View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-silk-road-history-s-first-world-wide-web-shannon-harris-castelo

With modern technology, a global exchange of goods and ideas can happen at the click of a button. But what about 2,000 years ago? Shannon Harris Castelo unfolds the history of the 5,000-mile Silk Road, a network of multiple routes that used the common language of commerce to connect the world's major settlements, thread by thread.

Lesson by Shannon Harris Castelo, animation by Steff Lee.