Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age, 1400–1800

An interdisciplinary introduction to early modern cross-cultural encounters and their influences on the development of world societies.

Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age examines the development of world societies and views large-scale interaction between civilizations as a driving force of history. Charles Parker argues that the formation of large empires; massive movement of peoples; spread of plants, animals and microbes; and diffusion of knowledge resulted in global regional interdependence by 1800.Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age is an interdisciplinary introduction to cross-cultural encounters in the early modern age (1400–1800) and their influences on the development of world societies. In the aftermath of Mongol expansion across Eurasia, the unprecedented rise of imperial states in the early modern period set in motion interactions between people from around the world. These included new commercial networks, large-scale migration streams, global biological exchanges, and transfers of knowledge across oceans and continents. These in turn wove together the major regions of the world. In an age of extensive cultural, political, military, and economic contact, a host of individuals, companies, tribes, states, and empires were in competition. Yet they also cooperated with one another, leading ultimately to the integration of global space.