The History of Globalization

Globalization basically means that the world is slowly becoming one, instead of divided lands. Most people think that globalization has to do with just business influences. However, it’s also travel, communication, culture, etc that is affecting the spread of the world’s cultures. Basically, globalization is where goods and services are produced in one part of the world but eventually shared on an international level.

The history of globalization started a lot farther back than I thought it would. The earliest event that I could find was back in circa 325BCE. A man named Chandragupta Maurya became a Buddhist and combined the powers of a world religion, trade economy, and imperial armies for the first time ever. Alexander the Great sued for peace with him in 325BCE at Gerosia, which made the eastward link among overland routes between the Mediterranean, Persia, India, and Central Asia. Although, “officially”, globalization didn’t actually start until 19th Century, events along the world’s timeline helped get the movement going. As I understand it, globalization increases as countries progress. Events such as Genghis Kahn, the expansion of Islam, the age of European exploration, slave trade, The Great Depression era, the Industrial Revolution, and now into the Technological Revolution. These are just a few of many events or occurrences that have helped jumpstart globalization.

Some positives of globalization that are taking place, and have occurred, can be seen in a lot of the world’s economies. There are fewer barriers in trade and investments as companies and other various business interests can begin ventures in other countries. Not only can this help the firms themselves, but it could also help the economy and help develop a healthier market. In tandem with this, multinational businesses are one of the major factors in affecting the globalization of the world economy because they have productive activities in two or more countries.

One company that comes to mind is GMAC-RFC, which specializes in mortgages. They’re headquartered here in the Minneapolis area. However, they have expanded into Canada, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Mexico, and soon to be in South America. GMAC-RFC is interested in residential mortgages primarily. They are expanding globally with the idea of introducing new ideas and concepts for these residential markets that they’ve never seen so they may create more capital.

The negatives are probably more glaring on a local level than they would be on a global level. People are more prone to lose jobs if firms are expanding into other countries because they are able to pay employees in other countries to do the same job, but for less money.