What theory is he presenting about pre-modern world history?
Eric R. Wolf has written that the travels we have discussed were “not isolated adventures but manifestations of forces that were drawing the continents into more encompassing relationships and would soon make the world a unified stage of human actions. . . . These wide-ranging linkages among populations before European expansion were outcomes of identifiable material processes. One of these processes was the build-up of contentious hegemonic political and military systems. Each of the two hemispheres witnessed, separately, the rise of empires, which drew toward themselves the surpluses produced by varied and manifold groups. A second process at work was the growth of long-distance trade, which everywhere connected zones of supply with centers of concentrated demand, and which opened up specialized roles for the peoples who sat astride the routes of commerce. Empire building and trade, in turn, created extensive grids of communication, which bound together different populations under th
