The Silk Road

What best describes the Silk Road?

• A single paved road connecting East and West

• A network of trade routes across land and sea

• A sea-only trade route primarily for silk

• A factory complex for silk production

What highly valued product was exclusively produced in China for millennia and traded along the Silk Road?

• Olives

• Silk

• Cotton textiles

• Incense

How did nomadic peoples contribute significantly to the Silk Road trade?

• They established permanent cities for trade and agriculture.

• They were primarily consumers of luxury goods from distant lands.

• They facilitated the movement of goods and were more resistant to diseases.

• They only traded locally within their tribal territories.

What were the main reasons the Roman Senate attempted to ban silk?

• It was too expensive for the common people to afford.

• It was considered immodest and caused trade imbalances.

• It was difficult to produce silk within the Roman Empire.

• It was exclusively reserved for the emperor and his family.

What was a significant consequence of the merchant class growing alongside the Silk Road?

• They became kings and lords.

• They lost all their wealth.

• They gained considerable political influence.

• They stopped producing goods.

How did the growing market for silk impact people's lives?

• Fewer people chose to go into silk production.

• More people chose to go into silk production.

• Silk became affordable for everyone.

• Silk production ceased to be profitable.

What was a fundamental difference in Mahayana Buddhism compared to the original teachings of the Buddha?

• It focused more on the fundamental fact of suffering.

• It viewed the Buddha as divine.

• It emphasized escaping the cycle of suffering and desire.

• It discouraged the worship of Bodhisattvas.

Which devastating disease, spread along the Silk Road, resulted in the largest population decimation in human history?

• Measles

• Smallpox

• Bubonic Plague (Black Death)

• Influenza