Since ancient times, people have been exploring unknown lands and foreign countries with customs and traditions different from their own. This eagerness for something new made people travel, discover new territories, create routes and build roads connecting distant parts of the globe. Merchants’ caravans carrying commodities, ambassadors, explorers and travelers walked along these routes.
Trade, being one of the most significant factors of the historical process, encouraged the interaction of different cultures. At the same time, the representatives of different regions exchanged information from different fields of knowledge: inventions, technologies and crops were borrowed and assimilated. Although separated by long distances, civilizations established a dialogue, enriching each other and giving impulse to further development.
The earliest information about trade relations between different countries dates back to the 2nd millennium bc. At that period there were already trade routes which spanned the Ancient East including Bactria, Media, Persia, Armenia, India, Arabia and Western Asia. In antiquity trade was a risky business, but, on the other hand, it guaranteed a considerable profit in case of success. International trade flourished in peacetime and diminished in wartime, but never ceased.
In the Middle Ages a stable and developed system of international trade routes functioned, connecting almost all the civilizations of the Old World: the Silk Road, the Saharan Trade Routes, the Trade Route from the Varangians to the Greeks, etc. New merchants’ commercial confederations like the Hanseatic League and such city-states as medieval Venice and Genoa came into existence, specializing in international trade. Beginning with the Age of Discovery (since 1475), an opportunity to deliver Indian goods to European ports only by sea has become available. The Manila Galleons, which sailed over the Pacific Ocean from Manila (the Philippines) to Acapulco (Mexico) embodied Christopher Columbus’s dream about trading with the East.
Most of those ancient routes are nowadays not more than objects of historical research, however, some of them — for example, the Saharan Trade Routes or the Great Trunk Road — are still in use, keeping up with the modern pace of life. Trade routes continue their everlasting journey through space and time, connecting countries and being the media of the dialogue of civilizations.
2. ince ancient times, people have been exploring
unknown lands and foreign countries with customs
and traditions different from their own. This
eagerness for something new made people travel,
discover new territories, create routes and build
roads connecting distant parts of the globe. Merchants’ caravans
carrying commodities, ambassadors, explorers and travelers walked
along these routes.
Trade, being one of the most significant factors of the
historical process, encouraged the interaction of different
cultures. At the same time, the representatives of different regions
exchanged information from different fields of knowledge:
inventions, technologies and crops were borrowed and assimilated.
Although separated by long distances, civilizations established
a dialogue, enriching each other and giving impulse to further
development.
The earliest information about trade relations between
different countries dates back to the 2nd
millennium bc. At that
period there were already trade routes which spanned the Ancient
East including Bactria, Media, Persia, Armenia, India, Arabia and
Western Asia. In antiquity trade was a risky business, but, on the
other hand, it guaranteed a considerable profit in case of success.
International trade flourished in peacetime and diminished in
wartime, but never ceased.
In the Middle Ages a stable and developed system of
international trade routes functioned, connecting almost all the
civilizations of the Old World: the Silk Road, the Saharan Trade
Routes, the Trade Route from the Varangians to the Greeks, etc.
New merchants’ commercial confederations like the Hanseatic
League and such city-states as medieval Venice and Genoa came
into existence, specializing in international trade.
Beginning with the Age of Discovery (since 1475), an
opportunity to deliver Indian goods to European ports only by sea
has become available. The Manila Galleons, which sailed over the
Pacific Ocean from Manila (the Philippines) to Acapulco (Mexico)
embodied Christopher Columbus’s dream about trading with
the East.
Most of those ancient routes are nowadays not more than
objects of historical research, however, some of them — for example,
the Saharan Trade Routes or the Great Trunk Road — are still in
use, keeping up with the modern pace of life.
Trade routes continue their everlasting journey through
space and time, connecting countries and being the media of the
dialogue of civilizations.
S
great of civilizationsroutes
PaoloForlani.Universaledescrittionedituttalaterraconosciutafinqui.PublishedbyFerandoBerteli,Venezia,1565.
3. 2016
his trade route, which connected Scandinavia,
Kievan Rus, and the Byzantine Empire,
allowed traders from both Kievan Rus and
Byzantine to establish prosperous, direct
trade amongst each other. The route was
in the form of a long-distance waterway, which traveled
through the Baltic Sea as well as several rivers flowing into
it, and rivers of the Dnieper river system with portages
located on the drainage divides.
Although first mentioned in the Primary Chronicle,
this route’s impact was reported much earlier — in the
early 9th century, when the Byzantines noticed some
newcomers in their regions, these being Varangians.
Today, the word “Varangians” means “Vikings,” however,
for the Byzantines, this was a term used to describe all
Scandinavians, including several tribes living on the
territory of modern-day Russia.
The Trade Route from the Varangians to the Greeks
was used primarily to transport various merchandise. Wine
and spices, jewelry and glass, expensive fabrics, icons and
books would be brought up from the Byzantine Empire.
Kiev would trade in silver coins, bread, and handmade
goods, among others. Spinning wheels came from Volyn,
handicrafts and weaponry — from Scandinavia. Northern
Rus, in turn, offered fur, timber, wax and honey, while the
Baltic tribes would trade mostly in amber.
Routes that were more advantageous were opened
with the Crusades in the second half of the 11th
century.
By that time, Rus had already strengthened its commercial
ties with Western Europe, causing the Route from the
Varangians to the Greeks to gradually lose its significance.
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Nikolai Rerikh. Overseas guests. 1901
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4. great of civilizationsroutes
2016
he Amber Road is an ancient trade route,
which was used to transfer amber from
coastal areas of the North and Baltic Seas
to the Mediterranean Sea. Amber trade had
defined prehistoric trade routes between
Northern and Southern Europe. This significant raw
material, termed “the gold of the north,” was transported
from the North and Baltic Sea coasts to Italy, Greece, the
Black Sea, Syria and Egypt by way of the Vistula and
Dnieper rivers for thousands of years, beginning in the
16th
century bc.
Large amber beads were found in the breast
ornament of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen
(ca. 1333–1324 bc), and it is known that amber was sent
as an offering to the temple of Apollo at Delphi from the
North Sea. From the Black Sea, trade continued to Asia
along another ancient trade route called the Silk Road.
Kaup and Truso, two Old Prussian towns on the
Baltic, served as the starting points of the route to the
south. Traders traveled south to Carnantum, the Roman
Legionary camp in the Alps, and from there, after about
2000 kilometers of paths and unpaved trails leading south
from the Baltic Sea, the Amber Road joined the large
network of Roman roads which connected all parts of the
Empire.
The Via Gemina was the last section of the road,
which connected Emona and Aquileia: the Roman capital
of the Venetians and the most important Adriatic port of
the Roman Empire. Segments of the Roman Amber road
can be found today in the Austrian province of Burgenland,
as well as in Hungary and Slovenia — and, of course, in
Aquileia (Italy).
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Ivan Shishkin. After the tempest. Meri-Khovi. 1891
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5. thesilkroad
2016
great of civilizationsroutes
n ancient network of trade routes was vital
for cultural interactions through various
regions of the Asian continent. This was
the purpose served by the Silk Road, or the
Silk Route, which connected the West and
the East and enabled merchants, soldiers, pilgrims, monks,
urban dwellers and nomads to travel from China and India
to the Mediterranean Sea.
The Silk Road is over 6437 kilometers in length, and
derives its name from the historic trade of Chinese silk,
which began to be carried out on this road during the Han
dynasty (206 bc — 220 ad). Around 114 bc, the Han dynasty
expanded the Central Asian segments of the trade routes
with the aid of the missions and expeditions of Zhang
Qian, a Chinese imperial envoy. Taking great interest in the
safe transportation of their trade products, the Chinese
extended the Great Wall of China in order to ensure the
protection of the trade route.
Trade along the Silk Road opened long-distance
political and economic relations between the civilizations
of China, Persia, the Indian subcontinent, Europe, the
Horn of Africa and Arabia, and was generally an important
factor in their development. Silk was definitely the major
trade item from China; however, many other goods were
traded along the route. In fact, the Silk Road served as
a means of cultural interaction among civilizations — with
people, religions, syncretic philosophies and technologies
travelling along its network.
The United Nations World Tourism Organization,
since 1993, has been working towards fostering peace and
understanding through the development of sustainable
international tourism along the Silk Route.
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Nikolai Rusakov. Caravans are walking. 1920s
6. great of civilizationsroutes
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he Radhanites were medieval Jewish
merchants who played a major role in trade
between the Christian and Islamic worlds in
the early Middle Ages (ca. 500–1000). Their
trade network was quite vast, covering much
of North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, Europe,
and parts of India and China — including many already
established trade routes from the Roman Empire, which
continued to function at this time largely through their
efforts.
Throughout the Early Middle Ages, it was common
practice in the Islamic countries of the Middle East and
North Africa and the Christian kingdoms of Europe to
forbid one another’s merchants from entering their ports.
Corsairs from both sides raided the shipping of their
enemy, and the Radhanites acted as neutral intermediaries
to aid both sides in open communication and trade
between the territories of the old Roman Empire and
the Far East. There were four main trade routes utilized
by the Radhanites — all beginning in the Rhone Valley
in southern France and stretching all the way to the
east coast of China. The Radhanites mainly transported
commodities which combined small bulk and high demand,
including perfumes, jewelry, spices and silk.
When the Tang Dynasty of China fell in 908, and the
Khazar Khaganate was destructed some sixty years later
(ca. 968–969 ad), the lands of Inner Eurasia, the Caucasus
and China were left in widespread chaos. This caused trade
routes to become unsafe and unstable, a situation which
was intensified by Turkish invasions of the Middle East
and Persia. The Silk Road collapsed for centuries, and the
Radhanites, in turn, largely disappeared by the beginning
of the 11th
century.
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thetraderoutesof
theradhanites
Claude Joseph Vernet. Morning view of the inner port of Marseille
and the Pavilion of the Horloge du Parc. 1754
7. ne of Asia’s longest and oldest major roads,
the Grand Trunk Road has bridged the gap
between the eastern and western regions of
the Indian subcontinent (South and Central
Asia) for over two millennia. It connects
Chittagong, Bangladesh west to Howrah, West Bengal
in India, traveling across Northern India into Lahore in
Pakistan, as well as further north to Kabul in Afghanistan.
Formerly it was called Uttara Patha (“Road to the North”)
and Shah Rah-e-Azam (“Great Road”).
This route existed originally in the Maurya
Empire, stretching from the mouth of the Ganges to the
northwestern frontier. In the 16th
century, the Afghan
emperor Sher Shah Suri extended and renovated the
ancient Mauryan route, producing the predecessor of the
modern road. The road was rebuilt next in the British
period, between 1833 and 1860, and only then received its
modern name — the Grand Trunk Road.
This road, one of the most important trade routes
in the region, simplified both travel and communication
over the centuries. As far back as the era of Sher Shah Suri,
caravansarais (highway inns) could be found throughout
the road at regular intervals, and trees were planted on
each side of the road for shade. The road was well planned,
with milestones along the entire stretch of the road, which
can still be seen along the present Delhi-Ambala highway.
Today, the Grand Trunk Road still measures over
2500 kilometers in length, and remains a major channel
between India and Pakistan.
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Vasily Vereshchagin. India. Delhi. A cart. 1875
thegrandtrunkroad
8. 2016
he Manila Galleons, otherwise known as the
Manila — Acapulco Galleons, were Spanish
trading ships, which sailed a couple times
a year across the Pacific Ocean from Manila,
Philippines, to Acapulco, New Spain (modern-
day Mexico). These ships began to sail this route in 1565,
after the discovery of the ocean passage by Andre´s de
Urdaneta and continued up until 1815, when the Mexican
War of Independence permanently terminated the galleon
trade route.
Spanish colonists on the Philippine Islands relied
on trade as their principal income-generating business,
and over the 250 years of the Manila — Acapulco galleon
trade, a total of 110 galleons set sail.
These galleons carried porcelain, ivory, lacquer-
ware, spices, and processed silk cloth gathered from both
Asia-Pacific and the Spice Island to be sold in European
markets. The trip across the Pacific Ocean from Manila to
Acapulco and then to Spain itself took four months. The
cargoes left for Spain on board the Spanish treasure fleet
from the port of Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico, to which
they were transported by land across Mexico. This allowed
them to avoid the dangerous and long journey across the
Indian Ocean and around the Cape of Good Hope, a route
eventually prohibited by the Dutch after they gained
control of the Cape Colony.
A great number of the Spaniards living in the
Philippines were, in fact, of Mexican descent, which explains
the fact that the Hispanic culture of the Philippines is
more similar to that of Mexico than any other. For almost
three centuries, the Manila Galleons sailed to Spain across
the Pacific, delivering cargoes full of luxury goods, cultural
exchange and economic benefits.
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Cornelis Verbeeck. Marine with three large sailing ships. 17th
century
themanilagaleons
9. 2016
orthern Europe and Northwestern Russia
were connected to the Caspian Sea via the
Volga River by this trade route in the Middle
Ages. Rus and Muslim countries would use
this waterway to trade on the southern
shores of the Caspian Sea.
In the early 800s, Norsemen who came to
Northwestern Russia established the Volga Trade Route.
They built a settlement called Aldeigjuborg (Slavic: Staraya
Ladoga) approximately six miles south of the Volkhov
River Entry into Lake Ladoga. Varangians would travel
from Aldeigjuborg to Novgorod along the Volkhov River,
continuing to Lake Ilmen and further along the River
Lovat to take their boats through a portage which led to
the sources of the Volga.
Through the territory held by Permian and Finnish
tribes, the traders brought furs and honey to the land of
the Volga Bulgars. They would then continue down the
Volga to the capital of the Khazar Khaganate, Atil, from
which the Rus merchants would embark across the sea and,
finally, join the caravan routes which led to Baghdad.
The Volga Route was crucial in various situations —
first in the inner trade of the Golden Horde, and, after
that, between the Tatar Khanates and the Grand Duchy of
Moscow. There were some Russian merchants who travelled
even farther — Afanasy Nikitin, for example, sailed the
Volga from Tver to Astrakhan in 1466, went across the
Caspian Sea, eventually reaching Persia and India.
The decline of silver output in the Abbasid caliphate
caused the Volga Trade Route to lose its significance by the
11th century, leading to increased use of the Trade Route
from the Varangians to the Greeks down the Dnieper River.
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Wassily Kandinsky. Merchants’ arrival. 1905
thevolgatraderoute
10. augustaugust
2016
ne of the oldest trade routes to connect
India, the secret Spice Islands of Banda and
Maluku and East Africa with the countries
of the Mediterranean is called the Spice
Route. Leaving from the ports of the Red and
Arabian Seas, spices like nutmeg, pepper, ginger, cardamom
and cinnamon were transferred from ships to caravans,
they then passed through Petra and continued all the way
to the Mediterranean coast.
Throughout the reign of King Solomon, the overland
section of the route went into Ezion-Geber, a town near
the Eilat Bay coast. Besides transporting spices from the
Spice Islands in India, this route was also used to bring silk
from China, ivory and expensive wood species from East
Africa, as well as silver, gold, and various precious stones.
Trade on this route was incessant, however,
depending on the political surroundings, certain sections
of the Spice Route would shift to safer regions. For
example, at the time when Herod came to the throne,
the main trading port on the Mediterranean coast was
Caesarea, while during the Crusades the caravans coming
from Petra would take more southern routes, arriving at
the Mediterranean Sea in El-Arish.
In the latter half of the first millennium bc, South
and West Arabian tribes gained control over the land trade
of spices going from South Arabia to the Mediterranean
Sea. With the rise of Islam, the overland caravan routes
going through the Suez and Egypt were closed off, in
reaction to which other countries began to develop means
of traveling by sea, which eventually resulted in the Age
of Discovery. Thus, discovery of the American continent
by European explorers was a major consequence of the
spice trade.
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the spiceroute
Eugene Alexis Girardet.
Caravan in the Desert. 1870–1890
11. 2016
he Hanseatic League (also known as the
Hansa or Hanse) was a defensive and
commercial confederation of merchant guilds
and their market towns, which influenced
Baltic maritime trade (ca. 1400–1800) with
their development of the most important medieval trade
routes in the Baltic Sea along the coast of Europe. The
routes stretched from the Baltic to the North Sea, as well
as inland, throughout the Late Middle Ages.
A German city called Lu¨beck became a central
node in the maritime trade, linking the areas around the
North and Baltic Seas. It served as a base for merchants
from Westphalia and Saxony who traded northward and
eastward, particularly in the eastern Baltic. Wax, amber,
timber, furs, and resins could be found in this area, while
wheat and rye were brought down on barges from the
hinterland to port markets.
The city’s location on the Baltic allowed for trade
with Kievan Rus and Scandinavia; the treaty with the
Swedish city of Visby provided merchants from Lu¨beck
access to the Russian inland port of Novgorod where a
trading post called Kontor (“office”) was built. The League
likewise established Kontors in Bergen (Norway), Bruges
(Flanders), and London (England).
The biggest concern of the League was protection
of open sea-lanes and safety of its ships from piracy, as well
as the common defense of the towns in north Germany.
The north German towns accepted this “law of Lu¨beck” in
1265.
Hansa’s legacy is commemorated today in several
names, such as F.C. Hansa Rostock, the German airline
Lufthansa (i.e., “Air Hansa”), and the Hanze University of
Applied Sciences, Groningen, in the Netherlands.
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Carl E. Larsen & Carl Johan Neumann. Shipping off a Baltic Port. 19th
century
thehanseatic
traderoutes
12. xtending from the Sub-Saharan West
African kingdoms across the Sahara desert
into Europe, the Saharan Routes provided
a connection between African empires such
as Songhay, Ghana and Mali and the European
world. Two main roads crossed the desert from the south
to the north. Pictures of ancient carts were discovered
along these roads, leading scientists to believe that these
trade routes had been used in antiquity. The North and
the South (Carthage and Ancient Rome) traded carbuncles
and ivory, with the tribes of garamantes, who lived on the
territory in between, acting as intermediaries.
Though existing since prehistoric times, the trade
industry of this area was at its prime between the 8th
and
late 16th
century. This was the period in which the two
mane routes developed — the first running from modern
day Morocco to the Niger Bend across the western desert,
and the second connecting the Lake Chad area with
modern Tunisia.
Caravans of camels were the main source of
transportation of goods, the main goods being gold and
salt, with the average size of the caravan being 1000 camels.
However, some caravans could be made up of as many as
12 000 camels. Berbers who knew the desert and could
guarantee a safe journey from their fellow desert nomads
were paid very well to guide the caravans. The trip across
the Sahara and back took approximately 18 months in the
peacetime.
Members of the Tuareg use the traditional caravan
routes to this day, traveling 2400 kilometers across the
Sahara for six months every year to trade in salt coming
from the middle of the desert to communities located on
its outskirts.
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thesaharan
traderoutes
Martiros Saryan. The fellah village. 1911
13. 2016
therwise known as the Great Highway or the
Moscow Highway, the Siberian Route was
a 9457-kilometer long historic route that
connected European Russia with Siberia and
China.
The road’s construction did not begin until 1730, and
was not finished until the mid 1800s, despite the fact that
the Russian Tsar commanded it to be built only two months
after the conclusion of the Treaty of Nerchinsk between
China and Russia in 1689. Up until the construction of this
road, the Siberian river routes had served as the primary
Siberian transportation. The first Russian settlers came to
Siberia via the Cherdyn river route, which had preceded
the Babinov overland route, which came into use in the
late 1590s. The easternmost point of the Babinov Road was
the small town of Vekhoturye in the Ural Mountains.
Beginning in Moscow as the Vladimir Highway, and
passing through Kazan, Murom, Perm, Tyumen, Tobolsk,
Yekaterinburg, Yeniseysk, Tomsk, and Irkutsk, the Siberian
Route was much longer than the Babinov. The road split
near Verkhneudinsk after crossing Lake Baikal, with one
branch continuing east to Nerchinsk and the other —
south to the border post of Kyakhta, joining camel caravans
which crossed Mongolia to the Great Wall gate at Kalgan.
The route was moved to the south in the early 19th
century; from Tyumen the road went through Omsk, Tomsk,
Yalutorovsk, and Krasnoyarsk before reuniting with the
original route at Irkutsk. Up until the construction of the
Trans-Siberian Railway was finished in 1903, this route had
remained a crucial passage connecting Europe and Moscow
with Siberia.
This Route was also sometimes referred to as the
“Tea Road,” due to the large amounts of tea being moved
from China to Europe through Siberia.
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great of civilizationsroutes
Nikolai Dobrovolsky. Ferriage over the Angara in Irkutsk. 1886
thesiberianroute
14. 2016
great of civilizationsroutes
he Northern Sea Route is a Russian sea
transport route in the Arctic. Outside of Russia
it is usually referred to as the Northeast
Passage. This is the shortest passage between
the European part of Russia and the Far East,
spanning the Bering Sea as well as the seas of the Arctic
Ocean. Timber, machinery, fuel, and subsoil resources are
all transported by the Northern Sea Route.
Since the 16th
century, Russian travelers and
merchants have explored this region. For example, in
1648 a strait between America and Asia was discovered by
a man named Semen Dezhnev. Peter the Great, the Tsar
and first Emperor of Russia, founded the Great Northern
expedition (1725–1743), as he was very invested in the
idea of connecting various parts of Russia by sea. The
excellent Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov worked
on a project involving the reclamation of the Northern
Sea Route. Many expeditions have been attempted since
then; however, ice has been a consistent obstacle. The vice
admiral Stepan Makarov proposed the construction of the
first ever icebreaker, called the Yermak, and commanded
her first voyage on the Northern Sea Route in 1899.
As of late, the international community has taken
interest in the Northern Sea Route, due to the enormous
savings in both time and distance for transport between
East Asia and Europe which it can offer. This route is, in
fact, twice as short as the routes via Panama or Suez. Ice
has always served as a hindrance to commercial traffic,
however, as recent scientific evidence shows, climate
change is causing the Arctic ice cover to gradually decrease
in size. If this trend continues, the Northern Sea Route
will become a commercially effective intercontinental
transit route.
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Arkady Rylov.
In the blue open. 1918
thenorthern
searoute