CBSE Class 10 · The Making of a Global World

Silk Routes Link the World Class 10: Trade and Cultural Links

Updated 14 October 2026 · Fact-checked

The silk routes were land and sea routes that linked Asia with Europe and northern Africa from before the Christian Era almost till the fifteenth century. Chinese silk and pottery and Indian and Southeast Asian textiles and spices went west; gold and silver came east. Missionaries, preachers and Buddhism travelled along them too.

Relief map of Asia, Europe and Africa with dark blue lines marking the overland and sea silk routes linking China, India, Arabia and Europe. — Follow the blue lines to see how land and sea routes joined China, India and Southeast Asia with West Asia, Europe and northern Africa.
Picture: Roylee · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons

Understand Silk Routes Link the World

Where this topic sits. The chapter opens by reminding us that 'globalisation' is not only a story of the last 50 years or so. People have been linking distant places for thousands of years through trade, migration, the search for work and the movement of money and ideas. Section 1 calls this the pre-modern world, and the silk routes are its best example.

Early links before the silk routes. Travellers, traders, priests and pilgrims crossed huge distances for knowledge, for opportunity, for spiritual reasons or to escape persecution. They carried goods, money, values, skills, ideas and inventions, and also germs. The NCERT text gives three early markers:

About 3000 BCE: coastal trade linked the Indus valley civilisations with present-day West Asia.
Cowries (seashells used as money, cowdi in Hindi) from the Maldives reached China and East Africa for more than a thousand years.
Germs: the long-distance spread of disease can be traced back to the seventh century, and by the thirteenth century it had become an unmistakable link.

The chapter's first picture (Fig. 1) is a ship carved on a tenth-century memorial stone in the Goa Museum. Ships appear regularly on memorial stones of the western coast from the ninth century, a sign of how much ocean trade mattered.

What the silk routes were. The name comes from the large cargoes of Chinese silk that moved westwards. But historians speak of several silk routes, not one road. Some ran over land and some went by sea. Together they knitted vast regions of Asia together and joined Asia with Europe and northern Africa. They existed before the Christian Era and kept thriving almost till the fifteenth century.

What moved along them.

Westward: Chinese silk, Chinese pottery, and textiles and spices from India and Southeast Asia.
Eastward (in return): precious metals, gold and silver, from Europe to Asia.

So the trade was two-way: Asia sold finished goods and Europe paid largely in precious metal.

Trade and culture travelled together. The routes carried beliefs as well as cargo. Early Christian missionaries almost certainly used them to reach Asia, and early Muslim preachers followed a few centuries later. Much earlier, Buddhism, which emerged from eastern India, spread in several directions through points where the routes crossed. This is why examiners describe the silk routes as an example of 'vibrant pre-modern trade and cultural links'.

Pictures to know. Fig. 2 in the chapter is an eighth-century Chinese cave painting of silk route trade (Cave 217, Mogao Grottoes, Gansu, China). Fig. 3 shows merchants from Venice and the Orient exchanging goods, from Marco Polo's *Book of Marvels* (fifteenth century). Board MCQs have asked who wrote the Book of Marvels.

How it connects to the next topics. Food, crops and diseases also moved along these networks (Food Travels; Conquest, Disease and Trade). Remember the limit: only Sections 1 to 1.3 of this chapter are in the board exam; the nineteenth-century world economy onwards is for the internal project.

Silk Routes Link the World: key facts

Silk routes: definition: Several land and sea routes, named after west-bound Chinese silk cargoes, linking Asia with Europe and northern Africa; Open every silk route answer with this line.
Time span: Before the Christian Era to almost the fifteenth century; Not 'from the fifteenth century'.
Goods going west: Chinese silk and pottery; textiles and spices from India and Southeast Asia; Fill-in-the-blank MCQs use 'textiles and spices'.
Goods going east: Gold and silver from Europe to Asia; Shows trade was two-way.
Cultural flows: Early Christian missionaries; early Muslim preachers (a few centuries later); Buddhism from eastern India; Two examples are enough for 2 marks.
Pre-modern markers: By 3000 BCE Indus valley linked to West Asia
Cowries from the Maldives to China and East Africa
Germs from the 7th century, an unmistakable link by the 13th; Use for 'globalisation began long ago' questions.
Figures: Fig. 1 ship on memorial stone, Goa Museum, 10th century CE
Fig. 2 Mogao Grottoes cave painting, 8th century
Fig. 3 Marco Polo, Book of Marvels, 15th century; Picture-based MCQs.

By 3000 BCE	Indus valley linked to West Asia
Cowries	from the Maldives to China and East Africa
Germs	from the 7th century, an unmistakable link by the 13th

Fig. 1	ship on memorial stone, Goa Museum, 10th century CE
Fig. 2	Mogao Grottoes cave painting, 8th century
Fig. 3	Marco Polo, Book of Marvels, 15th century

How to answer Silk Routes Link the World questions

Questions on this topic ask you to explain why the silk routes show pre-modern trade and cultural links, to name goods or religions that travelled, or to show that global links are old. Marks go to separate points, each backed by an NCERT example.

1Define first: several land and sea routes named after Chinese silk, linking Asia, Europe and northern Africa.
2Give the time span: before the Christian Era to almost the fifteenth century.
3For 'trade' points, name goods in both directions: silk, pottery, textiles and spices west; gold and silver east.
4For 'cultural links' points, name the people or faith: Christian missionaries, Muslim preachers, Buddhism from eastern India.
5If the question says 'pre-modern world' in general, add one earlier marker: Indus valley trade with West Asia or Maldives cowries.
6Match the length to the marks: 2 points within 40 words for 2 marks, 3 points within 60 words for 3 marks.

Silk Routes Link the World in real life

The idea, met in an everyday situation. Answer the question in your own words, then compare with the model answer. The one-line hook is what to remember.

Trade and cultural exchange go hand in hand

Suppose a family from your town sets up a small shop in a faraway city to sell handloom saris from home. Within a few years the city's people are buying the saris, cooking dishes from your town and celebrating one of its festivals with the family.

Explain how this imagined situation mirrors the way the silk routes worked.

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Spot the trade: goods (saris) move from one region to another.
Spot the culture: food habits and a festival move with the traders.
Link to the silk routes: textiles and spices moved west, and missionaries, preachers and Buddhism moved with the trade.

Answer: In the imagined case, the saris are the trade and the food and festival are the culture that travel with the traders. On the silk routes too, textiles, spices, silk and pottery moved along with people, and early Christian missionaries, Muslim preachers and Buddhism used the same routes. Trade opened the road; ideas and beliefs travelled on it.

Memory hook: Where goods go, ideas follow.

Tricks to remember Silk Routes Link the World

Short memory aids. Say each one aloud once, then use it on a question the same day.

SPTS goes west, GS comes east
Silk, Pottery, Textiles, Spices travel West; Gold and Silver come East.
Use it when: MCQs and 2-mark 'what was traded' questions.
C-M-B for culture
Christians, Muslims, Buddhism: three faiths on the silk routes, with Buddhism the oldest.
Use it when: Cultural exchange answers.
Before Christ to 1400s
Silk started Before Christ and Faded by the Fifteenth: think 'B to F'.
Use it when: Time-span MCQs.

Silk Routes Link the World: solved examples

Ordered from board level to HOTS. Try each one before you open the solution.

Example 1: Goods on the silk routes · 1 mark · MCQBoard level

Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: __________ from India and Southeast Asia travelled along the silk routes to other parts of the world.
(a) Gold and silver
(b) Textiles and spices
(c) Potatoes and maize
(d) Cowries and pearls

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Gold and silver flowed from Europe to Asia, and potatoes and maize came from the Americas much later; the NCERT text names textiles and spices from India and Southeast Asia (1 mark).

Answer: (b) Textiles and spices

Example 2: Silk routes as vibrant trade and culture (2 marks) · 2 marks · Very short answerBoard level

'The silk routes are a good example of vibrant pre-modern trade and cultural links between distant parts of the world.' Support the statement with two examples. (2 marks)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Trade example: Chinese silk and pottery and Indian and Southeast Asian textiles and spices went west, while gold and silver came from Europe to Asia (1 mark).
Cultural example: early Christian missionaries and later Muslim preachers travelled these routes, and Buddhism spread from eastern India through their crossing points (1 mark).

Answer: Trade: Chinese silk and pottery, and textiles and spices from India and Southeast Asia, moved west, while Europe sent gold and silver to Asia. Culture: early Christian missionaries and later Muslim preachers used the routes, and Buddhism spread from eastern India through their crossing points.

Example 3: Assertion-reason: two-way trade · 1 mark · Assertion-reasonHarder board level

Assertion (A): The silk routes carried goods in both directions between Asia and Europe.
Reason (R): Precious metals such as gold and silver flowed from Europe to Asia in return for Asian goods.
(a) Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A.
(b) Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A.
(c) A is true, but R is false.
(d) A is false, but R is true.

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Asian silk, pottery, textiles and spices went west; gold and silver came east. R explains why A is two-way (1 mark).

Answer: (a) Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A.

Example 4: Global links are old (3 marks) · 3 marks · Short answerHarder board level

'The making of the global world has a long history.' Justify the statement with three examples from the pre-modern world. (3 marks)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

As early as 3000 BCE, coastal trade linked the Indus valley civilisations with present-day West Asia (1 mark).
For more than a thousand years, cowries from the Maldives, used as currency, reached China and East Africa (1 mark).
The silk routes, from before the Christian Era to almost the fifteenth century, linked Asia with Europe and northern Africa in goods and ideas (1 mark).

Answer: Long before modern globalisation, coastal trade linked the Indus valley civilisations with West Asia around 3000 BCE. For over a thousand years, Maldives cowries, used as money, reached China and East Africa. The silk routes, from before the Christian Era to almost the fifteenth century, joined Asia, Europe and northern Africa through goods, faiths and ideas.

Example 5: Source: a cave painting and a travel book · 4 marks · Source-basedHOTS / competency

Read the source and answer the questions.

Source (based on NCERT Section 1.1 and the captions of Figs. 2 and 3): Two pictures in the chapter show the old trade between East and West. One is an eighth-century painting in Cave 217 of the Mogao Grottoes in Gansu, China, which shows trade on the silk route. The other, from Marco Polo's Book of Marvels (fifteenth century), shows merchants from Venice and the Orient exchanging goods. The text adds that the routes were named after the Chinese silk carried westwards, but that pottery, textiles and spices travelled with it, while gold and silver went the other way.

(i) Why are the routes called 'silk routes'? (1)
(ii) Name the book from which the picture of Venetian and Eastern merchants is taken. (1)
(iii) What do the two pictures together suggest about trade between Asia and Europe before the fifteenth century? (2)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

(i) Because of the importance of the Chinese silk cargoes carried westwards along them (1 mark).
(ii) Marco Polo's Book of Marvels (1 mark).
(iii) One picture is Chinese and one European, so traders at both ends knew of and recorded this exchange (1 mark).
(iii) Trade was regular and two-way, with Asian goods going west and precious metals coming east, over a span of several centuries (eighth to fifteenth century) (1 mark).

Answer: (i) They are named after the large cargoes of Chinese silk sent west along them. (ii) Marco Polo's Book of Marvels. (iii) A Chinese cave painting and a European book both record the trade, so it was known and valued at both ends. Together they suggest a regular, two-way exchange lasting centuries: silk, pottery, textiles and spices went west, while gold and silver came east.

Example 6: Why Buddhism spread widely (3 marks) · 3 marks · Short answerHarder board level

Analyse how the silk routes helped Buddhism and other faiths to spread across Asia. (3 marks)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

The silk routes were a network of land and sea routes with many intersecting points, linking distant regions (1 mark).
Buddhism emerged from eastern India and spread in several directions through these intersecting points (1 mark).
Traders were followed by preachers: early Christian missionaries almost certainly used the routes, and early Muslim preachers came a few centuries later, so trade and faith moved together (1 mark).

Answer: The silk routes formed a web of land and sea routes with many crossing points. Buddhism, which emerged from eastern India, spread in several directions through these points. The same roads later carried early Christian missionaries and, a few centuries after them, Muslim preachers, showing that faiths travelled wherever trade went.

Example 7: Comparing silk route flows (5 marks) · 5 marks · Long answerHarder board level

Examine the silk routes as a link between distant parts of the world under the heads: meaning and extent, goods exchanged, cultural exchange, and what they tell us about the pre-modern world. (5 marks)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Meaning and extent: several overland and sea routes, named after Chinese silk, knitting Asia together and linking it with Europe and northern Africa (1 mark).
Time span: from before the Christian Era to almost the fifteenth century (1 mark).
Goods: Chinese silk and pottery, Indian and Southeast Asian textiles and spices west; gold and silver from Europe to Asia (1 mark).
Culture: early Christian missionaries, early Muslim preachers, and the spread of Buddhism from eastern India (1 mark).
Conclusion: the pre-modern world was already interconnected; global links are much older than modern globalisation (1 mark).

Answer: The silk routes were several land and sea routes, named after the Chinese silk sent west, which knitted vast parts of Asia together and joined Asia with Europe and northern Africa. They existed before the Christian Era and thrived almost till the fifteenth century. Chinese silk and pottery, and textiles and spices from India and Southeast Asia, moved west, while gold and silver flowed from Europe to Asia. Culture moved too: early Christian missionaries and later Muslim preachers used the routes, and Buddhism spread from eastern India through their crossing points. So the pre-modern world was already linked by trade and ideas, long before today's globalisation.

Where students lose marks in Silk Routes Link the World

The slips examiners see most often, and what to write instead.

Mistake: Writing that silk was the only good traded
The name 'silk routes' misleads.
Wrong working
Only Chinese silk was traded on the silk routes.
Right working
Silk, pottery, textiles and spices went west; gold and silver came east.
Do this: Always name at least two goods and one return flow.
Usually costs: 1 mark in 2- and 3-mark answers.
Mistake: Getting the direction of precious metals wrong
Students assume rich Asia paid Europe.
Wrong working
Gold and silver were sent from Asia to Europe.
Right working
Gold and silver flowed from Europe to Asia.
Do this: Remember: Asian goods out, European metal in.
Usually costs: 1 mark in MCQs.
Mistake: Giving only trade points for 'trade and cultural links'
The cultural half is forgotten.
Wrong working
The silk routes carried silk, spices and pottery.
Right working
They carried silk, spices and pottery, and also missionaries, preachers and Buddhism.
Do this: Split the answer: one trade point, one culture point.
Usually costs: Half the marks.
Mistake: Bringing in nineteenth-century content
Students mix this section with the later world economy.
Wrong working
The silk routes declined after the Corn Laws were abolished.
Right working
The silk routes thrived almost till the fifteenth century; the Corn Laws belong to the nineteenth century and are not in the board part of this chapter.
Do this: Keep silk route answers before the fifteenth century.
Usually costs: 1-2 marks.

Exam tips

Use the word 'several' and 'land and sea' in the definition: it shows you know the silk routes were a network.
For 'substantiate' or 'justify', give one trade example and one cultural example, each with a named good or faith.
Learn the three figure captions; picture MCQs ask about Marco Polo's Book of Marvels.
Stay inside Sections 1 to 1.3: the nineteenth century onwards is for the internal project, not the board paper.

Practice questions on Silk Routes Link the World

Write each answer on paper first. Open the hint only if you are stuck, and the answer only when you have finished.

Q1 · 1 mark · MCQBoard level
Which religion emerged from eastern India and spread in several directions through intersecting points on the silk routes?
(a) Jainism
(b) Buddhism
(c) Christianity
(d) Islam
Hint
It began in eastern India, long before the missionaries and preachers.
Answer
(b) Buddhism
Q2 · 1 mark · MCQBoard level
Who is the author of the Book of Marvels, from which the chapter's picture of merchants from Venice and the Orient is taken?
(a) Ibn Battuta
(b) Christopher Columbus
(c) Marco Polo
(d) Alfred Crosby
Hint
A Venetian traveller to the East.
Answer
(c) Marco Polo
Q3 · 2 marks · Very short answerHarder board level
How did trade help to spread diseases in the pre-modern world? Explain. (2 marks)
Hint
Who carried goods, and what else did they carry?
Answer
Traders, travellers, priests and pilgrims crossing long distances carried goods along with germs. The long-distance spread of disease-carrying germs can be traced to the seventh century, and by the thirteenth century it had become an unmistakable link between regions.
Q4 · 3 marks · Short answerHOTS / competency
A student writes: 'The silk routes were only a trade road for selling Chinese silk to Europe.' Identify two errors in this statement and correct them. (3 marks)
Hint
Think about 'one road', 'only silk' and 'only trade'.
Answer
First, there was not one road but several silk routes, over land and by sea, linking Asia with Europe and northern Africa. Second, not only silk travelled: Chinese pottery and Indian and Southeast Asian textiles and spices went west, and gold and silver came east. Also, the routes carried culture, such as Buddhism and Christian and Muslim preachers.
Q5 · 3 marks · Short answerHOTS / competency
Suppose a museum display is titled 'Globalisation is 5,000 years old'. Using two examples from the NCERT text, decide whether the title is fair. (3 marks)
Hint
Find the oldest date in Section 1.
Answer
Fair, in the sense of long-distance links. As early as 3000 BCE, about 5,000 years ago, coastal trade linked the Indus valley with West Asia. Later, Maldives cowries reached China and East Africa, and the silk routes joined Asia, Europe and northern Africa. But these were slower and smaller than today's economic system of the last 50 years or so.
Q6 · 2 marks · Very short answerHarder board level
What does the image of a ship on a tenth-century memorial stone in the Goa Museum tell historians? (2 marks)
Hint
Ships appear on such stones from the ninth century.
Answer
From the ninth century, ships appear regularly on memorial stones of the western coast. This shows that oceanic trade was important to people there, important enough to be carved on memorials.
Q7 · 3 marks · Short answerHarder board level
Explain why the silk routes can be called an early example of global interconnection. Give one point each on goods, people and ideas. (3 marks)
Hint
Goods: both directions. People: missionaries and preachers. Ideas: a faith.
Answer
Goods: Chinese silk and pottery and Indian and Southeast Asian textiles and spices went west, and gold and silver flowed to Asia. People: early Christian missionaries and later Muslim preachers travelled the routes. Ideas: Buddhism spread from eastern India through their crossing points. So distant regions were linked economically and culturally.

Test your recall

Answer in your head or on paper first, then open the card. Pulling an answer out of memory makes it stick far better than re-reading.

1.Why are they called silk routes?Show answer
After the west-bound Chinese silk cargoes carried along them.
2.Which regions did the silk routes link?Show answer
Vast regions of Asia, and Asia with Europe and northern Africa.
3.What flowed from Europe to Asia?Show answer
Precious metals: gold and silver.
4.Which faith spread from eastern India along the routes?Show answer
Buddhism.
5.What linked the Indus valley with West Asia around 3000 BCE?Show answer
An active coastal trade.
6.Where did cowries used as currency come from?Show answer
The Maldives; they reached China and East Africa.

Silk Routes Link the World: frequently asked questions

What were the silk routes in Class 10 History?

Several land and sea routes, named after Chinese silk sent west, that linked Asia with Europe and northern Africa from before the Christian Era almost till the fifteenth century.

Why were the silk routes important?

They carried goods both ways and also spread faiths and ideas. They show that the world was linked by trade and culture long before modern globalisation.

Which goods were traded on the silk routes?

Chinese silk and pottery, and textiles and spices from India and Southeast Asia, went west. Gold and silver came from Europe to Asia.

Is the whole Making of a Global World chapter in the board exam?

No. For 2026-27 only Sections 1 to 1.3 (the pre-modern world, silk routes, food travels, and conquest, disease and trade) are board-assessed. The rest is for the internal interdisciplinary project.