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Timeline
ZACH RICHER
As the well over 600 entries in this encyclopedia demonstrate, globalization is a term
that encompasses structures, systems, and processes across a broad range of social
contexts and academic disciplines. Its popular association with market forces and
economic integration belies the manifold ways that populations have become
increasingly integrated through political, social, cultural, and technological exchanges.
Indeed, the first known usage of globalization (Reiser & Davies 1944) emerged during
the final months of World War II as changing coalitions of states sparked fresh debates
and innovative visions for the coming new world order. The system of international
governance set in motion in the following years did much to increase global integration.
It was to be nearly four decades, in an influential article in the Harvard Business Review
(Levitt 1983), before the term took on its economistic connotation and achieved wide
currency in policy, business, and academic circles.
More recent scholarship (Beck 2000; Therborn 2000; Ritzer 2010) has argued that it
may be more appropriate to think of globalizations in the plural, stressing the sometimes overlapping, sometimes contradicting flows of people, objects, and information
across the globe. Alongside increased connectivity and cooperation, it is now common
to emphasize the shared global dangers of climate change, terrorist networks, food
insecurity, and health epidemics. Furthermore, many feminists and postcolonial thinkers (Ong 1999; Kim-Puri 2005) argue that the processes of globalization do not affect
all regions, nations, peoples, or individuals in the same manner. Rather, global mobilities, capabilities, and potentialities are differentially experienced throughout what the
geographer Doreen Massey (1993) calls a “power-geometry.”
These differing emphases and competing conceptions of globalization suggest that
any attempt to describe its chronology would be controversial. Rather than staking an
argument for one particular vision of globalization, this timeline operates from a highly
inclusive framework, drawing attention not just toward the technological innovations,
political structures, and economic systems that have increasingly integrated the globe,
but also to changing ways of thinking about the world and the representation of global
concepts in art and culture. Before proceeding, however, it does bear mentioning one
point of consensus: that globalization has not been a ceaseless forward march along a
predetermined, or even intentional, path. Many of the events, innovations, ideas, and
accidents included in this timeline have been facilitators of globalization, while others
The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization, First Edition. Edited by George Ritzer.
© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2012 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
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merely foreshadow it, and still others have resisted it. The chronology of globalization
displayed below may be linear through time, but has not been cumulative.
In short, globalization as a term speaks for everyone; this timeline cannot. It is necessarily highly selective, and countless other events and developments could have been
included. Furthermore, it is likely to be quite different from other timelines created by
other scholars. It is not meant to be definitive, but rather to give the reader of The
Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization an initial sense of the topics covered in
this volume and their place in history.
REFERENCES
Beck, U. (2000) What is Globalization? Polity Press, Cambridge.
Kim-Puri, H.J. (2005) Conceptualizing gender-sexuality-state-nation: an introduction. Gender and
Society 19 (2), 137–159.
Levitt, T. (1983) The globalization of markets. Harvard Business Review May–June.
Massey, D. (1993) Power-geometry and a progressive sense of place. In: Bird, J.B.C., Putnam, T.,
Robertson, G. & Tickner, L. (eds.) Mapping the Futures: Local Cultures, Global Change. Routledge,
London.
Ong, A. (1999) Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality. Duke University Press,
Durham, NC.
Reiser, O.J. & Davies, B. (1944) Planetary Democracy. An Introduction to Scientific Humanism and
Applied Semantics. Creative Age Press, New York.
Ritzer, G. (2010) Globalization: A Basic Text. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford.
Therborn, G. (2000) Globalizations: dimensions, historical waves, regional effects, normative governance. International Sociology 15 (2), 151–179.
A Timeline of Globalization
550 bce
In an attempt to conquer distance through communication, the Persian
King Cyrus the Great establishes the world’s first postal service.
∼550 bce The Greek philosopher Anaximander creates what is believed to be the first
world map.
469 bce Socrates is born. The philosopher can be credited with an early vision of
cosmopolitan citizenship, declaring “I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but
a citizen of the world.”
202 bce Gaozu of Han becomes the first emperor of the Han Dynasty in China and
completes the transcontinental trade and communication route that later
became known as the Silk Road.
31 bce
The Battle of Actium is fought, ending the Roman civil war. The 200-year
Pax Romana would begin shortly thereafter.
150 ce
At around this time, the Greek geographer Pausanias published his
10-volume Description of Greece, possibly the world’s first travel guide.
632
Abu-Bakr becomes the first Caliph and leader of the Islamic Ummah, or
global community of Muslims.
1095
Pope Urban II orders the First Crusade to capture the Holy Lands for
Christianity.
1206
The Mongol Empire is founded under the rule of Ghengis Khan. It would
eventually become the largest contiguous empire in history.
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1305 The French political philosopher Pierre Debois becomes among the first to
propose the establishment of an international court of law.
1315 The Italian poet and philosopher Dante writes De Monarchia, providing the
first systematic postulate of a world government.
1347 The Stora Kopparberg, a copper mining company, is granted a charter by King
Magnus IV of Sweden, becoming what many believe to be the first corporation.
1402 The invasion of the Canary Islands lays the colonial foundation of the Spanish
Empire.
1413 The reign of Henry V begins in England and issues the first identification
documents for foreign travelers, an early analog to the modern passport.
1452 Pope Nicholas V issues a Papal Bull declaring that it is permissible to enslave
pagans, clearing a path for the European exploitation of African colonies. Three
years later, he would decree trade monopolies for claimed territories on the
continent.
1488 Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias becomes the first European to round the
southernmost point of Africa, passing from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.
1492 The Italian navigator Christopher Columbus leads the first successful
transatlantic naval expedition, thus “discovering” the North American continent
for the Europeans.
1494 Portuguese King John II begins the African slave trade to Europe. The practice
would be extended to the Americas eight years later.
1494 The Spanish and Portuguese Empires sign the Treaty of Tordesillas, carving up
the Southern colonies between them.
1498 Vasco da Gama establishes Portuguese presence in India.
1515 With the Laws of Burgos, the Spanish Empire declares legal jurisdiction over
conduct on the American continents.
1522 An expedition begun by Ferdinand Magellan completes the first nautical
circumnavigation of the globe.
1543 Nicolaus Copernicus publishes On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres,
advancing the then-controversial claim that the Earth revolves around the Sun.
1569 Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator develops the Mercator map projection.
1582 Pope Gregory XIII introduces the Gregorian calendar, what is now the globally
accepted calendar.
1602 The Dutch East India Company becomes the world’s first multinational
corporation.
1604 Johann Carolus publishes what is thought by many to be the world’s first serial
newspaper, in Germany.
1607 The British establish their first settlement in North America in Jamestown,
Virginia. Within 12 years, it would begin importing slave laborers from Africa.
1642 Galileo Galilei dies in Italy. In his lifetime he made several contributions to
physics and astrology, from championing a heliocentric cosmology to inventing
the first modern telescope.
1648 The Peace of Westphalia is formed by European powers, institutionalizing the
concept of state sovereignty.
1664 Treasure by Foreign Trade, a major work in mercantilist economic theory, is
posthumously published by the English merchant Thomas Mun.
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1670 A Royal British Charter establishes the Hudson Bay Company, the first
corporation in North America and, for a time, the largest landowner in
the world.
1678 The term lingua franca is coined to describe a common language of
communication across great distances.
1687 Isaac Newton’s Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy introduces the
three laws of motion, and advances the science on the gravitational movements
of celestial bodies.
1694 The privately owned Bank of England is established to lend money to the King.
The event marked a significant subordination of public to private finance.
1712 Thomas Newcomen pioneers the first widely used steam engine.
1758 Englishman Richard Cox founds Cox and Kings, the world’s first travel company.
1776 Adam Smith publishes An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of
Nations, an extended argument against mercantilism in favor of liberal economics.
1776 The Continental Congress adopts the United States Declaration of Independence
from Great Britain.
1788 The British establish a colony at Botany Bay in Australia.
1789 The French Revolution begins. Founded on the universalist ideals of liberty,
equality, and fraternity, it would ironically provide the template for nationalist
movements throughout Europe.
1795 The Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant publishes “Perpetual Peace:
A Philosophical Sketch,” which calls for an international order of sovereign,
non-aggressive republics.
1798 Thomas Malthus begins publishing his An Essay on the Principle of Population,
arguing that the world’s ecology had an upper limit of sustainably supportable
population.
1799 France becomes the first country to officially adopt the metric system of
objectively standard measures.
1811 The Luddite movement is formed in England in opposition to working
conditions brought on by the Industrial Revolution.
1813 Simon Bolívar issues his Decree of War to the Death, which becomes a rallying
cry for colonial opposition to Spanish rule in South America. Gran Colombia
announced sovereignty eight years later.
1823 President James Monroe declares the Americas to be in the United States’ sphere
of influence, stipulating that European colonial expansion in the region would be
considered an act of aggression against the United States (the Monroe Doctrine).
1832 Baron Schilling invents the first successful electromagnetic telegraph.
1839 Anti-Slavery International becomes the first international non-governmental
organization.
1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto, ending with
the famous exhortation: “Workers of the world unite!”
1851 The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, or the first World
Fair, is held at the Crystal Palace in London.
1855 Thomas Cook offers Britons the world’s first international package tour.
1858 The first intercontinental telegraph cable is laid in the Atlantic Ocean.
1864 The First Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the
Wounded in Armies in the Field is signed by several European states.
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1865 The International Telegraph Union is formed by 20 member countries in Paris
to regulate telegraph communications.
1866 The International Workingmen’s Association, a collection of left-wing groups
and trade unions also known as the First International, holds its first meeting,
in Geneva.
1869 The Suez Canal is opened, providing water transport between the Mediterranean
Sea and the Red Sea.
1876 Alexander Graham Bell is awarded a US patent for the first electric telephone.
1878 The first Berlitz language school is opened, instituting the Berlitz Method:
courses taught purely in the target language.
1884 The Berlin Conference apportions African territories to European colonial
interests.
1887 L.L. Zamenhof publishes Una Libro, introducing the invented “international
auxiliary language” of Esperanto.
1895 The first Nobel Prizes are awarded in recognition of international scientific and
cultural advances.
1896 The first Olympics of the modern era, sponsored by the newly created
International Olympic Committee, are held in Athens, Greece.
1901 Guglielmo Marconi engineers the first radio transmission across the Atlantic
Ocean.
1904 The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) is founded to
standardize regulations of the sport around the globe.
1906 The Second Geneva Convention is passed, adapting the main protections of the
First Geneva Conditions to naval combat.
1909 An official international governing body for the sport of cricket is formed at the
Imperial Cricket Conference.
1911 The US Justice Department orders the breakup of one the world’s largest
multinational companies, Standard Oil, into 34 separate companies.
1914 Archduke Ferdinand of Austria is assassinated on June 28 in Sarajevo, an event
widely credited with starting World War I.
1914 Construction on the Panama Canal is completed, allowing naval passage
between North and South America.
1915 The first transcontinental telephone call is made by Alexander Graham Bell.
1917 US Congress declares war on Germany, making the transatlantic conflict
official.
1917 The Bolshevik Party, Lenin’s political unit, overthrows the provisional
government in Russia in what came to be known as the October Revolution.
1918 US President Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points announce a new era in
internationalism based on removing trade barriers and reductions in armaments.
1919 The Paris Peace Conference is convened among the Allied victors of World War I.
The League of Nations, the prototype for the eventual United Nations, is
established.
1919 The Communist International (Comintern) is founded. Its raison d’être is the
overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and the establishment of a global
communist state.
1922 The Permanent Court of International Justice is founded.
1924 The first Winter Olympics are held in Chamonix, France.
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1924 The British Empire Exhibition, a showcase of the 58 countries under British
colonial rule, becomes the world’s largest exhibition with 27 million attendees
over two years.
1927 Charles Lindbergh completes the first solo transatlantic flight.
1929 The Third Geneva Convention defines humanitarian protections for prisoners
of war.
1929 The LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin becomes the first aircraft to circumnavigate the
globe. The trip was completed in four stages over 21 days.
1929 The US stock market collapse on October 29 marks the unofficial beginning of
the Great Depression, an economic crisis that would spread throughout the
globe.
1930 The US Congress passes the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act in an effort to protect
American jobs. Tariffs on over 20 000 imported goods were brought to record
levels.
1930 FIFA hosts the first World Cup.
1931 The Japanese army invades Manchuria, spurring conflict that will erupt into the
Pacific Theater of World War II.
1932 The BBC Empire Service (later the World Service) is launched in order to
distribute news to administrators in the British colonies.
1931 The Paris Colonial Exposition outdoes its British predecessor, attracting 33
million visitors from around the world. Among its features is an ethnographic
representation of a Senegalese village, or a “human zoo.”
1939 Germany invades Poland on September 1, an event that brought Britain and
France into the war two days later.
1941 The Japanese army attacks a US naval base at Pearl Harbor, bringing the United
States into World War II on the side of the Allies.
1942 The Oxford Committee for Famine Relief (Oxfam) meets for the first time.
1944 In July, before the War had even ended, representatives from 44 Allied nations
meet in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, to discuss rebuilding the international
economic system. Several institutions, including the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
(later the World Bank), were founded, and the US dollar became the official
international reserve currency.
1944 In their book Planetary Democracy: An Introduction to Scientific Humanism,
authors Reiser and Davies coin the terms “globalize” and “globalism.” It would
not be for another several decades before these concepts gained currency under
the term globalization.
1945 The United States becomes the first country to detonate a nuclear bomb in
warfare on August 6 in Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, it would drop
another atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki.
1945 Fighting ends in World War II, with an armistice signed on August 14 and Japan
surrendering on the following day.
1945 In the wake of World War II, the United Nations is formed to replace the
moribund experiment of the League of Nations. The International Court of
Justice gives the UN limited jurisdiction over the judicial systems of sovereign
states.
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1946 A US-launched V-2 rocket takes the first photos of the Earth from space.
1947 The journalist Walter Lippmann publishes Cold War, giving a name to a period
of military tensions between the communist and Western world that would last
decades.
1947 The Marshall Plan, signaling US commitment to the reconstruction of European
infrastructure and markets, was passed. Over the next four years, $13 billion
(5% of US GDP) was allocated to projects.
1947 The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade is reached, regulating international
economic trade policies among the negotiating partners.
1947 India and Pakistan achieve independence from Great Britain in what became a
harbinger for the ultimate dissolution of the British Empire.
1948 The World Health Organization is founded.
1948 The United Nations adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
marking the first time a common global position on human entitlement to
individual liberties is established.
1949 The fourth and final Geneva Convention is passed to protect civilians during
wartime.
1949 The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is formed to provide for the
collective defense of Western Europe and North America against potential
aggression by the Soviet Union.
1953 The Central Intelligence Agency of the United States orchestrates a coup d’état
against the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammad
Mosaddeq, in what is an early example of neocolonialism.
1955 The first Guinness Book of World Records is published.
1956 The United Nations hosts its first Conference on the Law of the Sea, which
codified national claims to sea area and determined international waters.
1956 Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal Company.
1957 Six Western European economies establish a common market, an economic
institution presaging the European Union.
1957 Soviet scientists successfully launch Sputnik, the first human-made satellite to
orbit the Earth.
1957 Ghana becomes the first African colony to become an independent state, setting
off a wave of independence movements throughout the continent.
1959 The first free trade store (or “worldshop”) is opened in London by Oxfam.
1960 The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is founded in Baghdad.
1960 British scientists coin the term “brain drain” to describe the global phenomenon
of educated citizens of third-world countries emigrating to better employment
opportunities in developed countries.
1961 Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel outside of the Earth’s atmosphere,
and successfully completes an orbit of the globe.
1961 The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is
formed to stimulate international trade and development. Its former incarnation,
the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (established in 1948),
had been limited to European membership.
1961 Amnesty International is founded to draw attention to global human rights
abuses.
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1962 Marshall McLuhan coins the term “Global Village” to describe the increasing
worldwide connectivity through mass media.
1965 The first Alternative Trade Organization is formed, helping to develop the
concept of fair trade.
1967 McDonald’s opens its first restaurant outside of the United States, in Canada.
In the next five years, it would expand to four continents.
1967 The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is formed to promote
economic cooperation in the region.
1969 The first two computer nodes of ARPANET, the Pentagon information system
that provided the technology for the Internet, are connected in Menlo Park,
California.
1971 Greenpeace, the global environmental nongovernmental organization, is
founded in Vancouver, British Columbia.
1971 The world’s first personal computer, the Kenbak-1, retails for $750.
1972 Médecins Sans Frontières, the French NGO providing medical services to
developing countries, sends its first mission to Nicaragua in response to a major
earthquake in the country’s capital.
1973 Motorola demonstrates the first handheld mobile telephone.
1973 The Arab members of OPEC declare an international oil embargo in response
to the United States’ armament of Israel during the Yom Kippur War. The
embargo precipitated massive global economic effects.
1974 Immanuel Wallerstein develops world-systems theory, arguing that the proper
unit for socio-historical analysis is the entire world.
1975 In an issue of the journal Science, Wally Broecker coins the term “global
warming.”
1975 The Group of Six (France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, and United
States) is formed by major industrialized countries. A year later, they would be
joined by Canada, forming the G7, marked by a yearly meeting of the finance
ministers of those countries.
1976 Mao Zedong dies (September 9), paving the way for Deng Xiaoping’s
“Four Modernizations” and China’s eventual reintegration with the global
economy.
1979 The Iranian Revolution against the Shah sets off a second global energy crisis.
1980 Ted Turner begins the broadcast of the first 24-hour news network, CNN, with
the announcement that “We won’t be signing off until the world ends.”
1982 The Walt Disney Company opens the EPCOT Center. The Experimental
Prototype for the Community of Tomorrow reproduces famous monuments
from all over the world in its “World Showcase.”
1982 Mexico’s default on its foreign debt leads to a lending crisis across Latin America
and a “lost decade” of economic growth in the region.
1985 The Live Aid Concert, performed simultaneously in London and Philadelphia,
and broadcast in 60 countries, becomes known as the “global jukebox.” The
event was organized to raise money to alleviate famine conditions in Ethiopia.
1985 A meeting in Luxembourg yields an agreement establishing the Schengen Area,
a borderless contiguity of European states.
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1985 Reporters Without Borders is founded in France to promote global freedom of
the press.
1986 It is revealed that the Reagan administration had illegally bypassed Congress in
breaking an arms embargo against Iran in order to fund a guerilla movement
against the democratically elected government in Nicaragua.
1986 The International Monetary Fund announces its Structural Adjustment Facility,
a system of loan conditionalities requiring recipient governments to institute a
number of changes to economic and budgetary policies.
1989 The Tiananmen Square massacre on June 4 draws international attention to
popular Chinese protests for more political and economic liberties.
1989 The economist John Williamson coins the term “Washington Consensus” to
describe the policy prescription favored by the US government and the Bretton
Woods institutions towards “reforming” developing nations stricken by
economic crises.
1989 The Berlin Wall is destroyed on November 9, paving the way for the reunification
of East and West Germany a year later.
1990 The Gulf War begins on August 2. The conflict was remarkable for, among other
things, its heavy coverage by CNN. It was the first major international conflict
involving heavy US involvement since the beginning of 24-hour news. It led
Pentagon officials to coin the term “The CNN Effect” to describe the US
government’s response to real-time updates in the 24-hour news cycle.
1991 The Soviet Federal Government collapses on December 25. Several Soviet
republics declare sovereignty in the aftermath and the Cold War comes to an
end.
1991 The Treaty of Asunción establishes Mercosur, a regional free trade zone among
Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
1991 The World Wide Web becomes publicly available on the Internet.
1992 VÍa Campesina, an anti-globalization movement fighting for food sovereignty,
is formed from an international consortium of peasant groups.
1992 The European Union is formed through the Treaty of Maastricht.
1994 The North American Free Trade Agreement eliminates tariffs among Canada,
the United States, and Mexico.
1996 The Zapatista Army of National Liberation founds Peoples’ Global Action, a
worldwide group of radical anti-globalization movements.
1997 The Thai government abandons its currency peg to the US dollar, precipitating
the Asian Financial Crisis.
1998 Jubilee 2000, a global social movement arguing for the cancellation of thirdworld debt, demonstrates outside of the annual G8 meeting.
1998 A treaty outlining the establishment of the International Criminal Court is
ratified at the Rome Statute. The Court, which entered into force in 2002, can
prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
1999 On June 18, one of the first international protests against globalization is
simultaneously held in dozens of cities around the world. Months later, the
Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization in Seattle is met by
mass demonstrations.
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2000 The United Nations hosts the Millennium Summit, announcing the UN’s newly
increased commitment to international human and economic development.
Eight global Millennium Development Goals are announced for completion
by 2015.
2001 Wikipedia launches on January 15. By the end of the year, there would be 20 000
entries in 18 languages.
2001 The first World Social Forum is held in Porto Alegre, Brazil from January 25–30.
The slogan of the annual meeting is “Another world is possible.”
2001 On September 20, US President George W. Bush declares the “War on Terror”
to a joint session of Congress. Bush stated that “it will not end until every
terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.”
2001 Aljazeera, a media corporation headquartered in Qatar, rises to global
prominence for its coverage of the War in Afghanistan at a time when Western
media outlets had no offices there.
2005 On the 20th anniversary of the Live Aid concerts, musical performances are
organized in all the G8 countries and South Africa to draw attention to global
poverty issues during the G8 conference.
2007 The New Century Financial Corporation files for bankruptcy protection in the
United States, signaling trouble in the subprime mortgage market and leading
to the Great Recession.
2008 The ambiguities of national sovereignty are revealed when Barack Obama, then
a candidate for the US presidency, takes his campaign to Berlin, where he
declares himself to be “a proud citizen of the United States and a fellow citizen
of the world.”
2008 Spurred by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French
President Nicolas Sarkozy, the G-20 Summit on Financial Markets and the
World Economy meets in Washington, DC to discuss a common reaction to the
global financial crisis. Commentators refer to the meeting as Bretton Woods II.
2009 DR-CAFTA, a free trade area comprised of the United States, the Dominican
Republic, and several Central American countries, goes into law.
2010 The online whistleblower organization WikiLeaks releases thousands of
classified US diplomatic cables. The global dissemination of this information on
the web leads to juridical controversy.
2010 The self-immolation of Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi precipitates
the Arab Spring revolts, a series of mass anti-government demonstrations
throughout North Africa and the Middle East.
2011 The United Nations institutes a no-fly zone in Libya. The prominent role of the
United States in the civil war marks Libya as the third country in the Greater
Middle East in which the American military is actively involved.