Early Globalization History: The Silk Road and Cultural Exchange between East and West Early Globalization History: The Silk Road and Cultural Exchange between East and West
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Abstract
This study aims to examine the role of the Silk Road as a key mechanism of early globalization, focusing on the processes of cultural exchange between the Eastern and Western worlds through the movement of goods, people, beliefs, and knowledge from antiquity to the medieval period. The research methodology is documentary research, relying on primary and secondary sources such as chronicles, travel accounts, and world-historical studies. Data were analyzed using content analysis and historical comparative methods.
The findings show that the Silk Road was not merely a trade network but a space of cultural interaction that facilitated the spread of religions: Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, the transmission of technologies such as papermaking, gunpowder, and the compass, and the exchange of artistic forms and social patterns that coalesced into pluralistic civilizations. The study indicates that globalization is not solely a modern phenomenon but has deep roots in the premodern era, with the Silk Road serving as a crucial prototype of early global networks. This research suggests that understanding the Silk Road as a process of pre-modern globalization offers a new perspective on world history by emphasizing cross-cultural contact rather than regionally isolated narratives, and can be applied comparatively to the study of contemporary globalization phenomena.
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