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Protest from the Margins: Emerging Global Networks in the Early Sixteenth Century and Their German Detractors

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Other Globes

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Globalization, Culture and Society ((PSGCS))

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Abstract

This chapter argues for an inclusion of earlier historical periods in the contemporary discussion of globalization and provides a theoretical framework for doing so. The key features of early modern globalization were the Portuguese discovery of the sea route to Asia, the ensuing rapid growth of global trade networks, the first information revolution, and the growing cosmographic understanding of the earth as endless space. While Germany stood at its periphery, its impact nonetheless was registered and discussed in a range of texts as the old urban elites felt threatened and marginalized by the rise of a new class of globally networked merchants. Writers like Sebastian Brant, Ulrich von Hutten, Martin Luther, and Hieronymus Bock engaged in a nationalist backlash against the felt impact of the globalizing dynamic and constructed false memories of a pure, heroic, and idyllic German culture of the past.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA

    Peter Hess

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  1. Peter Hess
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Correspondence to Peter Hess .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Simon Ferdinand

  2. Department of Spanish Language and Culture, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Irene Villaescusa-Illán

  3. Literary and Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Esther Peeren

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Hess, P. (2019). Protest from the Margins: Emerging Global Networks in the Early Sixteenth Century and Their German Detractors. In: Ferdinand, S., Villaescusa-Illán, I., Peeren, E. (eds) Other Globes. Palgrave Studies in Globalization, Culture and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14980-2_2

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