The medieval supply chain
Silk from China, spices from India, gold from Africa — none traveled alone; they hopped along trade routes through empires that taxed and protected them. Empires and trade wove distant strangers into one connected world long before the internet.
Connecting distant lands
As empires like Rome and Han China grew, networks of trade routes — most famously the Silk Road — carried goods, ideas, religions, and even diseases across continents. Trade spread not just silk and spices but knowledge.
Simulation · Order the timeline
Click the events from earliest to latest.
0/4 placed
Put these milestones in order from earliest to latest to build a sense of historical time.
Lab · Follow the route
- Imagine a merchant leaving Chang'an (China) heading west.
- List what they might carry and what they'd bring back.
- Note one idea (not a good) that could travel with them.
What you should see: Goods like silk went west and spices/silver came east — but religions and technologies travelled too.