Globalisation and its History

The term "globalization" has been used to describe how the world has become more integrated on many different levels, including economics, politics, culture, technology, and geography. The term "globalization" has come to be equated with economic globalization over the years, despite the fact that it cannot and should not be limited to mean economic integration of the world. Furthermore, as we shall see, the West and Europe are not solely responsible for the effects of globalization; over the centuries, influences from the East have also spread to the West. Currently, the globalization process has a much wider reach thanks to the revolution in electronic and communication technology.

The phrase "global village" is a jargon that is appropriate for use in the interconnected world we now inhabit. The phrase was first used by Marshall McLuhan in 1962 and refers to the globalization of society as a result of the rapid dissemination of information through electronic technology. In the following paragraphs, this module will examine the various definitions of globalization. However, given its position in the globalization discourse, its primary focus will be on the history of globalization, particularly economic globalization.

This post introduces the concept of globalization and its various forms. Then, it briefly discusses two important arguments concerning the history of globalization, namely (i) Andre Gunder Frank and Barry K. (i) Amartya Sen's (2002) claim that globalization cannot be viewed as a purely Western phenomenon because there have been ideas and innovations moving from the East to the West as early as the start of the last millennium, according to Gills' (1992) description of globalization as a process that is five thousand years old, much before the rise and consolidation of Europe. Immanuel Wallerstein's (1974) assertion that the modern world-system began in Europe in the Middle Ages, around the sixteenth century, is the final argument about the origin and history of globalization that has received more academic acceptance. This module divides the modern world system into two periods: (i) the end of feudalism and the rise of capitalism globally with the opening up of the European market; and (ii) the start and aftermath of the Industrial Revolution in England. The module concludes with a brief summary of globalization as it is currently understood—as the outcome of economic restructuring policies adopted by developing nations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America at the urging of economic organizations like the International Monetary Fund aiming to maintain the stronghold of the capitalist world system—and the challenges this poses for the entire planet.

It is critical to comprehend the definition of the term "globalization" before delving into the history of this concept. The movement of people, capital, and goods is the simplest definition of globalization in use today. It is also regarded as a process that has improved the integration and interconnectedness of nations and individuals worldwide. Some academics believe that globalization is as old as early man. Because human settlements were first established in various parts of the world as a result of primitive man's migration across continents. The migration of early humans, which is a hallmark of globalization, is obviously very different from the globally acknowledged aspect of macroeconomic policy changes, which have made the world a more interconnected place and led to multiple forms of integration.

Despite the fact that economic globalization has dominated conversations about the term "globalization," more aspects of it are now acknowledged. Despite being greatly influenced by economic factors, there are various types of globalizations, according to Ritzer (2009), and each has a unique characteristic. Political globalization emphasizes the interconnectedness of political relationships as well as the significance of international organizations like the United Nations, regional alliances like ASEAN and NAFTA, and even terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, whose actions and policies have an impact on the entire world. The term "cultural globalization" describes how certain nations' art, music, television programs, films, and other cultural products have an impact on people all over the world. These transcend national boundaries and some have even assimilated into or had an impact on cultures outside the boundaries of the nation-state. For instance, Bollywood films have a fan base among Indians and non-Indians alike, not just in India and other countries.

According to Ritzer (2009), the majority of the world's religions strive to have a global presence and a following, which leads to the next type of globalization, which is based on religion. Religion today has no geographical limitations. Due to the Dalai Lama's words having a universal impact, one can practice Buddhism not only in Tibet or India but also in Europe or North America. Ritzer, Ibid. Because so much of the scientific knowledge produced today is based on data gathered from all over the world, ( calls science a "global enterprise.". Despite the fact that the early 20th century saw the global dissemination of scientific knowledge, the Internet has made this even more prevalent in modern times. This is also true for health and medicine, which is the second pillar of globalization; since certain diseases are widespread throughout the world, so too does the medicine that treats them. The other two globalized sectors are sports and education. As far as sports are concerned, there are international organizations like the International Cricket Council and competitions like the Wimbledon Championships that are well-known worldwide and have participants from all over the world. In addition, the media has sparked a global interest in sports, even those that are not native to one's own country of origin. Last but not least, globalization has also impacted education, especially higher education. Today, more young people travel abroad to pursue higher education. Many Western universities and colleges also offer online courses that can be accessed from anywhere in the world. Additionally, education is now considered a commercial service that can be exported under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (1995) of the World Trade Organization, broadening its reach internationally.

According to Frank and Gills (1992), the world system has a five-thousand-year history. They use the term "world system" without a hyphen, in contrast to Wallerstein, who uses it. They also claim that the rise of Europe and the West is only a recent and "passing" phenomenon in the history of the world-system. Additionally, they contend that some of the traits that define the modern world system existed long before its officially acknowledged time of emergence, as stated by Emmanuel Wallerstein (1974). For instance, contrary to Wallerstein, Samir Amin (1975), and dependency theorists, Frank and Gills contend that the modern world system's defining feature of capital accumulation—capital accumulation—has existed for many thousands of years prior to the Middle Ages, which the world-systems analysis claims to be its genesis.

Wallerstein refers to earlier systems as "world empires," and Amin refers to them as "tributaries," where "political and ideological" unification predominated rather than the economic unity that characterizes the world-system. Additionally, Frank and Gills note that the core-periphery angle, which is emphasized by dependency theorists and describes how surplus is transferred from periphery to core regions, could have existed in world systems prior to the development of the modern world system. Despite the fact that Wallerstein and others see the modern world system as being cyclical in that core-periphery relationships as well as world system hegemonies and rivalries continue to change, Frank and Gills contend that such cycles predated the modern world system's origin as it is known in academia.

According to Sen (2002), globalization need not always be associated with "global westernization.". Instead, if one were to examine the root causes of globalization, they would have to go all the way back to the year 1000 AD. Around this time, rather than Western influences, developments in the East - in China, India, and the Arabic world - found their way to and became a crucial component of Western culture. China had already advanced simple technology by the year 1000 AD. For instance, the Chinese had already created "paper, the printing press, the crossbow, gunpowder, the iron-chain suspension bridge, the kite, the magnetic compass, the wheelbarrow, and the rotary fan" (Ibid.). ). Sen contends that globalization is what brought these technological advancements to Europe because they were unknown in other parts of the world. Comparably, Arab mathematicians adopted the decimal system, which was developed originally in India. Europe eventually received it. Sen tries to make the point that in this integration of Asia and Europe, one sees the opposite of what is happening right now, i. e. innovation, technology, and a movement of ideas from the East to the West. Sen concludes that globalization should not be seen as solely a Western phenomenon or as having a Western origin.

Though considered Eurocentric and not without its detractors, Wallerstein's explanation of the origins of globalization through his analysis of the modern world-system is widely regarded in academic circles as an excellent resource for learning about the roots of globalization as we know it today. Wallerstein (1974) contrasts the birth of the modern world-system with other pivotal moments in "world social science," such as the appearance of the Neolithic Man and the shift from the Middle Ages to the Modern Era. The changes he sees in these systems, which he refers to as structures, are qualitative in nature, according to him, and they will produce a world that is very different from the one that existed in the past. Any history of globalization should focus on four distinct time periods, in Wallerstein's opinion. These are: 1450–1640, when the modern world-system first emerged and was still restricted to Europe; 1640–1815, when the modern world-system was strengthened by the activities of the system; 1815–1917, when the industrial revolution and modern technology transformed the "world-economy into a global enterprise"; and 1917–1970, when the capitalist world-economy was strengthened and the world started to witness the revolutionary urges to overthrow the capitalist world system.

Wallerstein aimed to set the contemporary world-system apart from earlier systems. He claims that a world economy, or modern world system, exists. e. It is a political unit with several economic centers. Wallerstein claims that prior world systems were made up of political entities like "empires, city-states, and nation-states.". The modern world-system is a world-system because it is larger than a political unit, and it is a world-economy because of economic interdependence, which was strengthened by ties between the system's components on the cultural and political levels. Due to the advantages that came from scientific and technological advancements, this world economy began to consolidate.

The modern world-system was the result of a series of events that took place in Northern Europe between the twelfth and the fifteenth centuries, when feudalism as a form of social organization was on the decline. The fall of feudalism was caused by a number of factors, but the two main ones were (i) natural causes, such as severe climatic changes that made it difficult to cultivate traditional crops and an outbreak of the bubonic plague that killed thousands, and (ii) a crisis in the economic foundation of feudalism that revealed the internal contradictions in its superstructure and ultimately caused it to collapse. The unjust principle of landlords controlling the land and the legal system and to whom the peasants were forced to sell their surplus formed the foundation of the feudal system's economic structure. The feudal aristocracy and the clergy were at odds over who controlled more power in the superstructure.

Due to the rapid population growth and the limited technological advancement available at the time, these issues were made worse. In addition, because Europe was at war and the army needed to be maintained, the peasants had to sell more surplus to the landlords. The feudal aristocracy's expenses consequently rose in an unsustainable way. To participate in the urban local crafts economy, many peasants moved from the villages to the towns. Local trade started to grow and expand in this comparatively new environment, which also saw an increase in urbanization and population.

With the majority of the surplus going toward maintaining the army, the economy was unable to grow as a result of the wars being fought in Europe. In addition to their customary feudal obligation of selling their surplus to the landlords, the peasants' taxation for the army's upkeep placed an additional financial burden on them. Peasant uprisings against the feudal nobility followed as a result of this. The Church and the rulers were at odds with one another and were fighting to maintain their positions of authority, as was already mentioned, which made the superstructure vulnerable. The feudal system eventually fell apart due to the weakening of its foundation and superstructure. New forms of production gradually took hold as the feudal system began to fall apart from the bottom up. The transition from traditional, including subsistence patterns of agriculture to commercial, cash crop agriculture, the growth of commerce, and most significantly, the expansion of the European economy outside of Europe to other parts of the world for trade and conquest, were among the main ones.

The modern world system, in which various regions of the world have converged or been brought together on the basis of economic linkages, was established as a result of the globalization of the European economy. The beginnings of globalization as we know it today can be seen in this process. Globalization is thought to be a term with a recent history. Before the modern era, during the Middle Ages, during the Modern Era, and finally during the contemporary era, scholars have been studying globalization. The history of globalization, starting in the Middle Ages, will be covered in the following paragraphs. Even though economic independence and capital accumulation were the driving forces behind globalization as we know it today, they were also the driving forces behind what is now perceived as the political, cultural, technological, and even military "superiority" of the most developed nations in the world. Let's look at the history of globalization to get a better understanding of this.

The main effect of the growth of the European economy on the rest of the world, according to Wallerstein (1974), was the emergence of a global division of labor, wherein the type of labor one performed and the type of economic activity one engaged in depended on which region of the global economy one belonged to. According to Wallerstein, a disparate division of labor resulted in the division of the world into three main regions: the core, the periphery, and the semi-periphery. We can see the beginnings of (economic) globalization, or the unequal economic division of the world system. e. the method by which capitalism spread around the world. According to Wallerstein, the modern world-system began to take shape in the early sixteenth century and came into its own by the middle of the seventeenth century.

When the capitalist system first began to take hold, North Western Europe, especially England, France, and the Netherlands, made up the core region, which was the area that benefited the most from the system's economic expansion. Centralized governments or monarchies, a centralized administration, and a potent army were characteristics of the core region. With the end of feudalism came the rise of independent farmers in rural areas, who were paid rents to work the land. In addition, many landless laborers received low pay for their work on the land. Those who were unable to find employment in the villages relocated to the towns, where they served as inexpensive temporary labor for the local economy there. Agriculture expanded along with the quick development of technology. In terms of the urban bourgeoisie, they possessed the surpluses in the global economic system and controlled a large portion of global trade.

The core region had control over the surrounding area. Trade relations with the core region were essential to its economy. The peripheral states were frequently occupied and pillaged by the states of the core region because they lacked a strong state and bureaucracy. Eastern Europe and parts of Latin America were considered peripheral regions when the global economy first began to take shape. These regions were known for their slaves, debt peonage, and forced or bonded labor. Spain and Portugal brought weak administrative and political structures to Latin America, which they later conquered, which the country had to deal with. Exporting surplus, inexpensive labor, precious metals like gold and silver, and raw materials to the core region was the peripheral region's main purpose. The majority of what they produced was for the benefit of the global economy rather than for their own consumption.

Between the core and the periphery was the semi-periphery. This region was distinguished by core areas with slowing economic growth or peripheral areas working to improve their financial situation. Southern France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Portugal are a few examples of semi-peripheral regions. The landlord class was powerful in this area while the governments were weak. In comparison to the core region, this region had better access to global trade and high-quality manufactured goods, but not to the same degree. Sharecropping was prevalent in this area's rural areas. Semi-peripheral regions frequently took surpluses from their peripheral colonies. As an illustration, Spain and Portugal viewed the parts of Latin America they had conquered as the source of precious metals like gold and silver, which they used to pay for the manufactured goods they acquired through their trade with the core regions.

There was one more area that Wallerstein mentioned, and that was the external area, which was separate from the global economy. Russia, interior Africa, South Asia, and the Ottoman Empire are a few examples of external regions. We can infer from this division of the world into its core, periphery, and semi-periphery that the core was economically strong, with a strong state and bourgeoisie, wage laborers, and self-employment; the semi-periphery was economically weak, with sharecroppers and landless laborers; and the periphery was economically weakest, with forced labor and a feudal system.

The international division of labor was set up in the capitalist world-system so that the surplus could be taken out of the semi-peripheral and peripheral regions and used to benefit the core region. Without this global division of labor, the capitalist world system would not have been able to stabilize. Additionally, the type of labor and mode of production that characterized a region was a reflection of the power of the local bourgeoisie and governments in that region. So, in the core region, where manufacturing and wage labor flourished, the state was powerful, had a bureaucracy for centralized control, and an army to protect against invasions, allowing the bourgeoisie to focus their energies on trade and development. The state was weak, there was no domestic bourgeoisie, and the production in the peripheral region—which was characterized by feudalism and forced labor like slavery—was directed more toward the international than the domestic market.

How did the economy of North Western Europe undergo all these changes, i. e. The changes in the economic base resulted in accompanying changes in the superstructure. How did the change from a feudal system to a nascent capitalist one - affect European society? What impact did it have on the future of globalization and the spread of capitalism? How else could the new structure, which placed an emphasis on capitalist accumulation and private property, have succeeded in gaining the support of the aristocracy, the clergy, and the general populace, if not in tandem with a change in the existing political, religious, and belief systems?

Politically, with the end of feudalism between the middle of the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries (1450-1670), feudal lords and princes started to lose their influence and government started to become more centralized. To counter the threat posed by the feudal system, the bourgeoisie preferred to support a centralized government structure, such as a monarch who would be supported by a bureaucracy. In exchange for bourgeois support, the monarch agreed to support their economic endeavors by upholding law and order, allowing trade monopolies—for instance, the British monarch granted the East India Company the exclusive right to trade in India—maintaining ports and securing them with powerful navies so that the bourgeois class could increase trade outside of Europe. In order to defend the state against outside aggression, the bourgeois class also contributed to the upkeep of the army. The Church declined in importance during this time, and the monarch gained control over taxation. The rise of the absolutist state was accompanied by an increase in religious homogeneity and a trend toward identifying one's religion with the monarch's.

Some significant changes in belief systems went hand in hand with the transition from a feudal aristocracy to an absolute monarchy. One was the monarch's fight to retain power by seizing control of the state and its executive, judicial, and administrative apparatus. As a result, the monarch gained power and the Church lost its dominance. However, the monarch's power was constrained by the presence of interest groups like the bourgeoisie and the clergy and was eventually transferred to the monarch, who was now the most powerful person. The transition from Catholicism to Protestantism through the complex process known as the Protestant Reformation was the second significant change. The bourgeois interest group saw the clergy as hostile to its interests and a supporter of the previous feudal system, despite the fact that corruption in the church was a problem. Additionally, with the Protestant Reformation, authority shifted from the Church to the monarch. Furthermore, Protestantism and the ideology of capitalism were compatible, as demonstrated by Max Weber's renowned book Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

These changes were largely the result of the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie sought profits in every endeavor they undertook and used those profits to further that endeavor's expansion. This was a fundamental aspect of how they operated. In this behavior, one can observe the beginnings of the capitalist accumulation that characterizes the contemporary world system and the main process that facilitated its globalization, i.e. e. globalisation. Different forms of social organization emerged in North Western Europe as a result of the transition from the feudal to the capitalist systems. Now wage workers, tenant farmers, and enclosure farming for cash crops are present where historically serfs or peasants paid feudal taxes to the landlords in the form of surplus. The growth of banking and other commercial activities in the towns. The proletariat class was established as a result of the contractual hiring of paid laborers. Commodities were now sold for a profit at the market, whether they were agricultural or cash crops. These activities had the effect of encouraging more people to participate in the market as either bourgeois or proletariat in order to share in the profits.

Through their commercial endeavors during this time, the bourgeois position was strengthened. The core states' capitalist accumulation improved the position of the North Western European nations. So that they would not have to rely on the monarch for their own subsistence, the bourgeois in these nations strengthened their positions. At this time, religion started to lose some of its significance while scientific thinking and new political ideas, like the rights of man, started to be seriously discussed. These new ways of thinking were better suited to the bourgeois ideology.

More changes occurred in North Western Europe between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries (1640–1815). The Industrial Revolution, which saw the majority of North Western European countries switch from an overwhelmingly agricultural to an overwhelmingly industrial mode of production, was one of the most significant of these. In terms of its economic interactions with the rest of the world, Europe started to shift from an initial emphasis on trade to conquest of new areas in order to establish colonies and create markets. At this time, newly established European colonies in Asia and Africa made their way into the periphery of the global economy.

As industrial capitalism became the predominate mode of production (base), the superstructure underwent additional changes. The nation-state replaced the monarchy as the most significant source of political and administrative authority, and as a result of increased urbanization, migration to urban areas, the dissolution of large families, and the influx of more people into the working class, even people's daily lives changed.

The world's core regions were more developed industrially than its periphery and semi-periphery. When industrialization first began, its primary feature was a change in the mode of production from using human labor to using fossil fuels like coal and natural gas. The presence of massive factories was typical of industrial societies. England was at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution. In England, the mechanization of production, technological advancement, and—most significantly—the transition from a labor-based to a factory-based economy were the three main aspects of the Industrial Revolution.

The abundance of a natural resource like coal, which could be used to create steam for the steam engine, for example, was one of the primary factors that led to the start of the Industrial Revolution in England. Utilizing coal allowed England to achieve unprecedented levels of industrialization, innovation, and technology. In addition to being used for domestic consumption, coal was also used in the manufacture of paper and in the production of weapons and armaments. Coal was needed to heat homes. Numerous studies on the industrialization of England in the eighteenth century have revealed that industrial coal consumption outpaced domestic consumption. The industries of rail, steel, and iron benefited from the use of coal. The nineteenth century saw a rapid increase in the economic output of these sectors, also referred to as capital goods industries.

Additionally, the established cotton industry that benefited from technological advancements like the power loom and spinning jennies was already present in England at the time of its transformation into an industrial power. Thus, it was possible to produce cloth more quickly and then sell it to a market made up of all of its colonies. Cheap cotton might also be offered to domestic consumers in large quantities. In fact, according to Eric Hobsbawm (1968), the development of the cotton industry in England marked the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Contrary to the second phase of industrialization, when capital goods started to play a significant role, the first phase of industrialization saw labor being less skilled and mechanization and innovation not as advanced.

Following England, with assistance from the government, which encouraged and promoted mechanization and industrialization, Germany, France, and Belgium also underwent industrialization. A later industrial revolution occurred in Germany, for instance, as a result of increased mechanization, better coal utilization for industrial purposes, and the construction of a robust railway network for the efficient movement of people and goods.

The existence of private property rights through which profits could be made and invested, wage labor, and the state's support for economic growth and bourgeois interests were some of the characteristics of the key regions where the Industrial Revolution took place. All of these nations' massive industrialization profits came at the expense of the proletariat and poor peasants, as well as the exploitation of slaves and colonies. The core region imposed economic policies on the periphery that depleted these colonies' natural resources in order to guarantee a steady supply of surplus from the peripheral region. By the turn of the 20th century, the colonial powers had realized that encouraging the development of industries in the peripheral and semiperipheral areas would be a wise economic move to increase the amount of money they could recoup from the sale of machines to those areas at a premium price.

Japan and the United States of America were two other nations that had caught up to the core European states in terms of the level of industrialization attained. By the end of World War II, the United States had surpassed England in terms of political and economic strength, whereas up until that point, England had the advantage in terms of industrialization and economic development. Industrialization was a key factor in the core regions of the world's employment and political stability, as well as their great economic and subsequently political strength in the global arena. During this time, North West European nations like the UK, Germany, and France, as well as the United States and Japan, dominated the core region. Southern and Eastern European nations, Scandinavia, and parts of Spain were partially industrialized and therefore in the semi-periphery, and countries of Asia (excluding Japan), Africa, and Latin America, which were the market for finished goods from the core areas but which were not industrialized or whose industries performed poorly. As was already mentioned, one of the accompanying changes was a growth in urbanization, with more people moving from villages to towns and cities in search of factory jobs. The family structure and patterns of residence changed as a result of the increased migration to towns; families and communities fragmented into smaller groups, and nuclear families came to be the norm. In Europe, population exploded in the second half of the eighteenth century as a result of medical advances and increased employment brought about by industrialization.

It is possible to see how the Western powers' decisions regarding foreign policy at the end of World War II led to the current form of globalization. Numerous nations are still feeling the effects of these policies. These policy choices are a result of the infamous Bretton Woods Conference, which took place in New Hampshire, United States, in July 1944. After that, the West and its Allies supported neoliberal and open market policies, which could be further spread through economic globalization. These initiatives in support of the capitalist ideology gained more legitimacy after the end of the Cold War. Many nations in Asia, Latin America, and Africa have restructured their economies over time in order to formally join the Bretton Woods system or the global economic system. To open its markets to the global economy, India, for instance, formally restructured her economy in 1991.

In order to promote market opening and global market integration, the Bretton Woods system's primary goal was to do so. A new set of economic organizations were created to supervise the operation of the new economic system so that the core, semi-peripheral, and peripheral countries of today could conduct their economic transactions with one another in accordance with certain internationally accepted standards.

The World Trade Organization (WTO), established in 1995 (following the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, established in 1947), focuses on policies related to the liberalization of trade not just in commodities but also in services such as education, information technology, and telecommunications. These economic organizations include the International Monetary Fund (IMF), established in 1944 to oversee the exchange rates of various currencies. The World Bank is another one of the new economic institutions. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which was established in 1944, is its official name. For the socioeconomic development of developing nations, the World Bank considers providing capital for investment.

Multinational corporations (MNCs) and transnational corporations (TNCs) started making investments in developing nations, particularly in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, under this new scenario. Some of these corporations are more wealthy than smaller nation-states and have greater power than most major powers. Today, it is believed that the presence of MNCs and TNCs in a developing country is a sign of that country's confidence in its economy. On the one hand, these corporations are a source of foreign direct investment, and on the other, they are given certain constrained benefits by the government of the nation in which they are located in order to carry on with their operations without interference. The term "globalization" is contentious because while its proponents claim that it is a process that expands economic opportunities and generates wealth for many, its detractors accuse it of being the cause of rising global, regional, and national inequalities. To attempt to combine these two points of view would be overly simple. However, globalization can be viewed as having two disadvantages.

The traditional core regions of the world, such as Europe and North America, are no longer the only ones. Even though more Asian countries may not have the same political clout as these ones, many of these regions have made significant economic progress. Even in a nation like India, more jobs have been created since the start of globalization in 1991, and more indigenous businesses have established themselves and expanded, providing millions of people with jobs. This does not, however, negate the fact that the wealth gap between the rich and the poor has widened. All of the opportunities that globalization has brought with it are frequently monopolized by the wealthy and elite. This is true for the majority of developing nations whose markets have been opened. Globalization as a process has existed in various forms for at least many centuries, as has been discussed in this module, and it is a reality that is here to stay for the time being. In this context, it's important to think about the many issues that globalization raises and the best ways to address them. The question that the international community, academics, and policy makers will continue to wrestle with in the coming years is how can the poor, the women, the minorities, the indigenous groups, and the children be made an essential part of this process, so that they can also benefit from the enormous opportunities that globalization offers.