The Silk Roads
The Silk Roads were the trade routes at the heart of a network of exchange that connected Afro-Eurasia. From West Africa to East Asia, merchants moved luxury goods in a long-distance relay that spanned thousands of miles and 1,500 years. Use these lesson plans and materials to teach students the central role the Silk Roads played in creating our modern world.
Featured Materials
Rebuilding the Silk Road
Video
Rebuilding the Silk Road
The Silk Road didn’t collapse after the fall of the Han Dynasty. It continued to tie together local networks and boost economic production across Asia.
Du Huan
Graphic Biographies
Du Huan
Du Huan was a Chinese soldier of the Tang Dynasty who was captured by an Abbasid army. He traveled widely in East Africa and Arabia before returning home.
Medieval Trade Routes Thematic Map
Visual Aid
Medieval Trade Routes Thematic Map
A full-color thematic map of Medieval Trade Routes in 1450 CE, meant to help you support, extend, and challenge the frame narratives.
Lessons
Lesson 5.6
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 2.1
The Silk Roads
Explore the people, goods, and ideas that traveled along the Silk Roads from 1200 to 1450.
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Materials
Trade Game
Activity
Trade Game
Collect points based on how much you can trade—but be careful, there might be a few trade obstacles to overcome.
Archipelago of Trade
Article
Archipelago of Trade
A highly sophisticated and expansive commercial network developed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was able to move goods, ideas, and germs throughout Afro-Eurasia.
Source Collection: Networks of Exchange c. 1200 to 1450 CE
Article
Source Collection: Networks of Exchange c. 1200 to 1450 CE
People trekked over vast distances to acquire goods from far-off lands. But luxury goods weren’t the only things people traded; new ideas, technologies, beliefs, and diseases moved with them.
Silk Road Simulation
Activity
Silk Road Simulation
Learn how the Silk Roads connected Afro-Eurasian societies through the exchange of goods, technology, and ideas.
Guilds, Wool, and Trade: Medieval England in a Global Economy
Video
Guilds, Wool, and Trade: Medieval England in a Global Economy
Around 1250 to 1350 CE, an archipelago of trade stretched across Afro-Eurasia. Historians Nick Dennis and Trevor Getz explore the role of the wool trade in this system and its impact on England.