Philippe Beaujard - The Worlds of the Indian Ocean: A Global History. Vol. 1. From the Fourth Millennium BCE to the Sixth Century CE

Europes place in history is reassessed in this first comprehensive history of the ancient world, centering on the Indian Ocean and its role in pre-modern globalization. Philippe Beaujard presents an ambitious and comprehensive global history of the Indian Ocean world, from the earliest state formations to 1500 ce . Supported by a wealth of empirical data, full-color maps, plates, and figures, he shows how Asia and Africa dominated the economic and cultural landscape and the flow of ideas in the pre-modern world. This led to a transregional division of labor and an Afro-Eurasian world economy. Beaujard questions the origins of capitalism and hints at how this world-system may evolve in the future. The result is a reorienting of world history, taking the Indian Ocean, rather than Europe, as the point of departure.

The Worlds of the Indian Ocean

A Global History

Volume I

From the Fourth Millennium bce to the Sixth Century ce

A revised and updated translation

Written and translated by

Philippe Beaujard

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris

Translation edited by

Tamara Loring, Frances Meadows, and Andromeda Tait

Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge.

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Philippe Beaujard 2019

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2019

Translated and updated from the original French edition

Originally published in France as:

Les mondes de locan indien.

By Philippe Beaujard

Armand Colin, Paris, 2012

Armand Colin is a trademark of Dunod Editeur 11, rue Paul Bert 92240 Malakoff

Published with the help of the Institut des Mondes Africains UMR 8171 CNRS /Universit Paris 1 / EPHE /Universit de Provence

Printed in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library.

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

This book is dedicated to my mother Odette Beaujard-Barreau, who died on May 28, 2009, to my father Lucien Beaujard, who died on December 14, 2010, and to my friend Ernest Hudspith, who died on October 22, 2010.