Book contents
- The Cambridge World HistoryVOLUME VI
- The Cambridge World History
- The Cambridge World History
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- Part One Global matrices
- 2 “Exhausting the Earth”: environment and history in the early modern world
- 3 Globalization of disease, 1300 to 1900
- 4 Technological transitions
- 5 Patterns of urbanization, 1400 to 1800
- 6 Gender and sexuality
- Part Two Macro-regions
- Part Three Large-scale political formations
- Part Four Crossroads regions
- Part Five Overview
- Index
- References
2 - “Exhausting the Earth”: environment and history in the early modern world
from Part One - Global matrices
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2015
Book contents
- The Cambridge World HistoryVOLUME VI
- The Cambridge World History
- The Cambridge World History
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- Part One Global matrices
- 2 “Exhausting the Earth”: environment and history in the early modern world
- 3 Globalization of disease, 1300 to 1900
- 4 Technological transitions
- 5 Patterns of urbanization, 1400 to 1800
- 6 Gender and sexuality
- Part Two Macro-regions
- Part Three Large-scale political formations
- Part Four Crossroads regions
- Part Five Overview
- Index
- References
Summary
The early modern world was "organic" in the sense that humans got energy mostly by tapping and concentrating solar flows to grow food, and to heat their homes and to make other industrial products. Epidemic disease, famine, war, and other disasters kept human life expectancy much shorter than it is today. The "Columbian Exchange" refers to the exchange of plants, animals, and pathogens between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia following Christopher Columbus's voyage to the Americas in 1492. For Europeans who came to the Americas in the century after conquest, the "New" world appeared to be a cornucopia, stocked with nature's bounty there for the taking. The early modern period also saw the extension throughout the world of a particular kind of legal framework for human interaction with nature, built on idea of private ownership of property. States, markets, productive agriculture, and rising populations moved environmental change in America before 1492, in East and South Asia, and in Africa.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge World History , pp. 29 - 53Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015
References
Further reading
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