Goods and Economics
This luxury fabric from China was so valuable that it gave the Silk Road its name.
What is silk?
What are caravans?
This religion traveled from India to China, influencing art, architecture, and philosophy.
What is Buddhism?
While goods still move over land and sea like they did in ancient times, this technology opened up a different route that moves things even more quickly.
What are airplanes?
This was the beginning point of the Silk Road, located in China.
What is Chang'an (now Xi'an)?
These items from India and Southeast Asia were so expensive and rare that they were sometimes worth more than gold.
What are spices?
Caravans planned their desert routes along these to make sure they had a place to rest and get access to fresh water.
What are oases?
This military invention from China changed how wars were fought.
Today, modern traders use this technology to buy and sell things instantly all over the world.
What is the internet?
This was the primary mode of transportation on the land routes of the Silk Road.
What are camels?
Another material frequently traded on the Silk Road, this helped people everywhere make clothing.
What is wool?
Merchants had to travel through this major desert in Asia while on the Silk Road.
What is the Gobi Desert?
This religion traveled from Western Asia to India and the African continent.
What is Islam?
While global trade connected a handful of civilizations in ancient times, today's global trade connects who?
What is every country?
This delicate yet durable material, created in China, was prized by wealthy Europeans and Middle Eastern nobility.
What is porcelain?
This was an important tool for navigation and was a sought-after item in trades
What is the compass?
This city in modern-day Iraq was a major stop on the Silk Road and a center of Islamic learning and education.
What is Baghdad?
The invention of papermaking in China allowed for writing to spread and these items to be more widely available.
What are books?
While everyday items are common to travel along global trade routes now, these types of items were what people acquired on the Silk Road.
What are luxury goods?
This mathematical concept was developed in India and spread by the Silk Road.
What is zero?
This country was the origin point for most goods traded on the Silk Road.
What is China?
This was a major advantage to sea routes, although it meant that more could be lost if there was a storm.
With the invention of gunpowder, these large structures that dotted kingdoms became nearly obsolete.
What are castles?
Phoenicia was a middleman - an entity that connected buyers and sellers in different parts of the world. This large global corporation is an example of a middleman today.
What is Amazon?
This was a trading city in Central Asia that was a major stopping point on the Silk Road.