Assignment 2

1. Discuss the history of globalization.

Many scholars say that globalization first started with Columbus’ voyage to the New World back in
1942. People traveled to nearby and faraway places before Columbus’ voyage, however, exchanging
their ideas, products, and customs along the way. The Silk Road, an ancient network of trade routes
across China, Central Asia, and the Mediterranean that was used between 50 B.C.E. and 250 C.E. is
perhaps the most well-known early example of globalization. New technologies have played a big role
to the Silk Road trade. Advances in metallurgy led to the creation of coins; and increased agricultural
production which meant more food could be delivered between places. Along with the Chinese silk,
Roman glass, and Arabian spices, ideas such as Buddhist beliefs and the secrets of paper-making have
also spread with these tendrils of trade.

Silk roads (1st century B-5th century AD, and 13th - 14th centuries AD)
People have been trading goods for centuries now, but, during the 1 st century BC, a
remarkable event had occurred. For the first time in the history, luxury products from China started to
appear on the edge of the Eurasian continent— particularly in Rome. They got there after being
hauled for thousands of miles along the Silk Road. The trade has stopped being in just a local or
regional trading because it started to become global.

The next chapter of trade happened because of the Islamic merchants. The new religion
spread in all places from its Arabian heartland in the 7th century, as well as the trade. A famous
merchant, the prophet Mohammed, with his wife, Khadija, founded the Islam religion. The trade has
become the DNA of this new religion. On the early 9th century, Muslim traders have already
dominated the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean trade, and can even be found at the Far East such as
Indonesia, and as far as west as the Moorish Spain.

Spices were the main focus of the Islamic trade during the middle ages. And the mode of
trading that was used was mainly through sea, ever since the ancient times. But, the medieval era
that they’ve had, became the true focus of the international trade. Cloves, nutmeg and mace from the
fabled Spice Islands— the Maluku Island in Indonesia were extremely expensive and high demand,
that have also conquered places such as in the Europe. Silk by then, still remained as a luxury and its
trade to be relatively low volume. Globalization still haven’t took off, but the original belt— the Sea
Route and road— the Silk Road of trade between the east and west have exist.

Age of Discovery (15th – 18th centuries)

The global trade has truly started to kick off during the age of discovery. It happened in this
era, from the end of 15th century onwards that the European explorers connected the East and West
and eventually discovered the Americas through accident. Aided by the discoveries of the so-called
“Scientific Revolution” in the fields of astronomy, mechanics, physics and shipping, the Portuguese,
Spanish, and later on, the Dutch and the English first discovered, subjugated, and integrated new
lands in their economies.

The Age of Discovery rocked the world. The most in(famous) discovery that happened during
this time was the discovery of America by Columbus, in which ended to the Pre-Colombian civilization.
However, the circumnavigation of Magellan as considered as the most consequential exploration. It
opened up the door to the Spice Islands and cutting out the Arab and Italian middlemen. While the
trade remained small as compared to the total GDP, people’s lives were certainly changed.

The Industrial Revolution in Britain propelled the first wave of globalization

First wave of globalization (19th century- 1914)
During this time, the Great Britain had started to dominate the world both geographically and
technologically. This was an era of the First Industrial Revolution.

The “British” Industrial Revolution made for a fantastic twin engine of global trade. While,
steamships and trains could transport goods to places with thousand miles away, both within the
country and across the countries. The industrialization allowed the Britain to create products that are
high in demand. With this situation, the Britain was able to attack a huge and create a high capability
of expanding its market internationally.

The world wars

It was a situation that was bound to end in a major crisis, and it did. In 1914, the outbreak of
World War I brought an end to just about everything the burgeoning high society of the West had
gotten so used to, including globalization. The ravage was complete. Millions of soldiers died in battle,
millions of civilians died as collateral damage, war replaced trade, destruction replaced construction,
and countries closed their borders yet again. In the years between the world wars, the financial
markets, which were still connected in a global web, caused a further breakdown of the global
economy and its links. The Great Depression in the US led to the end of the boom in South America,
and a run on the banks in many other parts of the world. Another world war followed in 1939-1945.
By the end of World War II, trade as a percentage of the world’s GDP had fallen to 5% – a level not
seen in more than a hundred years.

Second and third wave of globalization

The story of globalization, however, was not over. The end of the World War II marked a new
beginning for the global economy. Under the leadership of a new hegemon, the United States of
America, and aided by the technologies of the Second Industrial Revolution, like the car and the plane,
global trade started to rise once again. At first, this happened in two separate tracks, as the Iron
Curtain divided the world into two spheres of influence. But as of 1989, when the Iron Curtain fell,
globalization became a truly global phenomenon. In the early decades after World War II, institutions
like the European Union, and other free trade vehicles championed by the US were responsible for
much of the increase in international trade. In the Soviet Union, there was a similar increase in trade,
albeit through centralized planning rather than the free market. The effect was profound. Worldwide,
trade once again rose to 1914 levels: in 1989, export once again counted for 14% of global GDP. It was
paired with a steep rise in middleclass incomes in the West.

Then, when the wall dividing East and West fell in Germany, and the Soviet Union collapsed,
globalization became an all-conquering force. The newly created World Trade Organization (WTO)
encouraged nations all over the world to enter into free-trade agreements, and most of them did,
including many newly independent ones. In 2001, even China, which for the better part of the 20th
century had been a secluded, agrarian economy, became a member of the WTO, and started to
manufacture for the world. In this “new” world, the US set the tone and led the way, but many others
benefited in their slipstream.

At the same time, a new technology from the Third Industrial Revolution, the internet,
connected people all over the world in an even more direct way. The orders Keynes could place by
phone in 1914 could now be placed over the internet. Instead of having them delivered in a few
weeks, they would arrive at one’s doorstep in a few days. What was more, the internet also allowed
for a further global integration of value chains. You could do R&D in one country, sourcing in others,
production in yet another, and distribution all over the world.

The result has been a globalization on steroids. In the 2000s, global exports reached a
milestone, as they rose to about a quarter of global GDP. Trade, the sum of imports and exports,
consequentially grew to about half of world GDP. In some countries, like Singapore, Belgium, or
others, trade is worth much more than 100% of GDP. A majority of global population has benefited
from this: more people than ever before belong to the global middle class and hundreds of millions
achieved that status by participating in the global economy.

Globalization 4.0
That brings us to today, when a new wave of globalization is once again upon us. In a world
increasingly dominated by two global powers, the US and China, the new frontier of globalization is
the cyber world. The digital economy, in its infancy during the third wave of globalization, is now
becoming a force to reckon with through e-commerce, digital services, 3D printing. It is further
enabled by artificial intelligence, but threatened by cross-border hacking and cyber-attacks.

At the same time, a negative globalization is expanding too, through the global effect of
climate change. Pollution in one part of the world leads to extreme weather events in another. And
the cutting of forests in the few “green lungs” the world has left, like the Amazon rainforest, has a
further devastating effect on not just the world’s biodiversity, but its capacity to cope with hazardous
greenhouse gas emissions.

But as this new wave of globalization is reaching our shores, many of the world’s people are
turning their backs on it. In the West particularly, many middle-class workers are fed up with a
political and economic system that resulted in economic inequality, social instability, and – in some
countries – mass immigration, even if it also led to economic growth and cheaper products.
Protectionism, trade wars and immigration stops are once again the order of the day in many
countries.

As a percentage of GDP, global exports have stalled and even started to go in reverse slightly.
As a political ideology, “globalism”, or the idea that one should take a global perspective, is on the
wane.

And internationally, the power that propelled the world to its highest level of globalization
ever, the United States, is backing away from its role as policeman and trade champion of the world.
It was in this world that Chinese president Xi Jinping addressed the topic globalization in a speech in
Davos in January 2017. “Some blame economic globalization for the chaos in the world,” he said. “It
has now become the Pandora’s box in the eyes of many.” But, he continued, “We came to the
conclusion that integration into the global economy is a historical trend. [It] is the big ocean that you
cannot escape from.” He went on to propose a more inclusive globalization, and to rally nations to
join in China’s new project for international trade, “Belt and Road”.

It was in this world, too, that Alibaba a few months later opened its Silk Road headquarters in
Xi’an. It was meant as the logistical backbone for the e-commerce giant along the new “Belt and
Road”, the Paper reported. But if the old Silk Road thrived on the exports of luxurious silk by camel
and donkey, the new Alibaba Xi’an facility would be enabling a globalization of an entirely different
kind. It would double up as a big data college for its Alibaba Cloud services. Technological progress,
like globalization, is something you can’t run away from, it seems. But it is ever changing. So how will
Globalization 4.0 evolve? We will have to answer that question in the coming years. (Vanham 2019).

2. Give one theory of globalization and explain why you choose it.

There are a lot of different theories of globalization that was introduced by different people, and if
I were to choose one theory, it would be the Global Village by Marshall McLuhan. Marshall McLuhan
was a media and communication theorist. He coined the term “global village” in 1964 to describe the
phenomenon of the world’s culture shrinking and expanding at the same time because of the
pervasive technological advances that allow for instantaneous sharing of culture (Johnson 192).

His insights were revolutionary at the time, and fundamentally changed how everyone has
thought about media, technology, and communications ever since. McLuhan chose the insightful
phrase "global village" to highlight his observation that an electronic nervous system (the media) was
rapidly integrating the planet -- events in one part of the world could be experienced from other parts
in real-time, which is what human experience was like when we lived in small villages.

Moreover, McLuhan's second best known insight is summarized in the expression is "the medium
is the message", which means that the qualities of a medium have as much effect as the information it
transmits.

The reason why I chose this theory of globalization is because, the theory for me, reflects the
current reality. During this time, our world is filled up with technologies that have a big impact on us.
The theory expresses the idea of us, people, are becoming more and more interconnected with each
other because of the presence of these technologies. Today, the web is often viewed as the medium
that connects the people all over the globe, a tool that allows us to know and be informed about the
happenings on our surroundings.

3. Why globalization is an ideology? Give your reason and explain your reason.
 Globalization is an ideology because it promises empowerment of people across the world, since
humanity has been facing common problems in economic, political, and social spheres. Globalization
enhances global markets through liberalization of trade and integration of free markets so that
services, goods, and capital can move freely across the borders. Due to the problem of economic
inequality in the developing and developed countries, liberalization of trade and integration of free
markets offer improved economic solutions. It means that globalization enhances devolution of
economic resources since free markets attract and allow free movement of services, goods, and
capital. Given that economic ideologies of communism restricted and controlled trade, globalization is
in tandem with current economic ideology of capitalism, which allows liberalization and integration of
world’s markets, thus a gateway to economic freedom.

According to Saul, the globalization ideology promises that, economic freedom, not political
imperialism, is a determinant of human events and destiny (34). In this view, globalization forces
emanate from economic factors that undergo self-regulation without any human interference; thus,
no one can claim to be in charge of globalization. However, despite the imposing ideology of
globalization to free humanity from economic and political imperialism, it has changed its course from
market globalism to imperial globalism.