Global Economic Issues Week 4
Assignment
1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Eric Cline, PhD)
It is actually very interesting how the greatest civilizations went from having the grandest kingdoms to
completely disappeared. It got my attention how well the Chapman’s book and the Eric Cline lecture are
related. While Eric Cline discusses how Empires in the admirable age of Bronze came to an end,
Chapman book explains how the biggest human die-offs occurred. I also found it very interesting that
perhaps the internationalism of a globalized world system in the Age of Bronze contributed to the
apocalyptic disaster that ended this remarkable period. It is hard to believe how Empires like Egyptians,
Babylonians that conquered a great extension of territory, suddenly they were gone. Sure, natural
disasters, drought, and famines could contribute to mass die-offs. However, as Eric Cline says, it should
have been multiple natural disasters or the called ¨perfect storm¨ that led to the first Dark Ages, but is
that such developed societies like they were in the past that did not have any other option than
extinction?
Black Death: History of the Black Death
How is it possible that such a small thing as a bacteria could kill off an estimated 200 million people
worldwide? This is what happened in the 14th Century by the called Black Death, Pestilence, the Great
Mortality, or the Plague or in Spanish la Peste Negra. I found most interesting in the Black Death
documentary the deep and very detailed explanation of a devastating global epidemic that terrified
everybody in the mid-1300s. The world stopped with the Coronavirus pandemic, but the Black Death
was by far more lethal, had a bigger impact, and killed many more people. So, comparing the impact
that Covid-19 is having nowadays, I cannot imagine what could happen if an epidemic of such
devastation happened today. The world would not only be able to respond, although we enjoy a better
health care system, but could not be able to sustain and act against it. We have clearly seen how Covid-
19 put everybody under a state of emergency and saw the most industrialized and advanced age of all
time got stopped by the coronavirus.
