ABSTRACT
One way to think of the spatial dimensions of historical changes from the early modern to modern eras. When contrasting Chinese and European world regions in the early modern era it is easy to consider the connections between them as far less important than the linkages within each. What we would like is some way of acknowledging the varying dimensions and depth of connections across large parts of the early modern world and to note that modern era connections change in both substance and impact. During the early modern era, as in the centuries preceding 1500, some of the connections among regional worlds did not involve Europeans at all; as Denys Lombard's study of Java partially illustrates, these notably included the spread of Islam into South and Southeast Asia. Early modern or modern practices as well as reliance on intentions to organize foreign relations quite independently of past experiences.
