Re:Shocks to military support and subsequent assassinations ...
by wonderbear on Saturday July 21, 2018 @11:57AM
(#17582396)
It's so easy with all the stories of "discovering" around the 1300s/1400s to not realize that earlier cultures were actually interconnected and had appreciable impact on each other.
Re:Shocks to military support and subsequent assassinations ...
by zhdc1 on Saturday July 21, 2018 @12:17PM
(#17582464)
It's also interesting once you realize that parts of the early modern era were shaped by the efforts of various European kingdoms to reestablish trading routes that were lost after the breakup of the Mongol Empire and, later on, the capture of Constantinople by the Turks.
Re:Shocks to military support and subsequent assassinations ...
by BurningFrog on Saturday July 21, 2018 @08:34PM
(#17584635)
True, but remember that Rome and China could trade without any Roman and Chinese person ever meeting.
My understanding of the Silk Road is that the cargo got reloaded many times and each individual leg was relatively short, at least in relation to the whole distance.
Re:Shocks to military support and subsequent assassinations ...
by AnimalMuppet on Saturday July 21, 2018 @07:34PM
(#17584435)
One could argue that the Roman Empire also started coming undone in the 180s.
Although the Han Dynasty started coming undone in the 180s, there was a cooling period in East Asia and North East Europe that started around 200CE and lasted for most of the century. It isn't difficult to imagine a macro linkage between cooling -> agricultural output -> instability that was exacerbated by a similar reduction in Eurasian trade due to the global transition of power (in 200CE, the land route for the Silk Road was effectively controlled by four powers - the Roman Empire, the Parthian Empire, the Kushan Empire, and the Han Dynasty... this fragmented dramatically, particularly in East and Central Asia, by the end of the century).