So, now, we have multiple civilizational centers in the Afroindoeurasian
ecumene, with some debatable synchronization until some time in
the second millenium CE, debatable both in its extent and in
the degree to which this whole enchilada can be called a "system."
Then some things happen in the European peninsula, which, failing
attempts at reconstituting itself as a self-respecting empire
like the other biggies, turns out to become this unprecedentedly
dynamic world-economy in large part thanks to its American
connections and its African predations (still undertheorized).
It seems to me that in most of this discussion to date, the
unintended but Westphalia recognized organizational form
of competing but diplomatically interacting strong states
has been sorely overlooked, as has been the novel ways these
states were linked to financiers, merchants, and organizers
of large-scale production. Woe unto those who throw the
baby (hyphen) out with the bathwater.
w