Globalization connects countries around the world through their money systems, governments, and ways of life. An economist named Theodore Levitt is often credited with first using the word “globalization” in a published article back in 1983. While some people link the start of globalization to the 1800s and the rise of industry, other experts suggest it really began near 1870 because that’s when trade between countries became much more important for how nations earned money.
Globalization keeps growing mostly because better technology makes it quicker to talk and send things globally, and also because many countries now have rules that make it simpler to buy and sell products across borders. Social scientists explain that important parts of globalization include more links forming worldwide and these links becoming stronger. It also involves better ways to connect distant places, activities crossing national borders, the world feeling smaller due to faster speeds, actions impacting faraway regions, and people globally depending more on one another.
Today’s researchers explain globalization as a slow process where important human activities, like business, government, and culture, are less and less stopped by the borders between countries. So, in simple terms, globalization means that links involving money, government, and people are growing wider to connect places far apart and across different time periods. You can see globalization at work, for example, when companies make products to sell in other countries, when nations follow global agreements, or when languages borrow words from each other.
Even before our time, history shows examples of global connections, like the old Silk Road carrying goods between China and Rome, various European nations obeying the same powerful Church, or the English language adopting French terms after England was conquered by the Normans long ago. These early connections between places helped set the stage for the globalization we see now. Experts who study history and money believe these past events were important first steps toward today’s very connected world.
Experts categorize the time from the 1400s to the 1700s as “proto-globalization,” meaning early globalization, because this was when European explorers established sea paths for trade across major oceans and found new large landmasses. What truly separates today’s global connections from older ones is how much faster things happen now and how the effects spread much further across the world. Some experts group recent globalization into three distinct time periods, classifying each phase by a big jump in how much countries were interacting with each other.
Using this grouping method, the “first globalization” defines the time from about 1870 to 1914, known because big improvements in travel and communication made it much easier to connect across long distances. The period called “second globalization” covers about 1944 to 1971. It’s defined by a worldwide money system tied to the American dollar that made it easier for capitalist countries to trade more with each other. The time known as “third globalization” is defined as starting around 1989-90. This period began when big political changes in Eastern Europe let money flow into countries that were previously communist, and it happened just as the internet was starting to develop.
Some people believe we’ve entered a new stage called “fourth globalization,” but experts are still discussing when this might have started and whether it’s really different enough from the third stage to get its own name. Because globalization connects the world more, it has brought many good results for people everywhere. A positive result is that using more factory technology and getting better at making things has helped lower the share of people around the world living in extreme poverty.
One major positive impact is how sharing medical discoveries worldwide has drastically reduced illnesses people used to dread, leading to the amazing success of completely eliminating smallpox. A positive effect is that when countries depend on each other for business and trade, it gives them strong reasons to avoid fighting and remain peaceful. However, looking at the downsides, serious complaints about how globalization actually operates have caused many people to form groups actively protesting against it.
People who criticize globalization, especially its current version (often called neoliberal), come from many different backgrounds and hold various political views, including ideas usually found on both the left and the right. Criticisms explain why some groups oppose globalization: workers’ groups (unions) dislike companies moving jobs to pay lower wages elsewhere; native groups (Indigenous communities) worry about losing their unique cultures; and people with left-leaning views argue that the current system, focused on free markets (neoliberalism), creates unfair power gaps between rich and poor globally and treats too many things as just items for sale.
Critics with right-leaning political views often explain their opposition by arguing that globalization can hurt a country’s economy and also weaken its unique national character. From their political viewpoint, these critics prescribe that nations should protect their economies by controlling them directly and strictly limiting immigration.Beyond the points people argue about, be warned that globalization also creates harmful effects that worry many people across the world.
A negative point is that while better ways to travel and ship goods helped world trade, this faster movement unfortunately also allows diseases to spread between countries more easily. Critics point out a serious negative: globalization’s increased connections unfortunately also provide pathways for terrible illegal activities, like human and animal trafficking, to grow alongside lawful businesses. A truly alarming consequence is that pollution from worldwide industry causes global warming and climate change, which gravely threatens the future of life on our planet.
It’s uncertain if globalization can overcome these major problems, but the way it works is already starting to change again. Here’s one illustration of how globalization is shifting: While selling goods abroad greatly increased back in the 1800s, by the time before the 2020 pandemic, trade between countries already made up a smaller portion of the total economy for many nations. One analysis argues that today’s systems for making and shipping products worldwide rely more heavily on expert knowledge and information, rather than just depending on basic physical work. It’s a fact that today, businesses offering services are responsible for a larger share of the world’s total economic activity compared to businesses making physical items. Therefore, some think we might be entering a new period, possibly known as “fourth globalization,” although it’s still developing.