“We think of globalisation as a uniquely modern phenomenon; yet 2,000 years ago, too, it was a fact of life, one that presented opportunities, created problems and prompted technological advance.” These are the words of Peter Frankopan on globalisation and regional integration through Silk Road, put forth by him in the book, ‘The Silk Roads: A New History of the World.’ Globalisation, a growing phenomenon, has been described as a “shift toward a more integrated and interdependent world economy.” The Internet is now the most significant technological innovation that is playing a role in the growth of globalisation.
The Internet facilitated the expansion of the movement toward a global village, through the creation of cheaper, faster and easier means of communication, the provision of a vast pool of information, and the expansion of e-commerce. Thus, the old Silk Roads and the Internet are similar in the way they both facilitated and promoted the phenomenon of globalisation and regional integration.
Laura Adams notes that globalisation is a process that contributes to international integration and homogenisation. Silk Road was a model of globalisation, symbolised global economic and cultural networking based on mutual interaction and cooperation.
The Silk Roads were functional since ancient times. However, the term Silk Road was coined by Ferdinand Von Richtofen, a German geographer and explorer in the second half of the 19th century. It refers to a network of interlinked trade routes across the Afro-Eurasian landmass that connected East, South, and West Asia with the Mediterranean and European world, and parts of North and East Africa.
Trade on the Silk Road was a significant factor in the development of the great civilisations of China, India, Egypt, Persia, Arabia and Rome. This trans-continental route, spreading almost over 4,000 miles (6,500 km), enabled traders to transport goods and luxuries such as silk, satin, hemp and other fine fabrics, musk, perfumes, spices, medicines, jewels, glassware, rhubarb and slaves to markets abroad. China traded silk, spices, tea, and porcelain; India traded ivory, textiles, precious stones and pepper. The Roman Empire reciprocated by exporting gold, silver, fine glassware, wine, carpets, and jewels to its counterparts in India, Egypt, Central Asia, China, etc.
This global trade route in history had a scope and importance far greater than the simple exchange of goods. Indeed, the myriad of inter-connected routes served as a vehicle for the fruitful exchange of art, religion, culture, ideas and technology. It was instrumental in linking peoples, communities and nations together for artistic, scholarly, cultural, religious and spiritual pursuits. The Silk Road gave life to varied cultural forms including religious syncretism, sufis, saints, holy men (pirs), monks, missionaries, pilgrims, who wandered and acted as a catalyst for many existing religious trends and spiritual conceptions.
The Silk Road became the most important factor in globalising the ancient world. The thoroughfare enabled merchants, pilgrims, soldiers, explorers, and those interested in adventure the opportunity of a lifetime. Raw materials and finished products were moved in relay fashion from city to city and while many objects made the entire journey, few people did, as they would traditionally move from city to city and then pass on their goods to other merchants who would continue to move them along the road in a relay fashion. Expanding markets and input sources beyond national boundaries is one of the key characteristics of globalisation and regional integration.
According to Robert Allen, the basic ingredient of any integration is the elimination of barriers to trade among two or more countries. Globalisation is considered to be the dominant expression of regional or economic integration with multiple benefits to the partner states. It connotes an evolving spatial process that frequently seeks to reduce ethnic, national and cultural distinctions.
The Internet provides a new Silk Road for globalisation with many remarkable similarities to the ancient Silk Road. The Internet is an interconnected network for the transfer of goods, services, raw materials and finished products. Just like the relay system for cargo on the Silk Road, information packets pass from city-to-city, point-to-point across the Internet. It provides us with the world’s largest global bazaar, where everything is for sale. Even money has been morphed into bit coins as a form of international Internet exchange. Now, the new Silk Road is measured not in miles, continents, or ocean crossed, but in petabytes, exabytes of information streaming around the globe. The indexed pages of the Internet as in Feb 2016 were estimated to be 4.83 billion pages and if the indexed pages account is assumed for only one-third of the total pages, then over 14.4 billion pages are there. These new ‘miles’ represent a global network that spans continents and cultures.
The webpages are now accessed in all languages through on-line translators, as well as shop across the globe. Clients in India and China can now order items from Amazon and other vendors and have them delivered in record time. Services can span around the globe through Internet interactions and global stock prices affect the national markets day and night. Financial observers see the internet as a catalyst for globalisation due to the way it has united the world.
Web technology is changing the way we work, expanding the global knowledge base and bringing people and society close together. Data is exchanged and communicated between companies around the globe. The global e-commerce is expanding and demographics of the global economy are changing. Internet is a great and popular invention that has changed, developed and improved society.
Thus, the Silk Road and the Internet have both been a great way of connecting people and cultures. Traders used to meet at oases, bazaars, caravansarai and courts, where sharing and exchanging occurred. People traded the finest goods produced by their native artisans, learnt new songs and philosophies. They also shared types of dance, music, instruments, songs, food and clothing. Religion, language and food spread most along the Silk Road. The internet is quite similar to the Silk Road for connecting people of different cultures, religions and languages. People are now communicating and interacting with each-other through the various social networks.

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Dr Ab Hamid Sheikh