Traces Of Globalization In Antiquity With Reference to India & World

1. Traces Of Globalization In Antiquity With Reference to India & World Dr. Anil P Dongre North Maharashtra University Department of Management Studies, North Maharashtra University, Jalgaon-425001 (MS), India

2. Globalization is magnanimous social, economic, cultural, and political unificationof localities situated worldwide, it has got long history since time immemorial. This unification can be portrayed through the routes of movement, Migration, Translation by human societies in the form of Communication, Business & Trade Activity, Dissemination of Knowledge, Foreign Direct Investment, Capital Flows, Spread of Technology and Academic & Research Exchange. The relics of globalisation on the basis of above activities can be mark out from various incident that have had been occurred thousands of years ago. This paper particularly discuss various incidences in tune with globalization that shape world what it appear today.

3. Prima –facie globalisation began with the materialization of migration of people from one place to another and then they developed the trade links between the locals and people from other parts of the world. Recorded testimony suggested that trade has been carried out by human civilization since ancient periods.

4. Elemental Traces of Globalization (Periods 3000 BC- 100 BC) The earliest recorded vestiges of long-range trade founded in India is of before 3000 BC, when Sumerians in Mesopotamia (Present day Iraq) traded with the Harappan civilization of the Indus Valley (Present day cite at India & Pakistan) and later with other parts of world. The eastern Mediterranean (Phoenicians Civilization ) is the earliest region to extend widespread maritime trade. The Phoenicia of pre-classical world is presently the region of modern Lebanon and Syria from about 3000 BC. Initially they have trade among Egypt and Minoan traders (The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete) of Crete and then westwards with chain of Mediterranean islands They also had trade with North African coast.

6. The Phoenicians were became renowned traders and the best sailors and navigators up to the 12th century BC. This was the period when the Phoenicians began to establish a clear and influential identity. They traveled across the Mediterranean Sea, and as far north as Britain for sources of tin to manufacture bronze. Phoenician king send out their vessels on long voyage to bring gold, sandalwood, ivory, monkeys and peacocks from Ophir - an unidentified place, probably on the east coast of Africa or the west coast of India. They also established first ever colonial network in the Greeks.

7. Thus early forms of globalization existed during 3000 BC, when trans-world trade occurred between the Sumerians in Mesopotamia & the Harappan civilization of the Indus Valley (In tune with India). But globalization of trade & hence the unification of the different locality around the globe first ever in the history of human civilization extensively occurred during the Phoenician periods from 12th to 8th century BC. This phase of globalization influenced by Maritime Trade hence according to researchers it was the first ever gesture of Economic Globalization. Economic Globalization, at the very outset, is the outcome of trans-world waterborne traffic, had been the earliest precursor of Cultural Globalization. In fact Cultural Globalization is supplementary to the economic globalization because when people across different part of the earth began to approach each other for exchanging the commodities, they probably tried to communicate in their own dialect or languages. Thus human civilization bound together first and foremost through Trans –world trade and then through languages and then other components of the culture. Thus the Cultural Globalization is the ancillerization of Economic Globalization.

8. The evidence of unification & cultural interdependence can be obtained from history. The periodic testimonial coverage of historic evidences available altogether is not more than 5,000 – 5,500 years. Apparently cultural exchange start with the transmission of languages, ideas, taste, customs, values, traditions, faith, artifacts, cooking & food habits etc. Further the invention of writing, separately at different location on Earth gave impetus to exchange of various such components of culture which leads to growth of knowledge. Discoveries of tablet & inscriptions of prehistoric periods found by the historician suggest that the Sumerian cuneiform being the oldest form of writing (Wikipedia, “Cuneiform Script” ). But Phoenicians (1550 BC to 300 BC) were the first state-level society to make extensive use of the alphabet, and the Canaanite-Phoenician alphabet is generally believed to be the ancestor of almost all modern alphabets (Wikipedia, "Phoenicia”).

10. The cultural dissemination across land within civilization in prehistoric periods can be found out from the evidence that, certain cultural items diffused first to the southeastern coast of Africa before moving northward, came from Southeast Asia, or at least tropical Asia. One example is the diffusion of the domestic chicken (Galllus Gallus) to Africa. The oldest archaeological remains of this species may date back to 2,800 BCE from Tanzania. The earliest similar evidence in Egypt is not earlier than the New Kingdom period about 1,000 years later. To support this finding, there is additional evidence provided by the presence of the double outrigger, bark cloth, various types of musical instruments and other cultural items present on the southeastern African coast came from Indian subcontinent . Globalization of foods & cooking habit is not new but they are there since the recorded history. The trading caravans known in the human history in antiquity were engaged in trading of spices. Medical documents of about 1550 BC corroborate the use of anise, caraway, cassia, cardamom, mustard, sesame, fenugreek, saffron and other spices by Egyptians & cinnamon and cassia were treasured spices for them. The pre- historic civilizations of the Mediterranean craved the spices of India and the lands eastward. The Egyptians used herbs and spices in their daily activities.

11. Propagation of religion from one part to another is also the harbinger of the globalization of culture. The long aging process of propagation of religion was prevailed in middle age history of the world. One can identify that Buddhism was the first religion which have been massively propagated in the different part of the world by king Ashoka (Maurya Dynasty 321 BC – 185 BC) of India. The support of Ashoka and his descendants led to the construction of more Buddhist religious memorials to disseminate the Buddhism into neighboring lands particularly to the Iranian-speaking regions of Afghanistan and Central Asia. The emissary were sent to various countries, west of India in order to extend Buddhism particularly in eastern region of the neighboring Seleucid Empire (Macedonia or Macedon was an ancient kingdom, centered in the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula), and even beyond the Hellenistic kingdoms (Greek civilization beyond classical Greeks) of the Mediterranean .This led, to the emergence of Greek-speaking Buddhist monarchs in the Indo-Greek Kingdom, and the development of the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara.

12. Economic and cultural interconnectivity gradually compelled the people for having control over prosperous geographic location so that they can enjoy more autonomy towards trade & can exploit the precious wealth of the particular region without any hindrance. This gave impetus to the Invasion by people of stronghold from different part of earth on prosperous region. Since prehistory invasions have been frequently occurred & archaeological evidences proved it on large scale. Invasion in turn also leads to exchanges of religion, philosophy, and technology & also cultural exchanges by government. Therefore bringing down the land or people of poles apart, by so called historic stronghold civilization or great warrior or invader or superior people under their suzerainty is the outcome of their political aspiration. This political aspiration which resulted into geographic unification is nothing but the Political Globalization. The first ever massive and long distant invasion by Alexander the king of Macedon (ancient Greek) against the Indian monarch Porus (Battle of Hydaspes 326) was perhaps the herald of Great Political Globalization in ancient history.

13. From the above discussion it is cocksure that globalization is a century’s long process, that transformed local or regional things or phenomena into global ones and resulted into the expansion of human population and the growth of civilization. As a matter of fact people from different corners of earth started to unify themselves into a homogeneous society (for specific regions) and function together. These social unifications by and large are the combination of economic, cultural and political forces. The prehistoric phase of globalization extended on large scale from the middle of the 2nd millennium BCE to the beginning of the Common Era which is also known as Christian Era (Dates before the year 1 CE) (Wikipedia, “Common Era”) saw the Western Asian, Mediterranean; Chinese and Indian societies developed major transportation networks for trade and hence the social unification across the continents (Wikipedia, "Trade Route: Early Development”, originally Compiled from Denmark & Robert Allen, World System History: The Social Science of Long-Term Change).

14. This historically social unification and the expansion of civilization in different area of the continents occurred with establishment of various Trading Route. The historical, archaeological, linguistics, genetics and anthropological evidences shown that earliest trading routes that brings down the different society’s nearer was Spice Routes and most likely it was sea trading route With the help of these domesticated camels traders began caravanning through India and China and established the first of the great Caravan Routes or Incense Route; however unlike the great Silk Road from Arabia to China the Incense Route was not fixed. The incense trade originated from South Arabia and sprawl across the Mediterranean and continued roughly about 200 AD. It served as a channel for trading of goods such as Arabian frank incense and myrrh; Indian spices, ebony, silk and fine textiles; and East African rare woods, feathers, animal skins and gold (Wikipedia, “Incense Route”). The Spice & Incense routes were earliest trading route that brings people together and unified the different regions through the trading activities, hence it was the elemental drivers of Globalization.

15. Medieval Traces Of Globalization (Periods 100 Ad – 1500 Ad) As the time travelled, the localities across the distant places unified intensively until the 1st century AD. Commencement of Silk Route in China and Amber Route in Europe,further settled down the process of globalization deeply. The Silk Road is the most recognized trading route of ancient Chinese civilization and nurtured under the Han Dynasty (202 BC - AD 220). This 7000 mile route spanned China, Central Asia, Northern India, the Parthian and Roman Empires. It connected the Yellow River Valley to the Mediterranean Sea and passed through the Chinese cities such as Kansu and Sinkiang and present-day countries such as Iran, Iraq and Syria. The Chinese traded their silk, medicines, perfumes, with the Indians for precious stones and metals such as jade, gold, and silver, and the Indians had traded the silk with the Roman Empire (Claris, 1996). Silk proved to be costly import for the Roman Empire since its trade across Indian and Central Asia was heavily controlled by the Parthian Empire. Hence the trading routes which served as a trustworthy network for long distance trade in Europe were the Amber Road. The Amber Road was an ancient trade route for the transfer of amber. This route probably comprised of the waterways and ancient highways. For centuries the road led from Europe to Asia and back and also from northern Europe to the Mediterranean Sea. Towns along the Amber Road began to rise steadily during the 1st century CE

16. Until the 7th-8th century AD the importance of Silk Road and its role in worldwide economic, political & cultural dissemination had been gradually decreased. During this period, the Islamic Empire established by Rashidun armies, the Muslim conqueror turns to be the mainstays of unification of trade, economies and knowledge from many secluded province and civilizations due to contacts with Muslim explorers, sailors, scholars, traders, and travelers. This period popularly called as Islamic Golden Age or Pax Islamica or Afro-Asiatic age of discovery (Wikipedia, “Muslim Agricultural Revolution” Zohor Idrisi (2005), originally compiled from, The Muslim Agricultural Revolution and its influence on Europe, (www.muslimheritage.com) Muslim traders and explorers who travelled the largest part of the Asia and Africa and much of the Europe, with their trade networks, were expanded from the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Indian Ocean and China Sea in the east, had established an early Global Economy and became the world's foremost all-embracing economic power throughout the 7th - 11th centuries

17. The global connection of Islamic traders and explorers across the world enabled the diffusion of many crops and farming techniques among different parts of the Islamic world, as well as the adaptation of crops and techniques from and to regions beyond the Islamic world (Wikipedia, “Muslim Agricultural Revolution”). The Muslim started to cultivate the crops which previously had not been grown by them. The crops such as sorghum, citrus fruits and numerous crops such as mangos, rice, and especially cotton and sugar cane, were distributed throughout Islamic lands from Africa, China and from India. Some writers have referred to the diffusion of numerous crops during this period as the Globalization of crops. Therefore the subsequent wave of medieval globalization emerged during the Islamic Empire and the Islamic Golden Age

18. With the passes of time and till the 11th century instability created in the Islamic world because of Mongol invasions called Crusades (A series of nine different major invasions from 1095 to 1291) in history (MarkT, 2008). In 1206, Genghis Khan from Central Asia established a powerful Mongol Empire. He extended the empire from the Danube to the Sea of Japan and from Novgorod (western part of almost all of Russia) to Camboja. It was supposed to cover 22% of the Earth's total land area and sprawling over about 33,000,000 km2 (12,741,000 sq mi), and held sway over a population of over 100 million people, thus he had united much of Eurasia Batu Khan one of the Mongol kings had planned to bring the Europe under his suzerainty and started to implement it by making attack on Austria, Italy and Germany. The effort of Genghis Khan & latter Mongol kings to expand the empire is often identified as the "Mongol World Empire" because it spanned much of Eurasia. To span the empires, Mongols in plunged into the war with the great powers in Africa, Asia and Europe, hence it believe to be a First World War. Under the Mongols patronage new technologies, commodities and ideologies were scattered and exchanged across Eurasia.

19. An efficient postal system is the gift of the Mongol Empire, the scholars often referred to it by Yam. Later in the U.S the yam system had been replicated in the form of the Pony Express. The Mongol riders regularly covered 125 miles per day, which is faster than the fastest record set by the Pony Express some 600 years later (MarkT, 2008). Mongol expansion around 1215 to 1360 bought down the political stability throughout the Asian continent. The Silk Road which had lost its importance during Islamic Golden Age re-established its dignity during the Mongol Empire vis-à-vis Karakorum (Wikipedia, “Mongol Empire: Silk Road”). Around 1287-1288 AD the Venetian explorer Marco Polo became one of the first Europeans to travel the Silk Road to China. Mongol era seems to bended truly towards globalization because inventions such as gunpowder, printing, the blast furnace, silk machinery and paper money found their way from China to Europe. Not only these invention but many medical discoveries and domesticated fruits such as the orange and lemon did travel the same (MarkT, 2008).

20. One of the characteristic features of today's globalization is the brain drain, or mass departure of talented people from various continents to Europe and North America. In the 14th century the world had observed the same phenomenon; the transfer of technology & talented people from the more developed East Asia to the more backward Western Europe (Craig A. Lockard, Jan. 2009). Thus Mongols opened the doors of eastern parts of world to the western world and paved the way for greater global communication. Nestorian Christian a Chinese monk became the first eastern Asian to visit Rome, England, and France. In addition, some Chinese people settled in Persia, Iraq, and Russia. This movement was possible because travel from one end of Eurasia to the other was easier than ever before (Yoon, May 2006). With the death of Abu Said Bahatur Khan in 1335, the Mongol rule started to disintegrate (Wikipedia, Article, “Mongol Empire: Fall”) and hence also came discontinuation of the Silk Road's globalized political, cultural and economic unity. The great political powers along the Silk Road became economically and culturally separated & faded to its darkness by the end of the 14th century.

21. The early periods of Modern Globalisation characterised by European colonialism that started on 12th October 1492 when Spanish conquistadors Columbus discovered America (Anonymous) and Portuguese finally made their way to India in Calicut in 1498 when Vasco de Gama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope. After getting control over Melaka trading ports in Malaya in 1509, they installed a new era of European activity in Asian history. This tendency ensured that the globalization of the world over the next five centuries would be under the Western people rather than the Muslims, Indians, and Chinese who established the basic framework of globalization between 100 AD and 1500 AD.

22. CONCLUSION Thus medieval traces of globalization settled actively during 100 AD to 700 AD, when the Silk Road started in China, arrive at the boundaries of the Parthian empire, and continued onwards towards Rome in west. The process of globalization through the dissemination of culture, technology, intercontinental trade was at its peak during Islamic Golden Periods around 700 AD to 1000 AD. For the next two hundred years, silk route lost its importance and the pace of globalization in terms of trade, social exchange, and cultural dissemination gone down. But with emergence of Mongol empire, the silk route once again rejuvenated and the era of mass exchanges had started which lasted up to 1400 AD. Until the end of 14th century the trade and exchanges between the people around the continents begins to happen on mass level not by road route but by sea born roots. Thus the age of European exploration, started in early 1500 AD sowed the seed of Modern Globalisation.

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