The origins of the modern world by Robert B. Marks is an attempt to redefine historical narratives that explain the current state of modernity. In his book Marks argues against Eurocentric historical narratives with substantial evidence. As such, It is possible to distinguish the defensible narratives from the unjustified ones.
According to Marks, modernity followed a time of dominance by Asia in the production of agricultural goods. Marks postulates that the world economies could be broadly described and categorised into the material world and the trading world. The material world refers to the economic circumstances of increased agricultural activity that a large cross-section of the population undertook. The trading world refers to the interconnections that existed between nations because of trade.
The interaction of the two worlds described resulted to increased levels of development into modernity for millions of the people residing in the Eurasian continent. The material world was dependant on agriculture and earned the title, “the biological old regime”. Energy was tapped from solar energy for use with all biological systems and industries. This was abetted by the take-over of the new world which had sufficient resources for agriculture. The trade world extended to the 1400s. The main economic activity of the new world was trade as it had limited agricultural resources. This pre-modern world had two striking aspects which were its extensive nature and the important role played by Asia. The main engines pushing the world of trade were China, India and the Muslim Middle East.
Mainstream historians take a Eurocentric view of modernity. They reason that modernity came as a result of the prominence of Europe. It is on the basis of euro-centrism that most researchers focus on Europe’s history in trying to explain how modern nations developed. This analysis of narratives is strongly supported by evidences of historical facts and descriptions of how these facts affect the overall development of the world. Scholars from East Asia, India and the Middle East have raised doubts over these explanations and suggest a different perspective of development.
Marks effectively portrays China and India as being economical dominant in the 1700s. The Indian Ocean is depicted as being the most important crossroad to trade. There is sufficiency in the evidence used to back China’s technological and military superiority. Asia is portrayed as having good market systems during the biological old regime. British textile industries were overwhelmed by the competition from India and could not succeed without government protection. Marks (42) notes that Europe was marginalised and was struggling to get products produced by Asia.
Marks’ discrediting arguments of mainstream historians’ perspective of euro-centrism is thorough even though he chooses to entangle it around the traditional verses such as the “rise of the west”. The book is written without jargon. This writing eliminates the ambiguity and misconception created by traditional narrations on the development of the modernity. Through it, history becomes more than an interesting report of chronology. It gives relevance of history to today’s lifestyle and connects how the present relates to the past. According to Huffman (306), it portrays historians’ focus on present day as malpractice of history and has more to offer in explaining how modernity came to be.
In conclusion, Marks’ works is a conceptual study dedicated to develop a polycentric understanding of the world. From it, the inevitability of differences between the wealthy nations and poor nations is clearly brought out. It is irrefutable that the Eurocentric narratives are abstract. The use of evidence in this book is richer and results into a more convincing argument. The evidences used were collected from both Asia and Europe and presented without bias.
Works Cited
Huffman James. “Origins of the Modern Worlds: A Global and Ecological Narrative,” Pacific Affairs, 77, 2 (2004): 306. Print.
Marks Robert. The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Ecological Narrative, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002.