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The Silk Roads

Driving Question: How have the trade routes known as the Silk Roads expanded and contracted over time?

Despite the name, the Silk Roads carried much more than silk, and they consisted of much more than roads. Intricate networks of trade and many different merchants traveling over land and sea moved goods across Afro-Eurasia. But they also carried more than just material goods. The Silk Roads brought technologies, cultures, and religions to new places.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Analyze how the collapse and recovery of empires affected the spread of belief systems and the expansion of trade networks like the Silk Roads.
  2. Use the historical thinking practice of continuity and change over time to evaluate historical events and processes.

Vocab Terms:

  • administrative
  • aristocracy
  • caravan
  • immunity
  • restructure
STEP 2

Silk Road Merchants

How were the Silk Roads responsible for connecting the diverse societies of Afro-Eurasia? Find out in the article below and then explore further in the simulation.

STEP 3

Rebuilding Networks

Rebuilding the Silk Road External link

The Silk Roads didn’t collapse after the fall of the Han Dynasty. They continued to tie together local networks and boost economic production across Asia.

Key Ideas

As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.
STEP 4

Closer: The Silk Roads

One of the best ways to learn is by teaching someone else. In this quick closing activity, you’ll test your classmate’s knowledge about the Silk Roads.

Extension Materials
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Extend your learning about the Silk Roads by examining sources from those who lived through this period of expansion and collapse.