The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World and Globalization Began

The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World and Globalization Began

By Valerie Hansen (2020)

Scribner

Book Review

This book asserts that globalization began in 1000 AD, nearly 500 years before the so-called Age of Exploration. It does so by examining 11th century trade and diplomatic interactions between civilizations on five of the seven continents.

Hansen begins with the Mayan civilization, which had declined from its peak in 600 AD. There’s strong archeological evidence they traded (chocolate for turquoise) with the Chaco Canyon civilization in New Mexico (see Chaco Canyon: The First Advanced Civilization in the Southwest) and learned to work gold and silver from pre-Incan civilizations in the Andes.

She next explores the Viking raids that led to Norse settlements in Britain, Northern France, Italy, Russia and Vinland in North America. I was intrigued to learn the Vikings controlled most of central England starting in 793, where they implemented the laws of Denmark in a region they called as Danelaw. In 1028 the Norse king Cnut became king of England, a well as Denmark, Norway and (part of) Sweden. Following his death in 1035, the throne revered to Edward the Confessor. Following the 1066 invasion by Norman (Viking) leader William the Conqueror, England came under permanent Norman rule.

Hansen then describe early trade between various African kingdoms and Europe, the the Middle East and Asia. Prior to 1492, two-thirds of the gold used in Europe came from Africa. The African continent, along with Eastern Europe and Central Asia was also an important source of slaves for the Islamic Empire that arose following the death of Mohammad. In 800 AD the Abbasid Caliphate established factories in Baghdad uing Chinese manufacturing techniques to make paper. Mansur, the second Abbasid caliph, (754-775) financed the translation of multiple classical Greek, Latin, Persian and Sanskrit texts into Arabic. This allowed for the re-introduction into Europe of lost Greek and Latin works of science, history and philosophy.

In the year 1000, China had the most globalized society on Earth. In exchange for highly priced exports of Chinese porcelain and silk, China imported, pearls, gemstones, and (from East Asia) coconuts, jackfruit, black pepper, cloves, nutmeg, cardamon and rattan mats.

The primary Chinese import was aromatic wood, which was used to imbue fragrant odors to rooms and bodies in an era when bathing was rare and clothes (made of silk, hemp and a fibrous bark known as ramie) were extremely hard to wash.

After 1005, the Song Dynasty paid a large amount of tribute to the Khitan-run Liao dynasty after Khitan nomads from the northeast steppes conquered northern China and the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty that replaced the Liao in 1127.

During this period, the Song Dynasty fluorished. Many Chinese farmers stopped growing their own food because cash crops for export (lychees, sugar cane, glutinous rice, ramie and hemp) were more profitable. Many others went to work in copper, iron and lead mines evaporated sea water to make salt; or worked in the ceramics industry. Despite relying on wood or charcoal for fuel, Chinese factories were just as large and complex as Western factories after the industrial revolution.

Other significant milestones:

• 1170 – Enjoying a huge trade surplus, Song dynasty establishes permanent system of paper notes based on silver. Employed matrix algebra in their accounting system.
• 1076 – China establishes first public pharmacy.
• 1080 – Song city of Quanshu reaches 1 million population.