The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Ecological Narrative from the Fifteenth to the Twenty-first Century

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2002

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Conclusion

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Themes

The Environment and Modern History

As an environmental historian, Marks’s emphasis throughout The Origins of the Modern World is on the environment and how human societies have interacted with it. For example, certain popular spices were once available only from Indonesia, which affected the trade and economic significance of Southeast Asia and its importance in relation to trade networks. Another example is how the climactic phenomenon the Little Ice Age may have helped cause social and political unrest throughout Eurasia in the late medieval and early modern eras.

In fact, Marks identifies the major turning points in human history as times when humans’ relationship with the environment changed: the “agricultural revolution,” when humans first started farming and establishing permanent settlements, and the “great departure,” when industrialization and scientific agriculture let human civilization transcend natural limits on how many crops could be gotten out of soil. Nevertheless, Marks does not view the environment and climate as the only drivers in history, holding that the presence of large amounts of coal in Britain alone did not ensure that the Industrial Revolution would have begun in Britain. Instead, it was a result of a series of complex circumstances, such as Britain’s position of international power after the Seven Years’ War, the British government’s policies of mercantilist control over trade, and the fact that Britain through its extensive trade could supply itself with food and necessary raw plant materials without needing to use much land in Britain itself.

The core point in Marks’s thesis is itself environmental. Specifically, he asks how human civilization got to the point that it so radically affected the world environment, causing a climate change crisis, and what people can learn from that history to help us address climate change. Marks writes that such an understanding of history “can be helpful as we search for ways to make the world a better, safer, more sustainable, and more equitable place for all people” (2). Because fixing climate change will require changes in how we organize our societies and economies, Marks notes, understanding the social and economic factors that led to the current situation is important, if not essential: “Thus, to understand our world, we have to understand not just how nation-states and industry came to shape the modern world, but how and why those European ways of organizing the world came to dominate the globe” (3).

The Hegemony of the West

One of the most debated questions among historians of the modern era is how Europe came to develop a hegemony over the world, especially since, as Marks notes, Europe in the Middle Ages was a somewhat poor region of the world. The question is crucial for not only Marks’s thesis but for his interest in looking to the past for solutions to the climate change crisis. Since the Western hegemony is a major element of history since at least the 19th century, it is an important topic for Marks to address. In his words, “European ways of organizing the world came to dominate the globe” (3).

However, for Marks the critical point is not only examining the causes of the rise of the West but interrogating the old theory that Western supremacy resulted from something inherent to Western culture or race. It is “a rationale and a story line” (3), developed by deeply influential intellectuals like Max Weber and Karl Marx. This is what Marks describes as exceptionalism or Eurocentrism. He counters that Western hegemony is instead the result of different historical events and circumstances.

Marks argues that these ideas deeply informed how history has traditionally been taught in the US. Combating this narrative, Marks argues, is important because it has had negative consequences such as justifying racist ideas and extreme nationalist politics that have endured to this day. However, the old narrative is also damaging because it promotes the idea that the solution to the world’s problems is to promote the social and economic values of the West, specifically the US. For Marks, this is problematic when approaching unique and global problems like climate chance, since “the imminent global triumph of the values associated with capitalism and democracy […] has not been the course of recent history” (208). The democratic ideals of the West have not been equally applied to all citizens and have favored the West in global relations and trade. Some crucial changes eventually eliminated formalized enslavement, but social injustices persist in other ways.

The Importance of Global History and Understanding Globalization

As imperialism waned in the modern era, nation-states replaced empires as the predominant and practically the only form of political state. This resulted from “a series of contingencies, accidents, and conjunctures” (15). In addition to nation-states, the modern era has seen the spread of nationalism, the idea that the legitimacy of a government does not come from a religion or a monarchy but from the citizens. While empires encompassed multiple peoples and cultures, nation-states were often defined by a “‘people’ sharing a common language and culture” (155). The European system of nation-states was shaped by constant warfare between European powers and defined by the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, which “began the process of institutionalizing the multistate system” specifically for Europe. Nevertheless, in the modern era, the Westphalian system has become the basis for the current system of sovereign nation-states around the world.

For Marks, writing The Origins of the Modern World as a world history is invaluable to his argument:

We can find that by broadening the story line to include parts of the world that have thus far been excluded or overlooked—we can begin and end the story elsewhere […] we will see that only a new, global story line—one not centered on Europe—will suffice to explain the origins of the modern world (11).

Marks emphasizes that events and circumstances, especially complex and far-reaching events like European colonization and industrialization, explain the formation of the modern world. For example, North America’s use of enslaved people provided a market for clothes for enslaved people that benefited Britain’s international textile market.

Another reason that a global perspective is important is that globalization is a defining part of the modern world. According to Marks, globalization occurred in five waves. They began with the truly global trade that Spain enabled when it opened a trade route between Europe and East Asia in 1571 by establishing the port of Manila in the Philippines, and they culminated in the globalization that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. However, globalization was not facilitated only by European exploration and improvements in transportation technology; by the 19th century, both European countries and the US shaped globalization in their own favor: Thus, instead of linking countries and sharing wealth, globalization has created a divided world between a rich West and an impoverished Global South. Nevertheless, “deglobalization” in recent years, resulting from increased nationalism and events like the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, has posed new problems and threats. Marks suggests that the solution would be “a global system of rules” (219-20).

Even though globalization put the post-World War II system of nation-states under strain, it persists. Marks suggests that the nation-states of the world do “appear to remain the framework through which much global business is and will continue to be conducted in the foreseeable future” (250). Unfortunately, Marks argues that this is a serious obstacle to future attempts to address climate change and other global problems. Instead of competing nation-states vying for regional or global supremacy, Marks believes that tackling the problems of the future will need international cooperation.