A Theoretical Introduction to 5,000 Years of World System Theory
Author(s)
Frank, Andre Gunder
Abstract
A historical-materialist political economy of our world system suggests that its unified historical development in Asia, Africa, and Europe goes back at least 5,000 years, during most of which its centers were outside the West. Historical fact does not support, and holistic theory does not justify, the widespread neglect, rejection of, or reservations against, the study of the world system before AD 1500 by Eurocentric historians, civilizationists, and historical macrosociologists. Long before 1500, most parts of medieval and ancient Asio-Afro-Europe would not have been as they then were (and now are) without their systemic political economic and cultural relations with other parts of the world and especially Central Asia, as well as with the world system as a whole. For at least five millennia, this world system has systematically interlinked technological change and accumulation; continental scale and maritime migrations, trade and exchange of surplus; the related and changing political, economic, and cultural institutions; and the resulting competition, alliances, and war through center-periphery-hinterland structures, hegemonic and other cycles, and other world-embracing or diffusing developments.
