Page 34 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol III

globalization 853

allowed us to buy it in several different colors. Attempts first migrations from east Africa that led to the human
to resist globalization can only result in unnecessary suf- conquest of the entire planet were arguably the most im-
fering as those left in its wake will not be able to survive. portant globalization stage in our history. Following our
Opponents of globalization do not see it as arising nat- discussion above, this migration both increased the vari-
urally out of the needs of global population, but as a ation within humans and at the same time assured that
product of the political domination of the United States only a particular form of primate dominated the planet.
following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the pref- The expansion of the major agricultural crops (corn, rice,
erences of multinational corporations seeking ever greater and wheat) is a second example of globalization, as is
profits. Producers and sellers want to be able to operate that of domesticated animals, weapons, and architectural
on a global scale and look to the American policeman to styles.The next phases of globalization were fueled by the
protect their interests. A third group that does not neces- simultaneous growth of trading markets (and the devel-
sarily take sides on the benefits associated with global- opment of commodities for commerce) and the capacity
ization sees it as a product of the technological develop- of political units to expand their territorial control.To this
ments of the past decades. Here the ubiquitous computer we may add the critical role played by a “homogenizing”
and that which it makes possible are responsible for cre- culture or ideology. In this way globalization has always
ating a global web of connections that forces states, involved goods, ideas, and institutions.
firms, and individuals to perform on a worldwide stage. The first society we might call globalized would be
first- to second-century in Eurasia, where accounts detail
History and Globalization the availability of a broad range of luxury goods from
If we treat globalization as a process rather than a final Rome to China. A group of empires also created a polit-
state—as a verb rather than a noun—then much of this ical and architectural infrastructure for this exchange.The
debate becomes irrelevant. A historical process can next major stage would arguably have been the expan-
lead to positive or negative results depending on its sion of Islam from the Arabian Peninsula beginning in
context or its timing. It may benefit different groups at the seventh and eighth centuries. Note that we continue
different times and in different ways. To judge glob- to live in a world partly shaped by these globalizations.
alization as a final state is particularly dangerous as The civilizations of east and south Asia never attempted
there has been so little time to appropriately measure a similar global stretch and the next stage is arguably the
and analyze its characteristics and consequences. The European expansion and subsequent empires begun in
process of globalization is also not historically uni- the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. To an extent this
versal, but can proceed in different ways at different stage still helps to shape the contours of contemporary
times. What defines it is not the end state, but the pro- globalization in terms of dominant languages and ide-
cess of reducing the isolation of territorially defined com- ologies, patterns of exchange, and distribution of power
munities and increasing the interaction and variety of and wealth. The technical advances of the nineteenth
contacts between such communities. It can lead simul- through the twentieth centuries have allowed a much
taneously to a broader menu of cultural, social, and po- faster and broader expansion of globalization than ever
litical choices and to the standardization of models before. The steamship and the telegraph helped shape
adopted by previously unique groups. If understood as the commodity connections that established the first
a recurring historical cycle, globalization loses much of stage of current globalization.The airplane and the tele-
its mystery and becomes yet another social phenome- phone fueled the second stage after World War II. Com-
non subject to study and comparison. puters and the Internet have dramatically accelerated the
Seen as such, globalization is certainly not unique to process over the last two decades of the twentieth
the end of the twentieth century. Understood broadly, the century.