The Pre-modern world and its journey toward modernization

Introduction

Have you ever thought about how the world became modernized? Most of us would coin the term modern world with globalization. But the fact is even before globalization, the journey toward modernization began in the Harappan civilization when the trade routes and silk routes were discovered. Travelers, traders, and pilgrims all traveled a great distance in search of opportunities and knowledge. Goods and resources were carried from one side of the globe to the other side.

By 300 BCE itself coastal trade had connected west Asia with the Indus valley civilization. Disease-carrying germs could be traced to the seventh century and by the thirteenth century, it had been an unavoidable link. Let us dive into the different ways of interlinking the world

Routes that linked the World

• The Silk Routes −These routes are cultural links between faraway worlds, The name silk route is derived from the fact that Chinese silk cargos were transported to the west by land and sea interlinking Asia with Europe and Northern Africa. These are also known to be present before the Christian era. Pottery from China traveled through this route and textile and spices from India went through this route and in return gems, stones and silver flowed from Europe to Asia.

• The cultural exchange could also be traced through these routes the earliest missionaries and Muslim preachers all arrived through these routes and they had reached before the advent of Buddhism in eastern India.

• Food also made its way through these routes.

  Example − noodles or spaghetti is believed to be traveled from china to the west and many common foods such as potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chilies, and sweet potatoes were not known to our ancestors rather they traveled their way to get to us. And it is believed that many of our foods came from America’s original inhabitants - The American Indians. At times newest crops made the largest impact on human life.

  Example − Europe’s poorest ate potatoes and lived longer and the Irelands peasants were so dependent on potatoes and when disease destroyed the potato crop in mid- 1840 thousand lost their lives due to starvation.

Trade, Disease, and The Art of Capturing Colonies

The development attributed to the trade routes reduced drastically by the sixteenth century when the European sailors found a sea route to Asia and successfully crossed the western ocean to America. The Indian Subcontinent was the main connection point in these trade routes and the entry of Europeans expanded the flow of goods, knowledge, and resources toward Europe.

America was cut off from the rest of the world and the discovery of the route made the crops and minerals of America travel great distances.

Precious metals like silver present in Peru and Mexico enhanced the wealth of Europe and financed its trade with Asia.

Conquest of America

With the increasing trade and business, some countries began to have ambitions of conquering other parts of the world to increase their wealth.

• The conquest of America by Spain and Portuguese was underway by the first half of the sixteenth century and interestingly it was not firepower that made the Europeans superior but it was the germs that they carried particularly smallpox, due to their isolation America had no immunity against such diseases. Smallpox was a deadly killer as it killed a large community making way for conquest.

• Poverty and hunger were the new normal for the nineteenth century coupled with widespread disease and religious conflicts and this resulted in thousands fleeing to America.

• By the eighteenth century, Africa became a plantation bowl for European markets, and the fields worked by slaves were ill-treated. By the eighteenth century, the most bustling countries with trade were China and India but by the 15th century China restricted its contact and went into isolation this resulted in an increase in America’s importance and the world trade shifted Eastward and Europe became the new master of the trade.

Conclusion

Trade and travel combined together made the world closer and this dictated the future of the flow of capital and labor, it even changed the migration aspects of people of one nation to another and in the long run, it made the world dependent on each other with advent of Globalization

FAQs

Qns 1. List a few important facts about the silk route.

Ans. The silk had been discovered before the advent of imperialists and some of the facts that can be traced are −

• It began over 2,100 years ago when in 139 BC Emperor Wudi of the Han Empire sent his fellow in search of allies as an embassy to Central Asia.

• The total length of the silk road was close to 9,000 kilometers which is 5,500 miles, starting from china and ending in modern Rome.

• It was the longest ancient overland trade: through central Asia to Constantinopole in Europe.

• One of the most famous travelers Marco Polo traveled to china’s yuan Empire when he was 17.

• The transport of Buddhism to China from India happened through the silk road.

• Interestingly China began running freight trains from Europe to China began running 2011 and it has cut transit time from 50 days to 18 days from Germany by sea. And for the time being the silk road has started to boom, In 2018 compared with 2017 it is said that there is a 38 percent increase in footfall in China.

Qns 2. List a few facts on Bubonic plague.

Ans. Diseases traveled the world with the conquest and migration of outsiders and one such disease killed many Europeans in the 14th century every 2 of 3 Europeans living at that time were killed by this bacterial infection. And it is estimated that around 200 million people have died. Even before the bubonic plague, another deadly plague called the Justinian plague which may have killed 10,000 per day in Constantinople.

The poor were the most affected victims of the plague and only one monarch died king Alphonso X1. The bacteria can be still found in the world even today it can be found in rodents and fleas living on them. There is also a belief that most of the plague originated in Chin and it traveled the world from there. In the current scenario also this analysis can be taken into account as the source of the Coronavirus (Covid 19) is said to be formed in China.