Introduction to Global Studies

A focus on three major historical circulations of ideas, people, capital, and goods introduces basic concepts about cultural change, economic interest, the creation of new societies, and human preoccupations with ethical and moral issues. Through study of these global circulations,students develop analytical skills that support further work in global studies. We look at the early historical creation of a "Sinosphere" in East Asia, as demand for ideas from China, from Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, led to the expansion of Chinese language and script and the invention of phonetic scripts. This innovation in scripts and interest in Chinese learning, and then Buddhism coming through China, contributed to the development of an East Asian thought world that is still defined by distinctive cultural traditions. The Indian Ocean trade, from the 7th to the 16th century, connected different cultural worlds by trade routes that themselves contributed to the spread of Islam. These trade networks built complex alliances and new societies with use of military power. The third circulation, the Atlantic trade from the 16th to the 19th century, connected Europe to West Africa, building an expanded trade in enslaved Africans and disrupted and transformed that region. Scholars analyzing the end of the slave trade have made competing arguments about changing economic conditions, the emergence of new economic interests, and efforts based on ethical commitments. These global circuits present essential ideas for considering global connections today.