Researched
Paper
Cheap, light paper from plant fibres replaces papyrus, silk and parchment and spreads from China across Asia to Europe.
Open in the interactive tree →Chinese records credit the court official Cai Lun with an improved papermaking process in 105 AD, although older paper fragments exist. Paper reached the Islamic world in the 8th century (a mill in Baghdad from about 794) and Europe via Spain and Italy in the 11th to 13th centuries. Without a cheap writing surface, ledgers, school books and later printing would have stayed far too expensive for ordinary use.
Prerequisites
- Writing~3200 BC
Unlocks
- Baghdad Translation Movement~800
- East Asian Printing868
- Paper Money~1000
- Printing Press~1450Gutenberg's books were printed on cheap paper from the papermaking tradition
- Newspapers & the Public Sphere1605
- Balloon Flight1783
Sources
More in Foundations of Civilization · Antiquity
- Writing~3200 BC
- Weights & Standard Measures~2500 BC
- Alphabet~1800 BC
- Sundial & Water Clock~1500 BC
- Libraries~650 BC
- Philosophy~585 BC
- Plato's Academy387 BC
- Calendar3rd millennium BC