The Silk Road developed the economy of the countries where it pa.s.sed, created a new infrastructure and surprisingly created a variety of jobs in both the white and black areas of the economy:In the period from 4th century BC until the end of the 16th century AD A new trading infrastructure has appeared:
• wells
• caravanserai
• guard fortresses
• postal stations
• local bazaars
• regional bazaars
• the emergence of new jobs:
- robbers (there were whole settlements)
- caravanbashi (guides)
- caravan guards
- merchants
- changed
- sale of riding animals
- sale of food for riding animals
- sale of food for travelers
- tax collections - tax specialists - customs officers
- repair work (road improvement)
- repair and construction of crossings, bridges
- secret agents, spies, counterintelligence system
Why did this infrastructure appear ?:
There is a need to sell your product, exchange it for others, expand your territory, there is a need for new resources, water flows, etc.
Consequences of the Silk Road?
A dense transport network of both international and regional, local and local nature has arisen in the region. Appeared infrastructure:
• wells
• irrigation and agriculture (steppe, mountain-valley, foothill)
• settlements
• bazaars
• caravanserai
• fortresses, etc.
Some agricultural crops began to be cultivated, nut and mulberry plantations appeared, smelting of metals and mining of minerals began to develop more intensively. The emergence of new trading points, the penetration of different cultures, peoples, technologies, the expansion of geographical knowledge of neighboring areas.
The emergence of the need to create guides to the trade routes and localities through which they pa.s.sed. The revival of the economies of countries through which trade routes pa.s.sed.
What changes have occurred and what did it eventually lead to?
Increased anthropogenic load on natural ecosystems. They began to change. Soil erosion, salinization, changes in the species composition of the plant world, landscape transformation. Deforestation of the mountain slopes. Creation of explanations near the wells, violation of the soil cover in the places of pa.s.sage of trade roads.
Increase welfare of the population. Creation of cultural centers. The attenuation of the economic growth of regions linked to world trade and the revival of territories linked to regional and subregional trade.
Human impact on the natural landscapes of the area:
• mining and smelting of metals — precious metals, tin, lead — the result is metal slags on the mountain slopes, cutting trees and shrubs vegetation almost everywhere on the mountain slopes, remnants of ancient mines and workings on the mountain slopes and in the steppe;
• ancient agrocenoses on the plain
• change in the watercourse of mountain rivers, the creation of ca.n.a.ls and dams - the result of the transformation of natural landscapes, changes in the local microclimate;
• migration of ethnic groups
Since ancient times, along mountain pa.s.ses and through pa.s.ses, along river valleys, caravan roads and trails ran, pa.s.sed the main route of trade caravans, going from one region to another. This most important strategic road in a number of nodal points was reinforced by powerful fortresses.
The main places of exchange were established in the border areas with the steppe, where nomads brought their cattle and brought their products, and Sogdian merchants came there for shopping and exchange (7th century AD).
At the end of the 7th century, Arabs came to the princ.i.p.ality of the Central Asian Region.
One of the characteristic signs of the development of human civilization are transport communications that facilitate the integration of states and peoples in international cooperation.
In the Kingdom CAO in the period from 103 BC to 1221 AD, several envoys from the Chinese Empires visited:
- Chinese monk Zhang Can (about 103 BC)
- Chinese traveler Fa Xiang (399-414 AD)
- Chinese monk Xuan Zang (630 AD)
- Chinese traveler Chan-Chun (1221)
Roads - communications between large settlements within certain historical and cultural areas, old paths between villages that no longer exist.
In Central Asia, the one-day journey traveled by a caravan in the first centuries BC and the first centuries of our era was about 23-26 km, in the 7-11 centuries the value of the day pa.s.s was approximately 25-30 km.
In addition to the three main routes (southern sea, southern terrestrial, steppe path) of the Great Silk Road, there were other roads through which all these routes were interconnected.
The network of trade roads connected the steppe villages with oases, these roads had many seasonal branches.
The main places of exchange were established in the border areas with the steppe, where there was an exchange between nomads and inhabitants of oases.
Land transport was mainly packaged.
Transport - roads - mail - road improvement.
Roads contributed to the growth of foreign trade between countries.
Transport interchanges are important.
Road junctions - road connections at different levels with congresses to move vehicles from one road to another. T.R. - increase the throughput of roads, ensure safety, uninterrupted operation and speed of movement.
Roads (IDPs connecting Europe and Asia) have a profound and many-sided impact on land use, including opening up territories for settlement.
Conveniently located points on the trade routes.
The key position in the area of transport (transit).
The toponyms of the East are never random.
Properly organized transport system is equally necessary for the distribution of food and for the fuller development of trade, without which it is impossible to improve the welfare of society, as well as throwing the army to protect or vice versa to seize territories.
One of the characteristic signs of the development of human civilization are transport communications that facilitate the integration of states and peoples into the international community.
Cultural and trade relations. The goods arrived in the large wholesale bazaars of the city, then distributed to small-wholesale local bazaars in the cities.
Along the main roads, which led to the depth of new territories for the development of territories, a chain of cities was created, controlling the routes and ensuring the movement of people and goods. The emergence of new roads caused the creation of chains of new urban settlements along them and the decline or disappearance of old cities on the old roads that had lost their significance.
Built border lines of the city - the fortress. Roads and settlements (respectively, and their infrastructure) are created when something needs to be transported or exchanged. They actually connect different centers (cultural, agricultural, craft, trade, mining, etc.) with each other, carrying out a trade exchange.
Being the epitome of the connection of times is a property which in our time of unprecedented development of tourism is highly valued.
Transport networks experienced the emergence, decline, then slow development.
The service area of the road includes:
• Settlement - economic development or transformation of the economy;
• Settlement - the territorial organization of the population, the network of settlements (defined as ter. Settlement according to the figure);
• Settlement - as a technical infrastructure;
• Localities - production centers and centers for people
• Unified systems of centers - settlements.
The importance of such corridors was that when various kinds of problems such as wars arose and ordinary trade transit routes were temporarily blocked, then bypa.s.s roads of "risk zones" appeared through various key mountain pa.s.ses.
Trade is always on the same roads. In the modern period, the ancient roads and highways of the Silk Road are quite successfully used for laying new energy wires. It is natural to a.s.sume that it is possible in the future (when the development of hydrocarbon deposits will begin) such key corridors can be used for one of the alternative branches of energy pipelines.