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Hemispheric Integration, 500-1500 C.E. Author(s): Jerry H. Bentley Source: Journal of World History, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Fall, 1998), pp. 237-254 Published by: University of Hawai'i Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20078730 . Accessed: 22/01/2011 06:41 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=uhp. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. University of Hawai'i Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of World History. http://www.jstor.org Hemispheric Integration, 500-1500 c-e-* JERRY H. BENTLEY University ofHawa?i an article on "The Inter 1963 Marshall G. S. Hodgson published a vigorous in relations of Societies registered History."1 Hodgson IN vision Eurocentric the that of the traced the about past complaint mainstream from of historical and Mesopotamia Egypt to development western which then and lands, Greece, Rome, European spread their an the As and world. alternative values power, influence, throughout the past in the context of a vast Afro scholars to understand zone of cultivation, For almost urban life, and interaction. from iooo b.c.e. to 1800 ce., Hodgson three millennia, argued, inter connections of Europe, the societies southwest Asia, between India, in technological that pro and cultural diffusions and China resulted the eastern influenced historical throughout foundly development on his these interconnections, By concentrating analysis hemisphere. he urged Eurasian torians of individual societies, including place the development context. in society, pertinent European in his offered only a brief outline of Afro-Eurasian history Hodgson in hemispheric from sketched patterns the article?it age of history * ence could This article of Historians originated (London, as a presentation July 1997) and at the Sixty-sixth Anglo-American the Midwest Medieval Conference Illinois, September 1997). 1 "The Interrelations of Societies G. S. Hodgson, Marshall in the Studies in Society and History 5 (1963): 227-50; reprinted of Hodgson's collection essays, Rethinking World History: Essays on ed. Edmund Burke III (Cambridge, History, 1993), pp. 3-28. This some ideas Hodgson in an earlier essay, "Hemispheric had explored in History," Confer (Peoria, Comparative posthumously published Islam, and World Europe, article developed further as History Interregional 1 (1954): an Approach toWorld 715-23. On Hodgson History," Cahiers d'histoire mondiale as a world historian, see Edmund Burke III, "Marshall G. S. Hodgson and the Hemispheric toWorld History," Journal ofWorld History 6 (1995): 237-50. Interregional Approach Journal ofWorld History, Vol. 9, No. 2 of Hawai'i Press by University ?1998 237 JOURNAL 238 OF WORLD HISTORY, FALL I998 to the era of the gunpowder societies the ancient empires river-valley in about eight pages?but he did not shrink from describing it as "closer to a true world history than is the traditional historical image of the narrative West." the of the Hodgson's empires, building emphasized and the diffusion of traditions, spread of religious and philosophical the Alexander and empire builders, technologies. Among Chinggis mention in his capsule hemispheric Khan merited by name history, which also made room for technologies chariots, mold-board involving and gunpowder. About half of his printing, plows, paper, compasses, account focused on cultural traditions of the axial age and the spread of universal religious faiths. Some might for an unnuanced fault Hodgson of reli understanding as a and cultural which he rather gious exchanges, presented unprob universal lematic spread of sophisticated religions to peoples harboring notion simpler beliefs. Others might notice an excessively mechanical an in It is possible, of technological diffusion. that alter too, seeking to the Eurocentric native an Islam-centered world eties, vision of the past, Hodgson inclined toward soci that obscured the roles of other history even an India and China, if it clearly registered particularly on Eurocentric historical improvement analysis. In spite of these reservations, article posed a however, Hodgson's that but has not yet historical challenge scholarship sorely needed as am met. I So far and aware, the only scholarly, analytical, entirely that works along lines similar to those world history comprehensive isWilliam H. McNeill's Rise of theWest: A His envisioned by Hodgson same year as Hodg Human which the the tory of Community, appeared son's article on the interrelations societies.2 And of Afro-Eurasian the even various notion that the world's lingers began to peoples today recent In interact his The after book Clash of 1492. intensively only R for Samuel made this Civilizations, point in no Huntington example, uncertain civilizations terms: "During most of human existence, or nonexistent."3 were intermittent contacts between 2 William The Rise of theWest: A History H. McNeill, (Chi of the Human Community in his vision of world history of Hodgson: cago, 1963). McNeill independently developed to The Rise of theWest that he had conceived the he mentioned the preface (pp. vii-viii) in 1954. See also it with in 1936 and had begun writing the aid of research grants book in uThe Rise of theWest after Twenty-five reflections McNeill's Years," Journal ofWorld His 1-21. tory 1 (1990): 3Later in his book Huntington "For more this point: than three thousand softened some excep the contacts them were, with first emerged, among years after civilizations or limited or intermittent P. Hunting and intense." See Samuel tions, either nonexistent ton, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking ofWorld Order (New York, 1996), pp. 21, 48. Bentley: Two Hemispheric Integration, features of historical 500-1500 scholarship of this notion. One ing the persistence I call "modernocentrism"?an 239 go a long way toward explain is a kind of modernist bias that enchantment of modern the processes ce. with the modern world and that has hindered from many historians history in interactions of earlier the cross-cultural recognizing significance states and indi times. The other is the powerful influence of national vidual societies, which professional historians have taken almost exclu have paid insuf sively as the focus of their work. As a result, historians across to processes their influence that have worked states and individual societies and that lines of national to toward integration. This article will draw attention instances it several specific of modernocentrism and the distortions not it has caused for the analysis of the period 500-1500 and will ce., to trespass the boundary in the hesitate lines of individual societies interests of outlining the effects and the significance of large-scale his torical processes. cross A rapidly expanding literature explores body of scholarly ficient attention the boundary push societies interactions that transcend and processes individual states, and cultural This literature confirms the conviction societies, regions. of Hodgson and McNeill that a hemispheric and perspective deepens enriches the understanding of the past before modern times. More par it throws light on the political and social structures that ticularly, served as foundations for cross-cultural and it illuminates interactions, such as long-distance and cul processes, trade, biological diffusions, tural exchanges, that profoundly influenced the lives of individuals and the development of their societies the eastern hemisphere throughout ? ce. the millennium the the col 500-1500 during period between such as the Han and Roman societies, lapse of classical empires, and in early modern the establishment of a genuinely times. global economy Taken this literature that interactions cross-cultural suggests together, in the eastern hemi brought about an impressive degree of integration cultural sphere well before modern times. the viewpoint of structures that supported cross-cultural interac ce. two the into falls tions, period 500-1500 fairly equal halves.4 For the first half-millennium, both political and economic foundations facil were the large, interactions. itated cross-cultural Political foundations From stable societies 4 For a historical Cultural (1996): Interaction 749-70 organized by centralized from a global periodization inWorld and Periodization imperial point states?particularly the of view, see Jerry H. Bentley, "Cross 101 American Review Historical History," JOURNAL 240 OF WORLD HISTORY, FALL I998 and the Abbasid and Tang empire in China empire in southwest Asia, to a lesser extent the Byzantine empire in the eastern Mediterranean in western basin and even the Carolingian empire Europe. The eco were nomic foundations the overland trade networks linking east Asia and the eastern Mediterranean region by the silk roads and the emerg trade networks of the Indian Ocean basin. The ing maritime imperial states promoted in a way similar to overland trade and communication the Han, Kushan, Seleucid, and Roman Parthian, empires of an earlier a great deal more cross-cultural interaction than era, but they promoted their classical the exception With of the Carolingian predecessors. that were far more productive empire, they all presided over societies than their predecessors. of transportation Furthermore, technologies re lowered trade: the camel the costs of long-distance increasingly as the the beast horse of thus the burden, increasing placed principal of overland of sea lanes and transport, and the establishment efficiency in the Indian Ocean of maritime the development trade networks to travel and trade.5 opened new and cheaper avenues The framework sketched here works best for temperate and tropical to the eastern Mediterranean Eurasia from east Asia region; it has a more limited application for outlying areas, including Japan, the islands of southeast Asia, western Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa. These lands in sometimes the economy, larger hemispheric participated although to the same extent as the societies embraced by indirectly and never links brought Japan and the islands the large imperial states. Maritime influence of China: of southeast Asia under the economic already by demand drove a thriving market the late fourth century ce. Chinese in the fine spices (cloves, nutmeg, from Maluku, and mace) and by the in regular trade with China seventh century Japan engaged and Korea. more Western Europe and sub-Saharan Africa participated indirectly in the larger hemispheric economy, Europe by way of Frisian and Scan intermediaries and west Africa by way of trans-Saharan camel dinavian caravan. to promote cross-cultural interaction Large imperial states continued in the half-millennium from iooo to 1500 ce., but the states in ques structures tion were transregional nomadic empires rather than political 5On see Richard W camel and theWheel The Camel Bulliet, transport (Cambridge, or Eurasian Transpor H. McNeill, "The Eccentricity of Wheels, 1975); and William in Historical 1111-26. American Historical Review 92 (1987): On the Perspective," see K. N. Chaudhuri, in the Indian Trade and Civilisation Indian Ocean trading network, Ocean: An Economic History from the Rise of Islam to 1750 (Cambridge, 1985). Mass., tation Bentley: Hemispheric Integration, 500-1500 ce. 241 societies. From the tenth through the arising from settled agricultural sixteenth century, nomadic Jurchens, Tanguts, Mon Saljuqs, Khitans, and others embarked on Safavids, gols, Timurids, Ottomans, Mughals, a remarkable round of empire building that shaped Eurasian affairs from seas to the Danube River. The nomadic the China empires had a mixed trade. They brought turmoil and destruction legacy for long-distance to settled agricultural in China and southwest societies, especially Yet of the lost considerable Asia, which many capacity. productive nomadic empire builders placed high value on trade and diplomacy, to merchants and their states offered special protection and other trav the volume of overland trade across Eurasia prob elers. On balance, nomadic empires. And ably increased during the era of transregional seas and the Indian Ocean as maritime trade in the China burgeoned, in nautical and commercial organization improvements technology to sea transport. increased efficiencies brought Enhanced the outlying lands of Japan, the transport integrated western southeast Asian and sub-Saharan Africa more islands, Europe, into before the than Increased economy. larger hemispheric directly east into drew Africa southeast and sub-Saharan Asia, Japan, shipping seas and the Indian Ocean, the trade networks of the China while increased trade and larger and more frequent camel caravans nication with sub-Saharan west Africa. European merchants, took advantage of the Mongol aries, and diplomats empires lands, throughout much of Eurasia. In most of these outlying of regional states. trade helped finance the establishment commu mission to travel increased structures supported a range of cross and commercial These political cultural interactions that influenced individual lives and social organ ization throughout Here the focus will fall on the eastern hemisphere. to do with interactions exchanges?commercial, having biological, societies. and cultural exchanges?between peoples of different The interactions is long best studied of these cross-cultural distance trade. Yet the understanding of cross-cultural trade in the ce. cur suffers from a bit of conventional wisdom period 500-1500 rent among economic times. While of modern historians acknowledg over in that trade distances times, many ing passed long premodern that it was relatively for one reason or an have held insignificant other. Economic historians have argued variously that the volume of trade was too small to have economic that it mostly significance, rather than basic involved that it was commodities, "luxury" goods an economic affair of and elites, and that it did not largely political JOURNAL 242 OF WORLD HISTORY, FALL I998 a division of labor or lead to the restructuring of economies generate and societies.6 This view assumes an anachronistic against the stan comparison to it dard of modern and leads of cross commerce, misunderstanding in premodern times. For one thing, cultural trade and its significance economic modernocentric historians overlook the point that cross far beyond economics. Trade facilitated implications and cultural that profoundly exchanges biological, technological, in influenced all societies cross-cultural trade. Besides that, engaged commodities and luxurious served as markers rare, exotic, expensive, and social status. Even if its economic value was slight, of political enormous in in trade and social significance luxury goods had political cultural premodern trade had times.7 the volume of premodern economic historians have trade was much larger than Scat generally recognized. survive about individuals like the merchant tered bits of information of C?rdoba who made his hajj in 908, then trav scholar al-Marwani on ventures. His profits amounted commercial eled to Iraq and India to 30,000 dinars, all of which he lost in a shipwreck during his return to al-Andalus.8 Even more impressive was the experience of the twelfth Furthermore, modernocentric Ramisht of Siraf, who amassed a huge per century Persian merchant and enjoyed a repu sonal fortune from long-distance trading ventures tation as the wealthiest of his age. One and most prestigious merchant less prosperous than Ramisht himself, once of his clerks, who was much a cargo to China to Siraf from a commercial with returned voyage a new a Ramisht million dinars. In 532/1137-38 worth half provided cover cost him 18,000 Egyp for the Ka'ba that reportedly Chinese silk 6 Some trade seriously: take premodern studies see, for example, Philip D. Curtin, A Mediterranean Trade inWorld History Cross-Cultural 1984); S. D. Goitein, (Cambridge, in the Documents of the Cairo Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed The 6 vols. (Berkeley, Geniza, Janet L. Abu-Lughod, 1967-93); Before European Hegemony: The Traditional World (New York, System, A.D. 1250-1350 1989); and C. G. F. Simkin, that premodern trade was a wisdom Trade of Asia (London, 1968). Yet the conventional of the point from radi remains strong. For several expressions activity fairly insignificant see Immanuel Wallerstein, The Modern World theoretical perspectives, cally different How It All Began: 1:19-21, 39-42; W. W. Rostow, (New York, 1974-89), System, 3 vols. A Concise (New York, 1975), pp. 14-15; Rondo Cameron, Economy Origins of theModern Economic History of theWorld from Paleolithic Times to the Present (New York, 1989), pp. 32 Societies (Oxford, and Patricia Crone, Pre-Industrial 33-34. 33, 78, 121-22; 1989), pp. 22-24, 7For see Bentley, and "Cross-Cultural Interaction of these points, discussion expanded in World of Jane See also the important article Periodization pp. 752-56. History," a Pre-capitalist World "Was There Schneider, System?" Peasant Studies 6 (1977): 20-29. 8Olivia Remie Constable, Trade and Traders inMuslim Spain: The Commercial Realign ment of the Iberian Peninsula, goo-1500 1994), pp. 36, 80. (Cambridge, Bentley: Hemispheric Integration, 500-1500 ce. 243 tian dinars, and he also founded a hospice and a religious sanctuary in also Mecca.9 Numerous textual descriptions testify that cities such as Quanzhou, Guangzhou, Palembang, Cairo, Constantinople, Alexandria, centers. mercial Calicut, Cambay, Baghdad, Aden, com were bustling and Venice have shed revealing the texts, archaeologists light beyond sites of premodern trade by digging up their remains, and the size of postclassical trading centers reflects high levels of commercial a port city on the Persian at Siraf, for example, activity. Excavations south of Shiraz, have revealed Gulf coast of Iran about 220 kilometers a thriving city surrounded exclu by desert, whose wealth depended Going on some of Siraf traded in India before the sively on commerce. The merchants in China and and eighth century, they probably began to trade directly east Africa On the basis of this about the mid-eighth trade, century. the eighth and the twelfth centu between Siraf flourished especially was probably in the tens of its ries. In the ninth century population its walls embraced about hectares and thousands, (almost one 250 the population of Siraf in square mile) of space. Apart from merchants, cluded shipwrights, weavers, metalworkers, and potters. One jewelers, kilns. the ninth of Siraf had residents pottery century thirty During built a great mosque and a bazaar, and they set their tables with from China. the port of Dorestad porcelain imported Similarly, at of located the confluence the Lek and Rhine (Duurstede), (Kromme near a site Rivers of modern about 250 hectares Utrecht, Rijn) occupied in the eighth centuries. Alongside the rivers there were and ninth merchants' leading to the waters, which shops with plank wharves to the North Sea and the and Carolingian linked Dorestad Europe Baltic Sea.10 societies of China, In the large, settled agricultural India, south west Asia, and the eastern Mediterranean trade region, long-distance was voluminous to the of industrial organization enough help shape to Mark Elvin, the thriving market economy of production. According to "a and China the Chinese become peasantry Tang Song encouraged class of rational, adaptable, profit-oriented, petty entrepreneurs." Partie 9 S. M. Stern, "Ramisht of Siraf, a Merchant Millionaire of the Twelfth Century," Jour nal of the Royal Asiatic 10-14. Society (1967): 10 On Siraf see two articles by David Whitehouse: "Siraf: A Medieval Port on the Per 2 (1970): sian Gulf," World Archaeology and "Siraf: A Medieval 141-58; City on the Persian see Richard Storia d?lia citt? 1 (1976): On Dorestad and David 40-55. Gulf," Hodges and theOrigins of Europe: Archaeology and the Pirenne Whitehouse, Mohammed, Charlemagne see also Richard Hodges, Thesis (Ithaca, Dark Age Economics: pp. 133-41; 1983), especially 600-1000 The Origins of Towns and Trade, A.D. (New York, 1982), especially pp. 74-77. 244 JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY, FALL I 998 ularly in southern tion of foodstuffs or manufacturing sometimes China the cultiva abandoned peasants in favor of producing and ramie textiles silk, hemp, paper, porcelain, lacquer wares, or iron tools. Song mention records individuals who industrial enter built private dynasty on a Li scale: for prises large remarkably Fang, example, who main in his house, tained 500 looms for the weaving of silk damask and ran an some who that Ke, 500 Wang iron-smelting foundry employed not counting miners, woodcutters, furnace workers, char presumably no doubt went to coal burners, and others. Much of this production domestic but large quantities of silk, porcelain, and lac consumers, found their way to destinations Eurasia quer, in particular, throughout and the Indian Ocean basin. Alongside these luxury items, Chinese included bulk commodities, such as rice, sugar, copper, and exports iron goods. Some regions consciously oriented production of goods (for and the toward market.11 silk, porcelain, export example, lychees) structures also in India, trade helped Increasing shape economic southwest Asia, and the eastern Mediterranean region. K. N. Chau dhuri has surveyed the geography of Asian industrial production?par drawn ticularly in textiles, but also in metals, glass, and ceramics?and on to the of prominence persuasively central-place analysis explain in India and China, in the steel production silk production cotton in River manufacture and the Yangzi valley, Punjab, Gujarat, coast.12 Again, and the Coromandel cross-cultural trade did Bengal, not account in the large settled for all of this economic specialization encour economies societies of Eurasia: sizable domestic by themselves rein But for the market. cross-cultural trade certainly aged production iron and forced the tendency toward and fostered increasing specialization eastern in economic the integration hemisphere. Cross-cultural trade had both political and economic implications that were centers of also in lands beyond the large settled societies Demand for raw materials, industrial production. luxury goods, and economies exotic products helped local and forth timber called shape from Japan; spices, exotic bird feathers, and tortoise shells and mercury from southeast Asia; and slaves from northern amber, furs, honey, and gold, ivory, animal skins, and slaves from sub-Saharan Europe; Africa. Because of high demand for these products, trade cross-cultural soci of states that organized the building these outlying encouraged 11 Past: A Social and Economic Mark Elvin, The Pattern of the Chinese Interpretation pp. 164-75. (Stanford, 1973), especially 12K. N. Asia before Europe: Economy and Civilisation Chaudhuri, of the Indian Ocean 1990), pp. 297-337. from the Rise of Islam to 1750 (Cambridge, Bentley: Hemispheric Integration, 500-1500 ce. 245 southeast Asia and east Africa, ruling elites in port cities to ensure a continu their hinterlands trade and organized trade finance Funan, flow Wealth of by ing helped generated goods. in strategically states in southeast and other Srivijaya, Asia?particularly well as the located sites in Java, Sumatra, and the Malay peninsula?as east Africa after the twelfth of Swahili century.13 city-states independent trade likely played a role also in the political Cross-cultural organ eties. In both controlled and David White of early medieval Europe. Richard Hodges of Bolin that the Caro the Sture house have recently revived argument on Abbasid silver obtained through heavily lingian empire depended in exchange for wine, Frisian and Scandinavian intermediaries jugs, in the Rhine valley. Frisian and glassware, and stone querns produced in their own the Carolingian Scandinavian traders consumed products ization for the silver in the Abbasid and obtained empire in exchange primary products and slaves from the north.14 it is clear, first, that contrary to conven From these considerations economic trade was an affair of considerable tional wisdom, premodern society that cross-cultural trade integrated the for and, second, significance tunes and experiences of societies the eastern hemisphere. throughout trade goes far beyond economics. Yet the significance of cross-cultural trade had and cultural exchanges leveraged by cross-cultural Biological and social effects of com effects at least as important as the economic merce itself. trade influenced the struc Integration sponsored by cross-cultural of societies and economies the eastern tural development throughout had mas Integration resulting from biological exchanges hemisphere. sive demographic and social effects similar to those that followed from in later centuries. As in the case of cross-cul the Columbian exchange a modernist has bias in historical tural trade, however, scholarship in premodern times. the significance of biological obscured exchange once spoke of a microbial Le Roy Ladurie, for example, Emmanuel unification of the world, which he dated to the period about 1300 1730 ce. because of the dramatic spread of bubonic plague throughout followed by the transmission much of the eastern hemisphere, of small and Oceania.15 pox and other diseases to the Americas 13Kenneth in Early Southeast Asia R. Hall, Maritime Trade and State Development and Thomas (Honolulu, 1985); Derek Nurse Spear, The Swahili (Philadelphia, 1985). 14Sture and Ruric," Scandinavian Economic History "Mohammed, Bolin, Charlemagne 1 (1953): Review and Whitehouse, and the Origins 5-39; Hodges Mohammed, Charlemagne of Europe. 15Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, "L'histoire Annales. Economies, Soci?t?s, immobile," Civilisations 29 (1974): 673-92, especially pp. 679-84. 246 JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY, FALL 1998 uni These diseases certainly had dreadful effects, but the microbial fication of the world and the exchange of biological species was a long term process that began long before the fourteenth century. Smallpox, bubonic plague, and perhaps cholera, as well as other diseases, measles, all traveled the trade routes and took heavy demographic tolls from ancient times onward. The earliest persuasive evidence of smallpox comes from three Egyptian mummies dated between 1570 and 1085 or for hundreds B.c.E., and the disease may well have been in existence even thousands of years by that time. It spread readily to complex soci eties throughout India during the first millennium Eurasia, reaching and China b.c.e., by the fifth century by the third commentators Ancient often confused smallpox with and the earliest clear distinction between the two came about measles, in the work of the Persian physician Rhazes. But Rhazes 910 ce. ear El centuries who three the lived Yahudi, Jewish physician quoted before the tenth lier, and it is clear that measles ranged widely long in Sumer as early as Indeed, measles may have originated century ce. to the River Indus 3000 b.c.e. and may have valley by 2500 spread b.c.e. and to the Ganges River valley and the Mediterranean basin by 1000 b.c.e. It was most the diseases that caused among epi likely B.c.E., Greece century b.c.e. in China in the second, and the Roman third, and empire ce. it fourth centuries ce. had 500 By certainly spread throughout is less clear. Some Eurasia. The case of cholera scholars believe that true cholera caused by Vibrio cholerae bacteria did not depart its home land of India for a career in the larger world until the pandemics of the survive but of nineteenth from choleralike maladies century, reports are seems to and there of what many tenth-century Iraq, descriptions demics in early modern have been true cholera Europe.16 In spite of gaps in it is clear the historical that by the fourteenth record, century as well had crossed microbes and other biological species political long and cultural boundary lines and had influenced the development of societies throughout the eastern hemisphere. 16On see Donald inHistory R. Hopkins, Princes and Peasants: (Chi Smallpox see Andrew and Mat Cliff, Peter Haggett, pp. 13-21. On measles especially An Historical Geography Measles: Viral Disease Smallman-Raynor, of a Major Human H. McNeill, (Garden (Oxford, pp. 45-54; William Plagues and Peoples 1993), especially in and Robert "Measles," pp. 117-18, 133-35; J. Kim-Farley, City, N.Y., 1976), especially F. Kiple, Kenneth ed., The Cambridge World History (Cambridge, 1993), of Human Disease see Dhiman in Cholera, ed. Dhiman On cholera pp. 871-75. Barua, "History of Cholera," smallpox cago, thew 1983), Barua and William Asiatic Cholera 1996), "The B. Greenough III (New York, 1992), pp. 1-36; and G. C. Cook, in An Historical of Human Genomic and Social Structure," Determinant Cholera: ed. B. S. Drasar and B. D. Forrest and the Ecology of Vibrio cholerae, (London, pp. 18-53. Bentley: Hemispheric Integration, 500-1500 ce. 247 two kinds of biological involved the important exchange especially transfer of food and industrial crops from tropical lands to new envi in the subtropical and temperate ronments, mostly regions of the east ern hemisphere. In one case information survives to throw light on the to the eleventh circumstances of biological exchange. According During the millennium had 500-1500 ce., effects. The first monk Shi Wenying, the Song emperor Zhenzong rice from learned about drought-resistant ce.) 998-1022 to and dispatched (central Vietnam) envoys bring seeds to Champa rice had probably already reached China, In fact, Champa but China. its spread. As it turned out, Champa facilitated imperial encouragement rice not only resisted drought but also grew in poorer soil and ripened in China. Champa in rice matured faster than the strains cultivated to 150 days for Chinese about 100 days, as opposed rice, and selective century Buddhist (reigned in 60-80 in strains that matured resulted days. (Indeed, by breeding in 30 days.) the nineteenth there were strains that ripened century it had a very low gluten content and did not store well, Although rice vastly increased harvests because cultivators could grow Champa it on terraced hillsides had gone unplanted, that previously and they rice with other crops. In the far south they could double-crop Champa even triple-cropped sometimes rice. Increased supplies of rice Champa to a demographic contributed where the population surge in China, in the course of two centuries, in almost doubled rising from 60 million a century later and 115 million the year 1000 to 100 million 1200.17 by Other westward after the seventh crops spread mostly century, or to from Asia southeast southwest India the Mediterra Asia, moving nean basin, Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa. Although often there is it little precise information about the circumstances of their diffusion, is clear that they traveled the realm of Islam. readily through soldiers, administrators, diplomats, pilgrims, missionaries, and others traveled the region from migrants, refugees, throughout India to Spain and Morocco. The ground-breaking work of Andrew Watson shows how their movements facilitated the spread of food and industrial in the Islamic world. The crops throughout transplants cluded staples, such as sorghum, sugarcane, and hard wheat; vegetables, such as spinach, artichoke, and eggplant; tropical fruits, such as lemon, Merchants, 17 On see Ho Ping-ti, rice and its effects in China, in Rice Champa "Early-ripening Economic History Review, 2nd ser., 9 (1956): Mark Elvin, The 200-218; History," Pattern of the Chinese Past (Stanford, and Hugh R. Clark, Community, 1972), pp. 121-24; Southern Fujian Province from the Third to the Thirteenth Century Trade, and Networks: (Cam and Richard bridge, 1991), pp. 153-55. The population figures come from Colin McEvedy (Harmondsworth, Jones, Atlas ofWorld Population History 1978). Chinese 248 JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY, FALL I998 lime, sour orange, banana, and industrial crops, such coconut and mango; palm, watermelon, as cotton, The food indigo, and henna. in enriched diets throughout the Islamic world and beyond transplants Mediterranean and west Africa, while cotton had Europe, east Africa, economic considerable and commercial of Since many significance. to it the transplants made grew well only in hot weather, they possible cultivate lands in southwest Asia, the southern Mediterranean, and Africa and as that formerly had lain fallow during the summer months, a result they contributed to increased agricultural yields. As in China of Champa after the diffusion rice, population surged in the Islamic world after the spread of these crops; land came under more intense and cities burgeoned. of Baghdad may The population cultivation, i million in the ninth and tenth centuries, have reached or exceeded while Isfahan, and of Cairo stood at about 500,000, and Merv, Nishapur, Damascus and all had between 100,000 Basra, populations that 500,00o.18 not only from biological benefited Africa exchanges the realm of but also from pre-Islamic mediated diffusions Islam, by across The most of the Indian Ocean. them involved important which accelerated bananas, migrations encouraged by Bantu-speaking in First domesticated fuel demographic expansion. peoples and helped in the early centuries ce. and southeast Asia, bananas entered Africa the continent between 500 and 1000. Malay seafarers spread throughout to east sites Africa when visited coastal bananas probably brought they between about 300 and 500 ce. and colonized Madagascar (Their voy Sub-Saharan continued until about ages to Madagascar varieties had become well of bananas a nutritious central Africa. They provided 1200.) By about 500 several in eastern established and to of the diets supplement it Bantu and also made for the cultivators, they possible Bantu-speaking to expand into heavily forested regions where yams did not grow well. of sub-Saharan Africa clearly reflected the significance population human there numbers of bananas. At the turn of the millennium, 11 million. ce. risen the had the exceeded year 500 By population 12 1000 to million. after banana cultivation had about ce., By slightly The the continent, sub-Saharan population spread throughout 22 million, and by 1500 it stood at 35.5 million.19 of food crops underwrote The diffusion demographic had passed expansion, 18Andrew M. Innovation in the Early Islamic World: The Diffusion Watson, of Agricultural 700-1100 1983). (Cambridge, Crops and F arming Techniques, 19On see in in Paths the of bananas sub-Saharan the significance Africa, Jan Vansina, in Equatorial Africa (Madison, 1990), espe of Political Tradition Rainforests: Toward a History and Jones, Atlas ofWorld Popu figures are from McEvedy cially pp. 61-65. The population lation History. Bentley: Hemispheric Integration, unintentional but a second, so kind to human populations. 500-1500 type The ce. 249 was not of biological exchange most dramatic cases of microbial in the millennium involved the transmission of 500-1500 exchange case of bubonic plague was bubonic plague. The first well-documented the so-called plague of Justinian that broke out in 541 and ravaged the Mediterranean basin until the late eighth century. Contemporaries case it may have that the plague came from Egypt, in which reported in the trade routes from a focus of infection traveled trans-Saharan or it might have arrived from India Great Lakes region of east Africa, and the Red Sea. aboard merchant ships sailing the Indian Ocean its precise route, Justinian's plague spread rapidly through Whatever as out the Mediterranean basin and soon (in 547) sparked epidemics at Constanti far away as England and Ireland. It raged for four months to Procopius, nople, killing as many as 10,000 people per day, according and claiming 300,000 victims, by the account of Evagrius Scholasticus. of Tours reported that plague ravaged the Frankish kingdom Gregory in the 580s and 590s, striking Narbonne, Marseilles, Lyons, Bourges, and Nantes, among other places, and he men Dijon, Avignon, Angers, at St. the bodies of plague victims tioned that on a single Sunday estimate Peter's basilica in Clermont numbered that 300. Demographers its initial the reduced the (in 541-44) during onslaught plague popula tion of Mediterranean the eighth century Europe by 20%-25%. After the plague tailed off, but it did not entirely disappear: isolated epidemics of plague struck Italy, southern France, and Spain between the eleventh centuries. Moreover, and the early fourteenth spread also to plague chroniclers recorded five great southwest Asia and east Asia. Muslim in Iraq and Syria between outbreaks of plague 627 and 717, and evi some of them likely dence also survives of many other epidemics, or the caused by plague. By late sixth early seventh century plague had reached coastal China, most likely by way of Arab and Persian mer chant ships, and periodic epidemics flared in port cities and in Guang until at least the ninth (in southern China) century. dong province to Korea, Japan, and Tibet dur its extended reach Meanwhile, plague ing the seventh century.20 20On see before the fourteenth Justinian's century, plague and other plague epidemics Pauline Allen, "The 'Justinianic' 49 (1979): 5-20; J.-N. Bira Plague," Byzantion in the Early Middle in Biology of Man in "The Plague Jacques Le Goff, Ages," ed. Robert Forster and Orest Ranum W. (Baltimore, History, 1975), pp- 48-80; Michael in theMiddle East (Princeton, Dois, The Black Death 1977), pp. 13-35; McNeill, Plagues and and Josiah C. Russell, "That Earlier Plague," Demography 5 (1968): pp. 123-28; Peoples, For Gregory of Tours's reports, see his History (New 174-84. of the Franks, trans. E. Br?haut especially ben and York, 1916), early plague 4:31, 6:14, 9:21, 10:23, and 10:25, pp. 92, 154, 218, see McNeill, in China, outbreaks Plagues and Peoples, 244-45, p. 134. respectively. On JOURNAL 25? OF WORLD HISTORY, FALL 1998 The pandemic of the fourteenth century iswell enough known that it does not require extensive discussion here. Perhaps the most impor tant points for present purposes are, first, that fourteenth-century plague to northern almost certainly China China spread from southwestern and then along the silk roads to central Asia, southwest Asia, the was it north Mediterranean and that basin, Africa, and, second, by no an isolated event. Wherever means it struck, its demographic effects interactions of cross-cultural for the expe testified to the significance eastern riences of human societies in pre the throughout hemisphere times. The population modern of China, under the impact of reeling as as 1200 to 85 in well fell from million 115 conquest Mongol plague, in 1300 and 75 million in 1400 (a 35% decrease over two cen same pair of challenges Asia faced Southwest the and under turies). went less drastic but still noticeable from 19.5 decline, population in 1300 and 16.4 million in 1400 (a in 1200 to 18.35 million million 16% decrease over two centuries). Although largely unafflicted by the severe faced and popu Europe Mongols, plague epidemics experienced million lation losses decrease over from one 79 million in 1300 to 60 million in 1400 (a 24% century).21 commercial and biological the eastern hemi Alongside exchanges, interactions witnessed cultural of also large significance during sphere ce. And here, too, a peculiar kind of modernist the period 500-1500 bias has sometimes skewed the understanding of premodern experi ences. Literary analyses have recently associated European representa tions of other peoples with an orientalizing project and have argued for on the a close relationship between European travel and travel writing, on the other. John B. Friedman, one hand, and imperialism, for exam ple, has lodged the charge of orientalism maps marginalized foreign peoples. More in light travel writing has read medieval became America: crusade; "Pilgrimage ended in the conquests of Mexico Cathay were military soldiers, many missionaries were conquistadors. So 21On in following because medieval European pointedly, Mary B. Campbell of of the European conquest Polo's the search for Marco and Peru. Many pilgrims were spies, most the early history early explorers of travel writing see McNeill, in the fourteenth and later centuries, Plagues and pandemic plague studies include Michael W. Dois, The Black Death pp. 149-98. Regional Peoples, especially in theMiddle East (Princeton, Panzac, La peste dans l'empire ottoman, 1700 1977); Daniel in and Human Disaster S. Gottfried, The Black Death: Natural 1985); Robert 1850 (Louvain, Medieval Platt, King Death: The Black Death and Its After (New York, 1983); Colin Europe Bubonic Plague inNine math in Late-medieval (Toronto, 1996); and Carol Benedict, England and Jones, (Stanford, 1996). The population figures are from McEvedy teenth-century China Atlas ofWorld Population History. Bentley: Integration, Hemispheric 500-1500 ce. 251 shadows of European looking at the linguistic examined here works of the begin or end with imperialism: to of the lands or peoples the future conquest references explicit will fade into holocaust described.... The specter of the American the whole."22 the background of this study. But it haunts were ethnocentric and that that medieval Granted Europeans we will sometimes be several to imperialist projects, sometimes contributed travel and travel writing interactions it seems clear that long-distance travel and cross-cultural And when the focus broadens from also had less sinister implications. a narcissistic, travelers to the analysis of Eurocentric study of European as historical interactions cross-cultural processes, a range of alternative into view. Indeed, the cultural ramifications of cross patterns comes cases of were legion. Arnold Pacey has explored can for that these diffusion, processes arguing example, technological as "technological and often be characterized more accurately dialogue" than as "technological transfer." His analysis dialectic" "technological to the role of cultural influences in techno draws attention effectively cultural interactions and it suggests the need to keep cultural consider logical exchanges, ations in view when examining I shall processes of interaction.23 Here focus briefly on two kinds of cultural transformation that came about as a result of interactions between peoples of different societies and that of the eastern hemisphere. illustrate the increasing cultural integration interactions The first has to do with ethnic identities. Cross-cultural ran to construction the cultural that the from gamut changes provoked to the disintegration of ethnic the transformation identities. Fascinat and migratory such as ing research has focused on nomadic peoples, the Franks and the Tanguts, whose and ethnic transfor ethnogenesis mations interactions.24 The clearly reflect the influence of cross-cultural 22 in Medieval in Implicit Under World Maps," "Cultural Conflicts John B. Friedman, between Europeans and Other Reporting, and Reflecting on the Encounters standings: Observing, See Era, ed. Stuart B. Schwartz 1994), pp. 64-95. Peoples in the Early Modern (Cambridge, also Friedman, The Monstrous Races inMedieval Art and Thought 1981), (Cambridge, Mass., which offers a similar analysis, the category of orientalism; and though without invoking Mary 1600 B. Campbell, The Witness and the Other Wbrid: Exotic European Travel Writing, 400 (Ithaca, pp. 4, 7, for the quotations. 1988), especially 23Arnold inWorld Civilization: A Thousand-year (Oxford, History Pacey, Technology 1990). 24On the Franks see David and Religious Revitalization Harry Miller, "Ethnogenesis The Case of Frankish Origins," Journal of World History 4 see the the Tanguts and Edward James, The Franks (Oxford, 277-85; (1993): 1988). On on Tangut Ethnogenesis "Who Are studies of Ruth W. Dunnell: and the Tanguts? Remarks 18 (1984): the Ethnonym and Journal of Asian History "Politics, Religion, Tangut," 78-89; in Eleventh in the 1094 Xia: The Construction of Tangut Ethnicity Century Identity Wuwei and Inner Asian "The Hsi Stele Central Studies 7 (1992): 61-114; Inscription," beyond the Roman Frontier: JOURNAL 252 OF WORLD HISTORY, FALL I998 remarkable ethnic Odysseys of the Alans illustrate especially well some of the possibilities in a world for cultural transformations shaped by mass migration, of and long-distance campaigns imperial expansion, trade. The Alans were an identifiable ethnic group of northern Iranian ter nomads at least by the first century ce., when raided Roman they in from their homeland the Russian southern In the ritory steppes. fourth century they allied with Huns attacking the eastern empire and in which (in 378), played a starring role at the battle of Adrianople the invaders crushed the Roman In army and killed Emperor Valens. to Arian the fifth century some Alans settled in Thrace and converted while others the Vandals, invaded Christianity, joined forces with on estates settled from seized the Gallo-Roman Gaul, and population. in the western to By the late fifth century Alans empire had converted Roman Catholic into Gallo and had largely assimilated Christianity societies.25 Roman and Germanic Those the eastern empire, however, underwent dif living beyond an Alan ferent kinds of cultural transformation while maintaining allied with the Byz identity. At least from the time of Justinian, Alans antine empire and secured the Caucasus region as a buffer zone beyond to the Byzantine the tenth century empire. About they converted a as Since they enjoyed Orthodox skilled crafts reputation Christianity. men and metalsmiths, the interest of the Mongols, who they attracted favor to them because of their talents and perhaps also because to Mongol submitted rule. In any case, the Mongols they voluntarily to China, of Orthodox Christian Alans transported large numbers where they served as bodyguards and military forces. They were unable to receive sacraments during their early years in China, however, since Chris they refused to comply with the demand of the local Nestorian tian priests that they submit to rebaptism before taking communion. showed When teenth without Roman century, Catholic missionaries in the late thir arrived in China into their community the Alans they readily accepted John of Montecorvino, to Roman 20,000 Alans rebaptism. reportedly converted of Khanbaliq, archbishop Catholic and Christianity, et al., 15 vols. (Cambridge, in The Cambridge History ed. Denis Twitchett of China, in and The Great State ofWhite and High: Buddhism and State Formation 6:154-214; Xia (Honolulu, T. Alisen, "Ever Closer Encoun 1996). See also Thomas Eleventh-Century ters: The Appropriation in the Mongol of Culture and the Apportionment of Peoples 1 (1997): Journal of Early Modem 2-23, p. 17, where Alisen History Empire," especially Hsia," 1978-), summarizes the work of the Russian scholar E. I. Kychanov. 25Bernard S. A History of theAlans in theWest Bachrach, (Minneapolis, 1973). See also T. Sulimirski, The Sarmatians and C. Scott Littleton and (New York, 1970), pp. 142-203; From Scythia to Camelot: Linda A. Malcor, A Radical Reassessment of the Legends of King the Knights of the Round Table, and the Holy Grail (New York, 1994), pp. 3-57. Arthur, Bentley: Hemispheric 500-1500 Integration, ce. 253 the Mongols they made up a large portion of his flock. When departed in 1368, their Alan allies left with them for an unrecorded from China into Turko-Mongol involved absorption society.26 destiny that probably re in the Caucasus that remained the Alan Meanwhile, community com into the modern Ossetian faith and evolved tained its Orthodox that retains its Indo-Iranian munity language to the present day. the spread of cultural A second cluster of themes has to do with the role and religious traditions. In some cases it is possible to appreciate in fostering the spread of these traditions. Merchants, of individuals and pilgrims all officials, missionaries, soldiers, diplomats, government were prominent travelers on the roads and sea lanes of the eastern Even though they represented only a fraction of the popu hemisphere. to their num cultural influence out of proportion lation, they wielded of travelers such as Faxian, and experiences bers.27 The peregrinations and Mansa Musa Ibn Battuta, illuminate the pro Xuanzang, Yijing, cesses by which eastern the universal the religions spread throughout and Between them, Faxian, Xuanzang, Yijing brought hemisphere. texts from India to China of Buddhist and translated many hundreds into Chinese. relics, statues, and ritual They also introduced to communities in Buddhist China and laid a founda paraphernalia east tion for the acceptance of Buddhism Asia. Ibn Battuta throughout of them in his efforts to promote in the did not always succeed Islamic values of but his Maldive Islands and the west African Mali, experi kingdom ences illustrate the process by which the Islamic faith gradually trans formed societies far from its Arabian birthplace. After his pilgrimage to Mecca, Mansa Musa to teach in of Muhammad invited descendants new stu construction of the and financed Mali, mosques, sponsored in Fez.28 Long-distance the esteemed Islamic schools dents attending 26 The Sarmatians, Sulimirski, pp. Missionaries by the Franciscan and Frank W. of the 194-203; Ikl?, "The Conversion in China in the Fourteenth in Papers in Century," of Professor Woodbridge 1976), pp. 29-37. Bingham, ed. James B. Parsons (San Francisco, 27 Sail: An Ethnographic Odyssey studies include Mary W. Helms, Important of Ulysses' Distance and Geographical The Witness Power, Knowledge, (Princeton, 1988); and Campbell, and the Other World. Recent and contemporary times suggest analyses of travel in modern some fascinating for the study of travel in earlier eras: Victor Turner and Edith possibilities Alani Honor in Christian Culture: (New York, Image and Pilgrimage Perspectives Anthropological (London, 1978); Mary Louise Pratt, Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation 1992); in the Late Twentieth Century and James Clifford, Routes: Travel and Translation (Cambridge, Mass., 1997). 28On the see Jerry H. Bentley, Old in general, traditions spread of religious and cultural in Pre-Modern Contacts World Encounters: Cross-Cultural and Exchanges Times (New York, travelers see also Sally Hovey Wriggins, A Buddhist Pilgrim individual 1993). On Xuanzang: on the Silk Road (Boulder, Colo., 1996); and Ross E. Dunn, The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Turner, Muslim Traveler of the 14th Century (Berkeley, 1986). 254 JOURNAL OF WORLD HISTORY, FALL I998 travel not only facilitated of trade goods and the diffu the exchange sion of biological but also the awareness of cultural species, sharpened identities and sometimes the promoted spread of cultural and religious to new lands. traditions a question it becomes of going beyond When the roles of individ new to conversions uals to explain large-scale religious faiths, the anal more of cultural becomes Without difficult. ysis exchanges reducing to decisions made out of purely material cultural choices I interests, think it is clear that large-scale cultural changes reflect political, social, as well as the appeal of cultural and reli and economic configurations themselves. gious traditions important Jacques Gernet's study of the in economic of Buddhism China makes this significance point persua sively. The efforts of the Chinese pilgrims show that Buddhism appealed converts but a small circle of devout individuals, strongly to certain a large-scale does not indicate transformation of an entire cultural that by stabilizing Gernet's work argues convincingly rural monasteries the Buddhist of translate their faith society, helped appeal into terms meaningful in the countryside and thus facilitated wide in China.29 spread adoption of Buddhism to account difficult of large-scale cultural for, processes Although society. careful attention. cross-cultural Alongside change call for historians' trade and biological they help to explain the social and cul exchanges, in which most of the world's peoples have led their tural environments as as the of societies well the lives, increasing integration throughout are elusive, but it is clear that eastern hemisphere.30 The explanations are crucial considerations interactions in the effort to cross-cultural understand processes of large-scale cultural 29 inChinese Buddhism Society: An Jacques Gernet, trans. F. Verellen Tenth Centuries, (New York, 1995). 30 Bentley, O?d World Encounters. change. Economic History from the Fifth to the