The Worlds of the Indian Ocean
A Global History

Volume 2 reorients world history, placing the Indian Ocean, not Europe, at the center of the globalization of the pre-modern world.

Philippe Beaujard (Author)

9781108424653, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 October 2019

952 pages, 31 b/w illus. 80 colour illus. 24 maps 8 tables
28.6 x 22.2 x 4.6 cm, 3.01 kg

Europe's place in history is re-assessed 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 trans-regional 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. Volume II provides in-depth coverage of the period from the seventh century CE to the fifteenth century CE.

Part I. The Indian Ocean between Tang China and the Muslim Empire (7th Through 10th Centuries): Introduction
1. Tang China and the rise of the Silk Roads
2. Islam. The conquest of lands and oceans
3. India. A core with four centers
4. Southeast Asia. The rise of the Sriwijayan thalassocracy and the Javanese kingdoms
5. East Africa. Dawn of the Swahili culture
6. Madagascar (7th through 11th centuries). Early cultural Métissages
Part II. Globalization during the Song and Mongol Periods (10th–14th Centuries), and the Downturn of the 14th Century: Introduction
7. China. The golden age of the song, the Mongol conquest and the Ming revival
8 India. From the Chola empire to the Delhi Sultanate
9 Southeast Asia. From the decline of Sriwijaya to the rise of Mojopahit
10. Central and Western Asia. From the Seljuk Empire to the Ilkhanids
11. Egypt and Yemen. The Jewish and Karimi Networks
12. East Africa. The rise of the Swahili culture and the expansion of Islam
13. Madagascar. The development of trading ports and the interior
Part III. From The Globalization of the Afro-Eurasian Area to the Dawn of European Expansion (15th and Early 16th Centuries): Introduction
14. Ming China, from expansion to withdrawal into threatened territory
15. India. The flowering of the Sultanates and the expansion of Vijayanâgara
16. Southeast Asia. Era of the merchant Sultanates
17. Western Asia. Revival of the Persian Gulf
18. Egypt and Yemen. Advances in state trade and the end of the Karimi
19. East Africa and the Comoros
20. Madagascar (15th–16th centuries): the rise of trading ports and development of the highlands
21. The Portuguese in the Indian Ocean
Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF], General & world history [HBG]