ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of the complex history of the emerging Afroeurasian world-system. Before embarking on historical explorations, however, it reviews the major theoretical issues through this exploration. The new connections among the various previously autonomous world-systems that came to form the Afroeurasian world-system raise once again issues of: continuity versus transformation; the nature of world-system boundaries; the processes of mergers and the incorporation of states and nonstate societies; and the role of semiperipheral areas in hierarchy formation and systemic transformation. The chapter argues before the first opening of the Silk Road that there were at least three major state-based world-systems on the Eurasian landmass: the Chinese, the South Asian, and the West Asian. Whether or not the formation of the Afroeurasian world-system constitutes a unique—or merely a rare—form of incorporation, it is clear that the constituent core regions and the larger system incorporated several smaller world-systems—notably in West Africa and Southeast Asia.
