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the best features of each tradition—southern clinker hulls and northern
rudders—were combined to produce tough ocean-going vessels that were
rigged to sail a few points into the wind. These ships eventually became
much larger, culminating in the magnificent sailing vessels of the Age of
Sail in the early nineteenth century. At the time of European expansion,
they were still small—but seaworthy.
The last part of this chapter answers a question that may have occurred
to you. Why did the Europeans want to explore the rest of the world? There
are several reasons, including a perceived need to convert the peoples of
the rest of the world to Christianity, but the main reason was trade. The
Orient in particular represented fabulous wealth compared with backward
little Europe. The Portuguese and Spaniards (at first—and then the En-
glish, French, and Dutch) set out to acquire some of that wealth for them-
selves, initially by trading for it and later by conquest. But, you rightly ask,
if they and everyone else lacked the means to sail around the world, how
did Europeans know about the wealth of the Orient? The answer lies in the
overland trade routes of the justly famous Silk Road that brought mer-
chants and goods from the East to the West (fig. 5.9). To see how this Silk
Road emerged, we must back up 1,500 years and look to China.
Zhang Qian and the Silk Road
The Han dynasty was the first that unified large tracts of China. It reached
its peak during the first centuries CE, at the same time as three other large
empires. The Kushan Empire was a loose confederation of horsemen and
traders who occupied vast tracts of land to the west of China, from modern-
day Uzbekistan to northern India. The Parthians were further west, in
modern Iran; they were famed for their horse archers. To the west of
Parthia lay its enemy, the Roman Empire. Thus, for a few centuries, there
was a region of the Old World with very few national borders. A traveler
could wander overland from the shores on the North Pacific, in eastern
China, to the shores of the North Atlantic, in southern Scotland, and in
doing so cross only three borders. Such a unification of peoples had not
been seen before and has not happened since. This lack of borders encour-
to-end. See Denny (2009) for medieval sailing ship development. For the wider state of
European preparedness and technological know-how on the eve of expansion, see Bedini
(1998).
