World history should begin with Zhang Qian's "chiseling" of the western region.
In the second year of the Western Han Dynasty, in 139 BC, Zhang Qian was ordered by the Han Wu Emperor Liu Che to send an envoy to the Western Regions to contact the Dayue people to attack the Xiongnu.
However, Zhang Qian only walked to the Hexi Corridor when he was captured by the Xiongnu and placed under house arrest for more than ten years. However, Zhang Qian eventually escaped house arrest from the Xiongnu and reached Dawan (in the area of present-day Fergana) and Bactria (in today's Amu Darya Valley). And in the markets of Bactria saw goods from all over the world, including Deng Zhu canes and Shu cloth in Sichuan. From this, it is inferred that the world further west is very large!
Amu Darya Valley
Later, Zhang Qian returned to Chang'an after arduous journeys and reported to Emperor Liu Che of the Han Dynasty the detailed situation of the vast Eurasian continent west of the hezhong region. This report directly changed the strategy of the Western Han Dynasty, which was originally limited to the control of the Xiongnu, but expanded into the "tianxia" strategy of "covering the land and thousands of miles, repeating the nine translations, making special customs, and having great virtue all over the world".
Battle of Hexi
Subsequently, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty launched a nationwide mobilization to expel the Xiongnu and open up the Hexi Corridor into the Hexi region. Most importantly, after opening up the Hexi Corridor, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty recruited a large number of merchants, and the government rationed goods to the countries of the Western Regions to do business. Thus forming the world's first world system - "Silk Road System".
Because at that time, the East was the Great Han, the West was Rome, and in the middle was rest. However, the currency of Rome was gold, the currency of the Sabbath was silver, and the currency of the Han was copper. It was precisely because Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty opened up the Western Regions and opened up the Silk Road, a kind of "world currency" that could be accepted by these three empires was born, which was the silk of the Great Han!
Roman women wearing silk in frescoes
From this point on, the politics and economy of Eurasia revolved around the control of the Silk Road and the silk trade, including the eastward expansion of the Roman Empire, because the Sabbatarians monopolized the silk trade, resulting in a large outflow of gold from the Roman Empire, and with the roman Empire's conquest of Egypt, the silk trade route extended to Africa.
At this point, Asia, Europe and Africa were connected by silk for the first time, and all this began in 139 BC, the trip of more than a hundred heroes to the Western Regions, and the leader was Zhang Qian.