Essay about What is World History - 4758 Words

What is world history? Bruce Mazlish contends that world history, as opposed to global history, is the study of systemic processes of interaction among diverse peoples, best typified by the work of William H. McNeill. By contrast, global history is the history of globalization, a process that Mazlish argues did not begin to occur on a significant scale until at least the 1950s, and, more plausibly, the 1970s. Citing prominent economic historians, Nicholas Kristof asserts that globalization actually started in the second half of the 19th Century, when steamships, the telegraph, the railroad, and European, North American, and Japanese empire-builders brought humankind into a single densely interwoven community of trade, investment,†¦show more content†¦To me, this is globalization, the global diffusion of humankind and human cultures. In only a few thousand generations, Homo sapiens was everywhere, and everywhere essentially the same, despite superficial differences such as sk in color or width of nose or degree of hirsuteness. Globalization outran evolution. The sheer mobility and versatility of Homo sapiens precluded significant differentiation. Accordingly, I would like to define world history as the history of all the doings of the species Homo sapiens on (and off) the planet Earth, the globe Earth, since its emergence in Africa more than 100,000 years ago. In all these millennia, humankind has swarmed over the whole planet and has exchanged ideas, institutions, technologies, and languages back and forth and every which way, often making it difficult if not impossible to ascertain which idea, institution, technology, or language first arose where or when. In short, we have been globalizing from the beginning, although I freely acknowledge that in certain periods, such as the middle of the 4th Millennium B.C., the 16th Century A.D., and the second halves of the 19th and 20th Centuries, we have seen significant upsurges in the tempo and scale of globalization. All this means that the subject matter ofShow MoreRelatedWhat Has Changed World History1724 Words   |  7 PagesWhat has changed world history the most? Agriculture, the ancient Greeks, social inequality? None of these come close to the thing that has changed human history the most. Humans drove Neanderthals to their extinction, which contributed to the rise of human hegemony. Anything that has happened in human history was allowed to happen because of Neanderthal extinction. Humans have been around since about 200,000 years ago, and so have Neanderthals. But, humans were made differently than NeanderthalsRead MoreAll Of World History : What Makes American Society?971 Words   |  4 PagesContemporary society, in the context of all of world history, is the best it has ever been, and the time to keep people in poverty has long since passed. Rather than have any benefits, those in poverty over the last several decades have become targets and scapegoats for politicians and businessme n, which is plainly unfair treatment that does more harm than good. Before going into those in poverty, equally important in this discussion is those that are in power. Mills calls this group the â€Å"PowerRead MoreAp Us History Dbq ( When World War I Broke Out, the United States Declared Its Policy of Neutrality. to What Extent Did the United States Follow a Policy of Neutrality Between 1914 and 1917? )1162 Words   |  5 PagesUnited States History Section II Part A 1. When World War I broke out, the United States declared its policy of neutrality. 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