The Silk Road was not a single route but a vast network of trade paths connecting East Asia with the Mediterranean. For cent, merchants trans silk, spi, metals a countless ot goods acr deserts a mountains. Equ important w the exch of id, religions a technologies th accompanied th trade. Pa making a new agricu techniques, f example, spr along th routes. Historians therefore regard the Silk Road as one of the earliest forms of globalization.