China Great

When did globalisation begin? Most observers have settled on 1492, the year Columbus discovered America. But as celebrated Yale professor Valerie Hansen shows, it was the year 1000, when for the first time new trade routes linked the entire globe, so an object could in theory circumnavigate the world. This was the 'big bang' of globalisation, which ushered in a new era of exploration and trade, and which paved the way for Europeans to dominate after Columbus reached America.

I had been in Asia just over two months - something like 10 weeks, or if you’re counting days, about 70 days. Of course, if you’re counting meals, like I was, think about 210. Add iodine-purified water, a permanent layer of dust on my tongue, and let's just say I couldn't always hold down what I did eat. Food was becoming my meaning, my passion, my existence.

Beginning in 1786, Captain John Meares of Great Britain bravely explored the North Pacific, but his attempt to dominate the fur trade between the Northwest Coast and Asia was frustrated when the Spanish navy seized his ships off Vancouver Island. Meares missed the opportunity to explore the Strait of Juan de Fuca or discover the Columbia River. Hence, he was almost a hero.