More than 3,000 years ago, before the emergence of Greece, humanity already had developed and economically interconnected societies. This type of past globalism caused a chain collapse when climate change, migration and new technologies knocked down the first piece of the domino.

Globalization is not an invention of the 21st century, nor of the 20th century, nor even of colonialism and imperialism that shed so much blood. Long before, humanity had already woven a commercial network connecting societies more advanced than we often think. In the Bronze Age, around the second millennium BC, there were several well-developed civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea. We are talking about ancient Babylon (in present-day Iraq), the Mycenaean culture (in present-day Greece, which controlled trade with the Italian peninsula), the Hittite empire (present-day Turkey) and Ancient Egypt. These four civilizations had established commercial relations that, beyond occasional conflicts, allowed them to progress mutually.

How did they collapse?

That globalized and cosmopolitan world was wiped off the map in what is considered one of the great catastrophes of humanity. And it all began with climatic catastrophes: a sharp decrease in rainfall (for three centuries) left the key food production centers of civilization very affected. The mirror with the present is frightening if we think of the accumulation of bad harvests and the consequent rise in prices of basic foodstuffs that have been cutting into the pockets of the citizens of our country for years.

The lack of rain caused hunger, and hunger turned into desperate and violent migration. These miserable people are now known as the Sea Peoples, a multitude of people united by hunger who moved around the world looking for something to eat and who first devastated Mycenae, then the Hittite empire, and who found their retaining wall with Egypt. Pharaoh Ramses III was able to stop them at the mouth of the Nile, but the enormous military expenditure left their society also in a state of death. Thus, poverty spread throughout Egypt and Babylon, especially because they had lost their two main customers and had no one to sell to or buy from. These modern, interconnected empires collapsed and gave way to small, self-sufficient city-states, closed in on themselves, just trying to survive. This is what is known as the Dark Age, which lasted until the appearance of the polis Greek.

Will we repeat history?

Modern societies and economies are more connected than ever, so it is not comparable to the Bronze Age. If Japan has an economic downturn, the pain reaches the entire world in a devastating butterfly effect. There are also more mechanisms and resources than ever before in history to prevent the catastrophe from becoming tragic.

The first key, as history teaches us, is food production. Ensuring a minimum level of well-being for the bulk of the world’s population is essential for mutual survival. However, there are elements that are difficult to control. Nature, climate change, fears, and mistrust that generate conflicts of all kinds… the world is a powder keg always ready to explode. The question is whether humanity will be able to wet the fuse.

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