I saw some of the most interesting news tied to world history I have read in a long, long time. And I think it is worth debating. China wants to build a New Silk Road to Baghdad.
Most of the funding for a proposed Asian Infrastructure Fund lender would come from China. It would be spent on infrastructure projects across the region, including a direct rail link from Beijing to Baghdad.
World history is going to repeat itself. New Silk Road
infrastructure investment needed is huge. This will be a global game changer -- and a sensational road or rail trip for all of us to put on our bucket list.The New Silk Road would make Baghdad the new center of the world?
Agree. It is hard to imagine, at the moment, given the gaping instability. Step back. Circumstances can and do change in dramatic ways. Huge infrastructure investment from China to end in Baghdad may just be the big, exciting vision needed to catalyze the region.
The mythic Tower of Babylon will be reborn.The Old Silk Road
According to Wiki, the Silk Road
, or Silk Route
, is a series of trade and cultural transmission routes.
They were central to cultural interaction through regions of the Asian continent. It connected West and East by linking traders, merchants, pilgrims, monks, soldiers, nomads, and urban dwellers from China to the Mediterranean Sea during various periods of time.
Extending 4,000 miles, the Silk Road derives its name from the lucrative trade in Chinese silk carried out along its length, beginning during the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD). Central Asian sections of the trade routes were expanded around 114 BC by the Han dynasty, largely through missions and explorations of Chinese imperial envoy, Zhang Qian.
The Chinese took great interest in the safety of their trade products. They extended the Great Wall of China to ensure protection of the trade route.
Trade on the Silk Road was a significant factor in the development of the civilizations of China, the Indian subcontinent, Persia, Europe, and Arabia. It opened long-distance, political and economic interactions between civilizations.
Though silk was certainly the major trade item from China, many other goods were traded. Various technologies, religions, and philosophies, as well as the bubonic plague (the Black Death), also travelled along the Silk Routes
In addition to economic trade, the Silk Road
served as a means of carrying out cultural trade among the civilizations along its network.The New Silk Road
According to the FT on June 24 th
, 2014 (2000 years later, give or take a century or two!), China is expanding plans to establish a global financial institution to rival the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, which Beijing fears are too influenced by the U.S. and its allies.
In meetings with other countries, Beijing has proposed doubling the size of registered capital for the proposed bank to $100 billion, according to two people familiar with the matter. So far, 22 countries across the region, including several wealthy states in the Middle East, which China refers to as "West Asia", have shown interest in the multilateral lender, which would be known as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.It would initially focus on building a new version of the"Silk Road",the ancient trade route that once connected Europe to China.My RTI Question: Will A New Silk Road Happen Soon?
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