The Silk Roads summary

In the first centuries of the first millennium CE, the eastern fringes of the Roman Empire – and, later, of the Byzantine Empire – constituted a contested zone. Both empires fought bitter campaigns against the Arsacid and Sasanian Persian dynasties for hegemony in the Western world.

By the sixth century, Western Europe had entered a dark age of upheaval and turmoil. In contrast, a new power united by a strong sense of religious identity was forming on the Arabian Peninsula.

The Muslim empire reached ever-greater heights. And, during this ascent, the demand for slaves grew considerably, too.

Interestingly, a great number of the slaves from eastern Europe were brought to the Muslim world by the Vikings. In fact, the word “slave” is derived from the name that was originally given to this group of people: the Slavs.

In the late eleventh century, the Mongols were just one of many tribes that dwelt in the steppes north of China.

The Mongols were widely viewed with contempt. To outsiders, the Mongols appeared to be a chaotic horde, but they were actually highly strategic and precise planners. These qualities enabled the Mongols to conquer much of Asia and Europe by the end of the thirteenth century, thus establishing the world’s largest contiguous empire.

Even though the death toll caused by the Black Death was astronomical, the feared apocalypse failed to materialize.

Europe after the plague was an altogether different place. The population had fallen dramatically, but this had served to empower the peasantry and to weaken the propertied classes.

Thanks to the expeditions of the European seafarers, Europe now sat at the center of the world.

By 1500, Portugal and Spain had become the mightiest powers on the continent. But their reigns were short-lived. In the sixteenth century, Northern Europe came to the fore.

It had long been known that large oil reserves were buried below Persia. But, before 1900, no one much cared for its black gold. It took a Briton, William Knox D’Arcy, to convince the Shah of Persia to allow access to the reserves.

Back in 1901, the Persian Shah, Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar, signed an agreement that granted Knox D’Arcy the exclusive rights to Persia’s natural gas and petroleum for 60 years. In return, the Shah was to receive ₤20,000 in cash and another ₤20,000 in shares of the newly formed company, as well as 16 percent of its profits each year. This agreement was known as the Knox D’Arcy Concession.

In August 1939, arch nemeses Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a nonaggression treaty. But the treaty was built on a secret: Hitler and Stalin had agreed that Poland would be divvied up between the two nations.

And so, on September 1, 1939, the German Wehrmacht invaded and overran its neighbor to the East. The Soviet Union, meanwhile, did nothing.

In 1945, the horrors of the Second World War finally came to an end. The power balance in the world had been reestablished. Now, two superpowers were facing off against one another: the Soviet Union and the United States.

Before long, these powers turned their attention to where the history of the Silk Roads began: the 1950s marked the beginning of American dominance in Iran, formerly Persia.

The misadventures of the United States and the European powers demonstrate the continued importance of eastern Europe, the Middle East and Western and Central Asia. The regions where the Silk Roads began millennia ago still have a future; that much is clear. After all, these lands connect East and West. But the exact nature of that future is up for debate.

Take Ukraine, for example. Thanks to different national visions for the country, it’s being torn apart by the East and the West alike. Or there's Syria, whose horrendous civil war has pitted conservatives against liberals and freedom fighters against government forces. And then there’s the Caucasus, which is in a near constant state of political instability. Just think of Chechnya and Georgia.