Introduction After having been rejected by postmodernism in the 1970s, the idea of a new universal history, “global in its practice and scientific in its spirit and methods,” has recently been given a new impetus in academic circles.¹ The objective is to provide a vision of humanity as a whole as a basis for the formulation of a new global identity and history, capable of educating people to become global citizens. Many historians have argued that global history should be based on a scientific definition of humanity.² However, it is precisely this scientific definition of humanity and human beings that…