Khan Academy Static

Evading bandits through mountain passes, leading a caravan of yaks carrying silk and goods, sailing the trade winds off the Indian coastline – these are a few things you might have done as a trader in the age of agrarian civilizations. Systems of exchange and trade between large agrarian civilizations facilitated the transfer of goods from one civilization to the next, but they also helped share the world’s religions, ideas, innovations, diseases, and people. While each world zone had its own trade routes, none were as vast and intense as the Silk Road. This large system of exchange and trade, initially designed for commerce, dispersed goods and ideas throughout Afro-Eurasia, and paved the way for a substantial increase in both commerce and collective learning.

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