Globalization

Globalization Paper Globalization is a historical process that is inevitable and irreversible. It defies geography and you can get anywhere. It compresses space and time. It connects people of different places and culture. Globalization can happen slowly or quickly in some centuries. We are in a world that is inter-connected, inter-related, and inter-grated. Globalization began in 1492 with Christopher Columbus’s discovery of America making the United States of America the first globalized civilization. Thomas Friedman believed that Economic Globalization began with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and allowed for a sea of changes in the way of thinking and acting. Factors that have accelerated globalization over time include paradigm shifts in religion, science, and politics. Paradigm shift is a mental construct and collective way of thinking that has the ability to change over time, define reality and thus impact the majorities’ way of thinking. In the Medieval times religion was such a significant factor in society and reasoning and over time this way of thinking shifted. For example in the Medieval times it was believed that God is more important than man while in the Modern Times a majority believe that Man is more important than god. This shift is also evident in scientific discoveries. In the 14th and 15th centuries there were scientific discoveries such as the earth is round and the sun is the center of the universe, these discoveries disproved medieval theories that the earth was flat and the center of the universe. In Medieval times politics were heavily influenced by the belief that the Pope and God appointed the divine right of kings. However by the 16th century there was a paradigm shift in politics as fueled by John Locke’s the Rights of Man and the establishment of parliament. Theories in post-modern times that have accelerated globalization include Quantum Physics and its belief that everything is related and that there is