Extended Abstract
Introduction
The Silk Road was an interwoven network of regional roads that passed through different nations for more than a millennium and during its life it carried out an important mission in the direction of commercial, cultural and technological exchange between the Indian, Iranian, Chinese and Mediterranean civilizations. Although geographical issues, political-military disturbances or epidemic diseases imposed many ups and downs during the life of this road, until the 16th century, a relatively fixed pattern prevailed. Since this time, which some researchers have interpreted as "early modern times", most of the road networks and branches have entered a different era. There is a conflict over this issue which shows the existence of two relatively separate currents of thought: the first group follows Barthold and believes in the hypothesis that the trade of the Silk Road collapsed at one point in 16th century and isolated the Central Asian region from Iran in the "margins of world history"; In explaining the reasons, they generally emphasize the prosperity of the coastal system and the technological progress of Western Europe in maritime trade and put that this was the main factor in the decline of the Silk Road, followed by Central Asia. The second group is researchers who, far from ending the role of Central Asia in mediating Eurasian land trade, confirm the conclusion that Central Asia has experienced more continuity than change at the beginning of the new era. In the context of the studies that have become relatively rich with the above researches, the present article seeks to find a precise answer regarding the fate of the Silk Road in Central Asia.
Methods and Materials
The current research uses the qualitative research method and the descriptive-analytic approach to analyze the situation of Central Asia in the changing nature of the Silk Road. In order to find the causes of changes, the structure of the article has been divided into two sections, regional and transcontinental; it means that we found some causes within the Central Eurasian region and some at the global level, although sometimes some of them are divided into sub-causes.
 
 
 
Discussion and Results
In the current research, the geopolitics of Central Asia in the new era (where there are different opinions among researchers regarding the process of decline or continuation of its prosperity) has been investigated. The findings are as follows:

A) Change in the nature of the Silk Road in the new era

Certainly, this road at the beginning of the new era (16th century AD) looked different from the ancient times, the first and middle Islamic centuries, or even the Mongol era. With the passing of those millennia, many things had changed. Over the centuries, the relative importance of the commercial arteries that formed these overlapping exchange networks expanded and decreased, and some of them fell from prosperity while new networks emerged. Therefore, it may be more accurate to talk about the change in the nature of the road instead of its deterioration, a change that has caused the land networks to find completely new requirements and can only be a continuation of the past in dimensions and parts.

B) Effective factors in changing the Silk Road in the geopolitics of Central Asia

A set of regional (dominance of northern nomads in the region), Eurasian (emergence of Russia and activation of the tea road) and transcontinental factors (coastal system, European developments, East India Company and colonial rivalries) has caused a new dynamic to be established with Russia's active role in Eurasian trade. Apart from the contribution that each factors had in the fate of the Silk Road, the result was that a new form of trade arteries was formed, which overlapped with the traditional Silk Road to some extent.
Conclusions
The most important result of this change is that the transcontinental role of the Silk Road gradually decreased in the new centuries and found regional, neighborhood and local dimensions. The mission of the Silk Road was placed under new actors in new areas. The growing hegemony of Tsarist Russia (through trade and active diplomacy), the British pressures from India's geography (through the great game) and China's effort to maintain its share of the land route and regional trade, along with the breaking of relations with Iran, caused Central Asia to be enclosed in a triangle dominated by Russia. Campaign of this empire to the south with various claims and military occupation of Central Asia was the fate of the Silk Road and the cities and oases of civilization along the road.