Explain the forces leading the world's societies to become more deeply and lastingly differentiated in this period, despite the spread of the world religions across many of these divides

Question

How do these divisions continue to influence the world today?

Answer 1

Answers will vary but correct responses should include: From around 700 to 1000, states all over the world responded to similar problems. Slowly, uncertainly, unspectacularly, the discovery and exploitation of new resources, and the colonization of previously underexploited lands, equipped widely dispersed societies, in parts of Eurasia, Africa, the Americas, and the Pacific, with the means to sustain bigger populations, longer-range trade, and more ambitious environmental exploitation. The effect was to stimulate recovery and renewal in some regions and to encourage rare or unprecedented initiatives elsewhere. Previously underrepresented parts of the world seem to leap into the historical record, because intense new activity leaves marks in the environment and, in some cases, memorials of art, thought, and high politics. The search for new resources, new frontiers and new initiatives continue to divide the world today between those who have and those who do not. These divisions have caused disparities in wealth and power that have continued to widen the gap and affect the influence of every country in the world.