There is no consensus in the academic and scientific world about what the beginning of globalization would have been. Some consider it only from its total consolidation, that is, that moment when the information media expanded, at least in theory, to all parts of the world, which would date from the second half of the 20th century in against. Others, on the other hand, consider globalization as a gradual process, which would have started in the past. older, thanks to the great maritime expansions of the late 15th and early 19th centuries, between 1450 and 1850.
If we take into account the second premise presented above, we can divide the globalization process into three phases: the first dating from the beginning of the formation of Commercial Capitalism and the growth of mercantilism; the second with the consolidation of the European industrial model and its imperialist action; and the third after the Third Industrial Revolution, involving the dissemination of technologies and consolidation of the capitalist system in the face of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The first phase of globalization, based on this periodization, would be the longest, between the mid-fifteenth century and the mid-nineteenth century. It corresponds to the development of mercantilism as a reigning mode of production, in which countries were concerned to present a maintenance of a favorable trade balance and maximum accumulation of precious metals, in addition to customs protectionism established.
We can say that the beginning of globalization developed in this period because it was at that time the period of the great navigations, in that new routes to the Indies in search of spices were defined, in addition to the discovery of new territories, including Brazil. With that, in addition to a greater expression for the world market, there were also new migratory flows both for exploration and for the settlement of the new colonies. Thus, the first traces of transformation and cultural interaction between different peoples were observed.
In addition, this panorama structured an International Division of Labor, which consists of the role played by each territory in work and in world trade. While, on the one hand, the colonies produced raw materials, such as agricultural products, ores and natural resources, on the other, the metropolises transformed these materials into manufactured products.
There was also in this period the intensification of the slave labor mode, in which hundreds of ethnic groups of African origin were transported and forced to working in colonial lands, with emphasis on Brazil, which, according to some data, received around 40% of the total number of blacks captured in the different domains of the Africa.
In this period, therefore, Europe behaved as the world economic and political center, with power fronts led by urban centers such as London, Paris and Lisbon. The main powers of that period were: England, France, Portugal, Holland and, later, the United States.
Although this period is considered, here, the first phase of globalization, there are other theoretical conceptions that mark this beginning to other moments in history, such as the Industrial Revolution or the bourgeois revolutions in France and England. In any case, we can consider that, without the process of maritime expansion and colonization promoted by European countries, the formation of capitalism and the construction of globalization would have been, at least, hampered, if not prevented from being performed.
By Rodolfo Alves Pena
Graduated in Geography
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/geografia/primeira-globa.htm
