What made the Silk Road an important source of cultural diffusion?
1 Answer
The silk road started about the second century BC. Goods and ideas of China and India reached Europe and goods and ideas of Europe reached China.
Explanation:
China invented gunpowder. Europeans turned gunpowder into a weapon. Block printing invented in China became the printing press in Europe. Even spaghetti noodles of Italy were invented in China.
Going the other direction the cultivation of wheat came from Europe.
The Heavenly Horses treasured by China came from the middle East. Buddhism and Christianity moved across the silk road to China, and to Japan.
The communication across the silk road was to and from nations and cultures at approximately the same latitudes. Crops that could grow in Europe and the Middle East, could grow in India and China.
( See Guns, Steel and Germs)
The Silk Road was the means by which the inventions and ideas of the Old World ( Europe and Asia) were shared back and forth.
