The
Persian empire was established by Cyrus II, Cyrus the Great in 550
BCE with the conquest of Median, Lydian and Babylonian.
The
empire kept growing and at one point around 480 BCE the Persian
Empire had almost half of the whole world under its control with a
population of almost 50 million of the estimated 112 million people
on the whole planet.
The
most notable part of Persian history include the three Persian wars
that confronted the Greeks and the Persians.
It was Darius I who started the Persian wars by invading Greece mainland, and it was also him who developed the Persian Royal road, an ancient highway built to facilitate rapid communication through the Persian empire; From Susa, in Iran, to Sardis, modern-day Turkey. 2700 km in total.
Fast
forward a few hundred years, the Persian Royal road served as the
backbone for the most famous Silk Road, an ancient network of trade
routes, both terrestrial and maritime, that connected East Asia and
Southeast Asia with East Africa, West Asia and Southern Europe.
Trade
on the Road played a significant role in the development of the
civilizations of China, Korea, Japan, India, Iran, Afghanistan,
Europe, the Horn of Africa and Arabia opening long-distance political
and economic relations between the civilizations.
Though
silk was the major trade item exported from China, many other goods
were traded, as well as religions, philosophies, sciences, and
technologies. Diseases, most notably plague and black death, also
spread along the Silk Road.
As
we said, the Persian Royal Road
serve as one of the main arteries of the Silk Road and
Iran, as a country located between
China and Europe, played a key role in connecting various cultures
and civilizations that existed along the Silk Road with
Persepolis becaming one of the main trading points along the road.
Today,
China is bringing back to life the
old Silk Road with the One Belt, One Road initiative.
