The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines globalization as “the development of an increasingly integrated global economy marked especially by free trade, free flow of capital, and the tapping of cheaper foreign labor markets”. Globalization began developing in our world since the late 15th century and it has not slowed ever since. I would argue that globalization is as inevitable as innovation itself. People naturally will find more efficient modes of communication, transportation, and trade, through this nations seemingly foreign to each other will continue integrating to greater extents.
Scholars such as Adam Smith argue that Columbus’ discovery of the Americas in 1492 is the single most important event in recorded history. Many look at this event as the catalyst that set globalization into development. William H. McNeill states “The year 1500 marks an important turning point in world history . . . The European discoveries made the oceans of the earth into highways for their commerce . . .” (p.295). After 1500, the global economy began its integration of multicultural division of labor and trade. Long distance trade of high value commodities such as silk, exotic spices, and precious metals began as trans-continental transportation developed and became cost effective. This international trade evolved to include non-competing goods which essentially were very expensive luxuries in importing markets and therefore could bear transportation costs. These goods really only had a profound effect on the lives of the extremely wealthy who could afford the luxuries.
The eighteenth century began a transition of transportation development which resulted in incredible cost declines. This in turn had traders throwing in goods such as cotton, furs, and tobacco because they could afford to do so through integration of worldwide trade. Into the nineteenth century these prices became even cheaper with the introduction of steamboats, railroads, and the Suez Canal (Gelina Harlaftis and Vassilis Kardasis). From Europe to Asia these innovations drove freight prices down and productivity of trade up. With lower cost of transportation as well as the ability to move large quantities of goods over far distances very quickly, the cost of goods began to decline. The cheap price of consumer goods meant that the common citizen, who makes up a bulk of the population, was now able to purchase commodities produced in other countries. Thus, a cultural blending was allowed to ensue.
With the ability of a nation's citizens to purchase goods from another nation which was once seemingly alien to them, a cultural blending was allowed to ensue. This would further integrate the globe not only on the economic level, but on the social and cultural level as well. From these cultural integrations, the world began its globalization into the integration of a world culture as all nations made innovations in trade and communication accessible for an affordable cost.
The technological advances of the nineteenth century even influenced global political views. “Free-trading slave and land owners in the cotton South opposed capitalists in the industrial North in the ante-bellum United States, free-trading labour and capital opposed protectionist landowners in mid-century Britain, and protectionist coalitions of land and capital opposed labour in Germany after 1879” (Rogowski). These politics changed the global climate immensely as before the nineteenth century conflicts were much more likely to ensue within a nation and after these conflicts began to erupt on a global scale.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with the innovations in transportation such as steam powered ships and steel hulls, people could travel trans-continentally with relative ease. This resulted in an estimated 50 million people migrating from Europe into foreign nations. For context, this is nearly five times the number of African slaves transported to the americas in the early nineteenth century. The migration of this many people required the development of infrastructure which would become the largest and most important flow of international income in this time. Countries which received this influx of population from Europe were those which were technologically advanced to a point of heavy industrialization. This industrial development would influence families to have less children, thus they had a less concentrated population, and higher wages were possible because of these reasons. Because of the weak incomes of people in the regions of Asia, South America, and Africa, they did not experience heavy european integration and therefore became known as “third world” countries. Many of these countries remained without industrialization and fairly rudimentary in terms of technology. Thus, these countries have globalized at a much slower rate, and many of them are just beginning to develop today.
Communicational advances starting with the telegraph in the late nineteenth century and leading to the development of the telephone in the twentieth century was another aspect that drove globalization. Innovations such as these made transferring information and transportation not only simpler, but also cheaper and faster. This would in turn, optimize international division of labor. As these communicational technologies continued to develop, they became affordable for the average citizen in the late twentieth century. This informational technology increased speed of communication to such an extent that the structural changes involved with it would develop into a resurgence of mass globalization. The international market experienced a renaissance as direct industrial investment from countries around the world surged. As the first wave of globalization centered mainly around the trade of raw materials for industrial goods, this wave was dominated by intra industry trade. Another aspect of these communicational advances was a further blending of cultures. As people from different nations can communicate with each other relatively easily and share ideas, cultural globalization ensues to a greater extent.
Globalization has been taken to a further extent in recent years with the development of the internet. Anyone with a computer can access information from anywhere in the world at any time. This has a profound effect on world culture as it is integrated with this new technology. It has broken down communication barriers internationally in a way that would seem unfathomable to earlier generations. People can now communicate with large groups around the world through instant messaging or video conference. Global culture can be shared with the press of a button through social media or television programming. While there are some political and social barriers in the way of globalization, technologically there is fast and easy two way flow of global communication available. Now it is just a matter of having everyone being able to distribute information just as easily as it can be received, only then will we have a truly globalized culture.
As stated before, I would argue that globalization is as inevitable as innovation itself. Throughout history people have continued to invent and improve upon those inventions to be faster and more efficient. Just as these technological advances have evolved over hundreds and thousands of years, as will globalization. We will continue to develop and mix our ideas into a single world culture that we as a human race will share.