The arrival of buddhism in china is because of the Silk Road from India. Buddhism had become popular in india with the onset of the 3rd century, and Merchants who were traveling to asia were easily converted. Then after the year 600, merchants stopped for rest and trade in towns such as Dunhuang. Buddhism spread quickly as temples arose in caves and eventually Monasteries as the silk road thrived with wealth. Arab merchants were responsible for the spread of islam among the sahara desert to west african people. The coastal people of africa were influenced by muslim traders and encouraged to convert to islam. This helped the trade routes thrive as well by establishing a strong cultural foundation to set up trade relationships. Islam was also spread throughout the silk roads by these merchants. Islam eventually formed to be a dominant religion with Buddhism throughout the silk roads. The spread of religion and culture in these trade routes is necessary for the location and extensiveness of muslims and buddhists that we see around the world …show more content…
We do see the crossing of these trade routes in regions of the mediterranean but they were based on entirely different continents. Trans - Saharan caravan routes spread throughout the sahara desert while Silk roads connected parts of asia with india and other parts of europe. In Africa, the huge desert separated the north and south regions. The purpose of the trans saharan trade routes were to connect north and south africa for trade. Due to the harsh conditions and lack of water, Arab merchants from morocco had to use camels in order to reach the sub saharan peoples. The silk roads took place in a slightly friendlier climate zone. Although some parts were dry, We know Eurasia to be plentiful in water compared to africa. In fact, one may claim that the success of the silk roads be attributed to the existence of a supply of water. Meanwhile in africa, the success was due to the strategic conservation of water by using camels. Climate and geography is an essential difference in understanding the logistics in how these trade routes worked. The caravan routes of the sahara were built upon the gold and salt trade while the silk roads catered to the introduction of spices and other goods between east and west Eurasia. Sub-saharan africa was a jackpot for gold and the people of the mediterranean wanted it. Muslim merchants would travel by caravan to the kingdom of ghani where they would exchange salt for gold and other