The Making of a Global World
Social Science Ten
The Pre-modern World: Globalisaiton
What is Globalisation or The making of Global World
The meaning of 'Globalisation' is a process in which the economic system emerged since the last 50 years or so. This includes the long history of trade, migration of people in search of work, the movement of capitals and many lot of things.
From ancient times, travellers, traders, priests and pilgrims travelled vast distances for knowledge, opportunity and spiritual fulfilment, or to escape persecution. They carried goods, money, values, skills, ideas, inventions, and even germs and diseases. As early as 3000 BCE an active coastal trade linked the Indus valley civilisations with present-day West Asia. For more than a millennia, cowries (the Hindi cowdi or seashells, used as a form of currency) from the Maldives found their way to China and East Africa. The long-distance spread of disease-carrying germs may be traced as far back as the seventh century. By the thirteenth century it had become an unmistakable link.
The various countries of the world are interconnected through trade and through exchange of thoughts and cultures. The interconnectedness has increased dramatically in recent times but the world was also interconnected even during the days of Indus Valley Civilisation.
Silk Routes Link the World
The trade route which linked China to the western world and to other countries is called Silk Route. There were many Silk Routes. The Silk Routes existed before the Christian Era, and persisted till the fifteenth century.
Chinese potteries travelled from China to other countries through the Silk Route. Similarly, gold and silver travelled from Europe to Asia through this route.
Religions; like Christianity, Islam and Buddhism travelled to different parts of the world through the Silk Route.
Food Travels: Spaghetti and Potato
Noodles travelled from China to different parts of the world. The sevian; which are used in India are localized form of noodle. Similarly, spaghetti of Italy is the European version of noodles.
Many common food of today; like potato, chillies, tomato, maize, soya, groundnut and sweet potatoes were introduced in Europe after Christopher Columbus accidentally discovered the American continents.
Potato brought dramatic changes for the life of people of Europe. Because of introduction of potato, the people in Europe could eat better and could live longer. The peasants of Ireland became so dependent on potato that when disease destroyed the potato crop in the mid-1840s, hundreds of thousands died due to starvation. This famine is known as Irish Famine.
Conquest, Disease and Trade
The European sailors discovered the sea route to Asia and Americas in the sixteenth century. The discovery of new sea route not only helped in expanding the trade but also in European conquest over other parts of the world.
America had vast reserves of minerals and there was abundant crop in this continent. The food and minerals from America transformed the lives of people in other parts of the world.
By the mid-sixteenth century, the Portuguese and Spanish colonization of America began in a decisive way. But the conquest could not be facilitated because of arms and ammunition but because of a disease. Europeans had been exposed to small pox and hence they had developed immunity against this disease. But the Americans had been isolated from the world and they had no immunity against small pox. When the Europeans reached there, they carried the germs of small pox alongwith them. The disease wiped off the whole communities in certain parts of America. And thus, the Europeans could easily get control of the Americas.
Till the nineteenth century, Europe was suffering from many problems; like poverty, diseases and religious conflicts. Many religious dissenters fled to America for the fear of prosecution. Those people utilised the opportunities in America and could dramatTill the eighteenth century, India and China were the richest countries of the world. But from the fifteenth century onwards, China began to restrict overseas contacts and went into isolation. Because of China?s reduced role and America?s rising importance; the centre of the world trade shifted to Europe.
The Nineteenth Century (1815 ? 1914)
The world had changed dramatically during the nineteenth century. There were changes in social, political, economic and technological factors in much complex way during this period. The changes altered the external relations beyond recognition.
Economists identify three types of flows within international economic exchanges. These are
(a) Flow of trade
(b) Flow of labor
(c) Flow of capital
A World Economy Takes Shape
Changing pattern of food production and consumption in Europe: Traditionally, countries liked to be self sufficient in food. But self sufficiency in food meant a low quality of life for the people of Britain.
There was immense growth of population of Britain during eighteenth century. Due to this, the demand for food had increased exponentially. Under pressure from the landed groups, the government restricted the imports of corn. This further aggravated the food prices in Britain. The industrialists and urban dwellers forced the government to abolish the Corn Laws.
Effects of abolition of Corn Laws
Abolition of Corn Laws meant that food could be imported at much cheaper rate than at what it could be produced in Britain. British farm produce was unable to compete with cheaper imports.
Vast areas of land were left uncultivated and a large number of people became unemployed. People migrated to cities; in large numbers; in search of work. Many people also migrated overseas. Many people also migrated overseas.
Falling food prices resulted in increased demand for food in Britain. Moreover, industrialization also helped in increasing the income of the people. This necessitated more import of food items into Britain. To fulfill the demand, large tracts of land were cleared in Eastern Europe, America, Russia and Australia.
The foodgrains also needed to be supplied to the ports. For this, railway lines were to be laid so that the agricultural hubs could be connected to the ports. Moreover, new habitations also had to come up in agricultural hubs. For all these activities, capital flowed from financial centres; such as London; to these places.
There was shortage of labour in Americas and Australia. The demand for workforce resulted in large scale migration of people to these places. Nearly 50 million people migrated from Europe to America and Australia during the nineteenth century. All over the world, about 150 million people migrated to different placeBy 1890s, a global agricultural economy had taken shape. This was accompanied by complex changes in labour movement, capital flow and technological changes.
Role of Technology
Technology definitely played an important role in globalizing the world economy during this period. Some of the major technological innovations were the railways, steamship and telegraph. Railways helped in connecting the hinterland to the ports. Steamships helped in transporting goods in bulk across the Atlantic. Telegraph helped in speeding up the communication and thus facilitated better economic transaction.
Trade in Meat Trade in meat shows a very good example of benefit of technology on the life of common people. Till 1870s, live animals were shipped from America to Europe. Shipping live animals had its own problems. They took more space and many animals either died or became sick during the transit. Due to this, meat remained a luxury item for most of the Europeans. ury item for most of the Europeans.
Arrival of refrigeration technology changed the picture. Now, animals could be slaughtered in America and processed meat could be shipped to Europe. This helped in better utilization of space in the ships. This also helped in better availability of meat for the Europeans and thus prices fell. Now, even the common people could afford to eat meat on a regular basis.
Better availability of food promoted social peace within the countries. People of Britain were now more receptive to imperial ambitions of the country.
Late Nineteenth Century and Colonialism
While the expansion of trade improved the quality of life of many Europeans; it had negative implications for people of the colonized countries.
When you will carefully observe the modern map of Africa, it would appear that most of the boundaries are straight lines. It appears as if someone had deliberately made those straight lines. In 1885, the big European powers met in Berlin and demarcated the African continent for respective powers. That is how boundaries of most of the African countries appear as straight lines.
Rinderpest or Cattle Plague
Rinderpest is a disease which affects cattle. The example of rinderpest in Africa shows that even a cattle disease can widely alter the power equations in a geographical area.
Africa was the land of vast resources of land and minerals. Europeans had come to Africa to make fortune out of mining and plantations. But they faced a huge scarcity of labour. There was another problem and that was that the local people were not willing to work in spite of being offered wages. In fact, Africa was a sparsely populated continent and people?s needs could be easily met with the available resources. There simply was no need to work for wages.
The Europeans applied various ways to force the people to work. Some of them are as follows:
(a) Heavy taxes were imposed which could only be paid by working on plantations and in mines.
(b) Inheritance laws were changed and only one member of the family was allowed to inherit land. This forced others into the labour market.
(c) Mineworkers were confined to the campus and were not allowed to move freely.
Arrival of Rinderpest
Rinderpest arrived in Africa in the late 1880s. It came with the horses which were imported from British Asia. Those horses came as reinforcements for Italian soldiers who were invading Eritrea in East Africa. Rinderpest spread in the African continent like the forest fire. It reached to western coast of Africa by 1892 and within five years after that, it reached to southernmost tip of the continent. Rinderpest wiped off 90% of the cattle population of Africa during this period.
Loss of cattle meant loss of livelihood for the Africans. They had no choice but to work as labourers in plantations and mines. Thus, a cattle disease enabled the Europeans to colonise Africa.
Indentured Labour Migration from India
Indentured labour is a bonded labour who is hired on contract for a specific employer for a specific period of time. Many poor Indians from modern day Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, central India and dry districts of Tamil Nadu became indentured labours. These people were mainly sent to the Caribbean Islands, Mauritius and Fiji. Many of them were also sent to Ceylon and Malaya. In India, many indentured labours went to work in tea plantations of Assam.
The agents often gave false promises and the workers were not even told about the place they were heading for. The condition in the alien land was quite horrible for the workers. They did not have any legal rights and had to work under tortuous conditions.
Form the 1900s, the Indian nationalists began to oppose the system of indentured labour. The practice was finally abolished in 1921.