A map, a chapter dedicated to a particular theme followed by a world chronology, all embellished with illustrations

In the 19th century, the West wrote a world history in which it played the leading role. Today, the East is regaining the importance it once had, and the world is once again becoming multipolar; a global warming is underway… These events have a long history, made up of environmental, technological, religious, societal, demographic and political connections.

Global history is a new field of research that connects these dimensions through transdisciplinarity. Its challenge is to put into dialogue social sciences, history, geography and economy… to shed light on the past, the matrix of our present. To do this, the focus is on different scales. We will navigate from the biographical level, when a human life testifies to underground processes that would otherwise go unnoticed, to an overview, in order to identify ongoing processes over long distances and durations.

Table of Contents

From 3 million years to -10,000 years

Beginnings. The age of hunter-gatherers.

From -10,000 to -1250

Neolithic revolution. Producers’ time.

From -1250 to -250

Missionaries, merchants and soldiers. Expanding worlds.

From -250 to 250

From China to Rome. The turning point of empires.

From 250 to 650

Syncretism and trade. The reign of exchanges.

From 650 to 950

Emergence of a new power. The expansion of Islam.

From 950 to 1200

The power of trade. China at the center of the world.

From 1200 to 1450

The great opening up. The Mongolian conquests. 

From 1450 to 1550

Modernity. The Americas come into play. 

From 1550 to 1650

Modern times. The second imperial wave.

From 1650 to 1750

Products from Asia, trade from Europe. The Dutch Golden Age.

From 1750 to 1830

British growth. The Industrial Revolution.

From 1830 to 1914

Colonial empires. The hegemony of the West.

From 1914 to 1945

Apocalypse. The time of the World Wars.

From 1945 to 1979

Eastern Bloc, West and Third World. A World in three pieces.

From 1979 to 2015

Globalizations. American supremacy, Asian growth.

Tomorrow….

A common planet. Choose our future.