Before 1500, civilizations were linked mainly by land routes, not sea commerce.

Evidence

Civilizations were also separated geographically. Until 1500 the Andean and Mesoamerican civilizations had no contact with other civilizations or with each other. The early civilizations in the valleys of the Nile, Tigris-Euphrates, Indus, and Yellow rivers also did not interact. Eventually, contacts between civilizations did multiply in the eastern Mediterranean, southwestern Asia, and northern India. Communications and commercial relations were restricted, however, by the distances separating civilizations and the limited means of transport available to overcome distance. While there was some commerce by sea in the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean, “Steppe-traversing horses, not ocean-traversing sailing ships, were the sovereign means of locomotion by which the separate civilizations of the world as it was before A.D. 1500 were linked together—to the slight extent to which they did maintain contact with each other.” — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 133

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to maritime trade debates and how ocean-borne globalization post-1500 was genuinely novel; parallels Milgrom’s Champagne Fairs land-trade institutions.