The origins of the present world: when cultures met and clashed in the “first globalisation” age

“Globalisation” has shown us the difficult coexistence of different, large powers. But there was actually a “first globalisation” era, at the start of the modern age, which is currently the subject of an important historiographical reflection. Back then, it was Europe that led a revolutionary phase in world history. There were two attempts to unify the known world. First, the conquest and political and religious subjugation of the American continent to the point of its assimilation with European culture. And second, the search for an “arrangement” between European culture and those from the east, brought closer together thanks to Portuguese sailors reaching Chinese and Japanese ports. But in India, Japan and China, sheer size, political and military power, together with their rich cultures helped limit the advances of the Europeans, trying to penetrate peacefully through trade and dialogue between cultures, conducted by Jesuit missionaries.