Disadvantages and dangers

While the Silk Road had many positive impacts, it also had negative ones too. It is not a proven fact, however, many people believe that the plague was brought to Europe from China through the Silk Road, resulting in the Black Death. This negatively impacted Europe because it caused about 25 million people to die, which was approximately 1/3 of the population (National Geographic 2017). Disease wasn't the only danger. The route itself was extremely dangerous to anyone travelling it. The Gobi desert was dry and hot which lead to dehydration; travel by sea meant shipwrecks, storms, and pirates; even environmentally safe areas were dangerous because of bandits and wild animals (Hirth 1885). No one travelling the Silk Road was safe from these dangers.

Sources: 

Hirth, Friedrich. China and the Roman Orient Researches into Their Ancient and Mediaeval Relations as Represented in Old Chinese Records. Place of Publication Not Identified: Nobel Press, 1885.

This source contributes to my thesis because it describes first-hand experiences of the dangers of the Silk Road. This was my words source module because I used voyant to find where words such as danger, harm, death, and hurt, were mentioned so I could find exactly which pages talked about the dangers of the Silk Road.

“Plague Information and Facts.” Information and Facts | National Geographic, 18 Jan. 2017, www.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-diseases/the-plague/.

This source contributes to my thesis because it provides evidence that the plague began and China, transferred to Europe, and killed millions of people. This source was my numbers module because it mentioned the statistics of how many people were killed by the Black Death, and the plague in general.