Introduction

The Global Integration of Space

Traditionally, historians have presented the 1400s and 1500s as the

“age of discovery,” when Europeans began to explore, encounter, and
exploit territories in Asia, Africa, and America. Yet research over the
past twenty-five years has made it increasingly clear that this age of dis-
covery was rooted in extensive contact among peoples across Eurasia
(the land mass comprising Europe and Asia) long before Vasco Da
Gama landed off the Malabar coast of India in 1498. No episode better
illustrates the extent of these intercontinental connections than a fairly
well-known anecdote from the initial encounter between Portuguese
and Indian officials in Calicut. According to the story, Da Gama pre-
pared to make contact with native peoples shortly after dropping
anchor offshore. Apparently he harbored some apprehension about
how a foreign Portuguese mariner might be received, so Da Gama
selected a convict on board, João Nunez, to go ashore first to see what
would happen. Much to the relief of Nunez, and the surprise of Da
Gama, local officials recognized him as someone from Iberia (on the
western coast of Europe), perhaps even as Portuguese, and took him
to two north Africans who were conversant in Castilian and Genoese,
languages in Spain and Italy.
The recognition of Nunez as an Iberian, as well as the presence
of Africans familiar with two European languages in India, high-
light the cosmopolitan character of Asian commercial centers and the
prevalence of long-distance travel long before the period of European
expansion. The hundred-year period from roughly 1250 to 1350 was

1
2 Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age

a relatively peaceful one across Asia, so adventurers and missionaries

from various parts of Europe, most famously Marco Polo from Venice
and William Rubruck, a Franciscan priest from Flanders, traveled as
far as Beijing (also known as Peking) and Karakorum (in present-day
Mongolia), respectively. Europeans were not the only ones venturing
into strange lands, since Arab, Indian, Chinese, Persian, and Turkish
peoples joined travelers like Ibn Battuta (a well-known Moroccan
explorer) on the Silk Roads; on the Muslim Hajj, the obligatory pil-
grimage to Mecca; and on ships in the Indian Ocean. As a result,
Indians and Africans in Calicut had already discovered European peo-
ples before Vasco Da Gama arrived at the end of the fifteenth century.
Just as the 1400s and 1500s were not exactly the paramount age
of European discovery (at least of Asia), they were also not simply the
era of European expansion throughout the world. To be sure, Span-
ish, Portuguese, Dutch, English, French, German, Swedish, and Danish
officers carved out overseas outposts and colonies from the 1400s to
the 1700s. But these European countries were by no means the only
empire builders, for a number of Asian states established political con-
trol over much more vast tracts of land during this time. Three expan-
sive and prosperous Muslim empires rose, sprawling across north
Africa, eastern Europe, and western and central Asia all the way
from Anatolia (present-day Turkey) to the Ganges River basin (today
Bangladesh). The Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires all emerged
in the 1400s and 1500s, promoting the revival of Islam; the inter-
mingling of Arab, Turkish, and Persian cultures; and the expansion
of regional and long-distance trade networks across these immense
territories.
On the eastern end of the continent, a vigorous dynasty arose in
China; in the mid-1300s, it was the most powerful empire in the
world. The Ming (1368–1644) and later the Qing (1644–1911) dynas-
ties rebuilt the economic infrastructure in east Asia and expanded
broadly across central Asia into Mongolia, Turkestan, and Tibet.
In the extreme north, Russian emperors created an immense north
Asian empire, spanning the frozen tundra of Siberia all the way to the
Pacific Ocean. The subjugation of Siberia and the exploitation of its
vast resources enabled emperors to construct a highly centralized state
that made it a forceful presence in Asian and European geopolitical
Introduction 3

affairs. This empire brought Russian merchants into contact with

English, Dutch, Turkish, Iranian, Armenian, Indian, and Chinese
traders. Indeed, this was a time of global expansion.
This unprecedented empire building across Eurasia inaugurated a
new era in world history characterized by cross-cultural interaction
among peoples from around the globe. Historians refer to this age, ex-
tending from roughly around 1400 to 1800, as the early modern
period. Though peoples from Africa, Asia, and Europe had engaged
one another intermittently since ancient times, early modern cross-
cultural exchange was distinctive in its worldwide scale and its ongo-
ing regularity. Global interactions in the early modern period also had
far-reaching ramifications, leading to foundational shifts in economic
structures and political power relations on every continent.
Early modern interaction was distinctive, also standing out from
later, modern patterns that emerged in the 1800s with the advent of
industrialization. The Industrial Revolution equipped western nations
with the technical capacities that enabled a handful of European coun-
tries, and later Japan and the United States, to dominate world affairs
in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In this age of imperialism,
these powers heavy-handedly imposed direct colonial rule or intro-
duced a more veiled political control over almost all the surface area
of the globe. Despite all of the violent subjugation that occurred in
early modern times, no region stood at the apex of world dominion.
This book illustrates the unique character of cross-cultural encoun-
ters in the early modern age and their influences on the development of
world societies. The emergence of powerful empires around the world
set in motion processes of exchange that reached across all continents
except Antarctica. Empire building in this period established four cen-
tral forms of interaction: new commercial exchange networks, large-
scale migration streams, worldwide biological exchanges, and transfers
of knowledge across oceans and continents. This was a period in world
history characterized by intense cultural, political, military, and eco-
nomic contact, yet all this interaction was not the story of one region
dominating all the rest. Rather a host of individuals, companies, tribes,
states, and empires clashed and competed – but also cooperated with
one another – bringing regions of the world into sustained contact and
leading ultimately to the integration of global space.
4 Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age

Global Empire Building

Why did so many empires develop throughout Eurasia in the 1400s

and 1500s?
Even though a host of immediate factors specific to particular
regions contributed to the development of these empires, from a long-
term perspective the episode that linked them all was the rise and
fall of the Mongols in the 1200s and 1300s. During this time, this
nomadic people from western Mongolia under the charismatic lead-
ership of Chinggis Khan (Genghis Khan), conquered and subjugated
vast regions of Asia. The Mongol empire in its heyday in the late
1200s stretched all the way from the Mediterranean Sea to the Sea of
Japan. To the north, one branch of the Mongols, the Golden Horde,
controlled Russia by reducing it to a vassal state. This was the largest
empire in world history, comprising one third of the land area of the
globe.
Mongols were fierce fighters, showing no mercy to those who re-
sisted their demands, and brilliant tacticians, coordinating complex
battlefield maneuvers. The secret to their success, however, lay in their
unsurpassed horsemanship. Bred for speed, stamina, and sturdiness,
Mongolian horses could cover a hundred miles in a day. On a long
campaign, a Mongol warrior could subsist for over a week on the
milk from a mare and the blood of his mount, obtained by cutting
open a vein in the steed’s neck and stitching it together after use.
Opposing armies across Eurasia proved no match for the dexterity
and the aggressiveness of Mongol forces. After conquering a defiant
city, warriors laid waste to it, taking away women and children, and
slaughtering all the men. Despite this brutality, once Mongol hordes
had conquered a region, they promoted trade, diplomacy, and travel.
Mongol rulers from China to Persia encouraged travel and welcomed
foreign merchants, emissaries, and even missionaries, thus opening
cities across Asia to international exchange.
When the empires established by Chinggis Khan and his successors
began to break apart in the mid- to late 1300s, a powerful Turkish
leader, Timurlane, invaded and wreaked havoc on Mongol territo-
ries from the Black Sea to the Indus River. Thus, the broad region
including eastern Anatolia, Persia, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan,
and Uzbeck, fell under the control of Timurid dynasties, so named for
 map i.1. Mongol and Timurid Empires

5
6 Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age

Timurlane and his descendants. Just as the spread of Mongol empires

bred all sorts of interaction, the decline of Timurid empires exerted a
powerful pull on expansion-minded Asian dynasties.
How did these Mongol and Timurid empires play such a pivotal role
in the emergence of Eurasian states, which eventually produced a new
pattern of global exchange in the early modern period? The Muslim
empires (Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal) that came to power in cen-
tral and south Asia grew directly in response to weak Mongol-Timurid
regimes. Mongol incursions in central Asia pushed the Ottomans into
Anatolia where they found a home on the borders of the Byzantine
empire, a Greek and Christian realm centered at Constantinople. After
the demise of the Mongols in the 1300s, Ottoman sultans expanded
at the expense of Byzantine and Mongol-Timurid territories. Likewise,
the decentralized character of the Timurid dynasty in Iran enabled
the Safavid dynasty, a Shi’ite Muslim clan in Ajerbaijan, to rally war-
riors to take control of the region. The Ottoman and Safavid regimes,
therefore, formed successor states to Mongol-Timurid rule.
The Mughals, however, represented the continuation of a Mongol-
Timurid kingdom, since Timurlane conquered Delhi in 1398. The
Mughal dynasty that conquered large portions of India in the early
sixteenth century came from Mongol and Timurid ethnic stock. Babur,
the founder of the Mughal Empire, claimed descent from both Chinggis
Khan and Timurlane, and thus regarded northern India as part of his
heritage. Babur distributed the top military and administrative posts
to Mongols and Timurids who accompanied him in India. “Mughal,”
which means Mongol, denotes this nomadic warrior lineage.
The expansion of both Russia and China across northern and central
Asia, respectively, also resulted from the presence of Mongol power
and its subsequent weakening in the 1400s and 1500s. Russian tsars
(emperors) saw opportunities for conquest when the Mongol territories
broke apart in the late 1400s. In the 1230s, the Golden Horde pushed
into Russia and decisively defeated the princes of Kiev, the most pow-
erful figures in the region north of the Black Sea. The Golden Horde
made Russia a vassal state for well over two hundred years, exacting
tribute from princes and cities. Russian lords regularly trekked to the
Horde’s headquarters in Saray, bearing all sorts of goods to their over-
lords. Should Russian leaders fail to meet these obligations, the Horde
would exact revenge by raping, pillaging, and terrorizing local peoples.
Introduction 7

After the Golden Horde went into decline in the 1400s, the Grand
Prince of Moscow declared independence in 1480. As the Mongol
states crumbled, Tatars (Mongol and Turkic peoples some of whom
had belonged to the Golden Horde) came to rule over a patchwork
of territories to the east in Kazan, western Siberia, and Kazakhstan.
Russian tsars in the 1500s seized the opportunity to enlarge their hold-
ings in the east at the expense of these Tatar territories.
After throwing off Mongol rule in 1368, the Ming dynasty in China
turned its attention to the west, where Mongols and other groups posed
a threat to Chinese society. The Chinese state extended the Great Wall
of China in the north, negotiated with tribal leaders, and eventually
embarked on a long campaign to subdue its enemies. This struggle
against Mongol tribes led to the Chinese conquest of central Asia in
the 1600s and 1700s. By the close of the early modern period, the Qing
dynasty controlled an imperial expanse that extended across Mongolia,
Manchuria, Turkestan, and Tibet. The move toward the central Asian
plain was an important factor in the growth of Chinese hegemony
from the South China Sea to the Himalayas. As a result of imperial
expansion into the central Asian land mass, China did not pursue an
empire in southeast Asia or the Indian Ocean. The government in fact
turned away from maritime Asia, seeking to limit contacts between
Chinese merchants on the southern coasts and foreign traders.
On the far western end of Eurasia, Europe too felt the impact of
Mongol empires. Mongol rulers encouraged travel and trade, giving
a variety of Europeans the opportunity to encounter the wonders of
Asian lands. Many travelers composed accounts of their experiences,
and these narratives found a ready market among urban elites, aristo-
crats, and churchmen. Merchants, missionaries and diplomats such as
Marco Polo, Giovanni di Piano Carpini, Odoric of Pordenone, William
Rubruck, and John of Marignolli wrote about the places they visited,
which circulated widely across Europe.
In many instances, the tales told by travel accounts were tall ones,
and we should not regard them as faithful reports of facts. The Travels
of Sir John de Mandeville, for example, describes monsters in Egypt
who have the torso of a man, but the abdomen and legs of a goat. And
on islands in southeast Asia, different peoples have either ears that
hang to their knees, or small holes for mouths, or no heads, or horse
feet, or possess both female and male sexual organs. Some scholars
8 Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age

doubt that the most famous account, The Travels of Marco Polo,
describes the Venetian merchant’s actual experiences, but instead
reflects his awareness of the profit in a good story. Polo’s account
also came with tales of dog-faced men and all sorts of exotic women.
Regardless, The Travels of Marco Polo attracted wide popularity, firing
the imagination of merchants, missionaries, princes, and popes. These
embellished travel narratives exerted a powerful pull on Europeans’
imaginations and propelled them on a quest to find more efficient
routes to the lands of the great Khan. In fact, Christopher Columbus
had in his possession a copy of The Travels of Marco Polo when he
ventured out into the Atlantic in 1492.
Thus, the appearance of the Mongol and Timurid empires from
the 1200s to the 1400s made central Asia the epicenter of a dynamic
movement of peoples that rippled across Eurasia. The rise and fall of
this great empire prompted four critical Eurasian developments: the
establishment of extensive Muslim empires from the Mediterranean
Sea to the Ganges River basin; the Russian conquest of Siberia to the
Pacific Ocean; the inland, western push of the Ming and Qing dynas-
ties; and the European voyages of exploration. These four events fueled
the exchanges that integrated the civilizations of the world in time and
space.
Before embarking on the journey of exploration into this fascinating
period, it is important to consider several concepts and problems that
have figured into the study of the early modern period. For even though
the story of global interaction might seem like a fairly straightforward
affair, scholars disagree on a range of issues that influence general
interpretations about the period.

Problems and Possibilities in Early Modern World History

Analyzing societies from a genuinely global framework presents a num-

ber of difficulties for scholars. The professional study of history devel-
oped first in Europe and the United States from the mid-1800s to the
early 1900s, a time when Europe dominated world affairs and when
an aggressive nationalism gripped western nations. It is not surprising,
then, that history books and articles, written by European and Ameri-
can historians, either explicitly portrayed western culture as the highest
expression of human achievement or tacitly assumed the superiority of
Introduction 9

western values. In addition, histories cast Europeans and Americans

as forward-moving, dynamic agents of change, whereas non-western
societies were passive and nonchanging, always responding to western
incursions and initiatives. Until the last forty years or so, a fairly brief
period in the development of historical research, these assumptions
underlay much of western scholarship. As a result, western institutions
and value systems became the standard models by which scholars eval-
uated the rest of the world. Historians became absorbed with questions
associated with the rise of the West and the attendant failure of African
and Asian societies to industrialize and develop democratic forms
of government. Despite a wide variety of perspectives, most expla-
nations emphasized that European (and by extension North Ameri-
can) culture was exceptional in important ways. Whether more disci-
plined, more industrious, more inventive, more acquisitive, or simply
more predatory, Europeans had something that other peoples did not
possess.
Beginning in the 1960s, a number of scholars began to contest the
notion of European exceptionalism. This occurred as history depart-
ments around the world started to increase the number of their fac-
ulty significantly, offer graduate programs in a wide variety of non-
European regions, and stress the utility of social science disciplines,
especially sociology and anthropology. Consequently, academically
trained historians in non-western fields began to expose the depth of
“Eurocentric” assumptions about the past and to challenge them. For
example, Marshall Hodgson, a historian of Islam at the University
of Chicago, disputed the idea that Europeans possessed any superior
cultural disposition, but argued that most achievements attributed to
Europe actually originated much earlier in the eastern hemisphere. He
pointed out that most historical accounts at the time (he wrote in
the 1950s and 1960s) glossed over the cultural achievements of Asian
societies and the extent to which they influenced European history.
Rather, traditional historical writing presented world history as a nar-
rative about the inevitable rise of western civilization over Asia, Africa,
and America, whose insularity bound them to outmoded patterns of
thought. Further, Hodgson argued that studying civilizations, whether
western or eastern (i.e. Asia), in isolation from one another unavoid-
ably laid stress on essential, unique traits of that society at the expense
of all others who were categorically different and foreign.
10 Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age

A conviction that informs newer methods today is the need to study

peoples and societies from around the world in relation to one another.
This global perspective has helped us move past short-sighted interpre-
tations that treat civilizations as self-contained categories. One method
that scholars have used to ground their analyses in the values of diverse
cultures is comparative study of similar patterns in different parts of the
world. For example, Victor Lieberman has compared parallel political,
institutional, and economic developments at various ends of Eurasia:
Japan, Burma, Siam, Vietnam, France, and Russia. Having identified
striking resemblances in territorial consolidation, political integration,
and military innovation, Lieberman observes that “commercial, com-
munications, and patronage circuits” across Eurasia were leading to
“more sustained interaction” among different peoples. Intense research
in non-western areas has complemented long-range comparative stud-
ies and has shown that economic vitality in east Asia paralleled Euro-
pean levels and illustrated that “urban and commercial vigor, trends
toward political absolutism, emphases on orthodox, textual religions”
were just as much a feature of Asian societies as they were Euro-
pean ones. Anthony Reid in particular has drawn attention to the
economic and political dynamism throughout southeast Asia from
1450 to 1630.
Another fruitful strategy for pursuing a more balanced global
approach has come from scholars who focus on points of contact
between different societies. Jerry Bentley has championed the study of
cross-cultural processes, like trade, mass migration, and imperial ex-
pansion, to understand the development of societies across space and
time. From this perspective, the external interaction of groups, such
as the Portuguese and Kongolese, the Chinese and Japanese, or the
Indian and Arab, plays a vital role in the internal changes that take
place in a society. In a period of intense exchange, the examination
of the interconnections between peoples offers a means to relate local
developments to global movements.
It is from this vantage point of contact and interconnection that the
idea of an early modern world makes the most sense. The “early mod-
ern” periodization comes directly out of European history, as scholars
over the past thirty years have used this terminology to refer to the
era from the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution. Since the late
1980s or early 1990s, historians have also applied “early modern” to
Introduction 11

other parts of the world for the period from roughly 1400 to 1800.
It has become commonplace, for example, to substitute “early mod-
ern China” for “Ming and Qing China” or “early modern India”
for “Mughal India.” Despite its European pedigree, this periodization
does not impute western characteristics across the globe or make Euro-
centric judgments about non-western lands. In fact, “early modern”
implies just the opposite. For when applied to world history, the term
connotes a set of global processes, described by the historian John
Richards, as the creation of global sea passages, the emergence of a
world economy, the growth of centralized states, the rise of world pop-
ulations, the intensification of agriculture, and the spread of new tech-
nology. Thus, “early modern” provides a comprehensive framework
to study world history from the aftermath of the Mongol-Timurid
empires to industrialization.
This present study takes the early modern world as its focus and
leans heavily on recent research that has pointed the way to more
evenhanded, objective approaches. Global Interactions in the Early
Modern Age, 1400–1800 considers early modern peoples on their own
terms rather than from modern perspectives, realizing that all societies
actively made choices in keeping with their own priorities, which con-
nected global processes to local circumstances. The central argument
running through Global Interactions is that the extraordinary rise of
powerful empires inaugurated a series of sustained interactions that
brought societies around the world into interdependent relationships.
With these perspectives in mind, the following six chapters examine the
most wide-reaching forms of interaction that grew out of early mod-
ern empire building in Europe and Asia: long-distance trade, migra-
tion, biological exchange, and globalization of knowledge. From there,
the concluding chapter discusses the effects of these exchanges on the
various regions of the world.

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