1000 BCE–1500 CE: (Global Interconnection Not Founded in the Seventh Century CE, the First Millennium BCE Commercial Linkages as Its Foundation: The Linking…

1000 BCE–1500 CE: (Global Interconnection Not Founded in the Seventh Century CE, the First Millennium BCE Commercial Linkages as Its Foundation: The Linking Up of the Various Commercial Revolutions During the First Millennium BCE and the Extension of Commercial Contacts Across the African-Eurasian World Constituting a Foundational Development of Transformative Historical Consequence, Historians Often Giving Prime Credit to the Subsequent Age of Commercial Expansion from the Seventh Century CE Onward but That Age Being Historically Secondary, Having Revitalized and Built Outward from Long-Distance Linkages Already in Place Well Before the End of the First Millennium BCE): The linking up of the various commercial revolutions during the first millennium BCE and the extension of commercial contacts right across the lands and adjoining seas of the African-Eurasian world constitute a foundational development of transformative historical consequence in the eventual linking together of all of world history. Historians often give prime credit for this outcome to the subsequent age of commercial expansion beginning from the seventh century CE onward. But that new age of commercial expansion was historically secondary. It revitalized and, at the same time, built outward from the long-distance linkages already in place well before the end of the first millennium BCE. The conventional periodization of global commercial history places the decisive turning point in the seventh century CE, with the rise of Islam and the creation of a commercial zone stretching from Spain to India. Ehret insists that this dating is wrong. The Islamic commercial revolution was not unimportant. It was derivative. The trade routes that Muslim merchants expanded in the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries were not new. They were ancient, built by Garamantean traders, Aksumite entrepreneurs, Levantine merchants, and Indian Ocean sailors centuries and millennia before Muhammad was born. The Islamic commercial revolution was not a creation from nothing. It was a revitalization and extension of existing networks. To credit the seventh century CE with the founding of global commerce is to mistake a renovation for a construction. The foundations were laid in the first millennium BCE, and Africa was one of the principal builders.