(A) How had globalization begun long before sixteenth century? Explain.

(i) Globalization primarily began through the Silk route.

(ii) Globalization spread through Trade and Cultural exchange.

(iii) The silk routes are a good example of vibrant pre- modern trade and cultural links between distant parts of the world.

(iv) Historians have identified several silk routes, over land and by sea, knitting together vast regions of Asia, and linking Asia with Europe and Northern Africa.

(v) Early Christian missionaries travelled this route to Asia, as did early Muslim preachers a few centuries later.

(vi) Buddhism emerged from eastern India and spread in several directions through intersecting points on the silk routes.

(B) How did trade help to spread diseases during the pre- modern world? Explain.

(i) The most powerful weapon of the Spanish conquerors was not a conventional military weapon at all. It was the germs such as those of smallpox that they carried on their person.

(ii) Because of their long isolation America’s original inhabitants had no immunity against these diseases that came from Europe.

(iii) Smallpox in particular proved a deadly killer. Once introduced, it spread deep into the continent.

(iv) Ahead of even any Europeans reaching there, it killed and decimated whole communities, paving the way for conquest.