In the second half of the book, Abu-Lughod discusses in detail the role of the Persian Gulf, Egypt, India, Malacca, and China. The three factors in determining how appealing the Persian Gulf's 'middle way' was as a trading route include the safety of the route, the local production of nearby cities and markets, and the economic states of China and the Middle East (and later Europe). However, Europeans turned toward the southern route through the Red Sea once the Christian presence in the Gulf declined. Over the years, Egypt had been militarized by the threat of the Crusades and Mongols. This and the Black Plague destroyed most of the economy except for Egypt's trade with India through the Red Sea. The Egypt/Venice trading monopoly through the Red Sea was circumvented by the Portuguese in the 15th century by sailing completely around Africa. After which, the Portuguese unleashed a trade embargo against Muslims in the Red Sea, depriving the Egyptians of their vital trade route. The Turks were then easily able to defeat the weakened Egypt in the early 1500s. India mostly exported goods to other countries, with little imports in comparison. Sea expansion by Muslims from the west and Chinese from the east left India with little control or influence over trade in the region. China acted as a medium to link the northern land route and southern route through the Indian Ocean, finishing the loop of the world system. When a disruption occurred in this link, it could be felt across the entire system. The eventual decline of this world system was the result of a sum of factors discussed throughout the entire book, but the harsh impact of the Black Death was the final straw that broke the camel's back.
It is interesting that throughout the existence of this pre-modern world system, there has not been a single culture, religion, economy, or society identifiable as completely superior to the others. The divergence to European Hegemony was simply by chance and the fall of the East; any of the societies could have succeeded.
If Genghis Khan did not die from illness and survived to invade Europe, do you think the Mongolian Empire would not have fallen so quickly? And what effects might this have had?
-Derek Leidemann
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Very interesting discussion point about Genghis Kahn. I do not believe that the empire would have fallen as quickly if Genghis Kahn had not died and began a conquest of Europe. However, I believe the empire's demise was inevitable for a few reasons. First of all, the empire simply became too big to manage, and the mongols did not have the capacity to do so. Had they conquered europe, the empire would have expanded beyond control, especially in those days when travel was so slow. Also, the nature of the mongol customs kept them from being successful. Every time a Kahn died, the conquests had to be stopped as leaders fought for position as the new Kahn. This made dominating the entire asian and european continent nearly impossible, and caused internal conflict that would inevitable crumble the empire.
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