Disruption of Silk Road Trade

Timeline

1. 1351–1353Towns along the Silk Road · Central AsiaAfter the Black Death spread along trade routes in the 1340s, towns in Central and West Asia had still not recovered by the early 1350s. Labor shortages, shrinking markets, smaller caravans, and abandoned roadside supply and lodging facilities sharply raised overland trade costs.
2. 1352–1357Central Asian steppe and oasis zone · Central AsiaThe Golden Horde, Chagatai Khanate, and Ilkhanate successively split and fell into civil war. The security mechanisms for trade routes once protected by the Mongol Empire collapsed; postal relay and tariff systems fell into chaos, caravans were frequently raided, and travel risks along the central stretch of the overland Silk Road rose sharply.
3. 1353–1360Hexi Corridor · ChinaThe Red Turban Rebellion and the rise of rival warlords left the Yuan dynasty unable to control the northwestern trade routes. Checkpoints in the Hexi Corridor fell into disrepair and the paper currency system collapsed; silk and porcelain exports from China to Central Asia plummeted, overland Eurasian trade was nearly cut off at its East Asian end, and some goods were rerouted via Indian Ocean sea lanes.