Dr. Eleanor Janega

They move back and forth between towns.

They go on pilgrimage.

So you would not think it was weird, for example, to see peasants who speak German showing up in what is now Spain at San Diego de Compostela, because that's one of the big pilgrimage routes.

And, you know, if you're kings and queens, you're talking to the other kings and queens all the time.

Everybody is moving back and forth.

The Silk Road is probably the most important vector for trade the world has ever seen.

Now, confusingly, it is not a road.

I knew there'd be a twist.

Yeah, we really messed it up.

I'll tell you what, the labeling wasn't good.

But it is a series of roads that connect China with the Middle East, like the Arabian Peninsula, places like that.

And indeed, also a series of shipping routes that especially go through what is now Malaysia and Indonesia, and even indeed all the way over to Kenya.

Everybody wants silk.

But spices also move back and forth really extensively.

Pottery, everybody wants Chinese pottery, you know, so that moves back and forth very quickly.

Out of Europe, oftentimes you have wool that is moving or silver.

Furs, that is a big commodity that the Europeans are moving.

So it is really the artery that connects Afro-Eurasia.

And Afro-Eurasia is kind of like the number one thing to think about, like in the medieval world, like Africans, Asians, Europeans, they are in constant connection and contact with each other throughout this period.

They just haven't got to Australia and the Americas yet.