In his sociology article, the origins of the modern world, Robert Marks gives a vivid description of the cultural, political and economical transformation of the major continents in the world. However, Marks approach in writing his books raises various questions about the history of the world. The first question is, how did the Western countries come to overtake the Asian nation-states thus, emerging as superpowers, rich and domineering?
The second question that engulfs the mind of a historian is what has contributed to the increasing rate of the gap between the rich countries and the poor states or between the rich and poor people? This article critically analyses Marks assertions to answer the aforementioned two questions regarding the rise of the modern world.
Focusing on the first question, how did the western countries turn around and overtook the Asian nation-states thus, emerging as superpowers, rich and domineering? Marks opens up the political, social, cultural and economical organization tactics of the European countries as ways, which have accelerated their movement to the top of the globe.
The author says that “If we think of the pattern of world history being composed of two primary layers, the first is a picture of a world in which Asia shines most brightly, as it did from 1400 to about 1800” (Marks 159). Therefore, Mark highlights the rise and fall of Asian countries such as India and China.
The fall of the Asian states was because of colonization, slavery, technological inventions, industrial revolution and the control of major trade routes as practiced by the Western countries. According to Marks, “interactions among various parts of the world account for most of the story of the making of the modern world” (155), and this includes the economic deterioration of the Asian countries.
On the other hand, Marks points out that the domination of the Western countries may be short-lived as the Asian countries (China and Japan) are on the rise again. The second question that arises from the Marks book is about the rapid rise in the gap between the poor and the rich states.
Although Marks applauds the rapid aspect of globalization and interconnection of the states, he points at factors like capitalism and imperialism from the Western countries, which have created problems. While on one hand modernization is on the rise, on the other hand, the poor states are getting poorer.
Besides the western countries controlling the economies of the Asian and African countries, they also present their ideologies and cultural practices as superior. Also, nature and political turmoil or instability have contributed to the deterioration of some poor states. For instance, the author highlights disasters like tsunami, floods, and famine as elements, which have made some African and Asian states poorer.
Therefore, Marks blames domination and rapid modernization as having contributed to the current poverty levels in the world. In summary, in the last part of the book Robert Marks highlight major factors that contributed to the rise of the Western as rich countries.
The use of Africans and Asian for slavery, colonization, and industrial revolution are the positive factors that led to the modernization of the Western world. However, he silently rebukes the domineering attitude of the Western countries, which has increased the gap between the poor and the rich states. According to Marks, the rich nations are using poor nations to become richer by controlling the world’s economy.