History of Globalization: Encyclopedia - History of Globalization

History of Globalization

Although the process known as globalization has visibly taken hold during the twentieth century, it has distinct historical antecedents. From the dawn of humanity, the world has grown increasingly integrated. Despite the admittedly fluid nature of history, a number of historians have divided the process of globalization into sections.

Archaic Globalization

Proto Globalization

Modern Globalization

The process of globalization is influenced by a number of empires. Among them are some of note:

History of Globalization - The Dutch Empire

History of Globalization - Dutch Reformed Church

The Dutch merchant fleets were obliged to deny other religions from creating churches and insulting the Dutch Reformed Church in any way on Dutch land and ships. As Geoffrey Parker mentions, although the Dutch did not allow religious pluralism on their ships and land, they had to be prudent in censoring other religions since the Dutch Naval and Merchant fleets were largely composed of foreign men (German, etc). So, even though other religions were denied open recognition and not allowed to insult the Dutch Reformed Church, the Dutch government couldn't very well force people of varying backgrounds to their way of thinking without serious internal problems that might have impeded trade.

History of Globalization - VOC or Dutch East India Company

History of Globalization - Merchant Warriors

In a chapter entitled "Rise of the Merchant Empires", Geoffrey Parker describes how the rise of merchant empires roughly coincides with the advent of 'modern history'.

History of Globalization - New Amsterdam

History of Globalization - The British Empire

History of Globalization - British East India Company

History of Globalization - The Ottoman Empire

History of Globalization - The Portuguese

The Portuguese were widely involved in trade around the horn of Africa into Asian waters in premodern times. By establishing trade enclaves and spreading a trade diaspora, the Portuguese expanded to trade in much of the Indian Ocean, and well beyond.

History of Globalization - The Mongol Empire

The Mongol Empire is widely known as the most prolific of the great 'mixers of peoples'. This nomadic people spread from Northern China and Eastern Russia to encompass much of the Eurasian landmass. Under the rule of Ghengis Kahn (spelling), the Mongol Empire embraced no specific moral code or religious programme.

History of Globalization - Authors and citations

The following is a selection of authors pertinent to the history of globalization.

Alfred Crosby has written a number of works on Globalization and its historical antecedents. Of particular note is Ecological Imperialism which chronicles the spread of biota with merchants and explorers in the process of global integration.

John Weaver is a professor of history at McMaster University. He is the author of The Great Land Rush, and other selected titles in Canadian and global history. The Great Land Rush discusses the creation and extension of property rights in the frontier areas of colonizing regions. Weaver discusses the various conditions for settlers, speculators, and squatters on the frontiers of Australia, Canada, the United States, Russia, and South America.

Phillip Curtin is a prolific writer on the history of the Atlantic world and historical roots of globalization. He has also written on the plantation complex and slavery.

Of particular note to the discussion of Globalization is Adas' Machines as the Measure of Men in which he discusses the varying degree to which technological and scientific achievement served to differentiate Europeans from their global counterparts. This book looks specifically at the relationships between Europe and Africa, India, China, and Japan. As Adas' implies, the relationships were ones of unequal strength. As time went on, the European powers quickly realized that they held the upper hand in scientific and technological achievements. (work in progress)

John Thornton has written widely on the Atlantic slave trade and Africa's role in slavery. One of his books, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800 is typical of his excellent work on the subject of African history.

Jared Diamond is widely known for Guns, Germs, and Steel. This book discusses the development of humanity through a scientific-historical viewpoint. Diamond employs ecological determinism to explain how certain peoples developed in different ways from each other. He looks at the ecological endowment of each region of the world where humans developed largely distinctly at first. Throughout Guns, Germs and Steel, Diamond explains how there are proximate and ultimate causes for certain regions and peoples to develop in certain ways. In terms of proximate reasons, Diamond proposes that socio-political decision-making played a secondary role in the development of human peoples. The more determinant factors, according to Diamond, are ultimate factors. The ultimate factors include animal-vegetable-mineral resources in the proximity of development. Also, the spread of these materials could speed up or slow down development. While Diamond brings a new perspective to the study of global history, he remains bound by his scientific background. Jared Diamond proposes his ecological determinist argument, and will not back down from it. As happens often in institutional science, once a thesis is proposed, it is stood by firmly for fear of being supplanted. The problem is that this is incompatible with the study of history. This issue manifests itself in Diamond's section on Chinese history. China defies Diamond's thesis in a number of ways. First of all, China was unified since 225BC, making them far more advanced than their European counterparts. Despite significant scientific and technological advances, the Chinese government decided to stop its treasure fleets from sailing starting around 1450AD. This caused the region to become intraverted and unconcerned with external interaction. So, despite having been endowed with all the 'necessary' resources, as Diamond lays them out, China still 'failed' to expand as predicted. Instead of conceding this problem, Diamond published an epilogue a couple of years after the original publication upholding his original thesis. Despite this problem, Guns, Germs and Steel remains an excellent source on the development of different regions of the world. It is interesting and useful in describing the integration of the globe in terms of spreading resources and biota.

Categories: Cleanup from December 2005 | Globalization | History of international relations

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History of Globalization", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki