● Trade was thus in the DNA of the new religion and its
followers, and that showed.
THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD
LECTURE
L1: GLOBALIZATION
PRELIMS
2ND SEMESTER - AY 2022-2023
BSMLS-2E
THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD - HISTORY OF
GLOBALIZATION
OUTLINE
I. History of Globalization
A. Silk Roads
B. Spice Routes
C. Age of Discovery
D. First Wave of Globalization
E. Second and Third Wave of Globalization
HISTORY OF GLOBALIZATION
● Now we look back at its history. So, when did
international trade start and how did it lead to
globalization?
SILK ROADS
(1st century BC-5th century AD & 13th-14th centuries AD)
● For the first time in history, luxury products from
China started to appear on the other edge of the
Eurasian continent – in Rome. They got there after
being hauled for thousands of miles along the Silk
Road. Trade had stopped being a local or regional
affair and started to become global.
● Silk was mostly a luxury good, and so were the
spices that were added to the intercontinental trade
between Asia and Europe.
● As a percentage of the total economy, the value of
these exports was tiny, and many middlemen were
involved to get the goods to their destination.
● But global trade links were established, and for those
involved, it was a goldmine. From purchase price to
final sales price, the multiple went in the dozens.
● The Silk Road could prosper in part because two
great empires dominated much of the route. If trade
was interrupted, it was most often because of
blockades by local enemies of Rome or China.
SPICE ROUTES
(7th-15th centuries)
● The next chapter in trade happened thanks to Islamic
merchants. As the new religion spread in all
directions from its Arabian heartland in the 7th
century, so did trade.
● The founder of Islam, the prophet Mohammed, was
famously a merchant, as was his wife Khadija.
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● By the early 9th century, Muslim traders already
dominated Mediterranean and Indian Ocean trade;
afterwards, they could be found as far east as
Indonesia, which over time became a Muslim-majority
country, and as far west as Moorish Spain.
● The main focus of Islamic trade in those Middle Ages
were spices.
● Unlike silk, spices were traded mainly by sea since
ancient times.
● But by the medieval era they had become the true
focus of international trade. Chief among them were
the cloves, nutmeg and mace from the fabled Spice
islands – the Maluku islands in Indonesia.
● They were extremely expensive and in high demand,
also in Europe. But as with silk, they remained a
luxury product, and trade remained relatively low
volume. Globalization still didn’t take off, but the
original Belt (sea route) and Road (Silk Road) of
trade between East and West did now exist.
Cloves
● Cloves can be used whole or ground. People often
include ground cloves in spice mixes and whole
cloves in recipes to add depth and flavor to a wide
variety of foods. These small dark brown pods are
used to spice up curries, season meats, enrich
sauces like Worcestershire sauce, and even flavor
spiced baked goods.
Nutmeg
● A pungent and a warm, slightly sweet tasting spice, is
used to flavor many kinds of baked goods,
confections, puddings, potatoes, meats, sausages,
sauces, vegetables, and such beverages as eggnog.
Mace
● Mace is the sister spice of nutmeg. Nutmeg trees
are the only plant to give us two spices.
AGE OF DISCOVERY
(15th-18th centuries)
● It was in this era, from the end of the 15th century
onwards, that European explorers connected East
and West – and accidentally discovered the
Americas. Aided by the discoveries of the so-called
“Scientific Revolution” in the fields of astronomy,
mechanics, physics and shipping, the Portuguese,
Spanish and later the Dutch and the English first
“discovered”, then subjugated, and finally integrated
new lands in their economies.
Christopher Columbus
● The Age of Discovery rocked the world. The most
(in)famous “discovery” is that of America by
Columbus, which all but ended pre-Colombian
civilizations.
Ferdinand Magellan
● But the most consequential exploration was the
circumnavigation by Magellan: it opened the door to
the Spice islands, cutting out Arab and Italian
middlemen. While trade once again remained small
compared to total GDP, it certainly altered people’s
lives. Potatoes, tomatoes, coffee and chocolate were
introduced in Europe, and the price of spices fell
steeply.
● Yet economists today still don’t truly regard this era
as one of true globalization. Trade certainly started
to become global, and it had even been the main
reason for starting the Age of Discovery. But the
resulting global economy was still very much
siloed and lopsided. The European empires set up
global supply chains, but mostly with those colonies
they owned. Moreover, their colonial model was
chiefly one of exploitation, including the shameful
legacy of the slave trade. The empires thus created
both a mercantilist and a colonial economy, but not a
truly globalized one.
FIRST WAVE OF GLOBALIZATION (First Industrial Revolution)
(19th century-1914)
● This started to change with the first wave of
globalization, which roughly occurred over the century
ending in 1914. By the end of the 18th century, Great
Britain had started to dominate the world both
geographically, through the establishment of the
British Empire, and technologically, with innovations
like the steam engine, the industrial weaving machine
and more. It was the era of the First Industrial
Revolution.
● The “British” Industrial Revolution made for a fantastic
twin engine of global trade. On the one hand,
steamships and trains could transport goods over
thousands of miles, both within countries and across
countries. On the other hand, its industrialization
allowed Britain to make products that were in demand
all over the world, like iron, textiles and
manufactured goods. “With its advanced industrial
technologies,” the BBC recently wrote, looking back to
the era, “Britain was able to attack a huge and rapidly
expanding international market.”
● While Britain was the country that benefited most from
this globalization, as it had the most capital and
technology, others did too, by exporting other goods.
The invention of the refrigerated cargo ship or “reefer
ship” in the 1870s, for example, allowed for countries
like Argentina and Uruguay, to enter their golden age.
They started to mass export meat, from cattle grown
on their vast lands. Other countries, too, started to
specialize their production in those fields in which
they were most competitive.
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● But the first wave of globalization and
industrialization also coincided with darker
events, too. By the end of the 19th century, the Khan
Academy notes, “most [globalizing and industrialized]
European nations grabbed for a piece of Africa,
and by 1900 the only independent country left on the
continent was Ethiopia”. In a similarly negative vein,
large countries like India, China, Mexico or Japan,
which were previously powers to reckon with, were
not either not able or not allowed to adapt to the
industrial and global trends. Either the Western
powers put restraints on their independent
development, or they were otherwise outcompeted
because of their lack of access to capital or
technology. Finally, many workers in the industrialized
nations also did not benefit from globalization, their
work commoditized by industrial machinery, or their
output undercut by foreign imports
The World Wars
● In 1914, the outbreak of World War I brought an end
to just about everything the burgeoning high society of
the West had gotten so used to, including
globalization. The ravage was complete. Millions of
soldiers died in battle, millions of civilians died as
collateral damage, war replaced trade, destruction
replaced construction, and countries closed their
borders yet again. In the years between the world
wars, the financial markets, which were still
connected in a global web, caused a further
breakdown of the global economy and its links. The
Great Depression in the US led to the end of the
boom in South America, and a run on the banks in
many other parts of the world. Another world war
followed in 1939-1945. By the end of World War II,
trade as a percentage of world GDP had fallen to 5%
– a level not seen in more than a hundred years.
SECOND & THIRD WAVE OF GLOBALIZATION
(Second Industrial Revolution)
● The end of the World War II marked a new beginning
for the global economy. Under the leadership of a new
hegemon, the United States of America, and aided by
the technologies of the Second Industrial Revolution,
like the car and the plane, global trade started to rise
once again.
● The main products of the 2nd Industrial Revolution
were steel, chemicals, electricity, and petroleum.
1885 Bessemer Process
● Steel production is faster and cheaper.
● Steel replaces iron.
1870s
● 1st practical electrical generators produced.
1910
● Numerous power plants power cities.
Other Inventions:
Edison/Swan - lightbulb
Bell - telephone
Marconi - radio
Revolutions in Transportation
● Internal combustion engine
● Ocean liners
● Automobile
● Airplanes
(Third Industrial Revolution)
● At the same time, a new technology from the Third
Industrial Revolution, the internet, connected people
all over the world in an even more direct way. The
orders Keynes could place by phone in 1914 could
now be placed over the internet. Instead of having
them delivered in a few weeks, they would arrive at
one’s doorstep in a few days. What was more, the
internet also allowed for a further global integration of
value chains.
● In the 2000s, global exports reached a milestone, as
they rose to about a quarter of global GDP. Trade, the
sum of imports and exports, consequentially grew to
about half of world GDP. In some countries, like
Singapore, Belgium, or others, trade is worth much
more than 100% of GDP. A majority of global
population has benefited from this: more people than
ever before belong to the global middle class, and
hundreds of millions achieved that status by
participating in the global economy.
GLOBALIZATION 4.0
● That brings us to today, when a new wave of
globalization is once again upon us. In a world
increasingly dominated by two global powers, the
US and China, the new frontier of globalization is the
cyber world. The digital economy, in its infancy during
the third wave of globalization, is now becoming a
force to reckon with through e-commerce, digital
services, and 3D printing. It is further enabled by
artificial intelligence, but threatened by cross-border
hacking and cyberattacks.
● At the same time, negative globalization is expanding
too, through the global effect of climate change.
Pollution in one part of the world leads to extreme
weather events in another. And the cutting of forests
in the few “green lungs” the world has left, like the
Amazon rainforest, has a further devastating effect on
not just the world’s biodiversity, but its capacity to
cope with hazardous greenhouse gas emissions.
● It is a common belief that globalization plays a role
just at international levels of trade and commerce, but
the fact is that it has played an important role in
making our lives much more comfortable too. The
phones, apparels, gadgets or accessories that we use
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in our day-to-day life are available to us through
globalization. Knowingly or unknowingly, we are all
under the impact of globalization, and more
importantly it has helped in bringing international
peace and justice to mankind.
● Being intertwined with countries and markets all over
the world has both benefits and downsides, so
globalization has both proponents and detractors.
No matter which side you’re on, globalization is simply
a reality of modern life; therefore, it’s important to
understand how it affects us and the choices we
make.
WHAT IS GLOBALIZATION?
● Process in which businesses begin operating
internationally
● The tendency towards international investment, trade,
IT, and the outsourcing of manufacturing across
borders.
● The transmission of ideas, values, and meaning
across the world.
● In some cases, the decline in the importance of the
nation state.
● A worldwide movement toward economic, financial,
communications, and trade integration.
● Globalization is the word used to describe the
growing interdependence of the world’s economies,
cultures, and populations, brought about by
cross-border trade in goods and services, technology,
and flows of investment, people, and information.
Countries have built economic partnerships to
facilitate these movements over many centuries. But
the term gained popularity after the Cold War in the
early 1990s, as these cooperative arrangements
shaped modern everyday life. This guide uses the
term more narrowly to refer to international trade
and some of the investment flows among
advanced economies, mostly focusing on the United
States.
● The wide-ranging effects of globalization are complex
and politically charged. As with major technological
advances, globalization benefits society as a whole,
while harming certain groups. Understanding the
relative costs and benefits can pave the way for
alleviating problems while sustaining the wider
payoffs.
References:
● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaJnlMYNDvk
● https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-effects-of-huma
n-interdependence-globalization.html
What is Globalization in Sociological Viewpoint?
● Anthony Giddens
○ The “intensification of worldwide social
relations which link distant localities in such
a way that local happenings are shaped by
 events occurring many miles away and vice
versa” (1990:64)
○ “We are all migrants now.”
● Roland Robertson
○ defines globalization as a concept that
“refers to both the compression of the world
and the intensification of consciousness of
the world as a whole...” (Robertson 1992:8)
○ Now we can turn to the work of Roland
Robertson, one of the most influential
thinkers on globalization.
○ Robertson’s work emphasizes the historical
dimensions of globalization.
○ He traces the existence of global
consciousness back to the ancient world of
the Romans.
● David Harvey (1989)
○ introduced globalization as the compression
of time and space and the annihilation of
distance.
● Suny Levine Institute
○ looks at globalization as a process of
interaction and integration among the
people, companies, and government of
different nations, a process driven by
international trade and investment and aided
by information technology.
● Manfred Steger
○ This process [globalization] has effects on
the environment, on culture, on political
systems, on economic development and
prosperity, and on human physical well being
in societies around the world” (Steger, 2005).
What is Globalization in Political Viewpoint?
● Political globalization refers to the expansion and
acceleration of political relations and
interdependencies across world-time and
world-space. These processes raise important issues
pertaining to the politics of the modern nation-state
and the international state-system.
● Specifically, these processes challenge traditional
conceptions of the principle of state sovereignty,
highlighting the growing impact of the
intergovernmental organizations like the United
Nations, the G8 and the G20, and raise questions
concerning future prospects for regional and global
governance (Baylis, Smith, and Owens, 2008)
● internationalization and multi- nationalization are
phases that precede globalization...
● Globalization heralds the end of the state system as
the nucleus of human activity” (DeSousa Santos,
2002:68).
● “...the activities and developments in globalization
have taken place outside the formal structures of the
nation-state...
● Globalization marks the increasing irrelevance of the
nation state, whose status as the dominant political
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organization was acknowledged by the Treaty of
Westphalia.”
What is Globalization in Economic Viewpoint?
● Globalization is dominated by global economic
activities like:
(1) The neoliberal regime is contemporarily used to
refer to market-oriented reform policies such as
"eliminating price controls, deregulating capital
markets, lowering trade barriers" and reducing state
influence in the economy, especially through
privatization and austerity.
(2) The reduction of tariffs - it imposes on its imports.
Tariffs are considered economically inefficient
because they make imports less competitive than
domestically produced goods, which can result in
more expensive products for consumers. The creation
of transnational corporations.
(3) The improvement of multilateral trade
organizations - having several or many sides;
many-sided participated in by more than two nations,
parties, etc.; multipartite: multilateral agreements on
disarmament.
REASONS FOR THE COMPETING DEFINITIONS OF
GLOBALIZATION
● HISTORIANS
○ They are more interested in determining
whether globalization is really a modern
phenomenon.
● ECONOMIST
○ They look into the changing patterns of
international trade and commerce as well as
the unequal distribution of wealth.
● POLITICAL SCIENTIST
○ They focus more on the impact of the forces
of globalization, such as the international
non-governmental organizations and
international organizations, on the state and
vice versa.
GLOBALIZATION AS PROCESS, CONDITION , AND IDEOLOGY
STEGER (2005) explains that globalization has been
commonly understood as a process, condition, or an
ideology
● GLOBALIZATION AS A PROCESS
○ Viewed as a multidimensional set of social
processes that generate and increase “
worldwide social interdependencies and
exchanges while at the same time fostering
in people a growing awareness of deepening
connections between the local and distant”
-Steger,2005:13

● This view argues that globalization is about
compression of time and space brought about by
changes in technology and the political, cultural and
economic aspects of human existence.
● WHEN DID THE GLOBALIZATION START?
○ Scholars specializing in international
relations, political science, media studies,
and economics date globalization from the
1970’s, with the formation of global value
chains and accelerated communication.
-Nederveen Piterse, 2012
NEO - LIBERAL GLOBALIZATION (1980 - 2000)
● It is generally associated with policies of economic
liberalization,including privatization, deregulation,
globalization, free trade, austerity, and reductions in
government spending in order to increase the role of
the private sector in the economy and society;
however, the defining features of neoliberalism in both
● Neoliberal reforms lead to deep changes in
healthcare systems around the world, on account of
their emphasis on free market rather than the right to
health. People with disabilities can be particularly
disadvantaged by such reforms, due to their
increased healthcare needs and lower socioeconomic
status. Nov 15, 2017.
● IN SOCIOLOGY
○ The timeline stretches wider since the point
of interest is modernity, which began during
the period of Renaissance, followed by
Enlightenment, then the French Revolution
and lasted up until the period of
Industrialization in the late 1700's and
throughout the 1800’s.
● IN POLITICAL ECONOMY
○ As well as Marxist perspective, the origin of
globalization can be traced back to the
1500's, following Marx's dictum “the
conquest of the world market marks the birth
of modern capitalism” (Ibid:3).
● Therefore, the historic moments of globalization are
1500’ - 1800’s, considered by political economists as
the birth of modern capitalism.
● A different way of tracing the roots of globalization is
by looking for signs of globality, the thickening of
social linkages between people from different parts of
the world.
○ It implies a longer timeline because
increasing connectivity is not a recent trend
(Nederveen Pieterse, 20212). Viewed as
such globalization has no definite and exact
beginning. Globalization is spurred by
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innovations in transportation and
communication technologies, and creation of
institutions of commerce.
● ECONOMISTS
○ Emphasize that the beginning of
globalization was in the 1820’s when
commodity prices across continents
converged
-O’Rourke and Williams, 2002,2004
● FLYNN AND GIRALDEZ (2006)
○ Globalization is synonymous to permanent
global trade, which began when all the major
regions of the world “exchange products
continuously and on a scale that generated
deep and lasting impacts on all trading
partners” (Ibid:244).
○ They conclude that the birth of globalization
took place in 1571, the year Manila was
founded as a Spanish entrepot connecting
Asia and America.
● JOHN HOBSON (2004)
○ Dates the emergence of the world economy
much earlier to 3500 BCE and the big
expansion of global trade, for him, happened
in the post-600 period. He concludes that the
500 CE was the beginning of globalization,
which particularly refers to as oriental
globalization.
GLOBALIZATION AS A CONDITION
● Scholte (2008)
○ Refers to globality as a social condition
characterized by trans-planetary connectivity
and supra territoriality.
○ Trans-planetary - relations, globality is
about the establishment of social links
between people located at different places of
our planet.
○ Our planet is not treated as a collection of
geographical units but as a social space or
an arena of social life.
● Controversies: the global condition
○ The Great Convergence: globalization and
‘spreading the wealth’, global poverty
reduction, narrowing global and international
income inequality, erosion North/South divide
○ The Great Divergence: globalization and
‘concentrating the wealth’, exaggerated
poverty reduction, erosion of social
protection, polarization and new geography
of inequality.
● Supraterritorial
○ Relations are “social connections that
transcend territorial geography” (Scholte,
2008:1480)
 ○ They are relatively delinked from territory,
that is, spatial domains that are mapped on
the land surface of the earth, plus any
adjoining waters and air spheres.
● Deterritorialization and Supraterritoriality
○ Distance becomes almost irrelevant (the end
of distance)
○ Boundaries are increasingly permeable
○ Groups and cultures increasingly don’t have
a territorial basis
○ A new kind of non-physical “place” is
emerging
● Globalization as a social condition is characterized by
thick economic, political, and cultural interconnections
and global flows that render political borders and
economic barriers irrelevant (Steger, 2008).
GLOBALIZATION AS AN IDEOLOGY
● Steger explains that globalization exists in people’s
consciousness because it consists of a set of
coherent and complementary ideas and beliefs about
the global order.
● Globalization is a political belief system that benefits a
certain class.
● He argues that globalization as an ideology is defined
by six core claims.
SIX CORE CLAIMS OF GLOBALIZATION AS AN IDEOLOGY:
1. Globalization is about the liberalization and global
integration of markets.
● Market integration
○ occurs when prices among different
locations or related goods follow
similar patterns over a long period
of time. Groups of goods often
move proportionally to each other
and when this relation is very clear
among different markets it is said
that the markets are integrated.
● Liberalization (or liberlisation) is a
process whereby a state lifts restrictions
○ on some private individual activities.
Liberalization occurs when
something which used to be
banned is no longer banned, or
when government regulations are
relaxed
2. Globalization is inevitable and irreversible.
● “Globalization is an inevitable and
irreversible trend. ... “More than ever, now is
the time for APEC economies to send a
strong message affirming their continued
commitment to open markets, deepened
regional economic integration, and support
for a new, more advanced process of
globalization.”May 16, 2017
● By focusing on the “logic” of technology and
markets, globalists minimize the role of
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human agency and individual choice
centerpiece of liberal thought
● Margaret Thatcher “there is no alternative.”
● Neoliberal policies are above politics,
because they simply carry out what is
ordained by nature
● The narrative of inevitability also helps to
justify the creation and execution of
governmental austerity measures
3. Nobody is in charge of globalization
● Steger (2005) explains that globalization
does not promote the agenda of any specific
class or group.
● Globalists are not dictating their own
agenda on people.
● People are not in charge of globalization;
markets and technology are.
4. Globalization benefits everyone in the long run.
● Free trade and free market, globalists
believe, will bring wealth and prosperity to
everyone.
○ Example: Jack Ma, founder and
executive chairman of the Alibaba
Group, who gained wealth and
fame by pioneering e-commerce in
China back in 1990s when using
the internet needed so much
patience.
5. Globalization furthers the spread of democracy in
the world.
● Democracy and globalization
○ Is globalization a threat to
democracy?
○ On the one hand, globalization may
mean that democratically elected
governments no longer have total
control over their own affairs
○ On the other, globalization has seen
the world-wide spread of the
democratic nation-state
○ Since the end of the communism
democracy has become the
university acceptable form of
government
6. Globalization requires a global war on terror.
● A global war on terrorism need to balance
domestic legitimacy against a variety of
international and regional legitimacies
● There are not and never have been my
purely military solutions to terrorism
● It’s a matter of politics, stupid!