The Spice Routes are the vast web of trading networks that connect the Far East with the Mediterranean, covering more than 15,000 kilometers of land and sea travel. Traders bought and sold goods from port to port, and some of the most valuable and desirable on the market were spices, emanating originally from Indonesia, southern China, India, Sri Lanka, and in particular, the Spice Islands in the Pacific Ocean, and on demand throughout Asia and Europe. 

The breakthrough by the Portuguese navigator, Vasco da Gama, to the East in 1499 opened up for the first time the prospect of European control of the Silk and Spice Routes. Their established hegemony over the trade routes was not challenged until the end of the sixteenth century, when Dutch and English forces became a threat.

Trade covered progressively greater distances as technologies became more advanced, allowing merchants to travel not only locally but across great stretches of land and sea. The Malay Peninsula and the Indonesia Archipelago lie between the Indian Ocean and the China Seas, and therefore have always been extremely important points along the trade routes.

The development of empires was closely linked to the control of international trade. Commerce around the Mediterranean in the first millennium BC was dominated by the Greeks – but in his efforts to extend his empire, Alexander the Great made advances to take control of the Indian trade too. A similar pattern is seen in the emergence of the Roman Empire, which had access to the eastern market through Egypt, and at the same time, the Chinese empire was opening trade routes to the west to strengthen its own power. 

European colonial empires were at their peak in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and this had important consequences for the trade routes under their control. Yet by the mid-twentieth century, the balance of political power had shifted once again.

Traders by land had to contend with the hardships and dangers inherent in crossing the Central Asian macro-region on foot; not least, those of political instability.

The Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries gave trade along Central Asian routes a new impetus. Changing political contexts altered the nature of goods produced and marketed, and western culture began to influence the eastern trading countries.  Yet craftsmen and artisans have continued to produce goods that reflect their cultural traditions and heritage. 

The goods that were carried along the trading routes of Central Asia shaped fashions in food and clothing all over Asia and Europe.  Metal and clay were two important materials to be traded, as were textiles and all kinds and carpets, which were highly valued in both east and west. Exotic foods and flavours were particularly precious commodities, bringing new tastes such as pepper to the west. 

The routes that stretched between the Far East and Europe transported more than simply merchandise to trade. The tax from merchants funded the development of civilizations all along the length of the routes, and the intellectual and cultural exchanges that took place were vital to the emergence of vibrant, independent, yet interconnected cultures across modern Central Asia. 

The customs surrounding the burial of the dead are a unique insight into the values and beliefs of the living, and for this reason, the archaeological excavation of graves and burial sites is the principal means by which we can form an understanding of the religions of the Xinjiang region. There are a large number of ancient grave sites in this region of China, among which the largest are the Xiangbaobao graves of Tashkurgan, the Lou-lan graves at Lop Nor, and the pebble and chamber grave sites at Alagou.