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Globalization discussion (discussion board 1)Globalization discussion (discussion board 1)

These questions ask you to consider the development of globalization over the past three hundred years through the lens of the relationship between colonialism and capitalism. Answer each of the following questions with answers of at least one paragraph:

This first question asks you to consider the framing issue of globalization, the increasing economic and cultural connections across the globe. 

1. When did the modern era of globalization begin? What were the primary aspects of globalization at its outset? What are the “shadows and lights” of globalization? How has it increased global inequality?

This second question is about changes in globalization around the time of the American Revolution, which was the first of a series of revolutions that broke connections between New World colonies and European states. Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, considered the founding text of modern economics, was published in 1776, the year of American independence. He provides a British perspective on colonies from the period. Sven Beckert’s article describes the economic connections between the UK and the United States that replaced the formal connections of colonialism with a system of trade for industrial production. 

2. According to Adam Smith, what benefits did colonialism bring to European countries? What drawbacks did colonies have? How did the system of semicolonial dependence that Sven Beckert describes deal with the issues that Smith raises? How did English industrialists make the US South dependent on them? 

Semicolonial dependence was a system of informal control. In the following decades, European nations again established direct control over much of the world in a process called “The New Imperialism” (review pages 13-15 in Voices of Decolonization) for a discussion of the characteristics of the New Imperialism). This question asks you to consider the changes in the ways that Europeans thought about colonialism and justified conquering most of Africa and Asia. 

3. Judging from the New Imperialism primary sources and/or article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations,  how did European leaders justify the New Imperialism? Why did they tell their audiences that colonialism was again a good thing? What had changed since the arguments made by Adam Smith and the situation described by Sven Beckert? Your answer should not be just a list of different arguments made by the authors/speakers – formulate a clear statement about their arguments together. Then support that statement with evidence from at least three documents.

4. According to Mike Davis, how did the choices made in the creation of the New Imperialism produce famine across much of the globe in the late nineteenth century? How did British administrators in India justify taking grain from India and shipping it to the United Kingdom while people in India were starving?

Beginning in 1945, colonies in Africa and Asia declared independence from European empires. Todd Shepard discusses the process of decolonization in the introduction of Voices of Decolonization. These questions ask you to think about the economic aspects of independence. 

5.  Answer question 19 on page 174 of Voices of Decolonization. Your answer should not be just a list of different arguments made by the authors/speakers – formulate a clear statement about their arguments together. Then support that statement with evidence from at least three documents.

6. How does Kwame Nkrumah define “neo-colonialism?” How is it different from the earlier means European states used to control dependent economies that you discussed in question 2? How is it similar?