Miguelsworldhistoryblog

Miguel Chavez Silk Road The Eurasian landmass has long been home to the majority of humankind as well as to the worlds most productive agriculture, largest civilizations, and greets concentration of pastoral peoples. The beginnings of the Silk Roads lay in both geography and history Eurasia is foten dividend into inner and outer zones that represent quite different environments.  The constructions of the second wave civilizations and their imperial states during the past five centuries BCE added another element to these earlier Eurasian connections.  Alexander the Great empire stretched well into Central Asia  Silk Road trading networks prospered most when large and powerful states provided security for merchants and travelers.  During prosperous time especially, a vast array of goods made its way across the Silk Road, often carried in large camel caravans that traversed the harsh and dangerous steppes, deserts, and oases of Central Asia.  Silk came...

The collapse of the Han Dynasty around 200 CE ushered in more than three centuries of political fragmentation in China and signaled the rise of powerful and locally entrenched aristocratic families.  China gained its city under the Sui dynasty unlike the Roman Empire The dynastic collapse, however, witnessed no prolonged disintegration of the Chinese state.  The Tang and the Song dynasty built on the Sui foundations. Politically, the Tang and Song dynasties built a state structure that endured for a thousand years. Six major ministries. Personnel, finance, rites, army, justice, and public works.  Selecting officials on the basis of merit represent a challenge to established aristocratic families' hold on public office. Underlying these cultural and political achievement was an "economic revolution" that made Song dynasty China "by far the richest, most skilled, and most populous country on earth."  Many people found their way to the cities, making chin...