David Christian, world historian and scholar of Russian history, whose article, “Silk Roads or Steppe Roads,” posited an ideology on ecological factors in The Silk Road encourages trade. Silk Roads or Steppe Roads focuses on a captivating vision of how the Silk Road played a crucial role in establishing and preserving the unity of Afro-Eurasian history. Long before there were ships, trains and planes to transport goods from one place/area to another, the Silk Road existed. The Silk Road was a complex network of trade routes that connected Europe, Asia and Africa, covering much of the territory and which was established as the first major trading system. Christian's main thesis states that "both civilization and ecological exchange created a unity that has been largely ignored by historians." We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Christian's thesis itself examines three aspects when understanding this unit; the Silk Roads have origins in prehistory, their function changed in classical times and that the routes have expanded northwards in the last thousand years. Christian thinking supports the idea of a "world system" with a history of shared Afro-Eurasian exchange of religion, culture, goods, people, and disease that dates back earlier than previously thought. He explains this by stating that “the Silk Road is a series of exchanges that connect different ecological zones of the Afro-Eurasian continent into a single system”. Through the numerous transecological exchanges that occurred along the Silk Roads, a contribution was made due largely to the growth of trade within the Afro-Eurasian region, and more specifically to trade between agrarian communities, steppe pastoralists and woodland cultures. The many different characteristics gained from the Silk Road indicated that ecological factors played a role in greatly intensifying trade. For example, the Silk Roads cross the borders of desert areas or arid steppes inhabited by pastoralists. These ecological boundaries, however, have created demand for trade because the essential goods that people living in different environments need are also different. Most of the traded products came from the steppe, while many of the products made by the agrarian community were sold to the steppes. These products evidently demonstrated how influential trade was in the Afro-Eurasian region. Christian also argues that the Silk Roads were natural sea and land routes that connected agricultural communities where exchanges of products, religion and ideas took place. Furthermore, Christian's visions of the Steppe Roads connecting Eurasian agriculture were realized through the commercial exchange of goods from pastoral and agricultural regions. In conclusion, a review of the understanding of the role and history of the Silk Roads shows the extent to which the entire Silk Road The Afro-Eurasian continent was connected by complex exchange networks much earlier than previously thought. Christian absolutely reminds us that Afro-Eurasian has a common history despite the ecological and cultural variety of its many different regions. His explanation of trade being carried out on the steppes rather than roads helps to identify that these ecological settlements were still very affluent even though they were far from major inland cities. Christian's views on the Silk Road or Steppe Road helped me understand that history and opinions about the creation of the Silk Road are often masked by what really, 2016.
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