The Silk Roads

The Silk Roads weren’t a single road—they were a vast network of exchange, developed over 1,500 years. Through trade, migration, and exchange, they linked distant societies and transformed cultures across Afro-Eurasia. Use these classroom-ready lessons and teaching materials to help students analyze how growing connections reshaped the medieval world and our world today.
Silk Roads

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How to Teach the Silk Roads: Tools for Teachers

World History Lesson Guide: The Silk Roads External link Locked

This guide features teacher notes and guiding questions to help students understand how the Silk Roads moved goods, ideas, and people.

Course Plan icon

Maps Index External link

Our maps will help students draw connections across borders. Check out the Medieval Trade Routes map as well as our maps on the Mongols, Black Death, and spread of religions to see the true impacts of the Silk Roads.
Blog

Blog: Who Really Built the Silk Roads? External link

The story of the Silk Roads is also the story of the diasporas that held the network together. Explore one of the most crucial and least known of these diasporas: the Sogdians.
Course Plan icon

Continuity and Change Over Time (CCOT) External link

A thinking skill to help students understand the evolution of historical processes, such as the evolution of the Silk Roads from a regional network to a global one.
discussions

Community Forum: Silk Roads Ideas External link

Check out teachers’ ideas for bringing the Silk Roads trade to life.

Teach Tomorrow: Lessons on The Silk Roads

Lesson 5.6
World History Origins
Regional Webs
200 to 1500 CE
The Silk Roads
The Silk Roads carried a lot more than just silk—they also brought technologies, cultures, and religions to new places. Discover how trade routes like the Silk Roads expanded and contracted over time.
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Lesson 5.7
World History Origins
Regional Webs
200 to 1500 CE
Expanding the Silk Routes
Explore the caravan routes and sea lanes called the Silk Roads to discover how merchants traveled from China to the Mediterranean Sea, moving goods, ideas, and cultures across continents.
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Silk Roads Activities and Resources for Deeper Learning

Silk Road: Merchants of Complexity
A carving showing a man leading a camel, with detailed outlines of the figures etched into the wall. Decorative patterns border the top of the carving.
Big History
Article

Silk Road: Merchants of Complexity External link

For thousands of years, goods have traveled across thousands of miles by land and sea from China to the Mediterranean and back. But why were these routes called the Silk Road?
Silk Road Simulation
Silk Road Simulation
World History Origins
Activity

Silk Road Simulation External link

Where did your shoes come from? No, not the store. Where did they really come from? In this activity, it’s time to find out
Medieval Trade Routes Thematic Map
OER Project
Map

Medieval Trade Routes Thematic Map External link

This world map shows the main routes of the Silk Roads, and the many smaller systems surrounding it, from China to the Mediterranean.
Guilds, Wool, and Trade: Medieval England in a Global Economy
Guilds, Wool, and Trade: Medieval England in a Global Economy
World History 1200
Video

Guilds, Wool, and Trade: Medieval England in a Global Economy External link

The Silk Roads connected the British Isles to regions across Afro-Eurasia. Historians Nick Dennis and Trevor Getz explore the wool trade and its impact on England.
World Travelers
World History Origins
Opener

World Travelers External link

In this quick opener activity, students use their critical thinking skills to decipher what Marco Polo was describing in excerpts from his book.
Source Collection: Networks of Exchange
Networks of Exchange
World History 1200
Article

Source Collection: Networks of Exchange External link

The primary source excerpts in this collection will help you assess the causes and consequences of the exchange of intellectual and cultural ideas and traditions from c. 1200 to 1450 CE.

Writing Assessments to Grade the Silk Roads

Pre-Writing: Trade Networks
World History 1200
Assessment

Pre-Writing: Trade Networks External link

Get ready for writing by crafting a claim and gathering supporting evidence to evaluate the pros and cons of Silk Road trade for Afro-Eurasia.
DBQ Sources: Trade Networks
World History 1200
Assessment

DBQ Sources: Trade Networks External link

Analyze these sources and gather evidence to support your argument about the impacts of long-distance trade.
Writing: Trade Networks
World History 1200
Assessment

Writing: Trade Networks External link

Time to write! Demonstrate your understanding of the impacts of trade along the Silk Roads by creating a written argument in response to the prompt.
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Community: Ask, Connect, Share

Join our World History Community Forum to see how teachers are using and adapting OER Project lessons. 

Silk Road Simulation

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Classroom Connections: The Silk Roads with Peter Frankopan

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Grade our work! How do you rate our Silk Roads activities?

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