In the book The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community, William McNeill proposed a theory that explained the social relations of civilizations in the old world from 500 B.C. to 1500 A.D. His Fourfold Cultural Balance theory states there were four distinct zones (Europe, Middle East Africa, India, and China) of civilization development that were marked by a unique culture. The zones advanced relatively independent of one another. There was no physical border marking the end of one zone and the beginning of another, but rather each zone was founded around the presence of the pure distinct culture that existed there. The cultural differences is what divided the types of civilizations, and cultural exclusion prevented one culture from expanding too far by means of war. The Fourfold Cultural Balance was upset through the many different trade routes such as the Sahara Caravan route, the Silk Road, and the Spice Route and barbarian contact, but was ultimately dissolved through the foundation of increased European dominance due to the naval advancements and the founding of America. These events affected the globalization by increasing the contact of the different civilizations and increasing the dominance of one culture over the others.
The trade routes are the first factors to focus on that led to globalization. The Silk Road was a trade route in which Chinese people traded silk through the European continent for jade, horses, etc. The Caravan routes traded Middle Eastern African luxury items, such as ostrich feathers and precious metals, with the Europeans. The Spice trade routes traded spices from India to Europe and China. All of these routes caused the founding of way stations of a culture throughout a foreign land, interdependence of the zones for valuable goods to placate the people, cultural items and artifacts to be spread throughout foreign lands, sharing of ideas between people of different cultures, and, over time, more tolerance for people from foreign lands' foreign cultures.