The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World—and Globalization Began

The Year 1000 was the opening of a worldwide globalization network. Norse from Europe had traveled to the Americas. Chinese had traveled throughout southeast Asia. The Polynesians had started their trips out to the south Pacific. Muslim traders traveled throughout Africa, the Middle East and central Asia. In the year 1000, 250 million people in the world were first connected.
Due to the abundance of written records, there are some of the connections that we know the most about (such as the Chinese and Arabs.) For others, there are greater challenge. Icelandic sagas tell us about Norse voyages to North America. There is strong evidence of Norse presence in some sites. However, there are also things that could indicate Norse interaction with the Mayans down in the Yucatan. There is, however, significant evidence of trade networks connecting various parts of the Americas.
In Europe, we have history connecting the the various parts of Europe. There were connections between the Norse and the Slavs. (Alas, some of this was in the form of slavery, leading to the term "slave" form Slav.) The Muslims also had trade networks throughout the area. Different regions would chose to convert to religions based on their political preference, then bringing the rest of the people behind them. This lead to the domination of Christianity and Islam in Europe, though Buddhism was a popular choice in Asia. This was also a time of great construction of religious monuments.
China has easily the kingpin of economic activity. They had a surplus of human capital, and thus were not as heavily involved with the slave trade. They also had advanced manufacturing technology and were able to mass produce good that others wanted. There are even cases of "poor quality" Chinese imitations of Arab goods. The book's initial description of a Chinese trading port of 1000 years ago sounds like it good be something today. Chinese sailed throughout southeast Asia and even made it down to Africa. However, there was a fear of entering the "drain" past the Philippines. Thus, there is little evidence of them making it to America. However, the Polynesians did set out from Asia to colonize the sea.
The book is a fascinating survey of some of the key networks and practices of globalization. There are bits and pieces of depth. However, it necessarily casts a very wide net to provide a worldwide overview. There are stories of "free trade zones" and protectionism. There are instances of riots against the foreign traders. There were also various alliances that were formed (often via religion.) Slavery was commonly practiced at the time, with a bustling slave trade. Parts of the world were living in dense urban areas, while other parts maintained subsistence agriculture or hunter-gatherer cultures. At this time, there was still a relative balance in power throughout the world. Things would change 500 years later when the Europeans would dominate trade.