How Political Power & Religion Hinder/Enhance Trade along Silk Road

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The Silk Rod made western China more prosperous as commerce made it possible to trade silk to India and the Eurasian region (Liu 62). However, rather than one trade route there were various autonomous trading networks and even desert oases towns thrived. This was made possible through accessing water that it was easier to live in the arid region, unlike before, and even travelers could pass through and stay in these towns. Buddhism flourished where caves and shrines depicted the beliefs of the Central Asian region, and it was spread through the Silk Road (Liu 64). However, as Muslim traders became more prominent in the region the region spread. Islam was first spread in the urban centers and then the countryside (Foltz 93). Trade transformed the Western Chinese region along the Silk Road that is now desolate as the desert has grown over time, yet there are habitation in the oases towns and cities.
The nomad communities who were traders ventured into different parts of western China even as empires collapsed and the traders wielded power. This was also a time when Buddha statues were more commonplace along the Silk Road including and even people Persian or Sogdian descent were Buddhist. The people also traded in silk textiles of high quality in Central Asia, China even to parts of Western Europe (Liu 68). The history of conquest and trade along the Silk Road changed the religious composition of the Central Asian region over time, until Islam became dominant. For instance, the Sassanid conquest of Persian resulted in Sogdian traders abandoning Buddhism and embracing Zoroastrians or Manichaeans, which had been mainly practiced in Iran (Liu 69-70). Even the Byzantines and Romans recognized the importance of silk textiles in the development of trade and traded in the textiles (Liu 75). Additionally, there was also growing demand for silk textiles among European Christians and this was the result of Silk Road commerce (Liu 102)
In the Silk Road documentaries, there is focus on old Buddhist cities that we left in ruins in the Taklamakan desert when they were abandoned. For instance, the Tibetan arrived in the eight century and built Miran and disappeared in the 11th century as sand buried the place. Nowadays, the Uyghur a Tu...