Choose ONE of the “Big Picture Questions” from EITHER Chapter 9(page 1057)or Chapter 10(page 1157).
Write a 250 words essay that answers one question of your choosing.
2
3
About the Cover Image
Detail of a Procession, Fresco from the
Palace of Knossos, ca. 1500 B.C.E.
These two young men, carrying vessels containing wine or oil,
were part of an ancient ceremonial procession on the island of
Crete, as depicted in frescoes dating to about 1500 B.C.E. These
frescoes, uncovered in a huge palace complex in the early
twentieth century, featured hundreds of men and women, some
bearing gifts, as well as two priestesses and a goddess figure.
The palace and its frescoes are striking expressions of an early
civilization, called Minoan, that flourished on Crete between
roughly 2000 and 1375 B.C.E. This civilization was known for the
sophistication and exuberance of its art and architecture, for
the size and complexity of its major city of Knossos, for the
prominence of female figures in its religion, and for a network
of international connections that included Egypt and the Middle
East, the islands of the Aegean Sea, and Greece.
4
5
VOLUME 1
Through the Fifteenth Century
Ways of the World
A Brief Global History with Sources
FOURTH EDITION
Robert W. Strayer
The College at Brockport: State University of New York
Eric W. Nelson
Missouri State University
6
FOR EVELYN RHIANNON WITH LOVE
For Bedford/St. Martin’s
Vice President, Editorial, Macmillan Learning Humanities:
Edwin Hill
Program Director for History: Michael Rosenberg
Senior Program Manager for History: William J. Lombardo
History Marketing Manager: Melissa Rodriguez
Director of Content Development, Humanities: Jane Knetzger
Senior Developmental Editor: Heidi L. Hood
Senior Content Project Manager: Christina M. Horn
Workflow Project Supervisor: Joe Ford
Production Supervisor: Robin Besofsky
Senior Media Project Manager: Michelle Camisa
Media Editor: Tess Fletcher
Editorial Assistant: Stephanie Sosa
Copy Editor: Susan Zorn
Indexer: Leoni Z. McVey
Editorial Services: Lumina Datamatics, Inc.
Composition: Lumina Datamatics, Inc.
Cartographer: Mapping Specialists, Ltd.
Photo Editor: Christine Buese
Photo Researcher: Bruce Carson
Permissions Editor: Eve Lehmann
Design Director, Content Management: Diana Blume
Text Design: Lisa Buckley
Cover Design: William Boardman
7
Cover Image: top, Fragment with wrestling lions and harpies,
early 12th century (silk lampas with supplementary
discontinuous metal-wrapped patterning wefts), Spanish School
(12th century)/Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts,
USA/Helen and Alice Colburn Fund and Harriet Otis Cruft
Fund/Bridgeman Images; bottom, Detail of a procession, from
the palace of Knossos, ca. 1500 B.C.E. (fresco painting), Minoan/
© Sylvie Allouche/Bridgeman Images
Copyright © 2019, 2016, 2013, 2011 by Bedford/St. Martin’s.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise, except as may be permitted by law or expressly
permitted in writing by the Publisher.
1 2 3 4 5 6
23 22 21 20 19 18
For information, write: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 75 Arlington
Street, Boston, MA 02116
ISBN 978-1-319-21886-7 (mobi)
Acknowledgments
Text acknowledgments and copyrights appear at the back of the
book on page 544, which constitutes an extension of the
copyright page. Art acknowledgments and copyrights appear on
the same page as the art selections they cover.
8
Preface
About Ways of the World
Ways of the World is an intentionally brief global history of the
human experience that focuses on the big pictures of world
history, using examples selectively rather than cluttering the
narrative with endless details. It repeatedly highlights issues of
change, of comparison, and of connection among culturally
different peoples, both in the narrative text and in the book’s
innovative primary and secondary source features.
The main title of the book, Ways of the World, evokes three
dimensions of its distinctive character and outlook, all of them
based on our experience as teachers and scholars. The first is
diversity or variation, for the “ways of the world,” or the ways
of being human in the world, have been many and constantly
changing. This book seeks to embrace the global experience of
humankind, both in its common features and in its vast
diversity, while noticing the changing location of particular
centers of innovation and wider influence.
Second, the title Ways of the World invokes major
panoramas, patterns, or pathways in world history rather than
a highly detailed narrative, which can often overwhelm
students. Thus, most chapters are organized in terms of broad
global or transregional themes, illustrated by a limited number
of specific examples.
9
A third implication of the book’s title lies in a certain
reflective quality that appears in the Big Picture essays that
introduce each Part, in the Reflections section at the end of
each chapter, and periodically in the narrative itself. This
dimension of the book offers many opportunities for pondering
larger questions about how historians operate, about the
dilemmas they face in reconstructing the human journey, and
about the relationship of the past to the present.
These elements of Ways of the World find expression
repeatedly in what we call the four Cs of world history: context,
change, comparison, and connection. The first “C,” context,
refers to the larger frameworks within which particular
historical figures, events, societies, and civilizations take shape.
In our telling of the human past, context is central, for in world
history nothing stands alone. Like Russian nesting dolls, every
story finds a place in some more inclusive narrative. European
empires in the Americas, for example, take on new meaning
when they are understood as part of a global process of imperial
expansion that included the growth of the Inca, Russian,
Chinese, and Ottoman empires at the same time.
The second “C,” large-scale change, both within and
especially across major regions of the world, represents another
prominent emphasis in Ways of the World. Examples include
the peopling of the planet, the emergence of “civilization,” the
linking of Eastern and Western hemispheres in the wake of
Columbus’s voyages, the Industrial Revolution, and many other
10
significant changes during the course of human history. The
flip side of change, of course, is continuity, implying a focus on
what persists over long periods of time. And so Ways of the
World seeks to juxtapose these contrasting elements of human
experience. While civilizations have changed dramatically over
time, some of their essential features — cities, states,
patriarchy, and class inequality, for example — have long
endured.
A third “C” involves frequent comparison, bringing several
regions or cultures into our field of vision at the same time. It
means constantly asking “what’s the difference?” Thus this book
makes comparisons between the Agricultural Revolution in the
Eastern and Western hemispheres; between the beginnings of
Buddhism and the early history of Christianity and Islam;
between the Russian and Chinese revolutions; and between
feminism in the Global North and the Global South. These and
many more comparisons frequently punctuate our account of
the global past.
The final “C” emphasizes connections, networks of
communication and exchange that increasingly shaped the
character of the societies that participated in them. In our
account of the human story, world history is less about what
happened within particular civilizations or cultures than about
the processes and outcomes of their meetings with one another.
Cross-cultural encounters then become one of the major motors
of historical transformation. Examples include the clash of the
11
ancient Greeks and the Persians; the long-distance commercial
networks that linked the Afro-Eurasian world; the numerous
cross-cultural interactions spawned by the spread of Islam; the
trans-hemispheric Columbian exchange of the early modern
era; and the more recent growth of a thoroughly entangled
global economy.
These emphases have remained at the heart of Ways of the
World since its initial publication in 2008. But the book has also
changed, grown, and matured. Originally a brief account of the
global past by a single author, Robert Strayer, it has acquired a
fine co-author in Eric Nelson from Missouri State University.
Along the way, it also began to combine a brief narrative text
with thematically based sets of primary sources followed by
paired secondary sources at the end of each chapter. What has
emerged is a new kind of book for the world history survey, one
that enables students to “do history,” using the kind of evidence
that historians work with. Each of the Working with Evidence
primary source collections now includes both documents and
images and is organized around a particular theme, issue, or
question that derives from the chapter narrative. As the title of
these features suggests, they enable students to “work with
evidence” and thus begin to understand the craft of historians
as well as their conclusions. They include brief headnotes that
provide context for the sources, and they are accompanied by a
series of probing Doing History questions appropriate for inclass discussion and writing assignments. Furthermore,
12
Working with Evidence is now followed by a new Historians’
Voices secondary source feature that presents two brief extracts
from scholarly works, aligned with the theme of the Working
with Evidence feature. Thus it can be used in conjunction with
that feature or assigned on its own.
Further changes in the book have derived from new
scholarship in the rapidly expanding field of World History.
Thus we have increasingly integrated issues of gender, the
environment, and technology into this account of the human
journey. Coverage of particular areas of the world, such as
Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Pacific Oceania, has
likewise been strengthened. This fourth edition in particular
has completely reimagined our treatment of the past century in
a more global fashion, moving beyond the cold war framework
of earlier editions. And over time the book has more often
highlighted individual people and particular events, which
sometimes get lost in the broad sweep of world history. Finally,
Ways of the World has acquired a very substantial electronic
and online presence with an impressive array of innovative
pedagogical and learning aids.
These changes remind us that textbooks are not fixed and
finished compilations of what happened in the past. Rather,
such books develop as they respond to new technologies, to
new historical research, and to the evolving political, social,
and economic conditions of the contemporary world. As
authors, we are acutely aware of how much debate and
13
controversy lie behind many of the issues that are explored in
Ways of the World. This book, then, is a snapshot of our current
understanding of World History, shaped by the particular time
(the early twenty-first century) and place (the United States) in
which it was composed. Such a book written fifty years ago, or
in contemporary China, Nigeria, Iran, or Brazil, or in the midtwenty-first century, would surely be very different. Thus Ways
of the World can and should be criticized, assessed, and argued
with, not simply accepted as a definitive account of the global
past.
What Else Is New in the
Fourth Edition?
In this new edition, Ways of the World continues to change,
most notably in a revision of Part 6, which deals with the past
century. Previously the several chapters of that Part were
organized regionally and in terms deriving from the cold war:
the Western capitalist world, the communist world, and the
third world of developing countries. But with the cold war now
more than a quarter of a century in the past, it seemed
appropriate to reorganize our treatment of the past century in
more global terms. We have done so by distinguishing between
major events or milestones and longer-term historical
processes. Thus the first two chapters of Part 6, Chapters 20 and
21, focus on milestone events such as the world wars,
revolutions, the cold war, decolonization, the demise of
14
communism, and much more. With these “milestones” of the
past century in mind, Chapters 22 and 23 turn to the larger and
perhaps even more consequential processes occurring beneath
the surface of major public events. Chapter 22 treats the
enormous acceleration of technological innovation as a decisive
driver of a deeply interconnected world economy and of
pervasive social change. Chapter 23 then turns the spotlight on
the explosive growth of human numbers, on the movement of
many people to cities and to new lives abroad, and on the
cultural transformations that accompanied modern life during
the past century. The chapter — and the book — conclude by
examining the enormous and continuing impact of human
activity on the entire biosphere, which represents by far the
most significant long-term process of this new era and the most
critical challenge of the next century.
Another new element in this fourth edition is a feature titled
Controversies, intended to highlight the debates that
accompany so many historical inquiries. These Controversies,
which appear in one chapter of each Part of the book, explore
debates about key historical issues: when history begins; the
origins of major religious traditions; the nature of empires; the
idea of the Atlantic world; why the Industrial Revolution began
in Europe; and the concept of globalization. We believe these
brief essays will counteract any remaining notion of a textbook
as an authoritative, encyclopedia-like tome to be assimilated,
while conveying an understanding of World History as a
frequently contested conversation.
15
Furthermore, the Working with Evidence primary source
collections that accompany each chapter now incorporate both
documents and images, many of them new to this edition. Thus
the visual sources illustrating Pompeii in Chapter 5 are now
enriched with a collection of graffiti inscriptions deriving from
that ancient Italian city. And the documents that reflect the rise
of fascism in Chapter 20 are now combined with propaganda
posters and images showing how those ideas were visually
presented to the public.
The new Historians’ Voices feature now supplies a range of
secondary sources for students to consider. In Chapter 9, for
example, two prominent scholars, Francis Robinson and Karen
Armstrong, explore the significance of the life of Muhammad.
And in Chapter 22, Peter Stearns and Merry Wiesner-Hanks,
both major world historians, offer assessments of global
feminism during the past century. Historians’ Voices has also
been added to the book’s companion source reader Thinking
through Sources for Ways of the World, which is available as a
print supplement or online in LaunchPad, adding another
dimension to these alternate source collections.
The book’s features are rounded out by the popular Zooming
In essays, which were new to the third edition and call attention
to particular people, places, and events, situating them in a
larger global context. Appearing once in each chapter, Zooming
In addresses topics such as Göbekli Tepe and monumental
construction before agriculture, Trung Trac and resistance to
16
the Chinese empire, gunpowder, the end of the Byzantine
Empire, feminism and nationalism in Java, the Cuban
Revolution, and many more.
A number of pedagogical aids in Ways of the World have also
been updated or enhanced. New Landmarks visual timelines
for each Part and each chapter allow students to see at a glance
what was happening in various regions of the world during the
same period of time. Many of the maps included in this fourth
edition now feature a Mapping History exercise accompanied
by two levels of questions. The first requires students to read
the map carefully, and the second asks them to interpret its
implications.
Promoting Active
Learning
As all instructors know, students can often “do the assignment”
or read the required chapter and yet have little understanding
of it when they come to class. The problem, frequently, is
passive studying — a quick once-over, perhaps some
highlighting of the text — but little sustained involvement with
the material. A central pedagogical problem in all teaching is
how to encourage more active, engaged styles of learning. We
want to enable students to manipulate the information of the
book, using its ideas and data to answer questions, to make
comparisons, to draw conclusions, to criticize assumptions, and
17
to infer implications that are not explicitly disclosed in the text
itself.
Ways of the World seeks to promote active learning in
various ways. Most obviously, the source-based features in the
book itself (Working with Evidence and the new Historians’
Voices) and those in the companion reader Thinking through
Sources for Ways of the World (also available on LaunchPad)
invite students to engage actively with documents and images
alike, assisted by abundant questions to guide that engagement.
In addition, whenever an instructor assigns the LaunchPad
e-book (which can be bundled for free with the print book),
students have at their disposal all the resources of the print text,
including its special features and its primary and secondary
sources. But they also gain access to LearningCurve, an online
adaptive learning tool that helps students actively rehearse
what they have read and foster a deeper understanding and
retention of the material. With this adaptive quizzing, students
accumulate points toward a target score as they go, giving the
interaction a game-like feel. Feedback for incorrect responses
explains why the answer is incorrect and directs students back
to the text to review before they attempt to answer the question
again. The end result is a better understanding of the key
elements of the text. Instructors who actively assign
LearningCurve report that their students come to class
prepared for discussion and their students enjoy using it. In
addition, LearningCurve’s reporting feature allows instructors
18
to quickly diagnose which concepts students are struggling with
so they can adjust lectures and activities accordingly.
Further opportunities for active learning are available with
the special online activities accompanying Thinking through
Sources for Ways of the World in LaunchPad. When required by
instructors, the wrap-around pedagogy that accompanies the
sources virtually ensures active learning. LaunchPad is thus a
rich asset for instructors who want to support students in all
settings, from traditional lectures to “flipped” classrooms.
For instructors who need a mobile and accessible option for
delivering adaptive quizzing with the narrative alone,
Macmillan’s new Achieve Read & Practice e-book platform
offers an exceptionally easy-to-use and affordable option. This
simple product pairs the Value Edition — a two-color narrativeonly text (no sources) — with the power of LearningCurve’s
quizzing, all in a format that is mobile-friendly, allowing
students to complete their assignments on the bus or in the
library.
Another aspect of the book important for the promotion of
active learning involves the stimulation of curiosity. A
contemporary vignette opens each chapter with a story that
links the past and the present to show the continuing resonance
of history in the lives of contemporary people. Chapter 6, for
example, begins by describing the inauguration in 2010 of
Bolivian president Evo Morales at an impressive ceremony at
19
Tiwanaku, the center of an ancient Andean empire, thus
emphasizing the continuing cultural significance of this ancient
civilization in contemporary Bolivian culture. At the end of each
chapter, a short Reflections section raises provocative,
sometimes quasi-philosophical, questions about the craft of the
historian and the unfolding of the human story. We believe that
these brief essays can motivate our students’ curiosity,
stimulate their own pondering, and provide grist for the mill of
vigorous class discussions.
A further technique for encouraging active learning lies in
the provision of frequent contextual markers. Student readers
need to know where they are going and where they have been.
Thus Part-opening Big Picture essays preview what follows in
the subsequent chapters, while a chapter outline suggests what
is coming in each chapter. A new Landmarks visual timeline,
providing a chronological overview of major events and
processes, appears at the beginning of each Part and each
chapter. Snapshot boxes present succinct glimpses of
particular themes, regions, or time periods, adding some trees
to the forest of world history. A list of terms at the end of each
chapter invites students to check their grasp of the material. As
usual with books published by Bedford/St. Martin’s, a rich
illustration program provides striking visual markers that
enhance the narrative.
Active learning also means approaching the text with
something to look for, rather than simply dutifully completing
20
the assignment. Ways of the World provides such cues in
abundance. A Seeking the Main Point question helps students
focus on the central theme of the chapter. Each chapter also has
at least one Practicing Historical Thinking question that invites
students to reflect on what they have learned to that point in the
chapter. A series of Guided Reading Questions in the margins,
with labels such as “change,” “comparison,” or “connection,”
allows students to read the adjacent material with a clear
purpose in mind. Big Picture Questions at the end of each
chapter deal with matters not directly addressed in the text.
Instead, they provide opportunities for integration,
comparison, analysis, and sometimes speculation. New
Mapping History exercises invite students to read maps
carefully and to interpret their implications.
Teaching History in the
Digital Age
Because the teaching of history is changing rapidly, we have
created online interactive complements for Ways of the World
via Macmillan’s premier learning platform, LaunchPad, an
intuitive and interactive e-book and course space. Free when
packaged with the print book or available at a low price when
used on its own, LaunchPad grants students and instructors
access to a wealth of online tools and resources built
specifically for this text to enhance reading comprehension and
promote in-depth study. LaunchPad’s course space and
21
interactive e-book are ready to use “as is,” or they can be edited
and customized with your own material and assigned right
away.
Developed with extensive feedback from history instructors
and students, LaunchPad for Ways of the World includes the
complete narrative and special features of the print book plus
the companion reader, Thinking through Sources for Ways of
the World, and LearningCurve, an adaptive learning tool
designed to get students to read before they come to class. With
an expanded set of source-based questions in the test bank
and in LearningCurve, instructors now have more ways to test
students on their understanding of sources and narrative in the
book. The addition of the new Bedford Document Collections
modules in LaunchPad means instructors have a flexible
repository of discovery-oriented primary source projects to
assign. This makes LaunchPad for Ways of the World a one-stop
shop for working with sources and thinking critically in a
multitude of modes.
LaunchPad also includes additional primary source online
activities for each chapter of the Thinking through Sources
companion reader. These activities supply a distinctive and
sophisticated pedagogy of self-grading exercises that help
students not only understand the sources but also think
critically about them. More specifically, a short quiz after each
source offers students the opportunity to check their
understanding of materials that often derive from quite distant
22
times and places. Some questions focus on audience, purpose,
point of view, limitations, or context, while others challenge
students to draw conclusions about the source or to compare
one source with another. And a Draw Conclusions from the
Evidence activity challenges students to assess whether a
specific piece of evidence drawn from the sources supports or
challenges a stated conclusion. Collectively these assignments
create an active learning environment where reading with a
purpose is reinforced by immediate feedback and support. This
feedback for each rejoinder creates an active learning
environment where students are rewarded for reaching the
correct answer through their own process of investigation.
More broadly, in this interactive learning environment,
students will enhance their ability to build arguments and to
practice historical reasoning. Thus, this LaunchPad pedagogy
does for skill development what LearningCurve does for
content mastery and reading comprehension.
LaunchPad also provides a simple, user-friendly platform for
individual instructors to add their own voice, materials, and
assignments to the text, guiding their students’ learning outside
of the traditional classroom setting. Available with training and
support, LaunchPad can help take history teaching and learning
into a new era.
For instructors who need a mobile and accessible option for
delivering adaptive quizzing with the narrative alone,
23
Macmillan’s new Achieve Read & Practice e-book platform
offers an exceptionally easy-to-use and affordable option. This
simple product pairs the Value Edition — a two-color narrativeonly text (no sources) — with the power of LearningCurve’s
quizzing, all in a format that students can use wherever they go.
Available for the first time with this edition, Achieve Read &
Practice’s interactive e-book, adaptive quizzing, and gradebook
are built with an intuitive interface that can be read on mobile
devices and are fully accessible and available at an affordable
price.
To learn more about the benefits of LearningCurve,
LaunchPad, Achieve Read & Practice, and the different versions
to package with these digital tools, see the Versions and
Supplements section on page xix.
“It Takes a Village”
In any enterprise of significance, “it takes a village,” as they say.
Bringing Ways of the World to life in this new edition, it seems,
has occupied the energies of several villages. Among the
privileges and delights of writing and revising this book has
been the opportunity to interact with our fellow villagers.
We are grateful to the community of fellow historians who
contributed their expertise to this revision. For this edition,
they include Andreas Agocs, University of the Pacific; Tonio
Andrade, Emory University; Monty Armstrong, Cerritos High
School; Melanie Bailey, Piedmont Virginia Community College;
24
Djene Bajalan, Missouri State University; Anthony BarbieriLow, University of California, Santa Barbara; Christine Bond,
Edmond Memorial High School; Mike Burns, Concordia
International School, Hanoi; Elizabeth Campbell, Daemen
College; Theodore Cohen, Lindenwood University; Bradley
Davis, Eastern Connecticut State University; Denis Gainty,
Georgia State University; Duane Galloway, Rowan-Cabarrus
Community College; Jay Harmon, Houston Christian High
School; Michael Hunt, University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill; Ane Lintvedt, McDonogh School; Aran MacKinnon,
Georgia College and State University; Harold Marcuse,
University of California, Santa Barbara; Merritt McKinney,
Volunteer State Community College; Erin O’Donnell, East
Stroudsburg University; Sarah Panzer, Missouri State
University; Charmayne Patterson, Clark Atlanta University;
Dean Pavlakis, Carroll College; Chris Peek, Bellaire High
School; Tracie Provost, Middle Georgia State University; Masako
Racel, Kennesaw State University; and Eddie Supratman,
Arkansas State University-Beebe.
We also offer our gratitude to reviewers of earlier editions:
Maria S. Arbelaez, University of Nebraska–Omaha; Veronica L.
Bale, Mira Costa College; Christopher Bellitto, Kean University;
Monica Bord-Lamberty, Northwood High School; Stanley
Burstein, California State University–Los Angeles; Ralph
Croizier, University of Victoria; Gregory Cushman, the
University of Kansas; Edward Dandrow, University of Central
Florida; Peter L. de Rosa, Bridgewater State University; Carter
25
Findley, Ohio State University; Amy Forss, Metropolitan
Community College; Denis Gainty, Georgia State University;
Steven A. Glazer, Graceland University; Sue Gronewald, Kean
University; Andrew Hamilton, Viterbo University; J. Laurence
Hare, University of Arkansas; Michael Hinckley, Northern
Kentucky University; Bram Hubbell, Friends Seminary; Ronald
Huch, Eastern Kentucky University; Elizabeth Hyde, Kean
University; Mark Lentz, University of Louisiana–Lafayette; Kate
McGrath, Central Connecticut State University; C. Brid
Nicholson, Kean University; Donna Patch, Westside High
School; Jonathan T. Reynolds, Northern Kentucky University;
James Sabathne, Hononegah High School; Christopher Sleeper,
Mira Costa College; Ira Spar, Ramapo College and Metropolitan
Museum of Art; Kristen Strobel, Lexington High School;
Michael Vann, Sacramento State University; Peter Winn, Tufts
University; and Judith Zinsser, Miami University of Ohio.
The fine people at Bedford/St. Martin’s (Macmillan Learning)
have provided a second community sustaining this enterprise
and the one most directly responsible for the book’s fourth
edition. It would be difficult for any author to imagine a more
supportive and professional publishing team. Our chief point of
contact with the Bedford village has been Heidi Hood, our
development editor. She has coordinated the immensely
complex task of assembling a new edition of the book and has
done so with great professional care, with timely responses to
our many queries, and with sensitivity to the needs and feelings
of authors, even when she found it necessary to decline our
26
suggestions.
Others on the team have also exhibited that lovely
combination of personal kindness and professional competence
that is so characteristic of the Bedford way. Editorial director
Edwin Hill, program director Michael Rosenberg, and program
manager William Lombardo have kept an eye on the project
amid many duties. Christina Horn, our content project
manager, managed the process of turning a manuscript into a
published book and did so with both grace and efficiency.
Editorial assistant Stephanie Sosa has efficiently and
thoughtfully directed the revision of the Thinking through
Sources companion reader and handled countless other project
details. Operating behind the scenes in the Bedford village, a
series of highly competent and always supportive people have
shepherded this revised edition along its way. Photo researcher
Bruce Carson identified and acquired the many images that
grace this new edition of Ways of the World and did so with a
keen eye and courtesy. Copy editor Susan Zorn polished the
prose and sorted out our many inconsistent usages with a
seasoned and perceptive eye. Melissa Rodriguez has overseen
the marketing process, while Bedford’s sales representatives
have reintroduced the book to the academic world. Media
editor Tess Fletcher supervised the development of
supplements and media products to support the book, and
William Boardman ably coordinated research for the lovely
covers that mark Ways of the World. Eve Lehmann conducted
the always-difficult negotiations surrounding permissions with
27
more equanimity than we could have imagined.
A final and much smaller community sustained this project
and its authors. It is that most intimate of villages that we know
as a marriage. Sharing that village with me (Robert Strayer) is
my wife, Suzanne Sturn. It is her work to bring ideas and people
to life onstage, even as I try to do so between these covers. She
knows how I feel about her love and support, and no one else
needs to. And across the street, I (Eric Nelson) would also like to
thank two other residents of this village: my wife, Alice Victoria,
and our little girl, Evelyn Rhiannon, to whom this new edition is
dedicated. Without their patience and support, I could not have
become part of such an interesting journey.
To all of our fellow villagers, we offer deep thanks for an
immensely rewarding experience. We are grateful beyond
measure.
Robert Strayer, La Selva Beach, California
Eric Nelson, Springfield, Missouri
28
Versions and Supplements
Adopters of Ways of the World and their students have access to
abundant print and digital resources and tools, the acclaimed
Bedford Series in History and Culture volumes, and much more.
The LaunchPad course space for Ways of the World provides
access to the narrative as well as a wealth of primary sources
and other features, along with assignment and assessment
opportunities at the ready. Achieve Read & Practice supplies
adaptive quizzing and our mobile, accessible Value Edition ebook in one easy-to-use, affordable product. See below for more
information, visit the book’s catalog site at
macmillanlearning.com, or contact your local Bedford/St.
Martin’s sales representative.
Get the Right Version for Your
Class
To accommodate different course lengths and course budgets,
Ways of the World is available in several different versions and
formats to best suit your course needs. The comprehensive
Ways of the World includes a full-color art program and a
robust set of features. Offered now for the first time, Ways of
the World, Value Edition, offers a trade-sized two-color option
with the full narrative and selected art and maps at a steep
discount. The Value Edition is also offered at the lowest price
point in loose-leaf format, and these versions are available as ebooks. To get the best values of all, package a new print book
29
with LaunchPad or Achieve Read & Practice at no additional
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41
Brief Contents
Preface
Versions and Supplements
Working with Primary Sources
Prologue: From Cosmic History to Human History
PART 1 First Things First: Beginnings in History TO 600
B.C.E.
THE BIG PICTURE Turning Points in Early World History
1 First Peoples; First Farmers: Most of History in a Single
Chapter TO 3500 B.C.E.
2 First Civilizations: Cities, States, and Unequal Societies
3500 B.C.E.–600 B.C.E.
PART 2 Continuity and Change in the Second-Wave Era 600
B.C.E.–600 C.E.
THE BIG PICTURE The Globalization of Civilization
3 State and Empire in Eurasia / North Africa 600 B.C.E.–
600 C.E.
4 Culture and Religion in Eurasia / North Africa 600
B.C.E.–600 C.E.
5 Society and Inequality in Eurasia / North Africa 600
B.C.E.–600 C.E.
6 Commonalities and Variations: Africa, the Americas,
and Pacific Oceania 600 B.C.E.–1200 C.E.
PART 3 Civilizations and Encounters during the ThirdWave Era 600–1450
42
THE BIG PICTURE Patterns and Processes of the Third-Wave
Era
7 Commerce and Culture 600–1450
8 China and the World: East Asian Connections 600–1300
9 The Worlds of Islam: Afro-Eurasian Connections 600–
1450
10 The Worlds of Christendom: Contraction, Expansion,
and Division 600–1450
11 Pastoral Peoples on the Global Stage: The Mongol
Moment 1200–1450
12 The Worlds of the Fifteenth Century
Notes
Acknowledgments
Glossary
Index
43
Contents
Preface
Versions and Supplements
Maps
Features
Working with Primary Sources
Prologue: From Cosmic History to Human History
The History of the Universe
The History of a Planet
The History of the Human Species . . . in a Single
Paragraph
Why World History?
Context, Change, Comparison, and Connection: The Four
Cs of World History
PART 1
First Things First: Beginnings in History TO 600 B.C.E.
THE BIG PICTURE Turning Points in Early World History
The Emergence of Humankind
The Globalization of Humankind
The Revolution of Farming and Herding
The Turning Point of Civilization
Time and World History
LANDMARKS IN WORLD HISTORY (to ca. 600 B.C.E.)
44
1 First Peoples; First Farmers: Most of History in a
Single Chapter TO 3500 B.C.E.
Out of Africa: First Migrations
Into Eurasia
Into Australia
Into the Americas
Into the Pacific
Paleolithic Lifeways
The First Human Societies
Economy and the Environment
The Realm of the Spirit
Settling Down: The Great Transition
Breakthroughs to Agriculture
Common Patterns
Variations
45
The Globalization of Agriculture
Triumph and Resistance
The Culture of Agriculture
Social Variation in the Age of Agriculture
Pastoral Societies
Agricultural Village Societies
Chiefdoms
Reflections: The Uses of the Paleolithic
Second Thoughts
What’s the Significance?
Big Picture Questions
Next Steps: For Further Study
LANDMARKS FOR CHAPTER 1
CONTROVERSIES Debating the Timescales of History
ZOOMING IN Göbekli Tepe: Monumental
Construction before Agriculture
WORKING WITH EVIDENCE The Australian
Dreamtime
Source 1.1 Understanding Creation: Yhi Brings
Life to the World, Oral tradition recorded in 20th
century
Source 1.2 The Rainbow Serpent: The Rainbow
Serpent Awakens, Oral tradition recorded in 20th
century
Source 1.3 Explaining the World in Aboriginal
Rock Art: Namondjok and the Lightning Man
46
Source 1.4 Understanding Death: How Death
Came: The Purukapali Myth, Oral tradition
recorded in 20th century
Source 1.5 Hunting in Aboriginal Rock Art:
Aboriginal Hunters
HISTORIANS’ VOICES Australian Aboriginal Culture
Voice 1.1 Dale Kerwin on the Economic and Social
Life of Aboriginal Australians, 2012
Voice 1.2 Barbara West on Aboriginal Dreamtime
Cosmology, 2010
2 First Civilizations: Cities, States, and Unequal
Societies 3500 B.C.E.–600 B.C.E.
Something New: The Emergence of Civilizations
Introducing the First Civilizations
The Question of Origins
47
An Urban Revolution
The Erosion of Equality
Hierarchies of Class
Hierarchies of Gender
Patriarchy in Practice
The Rise of the State
Coercion and Consent
Writing and Accounting
The Grandeur of Kings
Comparing Mesopotamia and Egypt
Environment and Culture
Cities and States
Interaction and Exchange
Reflections: “Civilization”: What’s in a Word?
Second Thoughts
What’s the Significance?
Big Picture Questions
Next Steps: For Further Study
LANDMARKS FOR CHAPTER 2
ZOOMING IN Caral, a City of Norte Chico
WORKING WITH EVIDENCE Indus Valley
Civilization
Source 2.1 Cityscape of Mohenjo Daro: Wall
Painting of Mohenjo Daro Reconstruction, 20th
century
48
Source 2.2 A Seal from the Indus Valley: A
Humped Cattle Seal from Mohenjo Daro, 19th
century B.C.E.
Source 2.3 Man from Mohenjo Daro: Statue of an
Elite Man, 3rd millennium B.C.E.
Source 2.4 Cart and Oxen from Mohenjo Daro:
Stone Model of a Cart Pulled by Two Oxen, ca. 2400
B.C.E.
Source 2.5 Dancing Girl: An Indus Valley Girl, ca.
2500 B.C.E.
HISTORIANS’ VOICES The State . . . or Its Absence . .
. in the Indus Valley
Voice 2.1 Gregory Possehl on Indus Valley
Civilization in Context, 2002
Voice 2.2 Jonathan Kenoyer on Political Life in the
Indus Valley, 1998
PART 2
Continuity and Change in the Second-Wave Era 600 B.C.E.–
600 C.E.
THE BIG PICTURE The Globalization of Civilization
LANDMARKS IN WORLD HISTORY (ca. 600 B.C.E.–ca.
600 C.E.)
49
3 State and Empire in Eurasia / North Africa 600 B.C.E.–
600 C.E.
Empires and Civilizations in Collision: The Persians
and the Greeks
The Persian Empire
The Greeks
Collision: The Greco-Persian Wars
Collision: Alexander and the Hellenistic Era
Comparing Empires: Roman and Chinese
Rome: From City-State to Empire
China: From Warring States to Empire
Consolidating the Roman and Chinese Empires
The Collapse of Empires
Intermittent Empire: The Case of India
Reflections: Enduring Legacies of Second-Wave
50
Empires
Second Thoughts
What’s the Significance?
Big Picture Questions
Next Steps: For Further Study
LANDMARKS FOR CHAPTER 3
ZOOMING IN Trung Trac: Resisting the Chinese
Empire
WORKING WITH EVIDENCE Perceptions of
Outsiders in the Ancient World
Source 3.1 A Greek Historian on Persia:
Herodotus, The Histories, mid-5th century B.C.E.
Source 3.2 A Greek Goldsmith Depicts the
Scythians: Scythian Cup, Crimea, 4th century B.C.E.
Source 3.3 A Roman Historian on the Germans:
Tacitus, Germania, 1st century C.E.
Source 3.4 A Roman Depiction of Sarmatians:
Scene from Trajan’s Column, Rome, 107–113 C.E.
Source 3.5 A Chinese Historian on the Xiongnu:
Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian, ca. 100
B.C.E.
HISTORIANS’ VOICES Early Sources on Foreign
Cultures
Voice 3.1 Stephen Gosch and Peter Stearns on
Travelers’ Accounts as Historical Sources, 2008
Voice 3.2 Jerry Bentley on the Idea of “Barbarian,”
51
1993
4 Culture and Religion in Eurasia / North Africa 600
B.C.E.–600 C.E.
China and the Search for Order
The Legalist Answer
The Confucian Answer
The Daoist Answer
Cultural Traditions of Classical India
South Asian Religion: From Ritual Sacrifice to
Philosophical Speculation
The Buddhist Challenge
Hinduism as a Religion of Duty and Devotion
Toward Monotheism: The Search for God in the
Middle East
Zoroastrianism
Judaism
The Cultural Tradition of Classical Greece: The
52
Search for a Rational Order
The Greek Way of Knowing
The Greek Legacy
The Birth of Christianity . . . with Buddhist
Comparisons
The Lives of the Founders
The Spread of New Religions
Institutions, Controversies, and Divisions
Reflections: Religion and Historians
Second Thoughts
What’s the Significance?
Big Picture Questions
Next Steps: For Further Study
LANDMARKS FOR CHAPTER 4
CONTROVERSIES Debating Religion and the Axial Age
ZOOMING IN Perpetua, Christian Martyr
WORKING WITH EVIDENCE Representations of the
Buddha
Source 4.1 A Greco-Indian Buddha: The
Temptation of the Buddha
Source 4.2 A Classical Indian Buddha: An Indian
Buddha
Source 4.3 The Reputation of the Buddha in
Ancient Buddhist Stories: The Greater Discourse to
Sakuludayin, ca. 1st century B.C.E.
Source 4.4 A Korean Bodhisattva of Compassion: A
53
Bodhisattva of Compassion: Avalokitesvara with a
Thousand Arms
Source 4.5 The Buddha and the Outcast: Sunita the
Outcast
Source 4.6 A Chinese Buddha: The Chinese
Maitreya Buddha
HISTORIANS’ VOICES On the Buddha
Voice 4.1 John Strong on the Context of the
Buddha’s Life, 2001
Voice 4.2 Karen Armstrong on the Buddha and
Biography, 2001
5 Society and Inequality in Eurasia / North Africa 600
B.C.E.–600 C.E.
Society and the State in China
54
An Elite of Officials
The Landlord Class
Peasants
Merchants
Class and Caste in India
Caste as Varna
Caste as Jati
The Functions of Caste
Slavery: The Case of the Roman Empire
Slavery and Civilization
The Making of Roman Slavery
Comparing Patriarchies
A Changing Patriarchy: The Case of China
Contrasting Patriarchies: Athens and Sparta
Reflections: What Changes? What Persists?
Second Thoughts
What’s the Significance?
Big Picture Questions
Next Steps: For Further Study
LANDMARKS FOR CHAPTER 5
ZOOMING IN The Spartacus Slave Revolt
WORKING WITH EVIDENCE Pompeii as a Window
on the Roman World
Source 5.1 Terentius Neo and His Wife: An Elite
Couple of Pompeii, 1st century C.E.
55
Source 5.2 A Pompeii Banquet: A Dinner with
Friends, 1st century C.E.
Source 5.3 From a Pompeii Tavern: An Evening
Out at a Pompeii Bar, 1st century C.E.
Source 5.4 The Graffiti of Pompeii: The Graffiti of
Pompeii, 1st century C.E.
Source 5.5 Household Religion in Pompeii: A
Household Shrine from Pompeii, 1st century C.E.
Source 5.6 Mystery Religion in Pompeii: An
Initiation Ritual, 1st century C.E.
HISTORIANS’ VOICES On Pompeii
Voice 5.1 Mary Beard on the Artifacts of Pompeii,
2017
Voice 5.2 Andrew Wilson and Miko Flohr on the
Economy of Pompeii, 2017
6 Commonalities and Variations: Africa, the Americas,
and Pacific Oceania 600 B.C.E.–1200 C.E.
Continental Comparisons
56
Civilizations of Africa
Meroë: Continuing a Nile Valley Civilization
Axum: The Making of a Christian Kingdom
Along the Niger River: Cities without States
Civilizations of Mesoamerica
The Maya: Writing and Warfare
Teotihuacán: The Americas’ Greatest City
Civilizations of the Andes
Chavín: A Pan-Andean Religious Movement
Moche: A Civilization of the Coast
Wari and Tiwanaku: Empires of the Interior
Alternatives to Civilization
Bantu Africa: Cultural Encounters and Social
Variation
North America: Ancestral Pueblo and Mound
Builders
Pacific Oceania: Peoples of the Sea
Reflections: Deciding What’s Important: Balance in
the Writing of World History
Second Thoughts
What’s the Significance?
Big Picture Questions
Next Steps: For Further Study
LANDMARKS FOR CHAPTER 6
ZOOMING IN The Lord of Sipan and the Lady of Cao
57
WORKING WITH EVIDENCE Axum and the World
Source 6.1 The Making of an Axumite Empire:
Inscription on a Stone Throne, 2nd or 3rd century
C.E.
Source 6.2 The Columns of Axum: An Axumite
Monument, late 3rd or early 4th century C.E.
Source 6.3 The Coming of Christianity to Axum:
Rufinus, On the Evangelization of Abyssinia, late
4th century C.E.
Source 6.4 Axum and the Gold Trade: Cosmas, The
Gold Trade of Axum, 6th century C.E.
Source 6.5 Axum Gold Coin: A “Christian Coin”
from Axum
HISTORIANS’ VOICES Christian Axum
Voice 6.1 Erik Gilbert and Jonathan Reynolds on
the Transregional Nature of Early Christianity,
2004
Voice 6.2 Christopher Ehret on the Role of Trade in
the Coming of Christianity to Axum, 2002
PART 3
Civilizations and Encounters during the Third-Wave Era
600–1450
THE BIG PICTURE Patterns and Processes of the ThirdWave Era
Third-Wave Civilizations
The Ties That Bind: Transregional Interaction in the
Third-Wave Era
58
LANDMARKS IN WORLD HISTORY (ca. 600 C.E.–ca.
1450)
7 Commerce and Culture 600–1450
Silk Roads: Exchange across Eurasia
The Growth of the Silk Roads
Goods in Transit
Cultures in Transit
Disease in Transit
Sea Roads: Exchange across the Indian Ocean
Weaving the Web of an Indian Ocean World
Sea Roads as a Catalyst for Change: Southeast Asia
Sea Roads as a Catalyst for Change: East Africa
Sand Roads: Exchange across the Sahara
Commercial Beginnings in West Africa
Gold, Salt, and Slaves: Trade and Empire in West
Africa
59
An American Network: Commerce and Connection
in the Western Hemisphere
Reflections: Economic Globalization — Ancient and
Modern
Second Thoughts
What’s the Significance?
Big Picture Questions
Next Steps: For Further Study
LANDMARKS FOR CHAPTER 7
ZOOMING IN The Arabian Camel
WORKING WITH EVIDENCE Travelers’ Tales and
Observations
Source 7.1 A Chinese Buddhist in India: Xuanzang,
Record of the Western Regions, 7th century C.E.
Source 7.2 A European Christian in China: Marco
Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo, 1299
Source 7.3 A European Artist Depicts Asia: The
Marvelous Races of the East, ca. 1410
Source 7.4 A Moroccan Diplomat in West Africa:
Leo Africanus, The History and Description of
Africa, 1526
Source 7.5 A Korean World Map: The Honkōji
Copy of the Kangnido Map, Korea, 15th century
HISTORIANS’ VOICES On Travel Writers
Voice 7.1 John Larner on Whether Polo Really
Traveled to China, 1999
60
Voice 7.2 Natalie Zemon Davis on Leo Africanus’s
Audiences, 2006
8 China and the World: East Asian Connections 600–1300
Together Again: The Reemergence of a Unified
China
A “Golden Age” of Chinese Achievement
Women in the Song Dynasty
China and the Northern Nomads: A Chinese World
Order in the Making
The Tribute System in Theory
The Tribute System in Practice
Cultural Influence across an Ecological Frontier
Coping with China: Comparing Korea, Vietnam, and
Japan
Korea and China
Vietnam and China
61
Japan and China
China and the Eurasian World Economy
Spillovers: China’s Impact on Eurasia
On the Receiving End: China as Economic
Beneficiary
China and Buddhism
Making Buddhism Chinese
Losing State Support: The Crisis of Chinese
Buddhism
Reflections: Why Do Things Change?
Second Thoughts
What’s the Significance?
Big Picture Questions
Next Steps: For Further Study
LANDMARKS FOR CHAPTER 8
ZOOMING IN Gunpowder
WORKING WITH EVIDENCE China’s ScholarOfficials
Source 8.1 Scholar-Officials and the Emperor:
Scholars Gathering in a Bamboo Garden, 12th
century
Source 8.2 A Gathering of Scholars: Scholars of the
Liuli Hall, late 13th century
Source 8.3 A Solitary Scholar: Ma Yuan, On a
Mountain Path in Spring, early 13th century
Source 8.4 Tang Dynasty Poetry
62
Li Po, The Mountain and Me, 8th century
Li Po, Drinking Alone with the Moon, 8th
century
Wang Wei, My Retreat at Mount Zhongnan, 8th
century
Du Fu, A View of Taishan, 8th century
Source 8.5 Scholar-Officials at Play: Gu
Hongzhong, The Night Revels of Han Xizai, 10th
century
HISTORIANS’ VOICES Assessing China’s ScholarOfficials
Voice 8.1 Jacques Garnet on the “Learned Culture”
of Song Dynasty China, 1996
Voice 8.2 David Hinton on “Public Service” and
“Mountain Seclusion,” 2005
63
9 The Worlds of Islam: Afro-Eurasian Connections 600–
1450
The Birth of a New Religion
The Homeland of Islam
The Messenger and the Message
The Transformation of Arabia
The Making of an Arab Empire
War, Conquest, and Tolerance
Conversion
Divisions and Controversies
Women and Men in Early Islam
Islam and Cultural Encounter: A Four-Way
Comparison
The Case of India
The Case of Anatolia
The Case of West Africa
The Case of Spain
The World of Islam as a New Civilization
Networks of Faith
Networks of Exchange
Reflections: Past and Present: Choosing Our History
Second Thoughts
What’s the Significance?
Big Picture Questions
Next Steps: For Further Study
64
LANDMARKS FOR CHAPTER 9
ZOOMING IN Mullah Nasruddin, the Wise Fool of
Islam
WORKING WITH EVIDENCE The Islamic World in
the Seventh Century
Source 9.1 Depicting Muhammad with the Angel
Gabriel: Muhammad and the Angel Gabriel, ca.
1307
Source 9.2 Muhammad in Jerusalem: Aqa Mirak,
The Night Journey of Muhammad, 16th century
Source 9.3 Victory in Mecca: Mir Havand, The
Cleansing of the Kaaba, ca. 1590
Source 9.4 Conflict and Division: The Emergence
of Shia Islam: Ali ibn Husayn, Poem, ca. 680
Source 9.5 Conquest
Text of Thomas the Presbyter, 640
Pact of Ibn Muslama and the People of Tiflis,
653
Source 9.6 Governing an Empire: Caliph Ali, Letter
to Malik Ashtar, 658
HISTORIANS’ VOICES Assessing the Prophet
Muhammad
Voice 9.1 Francis Robinson on Western Attitudes
to Muhammad, 1996
Voice 9.2 Karen Armstrong on Muslim Devotion to
the Prophet, 1992
65
10 The Worlds of Christendom: Contraction, Expansion,
and Division 600–1450
Christian Contraction in Asia and Africa
Asian Christianity
African Christianity
Byzantine Christendom: Building on the Roman Past
The Byzantine State
The Byzantine Church and Christian Divergence
Byzantium and the World
The Conversion of Russia
Western Christendom: Rebuilding in the Wake of
Roman Collapse
Political Life in Western Europe
Society and the Church
66
Accelerating Change in the West
Europe Outward Bound: The Crusading Tradition
The West in Comparative Perspective
Catching Up
Pluralism in Politics
Reason and Faith
Reflections: Remembering and Forgetting:
Continuity and Surprise in the Worlds of
Christendom
Second Thoughts
What’s the Significance?
Big Picture Questions
Next Steps: For Further Study
LANDMARKS FOR CHAPTER 10
ZOOMING IN Cecilia Penifader, an English Peasant
and Unmarried Woman
WORKING WITH EVIDENCE The Remaking of
Western Europe
Source 10.1 The Conversion of Clovis: Gregory of
Tours, History of the Franks, late 6th century
Source 10.2 Advice on Dealing with “Pagans”: Pope
Gregory, Advice to the English Church, 601
Source 10.3 Pagan Art and Christian Texts:
Lindisfarne Gospel, 698–721
Source 10.4 Germanic Law: Burgundian Code, ca.
474 C.E.
67
Source 10.5 Charlemagne’s Palace Chapel: Aachen
Palace Chapel, completed 805 C.E.
HISTORIANS’ VOICES The Legacy of Rome
Voice 10.1 Blockmans and Hoppenbrouwers on the
End of Roman Civilization, 2014
Voice 10.2 Cunliffe on Charlemagne, 2008
11 Pastoral Peoples on the Global Stage: The Mongol
Moment 1200–1450
The Long History of Pastoral Peoples
The World of Pastoral Societies
Before the Mongols: Pastoralists in History
Breakout: The Mongol Empire
From Temujin to Chinggis Khan: The Rise of the
Mongol Empire
Explaining the Mongol Moment
68
Encountering the Mongols in China, Persia, and
Russia
China and the Mongols
Persia and the Mongols
Russia and the Mongols
The Mongol Empire as a Eurasian Network
Toward a World Economy
Diplomacy on a Eurasian Scale
Cultural Exchange in the Mongol Realm
The Plague: An Afro-Eurasian Pandemic
Reflections: Changing Images of Pastoral Peoples
Second Thoughts
What’s the Significance?
Big Picture Questions
Next Steps: For Further Study
LANDMARKS FOR CHAPTER 11
ZOOMING IN A Mongol Failure: The Invasion of Japan
CONTROVERSIES Debating Empire
WORKING WITH EVIDENCE Perceptions of the
Mongols
Source 11.1 The Self-Perception of Mongol Rulers
Chinggis Khan, Letter to Changchun, 1219
The Secret History of the Mongols, ca. 1240
Source 11.2 Picturing Khubilai Khan
Liu Guandao, Khubilai on a Hunt, 1280
69
Marco Polo and Khubilai Khan, 15th century
Khubilai Khan in Council with His Courtiers
and Scribes, 1590
Source 11.3 A Persian View of the Conquest of
Bukhara: Juvaini, The History of the World
Conqueror, 1219
Source 11.4 A European View of Mongol Life:
William of Rubruck, Journey to the Land of the
Mongols, ca. 1255
HISTORIANS’ VOICES Assessing the Mongol Impact
Voice 11.1 Jack Weatherford on the Mongols in
World History, 2004
Voice 11.2 Paul S. Ropp on the Mongol Impact on
China’s Economy, 2010
70
12 The Worlds of the Fifteenth Century
Societies and Cultures of the Fifteenth Century
Paleolithic Persistence: Australia and North
America
Agricultural Village Societies: The Igbo and the
Iroquois
Pastoral Peoples: Central Asia and West Africa
Civilizations of the Fifteenth Century: Comparing
China and Europe
Ming Dynasty China
European Comparisons: State Building and
Cultural Renewal
European Comparisons: Maritime Voyaging
Civilizations of the Fifteenth Century: The Islamic
World
In the Islamic Heartland: The Ottoman and Safavid
Empires
On the Frontiers of Islam: The Songhay and
Mughal Empires
Civilizations of the Fifteenth Century: The Americas
The Aztec Empire
The Inca Empire
Webs of Connection
After 1500: Looking Ahead to the Modern Era
Reflections: What If? Chance and Contingency in
World History
71
Second Thoughts
What’s the Significance?
Big Picture Questions
Next Steps: For Further Study
LANDMARKS FOR CHAPTER 12
ZOOMING IN 1453 in Constantinople
WORKING WITH EVIDENCE Islam and Renaissance
Europe
Source 12.1 Portrait of Mehmed II: Gentile Bellini,
Portrait of Mehmed II, 1480
Source 12.2 Machiavelli on the Turkish State:
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, 1513
Source 12.3 Venetian Trade in the Middle East: The
Venetian Ambassador Visits Damascus, 1511
Source 12.4 Greek and Islamic Philosophers in
Renaissance Art: Aristotle and Averroes, 1483
Source 12.5 A Papal Call for Crusade: Pope
Clement VI, Call for Crusade, September 30, 1343
HISTORIANS’ VOICES Christian/Muslim Relations
during the Renaissance
Voice 12.1 Jerry Brotton on the Role of Crosscultural Exchange in the European Renaissance,
2002
Voice 12.2 Bernard Lewis on Hostility between
Christians and Muslims, 1995
Notes
72
Acknowledgments
Glossary
Index
About the Authors
73
Maps
MAP 1.1
The Global Dispersion of Humankind
MAP 1.2
Migration of Austronesian-Speaking Peoples
MAP 1.3 The Global Spread of Agriculture and
Pastoralism
MAP 1.4
The Fertile Crescent
SPOT MAP Bantu Migration
MAP 2.1
First Civilizations
MAP 2.2
Mesopotamia
MAP 2.3
An Egyptian Empire
MAP 3.1
The Persian Empire
MAP 3.2
Classical Greece and Its Colonies
MAP 3.3
Alexander’s Empire and Successor States
MAP 3.4
The Roman Empire
MAP 3.5
Classical China
MAP 3.6
Empire in South Asia
SPOT MAP Ancient Israel
MAP 4.1
The Spread of Early Christianity and Buddhism
SPOT MAP The Yellow Turban Rebellion
SPOT MAP The Rebellion of Spartacus
MAP 6.1
Africa in the Second-Wave Era
MAP 6.2
Civilizations of Mesoamerica
MAP 6.3
Civilizations of the Andes
MAP 6.4
North America in the Second-Wave Era
74
MAP 6.5
Pacific Oceania
MAP 7.1
The Silk Roads
MAP 7.2
The Sea Roads
MAP 7.3
Southeast Asia, ca. 1200 C.E.
SPOT MAP The Swahili Coast of East Africa
MAP 7.4
The Sand Roads
MAP 7.5
The American Web
MAP 8.1
Tang and Song Dynasty China
MAP 8.2
Korean Kingdoms, ca. 500 C.E.
MAP 8.3
Vietnam
MAP 8.4
Japan
MAP 8.5
The World of Asian Buddhism
MAP 9.1
Arabia at the Time of Muhammad
MAP 9.2 The Arab Empire and the Initial Expansion of
Islam, 622–900 C.E.
MAP 9.3
The Growing World of Islam, 900–1500
MAP 9.4
The Sultanate of Delhi
MAP 9.5
Century
The Ottoman Empire by the Mid-Fifteenth
MAP 9.6
West Africa and the World of Islam
MAP 10.1
The Byzantine Empire
MAP 10.2
Western Europe in the Ninth Century
MAP 10.3
Europe in the Middle Ages
MAP 10.4
The Crusades
SPOT MAP The Xiongnu Empire
75
SPOT MAP The Seljuk Empire
SPOT MAP The Almoravid Empire
MAP 11.1
The Mongol Empire
MAP 11.2
Trade and Disease in the Fourteenth Century
MAP 12.1
Asia in the Fifteenth Century
MAP 12.2
Europe in 1500
MAP 12.3
Africa in the Fifteenth Century
MAP 12.4
Empires of the Islamic World
MAP 12.5
The Americas in the Fifteenth Century
MAP 12.6
World
Religion and Commerce in the Afro-Eurasian
76
Features
CONTROVERSIES
Debating the Timescales of History
Debating Religion and the Axial Age
Debating Empire
HISTORIANS’ VOICES
Australian Aboriginal Culture
The State . . . or Its Absence . . . in the Indus Valley
Early Sources on Foreign Cultures
On the Buddha
On Pompeii
Christian Axum
On Travel Writers
Assessing China’s Scholar-Officials
Assessing the Prophet Muhammad
The Legacy of Rome
Assessing the Mongol Impact
Christian/Muslim Relations during the Renaissance
MAPPING HISTORY
MAP 1.1
The Global Dispersion of Humankind
MAP 1.3
The Global Spread of Agriculture and Pastoralism
77
MAP 2.1
First Civilizations
MAP 2.3
An Egyptian Empire
MAP 3.3
Alexander’s Empire and Successor States
MAP 3.4
The Roman Empire
MAP 4.1
The Spread of Early Christianity and Buddhism
MAP 6.1
Africa in the Second-Wave Era
MAP 6.5
Pacific Oceania
MAP 7.2
The Sea Roads
MAP 7.4
The Sand Roads
MAP 8.1
Tang and Song Dynasty China
MAP 8.5
The World of Asian Buddhism
MAP 9.2 The Arab Empire and the Initial Expansion of
Islam, 622–900 C.E.
MAP 9.3
The Growing World of Islam, 900–1500
MAP 10.3 Europe in the Middle Ages
MAP 10.4 The Crusades
MAP 11.1 The Mongol Empire
MAP 11.2 Trade and Disease in the Fourteenth Century
MAP 12.1 Asia in the Fifteenth Century
MAP 12.6 Religion and Commerce in the Afro-Eurasian
World
SNAPSHOT
The History of the Universe as a Cosmic Calendar
Writing in Ancient Civilizations
78
World Population during the Age of Agricultural Civilization
Thinkers and Philosophies of the Second-Wave Era
Social Life and Duty in Classical India
Continental Population in the Second-Wave Era and Beyond
Economic Exchange Along the Silk Roads
Economic Exchange in the Indian Ocean Basin
Chinese Technological Achievements
Key Achievements in Islamic Science and Scholarship
European Borrowing
Varieties of Pastoral Societies
World Population Growth, 1000–2000
WORKING WITH EVIDENCE
The Australian Dreamtime
Indus Valley Civilization
Perceptions of Outsiders in the Ancient World
Representations of the Buddha
Pompeii as a Window on the Roman World
Axum and the World
Travelers’ Tales and Observations
China’s Scholar-Officials
The Islamic World in the Seventh Century
The Remaking of Western Europe
Perceptions of the Mongols
Islam and Renaissance Europe
79
ZOOMING IN
Göbekli Tepe: Monumental Construction before Agriculture
Caral, a City of Norte Chico
Trung Trac: Resisting the Chinese Empire
Perpetua, Christian Martyr
The Spartacus Slave Revolt
The Lord of Sipan and the Lady of Cao
The Arabian Camel
Gunpowder
Mullah Nasruddin, the Wise Fool of Islam
Cecilia Penifader, an English Peasant and Unmarried
Woman
A Mongol Failure: The Invasion of Japan
1453 in Constantinople
80
Working with Primary Sources
Two sets of primary sources accompany each chapter of Ways
of the World. Working with Evidence collections appear at the
end of each chapter in the book, while Thinking through
Sources sets are available either as a print supplement or in
LaunchPad — the interactive course space for this text. Both
collections typically feature written sources, such as
inscriptions, letters, diaries, law codes, official records, and
sacred texts, alongside visual sources — paintings, sculptures,
engravings, photographs, posters, cartoons, buildings, and
artifacts. Both collections are followed by a pair of secondary
sources — short extracts from the writings of modern
historians, archeologists, and other scholars. Collectively these
sources provide an opportunity for you to practice the work of
historians in a kind of guided “history laboratory.” In working
with this evidence, you are “doing history,” much as students
conducting lab experiments in chemistry or biology courses are
“doing science.”
Since each feature explores a theme of a particular chapter,
the chapter narrative itself provides a broad context for
analyzing these sources. Furthermore, brief introductions to
each feature and to each document or image offer more specific
context or background information, while questions provide
things to look for as you examine each source. Other more
integrative questions offer a focus for using those sources
together to probe larger historical issues. What follows are a
81
few more specific suggestions for assessing these raw materials
of history.
Working with Documents
Written sources or documents are the most common type of
primary source that historians use. For example, a number of
ancient religious texts are sampled in the Working with
Evidence feature of Chapter 4, while the documents in Chapter
13 present ideas about political authority in Mughal India,
France, and the Inca Empire.
Analysis of such documents usually begins with the basics:
Who wrote the document?
When and where was it written?
What type of document is it (for example, a letter to a
friend, a political decree, an exposition of a religious
teaching)?
Sometimes the document itself will provide answers to these
questions. On other occasions, you may need to rely on the
introductions.
Once these basics have been established, a historian is then
likely to consider several further questions that situate the
document in its particular historical context:
Why was the document written, for what audience, and
under what circumstances?
82
What point of view does it reflect? What other views or
opinions is the document arguing against? Can you get a
sense of the larger conversation in which this document is
participating?
Inspiration and intention are crucial factors that shape the
form and content of a source. For instance, one might examine
a document differently depending on whether it was composed
for a private or a public readership, or whether it was intended
to be read by a small elite or a wider audience.
Still another level of analysis seeks to elicit useful
information from the document.
What material in the document is believable, and what is
not?
What might historians learn from this document?
What can the document tell us about the individual who
produced it and the society from which he or she came?
In all of this, historical imagination is essential. Informed by
knowledge of the context and the content of the document, your
imagination will help you read it through the eyes of its author
and its audience. You should ask yourself: how might this
document have been understood at the time it was written? But
in using your imagination, you must take care not to read into
the documents your own assumptions and understandings. It is
a delicate balance, a kind of dance that historians constantly
undertake. Even documents that contain material that
83
historians find unbelievable can be useful, for we seek not only
to know what actually happened in the past but also to grasp the
world as the people who lived that past understood it. And so
historians sometimes speak about reading documents “against
the grain,” looking for meanings that the author might not have
intended to convey.
Working with Images
Visual sources derive from the material culture of the past —
religious icons or paintings that add to our understanding of
belief systems, a family portrait that provides insight into
presentations of self in a particular time and place, a building or
sculpture that reveals how power and authority were displayed
in a specific empire. These kinds of evidence represent another
category of primary source material that historians can use to
re-create and understand the past. But such visual sources can
be even more difficult to interpret than written documents. The
ideas that animated the creators of particular images or artifacts
are often not obvious. Nor are the meanings they conveyed to
those who viewed or used them. The lovely images from the
ancient Indus River valley civilization contained in the Working
with Evidence feature for Chapter 2, for example, remain
enigmatic although still engaging to twenty-first-century
viewers. Propaganda posters, frequently used in the source
features for Volume 2, convey vividly how various groups or
governments understood their own times. Despite the
difficulties of interpretation, visual sources can provide insights
84
not offered by written documents.
To use visual sources, we must try as best we can to see these
pieces of evidence through the eyes of the societies that
produced them and to decode the symbols and other features
that imbue them with meaning. Thus context is, if anything,
even more crucial for analyzing visual evidence than it is for
documents. For example, understanding artistic depictions
from the life of Muhammad, featured in Chapter 9, depends
heavily on some knowledge of Islamic history and culture. A set
of basic questions, similar to those you would ask about a
written document, provides a starting point for analyzing visual
sources:
When and where was the image or artifact created?
Who made the image or artifact? Who paid for or
commissioned it? For what audience(s) was it intended?
Where was the image or artifact originally displayed or
used?
Having established this basic information about the image or
artifact, you may simply want to describe it, as if to someone
who had never seen it before.
If the source is an image, who or what is depicted? What
activities are shown? How might you describe the
positioning of figures, their clothing, hairstyles, and other
visual cues?
If the source is an object or building, how would you
describe its major features?
85
Finally, you will want to take a stab at more interpretive
issues, making use of what you know about the context in which
the visual source was created.
What likely purpose or function did the image or artifact
serve?
What message(s) does it seek to convey?
How could it be interpreted differently depending on who
viewed or used it?
What are the meanings of any symbols or other abstract
features in the visual source?
What can the image or artifact tell us about the society that
produced it and the time period in which it was created?
Beyond analyzing particular sources, you will be invited to
draw conclusions from sets of related sources — both visual and
written — that address a central theme in the chapter. What can
you learn, for example, about the life of Chinese elites from the
sources in Chapter 8? And what do the images and documents
in the Working with Evidence feature of Chapter 15 disclose
about the reception of Christianity in various cultural settings?
Alongside these primary sources, the Historians’ Voices
features offer you the opportunity to consider how
contemporary scholars make historical arguments and draw
sound conclusions. While primary sources — documentary and
visual alike — are the foundation for all historical accounts,
students and scholars gain further perspective from reading the
analysis of modern experts who use their deep knowledge of the
86
sources to examine and explain the past. Immersing yourself in
documents, images, and the writings of modern scholars allows
you to catch a glimpse of the messiness, the ambiguity, the
heartaches, and the achievements of history as it was lived and
as it has been recorded.
Using these sources effectively, however, is no easy task. In
fact, the work of historians might well be compared with that of
Sisyphus, the ancient Greek king who, having offended the
gods, was condemned to eternally roll a large rock up a
mountain, only to have it ceaselessly fall back down. Like
Sisyphus, historians work at a mission that can never be
completely successful — to recapture the past before it is lost
forever in the mists of time and fading memory. The evidence
available is always partial and fragmentary. Historians and
students of history alike are limited and fallible, for we operate
often at a great distance — in both time and culture — from
those we are studying. And we rarely agree on important
matters, divided as we are by sex, nationality, religion, race,
and values, all of which shape our understandings of the past.
Despite these challenges, scholars and students have long
found their revisiting of the past a compelling project —
intensely interesting, personally meaningful, and even fun —
particularly when working with “primary” or “original” sources,
which are the building blocks of all historical accounts. Such
sources are windows into the lives of our ancestors, though
these windows are often smudged and foggy. We hope that
87
working with the evidence contained in these sources will
enrich your own life as you listen in on multiple conversations
from the past, eavesdropping, as it were, on our ancestors.
88
Prologue
From Cosmic History to Human History
History books in general, and world history textbooks in
particular, share something in common with those Russian
nested dolls in which a series of carved figures fit inside one
another. In much the same fashion, all historical accounts take
place within some larger context, as stories within stories
unfold. Individual biographies and histories of local
communities, particularly modern ones, occur within the
context of one nation or another. Nations often find a place in
some more encompassing civilization, such as the Islamic
world or the West, or in a regional or continental context such
as Southeast Asia, Latin America, or Africa. And those
civilizational or regional histories in turn take on richer
meaning when they are understood within the even broader
story of world history, which embraces humankind as a whole.
In recent decades, some world historians have begun to
situate that remarkable story of the human journey in the much
larger framework of both cosmic and planetary history, an
approach that has come to be called “big history.” It is really the
“history of everything” from the big bang to the present, and it
extends over the enormous, almost unimaginable timescale of
some 13.8 billion years, the current rough estimate of the age of
the universe.1
89
The History of the
Universe
To make this vast expanse of time even remotely
comprehensible, some scholars have depicted the history of the
cosmos as if it were a single calendar year (see Snapshot). On
that cosmic calendar, most of the action took place in the first
few milliseconds of January 1. As astronomers, physicists, and
chemists tell it, the universe that we know began in an eruption
of inconceivable power and heat. Out of that explosion of
creation emerged matter, energy, gravity, electromagnetism,
and the “strong” and “weak” forces that govern the behavior of
atomic nuclei. As gravity pulled the rapidly expanding cosmic
gases into increasingly dense masses, stars formed, with the
first ones lighting up around 1 to 2 billion years after the big
bang, or the end of January to mid-February on the cosmic
calendar.
SNAPSHOT The History of the Universe as a Cosmic Calendar
Big bang
January 1
13.7 billion years ago
Stars and galaxies begin to form
End of January / mid-
12 billion years ago
February
Milky Way galaxy forms
March / early April
10 billion years ago
Origin of the solar system
September 9
4.7 billion years ago
Formation of the earth
September 15
4.5 billion years ago
Earliest life on earth
Late September / early
4 billion years ago
90
October
Oxygen forms on earth
December 1
1.3 billion years ago
First worms
December 16
658 million years ago
First fish, first vertebrates
December 19
534 million years ago
First reptiles, first trees
December 23
370 million years ago
Age of dinosaurs
December 24–28
66 to 240 million
years ago
First human-like creatures
December 31 (late
2.7 million years ago
evening)
First agriculture
December 31: 11:59:35
12,000 years ago
Birth of the Buddha / Greek
December 31: 11:59:55
2,500 years ago
December 31: 11:59:56
2,000 years ago
civilization
Birth of Jesus
Adapted from Carl Sagan, The Dragons of Eden (New York: Random House, 1977), 13–
17.
Hundreds of billions of stars followed, each with its own
history, though following common patterns. They emerge,
flourish for a time, and then collapse and die. In their final
stages, they sometimes generate supernovae, black holes, and
pulsars — phenomena at least as fantastic as the most exotic of
earlier creation stories. Within the stars, enormous nuclear
reactions gave rise to the elements that are reflected in the
periodic table known to all students of chemistry. Over eons,
these stars came together in galaxies, such as our own Milky
Way, which probably emerged in March or early April, and in
even larger structures called groups, clusters, and
superclusters. Adding to the strangeness of our picture of the
91
cosmos is the recent and controversial notion that perhaps 90
percent or more of the total mass of the universe is invisible to
us, consisting of a mysterious and mathematically predicted
substance known to scholars only as “dark matter.”
The contemplation of cosmic history has prompted profound
religious or philosophical questions about the meaning of
human life. For some, it has engendered a sense of great
insignificance in the face of cosmic vastness. In disputing the
earth- and human-centered view of the cosmos, long held by
the Catholic Church, the eighteenth-century French thinker
Voltaire wrote: “This little globe, nothing more than a point,
rolls in space like so many other globes; we are lost in this
immensity.”2 Nonetheless, human consciousness and our
awareness of the mystery of this immeasurable universe render
us unique and generate for many people feelings of awe,
gratitude, and humility that are almost religious. As tiny but
knowing observers of this majestic cosmos, we have found
ourselves living in a grander home than ever we knew before.
The History of a Planet
For most of us, one star, our own sun, is far more important
than all the others, despite its quite ordinary standing among
the billions of stars in the universe and its somewhat remote
location on the outer edge of the Milky Way galaxy. Circling that
star is a series of planets, formed of leftover materials from the
sun’s birth. One of those planets, the third from the sun and the
92
fifth largest, is home to all of us. Human history — our history —
takes place not only on the earth but also as part of the planet’s
history.
That history began with the emergence of the entire solar
system about two-thirds of the way through the history of the
universe, some 4.7 billion years ago, or early September on the
cosmic calendar. Geologists have learned a great deal about the
history of the earth: the formation of its rocks and atmosphere;
the movement of its continents; the collision of the tectonic
plates that make up its crust; and the constant changes of its
landscape as mountains formed, volcanoes erupted, and
erosion transformed the surface of the planet. All of this has
been happening for more than 4 billion years and continues
still.
The most remarkable feature of the earth’s history — and so
far as we know unrepeated elsewhere — was the emergence of
life from the chemical soup of the early planet. It happened
rather quickly, only about 600 million years after the earth itself
took shape, or late September on the cosmic calendar. Then for
some 3 billion years, life remained at the level of microscopic
single-celled organisms. According to biologists, the many
species of larger multicelled creatures — all of the flowers,
shrubs, and trees as well as all of the animals of land, sea, and
air — have evolved in an explosive proliferation of life-forms
over the past 600 million years, or since mid-December on the
cosmic calendar. The history of life on earth has, however, been
93
periodically punctuated by massive die-offs, at least five of
them, in which very large numbers of animal or plant species
have perished. The most widespread of these “extinction
events,” known to scholars as the Permian mass extinction,
occurred around 250 million years ago and eliminated some 96
percent of living species on the planet. That catastrophic
diminution of life-forms on the earth has been associated with
massive volcanic eruptions, the release of huge quantities of
carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, and a degree
of global warming that came close to extinguishing all life on
the planet. Much later, around 66 million years ago, another
such extinction event decimated about 75 percent of plant and
animal species, including what was left of the dinosaurs. Most
scientists now believe that it was caused primarily by the impact
of a huge asteroid that landed near the Yucatán Peninsula off
the coast of southern Mexico, generating enormous
earthquakes, tsunamis, fireballs, and a cloud of toxic dust and
debris. Many scholars believe we are currently in the midst of a
sixth extinction event, driven, like the others, by major climate
change, but which, unlike the others, is the product of human
actions.
So life on earth has been and remains both fragile and
resilient. Within these conditions, every species has had a
history as its members struggled to find resources, cope with
changing environments, and deal with competitors. Egocentric
creatures that we are, however, human beings have usually
focused their history books and history courses entirely on a
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single species — our own, Homo sapiens, humankind. On the
cosmic calendar, Homo sapiens is an upstart primate whose
entire history occurred in the last few minutes of December 31.
Almost all of what we normally study in history courses —
agriculture, writing, civilizations, empires, industrialization —
took place in the very last minute of that cosmic year. The
entire history of the United States occurred in the last second.
Yet during that very brief time, humankind has had a career
more remarkable and arguably more consequential for the
planet than any other species. At the heart of human
uniqueness lies our amazing capacity for accumulating
knowledge and skills. Other animals learn, of course, but for
the most part they learn the same things over and over again.
Twenty-first-century chimpanzees in the wild master much the
same set of skills as their ancestors did a million years ago. But
the exceptional communication abilities provided by human
language allow us to learn from one another, to express that
learning in abstract symbols, and then to pass it on,
cumulatively, to future generations. Thus we have moved from
stone axes to lasers, from spears to nuclear weapons, from
“talking drums” to the Internet, from grass huts to the pyramids
of Egypt, the Taj Mahal of India, and the skyscrapers of modern
cities.
This extraordinary ability has translated into a human impact
on the earth that is unprecedented among all living species.3
Human populations have multiplied far more extensively and
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have come to occupy a far greater range of environments than
has any other large animal. Through our ingenious
technologies, we have appropriated for ourselves, according to
recent calculations, some 25 to 40 percent of the solar energy
that enters the food chain. We have recently gained access to
the stored solar energy of coal, gas, and oil, all of which have
been many millions of years in the making, and we have the
capacity to deplete these resources in a few hundred or a few
thousand years. Other forms of life have felt the impact of
human activity, as numerous extinct or threatened species
testify. Human beings have even affected the atmosphere and
the oceans as carbon dioxide and other emissions of the
industrial age have warmed the climate of the planet in ways
that broadly resemble the conditions that triggered earlier
extinction events. Thus human history has been, and remains,
of great significance, not for ourselves alone, but also for the
earth itself and for the many other living creatures with which
we share it.
The History of the Human
Species . . . in a Single
Paragraph
The history of our species has occurred during roughly the last
200,000–300,000 years, conventionally divided into three major
phases, based on the kind of technology that was most widely
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practiced. The enormously long Paleolithic age, with its
gathering and hunting way of life, accounts for 95 percent or
more of the time that humans have occupied the planet. People
utilizing a stone-age Paleolithic technology initially settled every
major landmass on the earth and constructed the first human
societies (see Chapter 1). Then beginning about 12,000 years ago
with the first Agricultural Revolution, the domestication of
plants and animals increasingly became the primary means of
sustaining human life and societies. In giving rise to
agricultural villages and chiefdoms, to pastoral communities
depending on their herds of animals, and to state- and citybased civilizations, this agrarian way of life changed virtually
everything and fundamentally reshaped human societies and
their relationship to the natural order. Finally, around 1750 a
quite sudden spurt in the rate of technological change, which
we know as the Industrial Revolution, began to take hold. That
vast increase in productivity, wealth, and human control over
nature once again transformed almost every aspect of human
life and gave rise to new kinds of societies that we call
“modern.”
Here then, in a single paragraph, is the history of humankind
— the Paleolithic era, the agricultural era, and, most recently
and briefly, the modern industrial era. Clearly this is a big
picture perspective, based on the notion that the human species
as a whole has a history that transcends any of its particular and
distinctive cultures. That perspective — known variously as
planetary, global, or world history — has become increasingly
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prominent among those who study the past. Why should this be
so?
Why World History?
Not long ago — in the mid-twentieth century, for example —
virtually all college-level history courses were organized in
terms of particular civilizations or nations. In the United States,
courses such as Western Civilization or some version of
American History served to introduce students to the study of
the past. Since then, however, a set of profound changes has
pushed much of the historical profession in a different
direction.
The world wars of the twentieth century, revealing as they
did the horrendous consequences of unchecked nationalism,
persuaded some historians that a broader view of the past might
contribute to a sense of global citizenship. Economic and
cultural globalization has highlighted both the interdependence
of the world’s peoples and their very unequal positions within
that world. Moreover, we are aware as never before that our
problems — whether they involve economic well-being, global
warming, disease, or terrorism — respect no national
boundaries. To many thoughtful people, a global present
seemed to call for a global past. Furthermore, as colonial
empires shrank and new nations asserted themselves on the
world stage, these peoples also insisted that their histories be
accorded equivalent treatment with those of Europe and North
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America. An explosion of new knowledge about the histories of
Asia, Africa, and pre-Columbian America erupted from the
research of scholars around the world. All of this has generated
a “world history movement,” reflected in college and high
school curricula, in numerous conferences and specialized
studies, and in a proliferation of textbooks, of which this is one.
This world history movement has attempted to create a
global understanding of the human past that highlights broad
patterns cutting across particular civilizations and countries,
while acknowledging in an inclusive fashi…