The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Ecological Narrative from the Fifteenth to the Twenty-first Century

The world began to change in drastic ways upon the creation of two new “links.” The first such link was the establishment of contact between Eurasia and the Americas with the voyage of Christopher Columbus. The second link was forged when the Spanish established a colony on the Philippines, which provided a gateway between the Americas, Europe, and East Asia. These links created what Marks describes as the “first globalization.” In addition, empires grew across Eurasia, though the European nation-state eventually replaced empires as the predominant form of government. Influencing these developments was the Little Ice Age, a cooling climate event that began sometime around the 14th century and probably lasted until the 19th century. The colder weather strained agricultural production, forcing governments to do more to extract wealth and in turn worsening social conflicts and tensions. In this environment, five great empires grew: the Ottomans, Russia, Safavid Iran, Mughal India, and China. Their systems were “expansive and successful forms of organizing political economies over vast territories in the period from 1550 to 1775” (73). Nomads, historically the major threat to empires, were completely crushed by the 18th century.

The empire model likewise existed in Africa and the Americas (specifically the Aztecs and the Incas).