Coming Together:
Globalization
means
reconnecting the
human
community
Nayan Chanda
YaleGlobal, 19
November 2002
Folk art from Mexico
The exponential growth in the exchange of goods, ideas, institutions and people that we see today is part of a long-term
historical trend. Over the course of human history, the desire for something better and greater has motivated people to
move themselves, their goods, and their ideas around the world.
Since the first appearance of the term in 1962 'globalization' has gone from jargon to cliche. The Economist has called it
"the most abused word of the 21st century." Certainly no word in recent memory has meant so many different things to
different people and has evoked as much emotion. Some see it as nirvana - a blessed state of universal peace and
prosperity - while others condemn it as a new kind of chaos.
If properly defined and applied, the "g-word" actually does have some utility. It can best be understood as a leitmotif of
human history. It is a trend that has intensified and accelerated in recent decades and come into full view with all its
benefits and destructive power. Just as climate has shaped the environment over the millennia, the interaction among
cultures and societies over tens of thousands of years has resulted in the increasing integration of what is becoming the
global human community.
Globalization - defined by Webster's dictionary as a process that renders various activities and aspirations "worldwide in
scope or application" - has been underway for a long time. Thousands of years before the root word for this concept 'globe' - came into use, our ancestors had already spread across the earth. In fact, the process by which they migrated and
populated all the continents except Antarctica was a kind of proto-globalization. Some 50,000 years ago early forms of
homo sapiens, who developed in east Africa, began to travel to the far corners of the world, including to the continents of
North and South America. Rising sea levels at the end of the ice age separated the Americas from the Eurasian land mass,
creating two worlds that were now cut off from each other. They would not be reconnected until Christopher Columbus's
serendipitous landing on a Caribbean island in 1492. That same year a German geographer, Martin Behaim, built the first
known globe as a representation of the earth.
The reconnection was called the 'Columbian exchange,' and it is celebrated as a landmark in the history of globalization.
The discovery of the New World brought together peoples who had been separated for over 10,000 years. No less
significant has been the exchange of plants and animals. A Peruvian tuber, the potato, has become a staple throughout the
world, Mexican chili pepper has taken over Asia, and an Ethiopian crop, coffee, found new homes from Brazil to Vietnam,
to name just a few. In the intervening period, societies have not only evolved in radically different ways and developed
different economic and political structures, but they have also invented different technologies, grown different crops and,
most importantly, developed different languages and ways of thinking. That diversity makes the job of reconnecting
civilizations both challenging and rewarding.
Historically there were four main motives that drove people to leave the sanctuary of their family and village: conquest
(the desire to ensure security and extend political power), prosperity (the search for a better life), proselytizing (spreading
the word of their God and converting others to their faith), and a more mundane but still powerful force -curiosity and
wanderlust that seem basic to human nature. Therefore, the principal agents of globalization were soldiers (and sailors),
traders, preachers and adventurers. Signs of trade in the dawn of civilization can be seen in old seashells carried deep into
the interior of Africa. Thousands of years ago traders carried goods from one part of the globe to another across oceans.
Missionaries traversed deserts and mountains and sailed the seas. The spread of Buddhism from India to Indonesia led to
the creation of the Borobudur temple, which is one of the first monuments of globalization. From the Chinese Buddhist
monk Faxian's journey to India in the 4th century, to the Arab explorer Ibn Batuta's travels to Europe, Asia and Africa a
thousand years later, adventurers have continued to find new frontiers and establish connections among far-flung
societies, cultures and economies. Even though travel was slow and dangerous, ambitious and acquisitive leaders - from
Alexander the Great to Genghis Khan - ventured far from home and brought new lands under their sway. Conquest meant
globalization in both directions, since the rulers often ended up being as influenced by those they ruled as vice versa.
The cast of characters whose drive and determination have established links of both domination and cooperation has
changed with times. Small bands of traders carrying their wares on their backs or in boats have been replaced by giant
enterprises, starting with the Dutch and British East India Companies in the 17th century. In place of solitary pilgrims and
priests have come vast religious organizations that spread their beliefs, along with their languages, literatures and
architecture. The few intrepid adventurers and travelers of past centuries who brought distant societies together have
given way to thousands and even millions of refugees and immigrants fleeing across borders, as well as hundreds of
millions of tourists jetting around the world. All these comings and goings deepen and broaden the connections among far
parts of the world and facilitate the transmission of goods, ideas and cultures.
The commercial history of the past five hundred years is marked by other trends and transactions that have strengthened
the bonds of interconnectedness. The rubber plants uprooted from the jungles of Brazil and transplanted in Malaysia by
British colonialists in the first years of the 20th century provided the raw material for the tires in Henry Ford's Model T;
the indentured rubber tapper from China and India altered Malaysia's ethnic composition forever. The introduction of
new crops like corn and sweet potatoes from the New World had a dramatic impact on demography. For example, the
growth of population in China, which had been held in check by the shortage of irrigable rice fields, got a boost from new
crops that could be grown on marginal soil. Similarly, Chechnya's population grew apace after the arrival of corn from the
New World.
From the Roman empire, to Pax Britannica two centuries ago, to the Pax Americana of today, the power of super states
has been another force changing the nature of interdependence. In the emerging global supply chain that now feeds
consumer production worldwide, Western and American multinational corporations have taken a lead role.
The expanding circle of free trade has boosted economic growth and spawned a burgeoning middle class, which, in turn,
has increased consumption of globally produced goods and rise in international tourism. Most striking have been the
world's two most populous countries, China and India. With rising income and greater consumption has come more
personal freedom and a growing demand for accountable government. Even though the vast majority of the world
population is still poor, the ideas of democracy, human rights and press freedom have spread. The percentage of countries
which hold multi-party elections to choose their governments has grown from less than thirty percent in 1974 to over sixty
percent of the 192 countries in the world.
The most powerful force for transmitting the ideas of democracy and human rights across borders is the revolution in
information technology in the second half of the 20th century. The telephone, television and the Internet have been the
key tools. In the late 19th century, it took Queen Victoria sixteen and a half hours to send a message of greeting across a
transatlantic cable to President James Buchanan. Today vast amounts of information in multiple formats - text, voice,
video - are transmitted at the speed of light. Moreover, a three minute call from New York to London costs less than a
dime, instead of the $300 it cost in 1930. This dramatic drop in the price of telecommunications has made the benefits of
the information explosion available to much of humanity.
Meanwhile, innovations like satellite television have connected people's emotions across borders and oceans: the news of
Princess Diana's death flashing on cable TV's immediately elicited wreathes of flowers from around the world. The free
flow of information is also helping bridge the political divide: September 11 triggered a candlelight vigil among young
Iranians. But it has also been hardening attitudes along ideological boundaries. The Arabic-language satellite station Al
Jazeera's live broadcast of Israeli-Palestine violence has widened the gulf between Arabs and Israelis.
The falling cost of communications and transportation has boosted economic growth while literacy and better health care
have improved quality of life. People the world over are living longer and healthier lives, while the number of people living
in poverty has dropped in most regions (though it has increased in Africa and South Asia).
Yet faster growth has its cost, too. The reduction in poverty worldwide has negative environmental consequences. Close to
one percent of the world's rainforest is disappearing every year because of expanding agriculture and trade in forest
products. The closely knit global communication network that makes growth possible has also made the world as a whole
more vulnerable to everything from disease and mischief to terror. HIV infection in humans developed in Africa and South
America but has spread to the entire world, now infecting some 14,000 people each day. In 1997, in barely five hours the "I
love you" computer virus released by pranksters in Manila wreaked $700 million worth of damage worldwide. The
September 11 hijackers made use of electronic transfers of funds to finance their operation. They also relied on the
Internet to coordinate their moves and buy airline tickets. Since the attacks, Osama Bin Laden's favorite means of
communicating with the world from his cave has been satellite TV.
Not that any of this mixture of the good and the bad is new. Throughout history, the introduction of breakthrough
technologies has brought disruption, and created winners and losers. When the Old World connected with the New World
through colonizers and explorers, new pathogens like small pox and influenza caused a "demographic holocaust," killing
three out of every four Native Americans. The colonization of the Americas and vast parts of Asia, Africa, the Middle East
and Latin America, has destroyed traditional social structures and political power while speeding up the process of
economic integration. The need for labor to mine silver and work the plantations resulted in the transfer of some 10
million slaves from Africa. On the other hand, the economies of Europe and Asia boomed, fuelled by the flow of precious
metals and new commodities.
No other country has played as significant a role in reconnecting the world as the United States, itself an early product of
modern globalization. A vast majority of some 60 million people who left their place of birth in the most intense period of
globalization in the late 19th century went to the US. Immigrants and slaves built the richest nation in history. They drew
upon world resources - starting with the water mill and steam engine technology from Britain - and emerged as a leading
innovator and the most potent engine of globalization. With the American victory in the World War II Pacific arena and
the launch of the Marshall plan, US economic and military power has spread to far corners of the world, culminating in
the end of the Cold War. The fall of the Berlin Wall symbolized the end of a global ideological division and gave a boost to
the latest burst of globalization itself. It is no wonder many around the world see - and resent - globalization as a
euphemism for Americanization.
At the same time, the end of the Cold War has brought into sharper focus the other huge chasm that exists between the
rich and the developing nations. While globalization has created unprecedented riches, many people have also been left
mired in poverty. Industrialized countries with developed infrastructure, institutions and education, and middle income
countries which opened up the economy have benefited most from globalization, but the poorest countries have not
grown, or in some cases have even sunk back. Thus despite the overall fall in the rate of poverty, close to a third of the
world population still lives in utter poverty without access to electricity or drinking water. The gap between the rich and
the poor countries and between the wealthy and the indigent within countries has also widened. The rules of global
engagement that have evolved, and the institutions that manage them - from the International Monetary Fund to the
World Trade Organization - reflect the power imbalance between wealthy and poor nations.
Thanks to the wider diffusion of information, today's have-nots are more aware of the gap between themselves and the
rich West, and between themselves and Western-backed domestic elites. This consciousness can be a powerful source of
resentment and protest, such as the anti-American demonstrations from Venezuela to the Philippines. Overt or subliminal
political and cultural messages carried with goods, ideas and entertainment from the developed world have added to the
sense of disruption in many traditional societies. Combined with the misery and misrule in many countries, the bright
lights of the West lure many to seek their fortunes elsewhere. The rising tide of illegal immigrants washing over the
developed countries has become a major concern. The reconnection of the world through goods and ideas has also evoked
conflicting responses - from admiration to bitter nationalistic and religious resistance. While students in Iran clamor for
an American-style life, many in the West oppose globalization as the symbol of iniquitous free market capitalism. Many
people around the globe also see a Western-led globalization aimed at destroying Islam.
What does all this mean for globalization? Will globalization be forced to retreat in the face of growing disillusionment and
dangers such as terrorists' who abuse open borders and easy economic transactions? There is, of course, a precedent for
such a decline in globalization. Between the two World Wars, free trade and the free movement of people did slow to a
crawl, thanks to the raising of tariff walls and a closed door to immigration. But those restrictions did not dampen the
same four basic motivations - conquest, search for prosperity, proselytizing and curiosity - that have driven globalization.
The Allied victory against the Nazis and Japan, in fact, reopened the flood gates of globalization, giving a further boost to
trade and travel.
To be sure, many issues could throw a wrench into the engines of international integration - issues like the growing antiimmigrant sentiment in Europe, the West's farm subsidies and intellectual property rights concerns, and the tightened
visa policies of the US since Sept. 11. However, the secular trend of people connecting with the world would be hard to
reverse. The search for prosperity still drives businesses to expand beyond their borders and consumers to buy the best at
an affordable price, irrespective of the country of origin. The same curiosity about others that led the likes of Ibn Batuta to
leave home leads millions to travel, to watch foreign movies, eat different foods and enjoy international music and sports
events. The biggest difference between the globalization of the past and that of today lies in its visibility and speed. The
accelerated speed of global interaction has telescoped its impact and the global spread of the media has made it instantly
visible - something that in the past happened in slow motion and often out of sight. With all its promises and pitfalls, the
historical process of reconnecting the human community is here to stay and increasingly visible and increasingly a
challenge. Our task - whether we are citizens, scholars or statesmen - is to understand and manage globalization, doing
our best to encourage its favorable aspects and keep its negative consequences at bay.
Nayan Chanda is editor of YaleGlobal Online. His essay does not reflect the view of the Center for the Study of
Globalization.
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© Copyright 2003 Yale Center for the Study of Globalization