Hemispheric Integration, 500-1500 C.E.
Jerry H. Bentley
Scholars such as Marshall G. S. Hodgson and William H. McNeill have long emphasized
the importance of cross-cultural interactions throughout world history from
ancient times to the present. Yet a persistent widespread misconception holds that
the peoples began interact intensively only after 1492. This misunderstanding
reflects both modernocentrism, an enchantment with modern world
that has hindered historians from recognizing significance interactions
in earlier times, powerful influence national states, which discouraged
historians examining between societies. Recent
scholarship on commercial, biological, cultural exchanges suggests, however, that
during millennium 500 1500 C.E., fostered the
integration societies Eastern Hemisphere.
Journal of World History