Civilization in a Global Economy

1. Discuss the world economy of the nineteenth century, explaining how it functioned and how the West benefited most from the global market involved. We currently live in a globalized economy. This is often referred to as the second one because from 1870 til World War I, the world markets were globalized. This previous period, called the new industrial Revolution, is where the world's markets integrated and then collapsed between the two World Wars and had a long period of recovery after these major world events. The second Industrial Revolution is usually dated between 1870 and 1914, although a number of its characteristic events which can be dated to the 1850s. It is, however, clear that the rapid rate of pathbreaking inventions (macroinventions) slowed down after 1825, and picked up steam again in the last third of the century. This says little about the rate of technological progress as commonly defined in terms of productivity increase and the improvements in product quality, which depends much more on the smaller, cumulative, anonymous changes known as microinventions. Yet the great pathbreaking inventions in energy, materials, chemicals, and medicine described below were crucial not because they themselves had necessarily a huge impact on production, but because they increased the effectiveness of research and development in microinventive activity. Eventually such activity like everything else runs into diminishing marginal product, unless a major new breakthrough opens new horizons. The second Industrial Revolution was, in many ways, the continuation of the first. In many industries there was direct continuity. Yet it differed from it in a number of crucial aspects. First, it had a direct effect on real... ... middle of paper ... ...of civilization including law, government, an increase in technology including in the medical aspect. The death rates within the inner zone was much lower then anywhere else worldwide. The outer zone of Europe included Ireland, some of Italy, and what is considered today as Eastern Europe. While industry ruled within the inner zone, the outer zone was still locked in the agricultural era. The wealthy within these zones were landowners and often abused their power on the peasants; who they often kicked off there land. The third zone was outside of Europe and I believe have the roots of the common modern phrase of “3rd World Countries.” They lacked basic infrastructure and were considered backwards with the ideals of Europe. These zones of Africa and Asia(not Japan) were opposed to modernizing and were dependent upon by Europe for certain commodities.