The Year 1000 Quotes

“For much of human history, slavery was a big business.”
― Valerie Hansen, The Year 1000: When Globalization Began

“After 1325, a new power, the Aztecs, appeared in northern Mexico, and the political center of Mexico shifted away from the Yucatan Peninsula to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, directly under downtown Mexico City. The system of pathways across Mexico reoriented to serve this new center. Because the Aztecs had unified Mexico in the 1400s, much of their domain—but not the Yucatan Peninsula—fell into the Spaniards’ laps after their capital was conquered and Montezuma was killed.”
― Valerie Hansen, The Year 1000: When Globalization Began

“Before the coming of Christianity, the Norse had worshipped a pantheon of gods, headed by Thor, the powerful deity who ruled the sky and controlled thunder, wind, rain, and the harvest. Other important deities were Freya, the powerful goddess of fertility, and Odin, the god of war.”
― Valerie Hansen, The Year 1000: When Globalization Began

“But starting around 1000, the entire region reoriented so that it could supply China,”
― Valerie Hansen, The Year 1000: When Globalization Began

“Buddhists disagreed about the exact date when the world would end. No one in Song dynasty China expected the apocalypse to arrive in 1052 (they thought it would come five centuries earlier), but the Japanese dreaded 1052 as much as the Liao Buddhists.”
― Valerie Hansen, The Year 1000: When Globalization Began

“the Danish king Harald Bluetooth (910–985) was raised as a non-Christian. In the 960s he united Denmark and gained temporary control of Norway. Recognizing the power of Christian monotheism as a unifying force for his new kingdom, he made the decision to convert. (Intel and Ericsson engineers chose to call their new technology “Bluetooth” because it brought computers and mobile phones together just as Harald had unified Denmark and Norway.)”
― Valerie Hansen, The Year 1000: When Globalization Began

“We know these people today as the Rus, the wanderers who gave their name to Russia.”
― Valerie Hansen, The Year 1000: When Globalization Began

“We wonder how people could traverse thousands of miles on foot and forget that most people could walk 20 miles, or 32 km, a day, and for long periods. People in the year 1000 were used to this—one envoy went on foot more than 2,500 miles, or 4,000 km, between 1024 and 1026.”
― Valerie Hansen, The Year 1000: When Globalization Began

“The year 1000 occurred during the reign of Sylvester II, yet the year didn’t mean much to Europeans because very few people used a calendar that counted years starting at the birth of Jesus. Such calendars had existed since the 500s, but this system of dating gained ground slowly, winning official acceptance by the church only in 1500. Most people referred to the year by the reign of the ruling king or pope, calling the year 1000, for example, the second year of Sylvester’s reign.”
― Valerie Hansen, The Year 1000: When Globalization Began