Timeline ZACH RICHER

1 Timeline ZACH RICHER As the well over 600 entries in this encyclopedia demonstrate, globalization is a term that encompasses structures, systems, and processes across a broad range of social contexts and academic disciplines. Its popular association with market forces and economic integration belies the manifold ways that populations have become increasingly integrated through political, social, cultural, and technological exchanges. Indeed, the first known usage of globalization (Reiser & Davies 1944) emerged during the final months of World War II as changing coalitions of states sparked fresh debates and innovative visions for the coming new world order. The system of international governance set in motion in the following years did much to increase global integration. It was to be nearly four decades, in an influential article in the Harvard Business Review (Levitt 1983), before the term took on its economistic connotation and achieved wide currency in policy, business, and academic circles. More recent scholarship (Beck 2000; Therborn 2000; Ritzer 2010) has argued that it may be more appropriate to think of globalizations in the plural, stressing the sometimes overlapping, sometimes con tradicting flows of people, objects, and information across the globe. Alongside increased connectivity and cooperation, it is now common to emphasize the shared global dangers of climate change, terrorist networks, food insecurity, and health epidemics. Furthermore, many feminists and postcolonial think- ers (Ong 1999; Kim-Puri 2005) argue that the processes of globalization do not affect all regions, nations, peoples, or individuals in the same manner. Rather, global mobili- ties, capabilities, and potentialities are differentially experienced throughout what the geographer Doreen Massey (1993) calls a “power-geometry.” These differing emphases and competing conceptions of globalization suggest that any attempt to describe its chronology would be controversial. Rather than staking an argument for one particular vision of globalization, this timeline operates from a highly inclusive framework, drawing attention not just toward the technological innovations, political structures, and economic systems that have increasingly integrated the globe, but also to changing ways of thinking about the world and the representation of global concepts in art and culture. Before proceeding, however, it does bear mentioning one point of consensus: that globalization has not been a ceaseless forward march along a predetermined, or even intentional, path. Many of the events, innovations, ideas, and accidents included in this timeline have been facilitators of globalization, while others The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization, First Edition. Edited by George Ritzer. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2012 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2 merely foreshadow it, and still others have resisted it. The chronology of globalization displayed below may be linear through time, but has not been cumulative. In short, globalization as a term speaks for everyone; this timeline cannot. It is neces- sarily highly selective, and countless other events and developments could have been included. Furthermore, it is likely to be quite different from other timelines created by other scholars. It is not meant to be definitive, but rather to give the reader of The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization an initial sense of the topics covered in this volume and their place in history. REFERENCES Beck, U. (2000) What is Globalization? Polity Press, Cambridge. Kim-Puri, H.J. (2005) Conceptualizing gender-sexuality-state-nation: an introduction. Gender and Society 19 (2), 137–159. Levitt, T. (1983) The globalization of markets. Harvard Business Review May–June. Massey, D. (1993) Power-geometry and a progressive sense of place. In: Bird, J.B.C., Putnam, T., Robertson, G. & Tickner, L. (eds.) Mapping the Futures: Local Cultures, Global Change. Routledge, London. Ong, A. (1999) Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality. Duke University Press, Durham, NC. Reiser, O.J. & Davies, B. (1944) Planetary Democracy. An Introduction to Scientific Humanism and Applied Semantics. Creative Age Press, New York. Ritzer, G. (2010) Globalization: A Basic Text. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford. Therborn, G. (2000) Globalizations: dimensions, historical waves, regional effects, normative governance. International Sociology 15 (2), 151–179. A Timeline of Globalization 550 bce In an attempt to conquer distance through communication, the Persian King Cyrus the Great establishes the world’s first postal service. ∼550 bce The Greek philosopher Anaximander creates what is believed to be the first world map. 469 bce Socrates is born. The philosopher can be credited with an early vision of cosmopolitan citizenship, declaring “I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.” 202 bce Gaozu of Han becomes the first emperor of the Han Dynasty in China and completes the transcontinental trade and communication route that later became known as the Silk Road. 31 bce The Battle of Actium is fought, ending the Roman civil war. The 200-year Pax Romana would begin shortly thereafter. 150 ce At around this time, the Greek geographer Pausanias published his 10-volume Description of Greece, possibly the world’s first travel guide. 632 Abu-Bakr becomes the first Caliph and leader of the Islamic Ummah, or global community of Muslims. 1095 Pope Urban II orders the First Crusade to capture the Holy Lands for Christianity. 1206 The Mongol Empire is founded under the rule of Ghengis Khan. It would eventually become the largest contiguous empire in history. 3 1305 The French political philosopher Pierre Debois becomes among the first to propose the establishment of an international court of law. 1315 The Italian poet and philosopher Dante writes De Monarchia, providing the first systematic postulate of a world government. 1347 The Stora Kopparberg, a copper mining company, is granted a charter by King Magnus IV of Sweden, becoming what many believe to be the first corporation. 1402 The invasion of the Canary Islands lays the colonial foundation of the Spanish Empire. 1413 The reign of Henry V begins in England and issues the first identification documents for foreign travelers, an early analog to the modern passport. 1452 Pope Nicholas V issues a Papal Bull declaring that it is permissible to enslave pagans, clearing a path for the European exploitation of African colonies. Three years later, he would decree trade monopolies for claimed territories on the continent. 1488 Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias becomes the first European to round the southernmost point of Africa, passing from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. 1492 The Italian navigator Christopher Columbus leads the first successful transatlantic naval expedition, thus “discovering” the North American continent for the Europeans. 1494 Portuguese King John II begins the African slave trade to Europe. The practice would be extended to the Americas eight years later. 1494 The Spanish and Portuguese Empires sign the Treaty of Tordesillas, carving up the Southern colonies between them. 1498 Vasco da Gama establishes Portuguese presence in India. 1515 With the Laws of Burgos, the Spanish Empire declares legal jurisdiction over conduct on the American continents. 1522 An expedition begun by Ferdinand Magellan completes the first nautical circumnavigation of the globe. 1543 Nicolaus Copernicus publishes On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, advancing the then-controversial claim that the Earth revolves around the Sun. 1569 Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator develops the Mercator map projection. 1582 Pope Gregory XIII introduces the Gregorian calendar, what is now the globally accepted calendar. 1602 The Dutch East India Company becomes the world’s first multinational corporation. 1604 Johann Carolus publishes what is thought by many to be the world’s first serial newspaper, in Germany. 1607 The British establish their first settlement in North America in Jamestown, Virginia. Within 12 years, it would begin importing slave laborers from Africa. 1642 Galileo Galilei dies in Italy. In his lifetime he made several contributions to physics and astrology, from championing a heliocentric cosmology to inventing the first modern telescope. 1648 The Peace of Westphalia is formed by European powers, institutionalizing the concept of state sovereignty. 1664 Treasure by Foreign Trade, a major work in mercantilist economic theory, is posthumously published by the English merchant Thomas Mun. 4 1670 A Royal British Charter establishes the Hudson Bay Company, the first corporation in North America and, for a time, the largest landowner in the world. 1678 The term lingua franca is coined to describe a common language of communication across great distances. 1687 Isaac Newton’s Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy introduces the three laws of motion, and advances the science on the gravitational movements of celestial bodies. 1694 The privately owned Bank of England is established to lend money to the King. The event marked a significant subordination of public to private finance. 1712 Thomas Newcomen pioneers the first widely used steam engine. 1758 Englishman Richard Cox founds Cox and Kings, the world’s first travel company. 1776 Adam Smith publishes An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, an extended argument against mercantilism in favor of liberal economics. 1776 The Continental Congress

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