Page 92 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

tfw-32 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

The perfect knowledge of history is extremely necessary; because, as it informs
us of what was done by other people, in former ages, it instructs us what to
do in the like cases. Besides, as it is the common subject of conversation,
it is a shame to be ignorant of it. • LORD CHESTERFIELD (1694–1773)

active support of metropolitan merchants or govern- rose from approximately $120 billion (in 1990 interna-
ments. World populations continued to grow, despite tional dollars) in 1000 to almost $700 billion in 1820.
sharp declines in much of Eurasia after the Black Death
(bubonic plague) of the fourteenth century and in the Creation of Global Networks
Americas during the sixteenth century after the arrival of The most important change during this era was the uni-
Afro-Eurasian diseases such as smallpox. The sixteenth- fication of the major world zones during the sixteenth
century economic and demographic collapse in the Amer- century.This unification created the first global networks
icas was offset in the long run by the arrival of immi- of exchanges.The linking of regions that previously had
grants, livestock, and new crops from Eurasia and the no contact for many thousands of years generated a com-
subsequent expansion of land under cultivation. In agri- mercial and intellectual synergy that was to play a criti-
culture, weaponry, transportation (particularly seaborne cal role in the emergence of the modern world.
transportation), and industry, a steady trickle of innova- In Afro-Eurasia the most striking feature of the early
tions sustained growth by gently raising average produc- part of the last millennium was the increasing scale and
tivity and enhancing state power. The economist Angus intensity of international contacts. Viking raiders and
Maddison has estimated that global gross domestic prod- traders traveled in central Asia, in the Mediterranean,
uct (GDP, the total production of goods and services) along the coast of western Europe, even in distant Iceland
and Greenland, and in 1000 they even created a short-
For more on these topics, please see the following articles:
lived colony in Newfoundland, Canada.The astonishing
Aztec Empire p. 221 (v1)
conquests of the Mongols early during the thirteenth cen-
Biological Exchanges p. 249 (v1)
tury created a huge zone of relative peace extending from
China p. 332 (v1)
Manchuria to the Mediterranean, and, with Mongol pro-
Columbian Exchange p. 386 (v1)
tection, the trade routes of the Silk Roads flourished dur-
Crusades,The p. 453 (v1)
ing the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. Sea
Diseases—Overview p. 543 (v2)
routes were equally active, and exchanges of goods by sea
Diseases, Animal p. 551 (v2)
from the Mediterranean through southern and south-
Economic Growth, Extensive and Intensive p. 610 (v2)
eastern Asia to China became routine. Briefly during the
Expansion, European p. 700 (v2)
early fifteenth century Chinese fleets made a series of
Exploration, Chinese p. 712 (v2)
expeditions to the West, some of which took them to Ara-
Firearms p. 750 (v2)
bia in southwestern Asia and east Africa.
Inca Empire p. 958 (v3)
Control of the Eurasian heartlands of Persia and cen-
Islamic World p. 1036 (v3)
tral Asia—first by the Muslim empire of the Abbasids late
Labor Systems, Coercive p. 1094 (v3)
during the first millennium and then by the Mongols—
Maritime History p. 1188 (v3)
encouraged the exchange of technologies, goods, and reli-
Mongol Empire p. 1295 (v3)
gious and cultural traditions throughout Eurasia. In the
Navigation p. 1363 (v4)
Americas the first imperial states appeared.The most suc-
Ottoman Empire p. 1401 (v4)
cessful and best known were those of the Aztecs, based at
Population p. 1484 (v4)
Tenochtitlan in Mexico, and of the Incas, based at Cuzco
Slave Trades p. 1717 (v4)
in Peru. These were the first American polities (political
Technology—Overview p. 1806 (v5)
organizations) to exert direct political and military control
Trading Patterns, Mesoamerican p. 1874 (v5)
over very large areas.
Viking Society p. 1936 (v5)
However, the small, highly commercialized states of
War and Peace—Overview p. 1943 (v5)
western Europe, not imperial states, eventually linked the