Scale of Globalization Before the Great Geographic Discoveries

* Chapter: Globalization and the World System Evolution. By Leonid E. Grinin and Andrey V. Korotayev. Chapter 2 of the book: Evolution: Development within Different Paradigms 2013, pp. 30–68

URL = https://www.sociostudies.org/almanac/articles/files/evolution_3/pdf/030-068.pdf

Abstract

"The formation of the Afroeurasian world-system was one of the crucial points of social evolution, starting from which the social evolution rate and effectiveness increased dramatically. In the present article we analyze processes and scales of global integration in historical perspective, starting with the Agrarian Revolution. We connect the main phases of historical globalization with the processes of development of the Afroeurasian world-system. In the framework of the Afroeurasian world-system the integration began a few thousand years Before the Common Era. In this world-system the continental and supracontinental links became rather developed long before the Great Geographic Discoveries and thus, they could quite be denoted as global (albeit in a somehow limited sense). As some researchers are still inclined to underestimate the scale of those links in the pre-Industrial era, it appears necessary to provide additional empirical support for our statement. It also turns necessary to apply a special methodology (which necessitated the use of the world-system approach). We analyze some versions of periodization of history of globalization. We also propose our own periodization of globalization using as its basis the growing scale of intersocietal links as an indicator of the level of globalization development."

(https://www.sociostudies.org/almanac/articles/files/evolution_3/pdf/030-068.pdf)

On Goals and Tasks of the Article

"Within the framework of this article we attempt to solve the following tasks:

1) to demonstrate that as early as a few thousand years ago (at least since the formation of the system of long-distance large-scale trade in metals in the 4th millennium BCE) the scale of systematic trade relations overgrew significantly the local level and became regional (and even transcontinental in a certain sense);

2) to show that already in the late 1st millennium BCE the scale of processes and links within the Afroeurasian world-system not only exceeded the regional level, as well as reached the continental level, but it also went beyond continental limits. That is why we contend that within this system, the marginal systemic contacts between agents of various levels (from societies to individuals) may be defined as transcontinental (note that we deal here not only with overland contacts, because after the late 1st millennium BCE in some cases we note the oceanic contacts – the most salient case is represented here by the Indian Ocean communication network);

3) to demonstrate that even prior to the Great Geographic Discoveries the scale of the global integration in certain respects could be comparable with the global integration in more recent periods. In particular, demographically, even two thousand years ago a really integrated part of the humankind encompassed 90 per cent of the total world population.

Our analysis suggests that the above-mentioned marginal level of integration within the Afroeurasian world-system can hardly be considered as something insignificant or virtual; it substantially influenced the general direction of development and accelerated the development of many social systems. The article also deals with a number of other issues that are important both for the world-system approach and for the study of the history of globalization – such as the typology of the world-system links, peculiar features of the Afroeurasian world-system, the possible dating of the start of its formation, factors of its transformation into the planetary World System, and so on."

Excerpts

Temporal origin of globalization ?

"According to different authors, globalization has been going on either since the first movement of people out of Africa into other parts of the world, or since the 3rd millennium BC (when according to Andre Gunder Frank the World System emerged [Frank 1990, 1993; Frank and Gills 1993]), or since the so-called Axial Age (Jaspers 1953) in the 1st millennium BC, or only since the Great Geographical Discoveries, or in the 19th century, or after the year 1945, or only since the late 1980s. Each of these dates has its own sense. It is quite reasonable to discuss the problem in the context of whether one can speak about globalization before the Great Geographical Discoveries. After them the idea of the Earth as a globe exceeded the limits of the opinion of a group of scientists and became practical knowledge (Chumakov 2011)."

Periodizations

Chumakov

"Alexander Chumakov (2011: 166–167) ... worked out a periodization of evolution of global links on the basis of their scale (which reflects rather logically the general trend toward the growth of this scale):

1) ‘Period of Fragmentary Events’ (till 5000 BP);

2) ‘Period of Regional Events’ (till the 5th century CE);

3) ‘Period of Global Events’ (till the mid-20th century).

The 4th period (‘Period of Cosmic Expansion’) of this periodization started in 1957.

This periodization is of interest, but some of its underlying ideas need serious clarifications and reinterpretations."

Grinin - Korotayev

• Growth of globalization level in historical process

Type of spatial links (globalization level)

Local links

1) Up to the second half of the 4th millennium BCE (≈ 3500 BCE)

1. Pre-state (simple and medium complexity) political forms, the first complex polities
2. Hunter-gatherer production principle, beginning of the agrarian production principle

Regional links

2) The second half of the 4th millennium BCE – the first half of the 1st millennium BCE (≈ 3500 – 490 BCE)

1. Early states and their analogues; the first empires
2. The second phase of the agrarian revolution; agrarian production principle reaches its maturity

Continental links

3) The second half of the 1st millennium BCE – the late 15th century CE (≈ 490 BCE – 1492 CE)

1. Rise of empires and first developed states
2. Final phase of the agrarian production principle

Transcontinental (oceanic) links

4) The late 15th century – the early 19th century (≈ 1492–1821)

1. Rise of developed states, first mature states
2. The first phase of the industrial production principle and industrial revolution

Global links

6) From the early 19th century till the 1960s and 1970s

1. Mature states and early forms of supranational entities
2. The second phase of the industrial revolution and the final phase of the industrial production principle

Planetary links

7) From the last third of the 20th century till the mid-21st century

1. Formation of supranational entities, washing out of state sovereignty, search for new types of political unions and entities, planetary governance forms
2. The start and development of scientific information revolution whose second phase is forecasted for the 2030s and 2040s