Worlds Together, Worlds Apart: A History of the World from the Beginnings of Humankind to the Present

Worlds Together, Worlds Apart

A History of the World from the Beginnings of Humankind to the Present

Second Edition
Tignor, Adelman, Aron, Brown, Elman, Kotkin, Liu, Marchand, Pittman, Prakash, Shaw, Tsin

Contents

  • Chapter 1: Becoming Human
  • The development of early humans is considered in the context of what makes humans human with discussions on the development of bi-pedalism and complex cognitive processes such as language and art. The chapter ends with people domesticating plants and animals and the founding of the first village settlements around the globe.
  • Chapter 2: Rivers, Cities, and the Rise of Complex Societies, c. 4000–2000 BCE
  • The world’s first complex societies develop along the great river basins of Afro-Eurasia: the Nile, the Tigris and Euphrates, the Indus, and the Yellow and Yangzi. These were the early societies where people learned how to master annual floods and became experts in seeding, which allowed for the development of dense populations and the rise of complex hierarchical, cultural based societies.
  • Chapter 3: Nomads, Territorial States, and Micro-Societies, 2000–1200 BCE
  • Drought, environmental degradation, and political instability bring the first riverine societies to a crashing end around 2,000 BCE. Nomads using charioteer technology invade the riverine societies establishing the first territorial states in Afro-Eurasia. In the Americas, the Mediterranean, sub-Saharan Africa, and in the Pacific worlds, micro-societies flourish as an alternative form of polity to territorial states.
  • Chapter 4: First Empires and Common Cultures, 1200–350 BCE
  • Afro-Eurasia witnesses the rise of large-scale unified societies in the form of empires and common cultures. The world’s first empires, the neo-Assyrian and Persian, offer one model ruling mainly through force. The Zhou state in China offers another form of legitimate rule based on the doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven. Vedic India emerges as a common culture unified through the dual religious faiths of Brahminism and early Buddhism.
  • Chapter 5: Worlds Turned Inside Out, 1000–350 BCE
  • Explores the relationship between politics and ideas in a world in which smaller-scale societies emerge from the decline of larger empires and common cultures. In Afro-Eurasia during the warring states, warring ideas period, Confucianism squares off against Daoism in Zhou China. Vedic Brahmanism battles early Buddhism for the hearts and souls of people in northern South Asia, and the Greek thinkers battle over human nature as they fight amongst themselves and against the Persians. In sub-Saharan Africa, Sudanic culture emerges as a major common culture with the people of Meroe creating a society that blended Egyptian and sub-Saharan influences. Dramatic transformations occur in the Americas where the Olmec and Chavin peoples create newly imagined hierarchical societies of the like never before seen in their part of the world.
  • Chapter 6: Shrinking the Afro-Eurasian World, 350 BCE–250 CE
  • Discusses the formation of the early Silk Road on land and sea in the aftermath of Alexander the Great’s conquests and the rule of his successor states across southwest Asia into South Asia. This includes a fascinating discussion of the relationship between politics, religion, and trade, as Buddhism takes advantage of the early Silk Road and moves into Central Asia before reaching China.
  • Chapter 7: Han China and the Roman Empire, 350 BCE–250 CE
  • The rise of the massive Roman and Han Empires, two overarching political, economic, and cultural systems that dominated much of the Afro-Eurasian land mass from 200 BCE to 200 C.E. Both left their imprint on the west and the east of Afro-Eurasia, and rulers for centuries afterwards tried to revive these glorious polities and used them as models of greatness.
  • Chapter 8: The Rise of Universal Religions, 300–600 CE
  • The relationship between politics and the rise of universal religions is explored as both Christianity and Buddhism enjoy spectacular successes in becoming universal religions in the politically fragmented, post-Han era in China and in the feudal world of Western Europe. In Africa, the Bantu common culture is established throughout the southern half of the landmass. The Americas witness the rise of the Olmec city-state and the Mayan common culture.
  • Chapter 9: New Empires and Common Cultures, 600–1000 CE
  • Islam is explored as an in-depth case study in how a religion can become the main vehicle for creating political dynasties. As a counterpoint, political figures like Charlemagne in Europe tried to use Christianity as a tool to solidify their own existing dynasties. In East Asia, Tang China charts a more unique secular based trajectory from its Afro-Eurasian counterparts, as the more secular based Confucianism makes a comeback. Japan and Korea are discussed as tributary states to Tang China, as they embrace some Chinese practices, while trying to retain their own trajectory.
  • Chapter 10: The World Becomes “The World”, 1000–1300 CE
  • The world develops into definable regions that we can identify today marking the transition to the modern period. Trade and long-distance trade are emphasized throughout as integrating forces. Sub-Saharan Africa undergoes intense integration via the spread of the Mande speaking peoples and the Mali Empire. The Americas witness their first empire in the form of the Chimu peoples based in the Andes in South America. The Mongols serve as the unifying element that brings large stretches of Afro-Eurasia together in unprecedented ways, as nomads again play a major role in world history.
  • Chapter 11: Crises and Recovery in Afro-Eurasia, 1300–1500
  • Afro-Eurasia rebuilds new political orders after the devastation of Mongol invasions and the Black Death.
  • Chapter 12: Contact, Commerce, and Colonization, 1450–1600
  • Europeans gain an adventuring spirit, begin colonizing the New World, and establish themselves as a viable world-trading partner, but remain a second tier player to the Ming, Ottoman, and Mughal Dynasties.
  • Chapter 13: Worlds Entangled, 1600–1750
  • The world copes with increased economic integration and political disruption as New World silver flows around the globe. China remains the most powerful society in the world as much of the New World silver ends up in China.
  • Chapter 14: Cultures of Splendor and Power, 1600–1780
  • The global distribution of New World silver and increased global trade leads to a golden era and cultural flourishing in many of the major world cultures. We witness first hand how culture is created and transmitted in the context of the Ming, Ottoman, and European monarchies, and in the colonial cultures in the Americas. The oceanic and scientific investigations of Captain James Cook highlight the new ways in which knowledge of different cultures spread via trade and conquest.
  • Chapter 15: Reordering the World, 1750–1850
  • Political and economic transformations in the Altantic world via the first western commercial and industrial revolutions put new pressures on previously powerful governments in Asia and Africa.
  • Chapter 16: Alternative Visions of the Nineteenth Century
  • Old orders are changed via the spread of capitalism and political radicals question authority around the globe as witnessed through a series of case studies including Wahabbism, Don Fodio, Shaka, the Taiping Rebellion, the Ghost Dance Movement, the Mayan Caste War, the Sepoy Rebellion, and the rise of socialism and nationalism in Europe.
  • Chapter 17: Nations and Empires, 1850–1914
  • Nation building in the West evolves into global colonialism as western powers seek to expand and consolidate their states power internally and externally with mixed success and unanticipated consequences. The chapter provides different models for nation building and expansionism via case-studies on the US, Russia, Canada, Brazil, Japan, and China.
  • Chapter 18: An Unsettled World, 1890–1914
  • Discontent emerges around the world due to Western global imperialism and the massive economic changes growing out of modernization, challenging all peoples to reimagine their nations and identities. Topics covered include the Boxer Rebellion, colonial uprisings in Africa, cultural modernism, race and identity, the “Woman Question,” and the second industrial revolution.
  • Chapter 19: Of Masses and Visions of the Modern, 1910–1930
  • The Great War and its aftermath accelerates the trend toward mass society and shakes the confidence in modernization leading to alternative solutions beyond capitalism and liberal democracy in the forms of communism, fascism, and socialism.
  • Chapter 20: The Three-World Order, 1940–1975
  • In the aftermath of World War II and in the backdrop of the Cold War, a new three-world order emerges with each order offering competing visions for how to guide the future of world political and economic development.
  • Chapter 21: Worlds Together, Worlds Apart: Globalization 1975–1999
  • Twenty-first century globalization creates new possibilities for some, while challenging the dominant notion of the nation state and deepening the disparity in income and power in different regions of the world. This chapter covers major events like the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of Apartheid in South Africa, and the end of communism in the Soviet Union, while taking on major issues like environmentalism, feminism, religion, and violence in the context of what it means to be a citizen of the late 20th century.
  • Epilogue, 2000–2007
  • The first years of the 21st century have brought profound changes to the world order. The new Epilogue shows the ways in which most recent history is, in fact, entwined with trends of much longer duration that are the chief focus of Worlds Together, Worlds Apart.