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Week 2. Globalisation in History: Waves and Cycles

When did globalization begin? Can we pinpoint a specific date? Can we see different phases of globalization in the last 250 years? Are they characterised by different attributes? Is globalisation an intensification of specific features at a global level (ex. Communication, transnationality, etc.)? Or does it entail the birth of new forms of connectivity? And why so many social scientists insist that globalization is as recent as the 1970s?

1. Key Readings

Please read all key readings:

C.A. Bayly, ‘“Archaic” and A-Modern Globalization in the Eurasian and African Arena, c. 1750-1850', in A.G. Hopkins, ed., Globalization in World History (2002). HY 100.G5

Michael Lang, “Globalization and Its History,” Journal of Modern History, 78/4 (2006), from p. 914 to 931. (online through Library)

Dilip K. Das, “Globalisation: Past and Present,” Economic Affairs, 30/1 (2010), pp. 66-70. (online through library)

Niall Ferguson, “Sinking Globalization,” Foreign Affairs, 84/2 (2005), pp. 64-77. (online through library)

 

2. The Beginning of Globalization

Choose one of the following dates (I want you all to have different dates):

1492/ 1570s / 1780s and 1790s / 1830s / 1880s and 1890s / 1929 / 1945 / 1969 / 1973 / 1989-92 /2001 / 2008 / 2015

Write a short report defending your chosen date “Date X is the start of globalization” and post it on the course forum (deadline Monday night)