at least mentioned at the beginning of the video. Even though they created much more of this concept (e.g., the whole concept of Caravanserai and hubs) and many of the goods described as Western exports were actually Persia's exports to both East and West. Still, respect for mentioning something.

The world seemed so much bigger back then, so many untold stories and experiences ... Man I love history 😊

It saddens me to think how many war-torn cities were once bustling trading hubs along the Silk Road.

For anyone interested, I heartily recommend Peter Frankopan's 2015 book, The Silk Roads, I read it just before visiting Uzbekistan and it provided superb context to the visit.

How did silk road work? Chinese trader: *sell items to Turkic trader* Turkic trader: *sell items to Persian trader* Persian trader: *sell items to Levantine trader* Levantine trader: *sell items to Greek trader* And that's how terracotta was made.

Glad someone finally gave credit to the Persians. Thank you

What I've learned with these series is that humanity truly thrives when there is open trade and times of peace. Why can't we just all get along?

Stunning and great piece of history: My teacher didn't mention how early the silk road started to exist, so I learned something new to me and am able to understand a bit more about the world we're living in today. Good job 👍.

An extremely so fascinating story of how the Silk Road was being built for mainly the trading of almost all the sectors to be exported and imported via China to some of the respective European countries and I am extremely so happy to see the construction workers to build that road of variety routes to save cost,good friends!!!:-D

Question: how many days (approximately) did it take for a trader to travel over land from Southern Song to, say, Amsterdam, Paris or Madrid? Surely it can't be that long if the reverse path is used to trade fruit?

brilliant, you painted the whole picture and the history including the details around inns and accommodation. It probably goes to show that business, explorers and travelers have been in touch between east and west much longer than the regular population understands it to be.

a truely remarkable demonstration of ingenuity and a reminder of how important principles are

As a world-traveler I've been halfway around the planet 11 times and finally made it completely around back in 2011. I lived and worked in half a dozen cultures, done educational tours around the US/Central America/Middle East and some in Asia. But living at the time of Marco Polo seems to me a much more fresher, adventurous and real time experience than anywhere I've been. Nice presentation!

Ive found the best way to describe the silk road and how it works is by comparing it to a good old fashioned bucket brigade. Nobody moves very far but they still do their part passing their goods from one person to the next in the long chain.

Wow :0 Best video you have ever made!

Jews were heavily involved with the silk road having a near monopoly on Indigo Dye and Silk Dyeing in the Mediterranean and having merchants in every port to receive the goods from the east (merchant of Venice). They were also some of the few permitted to bring goods straight to the Frankish Kingdoms in Central Europe. Many terms for weights and exchange come from Hebrew or various Jewish dialects as they had a strict law guided by the Torah on transactions and how they should be handled. They could also generally read, write and calculate numbers because of the tradition of reading and writing the Torah.

Correction: Before the formation of the Franco-Ottoman Alliance and England turned away fro mthe Catholic Church to Anglicanism, the Ottoman Empire was willing to trade with Venice only.

"Qian was drawn to the horses" Genghis Khan: Ah I see you're a man of culture as well

I learned a lot. Thanks for posting!

This is a really good video. Good pace, good script, good voicing. Just the right level of information for me, and very good maps and images to support the text. Tying in the balance of payment issues, the obtaining of the silk worms and the age of discovery made it next level in expanding my understanding of history. Thank you.

Why do you perpetuate the myth that the Ottomans cut off trade to Europe? They kept constantly trading with the Italian city states. The Spaniards and Portuguese sought new trade routes because the Italians hat a monopoly on the trade and hiked up the prices.

It's because of this network that Han China and the Roman Empire were aware of each other's existence. Still, the distance and time between the two powers was too great for anything substantial to come about. Communication was just too difficult over such vast distances. Also, for those powers that straddled the Silk Road, it gave them a large amount of wealth. While this network existed, a number of Middle Eastern and Central Asian kingdoms were large and extremely rich. You see this throughout the video with large empires like the Achaemenid Empire, Seleucid, Parthia, Bactria. The Sassanid Empire would straddle a lot of the network in the center, would get rich from it, so rich that it made them a major power strong enough to be mortal enemies with the Eastern Roman Empire. Genghis Khan would lead his Mongols here eventually, campaigning even in the Middle East causing devastation. Eventually the Mongols would keep the Silk Road going. From what I've gathered, with the Mongols there, traders were very safe because the Mongols were determined to keep the trade going for taxation.

Loved this concise history that packs a lots of information and perspective!

i just love this type of vids on these subjects, realy makes some sence of things

I Really Really love your Videos knowledgia when ever I Open UKposts I always first see the Notification Just to see if you already Upload New Videos🤗.Love Your Channel from Philippines😘🇵🇭. I wish you can make more video about like this About trade and Economy.

ottomans made alliance with venice. and venetians asked for exclusive trading rights which ottomans gave them. basically only venetians were able to trade with ottomans

I am learning a lot from your channel. Thank you!

The Indian Ocean served as the main highway connecting East and West for 1000's of years .

I would have said that the silk road went all the way from China to England. Navigation on the Russian Rivers and then on the Baltic and North Sea was an important part of the silk road. English wool played an important role in this trade.

And today China has the Belt and Road initiative, a new "Silk Road".

this really helped, i needed to do a project the silk road and i added this video at the end and got a great grade!

I like how your channel seems to be growing in 2021. I remembered subbing this channel not too long ago with 200k sub. I hope you will do about Italy of How they maintain their Geography

Very cool graphics! Historically, however, the Persian "royal road" was more like the American pony express. It had a series of stations and rest houses, and was directly funded by the state. The silk road was a much more informal set of trade routes, not really a "road" at all in the modern sense.

Great video. Always thought a route went over the Caspian Sea along the north side.

amazing video appreciated for your hard work!!!

Absolutely excellent So well explained

The Silk Road was far from being the first trade route, but it did have the greatest impact cultural impact on our species

8:05 Myth busters: The Ottomans didn't shut down trade, it was a very pro-commerce empire, they increased tax rates to a point that many Europeans found unprofitable.

Beautiful documentary. Thank you.

All I remember about the Silk Road is that it was a central trade route over several areas pertaining to the trade of silk and other items, mainly silk. This was done through the usage of silk worms turning into silk moths which had its own effect on silk cloth, which was considered a rare gem in this time period. I'm interested in seeing this topic again, it's been a while.

The silk road, and in general Central Asia has always fascinated me. As an American you never hear of how it impacted the world and you never really hear about the countries and cultures that Central Asia is made of. You hear of the Greeks, the Romans, the Middle East, and of Europe, but all you hear about Central Asia is trade with the east. Nothing else. That’s why it feels like I found a missing puzzle piece watching these videos and studying about Central Asia.

The silk road sort of ended when the Roman empire fell. Then silk became a valued commodity when the Spanish empire, the French empire and British empire came about. The Chinese only accepted silver as payment for trade, which may have indirectly led to the search for silver mines by the Spaniard.

I love your channel keep up the great stuff

Thank you for the video, good content!

from this I have learnt that the greatest work of the Chinese people in ancient times was not the great wall, but the great road and trade networks associated with it. From this I infer that the Chinese people shine most brightly not when they cut themselves off from the world, but when they expand through peaceful sharing and free trade. I also infer that the greatest degree of progress in Europe happened when the Europeans benefited from this peaceful and prosperous Chinese expansion. Sadly it seems that in modern times neither east, nor west has much interest in anything other than walls

Very interesting and well done. One important clarification: Kublai Khan was not Chinese but Mongolian, an entirely different ethnic group.

excellent video, thanks for making it

Great video man. Respect !

It is a lovely and informative video. Well done! A few suggestions: 6:40 - 7:38 - I would suggest putting the name of the purple area above the 'Byzantine' empire for historical and chronological accuracy - Bulgaria, while Hungary - can be replaced with its original endonym - Magyar Thank you in advance.

Great presentation, but very incomplete. For instance, there is almost no hint of the coastal silk road (silk routes, rather) that quite efficiently connected the Far East to Africa/Middle-East/Persia and then to Europe, through the Malay-speaking world (present day Indonesia, Malaysia etc.) and India. The maritime trading was quite established and especially the Chinese had really large ships (in particular, during the times of the famous admiral Zheng He), so much larger and effective than the 15th/16th century Portuguese ships.

Hey 👋 Wonderful channel and wonderful content!

Very well done documentary! PBS and BBC could learn a lot! Succinct, good visualization, no repetition, decent narration. Best of all no narcissistic presenter 😀.

I wish there were more details about all the stuff traided on silk road. Like for example how chickens and charry trees got to europe from China. Also there were other travelers that made the journey. And Marko polo stories are very iffy as he talks about half human half fogs living in China lol. I was also hopping to hear how it impact europe African trade and Viking settlements.

Hello from Istanbul/Byzantium, one of the major stops on the Silk Road. Excellent video, concise explanation!Having seen Silk production in the Aegean region, given it's complex process I wonder if the monks took along some silk makers along with the worms! Not sure if the mulberry bushes were already in Turkey, maybe they brought some cuttings of those too!. As for Mr. Polo, there is dispute about the trip being mostly fiction due to the mythical beasts he claimed he saw on the trip, though maybe an opium pipe could have had something to do with that. Lol.

Nicely informative video.

Great video with a wealth of information about a fascinating topic. Aside from all that, I now know where the term "middle man" came from.

"bought horses" just skipped the entire war fought over those horses when the owners refused to sell.

The idea that the Silk Road was cutted by the Ottoman Empire is quite an eurocentric point of view, considering the large portion of it inside Asia and the amount of trading that would still be possible just in that part of the original route.

Great video! Very well done thank you

Excellent video, especially map, animations and narration. All history fact are true, you are one and only❤😂. Silk Road is one of the grestest “things” that have shaped the world that we know today. Because of impact that has on world in history, nowdays, building of Second Silk road creates a lot of pressure and controvery, in fact Trade war between China and USA. Thanks for great video🎉❤

The Silk Road was great in it's day and will continue to capture the popular imagination for generations to come.

Damn this map is so cool-looking. Is it possible to get a full image of it?

Thanks for the general knowledge

Nicely explained.

4:32 So Justinian's envoy just marched across the entirety of the silk road, stole some worms, and marched all the way back, centuries before Marco Polo and you're just gonna skate over it?!

note: The Han Dynasty, after the expedition to the West by Zhang Qian, established the Silk Road from East to West. Prior to the Silk Road was the Persian Royal Road, which was established centuries ago, under the Achaemenid Empire; anyways, going back to the topic of the Silk Road. The Silk Road was used to trade products from East to West, such as silk and gunpowders, and from West to East, glasswares and animals; religions and cultures were also shared; diseases also spread. The Silk Road began under Han China and lasted until 1453 CE when the Ottoman Empire cut off trade with the West.

WHAT A VIDEO !! THANK YOU

Man, I love these videos

Wicked cool, thanks for sharing!! Why were the Chinese interested in trade so early on, but they refused to deal directly, saying they didn't want anything western except silver

Darius invented the Royal road for trading and made them safe also as you said created the post organization also he ordered to Persian engineers to dig the Suez canal

I had an exam about this subject last week. Could have made good use of this video.

Superb Sir Ji Highly beneficial knowledgeable

There was also the Maritime Silk Road which was safer and linked Africa (eastern parts) with the Mediterranean, Middle East, South and East Asia.

This video totally missed the part where caliphate existed and how they were the main people in exchanging and collecting goods and ideas from india, europe, africa and central asia. Ibn battuta also travelled the whole thing. Caliphate's vast and wide amount of books and knowledge they collected and used and worked upon is because of silk route. How they became a superpower different from europe who focussed on couple things that they had or created is that they took a wider approach to everything. Creating studies such as biology, chemistry, optics, modern medicine. Etc. They completed trignometric maths started by indians(aryabhatta to be specific) and started using it.how they combined ayurvedic(indian) and chinese medicine along with the mediterranean communities(middle east, europe and africa). They also created algebra.

Great video. I loved it. 👏👏👏👏👏

Bravo and thank you...very informative...we need your Channel as the world becomes more screen bound and stay at home in Cyber Reality!!!

Silk road 100bc : 🥰🌱🍂🍃🌾 Silk road 2000 : 💀

Xiongnu blocked the access from East to West at BC200. The slik road was unblocked, after Han Chinese defeated Xiongnu around BC100 and Han Empire fully control the western reign (i.e. today Xinjiang). Actually, after BC100, Han Empire territory should include today Xinjiang, Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujin.

Learning so much in the comments section. Thank you all for sharing!

That map background is a nice, clean view. Is there a site where I could get that map? Great video as well!

Most problematic is part of the road that goes north from Tibet ... very harsh environment for travelers. It is full of sandy deserts.

You have completely forgotten to mention the northern route of the silk road which was going via Atil, the capital of the Khazar Khaganate. Before its fall it was extremely important for the trade in eastern Europe.

Love this channel ❤ Just subscribed thankyou 🙏

Just when you think you know so much, and along comes Persia and that wild and crazy kid Darius as an initial road creator. Surprise ! Thanks !

Let me, a Chinese, tell you the history of the Silk Road! After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, the XiongNu in the north had been the biggest threat to the Han Dynasty. After the governance of the previous Han Emperors, the Han Dynasty accumulated a lot of wealth and built up a strong army, so they started to attack the XiongNu during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (141 BC-87 BC) as a way to sweep out the threat on the northern frontier. It was a long war that lasted for 40 years and used millions of troops and people. In the last war, Emperor Wu used 100,000 cavalry and 500,000 infantry, eventually driving the XiongNu into Central Asia, the Middle East and even Europe. The passages you see between China and the Central Asian countries were also manned and protected by the Han army, so trade between East and West began to flow smoothly, which started the Silk Road for thousands of years thereafter.

Love the channel but had to dislike the video, sorry. Ottomans didn't "shut off" trade. Sea voyages of Portuguese started way before 1453(Azores was settled in 1439!) And none of sea voyages references "lack of spices". Constantinopole wasn't that important in silk road trade anyway, the real deal egypt and syria was only become a part of ottomans in 1517. In fact Ottomans tried its best to give capitulations and trade agreements to many European states only to be remembered as "trade blockers" centuries later... Edit: Also every comment talks about ottomans demanded too much tax but this has no record neither. UKposts does not allow links but other than ottoman-portuegese wars of indian ocean spice prices didn't even change that much.

Very interesting and well made video

Indeed! Thank you!

The Muslims pinching off the Silk Road, after conquering Byzantium, probably doomed the entire rest of the world to the "Age of Colonialism" and Imperial assertion by Europe. This is the fact that almost nobody points to, as the triggering event that saw the rise of the West. The Portuguese sailing around Africa, to find way to China by Sea, led to the European realization of the continent of Africa's vast potential, and probably started the Slave Trade that would come to define the West, for the next four centuries. Columbus discovering the Western Hemisphere was entirely motivated by a desire to find "an alternate route" to Chinese goods, without having to go through "Istanbul". The discovery was an accident, that would kill millions of Native Americans through disease transfer, and lead to Spanish, French, and British domination that defines the entire hemisphere's existence today. India was only imperialized, and basically subjugated by the Dutch, and later the British, after Byzantium fell. Not before. Why? Because the Silk Road was off-limits. If the Silk Road had been allowed to remain open, by the Ottoman Turks, it's a good bet that none of this, or at least most of this, would not have happened in the first place. And the things that did would not have happened until much later in history.

I really recommend a Chinese excellent epic documentary called "Hexi Corridor", which tells the story of silk road. It has beautiful bgm composed by a Greek musician. And the photographer are all foreigners, it is joint effort from the world. It is a well known documentary among Chinese documentary lovers.

fantastic video