Recently I've been very interested in interactions between

Well, the Muslims took the better parts of the silk road, so a direct exchange was simply not possible until the opening of the sea lanes.

>>2246269
If you are into Marco Polo, check this guy out:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Schiltberger

A Bavarian who ended up serving in Timur's army.

>>2246269
>But how come there's a kind of "gap" between the interactions with Mongols and China during the crusades and the renaissance?

You mean during the period of the Yuan dynasty, a dynasty of Mongol origin?

>>2246367
Should've picked a better way to phrase that.
What I mean, is, why is there a a gap in history between the late middle ages and the renaissance, in which nothing noteworthy outside of trade happened between the east and the west?

>>2246378
>What I mean, is, why is there a a gap in history between the late middle ages and the renaissance, in which nothing noteworthy outside of trade happened between the east and the west?

There isn't? I mean the steppes were mostly peaceful during that period but there was plenty of foolishness and mischief going on elsewhere.

Also, this is a nitpick but, there is no gap between the late medieval and the renaissance, the one led directly into the other or, to put it another way, the renaissance is what put an end to the middle ages. Hell, the last of the Crusades happened AFTER the renaissance had started.

>>2246378
Because the silk road was closed. thats why.

>>2246424
>>2246269
You can't "Close" the silk road. The Merchants who traversed them were as insane as the nomads who raided them. Nobody was a pussy in the Silk Road.

What really fucked it up was the collapse of Abbasid Power and upheavals within Central Asia, which include
>Turkics converting to Islam in droves and invading the middle east nigh continuously.
>Eastern Central Asians like the Khitans and the Jurchens thinking central asia sucks now and moving Northwest to bother China.
>Endemic warfare amongst the Nomads left as major nomadic powers went either east or west.

>>2246454
It was not that a European could travel to China, so I don't know what OP is suggesting it was not that the East and West ever had real contact before the age of explorers.

>>2246473
I'm suggesting that the interactions between the east and the west seems as if they werent more than trade by a few merchants.
Merchants who, as previously mentioned, were insane enough to follow the silk road.

>>2246480
Actually no one traveled the whole length of the silk road, more like each merchant made a stretch over and then sold the goods to the next merchant.
I'm still asking what kind of contacts OP is suggesting? There is maybe a handful of individuals that traveled from Europe to China in the middle ages.

>>2246480
>>2246494
I am OP. I'm suggesting deeper contact than just trade, but diplomatically and culturally.

>>2246497
Well, there was virtually none.

>>2246516
Wrong.

It was actually a Parthian who brought Buddhism to China by the name of An Shigao.

>>2246497
There was lots of that too.

Sculpture, music and science all traveled along the Silk Road.

Letters were sent from Chinese Emperors to Roman Emperors as well.

>>2248563
Source ?

I thought it was indian missionaries who took Buddhism to china

>>2246269
Stuff happened, you just haven't dug deep enough.

>>2246335
Thanks anon! Just downloaded his "reisebuch"

>>2250250
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Shigao

Check sources

Buddhism was mostly developed by Sogdians, Greeks (Greco-Buddhism), and Parthians.

File: Buddhist_Expansion.svg.png (170KB, 640x593px) Image search: [Google]

170KB, 640x593px

>>2254219
>Buddhism was mostly developed by Sogdians, Greeks (Greco-Buddhism), and Parthians.

Uh what ?

That's increadibly simplistic for the simple fact Buddhism was mainly an Indian cultural export and one of the most important sects of Buddhism - Theravda was a mainly Indian and Sri lankan product later exported to SEA. Central asia was always at the fringes of Buddhism and that too only for short time before getting walloped by Islam

File: 1452182976775.jpg (90KB, 490x604px) Image search: [Google]

90KB, 490x604px

>>2254219
>>2254720
Das ritee...we wuz buddhists n' shieeet