The commercial hub of the Old World in the 1st century (2019)

This map, published by Christian Grataloup as part of The Historical World Atlas in 2019, shows the geopolitical situation of the ancient world in the 1st century.

The map shows the major powers of the time in different colours:

• The Roman Empire, in purple.
• The Parthian Empire, in light orange.
• The Kushan Empire, in light brown.
• The Han dynasty, in dark orange.

All these powers, accompanied by many smaller states, had trade networks that interconnected the different corners of the Old World, from the west coast of Europe to the east coast of Asia. The map shows the main land routes in red and the main sea routes in blue. Red text indicates the origin of the most valuable products traded along the existing routes.

In the region occupied by the Han dynasty, the extent of the Great Wall of China is also shown by a black line. Similarly, the main peoples of the steppes are also shown in grey letters, one of the reasons why the wall was built, to defend against attacks from these peoples. In Europe, the peripheral peoples that the Roman Empire faced on multiple occasions are also shown in brown letters.

Sources

• The axis of the Old World at the beginning of our era
• Global geopolitics at the beginning of our era