Globalization refers to the process of increased interconnections, integration, and interdependence among individuals, organizations, cultures, economies, and nations across the world. It involves the movement of goods, services, information, technologies, ideas, and people across national borders, resulting in a more interconnected and interrelated global society.
In simple words we can say
“Globalization means that the world is becoming more connected and countries are working together more than before.”
Some Key aspects of globalization
- Economic Globalization: This involves the increasing flow of goods, services, capital, and investments across borders.
- Cultural Globalization: Cultural globalization refers to the exchange and spread of cultural elements such as ideas, values, traditions, languages, and art forms across different societies.
- Technological Globalization: Advances in technology, particularly in communication and transportation, have greatly facilitated globalization.
- Political Globalization: Political globalization involves the emergence of international organizations, treaties, and agreements that address global issues such as human rights, climate change, and trade regulations.
- Environmental Globalization: Globalization has brought attention to environmental issues that transcend national boundaries, such as climate change and biodiversity loss.
The Pre-modern World
Throughout history, people have engaged in migration across nations for a multitude of purposes. These include traveling as explorers to uncover new territories, as priests and pilgrims, as traders pursuing opportunities, as refugees fleeing persecution, as missionaries spreading religions, and as seekers of knowledge and better employment prospects.
- As early as 3000 BCE, vibrant coastal trade connected the Indus Valley civilizations with present-day West Asia.
- For over a millennium, cowries (seashells, known as 'cowdi' in Hindi and used as currency) from the Maldives made their way to China and East Africa.
- The long-range transmission of disease-bearing microorganisms can be traced as far back as the seventh century and became an evident connection by the thirteenth century.
Silk Routes Link the World
- The silk routes show how people traded and shared their cultures long ago.
- The name "silk routes" highlights how Chinese silk was important and went towards the West. Historians found different silk routes on land and sea that connected big parts of Asia, Europe, and northern Africa.
- People used these routes before and around 2000 years ago. They continued until about 600 years ago.
- Not just silk, but also Chinese pottery, fabrics from India, and spices from Southeast Asia traveled this way. In return, valuable metals like gold and silver came from Europe to Asia.
- Trade and sharing of cultures always happened together. Christian missionaries and later Muslim preachers also used these routes to travel. Even before all this, Buddhism started in eastern India and spread in many directions through these silk routes.
The trade route connecting India with the global regions in the late 17th century
Food Travels: Spaghetti and Potato
- Food shows us how cultures from far away connect.
- People who traveled to different places brought new foods with them. Even foods that seem different might have similar beginnings.
- Food has a way of traveling across the world, and two examples of this are spaghetti and potato.
- Spaghetti / noodles : Some believe noodles came from China or maybe other region and became spaghetti. India and Japan also had similar foods, so it's hard to know where they really came from. But this guesswork tells us that different cultures connected even a long time ago.
- Potatoes : Many foods we eat today, like potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chillies, and sweet potatoes, weren't known to our ancestors until about 500 years ago. These foods only came to Europe and Asia after Christopher Columbus accidentally found America continent. These foods mostly came from the people who first lived in America – the American Indians.
- Sometimes, new crops were really important. The potato, for example, made life better for poor people in Europe. It helped them eat well and live longer. In Ireland, poor farmers depended so much on potatoes that when a disease ruined the potato crop in the 1840, hundreds of thousands of people died because they didn't have enough to eat.
Conquest, Disease and Trade
- In the 15th century, the world started to feel smaller when European sailors discovered a way to Asia by sea and also reached America across the ocean.
- Before this, the Indian Ocean had busy trade with lots of things, like goods, people, knowledge and traditions moving around. India was a key part of this. When the Europeans arrived, they made some of these movements of things and ideas to change direction toward Europe.
- Before it was found, America was separate from the rest of the world. But from the 15th century, its big lands, lots of crops, and valuable minerals began to change trade and people's lives everywhere.
- Valuable metals, especially silver, from places like Peru and Mexico helped Europe become richer and trade with Asia.
- Portuguese and Spanish taking over America started in the 15th century. It wasn't just because they had better weapons. Actually, the biggest weapon was germs like smallpox that they carried. The people in America didn't have protection against these germs. Smallpox spread quickly and hurt a lot. This made it easier for Portuguese and Spanish to take control.
- Europe had problems like hunger and poverty and being sick. There were fights because of different beliefs. Many people left Europe for America to escape all this. By the 18th century, farms in America were growing things like cotton and sugar for Europe, with people from Africa working as slaves.
- Until around the 18th century, China and India were rich and did a lot of trade. But China closed itself off from other places in the 15th century, and the Americas started becoming important. This made trade move more towards Europe. So, Europe became a big center for trade.
The Nineteenth Century (1815-1914)
- The 19th century brought big changes to the world. Many things like money, politics, culture, and technology mixed together and made societies different.
- Economists talk about three kinds of "flows" in the world's trading.
- First, there's the flow of trade – when things like cloth or wheat move between countries.
- Second, there's the flow of people looking for work in different places.
- Third, there's the flow of money for investments that go far away.
- These three kinds of flows were all connected and they started to matter more in people's lives than before. Sometimes these connections could be stopped – for example, labour migration wasn't as free as things or money moving. But looking at all three flows together helps us understand how the world worked in the 19th century.
- Experts talk about three main ways things move around in International Economic Exchanges.
- First is Trading Things: Like swapping goods such as grain and clothes.
- Second is People Moving: When peoples go to new places to find employment.
- Third is Moving Money: Investment of capital into distant places for a short or long time.
A World Economy Takes Shape
- In the 19th century, when Britain tried to be completely self-sufficient in food, it led to lower living standards and conflicts. This was due to the population growing a lot in the late 18th century. Laws were made to control bringing in corn from other places, known as "corn laws." However, British farming couldn't keep up with imported food. As a result, large areas of land were left unused, and many people moved to cities or went to live in other countries. About 50 million people emigrated from Europe to America and Australia in the nineteenth century.
- In Britain, food costs fell, and during the mid nineteenth century, modern development prompted higher income and more food imports. To satisfy Britain interest, in Eastern Europe, Russia, America and Australia, lands were cleared to extend cultivation. To deal with the connecting of rail lines to rural fields and building homes for individuals required capital and work. London assisted as far as money and terms of work with people emigrated from Europe to America and Australia in the nineteenth century.
- By 1890, a global farming economy had formed. This change was linked to complicated shifts in how people moved for work, how money was used, the environment, and technology. Food didn't just come from nearby villages or towns anymore. It traveled from miles away. It was grown by farm worker who might have recently come there. The food was carried on railways made for this purpose and on ships. Many of these ships were run by workers from places like southern Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean who earned low wages.
Role of Technology
- In the 19th century, inventions like railways, steamships, and the telegraph were crucial. These technological advancements often came about due to bigger social, political, and economic reasons. For instance, when countries were colonizing, they put money into better transportation. This led to faster trains, lighter train cars, and bigger ships. These changes made it cheaper and faster to move food from distant farms to where it was sold.
- The trade in meat shows how things are connected in this process. Before the 1870, animals were sent alive from America to Europe and then slaughtered there. But live animals took up a lot of space on ships. So, meat was expensive for poor people in Europe. Then, a new technology changed things. Ships with refrigeration let people move food that cannot spoil like - meat, over long distances. Now, animals were turned into meat where they were from – like in America, Australia, or New Zealand. This made shipping cheaper and meat cost less.
Late nineteenth-century Colonialism
Business grew, and markets got bigger in the 19th century. But there's a not-so-good side too. In lots of parts of the world, when trade increased and countries got closer to the global economy, many people lost jobs and ways to make a living. In 1885, big powerful countries in Europe met in Berlin to divide up Africa among themselves. England and France got much more land to control. Belgium and Germany became new bosses of lands. The US also became a big boss in the late 1890s by taking over some places that Spain used to control.
Corn Law
The rules that let the government control bringing in corn were called the Corn Laws.
Rinderpest, or the Cattle Plague
Rinderpest : a rapidly spreading cattle disease, struck Africa in the late 1880.
In the 1880, a fast-spreading illness called Cattle Plague or Rinderpest hurt the African economy. It came from sick cattle brought from British Asia to feed Italian soldiers in Eritrea, East Africa. Starting in the East, Rinderpest moved quickly across Africa. This caused a lot of cattle to die and many people lost their jobs.
Indentured Labour (bounded Labor) Migration from India
Indentured labour (Bounded Labor) means–A Indentured labour is someone who agrees to work for a certain period for a boss, to pay for their trip to a new country or home.
In the 19th century, hundreds of thousands workers from India and China went to work on farms, mines, roads, and railways all around the world. In India, bonded workers were supported workers who could be sent to any country under a contract for a specific time and pay. Most of these workers came from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Central India, and certain parts of Tamil Nadu. The arrangement in the 19th century has been called a 'New System of Slavery'. By the 19th century, India's leaders against foreign rule started to criticize the Indentured Labor Migration system as unfair and harsh. It was ended in 1921.
Indian Entrepreneurs Abroad
Groups like Shikaripuri Shroff and Nattukottai Chettiars were some of the financiers and traders who supported Export Agriculture in Central and Southeast Asia. Indian traders and moneylenders also went to Africa, just like the European rulers. Starting in the 1860, they set up busy markets at busy ports all around the world. They sold things from nearby and faraway places to tourists, and more people were traveling because new, safe ships were available.
Indian Trade, Colonialism and the Global System
When industries grew because of machines, British
cloth-making also got bigger. The rich people who run businesses asked the
government to limit bringing in cotton so that their businesses stayed safe.
They put taxes on cloth coming into Britain. As a result, not much cotton from
India was coming in anymore. Indigo, used to dye cloth, was also important for
a long time. British-made cloth became more popular in India. The stuff that
Britain sold to India was worth a lot more than what it bought from India. So,
Britain had more stuff going out than coming in, called 'Trade Surplus' with
India. Britain used this extra stuff to balance what it got from other
countries where it bought more than it sold.
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