Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions opens the Silk Road
- Date
- 138–c. 125 BCE
- Category
- Exploration & colonisation
- Region
- Central Asia / China
- Era
- Classical Antiquity
- Significance
In 138 BCE Emperor Wu of Han sent the envoy Zhang Qian westward to seek an alliance with the Yuezhi against the Xiongnu nomads.
Captured and held by the Xiongnu for roughly a decade, Zhang Qian eventually reached Central Asia and returned around 125 BCE after some thirteen years, having failed to secure the alliance but bringing back detailed knowledge of Ferghana, Bactria, Sogdiana and lands as far as Parthia and India. His reports of distant kingdoms, prized 'heavenly horses', and unfamiliar goods spurred Han expansion into the Tarim Basin and the establishment of regular diplomatic and commercial contacts across Inner Asia. These contacts inaugurated the trans-Eurasian trade and exchange networks later called the Silk Road, along which silk, horses, ideas, technologies and eventually Buddhism flowed between China, Central Asia, India and the Mediterranean world. Zhang Qian is remembered as the pioneer who 'opened the road to the West'.
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Empires active in 138–c. 125 BCE
- Roman Republic509 BCE – 27 BCE
- Han Dynasty202 BCE – 220 CE
- Shunga Empire185 BCE – 73 BCE
- Kingdom of Numidia202 BCE – 25 BCE
- Ptolemaic Kingdom305 BCE – 30 BCE
- Seleucid Empire312 BCE – 63 BCE
Related exploration & colonisation events
- Founding of Alexandria in Egypt331 BCE
- Corinth founds Syracuse and the Greek colonisation of the Westc. 733 BCE
- Foundation of Carthage by colonists from Tyre814 BCE (traditional)
- Lapita voyagers settle Tonga and Samoa: first peopling of Remote Oceaniac. 900 BCE
- Columbus's first voyage reaches the Americas12 October 1492
- First Settlement of the Mariana Islands and Entry into Remote Oceaniac. 1500 BCE
Further reading
The wider story
The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han
Authoritative yet readable survey (Harvard History of Imperial China).
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