The Birth of Globalization:
Silk, Spices, Sugar, and Silver, before 1800
HIST194-01
MAIN 001
MWF 1:10-2:10pm
Instructor: Ethan Hawkley, PhD
Email: ehawkley@macalester.edu
Office: Old Main 306
Office Hours: M/W 4:45-5:45pm and by appointment
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
What is globalization? Why did it begin? How has it transformed our world? This course explores
several answers to these questions by focusing on the early exchange of global commodities. In the
course, we will examine how silk, spices, sugar, slaves, silver, and other goods gave birth to the
world's first full-circle network of global exchange. A comprehensive overview of this process will
require us to approach these commodities from various angles. We will explore the diverse economic
origins of global capitalism; we will investigate the relationship between early modern trade and
imperial power; and we will also explore the cultural forces that underlay the movement of early
global goods. Through an in-depth study of commodities, the course will highlight the importance
of prestige, taste, religion, labor, race, identity, etc., to the beginnings of world-wide global
interconnectivity.
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Mintz, Sidney. Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History. New York: Penguin, 1985.
Thubron, Colin. Shadow of the Silk Road. New York: Harper Perennial, 2006.
Turner, Jack. Spice: The History of a Temptation. New York: Vintage Books, 2004.
-Additional readings will be posted weekly on Moodle
GRADING:
-25% Participation
-25% Exams
-50% Research Project
Participation: Participation is vital to this class. This includes attendance, reading, talking, quizzes (if
necessary), short writing assignments, and other activities designed to prompt discussion. This class
is our class, not my class. To underscore this idea, each class period will involve some kind of
participatory discussion or activity. It is, therefore, essential that all students do the assigned readings,
prepare for discussions, attend class, and participate in course activities. I am certain that, if we all
do these things, the class will be meaningful and rewarding for everyone. As part of their
participation grade each student will lead one half hour discussion of the day's readings. These days
will be selected and assigned during the first week in class.
Exams: There will be two exams given during the course of the semester: a Midterm and a Final.
Each student is responsible to create their own study guides for these exams from lecture, the
readings, class discussion, and films. Everything in the class is testable! Exams will be a combination
of multiple choice questions, short answers, and an essay.
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Research Project: Each student will be required to do a longterm course project that will consist of
several smaller project assignments. This project will focus on the relationship between a noun (i.e., a
person/people, place, or thing) and its globalization. Further explanations of these projects will be
distributed in class.
Project Assignment #1: Personal Essay, Globalization Encounter
Project Assignment #2: Book Review
Project Assignment #3: Paper/Mini-Lecture
Project Assignment #4: Primary Document Introduction
10 points
25 points
50 points
15 points
100 points
CLASSROOM AND GRADING POLICIES
* Computers will not be permitted in class, unless otherwise noted.
*All papers and assignments are due in physical form, unless otherwise noted, at the beginning of
class. Emailed assignments are, in my class, late. All late assignments will be docked 1/3 of a grade
for everyday they are late. In other words, an "A" paper 2 days late becomes a "B+." Saturday and
Sunday count as only 1 day. If we do not have class on the day you want to hand in your late paper
you may email it to me, but you also need to give me an identical physical copy in class. If you have a
legitimate reason for not being able to complete an assignment on time, you must tell me before the
assignment is due in order to avoid late penalties.
*All papers must be written in Times New Roman 12 point font and have 1 inch margins. Failure to
comply with this standard will lower your grade.
*I am certain that all of you can do very well in this course. Please remember that I do not give you
a grade. You earn your grade. Simply "doing" the assignment will not guarantee a 100%. "A" means
"Amazing," "Awesome," or "Almost As good As Alicia keys."1 "B" means "Good," which means
you did a good job. Anything below that needs work.
*Students are expected to maintain the highest standards of honesty in their college work. Forgery,
cheating, and plagiarism are serious offenses and students found guilty of any form of academic
dishonesty are subject to disciplinary action. If you have questions about forgery, cheating, and/or
plagiarism feel free to ask me or to visit http://www.macalester.edu/academicprograms/
academicpolicies/academicintegrity/
SCHEDULE:
UNIT 1: SILK
WEEK 1 (SEP 1-7)
Wed, Sep 3 - Introductions and Syllabus Overview
Fri, Sep 5 - What is Globalization?
Readings:
Frederick Cooper, "What is the Concept of Globalization Good for? An African
Historian's Perspective," African Affairs 100, no. 399 (Apr., 2001), pp. 189-213.
Excerpt from Justin Jennings, Globalizations and the Ancient World (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2011), pp. 1-34.
I'm specifically referencing "If I Aint Got You" and "Empire State of Mind II" (the one without Jay-Z). I'd
recommend either if you are in need of some inspiration.
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Colin Thubron, Shadow of the Silk Road (New York: Harper Perennial, 2006), pp. 1-6.
WEEK 2 (SEP 8-14)
Mon, Sep 8 - Mini lecture: China looks West, Rome looks East
Readings:
Jerry H. Bentley, "Cross Cultural Interaction and Periodization in World History,"
American Historical Review 101 (1996), 749-70.
Patrick Manning, "The Problems of Interactions in World History," American Historical
Review 101 (1996), 771-82.
Thubron, pp. 7-45.
Wed, Sep 10 - Mini lecture: The Kushan Empire to the Golden Age: Primary documents
Readings:
Excerpt from Nicholas Thomas, Entangled Objects: Exchange, Material Culture, and
Colonialism in the Pacific (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1991), pp. 7-34.
Excerpts from Xinru Liu, Silk Roads: A Brief History with Documents (Boston: Bedford,
2012).
Fri, Sep 12 - Mongols to Decline
Readings:
Eric Hirsch and Charles Stewart, "Introduction: Ethnographies of Historicity," History
and Anthropology 16, no. 3 (2005), 261-274.
Thubron, 138-183.
WEEK 3 (SEP 15-21)
Mon, Sep 15 - Ming/Qing Tribute Systems
Readings:
Excerpt from Craig Clunas, Superfluous Things
Excerpt from Timothy Brook, The Confusions of Pleasure
Thubron, 184-218.
Wed, Sep 17 - Global China and Rough Drafts
Readings:
Stacey Pierson, "The Movement of Chinese Ceramics: Appropriation in Global History,"
Journal of World History 23, no. 1 (March 2012), pp. 9-39.
Excerpt from Laura Lee Junker, Raiding, Trading, and Feasting: The Political Economy of
Philippine Chiefdoms (Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1999), 15-25.
Thubron, 262-293.
DUE: Rough Drafts of Personal Essay on Encountering Globalization
Fri, Sep 19 - Unit Completion and Presentations
Readings:
Thubron, 333-346.
DUE: Final Drafts of Personal Essay on Encountering Globalization
UNIT 2: SPICES
WEEK 4 (SEP 22-28)
Mon, Sep 22 - What is the Indian Ocean World?
Readings:
Excerpt from Andre Gunder-Frank, ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age (Berkeley,
University of California Press, 1998)
Excerpt from Stewart Gordon, When Asia was the World: Traveling Merchants, Scholars,
Warriors, and Monks who Created the 'Riches of the East' (Boston, De Capo Press, 2009)
Wed, Sep 24 - Indian Ocean World Before Islam
Readings:
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Te-Tzu Chang, "Rice" in The Cambridge World History of Food (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2012), 132-149.
Martin Ottenheimer, "Social Organization and Indian Ocean long-distance trade,"
Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 116 (1991), pp. 125-134.
Fri, Sep 26 - Book Review Workshop
Readings:
Jack Turner, Spice: The History of a Temptation (New York: Vintage, 2004), pp. xi-56.
WEEK 5 (SEP 29-OCT 5) Indian Ocean Intrusions
Mon, Sep 29 - Becoming an Islamic Sea
Readings:
Amira K. Bennison, "Muslim Universalism and Western Globalization," in Globalization
in World History, Hopkins, ed. pp. 73-98.
Wed, Oct 1 - Zheng He
Readings:
Barbara Bennett Peterson, "The Ming Voyages of Cheng Ho (Zheng He), 1371-1433,"
The Great Circle 16, no. 1 (1994), pp. 43-51.
Zheng He Primary Sources in Edward L. Dreyer, Zheng He: China and the Oceans in the
Early Ming Dynasty, 1405-1433 (New York: Pearson Longman, 2006), pp. 187-199.
Fri, Oct 3 Columbus and Da Gama
Readings:
Columbus and Da Gama Primary Sources
Stefan Halikowski Smith, "Demystifying a Change in Taste: Spices, Space, and Social
Hierarchy in Europe, 1380-1750," The International History Review 29, no. 2 (Jun.,
2007), pp. 237-257.
WEEK 6 (OCT 6-12) The Early Modern Indian Ocean World
Mon, Oct 6 - Ottomans and Safavids
Readings:
Giancarlo Casale, "Global Politics in the 1580s: One Canal, Twenty Thousand Cannibals,
and an Ottoman Plot to Rule the World," Journal of World History 18, no. 3 (Sep.,
2007), 267-296.
Linda K. Steinmann, "Shah Abbas and the Royal Silk Trade 1599-1629," Bulletin (British
Society for Middle Eastern Studies), Vol. 14, No. 1 (1987), pp. 68-74.
Wed, Oct 8 - Mughal Empire
Readings:
Giorgio Riello, "The Globalization of Cotton Textiles: Indian Cottons, Europe, and the
Atlantic World, 1600-1850," in The Spinning World: A Global History of Cotton Textiles,
1200-1850 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 261-291.
Masayuki Tanimoto, "Cotton and the Peasant Economy: A Foreign Fiber in Early
Modern Japan," in The Spinning World: A Global History of Cotton Textiles, 1200-1850
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 367-387.
Fri, Oct 10 - The Swahili Coast
Readings:
Michael Pearson, "The Swahili Coast and the Interior," in Port Cities and Intruders: The
Swahili Coast, India, and Portugal in the Early Modern Era (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1998), pp. 63-102.
WEEK 7 (OCT 13-19) European Empires
Mon, Oct 13 - The Portuguese Empire to the VOC
Readings:
Turner, 58-182
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Wed, Oct 15 - Midterm Review Day
Fri, Oct 17 - The Rise of the EIC
Readings:
Turner, 183-311
WEEK 8 (OCT 20-26) MIDTERM
Mon, Oct 20 - Midterm
Wed, Oct 22 - Mid-Course Evaluation
DUE: Book Reviews
Fri, Oct 24 - NO CLASS - FALL BREAK!
UNIT 3: SUGAR
WEEK 9 (OCT 27-NOV 2) Film Week Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Mon, Oct 27 - Film, Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Wed, Oct 29 - Film, Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Fri, Oct 31 - Conquest Discussion
Readings:
Thomas Holloway, "Whose Conquest Is This, Anyway?: Aguirre, the Wrath of
God" in Based on a True Story: Latin American History at the Movies edited by
Donald F. Stevens (Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources Inc., 1997),
29-46.
Excerpts from Stewart Schwartz, ed., Victors and Vanquished: Spanish and Nahua
Views of the Conquest of Mexico (Bedford: Boston, 2000).
WEEK 10 (NOV 3-9) Columbian Exchanges
Mon, Nov 3 - Columbian Exchange, Disease
Readings:
Alfred Crosby, "Infectious Disease and the Demography of the Atlantic
Peoples," Journal of World History 2:2 (Fall, 1991) pp. 119-133.
Wed, Nov 5 - Columbian Exchange, Food
Readings:
Excerpt from Charles Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created (New York:
Vintage, 2012).
Sidney Mintz, Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History (New York:
Penguin, 1986) pp. xv-18.
Fri, Nov 7 - Portugal, Kongo, and the Origins of Atlantic Slavery
Readings:
Kongolese Primary Documents
Mintz, pp. 19-74.
WEEK 11 (NOV 10-16) Slavery
Mon, Nov 10 - Slavery Continued
Readings:
Excerpt from John Thornton, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World,
1400-1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 98-129.
Mintz, pp. 74-150
Wed, Nov 12 - Slavery in the Americas
Readings:
Richard Price, "The Concept of Creolization" in The Cambridge History of Slavery Vol 3,
pp. 513-537.
Mintz, 151-186.
Fri, Nov 14 - Mintz and Slavery
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Joseph Inikori, "Transatlantic Slavery and Economic Development in the Atlantic World:
West Africa, 1450-1850" in The Cambridge History of Slavery Vol 3, pp. 650-674.
Slavery Primary Documents
Mintz, pp. 187-214.
WEEK 12 (NOV 17-23) Comparing Atlantic Empires
Mon, Nov 17 - Iberian Colonialisms (reading on Spanish/British Empires)
Readings:
Ward Stavig, "Continuing the Bleeding of these Pueblos will Shortly make them
Cadavers: The Potosi Mita, Cultural Identity, and Communal Survival in Colonial
Peru," The Americas 56, no. 4 (Apr., 2000), pp. 529-562.
Wed, Nov 19 - British Colonialisms
Readings:
Excerpt from J.H. Elliott, Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America,
1492-1830 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006), pp. 88-116.
Fri, Nov 21 - Presentations
Due: Research Paper
UNIT 4: SILVER
WEEK 13 (NOV 24-30)
Mon, Nov 24 - The Philippines, Silver, and a Great Convergence
Readings:
Dennis O. Flynn and Arturo Giraldez, "Path dependence, time lags and the birth of
globalisation: A critique of O'Rourke and Williamson," European Review of Economic
History, Vol. 8, No. 1 (April 2004), pp. 81-108.
Kevin H. O'Rourke and Jeffrey G. Williamson, "Once more: When did globalisation
begin?," European Review of Economic History, Vol. 8, No. 1 (April 2004), pp. 109-117.
THANKSGIVING BREAK!
WEEK 14 (DEC 1-7) Documentary Excerpts: The Ascent of Money
Mon, Dec 1 - Watch The Ascent of Money
Wed, Dec 3 - Finish The Ascent of Money
Fri, Dec 5 - The Great Divergence
Reading:
Excerpts from Kenneth Pomeranz, The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of
the Modern World Economy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001).
Excerpts from Prasannan Parthasarathi, Whey Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not: Global
Economic Divergence, 1600-1850 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
WEEK 15 (DEC 8-14)
Mon, Dec 8 - Reviewing Major Course Themes and Course Evaluations
Reading:
"The Birth of Globalization: The Birth of the Philippines" (draft)
Wed, Dec 10 Final Review
Due: Primary Document Introductions
WEEK 16: FINAL
Place and Time to be announced
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