"Globalization" has become a popular buzzword for explaining today''s world. The expression achieved terminological stardom in the 1990s and was soon embraced by the general public and integrated into numerous languages.
But is this much-discussed phenomenon really an invention of modern times? In this work, J-rgen Osterhammel and Niels Petersson make the case that globalization is not so new, after all. Arguing that the world did not turn "global" overnight, the book traces the emergence of globalization over the past seven or eight centuries. In fact, the authors write, the phenomenon can be traced back to early modern large-scale trading, for example, the silk trade between China and the Mediterranean region, the shipping routes between the Arabian Peninsula and India, and the more frequently traveled caravan routes of the Near East and North Africa--all conduits for people, goods, coins, artwork, and ideas.
Osterhammel and Petersson argue that the period from 175
