Silk Road Timeline

The Sogdians dominated the east–west trade after the 4th century up to the 8th century, playing a major role in facilitating trade between China and Central Asia as late as the 10th century, with their language serving as a lingua franca for Asian trade as far back as the 4th century.

Image source: Sogdia

Although Chinese envoys had sailed the Indian Ocean to India since perhaps the 2nd century BCE, it was during the Tang dynasty that a strong Chinese maritime presence could be found in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea, reaching Persia, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Egypt, Aksum, and Somalia.

Image source: Tang dynasty

The Islamic world expanded into Central Asia during the 8th century under the Umayyad Caliphate, while its successor the Abbasid Caliphate put a halt to Chinese westward expansion at the Battle of Talas in 751, near the Talas River in modern-day Kyrgyzstan.

Image source: Battle of Talas

Disruptions of trade were curtailed by the end of the 10th century through the conquests of Central Asia by the Turkic Islamic Kara-Khanid Khanate, yet Nestorian Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, and Buddhism in Central Asia virtually disappeared.

Image source: Kara-Khanid Khanate

China started building its own trade ships (chuán) and followed the maritime routes in the later period, from the 10th to the 15th centuries CE, expanding its direct participation in the Maritime Silk Road.

Image source: Maritime Silk Road

Austronesian thalassocracies controlled the flow of trade in the eastern regions of the Maritime Silk Road, especially around the straits of Malacca and Bangka, the Malay Peninsula, and the Mekong Delta, with main routes running to Giao Chỉ and Guangzhou, and later also including Quanzhou by the 10th century CE.

Image source: Quanzhou

According to Bin Yang, especially from the 12th century, the route was used to ship bullion from Yunnan, rich in gold and silver, through northern Burma into modern Bangladesh, making use of the ancient route known as the 'Ledo' route.

In the 13th century, efforts were made at forming a Franco-Mongol alliance, with an exchange of ambassadors and failed attempts at military collaboration in the Holy Land during the later Crusades.

Image source: Franco-Mongol alliance

The Mongol expansion throughout the Asian continent from around 1207 to 1360 helped bring political stability and re-established the Silk Road via Karakorum and Khanbaliq, ushering in the era often called the Pax Mongolica.

Image source: Mongol Empire

During the early 13th century, Khwarazm was invaded by the Mongol Empire, a conquest that became part of the broader Mongol expansion reshaping trade and politics across Central Asia.

Image source: Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire

The Mongol diplomat Rabban Bar Sauma visited the courts of Europe in 1287–88 and provided a detailed written report to the Mongols, one of the most notable diplomatic journeys along the Silk Road in the medieval period.

Image source: Rabban Bar Sauma

The Mongols in the Ilkhanate, after they had destroyed the Abbasid and Ayyubid dynasties, converted to Islam and signed the 1323 Treaty of Aleppo with the surviving Muslim power, the Egyptian Mamluks, reshaping the political landscape of the Silk Road's western reaches.

Image source: Ilkhanate

Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan Muslim traveller, passed through the present-day Middle East and across the Silk Road from Tabriz between 1325 and 1354, joining later envoys such as Odoric of Pordenone, Giovanni de' Marignolli, John of Montecorvino, and Niccolò de' Conti.

Image source: Ibn Battuta

Tombstones of the siblings Caterina and Antonio Vilioni, who died in 1342 and 1344 respectively, were unearthed in the twentieth century in Yangzhou, testifying to the presence of Italian merchants deep within Yuan-era China.

Image source: Yangzhou

The Western Roman Empire, and with it its demand for sophisticated Asian products, collapsed in the fifth century, significantly reducing one of the major markets for Silk Road goods.

Image source: Fall of the Western Roman Empire

In 1370 Samarkand saw a revival as the capital of the new Timurid Empire, once again becoming a major centre of trade and culture along the Silk Road.

Image source: Timurid Empire

The History of Ming preserves an account where the Hongwu Emperor, after founding the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), had a supposed Byzantine merchant named Nieh-ku-lun deliver his proclamation about the establishment of a new dynasty to the Byzantine court of John V Palaiologos in September 1371.

Image source: Hongwu Emperor

From 1453 onwards, the Ottoman Empire began competing with other gunpowder empires for greater control over the overland routes, which prompted European polities to seek alternatives while themselves gaining leverage over their trade partners, contributing to the Silk Road's decline.

Image source: Ottoman Empire

From 1700 to 1765, the total export of Persian silk was entirely conducted by Armenians, showing the enduring importance of Silk Road trade networks even in the early modern period.

The name 'Silk Road' derives from the German term Seidenstraße and was first popularized in 1877 by Ferdinand von Richthofen, who made seven expeditions to China from 1868 to 1872.

Image source: Ferdinand von Richthofen

The first book entitled The Silk Road was written by Swedish geographer Sven Hedin in 1938, helping to spread the concept to a wider public, though the term did not gain widespread acceptance in academia or popularity until the 20th century.

Image source: Sven Hedin

The United Nations World Tourism Organization has been working since 1993 to develop sustainable international tourism along the route with the stated goal of fostering peace and understanding.

In the 21st century, the name 'New Silk Road' is used to describe several large infrastructure projects along many of the historic trade routes, among the best known of which are the Eurasian Land Bridge and the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Image source: Belt and Road Initiative

On 22 June 2014, UNESCO named the Chang'an-Tianshan corridor of the Silk Road a World Heritage Site at the 2014 Conference on World Heritage, recognizing its outstanding universal value.

Image source: Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor

To commemorate the Silk Road becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the China National Silk Museum announced a 'Silk Road Week' to take place 19–25 June 2020, celebrating the route's heritage.

Image source: China National Silk Museum

UNESCO designated the Zarafshan-Karakum Corridor of the Silk Road as a World Heritage Site in 2023, expanding international recognition of the historic route network.