Description
The era from 1400 to 1800 saw intense biological, commercial, and cultural exchanges, and the creation of global connections on an unprecedented scale. Divided into two books, Volume 6 of The Cambridge World History considers these critical transformations. The first book examines the material and political foundations of the era, including global considerations of the environment, disease, technology, and cities, along with regional studies of empires in the eastern and western hemispheres, crossroads areas such as the Indian Ocean, Central Asia, and the Caribbean, and sites of competition and conflict, including Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Mediterranean. The second book focuses on patterns of change, examining the expansion of Christianity and Islam, migrations, warfare, and other topics on a global scale, and offering insightful detailed analyses of the Columbian exchange, slavery, silver, trade, entrepreneurs, Asian religions, legal encounters, plantation economies, early industrialism, and the writing of history.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction Sanjay Subrahmanyam; Part I. Global Matrices: 2. 'Exhausting the earth': environment and history in the early modern world Robert Marks; 3. Globalization of disease, 1300–1900 James Webb; 4. Technological transitions Francesca Bray; 5. Patterns of urbanization, 1400–1800 Peter Burke; 6. Gender and sexuality Merry Wiesner-Hanks; Part II. Macro-Regions: 7. Eurasia after the Mongols Thomas T. Allsen; 8. Continuity and change in the Indian Ocean basin Jos Gommans; 9. The Americas in the age of indigenous empires Matthew Restall; 10. Africa in world history, 1400–1800 Ray A. Kea; Part III. Large-Scale Political Formations: 11. The Iberian empires, 1400–1800 Jorge Flores; 12. Imperial competition in Eurasia: Russia and China Laura Hostetler; 13. The Islamic empires of the early modern world Giancarlo Casale; Part IV. Crossroads Regions: 14. Crossroads region: Central Asia Morris Rossabi; 15. Crossroads region: Southeast Asia Michael Laffan; 16. The Caribbean region: crucible for modern world history Alan Karras; 17. Crossroads region: the Mediterranean Filippo de Vivo; Part V. Overview: 18. Political trajectories compared Jack Goldstone.
