Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
HIST 207 MODERN HISTORY KOÇ UNIVERSITY PROF. ZAFER TOPRAK www.ata.boun.edu.tr Globalisation is international integration. It can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society. Globalization refers to a multidimensional set of social processes that create, multiply, stretch, and intensify worldwide social interdependencies & exchanges while at the same time fostering in people a growing awareness of deepening connections between the local and the distant. Globalization is an uneven process, meaning that people living in various parts of the world are affected very differently by this gigantic transformation of social structures and cultural zones. One defining characteristic of the process: Movement towards greater interdependence & integration. This process is a combination of economic, technological, socio-cultural and political forces. “Globalization compresses the time and space aspects of social relations.” James Mittelman “Globalization can be defined as the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa.” Anthony Giddens Scholars not only hold different views with regard to proper definitions of globalization, they also disagree on its scale, causation, chronology, impact, trajectories, and policy outcomes. The word "globalization" has been used by economists since 1981; however, its concepts did not permeate popular consciousness until the later half of the 1990s. Various social scientists have tried to demonstrate continuity between contemporary trends of globalization and earlier periods. Globalization is viewed as a centuries long process, tracking the expansion of human population and the growth of civilization, that has accelerated dramatically in the past 50 years. The global integration of humankind had its beginnings under Portuguese auspices in the 15th century. The process of globalization had its origins in Europe, through the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French, and English territorial and maritime expansion into all habitable continents, and included the discovery and colonization of the New World. Proto-globalization Early forms of globalization existed during the Roman Empire, the Parthian Empire, and the Han Dynasty, when the silk road started in China, reached the boundaries of the Parthian Empire and continued onwards towards Rome. The Islamic Golden Age is also an example, when Muslim traders and explorers established an early global economy across the Old World resulting in a globalization of crops, trade, knowledge and technology; and later during the Mongol Empire, when there was greater integration along the Silk Road. Globalization became a business phenomenon in the 17th century when was established. The Dutch East India Company is described as the first multinational corporation, An important driver for globalization: Sharing risk through joint ownership Because of the high risks involved with international trade, The Dutch East India Company became the first company in the world to share risk and enable joint ownership through the issuing of shares. Liberalization in the 19th century is sometimes called "The First Era of Globalization", a period characterized by rapid growth in international trade and investment, between the European imperial powers, their colonies, and, later, the United States. An Era of Colonization - Imperialism It was in this period that areas of sub-saharan Africa and the Island Pacific were incorporated into the world system. The decades preceding the outbreak of World War I witnessed an era of extensive globalization. The first era of globalization during the 19th century was the rapid growth of international trade between the European imperial powers, the European colonies, and the United States. Belief in the superiority of their own nation [nationalism] has supplied the mental enery required for large-scale warfare. The enormous productive capacities of the modern state [nation state] have provided the material means necessary to fight the ‘total wars’ of the last century. The "First Era of Globalization" began to break down at the beginning with the first World War, and later collapsed during the gold standard crisis in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The Dark Age for humanity due to world wars. After World War II, globalization was restarted and was driven by major advances in technology, which led to lower trading costs. Globalization in the era since World War II was first the result of planning by economists, business interests, and politicians who recognized the costs associated with protectionism and declining international economic integration. Their work led to the Bretton Woods conference (1944) and the founding of several international institutions intended to oversee the renewed processes of globalization, promoting growth and managing adverse consequences. These were the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the World Bank) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It has been facilitated by advances in technology which have reduced the costs of trade, and trade negotiation rounds, originally under the auspices of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which led to a series of agreements to remove restrictions on free trade. Since World War II, barriers to international trade have been considerably lowered through international agreements - (GATT). The Uruguay round (1984 to 1995) led to a treaty to create the World Trade Organization (WTO), to mediate trade disputes and set up a uniform platform of trading. Other bi- and multilateral trade agreements, including sections of Europe's Maastricht Treaty and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have also been signed in pursuit of the goal of reducing tariffs and barriers to trade. The dramatic creation, expansion, and acceleration of worldwide interdependencies & global exchanges that have occurred since the early 1970s represent another quantum leap in the history of globalization. * * * Particular initiatives carried out as a result of GATT and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), for which GATT is the foundation, have included: Promotion of free trade: a) Reduction or elimination of tariffs; construction of free trade zones with small or no tariffs, b) Reduced transportation costs, especially from development of containerization for ocean shipping, c) Reduction or elimination of capital controls, d) Reduction, elimination, or harmonization of subsidies for local businesses, Restriction of free trade: a) Harmonization of intellectual property laws across the majority of states, with more restrictions. b) Supranational recognition of intellectual property restrictions (e.g. patents granted by China would be recognized in the United States) The nature of these developments has been criticized by many including Noam Chomsky who states “... That enhances what's called "globalization," a term of propaganda used conventionally to refer to a certain particular form of international integration that is (not surprisingly) beneficial to its designers: Multinational corporations and the powerful states to which they are closely linked.” In the decades following World War II, even the most conservative political parties in Europe and the United States rejected the laissez-faire ideas and instead embraced an extensive version of state interventionism propagated by British economist John Maynard Keynes, the architect of the Bretton Woods system. By the 1980s, however, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and US President Ronald Reagan led the neoliberal revolution against Keynesianism, consciously linking the notion of globalization to the ‘liberation’ of economies around the world. Concrete neoliberal measures include: 1. Privatization of public enterprises 2. Deregulation of the economy 3. Liberalization of trade and industry 4. Massive tax cuts 5. ‘Monetarist’ measures to keep inflation in check, even at the risk of increasing unemployment 6. Strict control on organized labour 7. The reduction of public expenditures, particularly social spending 8. The down-sizing of government 9. The expansion of international markets 10. The removeal of controls on global financial flows The new neoliberal economic order received further legitimation with the 1989-91 collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Since then, the three most significant developments related to economic globalization have been: a) The internationalization of trade and finance b) The increasing power of transnational corporations c) The enhanced role of international economic institutions like the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO. Effects of globalization Globalization has various aspects which affect the world in several different ways such as: a) Industrial b) Financial c) Economic Industrial (alias trans nationalization) - emergence of worldwide production markets and broader access to a range of foreign products for consumers and companies Financial - emergence of worldwide financial markets and better access to external financing for corporate, national and subnational borrowers Economic - realization of a global common market, based on the freedom of exchange of goods and capital. However, the following problems are noted: Poorer countries are sometimes at disadvantage: While it is true that globalization encourages free trade among countries on an international level, there are also negative consequences because some countries try to save their national markets. The main export of poorer countries is usually agricultural goods. It is difficult for these countries to compete with stronger countries that subsidize their own farmers. Because the farmers in the poorer countries cannot compete, they are forced to sell their crops at much lower price than what the market is paying. Exploitation of foreign impoverished workers: The deterioration of protections for weaker nations by stronger industrialized powers has resulted in the exploitation of the people in those nations to become cheap labor. Due to the lack of protections, companies from powerful industrialized nations are able to force workers to endure extremely long hours, unsafe working conditions, and just enough salary to keep them working. The abundance of cheap labor is giving the countries in power incentive not to rectify the inequality between nations. If these nations developed into industrialized nations, the army of cheap labor would slowly disappear alongside development. With the world in this current state, it is impossible for the exploited workers to escape poverty. It is true that the workers are free to leave their jobs, but in many poorer countries, this would mean starvation for the worker, and possible even his/her family. Shift from manufacturing to service work: The low cost of offshore workers have enticed corporations to move production to foreign countries. The laid off unskilled workers are forced into the service sector where wages and benefits are low, but turnover is high. This has contributed to the widening economic gap between skilled and unskilled workers. The loss of these jobs has also contributed greatly to the slow decline of the middle class which is a major factor in the increasing economic inequality in the United States. Families that were once part of the middle class are forced into lower positions by massive layoffs and outsourcing to another country. This also means that people in the lower class have a much harder time climbing out of poverty because of the absence of the middle class as a stepping stone. The rise of contingent work: As globalization causes more and more jobs to be shipped overseas, and the middle class declines, there is less need for corporations to hire full time employees. Companies are less inclined to offer benefits (health insurance, bonuses, vacation time, shares in the company, and pensions), or reduce benefits, to part time workers. Most companies don’t offer any benefits at all. Even though most of the middle class workers still have their jobs, the reality is that their buying power has decreased due to decreased benefits. Job security is also a major issue with contingent work. Weakening of labor unions: The surplus in cheap labor coupled with an ever growing number of companies in transition has caused a weakening of labor unions in the United States. Unions loss their effectiveness when their membership begins to decline. As a result, unions hold less power over corporations that are able to easily replace workers, often for lower wages, and have the option to not offer unionized jobs anymore. Political Globalization Political globalization refers to the intensification and expansion of political interrelations across the globe. These processes raise an important set of political issues pertaining to the principle of state sovereignty, the growing impact of intergovernmental organization, and the future prospects for regional & global governance. Humans have organized their political differences along territorial lines that generate a sense of ‘belonging’ to a particular nation-state in the last few centuries. This artificial division of planetary social space into ‘domestic’ and ‘foreign’ spheres corresponds to people’s collective identities based on the creation of a common’us’ & unfamiliar ‘them’. [demonizing the images of the ‘other’. ] The modern nation-state system has rested on psycological foundadions & cultural assumptions that convey a sense of existential security and historical continuity. The origins of the modern nation-system can be traced back to 17th-century political developments in Europe. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 concluded a series of religious wars among the main European powers following the protestant Reformation. Based on the newly formulated principles of sovereignty & territoriality, the new model of selfcontained, impersonal states challenged the medieval mosaic of small polities. [with local and personal political power but still subordinated to a larger imperial authority.] [transnational character of vast imperial domains] The Westphalian model gradually strengthened a new conception of international law based on the principle that all states had an equal right to selfdetermination. The unified territoral areas constituted the foundation for modernity’s secular & national system of political power. Absolutist kings in France and Prussia Constitutional monarchs and republican leaders of England and the Netherlands, The centuries following the Peace of Westphalia saw the further centralization of political power, the expansion of state administration, the development of professional diplomacy, and the successful monopolization of the means of coercion in the hands of the state. States also provided the military means required for the expansion of commerce, which, in turn, contributed for the spread of the European form of political rule around the globe. The second half of the 18th century a “double revolution” ushered in the “modern world”: The Industrial Revolutution starting in England about 1760 The French Revolution of 1789 introduced a new age of political order initially in Europe and later throughout the world. The industrial revolution required more than a century to affect all the areas that are productive industrial countries today. However, The dynamics of state-building and preindustrial colonialism fueled an early era of globalization. Durign the early modern period, the Europeans managed to take control of the world’s seas, although no one Europan power held a dominant positition over its competitors. The Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, English, ad French, and even multinational pirate crews were far superior to every other sea power. European naval supremacy extended to all branches of high-seas navigation: exploration, commerce, and warfare. The ties between naval power and commercial shipping were closer in Europe than they had ever been in any civilization in history. The role of navies acquired a completely new dimension as instruments of the early modern state. Much of Europe’s innovative talent was spent o perfecting naval & navigation techniques and in establishing and running such complex organization as the British East India Company, and the Royal Navy. Once Europe ahd secured control of the high seas, the stage was set for the rise of the most dynamic economic sector in the 18th century. Moreover, shipbuilding & shipping became important economic sectors each in its own right. At first, military branch of seafaring was subordinate in importance to commercial shipping Around the middle of the 18th century, the military branch emancipated itself from its supporting role and became an instrument of a form of politics unknown until then. The strongest adversaries considered the entire world to be a theater of war. Large infantry units were shipped overseas. Britain pioneered this new strategic concept. British forces drove the French out of Canada, fouth them and their indigeous allies in India, & attacked Manila and Havana, two of the wealthiest cities in the Spanish colonial empire. The same phenomenon repeated itself in the larger conflicts between Britain and revolutionary, later Napoleonic, France, from 1793-1815. Britain occupied many strategically vital ports in the wake of Napoleonic Wars, including Gibraltar, Malta, the Cape of Good Hope, and Singapore. The British completed their military conquest of India. Attempted for the very first time to establish diplomatic relations with China. In 1788, Australia became the destination of the first British penal transports – turning the continent into another colony. As a “fiscal military state” Britain was capable of mobilizing a greater amount of financial resources at home than were the “absolutistic” monarchies of the Eurasian continent. The improved capacity of naval warfare was one of the results of British efforts to rationally organize the state’s policies of taxation and debt financing. France and Russia quickly copied the British model. The concentration of power in the Atlantic region was one of the most imqportant reasons for the great crisis of the Western Hemisphere. In the 1760s both the British state and the Spanish crown attempted to strengthen their respective holds over their American colonies. Response: Thirteen British colonies declared their independence in 1776 and fought against the British and defeated them in 1783. In the Spanish colonies the first attempts by the Creole elite to free themselves proved too week,. But they finally succedded in becoming independent as the Spanish monarchy fell apart in the wake of Napoleon’s invasion. By 1825 the Spanish colonial empire had disappeared altogether from the American continent. A third war of independence started in 1791 by the mulatto planters and black slaves in St. Dominique – the most importannt sugar producing area of the world. Civil war – French & British intervention = independence in 1804 under the name of Haiti, the first black republic in History The crises in the Atlantic between the Old and New Worlds from about 1765 to 1825 were the result of intense processes of integration in this maritime region. Paradoxical consequences in the long-term. The revolts of settler and slaves destroyed some of the existing links. Once its sugar-exporting economy collapsed, slavefree Haiti dropped out of the global economy In the USA the political elite directed the nation’s attention westward, away from the Atlantic. Great adventure of settling the North American continent began. The new republics of South and Central America wanted to have as little to do with Spain as possible. New international links were forged between the two sides of the Atlantic. In place of Spain, Latin American countries established new economic relations with the leader of globalization, Britain. The economic, social, and cultural relations between the USA and the Britain survived the political split and developed over time into the “special relationship”. Napoleon’s global repercussion: The invasion of Egypt in 1798. Alarmed the entire Muslim world Spurred British imperialism on to furtthur expansion in Asia The mature expression of the modern nation-state system at the end of World War I: US President Woodrow Wilson’s ‘Fourteen Points’ based on the principle of national self-determination. All forms of national identity should be given their territorial expression Enshrining the nation-state as the ethical & legal pinnacle of his proposed interstate system. Extremely difficult to enforce in practice Wilson lent some legitimacy to those radical ethnonationalist forces that pushed the world’s main powers into another war of global proportions. The League of Nations. Yet, Wilson’s commitment to the nation-state coexisted with internationalist dream of establishing a global system of collective security under the auspices of a new international organization, the League of Nations. The United Nations His idea of giving international cooperation an institutional expression was eventually realized with the founding of the United Nations in 1945. While deeply rooted in a political order based on the modern nation-state system, the UN and other fledgling intergovernmental organizations served a catalyst for the gradual extension of political activities across national boundaries, thus undermining the principle of national sovereignty. As globalization tendencies grew stronger during the 1970s, it became clear that the international society of separate states was rapidly turning into a global web of political interdependencies that challenged the sovereignty of nation-states. In 1990, at the outset of the Gulf War, US President George H. W. Bush pronounced dead the Westphalian model by announcing the birth of a ‘new world order’. In 1924, İş Bankası In 1925, Sanayi ve Maadin have Contemporary manifestiations of globalization led to the partial permeation of these old territorial Bankası borders, in the process also softening hard In 1927, Teşvik-i Sanayi Kanunu conceptual boundaries & cultural lines of demarcation. . In 1924, İş Bankası In 1925, have Sanayi ve Maadin Hyperglobalizers suggested that the period since tle late 1960’sBankası has been marked by a radical ‘deterritorialization’ of politics, rule, and governence. In 1927, Teşvik-i Sanayi Kanunu In sceptics 1924, have İş Bankası Globalization not oly affirmed the continued relevance of the ve nation-state In 1925, Sanayi Maadinas the political container of Bankası modern social life but have also poited to the emergence of regional blocks as In 1927, Kanunu evidence forTeşvik-i new formsSanayi of territorialization. Question: Is it really true that the power of nation-state has been curtailed by massive flow of capital, people, and technology across territorial boundaries ? Political globalization is the creation of a world government which regulates the relationships among nations and guarantees the rights arising from social & economic globalization. Politically, the United States has enjoyed a position of power among the world powers; in part because of its strong and wealthy economy. With the influence of globalization and with the help of The United States’ own economy, China has experience some tremendous growth within the past decade. If China continues to grow at the rate projected by the trends, then it is very likely that in the next twenty years, there will be a major reallocation of power among the world leaders. China will have enough wealth, industry, and technology to rival the United States for the position of leading world power. Informational globalization Increase in information flows between geographically remote locations Cultural globalization Growth of cross-cultural contacts; advent of new categories of consciousness and identities such as Globalism Globalism which embodies cultural diffusion, the desire to consume and enjoy foreign products and ideas, adopt new technology and practices, & participate in a “world culture”. Greater international cultural exchange Spreading of multiculturalism, and better individual access to cultural diversity (e.g. through the export of Hollywood and Bollywood movies). However, the imported culture can easily supplant the local culture, causing reduction in diversity through hybridization or even assimilation. The most prominent form of this is Westernization, but Sinicization of cultures has taken place over most of Asia for many centuries. Ecological globalization The advent of global environmental challenges that can not be solved without international cooperation, such as climate change, cross-boundary water & air pollution, over-fishing of the ocean, and the spread of invasive species. Many factories are built in developing countries where they can pollute freely. Social globalization The achievement of free circulation by people of all nations. Greater international travel and tourism Greater immigration, including illegal immigration. Spread of local consumer products (e.g. food) to other countries (often adapted to their culture) World-wide fads and pop culture such as Pokémon, Sudoku, Numa Numa, Origami, Idol series, YouTube, Orkt, Facebook , and MySpace. World-wide sporting events such as FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games. Formation or development of a set of universal values. Imperialism Scholarly opinion split into two camps: Radical / Marxist Camp Verus Liberal / Conservative Camp One camp: Radical intellectual drew on Marx and Lenin; linked 19th-century imperialism to the development of industrial capitalism. The process of capital accumalation generated internal contradictions that found expression during the last quarter of the 19th century in new and allencompassing forms of imperialism. The struggle for control of the world was not confined to the acquisition of colonies: it culminated in WWI. Imperialism, like capitalism, knew no frontiers: economic integration created colonies as well as “semi-colonies”. liberal-conservative camp: Grouped around a liberal-conservative banner, rejected Marxism, elaborated a range of alternative accounts of empire and imperialism. Against mono-causal economic analysis was ranged a multiplicity of diplomatic, political, social, and cultural, as well as economic, explanations of empire-building. Against the determinism of impersonal forces was set the role of individuals and chance. Eurocentric versus Ex-centric Eurocentrism was countered by the ‘ex-centric’ thesis, shifted causation to the periphery by emphasizing the role of sub-imperialists, or men-on-the-spot. Debits versus Benefits The claim that imperialism was explotative provoked alternative exercises in historical accounting to show that it brought benefits. The 19th century was a period of unparalleled imperial expansion. Extraordinary voyages of discovery in previous centuries had enabled cartographers to inscribe other continents on the map of mankind. Parts of the world, notably the Americas and the Indies, had already experienced European conquest and rule. Europeans, in turn, had been influenced by what they read and by what they consumed. Colonial imports had brought the exotic to the Old World. – from spices to silver, from potatoes to tobacco, from sugar to tea – A fascination with distant lands – Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719) Petentartive capacity of Europe in the 19th century. the applicationof science, especially new technology, to the means of production, communication, and coercion, gave Europe a penetrative capacity far in excess of anything available to merchant venturers and conquistadors. It became posible to convert mastery of the sea to ascendancy on land in new and decisive ways & to move the frontiers of Eurean influence deep into the still-uncharted interior of vast continents. Exploration – Partition - Occupation By the close of the 19th century, exploration had been overtaken by partition and partition, in turn, by occupation. Spheres of influence Large segments of other continents had been annexed, and ‘spheres of influence’ established over much of the Middle East, the Far East, and Latin America. Expansion and Imperialism The terms ‘expansion’ and ‘imperialism’ are often used as if they were interchangeable. To do so is to lose a valuable distinction. Europe’s expansion overseas is an inclusive term: If imperialism is removed for separate study, expansion can be reserved for international movements (whether of people, trade, or ideas) that were not imperialistic. Imperialism Imperialism can than be used to refer to a particular form of expansion, one marked by inequality and subordination, and by the intergration of a client or satellite state into more powerful host or ‘mother’ country. Empire versus Nation State The integration is always incomplete: an empire remains a multi-ethnic conglomerate; if it assimilates subject peoples fully, it becomes an enlarged nation state. Imperialism can exist without an empire being created. The criterium: Whether the sovereignty or independence of the recipient was effectively and significantly diminished - Argentina & the Ottoman Empire. Subordination to imperialism Subordination to imperialism does not, of itself, entail one result, and the result that applies at one moment may well alter with the passage of time. Three vantage points: 1815, 1870, 1914. A marked contrast in the picture ‘before’ (in 1815) and ‘after’ (in 1914) The global order that existed in 1918 showed distinct signs of change after 1850. By 1870 the manifestations of these changes were readily apparent. By 1914 they had transformed the world. The Eurepean empires in 1815 The long and debilitating conflict between Britain and France was a struggle for the mastery of the world as well as Europe. Following the Peace of Paris in 1763, France had been excluded from the two greatest prizes: North America and India. Under the aggressive leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte, the French had attempted to reclaim and extend their lost position. Britain’s triumph at Trafalgar in 1805 delivered supremacy over the oceans. Waterloo effectively levelled France on the continent of Europe and kept it there long enough for the Pax Britanicca to become an entrenched reality for the greater part of the century. Meanwhile, London replaced Amsterdam as the commercial and financial capital of Europe. An imperial quiescence / rest with free trade era ? Or Anti-Imperialism ? There was a growing trend away from empire from the late 18th century provided the basis for the view that the ensuing era of free trade was essentially anti-imperialist. Much of the 19th century was a period of imperial quiescence / rest. Sudden renewal of imperialist rivalries during the last quarter of the century. It is impossible to accept the proposition that there was a long period of anti-imperialism between two phases of empire, one old and one new. Britain’s record after the loss of American colonies is scarcely that of an anti-imperial power. The first half of the 19th century saw substantial formal additions to the British Empire. Overseas expansion also increased Britain’s informal presence and influence. 1838, a free-trade treaty with the Ottoman Empire: Safeguarded the position of European settlers, Subjected tariffs to external control, Emilinated state monopolies. The treaty was followed by a package of modernizing reforms: Tanzimat Reforms After a show of force, a similar free-trade treaty was signed with Persia in 1841. Britain fought two wars with China in 1839-42 and 1856-60. Gained Hong Kong and a string of Treaty Ports that were intended to promote British trade with the largely untapped interior. But the greatest scope for creating an informal ‘empire’ lay in Latin America. The idea was to shape the newly independent republics through trade, investment, and the export of British liberalism. A whole range of notable extensions to Britain’s effective presence in non-European world during the first half of the 19th century. The most influential explanation focuses on the Industrial Revolution. Industrialization distinguished Britain’s economic development from that of other European states. It can also account for Britain’s much greater success overseas as well. New industries grew up within the protection of mercantilist restrictions, which most manufacturers were anxious to cling to for as long as possible, and free trade was not established fully until 1850, following the abolition of the Corn Laws in 1846 and the Navigation Act of 1849. Clear signs of systematic connection between the process of industrialization and imperialism date from the 1830s and 1840s. Triumph or Difficulties A manifestation not of the triumph of industry but of its emerging difficulties. The staple exports (especially cotton goods) were suffering from overproduction and falling profits and needed new markets, which could not be obtained readily in protectionist Europe. Population growth and Unemployment Population growth was outstripping domestic food supplies and rising unemployment was generating a challenge to civil order. Mercantilism versus Liberalism The decision to abandon mercantilism was an experiment designed to provide new markets for manufactures and new sources of food for the urban population. Finance and Service Sector The place of the Industrial Revolution exagerrated. Attention needs to be shifted to the development of finance and commercial services, symbolized by the rise of London as the pre-eminent center of world trade an by the emergence of the pound sterling as the leading international currency. LONDON and the CITY London: major center of service-sector employment; the City generated vital overseas earnings. Considerable influence in political circles. Warehouse versus Workshop Imperial expansion was designed not only to solve industry’s problem but to maximize the City’s earnings, & make Britain the warehouse of the world rather than its workshop. Defence and the Navy Considerations of defence to be given prominence in accounting for Britain’s overseas expension. The small, offshore island had long been obliged to give the highest priority to the need to protect itself against larger and more powerful neighbours, first Spain annd then France. The main strategy was to develop the navy. Naval strength was supported by mercantilist policies; wealth created by seaborne commerce generated valuable foreign earnings and a degree of independence from land-based predators. The first half of the 19th century was a period of markedly uneven development in Europe’s relations with non-European societies. Once great empires were in retreat or had collapsed, Britain alone was creating new frontiers of expension, formal and informal, overseas. By maximizing its comparative advantage in finance, shipping, and commerce, and by creating reliable political allies abroad, Britain hoped to bring into being an international regime that would support its own emerging liberal economic and political order. From 1870 onwards The period of intense imperialist competition that characterized the years leading down to the First World War. Major economic, political, and cultural trends began to emerge from about the middle of the century. By 1870 a number of interlocking economic and technological changes had begun to transform the landscape of continental Europe. Industrialization had spread in a slow and patchy way from the early years of the century. By the last quarter of the century, particular regions of Germany, France, and Belgium had sizeable industrial sectors. Germany, the most advanced of the continental powers, was starting to pioneer the products of the second industrial revolution, such as chemicals and electrical goods. Steam power The aplication of steam power, which was fundamental to improvements in manufacturing productivity, enabled striking gains to be made in transport efficiency. Railways Railways were built from the 1830s. Transoceanic steamship services began in the 1850s. These developments cut the cost and speeded up the movement of goods and people dramatically. Electricity Another miraculous innovation was electricity. It had a similar effect on information flows following the invention of the land telegraph in the 1840’s and the submarine cable in the 1850s. War Technology Improvements in technology also transformed the means of destruction, making possible large and more powerful navies and, through the invention of automatic loading and mobile field guns, brought the prospect of total war nearer. These innovations impringed on the overseas world very soon after they were adopted in Europe. During the 1850s regular steamship services began to ports in sub-Saharan Africa, railway construction started in India, Australia, and Latin America and the first transatlantic telegraph cable was laid. Railway-building in most of Asia and Africa awaited the coming of European rule at the close of the century. Engineering skills New engineering skills enabled the great canals of Suez (1869) and Panama (1914) to part four continents. Modern weapons They had the considerable merit of enabling the few to dominate the many. Modern weapons arrived even sooner. Enfield rifles to deal with the Indian Mutiny in 1856 Gatling’s machine guns from 1862. Maxim’s much improved version of machine gun in 1889. These engines of destruction were labour-saving devices: the cost of coercion diminished. Wolume & value of trade These developments greatly strengthened the connection between Europe and the rest of the world. The volume and value of trade expanded to reach unprecedented levels. More significant: Changes in the structure of the international economy: Increasing specialization produced the classic pattern of exchange: Unequal Europe exported manufactures and the rest of the world concentrated on produciding raw materials and foodstuffs. The growth of export enclaves across the world: cereals, vegetable oils, cotton, jute, coffee, cocoa, rubber, silk, timber. Carried by steamship to the ports of Europe in exchange for; The staples of the great manufacturing centers: Notably textiles and metal goods. The mining revolution Rich deposits of gold and other minerals, such as diamonds, copper, and tin were found on distant frontiers. It was at this point, in the second half of the century, that the Industrial Revolution began to have an important effect on economic relations with the world beyond Europe. Export of capital - Financial flows The expansion of world trade was closely associated with the export of capital and the movement of people. After about 1850, financial flows from Europe were of growing importance in funding development in the rest of the world. At first, capital was directed mainly to governments, to assist classical structures, like the Ottoman Empire, or to modernize or to help entirely new states, like the Latin American republics, to come into being. Private venture From 1870’s, a growing proportion of finance was raised for private venture, above all for railways. With increasing scale and specialization, a new set of large banks and complementary commercial and shipping firms emerged to manage the international economy. The integration of commodity markets was matched by the integration of capital markets. Financial crisis in the United States in 1873 Transmitted to the other industrializing countries and, via them, to the exporters of primary products. The Ottoman bankrapcy – The foundadion of the Ottoman Debt administration in 1881. The opening of new frontiers generated a fresh exodus from Europe. Emigration was fuelled by population growth, unemployment, and political instability. New opportunities grew and the cost of taking them fell. About the middle of the 19th century the large-scale, enforced movement of Africans across the Atlantic was finally halted and was replaced by a flow of free, desperately poor, migrants: English, Scots, Welsh, and Irish settled in Nort America; Spanish and Italian emigrants went to Latin America. The other colonies of settlement: the Cape, Australia and New Zeland began to fill out. These flows expanded greatly during the last quarter of the century. The movement of peoples between and within the other continents: Increased numbers of Chinese found their way to Singapore and other parts of south-east Asia. Indian settlers and transient workers expanded their age-old ties with East Africa and extended them south to the Cape. Africans, Vietnamese, Malays, and many others travelled long distances to work in mines and on plantations. Taken as a whole, what was happening globally by 1870 was the movement of one factor of production, labour, funded by another, capital, to take up opportunities on a third, immobile factor, land. The effort to convert souls travelled in harness with the effort to transform economies and societies. By 1870, there had been a revival of missionary energy and activity that continued down to 1914, especially in Africa and Asia. The information gathered from these diverse sources and places was processed in new or expanded ways. Increasing literacy, combined with growth of the popular press, brought news of the wider world to a non-specialist audience. Fact and fantasy were mixed to produce malleable representations and misrepresentations of other societies. By the turn of the century, the colonial novel had become a well-recognized literary genre. Images of distant lands, typically mixed with imperial and patriotic thems, found many other popular outlets. Scholarship also played its part in conveying ideas about the non-European world. Geography, geology, oceanography, anthropology, botany, zoology, tropical medicine, and history were among the academic disciplines that were generally stimulated by overseas expansion. Empire, its heroes, and the values they exemplified also entered into the training of the young, especially in Britain, through the education system, sport, and youth organization such as Boy Scouts and Girl Guides. Imperialism became an increasingly prominent item on the political agenda after 1870. This was a time of intense imperialist rivalries. The whole of Africa was partitioned and subsequently occupied, principally by Britain and France. Other European powers, old and new, shared in the spoils. The spread of informal influence and the creation of informal empires. Although Latin America, the Middle East, and China did not become European colonies, their independence was significantly compromised. A number of Latin American republics, headed by Argentina, were dominated by British finance and trade, and their political elites were beguiled / attracted by British liberalism. The Ottoman Empire fell increasingly under the control of Britain, France, and Germany after defaulting on its external debt in 1875. The Ottoman economic and financial structures integrated into the European and world economies in the 19th century. In this process, the essential factor was the rapid growth in trade between the Ottoman Empire and the leading countries of Europe. During the three-quarters of a century following the free trade treaties, signed first with Britain in 1838 then with other European countries, total Ottoman exports increased more than five times, while imports measured in current prices expanded six and a half times. The Ottoman economic structure witnessed a deepgoing commercialization in the wake of Napoleonic wars. Although a number of bilateral trade and commercial relations between the Ottoman Empire and Europe predated the Tanzimat reform of 1839, the proclamation of the reform edict, greatly accelerated Ottoman integration into the world economy. Both the reforms of the Tanzimat era and the growth in foreign trade had a positive impact on internal trade. The injection of money through foreign trade dismantled the self-sufficient, closed economic circuits. Britain and Russia divided Persia into spheres of informal influence in 1907 China resisted foreign incursions until prised / forced open by the rising power of Japan after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5. There followed a scramble for concessions and influence that resulted in large segments of China being partitioned informally between Britain, France, Russia, and Germany. The question to be addressed: Why was expansion converted into imperialism (and then into empire) at certain times and in certain places. This outcome was not inevitable. Britain exported manufactured goods, capital, and people to the United States on a large scale in the 19th century, yet it ditd not attempt to re-annex its former colonies or to turn them into an informal empire. French capital and expertise played a significant part in modernizing Russia’s economy and army at the close of the century without making the Tsar a pawn of Paris. The explanation: The relationsihp between parties was one of approximate equality; it was not possible even if it were desirable, for one to dominate the other. For expansion to become imperialism and for imperialism to be translated into empire, two conditions had to be met: The motive had to be strong enough for the attempt to be made. The inequality between expanding and the receiving states had to be sufficiently large to make the prospect of domination practible.