Key Points

Globalization has a long history involving trade, migration, and the movement of capital, ideas, and diseases, long before the modern era.

These ancient land and sea routes linked Asia with Europe and North Africa, facilitating the exchange of goods like silk and spices, and spreading religions like Buddhism.

The discovery of the Americas introduced crops like potatoes, maize, and tomatoes to Europe and Asia, significantly changing global diets and lifestyles.

In the mid-1840s, Ireland's dependence on the potato led to mass starvation and death when disease destroyed the crop, highlighting the impact of food dependency.

The most powerful weapon of European colonizers in America was not military but germs like smallpox, which decimated native populations who had no immunity.

The 19th-century world economy was shaped by three types of movement: the flow of trade in goods, the flow of labor through migration, and the flow of capital for investment.

After Britain abolished the Corn Laws, food could be imported more cheaply, leading to the decline of British agriculture and mass migration of people in search of work.

Inventions like railways, steamships, and refrigerated ships were crucial in the 19th century, making it possible to transport food and goods cheaply across the world.

In the 1890s, a cattle plague called Rinderpest killed about 90 percent of the cattle in Africa, destroying local livelihoods and helping European colonizers subdue the continent.

Described as a 'new system of slavery', this involved Indian and Chinese laborers being sent to work on plantations and in mines worldwide under harsh contracts.

The First World War (1914-1918) was the first modern industrial war. It transformed the US from an international debtor to a creditor, while severely weakening Britain's economy.

Pioneered by car manufacturer Henry Ford in the 1920s, the assembly line method made mass production possible, which lowered costs and fueled an era of mass consumption in the US.

Beginning around 1929, this global economic crisis was caused by factors like agricultural overproduction and the withdrawal of US loans, leading to widespread unemployment and poverty.

The Great Depression severely affected Indian trade and agriculture. Prices for raw materials crashed, leading to increased debt for peasants and widespread rural distress.

In 1944, this agreement established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to ensure post-war economic stability and full employment in the industrial world.

After World War II, newly independent developing countries formed the Group of 77 (G-77) to demand a New International Economic Order (NIEO) that would give them more control over their resources.

The Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates collapsed in the 1970s. Subsequently, Multinational Corporations (MNCs) began shifting production to low-wage Asian countries, accelerating globalization.