How Valerie Hansen Views Globalization

Review of Valerie Hansen’s The Year

The author covers a vast amount of territory in a concise, readable manner, making for a welcome contribution to the popular literature on early global trade and geopolitics. – THE YEAR 1000: When Explorers Connected the World--and Globalization Began, 2020

Lenin once observed that, “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen,” and recent domestic and global events make it clear that much can happen in just a few months. It is little wonder, then, that the world of the early 21st century has transformed in fundamental ways from 1200 years ago. To learn more about these changes and what they mean for today and the future, the purpose of this paper is to provide an analytical review of Valerie Hansen’s book, The Year 1000, and its relevance for modern readers. Following this review, the paper provides a summary of the main findings from the book in the conclusion.

Review and Analysis

It is noteworthy that Hansen was also the co-author of Voyages in World History, “one of the most popular world history textbooks on the U.S. college market today and the Year 1000 grows out of that expertise” (Good 72). This background and expertise are brought to bear on a truly weighty subject: world history. Scholarly analyses of world histories frequently follow established patterns, but Hansen assumes an innovative approach in her examination of the events prior to the turn of the millennium. For example, the author highlights the significance of Norse expeditions to present-day Canada around 1000 CE, suggesting this represented a foundational moment in human connectivity even though the momentousness of the event largely went unnoticed at the time. This is not surprising given the lack of real-time communications, the distances between trading destinations and an overall lack of comprehensive information concerning the situation at the time.

Further, the author also points out that it was not as if someone turned on a globalization switch and mature supply chain networks appeared overnight. Rather, the process was gradual with each incremental improvement contributing to the end result. For example, while acknowledging that initial contacts between Europeans and indigenous North Americans were brief and did not establish lasting connections, Hansen nonetheless views this period in history as instrumental in starting worldwide interconnections, including most especially trade and how it facilitated cross-cultural communications (“The Year 1000” 2022). In this regard, one reviewer reports that:

Though Hansen pays some attention to the politics, religion, and culture of the era, she focuses on commerce, making a convincing case that this date ‘marked the start of globalization...when trade routes took shape all around the world that allowed goods, technologies, religions, and people to leave home and go somewhere new.’ (“The Year 1000” 2020, 37)

Although trade between different nations had existed since antiquity, the pace of globalization and international commerce increased rapidly from the year 1000 due in part to the growing cumulative effects of the aforementioned international trade routes. For instance, global trade networks began to emerge in earnest after seafarers reached North American shores at the fin de siècle. The adventurous Scandinavian mariners continued their expansion westward through Atlantic settlements until reaching newfound lands, leaving both permanent artifacts and temporary marks which have been validated by both written accounts and archaeological discoveries (“The Year 1000” 2020).

Concomitantly, their eastern ventures transformed them into the founders of early Russian civilization as they accepted Byzantine Christianity and established routes to Asia’s exotic interior. Likewise, throughout Africa and pre-Columbian Americas, the author points out that sophisticated civilizations developed extensive commercial networks despite minimal written records. The historical narrative then shifts toward examining prosperous societies across Asia, culminating with an analysis of Chinese hegemony in far-reaching maritime commerce that served to connect multiple continents through advanced trading systems (“The Year 1000” 2020).

To her credit, the author prefaces the book with some useful guidance concerning what is included and how events are interpreted. For instance, Hansen’s text begins with contextual background about daily existence in this historical era, addressing societal structures and economic systems. The narrative then progresses through distinct regional analyses including Norse exploration, indigenous American interactions, Baltic-Byzantine commerce, African desert trade networks, Asian steppe societies, Indian Ocean maritime exchanges, and Chinese consumption patterns. Some significant developments, like Pacific islander expansion, receive minimal attention (“The Year 1000” 2022).

While it may be offsetting to some readers, the author uses a somewhat flexible timeframe for her analytical interpretation of historical events, drawing examples from across six centuries to support her arguments. Some critics, though, might question this overly broad interpretation of the millennium’s significance as well as her tendency to discount previous international trading networks. Like Pearl Buck’s Good Earth series where the author’s empirical observations and experiences proved highly useful, the text achieves its greatest depth when analyzing East Asian issues, an area where Hansen’s background and expertise become especially apparent (“The Year 1000” 2022).

Beyond the foregoing criticisms, the text is also somewhat inconsistent in the manner in which it treats different regions. While handling Asian and African topics with scholarly precision, chapters concerning Norse exploration rely heavily on saga literature. Indeed, Hansen’s interpretation of these medieval Nordic tales sometimes appears biased and selective, accepting dramatic narratives when they support her thesis while dismissing other elements as unreliable oral history. In fact, Hansen’s discussion of potential Norse-Maya connections examines speculative theories that are also aligned with her globalization narrative (“The Year 1000” 2022).

In contrast, Hansen does not give Western Europe as much attention, and when the region is mentioned, she relies on outdated assumptions about agricultural development (“The Year 1000” 2022). While Hansen positions her work as groundbreaking in its interpretation of early globalization, similar scholarly perspectives have emerged in recent archaeological and historical research suggesting that it may be somewhat derivative. The book ultimately reflects contemporary perspectives on global interconnectedness as much as it informs modern historical interpretations (“The Year 1000” 2022).

In addition, and also in contrast to many other historical treatments of this transformative time period, the author’s analyses extend beyond conventional historical focuses, describing an era in human history that is typically overshadowed by classical antiquity and medieval studies (“The Year 1000” 2022). Moreover, rather than concentrating on dominant civilizations, Hansen examines channels of exchange and interaction between different societies. This innovative approach offers 21st century readers fresh interesting perspectives on historical developments during this pivotal period (“The Year 1000” 2022).

The 600-year or so time period from 700 through the 1300 CE discussed by Hansen covered a lot of ground – by necessity -- but finishing it is worth the effort. Not only is the text accessible as indicated by the epigraph above, few history books rise to this level. For instance, according to Loewen, actually finishing a history book is almost unprecedented: “Steadfast reader,” he counsels, “we are about to do something no history class has ever accomplished in the annals of education: teach the end of the textbook” (1998, 249). Most history teachers, though, will not have trouble encouraging their students to finish the book, nor will most lay readers who are interested in how things came to be today.