The Silk Route
Code
722051261
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas
Department
História
Credits
10
Weekly hours
3 letivas + 1 tutorial
Teaching language
Portuguese
Objectives
a) To understand the role of the Silk Road in the genesis of Euro-Asian civilizations
b) Territories and peoples of the Silk Road
c) The Indo-Europeans
d) The appearance of Chinese civilization
e) War and the Silk Road
f) Religion and the Silk Road
g) Empires in the Silk Road
h) The advent of maritime routes
Prerequisites
None.
Subject matter
- The history of a concept
- Primitive routes of circulation for commodities and raw-materials
- Pre-Arian Sedentary civilizations (c.2500-1700 aC)
- Indo-European expansion
- Neolithic in China and interaction with western cultures
- The diffusion of the war chariot
- From Shamanism to the first great ethical and universal synthesis
- The path of universal religions; syncretisms
- Anno 1 AD Romans, Parts, Kushanas and Han
- The Great Wall and its consequences
- The discovery of the monsoon
- The raise of the first South East states
- The raise of the Islamic trading routes
Bibliography
- PULLEYBLANK, Edwin, Central Asia and non-Chinese peoples of Ancient China, Aldershot Burlington, Ashgate, 2002.
- FOLTZ, Richard, Religions of the Silk Road. Overland trade and cultural exchange from Antiquity to the Fifteenth century, Nova York, St. Martins Griffin, 1999.
- ROUX, Jean-Paul, LAsie Centrale. Histoire et civilisations, Paris, Fayard, 1997.
- ROBERT, Jean-Noël, De Rome a la Chine, sur les routes de la soie au temps des Césars, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1993.
- LIU, Xinru, Ancient India and Ancient China. Trade and religious exchanges AD 1-600, Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1997, 2ª edição (1988).
Teaching method
Theoretical Sessions.
Practical sessions:
Exercise the commentary of documents.
Discussion of papers.
Activities aimed at teaching - assistance to conferences
Evaluation method
Writing an essay (70%)
Oral presentation of the essay (30%)