Trade between the continents and empires of the Old World experienced intervals of growth and decline during this period. Nevertheless, cultural contacts were virtually continuous and communication was maintained, in one way or another.

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Perhaps one of the most significant circumstances of this period was the military campaign of Alexander the Great who stretched his empire across vast areas of Eurasia and North Africa. Although his empire fractured soon after his death, Alexander introduced Greek cultural styles into indigenous cultures and the kingdoms of these regions perpetuated Hellenism. These blended traditions continued to spread as cross-cultural contacts continued.

In the year 200 BCE, Rome was a republic and had just defeated Hannibal and his Phoenicians in the Second Punic War (218-201 BCE). China had been united for a second time by the Han dynasty. The Greco-Bactrian kings had extended their rule into India and the Buddhism promoted by the Mauryan Emperor between 272 and 232 BCE was well established throughout South Asia. In Africa, the Ptolemaic Kingdom, sculpted from the conquests of Alexander the Great, continued its hold on Egypt while the rest of North Africa remained under Carthaginian control.

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The strength of these kingdoms and empires provided the stability necessary for merchants and travellers to expand their horizons and journey far abroad. The basic routes that were followed by the great Silk Road network were not new. In fact, commerce had been occurring between most of these spheres for centuries, if not millennia, and in some cases, evidence of organised trade can be dated back to about 3000 BCE. However, except for the eastward journeys of a few Greek and Roman merchants and the occasional Indian traveller to Greece or Rome, there was very little direct contact between Eastern and Western civilisations for centuries following the invasion of India by Alexander the Great in 326 BCE. Most trade occurred through a chain of various Central Asian peoples. Ideas transmitted in the same manner and so it is not too surprising that many ideas were lost or distorted in the process.

By the fourth century BCE, Rome had developed from its foundation as an Iron Age settlement into a major power in the Mediterranean. Expansionist aspirations were awakened by wars with foreign powers and, following the Second Punic War, Rome began a program of conquest in all directions. The acquisition of Greece in 146 BCE turned over an established trade network reaching China and India to the Romans. Following the civil wars of the first century BCE, Rome continued to expand her frontiers.

In the near East, Parthia took over from the Seleucid Empire and controlled the area until it came under Roman rule in 165 CE. Roman military might and the Pax Romana provided an environment conducive to increased trade. By the second century CE, the Roman Empire surrounded the Mediterranean Sea, encompassing all of Western Europe, Northern Africa, parts of the Middle East, Syria, and Persia. Regular trade was conducted with India and China by both maritime and land routes.

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In 293 CE, a tetrarchy was briefly established but by 364 CE, the Roman Empire was permanently divided into East and West. The Latin West maintained its capitol at Rome and entered a period of decline and division that continued throughout the early Middle Ages, exacerbated by invasions in the north from Germanic peoples and from the Saracens in the south. In the East, Byzantium centred itself at Constantinople and managed to retain virtually all its commercial contacts.

The Carthaginian Empire extended across coastal North Africa and into the Iberian Peninsula until defeated by Rome in the Second Punic War (218-201 BCE). Rome chose not to fully the Phoenicians and Carthage continued to control North Africa until the end of the Third punic war in 146 BCE when Africa became a Roman province. In the northeast corner of the continent, Egypt maintained independent rule under the Ptolemies until 30 BCE when it also fell under direct Roman control.

Trade with India and China satisfied the Mediterranean appetite for luxury items such as silks from China, incense from Arabia, spices from southeast Asia and precious stones from India. In return, Roman merchants offered gold, silver, glassware and other manufactured wares.

Beginning around 206 BCE, the Han dynasty succeeded in providing a unifying influence to the diverse peoples of Asia and the ancient Silk Roads were secured through the military ability of the Han generals. After the collapse of the Han dynasty in 220 CE, China was divided by opposing factions into the Three Kingdoms of Wei (220-266 CE), Shu Han (221-263 CE) and Wu (222-280 CE). Finally, the Chin dynasty (266-316 CE) succeeded in once again uniting China for a brief time. By 317 CE, however, a north-south division once again split China and further fragmentation occurred until sixteen small kingdoms ruled in China. In 381 CE, the Sui dynasty began to annex these smaller kingdoms.

The ancient Silk Roads traversed the eastern steppes and, although closely allied to the Chinese Empires, the steppe kingdoms were highly influential to trade and travel. On the eastern steppes, the decline of the Hsiung-nu dynasty in 155 CE permitted Indo-European peoples to creep into Central Asia. In conjunction with local Chinese groups, these groups jockeyed for power in the steppes for the next 250 years and are collectively termed the Hsien-pi dynasties. Kushan was a sedentary state that was founded around the same time as the Han dynasty and survived into the sixth century CE. The Kushan Empire was especially important in launching the introduction of Buddhism into China.

China was relatively self-sufficient, lacking only some mineral resources, such as silver and gold, which were acquired from Greece, Rome, and Parthia in exchange for silk and the hardy steppe ponies that were favoured by Alexander the Great.

India was a destination for adventurous merchants and travellers as far back as 3000 BCE but it was not until the Mauryan Empire (321-181 BCE) was established that there was sufficient stability for trade to blossom. The naval department was organised to assist Indian shipping to the Middle East. After the collapse of the Mauryan Kingdom, the southern kingdom of Andharas and the Kingdom of Kushan in the north maintained the level of trade from India until the mid-third century. Following the Roman conquest of Egypt in 31 BCE, commerce increased significantly.

The Shaka and Kushan Kingdoms effectively divided the Indian subcontinent into west and east, respectively, maintaining power into the fourth century, when the Gupta and Vakataka Kingdoms succeeded them. The Indian border defences weakened during the first half of the sixth century, allowing other peoples to move into northern India and the Hapthalites, an Indo-European group that had settled in the steppes of China, expanded their control over India around 500 CE.

Ancient empires viewed India as a land of exotic luxuries. Rich in gold, tin, iron, precious and semi-precious gems, timber, cotton, and spices, India and South-east Asia were relatively self-sufficient. Trade acquired those few items that the region lacked. Spices such as pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg were immensely popular in the Roman and Arabic worlds and fetched high prices for merchants willing to finance caravan or marine expeditions. Gold, gems, timber, gold, cotton, and iron were carried west in exchange for silver, copper, ivory, and horses. Chinese silks, porcelain, and copper was exchanged for cotton, gems, gold, spices, and aromatics. In addition to the major contributions to commodity trade, India also served as an intermediary in exchanges between China and merchants from western empires.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the kingdom of Kush, with its capital at Meroë, was beginning to expand its own mercantile horizons, gradually taking control of the lucrative Sudan-Red Sea route. Far to the west, the foundations of the mysterious city of Jenne-Jeno were laid c 250 BCE. The Iron Age was carried into sub-Saharan Africa during the second migration of the Bantu-speaking peoples, which began around 500 BCE. Slowly displacing Late Stone Age communities and leaving only the arid savannahs untouched by the new technologies, the Iron Age had reached most of Africa by 400 CE but did not achieve dominance until about 1000 CE. Only the conditions n the far southwest corner of Africa proved completely incompatible to the Iron Age Bantu and thus retained its Late Stone Age hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

The Old World in 400 CE

Index of Articles - First Period - c. 350 BCE - c. 400 CE