Abstract:To explain why world history exhibits a developmental trend from fragmentation to integration, global history centers its analytical logic on “connection” and introduces a series of new concepts and methods,including “contact,” “connection,” “network,” “flow,” “entanglement,” “circuit,” and “node．” However, this conceptual system centered on “connection” lacks an internally consistent analytical framework and a rigorous causal logic,resulting in a dilemma of multiple causes and effects rooted in cultural pluralism. To address the same issue, Marxism has developed a series of related concepts such as “exchange,” “relations of production,” “universal exchange,” and “the world market network．” It reveals that the increasingly close “connections” in world history are determined by the expansion and deepening of production relations both vertically and horizontally,which are ultimately grounded in the level of productive forces. Thus,Marxism provides a logically coherent and universally applicable theoretical framework for explaining “connection ” in world history and clarifies its inherent causal necessity.

Published on Social Science Front, Issue 11, 2025.