History of globalization
The study of how connections among regions and societies expanded through trade, migration, empire, technology, and cultural exchange over time.
Silk Road: A network of overland routes linking East Asia with Central Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Its changing routes carried goods, religions, and ideas across Eurasia for centuries.
Trade diaspora: A community of merchants living outside its homeland while maintaining commercial and social ties with it. Merchant communities linked distant markets through durable relationships and local knowledge.
Afro-Eurasia: The connected landmass comprising Africa, Europe, and Asia. Many premodern trade networks operated within this broad zone before transoceanic integration.
Great Divergence: The historical widening of economic and industrial differences between Western Europe and major Asian economies. Debates about its timing and causes test how global exchange affected regional development.
Archaic globalization: A proposed early phase of globalization characterized by long-distance connections before modern industrialization. It challenges accounts that reserve globalization for the modern era.
Indian Ocean trade: A maritime trading system connecting East Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Monsoon navigation sustained dense commercial ties across several regions.
Monsoon: A seasonal wind system that reverses direction and shapes rainfall patterns in parts of Asia and Africa. Predictable seasonal winds made regular Indian Ocean voyages possible.
Neolithic Revolution: The transition in many societies from foraging to agriculture and settled life. Agricultural surpluses supported larger populations, specialized work, and expanding exchange.
Atlantic slave system: The commercial and political system that enslaved Africans and compelled their labor in the Atlantic world. It shows how global integration generated wealth through extreme violence and racial hierarchy.
Proto-globalization: A proposed phase of growing intercontinental trade and imperial integration before the nineteenth century. The term distinguishes early modern connections from later industrial-scale integration.