Intro to part 3 and Chapter 7

Welcome back to another blog post! I am excited to be blogging again! We have now entered the second part of the first semester. In this blog post, we will be discussing part 3: An Age of Accelerating Connections and part 7: Commerce and Culture.

In Part 3, the book describes this as the start of a new era. The Third- Wave Civilizations brought smaller civilizations such as the Swahili civilization and the emergence of more city-states. The emergence of long-distance trade happened. At this point, there was a pattern in world history; the globalization of civilizations. The theme of continuing or renewing older traditions took a shape in the Western Hemisphere where two centers of civilizations (Mesoamerica and Andes) have been long established. The world's cultures and people interacted with one another far more extensively.


In the 7th chapter, we are introduced to the Growth of the Silk Roads. The beginnings of the Silk Road lay in both geography and history. For 2000 years, goods, ideas, technologies, and diseases made their way across Eurasia on several routes of the Silk Roads.  Often carried in large camel caravans that traversed the harsh and dangerous steppes, deserts, and oases of Central Asia. Regions such as China, Forest lands of Siberia and grasslands of Central Asia, India, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean Basin have all contributed products to the Silk Road Commerce.

The transit/ Silk Road opened barriers to economic and cultural differences. Buddhism in particular, a cultural product of the Indian Civilization, spread widely throughout Central and East Asia, owing much to the activities of merchants along the Silk Roads. Conversion to Buddhism in the Oasis was a voluntary process. Inhabitants and civilizations relied on long-distance trade for goods and products. Another route for trade and communication between places was through the Sea and Sand roads of the Afro-Eurasian world.

Western European countries came to dominate much of the world both economically and politically in the recent eras.  Economic relationships among third-wave civilizations were more balanced and multicentered than those of the modern era. There was the presence of massive inequalities, but interaction between the bigger civilizations ensured equality among all.