sekaishi

Sekaishi, written in Japanese as 世界史 and romanized as sekai-shi, refers to the study of world history. It encompasses the broad patterns of human development across civilizations, regions, and time periods, emphasizing long-term processes rather than the history of a single place. Core concerns include interregional exchange, migration, technology transfer, empire formation, religious and cultural diffusion, and the rise and fall of global networks.

The field employs comparative and transregional methods, drawing on sources from multiple societies and eras. It seeks to situate events within wider contexts, highlighting connections and interdependencies among regions such as Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. Sekaishi often contrasts with national or regional histories by focusing on global trajectories, rather than a single polity’s chronology.

Historically, the development of world history as a distinct field gained prominence in modern scholarship during the 19th and 20th centuries, influenced by universal history, later complemented by world-systems theory and global history approaches. In recent decades, the global history paradigm has emphasized networks, long-distance linkages, and transnational processes over isolated national narratives.

In educational contexts, 世界史 is commonly taught as a subject that encourages students to understand historical change through global perspectives. It appears in university programs, textbooks, and social studies curricula in Japan and, in translated forms, in other countries. See also: world history, global history, universal history, historiography.