How Did The Silk Road Affect Social Hierarchies

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The Silk Road was a network of trading routes, involving the passing of goods to people from city to city. Between 200 B.C.E. to 1450 C.E. the Silk Road had experienced important transitions that would alter societies including major religions and the social hierarchies. With these changes, some of the ideas of society stayed consistent like the desire for luxury goods by the upper class.
The Silk Road had transformed the social hierarchies of many societies. Originally merchants and women were thought of as lower in terms of the social standing in most cities. The women were needed for the production of silk and other luxury items, therefore women began to be seen as necessary to society. The merchants were originally thought of as lower because their income was based off of other’s work. With the Silk Road, merchants were needed for the transportation and trade of goods making merchants also necessary to society. In terms of the social hierarchy, the Silk Road had given merchants and women higher standings than in previous societies. …show more content…
Buddhism began in India and made its way through the Middle East and into Europe with the assistance of the Silk Road. Islam was spread much in the same way through the Silk Road merchants. Eventually, the two religions became the most widely accepted belief systems in the East. Buddhism began to be incorporated with other religions and monasteries had become more focused on wealth then leading to wealthy buddhist leaders as opposed to the more modest rulers as like in the past. This had all lead to these two religions beginning to own property and becoming collectors of art and other materials of high value because the availability of these luxury items and spread of influences from different
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