Interrogating technology as a resource in pre-modern global history

Abstract

The materiality of past societies and economies has long challenged historians. Its study means attributing importance to objects, tasks, skills, and tacit knowledge. It relies upon strong intellectual and political foundations formed by the work of, for example, the Annales school in the 1930s.1 It starts from the premise that technology is a major component of society, politics, and the economy. The integration of technology into history is then a crucial task. This approach has two significant consequences.