Our Lord God in heaven.

Thank you for the new day You've bestowed upon us.
Until this moment, we still have our borrowed life and strength from You.
We worship and praise Your Holy Name.
This moment, we will continue to study and acquire new knowledge.
May You bless us with witty brains to think fast and inquiring minds to be curious on
whatever knowledge we will learn.
Most importantly bless us with Your wisdom and hearts that will follow Your
commandments in order for us to become worthy in our studies.
You know that in this recent times, most are suffering from hardships and crises.
We humbly ask You to bless our parents and family members.
May You shower Your abundant blessings and prosperity to each of our homes…
So that we can use these not only for our daily lives but especially for the performance
of our duties to Your Holy name.
We ask all of these. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior.

Amen.
 CHAPTER 2
GLOBALIZATION in HISTORY:
Is globalization a new
phenomenon?
Is globalization a new phenomenon?
• The answer to the question of whether
globalization constitutes a new
phenomenon depends upon how far we are
willing to extend the web of causation that
resulted in those recent technologies and
social arrangements that most people have
come to associate with globalization.
Is globalization a new phenomenon?

• Some scholars consciously limit

the historical scope of
globalization to the post-1989
era in order to capture its
CONTEMPORARY UNIQUENESS
Is globalization a new phenomenon?
• Others are willing to extend this
timeframe to include the
groundbreaking developments of the
last two centuries:
•19th century-1800s
•20th century-1900s
Is globalization a new phenomenon?

• Others argue that globalization really

represents the continuation and
extension of complex processes that
began with the emergence of
modernity and the capitalist world
system in the 1500s.
Is globalization a new phenomenon?
•The remaining researchers refuse to
confine globalization to time
periods measured in mere decades
or centuries– globalization
processes have been unfolding for
millennia.
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
• Steger’s short chronology identifies five historical
periods that are separated from each other by
significant accelerations in the pace of social exchanges
as well as a widening of their geographical scope.

•Thus, we could say that globalization is an ancient

process that, over many centuries, has crossed distinct
qualitative thresholds.
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS

•REITERATION:
• Steger’s chronology does not
necessarily imply a linear unfolding of
history, nor does it advocate a
conventional Eurocentric perspective of
world history.
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•The history of globalization has involved all
major regions and cultures of our planet.
•unanticipated surprises
•violent twists
•sudden punctuations
•dramatic reversals
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
• The prehistoric period (10000 BCE–3500 BCE)
•The premodern period (3500 BCE–1500 CE)
•The early modern period (1500–1750)
•The modern period (1750–1980s)
•The contemporary period (from the 1980s)
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE PREHISTORIC PERIOD (10000 BCE–3500 BCE)
• earliest phase of globalization
• ‘THE GREAT DIVERGENCE’—people and social
connections stemming from a single origin but
moving and diversifying greatly over time and
space.
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE PREHISTORIC PERIOD (10000 BCE–3500 BCE)
• contact among thousands of hunter and gatherer
bands spread all over the world was
geographically limited and mostly coincidental
•RESULT: enduring long-distance interactions
never materialized
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE PREHISTORIC PERIOD (10000 BCE–3500 BCE)

• The fleeting mode of social interaction

changed dramatically about 10,000 years ago
when humans took the crucial step of
producing their own food.
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE PREHISTORIC PERIOD (10000 BCE–3500 BCE)
• Only certain regions located on or near
the vast Eurasian landmass proved to be
ideal for these growing agricultural
settlements.
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE PREHISTORIC PERIOD (10000 BCE–3500 BCE)
• The areas were located in the
•Fertile Crescent
•north-central China
•North Africa
•northwestern India
•New Guinea
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE PREHISTORIC PERIOD (10000 BCE–3500 BCE)
•Food surpluses achieved by these early farmers
and herders led to:
• population increases
•establishment of permanent villages
• construction of fortified towns
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE PREHISTORIC PERIOD (10000 BCE–3500 BCE)
• powerful states emerged
•decentralized, egalitarian nature of
hunter and gatherer groups was
replaced by centralized and highly
stratified patriarchal social structures
The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS

CHIEFS and PRIESTS-exempted from manual labor

FULL TIME CRAFT SPECIALISTS

invention of new technologies, such as powerful iron tools, beautiful ornaments made of precious metals,
complex irrigation canals, sophisticated pottery and basketry, and monumental building structures.

PROFESSIONAL BUREAUCRATS and SOLDIERS

key role in the monopolization of the means of violence in the hands of a few rulers, the precise
accounting of food surpluses necessary for the growth and survival of the centralized state, the
acquisition of new territory, the establishment of permanent trade routes, and the systematic
exploration of distant regions.

FARMERS
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE PREMODERN PERIOD (3500 BCE–1500 CE)
•The invention of writing in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and
central China between 3500 and 2000 BCE roughly
coincided with the invention of the wheel around
3000 BCE in Southwest Asia
•These monumental inventions amounted to one of
those technological and social boosts that moved
globalization to a new level.
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE PREMODERN PERIOD (3500 BCE–1500 CE)
•The importance of these inventions for the
strengthening of globalization processes should be
obvious.
•Among other things, the wheel spurred crucial
infrastructural innovations such as animal-drawn carts
and permanent roads that allowed for the faster and
more efficient transportation of people and goods.
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE PREMODERN PERIOD (3500 BCE–1500 CE)
•In addition to the spread of ideas and inventions,
writing greatly facilitated the coordination of complex
social activities and thus encouraged large state
formations.
•EXEMPTION: the Andes civilizations of South America
managed to grow into the mighty Inca Empire without
the benefits of either the wheel or the written word.
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE PREMODERN PERIOD (3500 BCE–1500 CE)
• The later premodern period was the age of empires. As some states
succeeded in establishing permanent rule over other states, the
resulting vast territorial accumulations formed the basis of:
Egyptian Kingdoms Islamic Caliphates
Persian Empire Holy Roman Empire
Macedonian Empire African Empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay
American Empires of the Aztecs and the Incas Ottoman Empire
Roman Empire
Indian Empires
Byzantine Empire
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE PREMODERN PERIOD (3500 BCE–1500 CE)
•The most enduring and technologically advanced of
these vast premodern conglomerates was
undoubtedly the Chinese Empire.

•A closer look at its history reveals some of the early

dynamics of globalization.
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE PREMODERN PERIOD (3500 BCE–1500 CE)
• After centuries of warfare among several independent
states, the Qin Emperor’s armies, in 221 BCE, finally unified
large portions of northeast China.
• For the next 1,700 years, successive dynasties known as the
Han, Sui, T’ang, Yuan, and Ming ruled an empire supported
by vast bureaucracies that would extend its influence to
such distant regions as tropical Southeast Asia, the
Mediterranean, India, and East Africa
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE PREMODERN PERIOD (3500 BCE–1500 CE)
• major technological innovations achieved in China:
redesigned ploughshares mechanical clocks
hydraulic engineering paper
gunpowder printing
tapping of natural gas lavishly embroidered silk fabrics
compass sophisticated metalworking techniques
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE PREMODERN PERIOD (3500 BCE–1500 CE)
• major technological innovations achieved in China:
• artistry and brilliant philosophical achievements stimulated new discoveries in
other fields of knowledge such as astronomy, mathematics, and chemistry
• vast irrigation systems
• codification of law
• fixing of weights, measures, and values of coinage
• standardization of the size of cart axles
• roads
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE PREMODERN PERIOD (3500 BCE–1500 CE)
•The most extensive of these trade routes was the Silk
Road.
• It linked the Chinese and the Roman Empires, with
Parthian traders serving as skilled intermediaries.
•By the 15th century CE, Chinese fleets were crossing
the Indian Ocean and establishing short-lived trade
outposts on the east coast of Africa.
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE PREMODERN PERIOD (3500 BCE–1500 CE)
• Decades later, the rulers of the Chinese Empire
implemented a series of fateful political decisions that
halted overseas navigation and mandated a retreat from
further technological development.
• RESULT: the empire’s incipient industrial revolution was cut
short paving way for smaller and less advanced European
states to emerge as the primary historical agents of
globalization.
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE PREMODERN PERIOD (3500 BCE–1500 CE)

• expanding web of economic, political, and cultural

interdependence
• massive waves of migration
• led to further population increase and the rapid growth
of urban centers
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE PREMODERN PERIOD (3500 BCE–1500 CE)
• Religions with only local significance were transformed
into the
major ‘world religions’ we know today as Judaism, Christianity,
Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism
• DRAWBACK:
• higher population density and more intense social interaction over greater
distances also facilitated the spread of new infectious diseases like the
bubonic plague
• EXAMPLE: Black Death
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE PREMODERN PERIOD (3500 BCE–1500 CE)
• The unwelcome by-products of unfolding globalization processes
did not reach their most horrific manifestation until the fateful
16th-century collision of the ‘old’ and ‘new’ worlds
• Although the precise population size of the Americas before contact
remains a contentious issue, it is estimated that the deadly germs
of European invaders killed an estimated 18–20 million Native
Americans—an inconceivable 90–5 per cent of the total indigenous
population
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD (1500–1750)
• Refers to the period between the European
Renaissance (14th-16th centuries) and the
Enlightenment (17th-18th centuries)
•During these centuries, Europe and its social practices
emerged as the primary catalyst for globalization after
a long period of Asian predominance.
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD (1500–1750)

• Because European powers failed to penetrate into the

interior of Africa and Asia---they turned their
expansionistic desires westward, searching for a new,
profitable sea route to India.
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD (1500–1750)
• Their efforts were aided by such innovations as
mechanized printing, sophisticated wind and water
mills, extensive postal systems, revised maritime
technologies, and advanced navigation techniques.
•There was also the enormous impact of the
Reformation and the related liberal political idea of
limited government
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD (1500–1750)
• The rise of European metropolitan centers and their
affiliated merchant classes represented another important
factor responsible for strengthening globalization tendencies
during the early modern period.
• The European economic entrepreneurs laid the foundation
of what later scholars would call the ‘capitalist world system’
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD (1500–1750)
• The fledgling capitalists could not have achievedthe global
expansion of their commercial enterprises without substantial
support from their respective governments

• The monarchs of Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, France, and

England all put significant resources into the exploration of new
worlds and the construction of new interregional markets that
benefited them much more than their exotic ‘trading partners’
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD (1500–1750)
• By the early 1600s, national joint stock
companies like the Dutch and British
East India companies were founded for
the express purpose of setting up
profitable overseas trade posts.
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD (1500–1750)
•As these innovative corporations grew in size and
stature, they acquired the power to regulate most
intercontinental economic transactions, in the process
implementing social institutions and cultural practices
that enabled later colonial governments to place these
foreign regions under direct political rule
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD (1500–1750)
• Related developments:
• Atlantic slave trade and forced population transfers within
the Americas, resulted in the suffering and death of
millions of non-Europeans while greatly benefiting white
immigrants and their home countries.
• Religious warfare within Europe also created its share of
dislocation and displacement for Caucasian populations.
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD (1500–1750)
• 18th-century Europe
• the sovereign, territorial nation-state emerged as the
modern container of social life, evolving from the
Westphalian states system.

• RESULT: interdependencies among nation-states

 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE MODERN PERIOD (1750–1980S)
• Europeans and their descendants on other continents
took it upon themselves to assume the role of the
world’s guardians of civilization and morality
•Ironically, they remained strangely oblivious to their
racist practices and the appalling conditions of
inequality that existed both within their own societies
and between the global North and South
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE MODERN PERIOD (1750–1980S)
• They spread a philosophy of individualism and
rational self-interest that glorified the virtues of
an idealized capitalist system supposedly based
upon the providential workings of the free
market and its ‘invisible hand’.
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE MODERN PERIOD (1750–1980S)

•Written in 1847 by the German political radicals Karl

Marx and Friedrich Engels, a passage taken from their
famous Communist Manifesto captures the
qualitative shift in social relations that pushed
globalization to a new level in the modern period
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE MODERN PERIOD (1750–1980S)
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE MODERN PERIOD (1750–1980S)
• The volume of world trade increased dramatically
between 1850 and 1914.

• Most European nation-states subjected large portions

of the global South to direct colonial rule
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE MODERN PERIOD (1750–1980S)
•OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
1 Global pricing systems facilitated trade in important commodities
like grains, cotton, and various metals.
2 Brand name packaged goods like Coca-Cola drinks, Campbell soups,
Singer sewing machines, and Remington typewriters made their first
appearance.
3 International advertising agencies launched the first full-blown
trans-border commercial promotion campaigns.
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE MODERN PERIOD (1750–1980S)
4 New power sources such as electricity and petroleum
• unregulated use of these energy sources resulted in the
annihilation of countless animal and plant species as well as the
“toxification”
5 Innovations in transportation-railways, mechanized shipping, air
transport
6 Development of communication technologies
• Example: TELEGRAPH (1866)
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE MODERN PERIOD (1750–1980S)
• The 20 th century arrival of mass
circulation newspapers and magazines,
film, and television further enhanced a
growing consciousness of a rapidly
shrinking world.
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE MODERN PERIOD (1750–1980S)
7 Unprecedented population explosion- million to billion
8 Enormous waves of migration intensified existing cultural exchanges and
transformed traditional social patterns
-countries like the United States of America, Canada, and Australia took
advantage of this boost in productivity
-significant efforts to control these large migratory flows, in the process
inventing novel forms of bureaucratic control and developing new
surveillance techniques designed to accumulate more information about
nationals while keeping ‘undesirables’ out.
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE MODERN PERIOD (1750–1980S)
9 Many working people in the global North began to organize themselves
politically in various labor movements and socialist parties

20th century:
-mass migration, urbanization, colonial competition, and the excessive
liberalization of world trade.
The ensuing period of extreme nationalism culminated in two devastating
world wars, genocides, a long global economic depression, and hostile
measures to protect narrowly conceived political communities.
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE MODERN PERIOD (1750–1980S)
• The end of the Second World War saw the explosion of two
powerful atomic bombs that killed 200,000 Japanese.

• Nothing did more to convince people around the world of the

linked fate of geographically and politically separated ‘nations’.

• Indeed, the global imaginary found a horrifying expression in the

Cold War acronym ‘MAD’ (mutually assured destruction).
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE MODERN PERIOD (1750–1980S)
• A new political order of sovereign but interdependent nation-states
anchored in the charter of the United Nations raised the prospect of
global democratic governance.
• Such cosmopolitan hopes quickly faded as the Cold War divided the
world for four long decades into two antagonistic spheres:
• a liberal-capitalist ‘First World’ dominated by the United States
• an authoritarian-socialist ‘Second World’ controlled by the Soviet Union
Both blocs sought to establish their political and ideological dominance in the
‘Third World’.
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE CONTEMPORARY PERIOD (FROM THE 1980S)
• ‘the great convergence’— different and widely
spaced people and social connections coming
together more rapidly than ever before

• Deregulation of national economies combined with

the ICT Revolution kicked globalization into a new
gear
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE CONTEMPORARY PERIOD (FROM THE 1980S)
• This dynamic received another boost with
the 1991 collapse of the communist Soviet
Empire and ‘neoliberal’ attempts to create
an integrated global market.
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE CONTEMPORARY PERIOD (FROM THE 1980S)
• CRUCIAL QUESTIONS:
1. How exactly has globalization accelerated in these last
three decades?
2. What dimensions of human activity have been most
affected by globalization?
3. Is contemporary globalization a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ thing?
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE CONTEMPORARY PERIOD (FROM THE 1980S)
• Globalization is not a single process but a set of processes
that operate simultaneously and unevenly on several levels
and in various dimensions.
• We will identify, explore, and assess patterns of
globalization in each of its main domains—economic,
political, cultural, ecological, and ideological— while
keeping in mind its operation as an interacting whole on all
geographical scales.
 The FIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS
•THE CONTEMPORARY PERIOD (FROM THE 1980S)
• Although we will study the various dimensions of
globalization in isolation, we will resist the temptation
to reduce globalization to a single ‘most important’
aspect.
•Thus will we avoid the blunder that kept the blind
men from appreciating the full manifestation of the
elephant.