Before "globalism" could enter the modern-day lexicon, sixth-century-BC philosophers, including Pythagoras, Aristotle and Euclid, had to visualize that the world was round - in part by viewing a lunar eclipse by the circular earth. By the first century BC, all educated Greeks and Romans believed in our world's spherical nature. Ships going over the horizon didn't fall off the edge - they returned. During the 10th through 13th centuries, the people of the Middle East were visited by thousands of traders, pilgrims and crusaders. They were the first to hear tales of the Far East and "the Spice Islands." In Europe, a continent of tasteless food, pepper - finding its way from the distant East - became equal in value to gold.
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