Wednesday, October 23, 2013

The Silk Road: A Simulation Reflection

Today was a rather interesting day. My class tried to play out what life was like during the time when empires used to travel the Silk Road for trading and business. I came to understand that life was not as easy as it looked; in fact, it was the complete opposite. The Silk Road was a dangerous place for all people traveling it because of the many possible negative outcomes that can arise from it. The Silk Road had both its benefits and downfalls for the societies that participated in it. Downfalls included things such as death, being robbed, or even having to hire guards to protect you. Benefits are given to those who can complete their travel safely and properly trade with other societies.


The actual simulation that was done in class today didn't work as planned in my group. My group was robbed and cheated by from other groups. Also, when other societies came to us looking for trade, we couldn't really ask for much or give much because we had lost a lot of money. The amount of cons overpowered the pros in this trading activity about the Silk Road. The greatest cons was the language barrier between societies which made trading nearly impossible and the person who controls the currency of all the societies (banker). The pros were the language advisers who could help trading with different societies easier and the banker who wisely used money. The language adviser in my group was Hammad and the banker was Jay. They both did great jobs, however, there was too many obstacles such as the low number of advisers/bankers to the rest of the class (societies). I want to know how real life advisers and bankers actually did this process because Eurasia has an enormous population and it's not easy to get around. Overall, I believe that this simulation worked wondrous for the class because it properly showed what trading felt like during the early days of the Silk Road. 

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