*What is the text called?
In Robert Marks’ ‘Origins of the Modern World’, the author’s objective is to define
the rise of the modern world not through the rise of the Western world, but through
the contingencies that followed it. There has been thorough discussion about the
colonial powers and the roles which the areas which served as colonies had to play
in creating the history of the modern world.
*Why is the objective? Does he take into account differing viewpoints or other
possibilities? Is Marks talking as a materialist, a spiritualist or religionist, etc... What
alternative narratives is he excluding in the history?
In saying this, Marks attempts at creating a neutral view of world history, instead of
white-washing from the perspective of the dominant white colonists. Marks places
Europe in a global context and recognizes that the ‘rise of the West’ did not occur
till the 19th century. His narrative gives importance to the economic and commercial
powerhouses of Asia and Africa, such as China, India, the Islamic empires of Africa
and the Middle East. Marks obviously speaks from a materialistic viewpoint, but his
arguments also carry environmental implications of the conquests that were led by
the European colonists.
*Industrialization, development, economic progress, and general ‘progress’ is
commonly viewed only by the materialistic standards of tangible things. What other
forms of progress, development, and wealth are there that may be omitted?
Excluding the above-mentioned factors, there could be cultural progress, which has
been omitted by the colonisers in the indigenous regions they had captured. The
environmental destruction that was brought on in the name of development had
begun when the spread of the European superpowers began across the globe. This
destruction has been brought into the modern world and has come to define it. Due
to the rapid industrialization of the Western world and blatant disregard for natural
balance, the European countries were capable of using this force in achieving
territories in the Asian and African countries, which were developed on their own
terms. As the history of the modern world has mostly been narrated by the Western
nations, much of the indigenous history of the colonies has been omitted.
*Define this specific use of term ‘world history’.
The Indian Ocean was one of the main trading routes apart from the Silk Route
which extended through the heart of the continent of Asia. Therefore, the trading
nations came in contact with each other along these lines. The use of the term
‘world history’ in this context is due to the fact that the European powers first came
in contact with the Eastern nations through travelling along these trade routes, such
as, when Vasco Da Gama landed on the shores of Cochin in Southern India.
Therefore, in this case, world history would mean the study of history of the
different cultures across the world from the point of contact between the Western
and Eastern nations.
*Some interesting ideas. To be clear, this is more or less an entirely materialistic
view (of Marks), is not shared by everyone, and can in many ways be viewed as the

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The Origins of the Modern World by Robert Marks Essay 2022

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