Maps The Silk Roads - China Institute in America

PART II

CurriculumF R O M S I L K T O O I L

MAPS—THE SILK ROADS

1

GEOGRAPHY ALONG THE SILK ROADS

2

ETHNIC RELATIONS AND POLITICAL HISTORY ALONG THE SILK ROADS

3

EXCHANGE OF GOODS AND IDEAS ALONG THE SILK ROADS

4

RELIGIONS ALONG THE SILK ROADS

5

ART ALONG THE SILK ROADS

Maps—The Silk Roads

Map A

Inner Asia’s Major Ecological Zones

Map B

Central and Northern Asia—Political

Map C

Central and Northern Asia: Political—Outline Map

Map D

From Chang’an (Modern Xi’an) to Constantinople—Places along the Silk Roads

Map E

The Han Empire

Map F

Central and Southwest Asia—Political

Map G

Central and Southwest Asia—Outline Map

Map H

The Middle East on the Eve of the Muslim Era

Map I

The Arab-Muslim Empire to 750 CE

Map J

The Mongol Empire (1294)

Map K

Asia and the South Pacific: Political

PART II Curriculum Units—From Silk to Oil: Maps—The Silk Roads38

39PART II Curriculum Units—From Silk to Oil: Maps—The Silk Roads

Redrawn after Thomas J. Barfield. 1989. The Perilous Frontier. Oxford: Basil Blackwell

Map AInner Asia’s Major Ecological Zones

Map

AIn

ner

Asi

a’s

Maj

or

Eco

log

ical

Zo

nes


Dush

anbe

Dush

anbe

Tash

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Bare

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Sea

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sk

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l

Sea

ofJa

pan

East

Chin

aSe

a

Aral

Sea

CaspianSea

Balti

cSe

aAr

cticC

ircle

Trop

icof

Canc

er

Arab

ian

Sea

Kar a

Sea

PAC

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Blac

k Sea

Pers

ian

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f

Asta

na

Ashk

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be

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tar

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cow

CHINA

KAZAKHSTAN

R USSIA

EURO

PE

KYRG

YZSTAN

T AJIKISTAN

MONG

OLIA

UZBEKISTAN

TURKMENISTAN

160

E15

0E

140

E13

0E

120

E11

0E

100

E90

E80

E70

E60

E50

E40

E30

E20

E10

E17

0

50N60

N

W

N

S

Natio

nal b

ound

ary

Natio

nal c

apita

l

0 025

050

0 ki

lom

eter

s

500

mile

s25

0

LEGEND

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All Rights Reserved. Education Place: http://www.eduplace.com http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/pdf/cn_asia_pol.pdf

Map BCentral and Northern Asia’s—Political

Map

BC

entr

al a

nd

No

rth

ern

Asi

a’s—

Polit

ical

http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/pdf/cn_asia_pol.pdf

http://www.eduplace.com


Bare

nts

Sea

Sea

ofO

khot

sk

Lake

Baika

l

Sea

ofJa

pan

East

Chin

aSe

a

Aral

Sea

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Balti

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ircle

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Kara

Sea

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AN

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k Sea

Pers

ian

Gul

f

160

E15

0E

140

E13

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120

E11

0E

100

E90

E80

E70

E60

E50

E40

E30

E20

E10

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0E

20N

30N

40N

50N

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W

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ound

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apita

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LEGEND

Map CCentral and Northern Asia: Political—Outline Map

Map

CC

entr

al a

nd

No

rth

ern

Asi

a: P

olit

ical

—O

utl

ine

Map

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All Rights Reserved. Education Place: http://www.eduplace.com http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/pdf/cn_asia_pol_nl.pdf

http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/pdf/cn_asia_pol_nl.pdf



Map DFrom Chang’an (Modern Xi’an in China) to the Middle East—Places Along the Silk Roads

Map

DFr

om

Ch

ang

’an

(M

od

ern

Xi’a

n in

Ch

ina)

to

th

e M

idd

le E

ast—

Plac

es A

lon

g t

he

Silk

Ro

ads

Source: From Judy Bonavia. 1988. The Silk Road—From Xi’an to Kashgar. Odyssey Publications Ltd.


Map EThe Han Empire

Map

ETh

e H

an E

mp

ire

Copyright © 2004 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved. http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0402/feature1/images/mp_download.1.pdf

http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0402/feature1/images/mp_download.1.pdf


EgyptSaudiArabia

Iraq

Ukraine

W E

N

S

AfghanistanIran

China

India

Pakistan

Turkmenistan

Uzbekistan

Tajikistan

Kyrgyzstan

U.A.E.

QatarBahrain

Oman

Yemen

Turkey

Syria

Jordan

Sudan Entrea

EthiopiaSomalia

Nepal

Georgia

AzerbaijanArmenia

Israel

Lebanon

Arabian Sea

RUSSIA

KAZAKHSTAN

Kuwait

Map FCentral and Southwest Asia—Political

Map

FC

entr

al a

nd

So

uth

wes

t A

sia—

Polit

ical

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All Rights Reserved. Education Place: http://www.eduplace.comhttp://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/pdf/cent_swasia.pdf

http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/pdf/cent_swasia.pdf



W E

N

S

Map GCentral and Southwest Asia—Outline Map

Map

GC

entr

al a

nd

So

uth

wes

t A

sia—

Ou

tlin

e M

ap

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All Rights Reserved. Education Place: http://www.eduplace.comhttp://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/pdf/cent_swasia_nl.pdf

http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/pdf/cent_swasia_nl.pdf



Map HThe Middle East on the Eve of the Muslim Era

Source: Ira M. Lapidus, 1988. A History of Islamic Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Source: Ira M. Lapidus, 1988. A History of Islamic Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Map IThe Arab-Muslim Empire to 750 CE


Map JThe Mongol Empire (1294)

Map

JTh

e M

on

go

l Em

pir

e (1

294)

From A Brief History of Chinese Civilization 1st edition by Conrad Schirokauer © 1990. Reprinted with permission of Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning: http://www.thomson.com/learning/learning.jsp Fax 800-730-2215

http://www.thomson.com/learning/learning.jsp


Map KAsia and the South Pacific: Political

Map

KA

sia

and

th

e So

uth

Pac

ific:

Po

litic

al

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All Rights Reserved. Education Place: http://www.eduplace.comhttp://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/pdf/asia_pacific.pdf

http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/pdf/asia_pacific.pdf


A Chronological Table—The Silk Roads

• In the fourth millennium BCE, the Chinese learnt how to make silk.

• As early as the fourth millennium BCE, the camel was domesticated.

• By the second millennium BCE, from Europe to China, horses were domesticated and used to pull wagons and chariots. The development of the lightweight, spoked wheel for military chariots alsooccurred around this time.

• 1070 BCE Silk found in an Egyptian tomb is early evidence for the silk trade across Eurasia.

• c. 500 BCE Life of Siddhartha Gautama, the “Buddha” or “Enlightened One.”

321-185 BCE—MAURYAN EMPIRE India’s first unified empire, it controlled north and central India andparts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. King Ashoka (273-232 BCE) attempted to establish a state based onBuddhist morality.

247 BCE-224 CE—PARTHIAN EMPIRE At its height, the Parthian empire controlled Iran, most of theMiddle East, and parts of Central Asia. Parthia was the middleman in trade between Rome and Chinaalong the Silk Roads.

221-206 BCE—QIN DYNASTY In 221 the state of Qin unified China.

202 BCE-220 CE—HAN DYNASTY The Han dynasty extended China’s frontiers to what is now northernVietnam and northern Korea. At times it also controlled the eastern leg of the Silk Roads.

• 198-134 BCE Series of treaties between China and the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu were a nomadic pastoral people living along China’s northern frontiers. Their raids were China’s major foreign policyproblem in the Han.

The early Silk Roads were closely connected to Han foreign policy. One means by which the Chineseprevented Xiongnu raids was to bribe them with huge quantities of silk. Some of this silk was tradedby the Xiongnu further west.

In the first century BCE, the amount of silk imported to the Roman Empire increased tremendously,perhaps as a result of such nomad trade.

• 140-87 BCE Reign of Han emperor Wu. His aggressive foreign policy sought to destroy the Xiongnu.

• 139-126 BCE Emperor Wu sent Zhang Qian west to seek allies and war horses to use against the Xiongnu. He returned with the first direct news about regions west of China.

• 106 BCE First Chinese caravan said to enter Parthian territory.

• During the first century BCE Parthia sent envoys to the Roman emperor as well as to Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty.

49PART II Curriculum Units—From Silk to Oil: A Chronological Table—The Silk Roads

c. 2nd century BCE-3rd century CE—KUSHAN EMPIRE The Kushans controlled parts of northwestIndia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the southern routes of the Silk Roads across the Tarim basin.

• Kushan control of the Silk Roads facilitated the spread of Buddhism to China. Gandhara, a region in northwest Pakistan formerly occupied by Alexander the Great’s successors, is part of the Kushanempire. Consequently, Kushan art is influenced by Greek and Roman myths and art styles.

• The first images of the Buddha are produced in the Kushan period.

27 BCE-476 CE—ROMAN EMPIRE During the reign of Augustus (27 BCE-14 CE), first Roman emper-or, long-distance silk trade with China greatly increased.

BCE/CE

• 65 First evidence of the practice of Buddhism in China.

c. 2nd century BCE-3rd century CE—The KUSHAN EMPIRE controlled parts of northwest India,Pakistan, Afghanistan and the southern routes of the Silk Roads across the Tarim basin. Their control ofthe Silk Road facilitated the spread of Buddhism to China.

• 90-130 CE China controlled the Tarim Basin, the eastern part of the Silk Roads.

• 105 Traditional date for the invention of paper in China. It had, in fact, been in use well before this time.

• By the second or third century CE, silk was being produced in Central Asia.

• 220 Abdication of the last Han emperor and fall of the dynasty.

220-589—THREE KINGDOMS / NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN DYNASTIES (“PERIOD OF DIS-UNION”) One of the most turbulent eras in Chinese history. Except for a brief period at the end of thethird century, China wouldn’t be united again until 581. From the early 3rd century, north China wasruled by non-Chinese and the south was governed by refugees from the north.

• During the third and fourth centuries, Buddhism began to spread in both north and south China.

224-651—SASANIAN DYNASTY The Sasanids controlled the Iranian plateau, Afghanistan, Pakistan,and parts of Central Asia. They ruled until the Islamic conquest (completed in 651).

• c. 300 Knowledge of silk manufacture reached India.

• 366 Earliest Buddhist cave at Dunhuang.

• Sixth century: rise of the Turkic empire. Originating in what is now Mongolia, at its height it extendedwest as far as Byzantium. At times the Turks controlled the Silk Roads.

• By the sixth century, knowledge of silk manufacture had been acquired by the Byzantine court.

• c. 570 Birth of Muhammad.

• 581-618—Sui dynasty unified China.

• Between the seventh and ninth centuries, China’s main rivals for territory in Central Asia were the Turks and Tibetans.

PART II Curriculum Units—From Silk to Oil: A Chronological Table—The Silk Roads50

618-907—TANG DYNASTY Perhaps the most cosmopolitan period in China’s history. Arabs, Persians, Indians, Turks, Syrians, Tibetans, Koreans, and Japanese traveled to China to live, conduct busi-ness, and study.

• 622 The Hijra (Arabic for “Migration”): Muhammad and his followers went from Mecca to Medina to escape powerful enemies and forge new political alliances.

Not long after the Hijra, Muslims began to enter Tang China. From Tang to Song (c. 600-1300),thousands of Muslim traders took up residence in China’s major commercial cities.

• 629-645 Xuanzang’s pilgrimage to India.

• 632 Death of the Prophet Muhammad.

661-750—UMAYYAD CALIPHATE The first Islamic dynasty. Islam was now the dominant power in thearid zone extending from the Atlantic to the border of India.

• 712-756 Reign of Tang emperor Xuanzong. China’s contacts with Central Asia and Iran were at their height.

• 744-840 The Uyghur empire. A Turkic people, the Uyghurs maintained cordial relations with China and provided troops to fight the Tibetans. They also helped defeat the An Lushan rebellion (below).

750-1258—ABBASID CALIPHATE The Abbasids ruled from their capital at Baghdad, the largest city inthe world outside of China. In disparaging the dominance of an Arab elite, their rule acknowledged theequality of all Muslims.

• 751 The Chinese were defeated by Arabs at the battle of the Talas River. Chinese control over Central Asia is now a thing of the past.

Arab sources claim that Chinese craftsman captured at the battle transmitted knowledge of paper-mak-ing to Central Asia. In reality, Buddhist monks had brought papermaking to the region much earlier.

• 755-763 The An Lushan Rebellion almost destroyed the Tang. It marked the beginning of the dynasty’s decline, as warlords rose in the provinces and competed for power with the central government.

• 907-960—Five Dynasties Period Last Tang emperor deposed. Five regimes succeeded each other in north China, and ten states coexisted in the south.

• 935 The Abbasid empire had by now broken up into various independent regimes. With the decline of Abbasid central power, the empire’s borders were open to nomads from Inner Asia. From the tenthto the fourteenth century, migrating Turkic peoples established kingdoms and gradually converted toIslam.

• During the tenth and eleventh centuries several states rose in north Asia. The Khitan (a Mongolian people), the Tangut (a Tibetan people), and the Jurchen (from Manchuria) all adopted Chinese-stylebureaucratic institutions.

• By the tenth century, knowledge of paper-making had reached the Middle East and North Africa.


960-1127—NORTHERN SONG DYNASTY Song China was wealthy and culturally flourishing, but notexpansionist. Unlike Han and Tang, it had to contend with strong north Asian neighbor states.

• 1055 The Abbasid caliphate was seized by the Seljuk Turks, who reunited much of the empire. Their rule lasted until 1255. The Caliph retained religious and moral authority, but political power restedwith the Seljuk “Sultan” (“power”).

• 1071 Battle of Manzikert. Byzantine emperor captured by the Turks. During the next century, the Turks spread throughout Asia Minor.

• c. 1100 Silk began to be manufactured in Italy.

• 1126 The Jurchens overthrew Northern Song and took north China. The Song court fled south.

1127-1279—SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY The Chinese not only paid tribute to the Jurchen, but alsomaintained a million men at arms.

• Southern Song was the dominant maritime power in East Asia.

• c. 1162-1227 Chingghis Khan. In the early thirteenth century he united the Mongol tribes and laid the foundations for the largest empire in world history.

• 1234 The Mongols destroyed the Jurchen state and occupied north China.

• 1242-1243 The Mongols defeated and make vassals of the Seljuk Turks in Anatolia.

• 1245-1247 John of Plano Carpini, a Franciscan sent by the pope, visited the Great Khan in Mongolia. His account is considered the first authentic description of Asia by a European.

1258-1353—ILKHANID DYNASTY After storming Baghdad and destroying the Abbasid Caliphate, theMongols now ruled Iran and parts of the Middle East.

• 1271 Khubilai Khan, Chinggis’ grandson, became emperor in north China and adopted the dynastic name “Yuan” (“Originating”).

• 1271-1295 Travels of Marco Polo.

• By the late 1200s, the Mongols ruled all Eurasia from central Europe to the Pacific. This empire was divided among Chingghis’ four sons.

1279-1368—YUAN DYNASTY For the first time since the Tang, China was a geographic whole underMongol rule. By the mid-thirteenth century excessive taxation, inflation, famine, and natural disasterssparked rebellion against the dynasty. Ultimately, one of the rebel movements expelled the Mongols andfound the succeeding Ming dynasty (see below).

• China’s Mongol rulers employed many Muslims in government and other professions. China’s modern Muslim population had its origins in these immigrants from West and central Asia.

• c. 1280-1453 Rise of the Ottoman Turks.

• 1295 The Polos returned home to Venice.

• 1336 The Ilkhanid empire divided into various rival states.

• 1345 Ibn Battuta in China.


1350-1918—OTTOMAN EMPIRE At its height, the Ottoman empire extended from the western Mediterranean to Iran, and from the Ukraine to Yemen. It included Greece, the Balkans, Hungary,and parts of southwestern Russia.

1368-1644—MING DYNASTY Rebel leader Zhu Yuanzhang defeated his rivals, took Beijing, andbecame the first Ming emperor. Ming China had a monopoly on the world market for porcelain and, until the mid-nineteenth century, China’s huge export surplus made it the final destination for much NewWorld silver.

• 1370-1405 The conquests of Timur the Great (Tamerlane, 1370-1405) established an empire in Central Asia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and northern India. Timur died while en route to conquer China.

TIMURID DYNASTY Timur’s empire lasted for a century after his death. Under the Timurids, literature, the arts, architecture, and the sciences flourished in Central Asia and Iran.

• 1405-1433 Muslim Admiral Zheng He’s voyages expanded Ming China’s influence in Southeast Asia. His last expedition reached Arabia and the east coast of Africa.

• 1453 The Turks conquered the Byzantine capital of Constantinople.

• 1501-1510 Safavid conquest of Iran. The Safavids began as a Muslim religious movement and grew tobecome a political/military force.

1501-1723—SAFAVID DYNASTY Under the Safavids, Shi’ism became the dominant form of Islam in Iran.

• 1517 The first European ships (Portuguese) reached Chinese shores.

• In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the volume of Silk Road trade between China and the Middle East declined significantly. This was due in part to hostility between Shi’ite Iran and the SunniOttoman empire.

• 1547 Ivan IV (“The Terrible”) became Tsar of a unified Russia and laid the foundations of the Russianempire. In little more than a century, Russia reached the Pacific and laid claim to Siberia.

• c. 1600 The Manchus began to develop the military and bureaucratic skills that took them from being a tribal confederation to rulers of China.

• 1644 Rebels took Beijing and the last Ming emperor committed suicide. A Chinese general invited the Manchus to enter China and avenge the fallen dynasty.

1644-1911—QING DYNASTY At its height, the Qing was a multi-ethnic empire that includedManchuria, Mongolia, Chinese Turkestan (Xinjiang province), and Tibet. During the nineteenth century,the dynasty survived catastrophic internal rebellions and the intrusion of the West.

• 1681 Manchu conquest of China completed.

• 1689 The Treaty of Nerchinsk settled frontier problems and stabilized relations between Russia and China.

• 1720 A pro-Chinese Dalai Lama was set up. This was the beginning of Chinese intervention in Tibet.

• 1759 After a century of Muslim resistance, the Qing dynasty controlled what is now called “Xinjiang” (“New Dominion”). This vast region of desert, mountain, and steppe, also called Chinese Turkestan,was the geographic setting for the eastern part of the Silk Roads.


• During the eighteenth century, Russia began its expansion into Central Asia.

• Beginning in the 1780s, northwest China became the stage for a century and a half of violence—from inter-village feuds to large-scale uprisings.

• 1779-1925 The Qajar dynasty ruled Iran. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Russians (Inner Asia) and the British (Aghanistan) carved out spheres of influence that encroached onIranian territory and interests.

• During the nineteenth century, the Ottoman empire, the “sick man of Europe,” became a pawn in the rivalry between the European colonial powers.

• 1839-1842 The Opium War. Defeated by Great Britain, China had to open five ports to Western trade.

• 1853-1864 The Taiping Rebellion almost succeeded in destroying the Qing dynasty.

• 1862-1873 Large scale Muslim rebellions in northwest China.

• 1865-1884 Russian conquest of Central Asia.

• 1868 Completion of the Russian annexation of Kazakhstan.

• 1884 China annexed Xinjiang.

• 1894-1895 Japan defeated China in the Sino-Japanese War.

• By the end of the nineteenth century, the entire Muslim world had been divided up among the European powers and China. Inner Asia was under Russian and Chinese rule.

• 1900 A Daoist monk discovered a huge cache of documents sealed up in one of the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang. One of the most important archeological discoveries of the twentieth century.

• 1911 A provincial revolt began the Revolution of 1911 that toppled the Qing dynasty.

• 1911-1949 Between the fall of the Qing dynasty and the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, Xinjiang, nominally part of the Chinese Republic, was autonomous and ruled by warlords.

• 1912 Russian immigrants in the Kazakh steppe now amounted to forty-percent of the population.

• 1914 The Ottoman Empire entered World War I as an ally of Germany.

• 1916 The Sykes-Picot Agreement redrew the map of the Middle East. The provinces of the Ottoman Empire were divided among the soon-to-be victorious allies. Turkey (Anatolia) was the only area thatcame out of the war an independent state.

• 1917 The October Revolution in Russia ended the Tsarist regime.

• 1921 Establishment of the Mongolian People’s Republic, modeled after the USSR.

• 1923 Mustafa Kemal Ataturk named president of the Turkish Republic for life.

• 1924 Under the Communists, all of Russian Inner Asia was by now divided into Soviet Socialist Republics.


• 1925-1979 The Pahlavi dynasty in Iran. The Pahlavis built a centralized government and a modern army.

• 1933 Uyghurs in Xinjiang rebelled and briefly established a Turkish Islamic Republic.

• 1944 Kazakh and Uyghur rebellions in Xinjiang. A second Turkish Islamic Republic was established and lasted until the Communist victory in 1949.

• 1946 Return of Xinjiang to China.

• 1954 Creation of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. This state-owned enterprise recruits Chinese from all over the PRC to settle in Xinjiang. Sometime early this century, ethnicChinese will be in the majority.

• 1962 Communization of farm and grazing land in Xinjiang forced eighty-thousand Kazakhs to flee tothe USSR in order to escape starvation.

• 1979 The Shah of Iran was deposed and the monarchy replaced by an Islamic republic.

• 1986 Completion of the Karakorum Highway connected western Xinjiang to Pakistan.

• 1991 With the breakup of the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Krgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan became independent republics.

• 1992 Under the influence of perestroika in the Soviet Union, Mongolia became a parliamentary democracy.

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