The historical origins of globalization (also known as historical globalization) are the subject of ongoing debate. Though many scholars situate the origins of globalization in the modern era (around the 19th century), others regard it as a phenomenon with a long history, dating back thousands of years (a concept known as archaic globalization). The period in the history of globalization roughly spanning the years between 1600 and 1800 is in turn known as the proto-globalization.
Divisions of time
Thomas L. Friedman divides the history of globalization into three periods: Globalization 1.0 (1492–1800), Globalization 2.0 (1800–2000) and Globalization 3.0 (2000–present). He states that Globalization 1.0 involved the globalization of countries, Globalization 2.0 involved the globalization of companies and Globalization 3.0 involves the globalization of individuals.
Klaus Schwab, founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, Richard Baldwin and Philippe Martin have divided the history of globalization into four eras: Globalization 1.0 was before World War I, Globalization 2.0 was after World War II "when trade in goods was combined with complementary domestic policies", Globalization 3.0, for which other terms in use have included "New Globalization", hyperglobalization, the "global value chain revolution", and the period of offshoring, refers to a more recent period of change in global economic relationships, and Globalization 4.0 to current (2018 onwards) changes affecting services in particular.
Archaic globalization
Perhaps the extreme proponent of a deep historical origin for globalization was Andre Gunder Frank, an economist associated with dependency theory. Frank argued that a form of globalization has been in existence since the rise of trade links between Sumer and the Indus Valley civilization in the third millennium BC. Critics of this idea contend that it rests upon an over-broad definition of globalization.
Even as early as the Prehistoric period, the roots of modern globalization could be found. Territorial expansion by our ancestors to all five continents was a critical component in establishing globalization. The development of agriculture furthered globalization by converting the vast majority of the world's population into a settled lifestyle. However, globalization failed to accelerate due to lack of long-distance interaction and technology. The contemporary process of globalization likely occurred around the middle of the 19th century as increased capital and labor mobility coupled with decreased transport costs led to a smaller world.
An early form of globalized economics and culture, known as archaic globalization, existed during the Hellenistic Age, when commercialized urban centers were focused around the axis of Greek culture over a wide range that stretched from India to Spain, with such cities as Alexandria, Athens, and Antioch at its center. Trade was widespread during that period, and it is the first time the idea of a cosmopolitan culture (from Greek "Cosmopolis", meaning "world city") emerged. Others have perceived an early form of globalization in the trade links between the Roman Empire, the Parthian Empire, and the Han Dynasty. The increasing articulation of commercial links between these powers inspired the development of the Silk Road, which started in western China, reached the boundaries of the Parthian empire, and continued onwards towards Rome.
The Islamic Golden Age was also an important early stage of globalization, when Jewish and Muslim traders and explorers established a sustained economy across the Old World resulting in a globalization of crops, trade, knowledge and technology. Globally significant crops such as sugar and cotton became widely cultivated across the Muslim world in this period, while the necessity of learning Arabic and completing the Hajj created a cosmopolitan culture.
The advent of the Mongol Empire, though destabilizing to the commercial centers of the Middle East and China, greatly facilitated travel along the Silk Road. This permitted travelers and missionaries such as Marco Polo to journey successfully (and profitably) from one end of Eurasia to the other. The Pax Mongolica of the thirteenth century had several other notable globalizing effects. It witnessed the creation of the first international postal service, as well as the rapid transmission of epidemic diseases such as bubonic plague across the newly unified regions of Central Asia. These pre-modern phases of global or hemispheric exchange are sometimes known as archaic globalization. Up to the sixteenth century, however, even the largest systems of international exchange were limited to the Old World.