Origins of Globalization in the Framework of the Afroeurasian World-System History

Within the framework of this article we attempt to solve the following tasks:
1. to demonstrate that as early as a few thousand years ago (at least since the
formation of the system of long-distance and large-scale trade in metals in the
fourth millennium BCE) the scale of systemic trade relations grew significantly
beyond the local level and became regional (and even transcontinental in a
certain sense);
2. to show that already in the late first millennium BCE the scale of processes and
links within the Afroeurasian world-system not only exceeded the regional level,
as well as reached the continental level, but it also went beyond continental
limits. That is why we contend that within this system, the marginal systemic
contacts between the agents of various levels (from societies to individuals) may
be defined as transcontinental (note that we deal here not only with overland
contacts, because after the late first millennium BCE in some cases we can speak
about the oceanic contacts—the most salient case is represented here by the
Indian Ocean communication network [for more details see Chew in this work]);
3. to demonstrate that even prior to the Great Geographic Discoveries the scale of
the global integration in certain respects could be compared with the global
integration in more recent periods. In particular, in terms of demography, even2000 years ago a really integrated part of the humankind encompassed 90% of
the total world population.
Our analysis suggests that the above-mentioned marginal level of integration
within the Afroeurasian world-system can be hardly considered as something
insignificant or virtual; it substantially influenced the general direction of development
and accelerated the development of many social systems. The article also
deals with several other issues that are important both for the world-system
approach and for the study of the history of globalization—such as the typology
of the world-system links, peculiar features of the Afroeurasian world-system, the
possible dating of the start of its formation, factors of its transformation into the
planetary World System, and so on.