2 posts tagged “development”

Alexander the Great and his Macedon generals had great impact in the development and extension of the Silk Road network of routes. Their campaigns are thought to be the first major step in opening the big connection between the East and the West. Alexander's empire extended from Greece to Central Asia. In Fergana Valley, which is located in modern Tajikistan, he founded the famous city Alexandria Eschate which later became the major point of northern Silk Road.

After his death Alexander's general Ptolemy and his descendants got Egypt and became first Greek pharaohs. Egypt heavily depended on trade, it had large sea ports on Red Sea and established routes to the Middle East and India and to the South, reaching East Africa.

As for Greek kingdoms in Central Asia, they lasted for the next three hundred years. They were trying to continue the expansion to Sogdiana and India and set up new Greco-Indian kingdoms there. Ancient historians noted not once that Greek kingdoms led their expeditions to China and Chinese Turkestan around 200 BC, which constitutes the first verified by documents contact between China and the West.

Everybody heard about famous Silk Road - a series of trade routes that were vital to cultural interaction connecting East and West Asia. Silk Road linked traders, merchants, pilgrims, monks, soldiers, nomads from China to the Mediterranean Sea during various periods of time. Overall, the serious of routes extended over five thousand miles on land and sea.

Historians are really puzzled and still can not establish for sure, how the Silk Road network began. Originally, the historians point of view was that the Silk Road was initiated by Chinese Han Dynasty around 114 BC. As the years rolled by, new evidence was discovered which pointed out that Silk Road existed centuries earlier before that date. For example, it turned out that ancient Scythians, nomads who Hungarian plain to China participated in Assyrian invasion on Egypt in 7 century BC. Their distinctive arrowheads were found even in the south of Egypt. Scientists also learned that ancient Scythians encouraged long distance travel of merchants as a source of income through the enforced payment of tariffs. So, they, obviously, played an important role in the development of the Silk Road. But that was not all.

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