REMINDER
You are expected to have the chapter read BEFORE
lecture and BEFORE recitation.
TAs will be grading your participation. If you haven’t
read the chapter and can’t participate, you will lose
points and your grade will be affected!
There WILL be questions on the exam from the reading
that aren’t covered in lecture or recitation!
The World
System
Architecture of globalization
Today’s Question: What is the
World System?
 How has it shaped relationships among regions
historically?
 How does it make some places more powerful than
others?
 How does it shape globalization today?
Lecture Outline
 I. Prehistories of globalization: minisystems and hearth
areas.
 II. Early empires: metropoles and hinterlands
 III. Colonialism: core, periphery and semiperiphery
 IV. Neocolonialism and US hegemony
 V. The end of US empire?
I. Prehistories
of
Globalization
I. Prehistories of Globalization
 Human communities started
as minisystems.
 Minisystems have a single
cultural base and a reciprocal
social economy.
 They are limited in scale, and
usually isolated from other
social systems.
I. Prehistories of Globalization
Hearth Areas
 Eventually, some practices of
one culture spread to others.
 The place where a practice
comes into being and from
which it spreads is called a
Hearth Area.
 What is the hearth area of
Christianity? Of gunpowder? Of
noodles? Of the number zero?
Sedentary Agriculture
 Growing food, rather than
hunting or gathering it,
allowed minisystems to grow
and expand into hearth areas.
 Sedentary agriculture allowed
for larger populations, more
complex social organization,
and increased trade over long
distances.
II. Early
Empires
II. Early Empires
 Over centuries, some hearth
areas became politically
dominant over other areas.
 An empire is a group of
minisystems absorbed into a
common political system, while
maintaining fundamental
cultural differences.
 Examples: Ottoman Empire.
Others?
II. Early Empires
Egypt and Rome
Aztecs
Regional
empires
became a
world system
A world system is an
interdependent set of places
linked by political and economic
competition or collaboration
World System and Silk Road
Uneven development: Metropoles
and Hinterlands
Metropoles
 Urban centers of empire.
 Which world cities have
historically been metropoles?
 Which world cities are
metropoles today?
Hinterlands
 The area where a metropole
collects taxes and products to
be exported, and where it
imports goods for sale.
 What places in the world have
historically been hinterlands?
 What places are hinterlands
today? Can you match them
with their metropoles?
III.
Colonialism
Core, periphery and semiperiphery
Merchant Capitalism
Merchant Capitalism
 Merchant Capitalism is the
engine of the huge growth in
European empire in the 15th
and 16th centuries.
 Motivated by large
populations and not enough
food, European countries
sought to expand into new
territories.
The Santa Maria—Columbus in search of
new territories for merchant capitalist trade
Plantations
Plantation System
 Colonial systems acquired new
land and forced labor to
produce a single good for
export.
 This system was called the
plantation system.
 What crops were produced on
plantations?
Triangle Trade
Core, Periphery and SemiPeriphery
Core Countries
 CORE countries
 Dominate trade
 Control advanced
technology
 Have high productivity
 Have diversified
economies
 What were the core
countries in 1800? Today?
Steam engine invented by James Watt
In 1763
Peripheral Countries
 Are economically and




politically unsuccessful
Are dependent on the core
Have disadvantageous trade
relationships
Have primitive or obsolete
technology
Have specialized economies
with low productivity
Copper mines in Zambia made the country
Economically dependent on Britain.
Semi-Peripheral Countries
 Are in-between core and




periphery
They exploit the periphery, but
are exploited by the core.
Semi-peripheral countries can
rise into the core.
Core countries can sink into
the semi-periphery
Can you name countries that
have moved from semiperiphery to core?
Hegemony
 Is the domination over the
world economy by one country
 It is created via economic,
military, financial and cultural
domination
 It is usually based on control of
advanced technology
 Which technologies have
supported hegemons?
 Rome
 Steam engine
 Is this a durable situation?
What countries have been
hegemons that aren’t now?
 Internal combustion engine
 microchips
Control over advanced
technology shifts the balance of
power between regions
Be sure and read your textbook about the industrial revolution!
IV. Ne0colonialism
and US
hegemony
The United States has been world
hegemon since 1945
Neocolonialism
 Powerful states exercise
indirect power over other areas
of the world
 Not direct rule, as in
colonialism
 Rather, financial transactions,
commercial relations, and
covert intelligence establish
dominance
US domination of Latin America was often
carried out in the interests of companies like
The United Fruit Company.
Transnational Corporations
TNCs are actors in
neoimperialist relations
 They have alliances with
hegemonic states advance the
political agendas of states.
TNCs in peripheral
countries
 United Fruit
 Newmont mining
 In exchange, nation-states
often protect the TNCs’
economic interests through
political and military means
 Nestle
 Trump
 Can you name more? How are
they involved in neocolonial
relations over peripheral
countries?
Commodity Chains
 The path a commodity takes
from raw materials to
consumption.
 Are important paths through
which TNCs link core countries
to peripheral ones
 Involve relationships of
dominance and power
Coltan miners in the Congo
produce minerals essential to cell
phones
V. The End of
US
hegemony?
Are we witnessing the
end?
The End of US hegemony?
 2008 financial crisis: Can we
control global markets?
 Iraq and Afghanistan: Can we
control peripheral areas
through military means?
 2011 political crisis: Can our
system of government control
an increasingly complex world
system?
New Competitors in the World
System: BRIC
 Brazil
 Russia
 India
 China
 Have rapidly developing
economies
 Have significant investments
in the United States and
Europe
 Have strong labor bases for
expansion
 Are flexing muscles in foreign
countries
What world system comes next?