GLBL ST 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Autarky, Quid Pro Quo
Week 3 Lecture 1:
● Ensemble of worlds
○ redistributon
● Field of forces
○ Territorial expansion, resource extraction, etc.
● Hiearchical network
○ Investment to networks,
○ World market
● World society
THEMES
● Empires and redistribution (roman, arab, and chinese empires)
○ Importance in territorial expansion for resources; Once they stopped expanding (stagnating), they begin
to collapse;
○ Redistribution system replaced (often by feudalism)
○ ROMAN EMPIRE (peak & collapse)
■ Did not have roads for commerce (only military),
■ Stopped expanding, began to collapse (but why?)
● “Repuational damage”: other territories don’t take you seriously anymore! Rebellions and
attack
● Slaves at the time were POW’s put to work, captured through expansion; no more
expansion=loss of labor force
○ Roman empire relied very heavily on forced labor!
● Nature of agriculture;
○ Not great at increasing agricultural yield (no fertilizer, rotated crops, etc), so
relied on territorial expansion for more land to feed more (reliant) people!
○ Relied on extensive (pillaging) rather than intensive agriculture
○ Romans not very efficient in using the materials/resources they had
● Relied HEAVILY on the peripheries to ship resources to the center, used to placate the
population in the middle
○ This complacent population didn’t work!! Only slave labor
○ Not only pressure from the outside but COLLAPSE and ROT from the inside!
■ Christianity conversion bad for the roman empire in that it made it difficult
for new territories to assimilate religiously (paganism was easy to do so)
● Difficult to incorporate new peoples
● Romans thought they were superior; christianity was a “leveling”
religion, everyone was “salvable”,
● Undermined empire from the center outward
● When empires start looking INWARDS instead of looking OUTWARDS, things begin to
look disasterous
○ Similar stories w/ other redistributed empires (arab empire)
■ Arab empire
■ Chinese Empire
● Imperial collapse and feudalism (European case)
○ Feudalism replaced European empires after their collapses;
■ Long distance trade collapsed
■ Feudal system resembled a mafia
● Enforcement system was coercive
○ Those at the bottom (majority) had few rights, couldn’t move; very unequal
system!
■ Church introduced,
○ Across Europe: Fragmentation of what was previously a very centralized system, no long distance
movement; breakdown of center-periphery
■ LOCAL redistribution
○ China’s trade links in East and SE Asia during the Ming Dynasty
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Empires and redistribution (roman, arab, and chinese empires) Importance in territorial expansion for resources; once they stopped expanding (stagnating), they begin to collapse; Did not have roads for commerce (only military), Stopped expanding, began to collapse (but why?) Repuational damage : other territories don"t take you seriously anymore! Slaves at the time were pow"s put to work, captured through expansion; no more expansion=loss of labor force. Roman empire relied very heavily on forced labor! Not great at increasing agricultural yield (no fertilizer, rotated crops, etc), so relied on territorial expansion for more land to feed more (reliant) people! Relied on extensive (pillaging) rather than intensive agriculture. Romans not very efficient in using the materials/resources they had. Relied heavily on the peripheries to ship resources to the center, used to placate the population in the middle. Not only pressure from the outside but collapse and rot from the inside!
