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===The Great Powers Club of the Ancient Near East===

The Great Powers Club is the name that modern scholars have given to the late Bronze Age system of globalism that existed from approximately 1500 until around1200 BC. The system was first established by the kings of Egypt, Hatti (the Hittites), Kassite Babylon, and Mitanni (the Hurrians). Later, towards the end of the system, Assyria replaced Mitanni and the kingdoms of Alashiya (ancient Cyprus) and Arzawa (southwest Anatolia) were added. <ref> Mieroop, Marc van de. <i>A History of the Ancient Near East: ca. 3000-323 BC.</i> 2nd ed. (London: Blackwell, 2007), p. 129</ref> How the system began remains a mystery, but by the time the Egyptians joined the system during the eighth year of Thutmose III’s rule (reigned ca. 1479-1425 BC) the Hittites, Hurrians, and Kassites had been maintaining the system for some time. <ref> Kuhrt, Amélie. <i> The Ancient Near East: c. 3000-330 BC.</i> Volume 2. (London: Routledge, 2010), p. 323</ref>

Although war did break out between the Egyptians and Hittites in the northern Levant around the year 1274 BC, the system usually kept the major powers from engaging each other directly and the period is generally considered to be one of peace and prosperity. <ref> Mieroop, p. 136</ref>

Besides preventing major wars from breaking out among its members, the Great Powers Club developed large-scale, trans-national trade in the region. In order to do this, the kings had to make sure that the roads that connected their kingdoms were safe and free of highway robbers and other bandits. Based on examination of the Amarna Letters, the major kings apparently worked out a type of visa system with each other whereby subjects of one kingdom could legally travel to another kingdom for the purpose of diplomacy and commerce. In one letter, the Mitanni king, probably Tushratta (ruled during an uncertain length in the late fourteenth century BC), ordered the Canaanite kings of the Levant to give his diplomat a visa so that he could visit the king of Egypt. “No one is to hold him up. Provide him with safe entry into Egypt and hand (him) over to the fortress commander of Egypt,” read the letter. <ref> Moran, p. 100</ref>

Today, many people think that globalism is a fairly recent phenomenon, but an examination of world history reveals that there have been many attempts at and cycles of globalism. Perhaps the most important and certainly the earliest pre-modern globalism era was that of the Great Powers Club of the ancient Near East. For about 300 years, the kings of the greatest kingdoms in the region developed a system whereby conflicts between the major powers could be resolved peacefully and trade and travel between the kingdoms was made easier, which made it the first successful attempt to create a truly global system.

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