Old World Contacts: Theme Page

Old World Contacts

Themes in Cross-Cultural Contact

Cross-cultural experiences began altering the cultural traditions of mankind well before the period covered by this tutorial. However, widespread availability of material sources to substantiate these contacts is often missing and cross-cultural communication cannot be thoroughly examined until these communications are systematised and documented. In the period for which adequate documentation survives, four themes – or agents – of cross-cultural contact may be defined. A separate category dealing with Modes of Transport collects articles on developments and innovations in this critical area.

Armies

"Cultures are not infinitely self-sustaining. They have fragilities which are vulnerable to hostile influences, and among those influences warmaking is one of the more potent."¹
The history of mankind is the history of warfare for our societies exist as a result of the military actions and policies of our predecessors. This fact forces us to recognise the critical nature of armies and military conflict as tools of cross-cultural contact and initiators of cultural exchange. Military action itself can impose cultural conversion. On the other hand, military conquest may simply provide the setting in which other agents, such as traders or missionaries, may effect cultural change. This section will focus on some of the more significant and dynamic instances of military contact in the Old World and the resultant cultural modifications.
¹Keegan, John. A History of Warfare. Toronto: Vintage Books Canada Edition, 1994, p. 387.
Index of Articles on Armies

Colonists

The category of "colonist" is difficult to define for most colonies originate as a result of activity within the military, religious, or political spheres. The advantages of having a trading partner at the major marketplaces led to the installation of trade diasporas. Military outposts were extablished at strategic military locations. Flight from religious persecution often sent the faithful to settle in frontier regions beyond the reach of intolerant authorities.
Index of Articles on Colonists

Merchants & Traders

"Trade and exchange across cultural lines have played a crucial role in human history, being perhaps the most important external stimuli to change, leaving aside the unmeasurable and less-benign influence of military conquest. External stimulation, in turn, has been the most important single source of change and development in art, science, and technology... since no human group could invent by itself more than a small part of its cultural and technical heritage."²
²Curtin, Philip D. Cross-Cultural Trade in World History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. First published, 1984.
Index of Articles on Merchants & Traders

Missionaries & Pilgrims

"How shall an age concerned with material things comprehend the fervor that engaged whole generations of men ... with the theme of immortality? The vast perspective of that theme alters all the values of existence. In its immensity, life has but a feeble transiency; not here, but in the timeless sweep of eternity lies its meaning and man's true destiny. Thus mortality gets no enhancement from its brevity; wealth is perplexity; status but a vassal's tenure; joy a bubble; beauty a withering flower. So kings leave their governing in their brief mortal hour, make their crowns a votive offering ... Merchants and hinds leave kindred, shop, and plow, eager for that labor whose wages are incorruptible."³
Although these lines refer to the massive wave of medieval Christian pilgrims that flooded the Holy Land, the sentiments are no less accurate when applied to a Buddhist monk in search of holy texts or a Moslem on his journey to Mecca.
Religious travellers had many motives for their journeys. A pilgrimage could be undertaken to achieve the salvation offered by the sacrifices of the journey or to comply with a demand of the faith. Missionaries set out to convert 'unbelievers' with an agenda that included varying degrees of persuasion. The dangers of religious persecution in one region also sent religious groups or sects into new regions, where the tenets of their faith were tolerated and transmitted by regular contact. Regardless of the motivation, religious travellers in the Old World functioned as a conduit through which cultural ideas were disseminated.
³Kelly, Amy.Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1963, p. 64.
Index of Articles on Missionaries & Pilgrims

Diplomats & Travellers

Diplomacy has existed as long as relations between different cultures have demanded that balances of power be recognised and considered. While the formality of diplomatic procedures and policies have varied, it might be considered that every cross-cultural contact is, in effect, a diplomatic encounter. In the history of the Old World, diplomats and emissaries held positions at the courts of every kingdom, reporting on local activities and promoting the interests of their native lands and opening the way for increased exchanges between cultures.
While diplomats were sent out with official sanction, other travellers of the Old World were guided by curiousity to explore beyond the borders of their own countries.
Index of Articles on Diplomats & Travellers

Modes of Transport

Index of Articles on Transport

Alphabetic Index of All Articles