The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World—and Globalization Began

People often think that the years immediately prior to AD 1000 were, with just a few exceptions, lacking in any major cultural developments or encounters, that Europeans hadn’t yet reached North America, and that the farthest feat of sea travel was the Vikings’ invasion of Britain. But how, then, to explain the presence of blond-haired people in Maya temple murals at Chichén Itzá, Mexico? Is it possible that the Vikings had found their way to the Americas during the height of the Maya empire?

In fact, the year 1000 was the world’s first point of major cultural exchange and exploration. We begin our journey with the Vikings who crossed from Scandinavia to Iceland, Greenland, and finally landed in Canada just around that time (and we’ll talk about the possibility that they reached the Yucatan Peninsula as well). We travel with a second group of Norse, the Rus, who traveled across Eastern Europe and introduced Christianity to today’s Ukraine. At this time, Islam spread into Central Asia and Africa, just as Buddhism and Hinduism moved into Southeast Asia. We conclude with the most globalized place on earth: Song-dynasty China and its trade partners in Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia. Throughout the class, we’ll be debating whether globalization is the right term for the changes taking place around 1000.

Each week we’ll read one or two chapters from my new book, The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World—and Globalization Began. In class we’ll discuss key passages from different primary sources in translation that I’ll distribute each week (usually around 20 pages). In addition, I’ll talk briefly about various works of fiction, some written around the year 1000, others examples of well-researched historical fiction. I don’t expect you to read them before that week’s class—unless you’re inspired to jump in—but I hope that you might decide to read them after the course ends.

Week 1:
The Norse in North America
Assigned Readings: Chapters 2 and 3 of The Year 1000;
Primary source readings: The Vinland Sagas; (if you have time, read the two sagas and note the key differences. The introduction is less important but still valuable).
Optional fiction: Beowulf (Sean Heaney translation), Paul Kingsworth, The Wake

Week 2:
The Norse in Eastern Europe and the Spread of World Religions
Assigned Readings: Chapter 4 of The Year 1000;
Primary source readings:  PDF available on course page, "Year 1000 Week 2 Russian Primary Chronicle".
Optional fiction: A. B. Yehosha, Journey to the End of the Millennium

Week 3:
The Islamic World
Assigned Readings: Chapter 5 of The Year 1000;
Primary source readings: PDF available on course page, "Year 1000 Week 3 Al-Bakri reading".
Optional fiction: Shahnameh (Dick Davis translation); Amin Maalouf, Samarkand

Week 4:
Voyages in the Indian and Pacific Oceans
Assigned Readings: Chapter 6 of The Year 1000;
Primary source readings: Steve Thomas, The Last Navigator
Optional fiction: Dennis Washburn (trans.) The Tale of Genji

Week 5:
Song-dynasty China and Its Trade Partners in Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia
Assigned Readings: Chapters 7 and 8 of The Year 1000;
Primary source readings: Chau Ju-kua (now spelled Zhao Rugua), On the Chinese and Arab Trade in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries: entry #23 Mecca, #24 Zanguebar (Zanzibar), #25 Berbera Coast, #26 Sohar, #27 Somali Coast pp. 124-132. The book is available online via this link.
Artwork: The Qingming Scroll (Video). If you have time, please watch.
 

Required Reading(s):
The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World -- and Globalization Began - $20.49 - Amazon.com
The Vinland Sagas (Penguin Classics) - $13.18 - Amazon.com
The Last Navigator: A Young Man, an Ancient Mariner, the Secrets of the Sea - $18.99 - Amazon.com