Was the Silk Road instrumental in bringing the compass and gunpowder to Europe prior to the 13th century?

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Was the Silk Road instrumental in bringing the compass and gunpowder to Europe prior to the 13th century?

May 20, 2009

Word Count: 1852

Was the Silk Road instrumental in bringing the compass and gunpowder to Europe prior to the 13th century?

Part A: Plan of the Investigation

Was the Silk Road instrumental in bringing the compass and gunpowder to Europe prior to the 13th century? Historians throughout the ages have argued about how these essential technologies came to be in Europe. The Silk Road stretched from Northeast Asia to the Eastern Mediterranean region, providing land and sea trade routes from the first century CE. It is one of the mostly likely routes for the process. The purpose of this internal assessment is to explore different theories regarding how the compass and gunpowder reached Europe, and determine if the Silk Road was significant in the transportation of the technologies. Diverse sources were examined including books, articles, and videos related to the topic. Part B will provide the general facts of the compass and gunpowder accepted by the sources examined. Part C will evaluate two of the sources presented, and examine their strengths and weaknesses. Part D will analyze the evidence found in the sources, and Part E will be a conclusion based on the examination of the sources and evidence.

Part B: Summary of Evidence

        The compass was first invented in China around 200 BCE as a religious and decorative instrument. The first known text documenting the relationship between the compass and magnetism was a piece of Chinese literature written in the 4th century BCE, named “Dream Pool Essays” by Shen Kua, a Chinese encyclopaedist (Compass: A Story of Exploration and Innovation by Alan Gurney, page 36). However, according to documents, the compass was not used as a navigation device until 1119 (Compass: A Story of Exploration and Innovation by Alan Gurney, page 37). Prior to the invention of the compass, navigation was only possible by observing the sun on a clear day or the moon and the stars when visible at night. Evidence shows that identical versions of the compass appeared consecutively in three parts of the world along the Silk Road. During the 13th century, the compass appeared in Europe, and the device became widely used for steering in the early 1400s. This allowed the Europeans to determine directions even when the night sky was obscured. The first compass in Europe was made simply of a magnetized pointer floating in a bowl of water, which made it extremely inefficient and inaccurate (Compass: A Story of Exploration and Innovation by Alan Gurney, page 38-39). As time progressed, inventors and scientists from different countries constantly improved the design of the compass, making it the first and the most popular navigation device in the modern world. Today, the compass has become the inspiration for various 21st century technologies such as the GPS system and the cruise missile.

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Gun powder, which originated in China in the 9th century, was accidentally discovered by Chinese alchemists searching for an elixir that would grant immortality to humans. A passage in a Chinese alchemist text, believed to be written in the mid-800s, was the first to document the use of gun powder. The passage stated, “… some have heated together sulfur, realgar, and saltpeter with honey; smoke and flames result, so that their hands and faces have been burnt, and even the whole house where they were working burned down (Cambridge Encyclopedia Vol.31).” Merchants travelling on the Silk Road transported samples and information ...

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