ABSTRACT
This chapter covers Alexander the Great’s empire-building, the Mongol expansion, and the Spanish conquest of the Americas. All these attempts at world conquest created political spaces that brought civilisations into more contact with one another. They also generated soul-searching about how civilisations might find common ground on the stage created by relentless political ambition. The chapter also discusses precisely what conditions are necessary for a merging of civilisations to have both sufficient motive and sufficient raw material.
