The Silk Road Afghanistan and eastward into Mongolia and

China.
The Silk Road routes included a large
network of strategically located trading posts,
Silk Road routes also led to ports on the
markets and thoroughfares designed to
Persian Gulf, where goods were then
streamline the transport, exchange, distribution
transported up the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
and storage of goods.

Routes from these cities also connected to

Routes extended from the Greco-Roman
ports along the Mediterranean Sea, from which
metropolis of Antioch across the Syrian Desert
goods were shipped to cities throughout the
via Palmyra  to Ctesiphon (the Parthian capital)
Roman Empire and into Europe.
and Seleucia on the Tigris River, a
Mesopotamian city in modern-day Iraq.
Trade along the so-called Silk Road
economic belt included fruits and vegetables,
From Seleucia, routes passed eastward
livestock, grain, leather and hides, tools,
over the Zagros Mountains to the cities of
religious objects, artwork, precious stones and
Ecbatana (Iran) and Merv (Turkmenistan), from
metals and—perhaps more importantly—
which additional routes traversed to modern-day
language, culture, religious beliefs, philosophy
and science.
 Commodities such as paper and the true sources of these spices was withheld by the
gunpowder, both invented by the Chinese during traders, and associated with fantastic tales.
the Han Dynasty, had obvious and lasting
Prehistoric writings and stone age carvings of
impacts on culture and history in the West. They
neolithic age obtained indicates that India's South
were also among the most-traded items between
West Coast path, especially Kerala had established
the East and West.
itself as a major spice trade centre from as early as
3000 B.C, which marks the beginning of Spice Trade
The Spice Route
(History of Kerala) and is still referred to as the land
of spices or as the Spice Garden of India.
The spice trade refers to the trade between
historical civilizations in Asia, Northeast Africa and The Greco-Roman world followed by trading

Europe. Spices such as cinnamon, cassia, along the Incense route and the Roman-India routes.

cardamom, ginger, pepper, and turmeric were During the first millennium, the sea routes to India

known, and used for commerce, in the Eastern World and Sri Lanka (the Roman - Taprobane) were

well into antiquity. Opium was also imported.
These spices found their way into the Middle
East before the beginning of the Christian Era, where
controlled by the Indians and Ethiopians that became
the maritime trading power of the Red Sea.
The Kingdom of Axum (ca 5th-century BC–AD
11th century) had pioneered the Red Sea route
before the 1st century AD. By mid-7th century AD the
rise of Islam closed off the overland caravan routes
through Egypt and the Suez, and sundered the
European trade community from Axum and India.
Arab traders eventually took over conveying
goods via the Levant and Venetian merchants to
Europe until the rise of the Ottoman Turks cut the
route again by 1453. Overland routes helped the
spice trade initially, but maritime trade routes led to
tremendous growth in commercial activities.
During the high and late medieval periods
Muslim traders dominated maritime spice trading
routes throughout the Indian Ocean, tapping source
regions in the Far East and shipping spices from
trading emporiums in India westward to the Persian
Gulf and the Red Sea, from which overland routes
led to Europe.
The trade was transformed by the European
Age of Discovery, during which the spice trade,
particularly in black pepper, became an influential
activity for European traders. The route from Europe
to the Indian Ocean via the Cape of Good Hope was
pioneered by the Portuguese explorer navigator
Vasco da Gama in 1498, resulting in new maritime
routes for trade.
This trade — driving the world economy from
the end of the Middle Ages well into the modern
times ushered in an age of European domination in
the East. Channels, such as the Bay of Bengal,
served as bridges for cultural and commercial
exchanges between diverse cultures as nations
struggled to gain control of the trade along the many
spice routes.
European dominance was slow to develop. The
Portuguese trade routes were mainly restricted and
limited by the use of ancient routes, ports, and
nations that were difficult to dominate. The Dutch
were later able to bypass many of these problems by
pioneering a direct ocean route from the Cape of
Good Hope to the Sunda Strait in Indonesia.'
The Egyptians had traded in the Red Sea,
spices from the "Land of Punt" and from Arabia.
Luxury goods traded along the Incense Route
included Indian spices, ebony, silk and fine textiles.
The spice trade was associated with overland routes
early on but maritime routes proved to be the factor
which helped the trade grow. The Ptolemaic dynasty
had developed trade with India using the Red Sea
ports.
The Incense Route
The Incense Route was created as
frankincense and myrrh were transported by camel
from the Arabian Peninsula to the Mediterranean.
Both frankincense and myrrh come from tree sap
dried in the sun. The resulting nuggets might be used
as perfume or as incense to be burned. Egyptians,
Greeks, and Romans began using frankincense and
myrrh in big quantities. As trading increased along
the Incense Route, as much as 3,000 tons of incense
may have been moved along the route every year. It
may have taken about two months from start to
finish, and there were points along the route where
settlements charged taxes to allow caravans to pass
through. Eventually, traders began moving the
incense by waterways instead of over land, though.
The Amber Road
The Amber Road was an ancient trade route
for the transfer of amber from the coastal areas
of Sicily and later from the North Sea and the Baltic
Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Prehistoric trade
routes between Northern and Southern Europe were
defined by the amber trade.
 As an important raw material, sometimes evidence has uncovered amber beads from the
dubbed “the gold of the north”, amber was Baltics in Egypt. The Romans valued amber both as
transported from the North Sea and Baltic Sea medicine and for decorative purposes. Amber
coasts overland by way of deposits are present under the Baltic Sea, and they
the Vistula and Dnieper rivers to Italy, Greece, formed millions of years ago. Slowly, amber washes
the Black Sea, Syria and Egypt thousands of years up on the shores where people harvest it from the
ago, and long after. sand.

The route which the amber took began at the The crusades of the 12th and 13th centuries
Baltic Sea and led to areas of Western Europe such were a time when the Baltic Sea was a major source
as Italy - the center of the Roman Empire. The of income for the Teutonic Knights. The Knights had
ancient Romans valued amber for both its control of this region, and they persecuted local
appearance and metaphysical properties. They Prussians if they tried to harvest or sell the amber.
believed that amber helped to cure several health Remnants of the old Amber Road are still present in
ailments, including toothache, stomachache, Poland.
headache and stress.
Along with amber, other commodities such
The Amber Road connected the Baltics with as animal fur and skin, honey and wax was exported
Europe. Researchers estimate that people began to the Rome in exchange for Roman glass, brass,
trading amber in 3000 BCE, because archaeological
gold, and non-ferrous metals such as tin and copper
to the early Baltic region.
The Tea Horse Road
The Tea Horse Road was a network of caravan
paths winding through the mountains of Sichuan,
Yunnan and Tibet in Southwest China. It was more
famous for being a tea trade route. It is also
sometimes referred to as the Southern Silk Road or
Southwest Silk Road, and it is part of a complex
routes system connecting China and South Asia.
There are numerous surviving archaeological
and monumental elements, including trails, bridges,
way stations, market towns, palaces, staging posts,
and temples along the route. 
Historically, tea was produced first in Sichuan
and Yunnan province, and was obtained by Tibetan
people by wars between Tibet and southwest China.
For Tibetan people, they found tea beneficial,
because the food they have contained much fat and
tea could help digesting. For people in central China,
war horses, which were vital for wars, could be found
in Tibet. Trade was gradually formed under this
mutually beneficial exchange. That was also the
fundamental factor which influenced the formation of
the route. The road was generally formed during
Tang and Song dynasty, and was prospered from
Ming dynasty to 20th century. 
The network once ferried horses and silver
from Tibet to China in exchange for tea, but people
also traded salt for tea, ivory for gold, and religious
instruction for food and shelter.
The name of the road indicates its importance
in the trade of tea and horses, but other products
passed along it as well. Horse caravans carried tea,
sugar and salt from Sichuan and Yunnan to Tibet
and brought back colorful local mountain goods. The
Chinese over the ages often bought warhorses from
Tibetan and other ethnic groups of Southwest China,
and these too came over this road.
The road also served as a significant corridor
for migration as well as a channel for cultural
communication among the ethnic groups in western
China; beyond this, it was a bridge for international
cultural and economic exchange between China and
India. Although silk was not included in the trade
goods carried over it, at times it has been termed the
“Southern Silk Road of China,” due to its importance
in both economic and cultural aspects of Chinese
history.
The Salt Route
Salt has been in high demand for centuries. Salt
helps preserve and flavor food, and it’s also used as
an antiseptic. It wasn’t easy to harvest salt, so areas
that were rich in salt became big trading centers.
Routes sprang up to connect salt trading centers with
other settlements.
The Salt Route connected a point near Rome
with the Adriatic coast, running through Italy. Salt
was so scarce and precious that part of Roman
soldiers’ pay was salt. A different Salt Route called
Old Salt Road started in northern Germany and
extended to Lubeck on the northern German coast.
Fishing fleets leaving Germany for Scandinavia
during the Middle Ages needed salt, and they got it
from the Old Salt Road.
The Trans-Saharan Trade Route
The West Africans exchanged their local
products like gold, ivory, salt and cloth, for North
African goods such as horses, books, swords and
chain mail. This trade (called the trans-Saharan trade
because it crossed the Sahara desert) also included and maintain garrisons of soldiers in conquered
slaves. provinces. 

The slaves, usually captured as prisoners of

war, were sold by the West Africans to the Muslim
traders who came from North Africa. North Africa and
parts of southern Europe were part of the Muslim
‘Moorish’ empire. Slaves would be taken to southern
Spain as household servants. This was a trade that
was active by the 7th century AD, and continued for
centuries.

Trans-Saharan trade also provided strong

motivation for the formation of large Sudanic states
and empires to protect traders and trade routes,
which in turn brought in the necessary wealth to
conduct wars of population and territorial expansion,
to acquire horses and superior iron weaponry, to
send thousands of soldiers into battle, and to outfit