Overview

The opening of the Silk Road, which ultimately linked China with Europe, was one of the most important undertakings in the history of exploration prior to the period from A.D. 1400 to 1600. Indeed, the creation of the Silk Road was a phenomenon in many ways mirrored by the great Age of Exploration some 1,500 years later. Both were enormous ventures that involved numerous individuals, yet in both cases, it was possible to trace the impetus to one or two people. In the more recent example, that would be Prince Henry the Navigator, whereas in the case of the Silk Road, the honor belongs to the second-century B.C. Chinese traveler Chang Ch'ien, or perhaps his emperor, Han Wu ti.

The Silk Road was not, strictly speaking, a "road": rather, it constituted a set of overland routes...