Chapter 2 - The Process of Globalization

Summary

The second body of data revealing support for the view that a global civilization has arisen is the accelerated process of globalization. This process is not new, however. Its historical roots go back to the sixteenth century, more precisely to the year 1521, when Magellan, for the first time, circumnavigated the world, and thus empirically proved that the Earth was round. From this, the path to the westernization of the planet was open. Europe started the colonialist and imperialist adventure which conquered all lands, and which put these to the service of European interests. These interests encompassed the search for power and riches, the imposition of white western culture, the forced implementation of Christianity, and the fierce defense of individualism. It is noteworthy here to mention that from the perspective of victims of this process, victims who are based in the southern hemisphere, this adventure was conducted by all sorts of violent methods, genocide, ethnocide (i.e. death of particular populations) and ecocide (i.e. death of ecosystems). This is the ‘Age of Iron’ of human history, in the well-coined expression by Edgar Morin. No matter how many contradictions this age has, it is from it that the bases for the process of globalization were launched, a process greatly accelerated today.

The process of globalization is occurring on different fronts. Let us assess some of these.