Introduction
The use of the word ‘globalization’ was scarce before the late 1980. However, the fact that the term globalization is only a recent invention does not necessarily translate that humanity has not been thinking and theorizing about it before. Evidence of humans sharing a similar global humanity is to be found in the early Sumeric writings (Lechner 2009, p.9). The writing recount that international trade especially in precious commodities was known to diverse cultures such as ancient Greeks, Aztecs, Phoenicians, and Australian Aborigines. This means the influence of ‘foreign’ culture and tradition has occurred throughout history. What makes the recent globalization phenomenon more conspicuous is the greater convergence of a variety of elements at one time. Rapid technological advancement, in particular, has significantly enhance the opportunity of many people from the different parts of the world to communicate rather quickly and cheaply.
The present globalization has unfolded gradually as evidenced from such aspects as international trade agreements, level of financial integration, increasing resemblance of corporate structures, and the rapid and common transition to increased social and economic contacts between and among regions. Generally, therefore, globalization can only be termed as a recent phenomenon when considering it literal meaning of a global process. However, when used interchangeably with worldwide internationalization, then the concept of globalization lends itself to historical interpretation in which relationships between various social realities are found to have developed throughout time and relate to political, economic and cultural elements. \
Globalization
Reputable authors such as I. Clark, R. Wade, R. Zevin, G. Thompsson, and P. Hirst all contend that globalization is a process that has happened in previous, important times of human history and indeed repeated regularly(Lechner 2009, p.21). Arguably, philosopher Hegel (1770-1831) can be credited as the firs to theorize globalization because he did not just address the connections between disparate places and areas, but also the emerging consciousness about the connections. Hegel’s concept of the world spirit (Weltgeist) ¬¬- referring to an abstract entity inherent in all peoples though unevenly developed –shows his early understanding of the potential to imagine all of humanity as a sort of community. Earlier to this, Kant (1724-1804) had developed a concept of cosmopolitanism which include equitable and respectful communication between different peoples of the world, notwithstanding their differences. In investigating the influence of Islamic culture of the past process of globalization, historian A.G. Hopkins problemazes the comprehension of globalization process as an expansion of the West, instead recognizes that there existed earlier contacts among the Chinese, Indians, and Japanese way before the coming of the Europeans(Lechner 2009, p.27).
The concept of globalization was also prevalent during the nineteenth century, which was an era of colonial expansion, industrialization and scientific discovery in the Europe. This is because the processes were accompanied by new ways of thinking and new models of the world. During the period, international free trade and gold standard trade took on the flare of globalization and was a major success up to the Great War after which a world order was established under a Pax Britannica (Lechner 2009, p.36). Indeed, the political philosophy posited by Karl Marx was definitely global in its ambitions as nineteenth century cultural historians happened to include all peoples in their usually vast treatises, which usually took an evolutionist bent, positioning the historian’s own society at the top-most level of a developmental ladder. Industrial revolution, technological change and colonial expansion during the nineteenth century enable growth in international trade. Unlike it had been seen before, international trade resulted in a world economy that was truly global. New technologies linked together the different economies around the world by making it feasible to ship products much cheaply from one end of the globe to the other.
In the 18th century, Britain a major importer of porcelain tea services from as far as China, without sugar bowls, which the Chinese did not use as they served their tea green and bitter. Britain would subsequently add the Chinese sugar bowls on their import list as more and more British consumers of tea and coffee took notice of the pleasures of this drink in their sweetened form. Similarly, sugar was a vital commodity which the British brought from the Caribbean sugar plantations worked on by enslaved Africans transported from the west coast of Africa having been ‘bought’ for manufactured British goods. In this regard, sweetening of tea and coffee was itself a globalized business as early as the 18th and 19thcenturies. By mid-19th century, Great Britain, the leading economy at the time, was exporting in excess of a third of its national GDP – which represented three times the amount of U.S. exports during early 21st century (Steger 2013, p.54). The table bellows shows the amount of exports as a percentage of GDP of different countries in the international trade from 19th century to 20th century.
(Lechner 2009, p.64)
From the statistics above, it is evident that Japan was considerably less “global” in 1992 as compared to 1913 or 1938. The early 20th centuries period also exceeded our current level of globalization or integration due to the presence of an almost single global currency on the international market and the lack of exchange rate fluctuations. In this regard, the present rapid globalization should be taken as a return to the familiar past, and especially to the economic conditions witnessed in the second half of the 19th century and about thirteen years of the 20th century (Steger 2013, p.65). This was a period when international commerce was comparatively free, overseas investment was a common practice, and widespread international movement of labor. With our present rapid pace of integration, we are somehow retracing our roots to an earlier trend characterized by closer global economic integration.
The telegraph, one of the most important inventions in the nineteenth century, rendered it possible for people to communicate virtually instantaneously over vast distances across the globe. With the commissioning of the maiden functioning transatlantic cable in 1866, instant messages could be relayed from London to New York. All these innovations redefined the perception of space and distance, indicating that globalization is by no means a recent phenomenon (Steger 2013, p.89).
Technological development particularly in communication and transportation technology persisted on during the 20th century with such major inventions as the aero plane and radio. This inspired Leo Trotsky, a Marxist theorist, in the 1920s to argue that socialism in one given country was not possible due to the fact that world had become too interconnected to permit separate development at national level (Ritzer 2010, p.45). Trotsky championed for a world revolution. While World War I was mainly a European war, the Second World War was the first truly global war that entailed fighting in together with troops drawn from all continents.
Global interconnectedness would further intensify during the first postwar decades with the rapid rise in transnational companies and transnational non-governmental organizations. It was the period when the United Nations (UN) would mushroom into a large conglomerate of sub-organizations, setting up offices in almost all countries around the world. Both international travel and communication became increasingly easier and more common. During the 1960s, Marshall McLuhan – the Canadian media theorist – coined the now famous term ‘the global village’ to explain the emerging mass media situation, particularly television, which would bring about shared frames of reference as well as mutual knowledge among individual across the globe. At that time, global change across economic, political, and environmental spheres became recurring themes in many scholarly writings (Ritzer 2010, p.72).
Immanuel Wallerstein came up with his popular world system theory which chronicled the development of the traditional world system to the beginning of the intercontinental trade in the 15th century. Wallerstein argued that there was a subsequent development of a everlasting international division of labour, categorizing the globe into three core groups: the rich nations, the periphery or poor nations, and the semi-periphery (including countries like Russia, China and Brazil (Giddens & Griffiths 2006, p.63). Chase-Dunn and Hall (1997) expanded Wallerstein’s world-system theory with a detailed description of the development of transnational systems in a period ranging ten thousand years. The authors observed the integration of a multi-centered world at the beginning of the 19th century as all major centers of the world were in regular contact at the time. In analyzing imperialism from the point of view of the conquered, anthropologist Eric Wolf in his 1982 book titled Europe and the People Without History demonstrate how a majority of ‘indigenous’ peoples had long stopped being indigenous. For instance when China started opening its economy in the late 1970s, it allowed almost a fifth of the world’s population at the time to participate become greatly integrated into the global economy. This was the case with the disintegration of former USSR in 1991, when about 400 million people were added to the globalized world (Giddens & Griffiths 2006, p.78). This further proves that the spatial dimension of the globalization concept in the past is relatively greater than today.
Conclusion
To this end, it is clear that internationalization, geographical expansion, and contacts between peoples of different cultures are not new phenomenon in themselves. Globalization has occurred with the Romans, Chinese and Spaniards though on a smaller scale before the British along with other European empires became the first to take it on a truly global scope. Therefore, globalization has occurred over a long sweep of time, in phase and in different ways as well as degrees. While the challenges and pressures resulting from the current globalization may be significantly different from those experienced in the past, there is no argument that the present economic, political, and social integration is only a new chapter of a long-running story.
Bibliography:
GIDDENS, A., & GRIFFITHS, S. 2006. Sociology. Cambridge, UK [u.a.], Polity Press.
Lechner, F. J. 2009, Globalization: the making of world society, Chichester, U.K., Wiley-Blackwell.
RITZER, G. 2010. Globalization: a basic text. Malden, MA, Wiley-Blackwell.
STEGER, M. B. (2013). Globalization: a very short introduction. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
