"8 Trade Routes That Shaped World History"

From Mental Floss, updated December 11:

Long-distance trade routes carried valuable products like gold, silk, and spices over land and sea for centuries, making an indelible impact on world history.

Trade routes stitching places of production to places of commerce have popped up throughout ancient history. Scarce commodities, such as salt or spices, that were only available in certain locations were the biggest driver of trade networks. Once established, these roads also facilitated cultural exchanges—including the spread of religion, ideas, knowledge, and even bacteria. Here are several that changed the world.

1. The Silk Road

The Silk Road is the most famous ancient trade route, linking the major ancient civilizations of China and the Roman Empire. Silk was traded from China to the Roman Empire beginning in the 1st century BCE in exchange for wool, silver, and gold coming from Europe. In addition to fostering trade, the Silk Road also became a vital route for the spread of knowledge, technology, religion, and the arts, with many trading centers along the route, such as Samarkand in modern-day Uzbekistan, also becoming important centers of intellectual exchange.

The Silk Road originated in Xi’an, China, and traveled along the Great Wall of China before crossing the Pamir Mountains into Afghanistan and on to the Levant, where goods were loaded on to ships destined for Mediterranean ports. It was rare for tradespeople to travel the full 4000 miles, so most plied their trade on sections of the route. As the Roman Empire crumbled in the 4th century CE, the Silk Road became unsafe and fell out of use until the 13th century, when it was revived under the Mongols. Italian explorer Marco Polo followed the Silk Road during the 13th century, becoming one of the first medieval Europeans to visit China. But the famous route may have spread more than trade and cross-cultural links—some scientists think merchants traveling along the route carried Yersinia pestis, the plague bacteria that caused the Black Death.

2. The Spice Routes

Unlike most of the other trade routes in this list, the Spice Routes were maritime paths linking the East to the West. Pepper, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg were all hugely sought-after commodities in Europe, but before the 15th century, North African and Arab middlemen controlled access to trade with the East, making such spices extremely costly and rare. From the 15th to the 17th centuries, new navigation technology made sailing long distances from Europe possible. Europeans took to the seas to forge direct trading relationships with Indonesia, China, and Japan. Some have argued the spice trade fueled the development of faster ships, encouraged colonization, and fostered new diplomatic relationships between East and West. Christopher Columbus had spices on his mind when he set out on his famous voyage in 1492.

The Portuguese, Dutch, and English especially profited from the control of the spice trade in modern-day Indonesia, particularly the area called Malaku (also known as the Moluccas or Spice Islands), which was the only source of nutmeg and cloves at that time. Wars were fought, lands colonized, and fortunes made from the spice trade, making this trade route one of the most globally significant.

3. The Incense Route

The Incense Route developed to transport frankincense and myrrh, which are found only in the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula (modern Yemen and Oman). Frankincense and myrrh are both derived from sun-dried tree sap; these nuggets can then be burned as incense or used as perfume, and were also popular in burial rituals to aid embalming. After Arab nomads domesticated the camel around 1000 BCE, traders began transporting their valuable incense to the Mediterranean, an important commercial hub. Frankincense and myrrh became a significant commodity for the Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians. It was said the Roman Emperor Nero had a whole year’s harvest of frankincense burned at the funeral of his beloved mistress.

The trade flourished and, at its height, saw 3000 tons of incense traded along its length every year. Roman historian Pliny the Elder wrote that it took 62 days to complete the route, although it’s clear that at times, the exact route shifted when greedy settlements pushed their luck and demanded taxes that were too high from the caravans coming through. By the 1st century CE, this ancient overland route became largely redundant after improved ship design made sea routes more attractive.

4. The Amber Road....

....MUCH MORE

Trade routes, very important. As noted December 11:

Houthis Fire A Rocket, Hit An Oil Tanker...
....not sure why the U.S. is allowing the Houthis to control the Red Sea approaches to the Suez Canal.