Create a 6 page essay paper that discusses Silk Roads.Download file to see previous pages... Since the mid-1990s, both domestic and foreign developments have made the government to bestow greater atte

Create a 6 page essay paper that discusses Silk Roads.

Since the mid-1990s, both domestic and foreign developments have made the government to bestow greater attention on the people of China's minority regions, their relationship to the Chinese state, and their foreign ties. Some of these developments include the economic development of, and Han settlement in China's remote minority regions threatening to displace indigenous populations, post-Soviet establishment of independent countries consisting mainly of Muslim and Turkic-speaking peoples across china's north-western frontier presenting problems for related groups in China, and freedom of Mongolia from Soviet control raising the specter of a pan-Mongolian movement inclusive of Chinese Mongols. However, our immediate interest in this paper is centered on the chapters entitled Heteronomy and Its Discontents: "Minzu Regional Autonomy" in Xinjiang, by Gardner Bovingdon, and Making Xinjiang Safe for the Han Contradictions and Ironies of Chinese Governance in China's Northwest by David Bachman in Rossabi's book. The writers have extensive fieldwork experience in these regions, and therefore, are able to illuminate their analysis with interview material and other fieldwork notes. The current phase of modernization in China has officially been described as being beneficial for minorities. however, the authors present a picture where ethnic minorities are increasingly marginalized in their home regions, because of ethnic discrimination, massive surge of Han-Chinese migrants, and distorted economic policies. This marginalization has increased dissatisfaction among ethnic minorities, sometimes even leading to violent conflicts. This has been so more in the Xinjiang region in recent years than in the Tibetan region.

The Silk Road region

The Xinjiang region has been 'the heartland' of the ancient Silk Road. Kingdoms have risen and fallen in that region for the past 2000 years. In the early 20th century, foreign archaeologists found Muslim communities built upon Tang dynasty ruins. It is an important part of the region through which the ancient Silk Road passed. The Silk Road was once unsurpassed in the trade it took across Asia to Europe and back and along with it, also the cultures of the East. This region is an inhospitable area with very little vegetation, and almost no rainfall. and constantly visited by sandstorms which have claimed many lives. On the eastern and western sides of the region, the civilizations of China and the West developed. In the west the Persian Empire was in control of an area extending from the Mediterranean Sea to the borders of India. The Chinese exploration of the west began when in 138 BC, Zhang Qian was sent by the Han emperor on a mission to form an alliance with the Yuezhi tribe in the west. He could return only 13 years later, but brought with him important information about a new breed of horse and hitherto unknown tribes in the west. More expeditions were sent west to get horses and objects of beauty for the emperor. By this process, the route to the west was opened up. The Silk Road was not one single route, but many routes and roads. and some routes were not well protected and suffered from plunder by bandits.