HIST 359 - Silk Roads and Nomadic Empires

Credit Hours: 3

This course looks at the history of the caravan trade routes across Eurasia that have become known as “The Silk Road.” The significance of these trade routes lies in the fact that they ensured the distribution and mixing of luxury goods, religions, technologies, literatures, and peoples from one end of Eurasia to another. In fact, many scholars argue that these trade routes created a unified economic world system, which has made the cultures of Eurasia materially much stronger than those of any other continent. Moreover, the wealth generated by the silk roads often inspired the creation of nomadic empires that had an immense effect on the great agrarian civilizations that bordered the steppes. Through their immense military strength and prowess, these nomadic empires often significantly affected the history of the outlying sedentary civilizations. Thus, this course’s focus will be the Central Eurasian nomads and oasis-dwellers who played a central role in the functioning of the Silk Road and their impact on their agricultural neighbors.