Table of Contents

Prologue: the geography of the Indian Ocean and the navigation; Part I. The Ancient Routes of Trade and Cultural Exchanges and the First States (6th-2nd Millenia BC): Introduction; 1. The birth of the state; 2. Early Bronze Age I in Western Asia and in Egypt (ca. 3000–2700 BC); 3. Early Bronze Age II (ca. 2700–1950 BC); 4. The new spaces of the Middle Bronze Age in Asia and in Egypt (ca.2000–1750 BC) ; 5. The Late Bronze Age (ca. 1600-1100 BC), an Area Unified around the Eastern Mediterranean ; 6. East Asia. From Villages to States (Ca. 5000–1027 BC); 7. The emergence of intermediary spaces; Conclusion: Were there world-sytems during the Bronze Age?; Part II. The Birth of the Afro-Eurasian World-System (1st Millennium BC-1st Century AD): Introduction; 8. The beginnings of the Iron Age; 9. The roads to the Orient; 10. India. The birth of a new core; 11. Southeast Asia, an interface between two oceans; 12. China. From kingdoms to unification; 13. Arabia. Maritime cultures and the rise of the caravan trade; 14. East Africa: the emergence of a pre-Swahili culture on the Azanian coast; 15. The Austronesian expansion and the first Malagasy cultures.