Historical Survey - Timeline

Many historians and sociologists have asked the question when globalization began or where it had its historical roots. The chart below provides a survey of the main historical trends leading to globalization, Six phases are described here. - The survey is based an Malcolm Waters, Globalization (London / New York: Routledge, 1995), 43-45.

The early-development phase (Europe, 1400-1760)

·          Christendom dissolves, state communities emerge

·          Catholic (that is, universal) churches

·          development of generalizations about humanity and the individual

·          first maps of the planet

·          sun-centred universe

·          universal calendar in the West

·          global exploration

·          colonialism

The beginning phase (Europe, 1750-1875)

·          nation-state

·          formal diplomacy between states

·          citizenship and passports

·          international exhibitions and communications agreements

·          international legal conventions

·          first non-European nations

·          first ideas of internationalism and universalism

The take-off phase (1875-1925)

·          concept of the world in terms of the four globalizing reference points - the nation-state, the individual, a single international society, and a single (masculine) humanity

·          international communications, sporting and cultural links

·          global calendar

·          first ever world war

·          mass international migrations and restrictions thereon

·          more non-Europeans in the international club of nation-states

The struggle-for-hegemony phase (1925-69)

·          League of Nations and UN

·          Second World War; Cold War

·          conceptions of war crimes and crimes against humanity

·          the universal nuclear threat of the atomic bomb

·          emergence of the Third (part of the) World

The uncertainty phase (1969-92)

·          exploration of space

·          post-materialist values and rights discourses

·          world communities based on sexual preference, gender, ethnicity and race

·          international relations more complex and flexible

·          global environmental problems recognized

·          global mass media via space technology (satellite television, etc.)

Globalization (now)

·          the uncertainty phase continues

·          spread of multinational corporations

·          spread of capitalism, end of communism

·          mobility and exchange of information increases even further

·          beginning of the Information Technology Age (Internet, email, mobile phones), allowing simultaneous exchange of information worldwide

·          post-national structures develop

Vocabulary

Legal convention: a pact. law or formal agreement, especially between countries. about particular rules or behaviour - universalism (n): the idea that certain rules and beliefs involve everyone in the world - hegemony (n.): a situation in which one state or country controls others - emerge (v.): to appear or come out - nuclear threat: the threat posed by nuclear bombs and destruction, possibly of the whole globe - sexual preference: decisions taken on the basis of one’s sexuality. whether one is heterosexual or homosexual - ethnicity (n.): belonging to a particular race, nation, or tribe and being rooted in their customs and traditions.