Rizal Technological University
College of Education expansion of the geographical domain of the
Social Studies Department
Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, the learners
are about to:
*Discuss the precise definition and
meaning of globalization;
*Make a thorough scrutiny historical
background of globalization; and
*Value the significance of globalization
for a sustainable economic and cultural
expansion in the contemporary.
_______________________________________
A Quick Guide to the World History
of Globalization
A very long-term view, the many
meanings of the word "globalization" have
accumulated very rapidly, and recently, and the
verb, "globalize" is first attested by the Merriam
Webster Dictionary in 1944. In considering the
history of globalization, some authors focus on
events since 1492, but most scholars and
theorists concentrate on the much more recent
past. But long before 1492, people began to link
together disparate locations on the globe into
extensive systems of communication, migration,
and interconnections. This formation of systems
of interaction between the global and the local
has been a central driving force in world history
in "the five thousand year world system.
Globalize refers to the expansive
interconnectivity of localities, spanning local
sites of everyday social, economic, cultural, and
political life. A phenomenon but also an spatial
attribute so a global space or geography is a
domain of connectivity spanning distances and
linking localities to one another, which can be
portrayed on maps by lines indicating routes of
movement, migration, translation,
communication, exchange, etc.
The Contemporary World: Meaning of Globalization
Globalization refers to the physical
global -- that is, the increase in the scale and
volume of global flows -- and the increasing
impact of global forces of all kinds on local life.
Moments and forces of expansion mark the
major turning points and landmarks in the
history of globalization.
Some world historians attach
globalization ‘big bang’ significance to and such
scholars are on the side of Adam Smith who
believed that these were the two most
important events in recorded history. Other
world historians insist that globalization
stretches back even earlier. There is a third view
which argues that the world economy was
fragmented and completely de-globalized
before the early nineteenth century. None of
these three competing views has distinguished
explicitly between trade expansion driven by
booming import demand or export supply, and
trade expansion driven by the integration of
markets between trading economies.
Globalization in Historical
Perspective
1. c.325 BCE: Chandragupta Maurya becomes a
Buddhist and combines the expansive powers of
a world religion, trade economy, and imperial
armies for the first time. Alexander the Great
sues for peace with Chandragupta in 325 at
Gerosia, marking the eastward link among
overland routes between the Mediterranean,
Persia, India, and Central Asia.
2. c.1st centuries CE: the expansion of
Buddhism in Asia -- makes its first major
appearance in China under the Han dynasty,
and consolidates cultural links across the
Eurasian Steppe into India -- the foundation of
the silk road.
3. 650-850: the expansion of Islam from the
western Mediterranean to India.
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4. 960-1279: the Song Dynasty in China (and
contemporary regimes in India) which produced
the economic output, instruments (financial),
technologies, and impetus for the medieval
world economy that linked Europe and China by
land and sea across Eurasia and the Indian
Ocean.
5. 1100: The Rise of Genghis Khan and the
integration of overland routes across Eurasia --
producing also a military revolution in
technologies of war on horseback and of
fighting from military fortifications.
6. 1300: the creation of the Ottoman Empire
spanning Europe, North Africa, and Middle East,
and connected politically overland with Safavids
and dynasties in Central Asia and India --
creating the great imperial arch of integration
that spawned a huge expansion of trade with
Europe but ALSO raised the cost for trade in
Asia for Europeans --- a side effect of this was
the movement of Genoese merchant wealth to
Spain to search for a Western Sea route to the
Indies
7. 1492 and 1498: Columbus and da Gama
travel west and east to the Indies, inaugurating
an age of European seaborne empires.
8. 1650: the expansion of the slave trade
expanded was dramatic during the seventeenth
century -- and it sustained the expansion of
Atlantic Economy, giving birth to integrated
economic/industrial systems across the Ocean –
with profits accumulating in Europe during the
hey day of mercantilism and rise of the
Enlightenment. (estimates of slave trade
population)
9. 1776/1789: US and French Revolutions mark
the creation of modern state form based on
alliances between military and business
interests and on popular representation in
aggressively nationalist governments -- which
leads quickly to new imperial expansion under
Napoleon and in the Americas -- the economic
The Contemporary World: Meaning of Globalization
interests of "the people" and the drive to
acquire and consolidate assets for economic
growth also lead to more militarized British,
Dutch, and French imperial growth in Asia.
These national empires expand during the
industrial revolution, which also provokes class
struggles and new ideas and movements of
revolution within the national states and
subsequently in their empires as well. The
historical chronology of modernity coincides
with the chronology of globalization from the
eighteenth century.
10. 1885: Treaties of Berlin mark a diplomatic
watershed in the age modern imperial
expansion by European and American overseas
empires, beginning the age of "high
imperialism" with the legalization of the
Partition of Africa, which also marks a
foundation-point for the creation of
international law. In the last decades of the
19th century, the global "white man's burden"
became a subject of discussion. (Here is an old
syllabus for an undergraduate course on "US
Empire" with some useful links.)
11. 1929: the great depression hits all parts of
the world at the same time -- in contrast to
depression of late 19th century, but following
rapid, simultaneous price rise in most of the
world during the 1920s. Preceded by first event
called World War and followed by first really
global war across Atlantic and Pacific.
12. 1950: decolonization of European empires
in Asia and Africa produces world of national
states for the first time and world of legal-
representative-economic institutions in the UN
system and Bretton Woods. --- perhaps 1989
and the end of the cold war and globalization of
post-industrial capitalism which appears to be
eroding the power of the national states is on a
par with the watershed of the 1950s
What is Globalization?
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 Globalization typically refers to the
process by which different economies and
societies become more closely integrated, and
concurrent with increasing worldwide
globalization. Covering a wide range of distinct
political, economic, and cultural trends, the
term globalization has quickly become one of
the most fashionable buzzwords of
contemporary political and academic debate. In
popular discourse, globalization often functions
as little more than a synonym for one or more
of the following phenomena:
1. the pursuit of classical liberal (or free
market) policies in the world economy
(economic liberalization),
2. the growing dominance of western
(or even American) forms of political, economic,
and cultural life (westernization or
Americanization),
3. the proliferation of new information
technologies (the Internet Revolution), as well
as
4. the notion that humanity stands at
the threshold of realizing one single unified
community in which major sources of social
conflict have vanished (global integration;
Globalization, 2010).
Globalization is not a new
phenomenon, with global ecological changes,
an ever more integrated global economy, and
other global trends, political activity increasingly
takes place at the global level (Globalization,
2005).
It is old but not very about more than
20 years scholars from a variety of fields and
coerces have been discussed in a vigorous
debate about this social phenomenon:
globalization.
Globalization in the contemporary
Industrial emergence of worldwide
production markets and broader access to a
range of foreign products for consumers and
companies has increased a lot during the
globalization process (Politzer, 2008).
The Contemporary World: Meaning of Globalization
There are different approaches and
ideas surrounding the idea of ―globalization,
which we can categorize it in two broad areas:
(1) Some say that globalization is
necessary and we should willingly and actively
enter into this process, and
(2) Others take the quite opposite view,
espousing the need for increased nationalism
and consolidation of state power.
Modern globalization has been a recognized
force around the world for at least three
decades. Academic journals, newspapers,
television specials, and political discourse are
dominated by globalization events, and their
impact seems to be ubiquitous. For most it is a
good force, but for a very angry minority it
appears to be a bad force. One would have
thought that the terms of a force so important
would be well defined, its impact understood,
and its historical evolution appreciated. This
hardly seems to be the case, especially
concerning the economic dimensions of
globalization, and so this collection of essays
attempts to fill an important gap.
Defining Terms, We should begin at the
beginning.
What do economists mean by the term
globalization? What is included on their agenda
when they debate globalization issues?
Typically, their agenda is defined by between-
country integration in three markets.
First, there are commodity markets.
Here, the debate is about the cause of trade,
the impact of trade, and the political
determinants of trade policy. As for causes,
what determines how much is traded between
partners? What are the political, geographic,
language, and institutional barriers to trade?
What have been the relative contributions of
more liberal trade policies and transport
revolutions to lowering the barriers to trade?
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 Second, there are labor markets. When
migration is open and free, who does the http://www.tcd.ie/Economics/staff/orourkek/o
migrating and why? What are the economic and ffprints/EREH2002.pdf
demographic conditions that matter most in
source and destination? What impact does the
migration have on the sending and receiving
economies? Which residents gain and which
lose with a rise of foreign immigration and
domestic emigration? What happens to
migration flows when restricted by policy? And
what is the source of the policy restriction? It
should be clear that many of the questions
raised about trade and commodity market
integration apply here to migration and labor
market integration. Indeed, how do the two
interact? Is trade a substitute for or a
complement to migration?

Third, there are capital markets, where

the same questions apply that were just posed
for labor markets. In addition, however, global
capital market integration raises even more
questions. Here are some: What causes global
capital market crises? Does integration cause
contagion between markets, so that one
country’s irresponsible policies spread more
easily to another country, no matter how
responsible? Does a globally integrated world
economy ensure that capital flows to poor
countries? Do borrowing countries then lose
their ability to control their economies?
Alternatively, is there a “race to the bottom” as
countries try to attract more capital by offering
tax advantages and eliminating social welfare
programs? Do foreign investors then extract all
the gains, or do the host countries get their fair
share?

References:

http://www.ijhssnet.com/journals/Vol._1_No._
6;_June_2011/24.pdf

http://www.ub.edu/prometheus21/articulos/ar
chivos/Guide.PDF

https://www.nber.org/chapters/c9583.pdf

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