World Systems

WORLD SYSTEMS

The world history does not always go in the same route. Change in the balance of power all around the world and existence of big events such as the foundation of press are effective in the conversion of the way it goes. With the effect of these rotations, systems are also changing. The world system between 600 and 1500 is not same with the system after 1500. This differentiation in system at that time was related to the exploration of America. After the big geographical explorations, a new Euro-centric world system emerged.

The Old World system was mainly Asia-centric. European states were far behind the Asian and Middle Eastern ones. According to the article of Janet Lippman Abu-Lughod which is named “The World System in the Thirteenth Century: Dead-End or Precursor”, beside the world system there were subsystems which were not “depending on each other for common survival in the thirteenth century”. There were three big circuits: Westers European, Middle Eastern, Far Eastern. “At that times the strongest centres and circuits were located in the Middle East and Asia. In contrast the European circuit was an upstart newcomer that for several early centuries was only tangentially and weakly linked to the core of the world system as it had developed between the eight and eleventh centuries.” As she mentioned, Europe joined the advanced world system of that time after 11th century, yet till 15th century it was not so effective. Although the states in east were developed, this did not reflect to political arena. Every state was powerful in its own niche and as a result of this there was not a hierarchical form of political balance. These states could be thought as pockets. Nature of this system was production. As Janet L. Abu-Lughod mentioned “the production of primary and manufactured goods was not only sufficient to meet local needs but, beyond that, the needs for export as well. Then, the way of function of this system can be understood: trade. Trade was the main economic activity of the Old System. Trade was mostly depending on exchange of goods. In spite of this, Chinese merchants were using paper money like a credit card and Arabic dinar was the dollar of that time. All of these show us that the trade was also Asia-centric. The popular trade ways were through Middle East and Asia. Beside the economic side, trade was integrating cities and societies. As there is a lack of communication at that time, trade was useful in this way. The merchants who traded goods within and between regions realised substantial profits but also ran substantial risks. Shipwreck, banditry, warfare and piracy were ever present dangers. These risks and the long tradition ways, which were costing too much, were effective on European merchants to explore new trade ways.

Being a sophisticated system with political balance and good relationships between countries, it seems difficult to understand of its collapse in 15th century. To understand this exactly, we must examine the world in general at that time. Janet L. Abu-Lughod stated in her article that there was a recession all over the world in the 15th century. “The absolute level of intersocietal trade dropped, currencies were universally debased (a sure sign of decreased wealth and overall productivity) and the arts and crafts were degraded.” When we think about the Asian sides of this system related to its collapse (as it was Asia-centric, something happened in Asia would be effective in collapse), we can also realise that there was a connection between the big

geographical explorations and the collapse of the Old World system. As it is mentioned above, this system was going on with trade. With the exploration of Atlantics trade way, the ways in Asia lost their importance and this had affected the economy of Asia. According to Janet Abu-Lughod, Columbus’s voyage “displaced the Mediterranean decisively from a core focus of trade, thus precipitating a long term marginalisation of the Middle East, reduced the relative indispensability of the Indian Ocean arena, and provided the nascent developing nations of the western Europe with the gold and silver they needed, both to settle the long-standing balance-of-payments deficits with the East and to serve as the basis for a rapid accumulation of capital.” This explanation about the effects of the exploration of America on the Old World System is enough to understand the “fall of East” and the “rise of West”. In addition to the explorations, epidemics, especially Black Death, were really effective at that time. In the article named “The World System in the Thirteenth Century” it is stated that “populations exposed to the plague had little or no natural immunities to this disease, so the mortalities were extremely high…The rats boarded ships that were returning