Robert P. Clark - The Global Imperative: An Interpretive History of the Spread of Humankind

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The Global Impertive

GLOBAL HISTORY SERIES

Bruce Mazlish, Carol Gluck, and Raymond Grew, Series Editors

---

The Global Imperative: An Interpretive History
of the Spread of Humankind, Robert P. Clark

Global History and Migrations,
edited by Wang Gungwu

Conceptualizing Global History,
edited by Bruce Mazlish and Ralph Buultjens

FORTHCOMING

Global Civilization and Local Cultures,
edited by Wolf Schfer

The
Global
Imperative

An Interpretive History of the Spread of Humankind

Robert P. Clark

GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY

Global History Series

First published 1997 by Westview Press

Published 2018 by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright 1997 Taylor & Francis

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 13: 978-0-8133-3181-2 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-8133-3180-5 (hbk)

To Anne, Kathleen, and Robert at last

Contents

Bruce Mazlish, Carol Gluck, and Raymond Grew

Introduction
Why Globalization?

Episode One
Out of Africa

Episode Two
The Neolithic Revolution

Episode Three
Ancient Cities and Trade Routes

Episode Four
The Age of Discovery

Episode Five
The Partnership of Steam and Coal

Episode Six
Petroleum and the Internal Combustion Engine

Episode Seven
Part One: Prelude to the Information Age

Tables

Figures

BRUCE MAZLISH, CAROL GLUCK, RAYMOND GREW, SERIES EDITORS

Unlike the previous volumes in the Global History series, Robert P. Clarks The Global Imperative seems to call for a foreword. It does so for at least three reasons. Clarks is the first single-authored volume in the series; others are multiauthored and generally on a single topic, such as migrations or food, where the introductions speak for themselves. With the present volume, we wish to make it clear that we encourage a multitude of ways in which contributions to global history, as we define it, can be made. Next, The Global Imperative takes globalization all the way back to the beginning and does so in an original and effective manner. It gives historical depth to the present-minded quality inherent in the study of the modern globalization process and encourages others to proceed in the same manner. Last, it sustains a tightly conceived, well-argued vision of global history in terms of a particular concept, entropy. In this sense, again, it differs from most volumes in our series, which do not so consistently build on a central theory.

Clarks ecological-materialistic views may not appeal to everyone. Yet, it is clear that the first four or five Episodes offer a perceptive and glorious overview of the human drive to globalization. In the later episodes, as he comes to the more modern period, Clark enters into even greater specificity and also strikes a more somber note: Is the human species running out of space? This tone accords well with the millennial year, 2000, fast approaching. It also raises the question as to the fine grain of the modern globalization process: Can it be summed up in this way? The authors of the other volumes in this series tend to be more concerned with detailed research on particular aspects of modern global history, but the development of this field of study will benefit from both focused empirical studies and expansive theory. With his vision of global history, Clark enters in an exciting fashion into a provocative discourse with the authors of other titles in this series while inviting yet other scholars to raise their voices as well.

Seen from a very great distance, our planet appears to be a single placeunbroken, integrated, whole. Geologists tell us that about 200 million years ago its land areas really were a single place (or nearly so), but for all of human time on Earth, the fragmented nature of the continents has prevented us from understanding this fundamental unity. Nevertheless, challenged by an imperative, the nature of which I describe below, we have steadily spread ourselves, our technologies, and our plant and animal companions across the planet in a process called globalization.

The global spread of human beings is thought by many to be a phenomenon peculiar to the modern age, related to its technology and mode of production. I believe, however, that we humans have been compelled to extend our reach to every habitable part of the Earth ever since our hominid ancestors first walked upright. That globalization per se is most clearly visible in the past three to five centuries is a function of technological capabilities, but the global imperative already confronted our ancestors in East Africa 3 to 4 million years ago. Since about 1500, and with increasing speed in recent decades, we have used the technologies of transport and communication to liberate ourselves from the constraints of nature, to fashion global networks of production and consumption at once both remarkable to use and to enjoy and ominous for what they portend for our long-term future. A fragmented view of the world makes it difficult for many of us to think about things as enormous as global systems or processes as transhistorical as globalization. I believe we desperately need to instill a sense of unity in our perspective of the Eartha perspective I call global awareness.

At the level of individual cognition, global awareness has two dimensions: simple knowledge of the world as a single place and a grasp of the interconnectedness of its parts (i.e., how change in one part of the global order affects other parts). Awareness at the first level is largely a matter of information flow. We know the Earth is a single place because we have seen photographs of it taken from space and we have read accounts written by people who have seen it from a distance. Becoming aware of the interconnectedness of the worlds component parts, on the other hand, is much more challenging, since it involves a paradigm shift, or transformation in ones worldview. As an educator, I am keenly aware of how difficult it is to transform ones own way of thinking about how the world works, let alone change the worldview of others.

The word liberal, as used in the phrase the liberal arts, comes from the Latin, liberalis, meaning of, or pertaining to, a free person. Thus, we teach and learn the liberal arts to liberate ourselves from the chains of falsehood and ignorance. Even though I was aware of this as the end of liberal education, I was never sure how to conceptualize the confinement from which we were trying to free ourselves until I read the following, by Albert Einstein: The individual feels the nothingness of human desires and aims and the sublimity and marvelous order which reveal themselves both in nature and in the world of thought. He looks upon individual existence as a sort of prison and wants to experience the universe as a single significant whole.

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