When was globalisation introduced

Many historians claim the first wave of globalization began with the gold standard in the s. Gold had been used as currency for thousands of years from when man started making gold coins. The value of those gold coins was worth the value of the gold that made up the coin. It wasn't until the s that England started fixing the value of its currency to specified amounts of gold. Eventually, many countries followed suit or pegged their currencies to countries that followed the gold standard.

Gold, therefore, became the international standard currency and could be bought or sold at a fixed price. After World War II, many nations looked to break down barriers of trade between nations, promote free trade, and set up global organizations. One view states that globalization cannot be backdated before the late s—the post-war era when the United States established itself as the economic powerhouse of the world. This definition of globalization argues that it is largely the work of powerful multinational corporations that have created a far-ranging set of consequences, both positive and negative, as they spread across the world.

The unprecedented ease of travel around the globe and the development of modern communications are used to support this view of globalization. Other scholars claim that the century-long trend toward globalization actually reversed by the midth century, citing the collapse of the international economy during the Great Depression and the fragmented state of the economy that persisted through World War II.

According to Anne O. Krueger, former first deputy managing director of the IMF, by , globalization and the degree of integration of the world economy was considerably less than it had been fifty years before. Of course, this trend has reversed again in the 21st century, an era of unprecedented global integration. Changes in technology and international economic policies have reduced many barriers to the free flow of goods, services, and capital.

Transport and communications costs have significantly dropped; at the same time, there have also been reductions in tariffs and other barriers to international trade that have opened up the global economy. This opening up of the global economy has led to an overall increase in international economic activity and, consequently, the importance of international trade in the world economy has also greatly increased.

In addition to more market-friendly policies and an acceleration of economic growth, a second major evolution in the forces of globalization occurred as a result of a range of countries—primarily Asian economies—becoming more significant economic forces in the international economy.

Whereas in the middle of the 20th century, the United States was the primary economic force in the international economy, by the beginning of the 21st century, the European Union EU , Japan, China, and India all have global significance and impact.

It is predicted that, in the future, their importance will become even greater. Many scholars argue that parts of the world have always influenced other parts and that the current state of affairs is a natural progression from earlier stages. The exchange of ideas and trade has, in one form or another, existed as long as humanity has existed.

There are, of course, different marking points determining true globalization, from ancient trade routes to modern global integration of financial markets , all of which have been made possible by the creation and development of technology.

International Monetary Fund. Accessed Aug. World Economic Forum. National Geographic. Bruce Mazlish. Pages The Guardian. National Bureau of Economic Research. Globalization is the process by which the world, previously isolated through physical and technological distance, becomes increasingly interconnected. It is manifested by the increase in interaction between peoples around the world that involves the sharing of ideas, cultures, goods, services and investment.

The last sixty years have witnessed a huge increase in globalization, but the phenomenon has been going on for much longer. Thomas Friedman describes the current trend as the third great wave of globalization in human history. Globalization has also spawned fears about loss of culture. Trade and idea exchange now extended to a previously unconnected part of the world, where ships carrying plants, animals, and Spanish silver between the Old World and the New also carried Christian missionaries.

The web of globalization continued to spin out through the Age of Revolution, when ideas about liberty , equality , and fraternity spread like fire from America to France to Latin America and beyond. It rode the waves of industrialization , colonization , and war through the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, powered by the invention of factories, railways, steamboats, cars, and planes. With the Information Age, globalization went into overdrive. The World Wide Web and the Internet allowed someone in Germany to read about a breaking news story in Bolivia in real time.

Someone wishing to travel from Boston, Massachusetts, to London, England, could do so in hours rather than the week or more it would have taken a hundred years ago. This digital revolution massively impacted economies across the world as well: they became more information-based and more interdependent.

In the modern era, economic success or failure at one focal point of the global web can be felt in every major world economy.