Ecumene

Eurasian Ecumene

In the time of ancient civilizations, many of the political and economic units had little or no knowledge of each other. There were many reasons for the continued isolation of the various city-states throughout the world; religious beliefs and continued political and military skirmishes kept certain civilizations from trading with each other, and the technologies that facilitated trade also limited intercultural transfer to a great degree. Each of these factors contributed in their own way to the postponement, at least partially, of a full Eurasian -- and eventually a worldwide -- economic and political interdependence, which continues to develop today.

Political instability was one major reason that economic interdependence did not develop for many centuries of advance civilization. Though this was largely alleviated during the time of the Roman Empire, the split of this empire created a certain separation -- albeit into larger blocs -- between the East and the West, or Europe and Asia (Koeller). At the same time, the Chinese were expanding their sphere of influence, growing economically and politically powerful in an area largely isolated by landscape from the Roman Empire, making trade and communication all but impossible. By this time, religious differences had ceased to matter quite as much, but technology was still an inhibiting factor, especially when it came to facilitating trade (Lewis & Wigen).

The improvement of sailing and the increased navigation that began occurring around 1400 A.D. opened up new trade to far and sometimes unknown lands. New land routes into China also brought the world together. The increasing size and degree of the ecumene from this time onward and previous partial ecumenes' benefited civilizations by providing greater sources of economic expansion and a greater variety of goods (Lewis & Wigen).

Works Cited

Koeller, David. "Formation of the Eurasian Ecumene." Accessed 26 July 2009. http://www.thenagain.info/webchron/world/Formation.html

Lewis, Martin and Karen Wigen. The Myth of Continents. Univeristy of California Press: Berkley, 1997.