Table of Contents

List of Figures and Maps
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Rise of the West?
The Rise of the West
“The Gap” and Its Explanations
Eurocentrism
Stories and Historical Narratives
The Elements of an Environmentally Grounded Non-Eurocentric Narrative
Notes
Chapter One: The Material and Trading World, circa 1400
The Biological Old Regime
The Weight of Numbers
Climate Change
Population Density and Civilization
The Agricultural Revolution
Towns and Cities in 1400
Nomadic Pastoralists
Wildlife
Population Growth and Land
Famine
The Nitrogen Cycle and World History
Epidemic Disease
The World and Its Trading System circa 1400
The Black Death: A Mid-Fourteenth-Century Conjuncture
Conclusion: The Biological Old Regime
Notes
Chapter Two: Starting with China
China
The Voyages of Zheng He, 1405–1433
India and the Indian Ocean
Dar al-Islam, “The Abode of Islam”
Africa
Slavery
Europe and the Gunpowder Epic
Armed Trading on the Mediterranean
Portuguese Explorations of the Atlantic
Armed Trading in the Indian Ocean
Conclusion
Notes
Chapter Three: Empires, States, and the New World, 1500–1775
Empire Builders and Conquerors
Russia and China
Mughal, Safavid, and Ottoman Expansion
The Dynamics of Empire
The Americas
The Aztecs
The Inca
The Conquest of the Americas and the Spanish Empire
The Columbian Exchange
The Great Dying
Labor Supply Problems
Silver
The Spanish Empire and Its Collapse
China’s Demand for Silver
The New World Economy
Human Migration and the Early Modern World
The Global Crisis of the Seventeenth Century and the European State System
State Building
Mercantilism
The Seven Years’ War, 1756–1763
Notes
Chapter Four: The Industrial Revolution and Its Consequences, 1750–1850
Cotton Textiles
India
The New World as a Peculiar Periphery
New Sources of Energy and Power
China
Markets
Exhausting the Earth
England, Redux
Coal, Iron, and Steam
Recap: Without Colonies, Coal, or State Support
Science and Technology
Tea, Silver, Opium, Iron, and Steam
Tea
Silver
Opium
Iron and Steam
Conclusion: Into the Anthropocene
Notes
Chapter Five: The Gap
The Gap
Opium and Global Capitalism
India
Industrialization Elsewhere
France
The United States
Germany
Russia
Japan
New Dynamics in the Industrial World
The Environmental Consequences of Industrialization
Sources of Global Warming Gases in the Nineteenth Century
The Social Consequences of Industrialization
Factories and Work
Women and Families
Resistance and Revolution
Industrialization and Migration
Nations and Nationalism
The Scrambles for Africa and China
Africa
China
El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World
Social Darwinism and Self-Congratulatory Eurocentrism
Conclusion
Notes
Chapter Six: The Great Departure
Introduction to the Twentieth Century and Beyond
Part I: Nitrogen, Wars, and the First Deglobalization, 1900–1945
World War I and the Beginning of the Thirty-Year Crisis (1914–1945)
Revolutions
Colonial Independence Movements
Normalcy?
The Great Depression of the 1930s
World War II
Part II: The Post–War and Cold War Worlds, 1945–1991
Decolonization
Asian Revolutions
Development and Underdevelopment
Consumerism versus Productionism
Consumerism
Third World Developmentalism
Migration, Refugees, and States
Global Inequality
Inequality within Rich Countries
Part III: Globalization and Its Opponents, 1991–Present
The End of the Cold War
The End of History?
A Clash of Civilizations?
Global Free Trade
Energy, Oil, and War
Deterritorialization
Does History Repeat Itself?
Part IV: The Great Departure: Into the Anthropocene
Conclusion
Notes
Conclusion: Changes, Continuities, and the Shape of the Future
The Story Summarized
Globalization
Into the Future
Notes

About the Author

Robert B. Marks is Richard and Billie Deihl Professor of History at Whittier College. His books include China: Its Environment and History (Rowman & Littlefield). He is the recipient of Whittier College’s Harry W. Nerhood Teaching Excellence Award.

Reviews

My students truly enjoyed reading The Origins of the Modern World, which I used as a text for my Introduction to Global Studies course. They found the book easy to digest despite the complexities inherent in dealing with such a large span of world history. Thank you for making my task as an instructor that much easier and more enjoyable!