Central Asia

miles, making it just smaller than the state of Texas which comes in at 268,820 sq. miles. The country is located between Southern Asia and Central Asia. It is bordered by Iran, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, China, and India. This location centering between central and southern Asia makes Afghanistan both landlocked and a land bridge within Asia. The country of Afghanistan has been seen on the news around the world during the past decade for the conflicts and turmoil it has…

The Silk Road’s ancient trade routes allowed for cultural and material trade throughout the Mediterranean to East Asia. Xinru Liu’s The Silk Road in World History exemplifies the complex exchange of commodities and ideas between different nations and peoples. Starting with the Chinese looking west and ending with the Mongol conquest. Liu’s focus gives the reader examples of specific historic events that were only able to take place because of this intricate trade network. This paper will examine…

Mongols started out by conquering Central Asia, primarily the Khwarazmian dynasty. Kingdoms in Central Asia built elaborate walls around their cities giving them the upper hand in defense. Since the Mongols primarily focused on using catapults instead of regular soldiers when sieging a city, the Khwarazmians’ only advantage was eliminated. This was at the start of the Mongol conquest and their easy trouncing of those kingdoms led to the forging of an empire in Central…

Genghis Khan was, and still is one of the most influential leaders in history. His entire empire, at it’s largest size spanned from modern day Poland to modern day Vietnam. Also, at it’s peak in size, it was between 11 and 12 million square miles and was more than half of the size of Africa. Thousands, and possibly even millions of people died due to the many invasions of tribes, cities, and numerous towns across all of the known world at the time. He used intimidation to win battles he never…

Coast-to-coast exchanges were not new, but complimentary to the Silk Road; “maritime trade routes had for centuries already linked China to the Indian Ocean, the east African coast, and even via the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean.”. Merchants in Central Asia to China still convened exchanges in high values. Exchanges dating back from the first century were still in effect with high consumer demands. Goods were limited when traveling transcontinental because of the dangers of sea expeditions…

established, stretching from China to the West. The trade route by the name of the Silk Road, carried goods and ideas between the great civilizations of Roma and China. From the first to the sixteenth centuries, various regions such as Rome, India, Asia, Africa and more relied on trade in order to exchange goods. Many merchants like Marco Polo traveled along the silk road and were able to pave the way for many English merchants after him. Without the advancement of the silk road, ideas and…

The 13th century conquests of the Mongols have never been matched. Under Genghis Khan’s leadership, the “horsemen of the steppe” conquered China and the Muslim parts of central Asia and pushed deep into Europe and the Middle East in just about 25 years. Although their attempts to take Japan and Southeast Asia failed, only once did they suffer a notably decisive defeat, a defeat which came at the hands of Mameluke general Baibars at Ain Jalut, Palestine around the year 1260. The Romans had an…

Between 1206 and 1368, an extraordinary tribe of Central Asian nomads arose in the steppes of Mongolia to form one of the world 's largest contiguous land empires in history - the Mongol Empire. Led by Genghis Khan, the Mongols, within a span of less than 80 years, grew to encompass 24,000,000 square kilometers of the continent of Eurasia. In saying so, as part of the Mongol conquests, an approximated 30 million or more people had died. However, while his image in much of the world was shaped by…

extending over 4,000 miles, was a large network of trade routes used in ancient times for centuries to exchange different goods, materials, ideas, and several other different things; good and bad. The Silk Road routes stretched from China through India, Asia Minor, up throughout Mesopotamia, to Egypt, the African continent, Greece, Rome, and Britain1. Silk was very sought after in ancient times, and was only produced in China. The Chinese had kept the secret of silk-making for over 2,000 years.…

go out and explore in hope of finding sources of wealth. Polo went out onto the Road of China when it opened and came back with incredible stories to share. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Europeans went by sea to find sources of wealth in Asia and Africa. They were very willing to visit and borrow ideas and technology from more advanced regions and cultures in the East (Strayer…