AP World History: History in Reverse
NAME: ______________________________
History in Reverse: Thinking Historically
The following article describes aspects of the world today, a world far different than 8000 BCE. How did
we get here? Read the article and answer each of the following questions in a well-developed paragraph.
1. Define globalization in your own words. What is the leading cause of globalization in your
mind? Do you believe globalization is more positive or more negative? Why?
2. What did Jean-Marie Colombani mean by his declaration that all were Americans? Have we
entered a new phase of history after 9/11 as some historians suggest? How do we decide?
3. Describe traits of the contemporary world. How did the world get this way? What are the
historical events that have most shaped today’s world?
Globalization
Introduction
Globalization is a term used by a variety of people to describe large-scale changes and trends
in the world today. It is often defined as a complex phenomenon whereby individuals, nations,
and regions of the world become increasingly integrated and interdependent, and national and
traditional identities are diminished. Although it is a widely used term, globalization is also a
controversial and widely debated topic.
Some limit the definition of globalization to the global integration and connections forged in the
last twenty years. Worldwide integration dates back much further, however. In fact, all of human
history can be understood as the story of increased interaction on a limited planet. Even ancient
empires brought diverse peoples from vast regions of the world together. These empires,
connected by land or maritime routes, interacted with each other through trade and exploration,
exchanging goods as well as ideas. The current era of economic globalization is largely a
product of the industrial capitalist world, roughly dating back to the middle of the nineteenth
century when interactions between peoples rapidly increased. Since the conclusion of World
War II in 1945, and increasingly since the end of the Cold War in 1989, technological developments have enabled globalization on a wider scale and at a faster pace than occurred
during any previous age.
Jet travel, satellite technology, mobile phones, free-trade agreements and the World Wide Web
have initiated a truly global integration. Large corporations now earn large sums by utilizing raw
materials, laborers, and consumers from all continents. This economic globalization has
profound cultural ramifications; increasingly the peoples of the world are watching the same
films and television programs, speaking the same languages, wearing the same clothes,
enjoying the same amusements, and listening to the same music. Will the world become one
gigantic shopping mall? Are the pieces of the world becoming more alike or more different? And
is the process generally positive or negative?
Globalization supporters believe that these economic and cultural connections will ultimately
result in improved living standards by providing new job opportunities for workers around the
world, raising productivity as young people rise to the challenge of global competition, spreading
modern principles of healthcare, enriching lives with cultural exchange, and promoting peace
with the creation of international organizations like the United Nations.
Critics of globalization cite contemporary events and statistics as examples of the corrosive
effects of interaction and interdependence. Anti-globalization pundits believe that this process
enriches the wealthy while further impoverishing the poor, spreads environmental damage as
dangerous factories and chemical production shifts overseas, promotes materialistic amoral
culture, reinforces “tribal” identities further stoking nationalistic grievances, and provokes
international terrorism as fundamentalists react to increasing global intrusions.
Regardless of the debate, our world is changing more rapidly than ever before. Despite signs
that the United States is becoming more economically and culturally diverse, its status at the
world’s sole superpower has led the United States to be seen as the symbol and principal
proponent of globalization, for good or ill.
“We Are All Americans”
by - Jean-Marie Colombani
"Nous Sommes Tous des Americains" declared the headline of the French newspaper Le
Monde on September 12, 2001, the day after nineteen hijackers carried the fateful September
11th attacks. In the article that follows, Le Monde's editor, Jean-Marie Colombani, expressed
the shock and outrage felt by many around the world.
In this tragic moment, when words seem so inadequate to express the shock people feel, the
first thing that comes to mind is this: We are all Americans! Indeed, just as in the gravest
moments of our own history, how can we not feel profound solidarity with those people, that
country, the United States, to whom we are so close and to whom we owe our freedom, and
therefore our solidarity? How can we not be struck at the same time by this observation: The
new century has come a long way.
September 11, 2001, marks the ushering in of a new age that seems so far from the promise
of another historic day, November 9, 1989 [the breaking of the Berlin Wall], and a somewhat
euphoric year, 2000, which we thought might conclude with peace in the Middle East. If bin
Laden, as the American authorities seem to think, really is the one who ordered the September
11th attacks, the perpetrators of this murderous madness will claim "good intentions," whereby
the oppressed peoples of the world avenged their "poverty" against their sole oppressor
(America). What monstrous hypocrisy! None of those who had a hand in this operation can
claim they intend the good of humanity. Actually, they have no interest in a better world. They
simply want to wipe ours off the face of the Earth. And so a new century moves ahead.
The reality is that we live in a destabilized, dangerous world with America, in the solitude of
its power, lacking the Soviet Union as a counterbalance. In the regulated world of the Cold War,
nations were drawn to the United States in opposition to communist Russia, and the dialogue
between Washington and Moscow never stopped. Now, in many parts of the globe, America
seems to draw nothing but hate. Perhaps we have underestimated the intensity of the hate,
which, from the outskirts of Indonesia to those of South Africa, among the rejoicing crowds in
Egypt and Iran, is focused against the United States. Today, it is a new barbarism, apparently
with no control, which seems to want to set itself up as a counterpower.
Beyond their obvious murderous madness, these latest attacks nonetheless follow a certain
logic. There is a new hand that has begun to be dealt out in blood, but could it have been
America itself that created this demon? How can we fail to recall that bin Laden was in fact
trained by the CIA and that he was an element of a policy, directed against the Soviets? Whether
supporting corrupt Muslim regimes in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan or lashing out in an anti-Islam
rage after the attacks, the United States has done little to endear itself around the world.
Regardless, this terrorism follows a barbarous logic, marked by a new anarchy that is repugnant
to the great majority of those who believe in Islam, which, as a religion, does not condone
suicide any more than Christianity does, and certainly not suicide coupled with the massacre of
innocent people. But it is a political logic, which, by going to extremes, seeks to paint the United
States in the context of its foreign policy mistakes as "the Great Satan."
In the long term, this disastrous logic is obviously suicidal, because it attracts lightning. And
it might attract a bolt of lightning that does not discriminate. This situation requires our leaders
to rise to the occasion. They must act so that the people whom these warmongers are seeking to
win over will not fall in step behind them in their suicidal ideology. Madness, even under the
pretext of despair, is never a force that can regenerate the world. Be that as it may, America is
going to change. Profoundly. That is why today we are all Americans.
Reflections
The present can be more perplexing than the past. Our modern world can be the hardest to
understand because it is an unfinished story. And yet the present has little meaning without
history, and the surer our historical footing, the less likely we will be surprised by tomorrow.
When confronted with dramatic change we search the recent and distant past for explanations,
for clues that we are moving in a new direction or that we are returning to an old trend. For
example, many commentators trying to make sense of the changes in a globalized United
States alluded to its glorious past—its founding principles of freedom, honesty, and justice — in
an attempt to put recent changes in broad historical context.
When the United States was attacked on September 11, 2001, Jean-Marie Colombani was
hardly the only commentator to declare the beginning of a new era and a new barbarism. But
seeing only what is new is to be caught without history, as the editor of Le Monde well knew.
Thus, he searched for historical explanation: Was it the end of the Cold War? political
compromises with Saudi Arabia? or the U.S. support of Muslim fundamentalism in Soviet
Afghanistan in the 1980s?
When considering the causes and consequences of 9/11 and America's war on terrorism, the
process of globalization cannot be ignored. But what exactly is this force of globalization?
Understanding the process of change is the most useful "habit of mind" we gain from studying
the past. Although the facts are many and the details overwhelming, process only appears
through the study of the specific. And we must continually check our theories of change with the
facts, and revise them to conform to new information.
History is not an exact science. Fortunately, human beings are creators, as well as subjects, of
change. Even winds that cannot be stopped can be deflected and harnessed. Which way is the
world moving? What are we becoming? What can we do? What kind of world can we create?
These are questions that can only be answered by studying the past, both distant and recent,
and trying to understand the overarching changes that are shaping our world. Worlds of history
converge upon us, but only one world will emerge from our wishes, our wisdom, and our will.