Abstract
This chapter is divided into two parts. First, we will view the structure and dynamics of the Afro-Eurasian world-system in the centuries preceding the Age of Discovery. We will give particular attention to the issues of this world-system’s connectivity and prerequisites to its subsequent global expansion. Second, we will view the main directions of this world-system’s expansion during the Age of Discovery, which formed the basis of early modern globalization. Then we will proceed to investigate some of the most prominent manifestations and consequences of early modern globalization, namely the intensification of existing transregional flows and interactions, as well as the emergence and sudden spread of new ones. For example, the “Columbian exchange” in flora and fauna led to a gradual globalization of the world’s staple foods, which changed the sociodemographic dynamics in most societies; globalization of pathogens led to severe cases of depopulation in some societies, dramatically changing the balance of power in the regions integrated into the now global World System; the structure of the world trade network transformed as new regions and their resources entered it; and the formation of a “global silver network” led to a sort of global “quantitative easing.” A truly global network space of flows and interactions emerged, which was to increase in density, variability, and importance in the subsequent centuries, prompting humanity to enter the era of modernity.
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Notes
- 1.
Native Americans domesticated mainly llamas and alpacas. These are social animals that live in small herds and do not carry infectious diseases.
- 2.
The example of the turkey is noteworthy here. The Portuguese carried it from Brazil to Goa as a food supply during sea voyages. Turkey became popular in India at the beginning of the seventeenth century. British citizens living in India named it “guinea fowl,” because to them it seemed similar to an African fowl common in Guinea in particular. Later on, turkey traveled from India to the Ottoman Empire, including Egypt. It was given the name of “Hindi,” the Indian fowl. This name is still common in many countries of the Middle East, in Russia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. Some time later, the fowl came to England from the Ottoman Empire (Turkey), where it was named after the country it came from. Turkey’s trip around the world came to an end in 1620, when it returned to North America with the first settlers on the Mayflower.
- 3.
In traditional societies, diseases resulting from a lack of vitamins, for example, scurvy, frequently affected peasants, especially in the northern regions of the Afro-Eurasian world-system (McNeill 1976: 204–205).
- 4.
Quantitative easing is a monetary policy used by central banks to stimulate national economies. Central banks buy financial assets, thus raising their prices and increasing the money supply in the economy. This role of stimulating the economy (along with trade, urbanization, and so on) at a global level was played by the Latin American silver mines (in the nineteenth century the same role would be played by the discovery of gold reserves in California, Australia, and South Africa).
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Zinkina, J. et al. (2019). Proto-modern and Early Modern Globalization: How Was The Global World Born?. In: A Big History of Globalization. World-Systems Evolution and Global Futures. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05707-7_5
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