A revised and updated translation. Written and translated by Philippe Beaujard. Translation edited by Tamara Loring, Frances Meadows, and Andromeda Tait.
Originally published in France as: 'Les mondes de l’océan indien. Volume 1: De la formation de l’Etat au premier système-monde afro-eurasien (4e millénaire av. J.-C – 6e siècle ap. J.-C.)', 2012.
Europe's place in history is re-assessed in this first comprehensive history of the ancient world, centering on the Indian Ocean and its role in pre-modern globalization. Philippe Beaujard presents an ambitious and comprehensive global history of the Indian Ocean world, from the earliest state formations to 1500 CE. Supported by a wealth of empirical data, full color maps, plates, and figures, he shows how Asia and Africa dominated the economic and cultural landscape and the flow of ideas in the pre-modern world. This led to a trans-regional division of labor and an Afro-Eurasian world economy. Beaujard questions the origins of capitalism and hints at how this world-system may evolve in the future. The result is a reorienting of world history, taking the Indian Ocean, rather than Europe, as the point of departure. Volume I provides in-depth coverage of the period from the fourth millennium BCE to the sixth century CE.
Author(s): Philippe Beaujard
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 946
City: Cambridge
List of Maps and Charts (in Color Plates)
List of Illustrations (in Color Plates)
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Abbreviations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Introduction: The Geography of the Indian Ocean and Its Navigation
The Indian Ocean
Wind Patterns
The Currents
Madagascar
Navigation of the Indian Ocean
Part I. The Ancient Routes of Trade and Cultural Exchanges and the First States (Sixth–Second Millennium BCE)
Introduction
1. The Birth of the State
The Neolithic Center of the Fertile Crescent
‘Ubaid, a Proto-State Phase
The Urban Revolution and the Development of the State in Mesopotamia
The First Half of the Fourth Millennium BCE
The Urukian Expansion during the Second Half of the Fourth Millennium BCE
The State in Egypt: Formation of the First Kingdoms
The Predynastic Period
'Dynasty 0' at Abydos
Egypt, the Interior of Africa, and the Indian Ocean
Central Asia and Southern Asia
2. Early Bronze Age I in Western Asia and Egypt (c. 3000–2700 BCE)
Mesopotamia at the Beginning of the Third Millennium: The Opening to the Persian Gulf
The Proto-Elamite Sphere (3100–2800 BCE)
The Pre-Harappan Civilization of the Indus
Egypt during the Thinite Period (First and Second Dynasties, 3100–2700 BCE)
3. Early Bronze Age II (c. 2700–1950 BCE)
Urban Bloom and the Emergence of Kingship in Mesopotamia during the Early Dynastic II (2750–2600 BCE)
Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley: The First Globalized Area of the Indian Ocean (2500–1950 BCE)
From the Sumerian City-States to the Akkadian Empire
The Indus Valley and the Indian Subcontinent
The Persian Gulf, a Central Corridor between Mesopotamia and the Indus Region
Turmoil along the Terrestrial Routes during the Twenty-Third and Twenty-Second Centuries BCE (Mesopotamia, Iran, and Central Asia)
The Third Dynasty of Ur (2112–2004 BCE)
Egypt of the Old Kingdom (c. 2700–2180 BCE)
4. The New Spaces of the Middle Bronze Age in Asia and Egypt (c. 2000–1750 BCE)
Egypt of the Middle Kingdom (c. 2040–1730 BCE)
Western Asia: The Growth of the Private Sector in the Exchange Networks
From Central Asia to South Asia: The Expansion of the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC)
Dislocations and Regional Restructuring from the Eighteenth Century BCE
The Old Babylonian Period (1800–1595 BCE [MC])
Post-Harappan India (1800–1300 BCE)
5. The Late Bronze Age (c. 1600–1100 BCE), an Area Unified around the Eastern Mediterranean
Western Asia and the Mediterranean Region
Egypt of the New Kingdom (1539–1070 BCE)
The Cataclysmic Collapse of the Late Bronze Age World
Central Asia and South Asia
6. East Asia: From Villages to States (c. 5000–1027 BCE)
The Neolithic Cultures of East Asia: Local Developments and First Contacts with Central Asia
Transformations at the Beginning of the Second Millennium BCE
The Early Bronze Age of China: The Erlitou Phase (1800–1600 BCE)
The Shang State (1600–1027 BCE): Wider Control over Resources and Long-Distance Exchanges
7. The Emergence of Intermediary Spaces
Arabia, an Interface between Continents
The First 'Incense Roads'
The Movements of Cultivated Plants and Domesticated Animals between Africa and Asia
Southern China, Southeast Asia, and the Eastern Indian Ocean: Developments and First Contacts
Between China, India and Central Asia: Ancient “Silk Roads”
Conclusion: Were there World-Systems during the Bronze Age?
The World-Systems of Western Asia, Northern Africa, and the Eastern Mediterranean
The State Sector, Communities, and the Private Sector
China’s World-Systems and Contacts with the West
The End of the Late Bronze Age: A Systemic Collapse
Part II. The Birth of the Afro-Eurasian World-System (First Millennium BCE – Sixth Century CE)
Introduction
The Iron Age: From Three World-Systems to a Single World-System
The Western and Eastern World-Systems: The First Connections (1000–750 BCE)
The Development of Three Interconnected World-Systems (750–350/300 BCE)
The Western World-System from the Eighth to the Sixth Century BCE
The Formation of an Indian World-System during the Seventh Century BCE
The Eastern World-System during the 'Spring and Autumn' Period
The Restructuring of the Western World-System during the Second Half of the Seventh Century BCE
The Key Period of the Sixth and Fifth Centuries BCE
The Western World-System (Sixth and Fifth Centuries BCE)
An Indian World-System Connected to the West
The Eastern World-System during the Fifth and Fourth Centuries BCE
The Recession of the Late Fifth and Early Fourth Centuries BCE
Growing Interactions among the Three World-Systems (c. 350–1 BCE)
Toward the Unification of the Western World-System with the Indian World-System
The Western World-System in Crisis during the Second Century BCE
The Ascent of an Eastern World-System Centered on China
Conclusion
The Birth of the Afro-Eurasian World-System
The First Phase of Integration of the World-System
The World-System Recedes (Third–Sixth Century)
8. The Beginnings of the Iron Age
The Assyrian Hegemony
The Neo-Babylonian Empire
Achaemenid Persia: The First 'Universal Empire'
Egypt, between Political Fragmentation and Foreign Dominance: An Independence under Threat
9. The Roads to the Orient
The Europeans in Asia and in Egypt
The Greeks in the Footsteps of Alexander the Great
Rome and Indian Ocean Trade: The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
Spices and Aromatics
Parthians and Sassanids: The Occident of the Silk Roads
10. India: The Birth of a New Core
The Emergence of Empires: Buddhist Networks and the Rise of Trade
Relations between India and Southeast Asia
People from Southeast Asia on the Coasts of India?
Indian Trade in Southeast Asia
11. Southeast Asia, an Interface between Two Oceans
The Emergence of Complex Societies during the First Millennium BCE
The Integration of Southeast Asia into the Afro-Eurasian World-System
Funan
The States of the Thai–Malay Peninsula
Champa and Jiaozhi
Insular Southeast Asia: State Development during the Fifth and Sixth Centuries
Changes during the Sixth and Seventh Centuries
12. China: From Kingdoms to Unification
From the Zhou Dynasty to the Warring Kingdoms (1027–221 BCE)
The Unification of China under the Qin (221–207 BCE), the Western Han (206 BCE – 23 CE), and the Eastern Han (25–220 CE)
13. Arabia: Maritime Cultures and the Rise of the Caravan Trade
Eastern Arabia
Western Arabia and the Horn of Africa
14. East Africa: The Emergence of a Pre-Swahili Culture on the Azanian Coast
15. The Austronesian Expansion and the First Malagasy Cultures
Austronesians in the Western Indian Ocean
Archaeological and Genetic Data
The Ancient Texts
What Does Anthropology Teach Us?
Madagascar: A Periphery of the World-System Takes Shape
Age and Diversity of the First Austronesian Arrivals: A Linguistic Approach
The Place of Malagasy among Austronesian Languages
Dating the First Arrivals: How Linguists See It
The Archaeological Data
Comparative Anthropology
The Ternary System: Cosmic and Social Dualism
Agriculture
A Phantasmic “Bantu Substrate”
Bibliography
Index of Geographical Names
Name Index
Subject Index
