The pre-modern world
Globalisation means the world's economies, people and cultures becoming linked. It is very old.
Silk routes link the world
The silk routes were land and sea routes that joined Asia with Europe and northern Africa, from before the Christian era until about the 15th century. Chinese silk went west; pottery, textiles and spices from India and South-east Asia travelled too; gold and silver flowed back. Buddhist preachers, Christian missionaries and later Muslim preachers travelled on them as well.
Food travels: spaghetti and potato
Noodles may have gone west from China to become spaghetti, or Arab traders may have taken pasta to Sicily. Many foods we know, like potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chillies and sweet potatoes, came from the Americas after Christopher Columbus reached there. The humble potato changed lives in Europe; when a potato disease destroyed the crop in Ireland (1845–49), about one million people died of hunger and many more left.
Conquest, disease and trade
In the 16th century, after European sailors found a sea route to Asia and crossed to the Americas, the Americas' silver and crops enriched Europe. The Spanish conquest was helped most by germs: smallpox killed huge numbers of the native people, who had no immunity. Until the 18th century China and India were among the richest countries. Then trade shifted and Europe became the centre of world trade.
The nineteenth century (1815–1914)
Three flows
Economists see three kinds of movement: trade (goods like cloth or wheat), labour (people moving for work) and capital (money invested over long distances).
A world economy takes shape
In Britain, the Corn Laws kept out cheap imported grain. When they were ended (1846), cheap food came in from America, Russia and Australia; British farmers could not compete, and many rural people moved to cities or abroad. Nearly 50 million people left Europe for America and Australia in the 19th century.
Role of technology
Railways, steamships and the telegraph moved goods and news quickly. Refrigerated ships let meat travel from America, Australia or New Zealand to Europe. Meat became cheaper, the poor could eat better, and social peace improved at home.
Late 19th-century colonialism
In 1885 big European powers met in Berlin and divided Africa among themselves, drawing straight lines on paper. Europeans wanted Africa's land and minerals, but Africans had little reason to work for wages. Rinderpest, a fast-spreading cattle plague, arrived in the late 1880s from infected cattle brought from British Asia; by 1892 it had reached Africa's Atlantic coast and killed about 90% of cattle. Losing cattle, Africans were forced into the labour market.
Indentured labour from India
Indentured labour means a worker signs a contract to work for a set time for an employer, often far away, to pay for the journey. Indian workers, mostly from eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, central India and the dry districts of Tamil Nadu, went to the Caribbean (Trinidad, Guyana, Surinam), Mauritius and Fiji. Recruiters often lied about the work; living and working conditions were harsh. Workers built new cultures: Hosay (a carnival form of Muharram) in Trinidad, 'chutney music', and ideas that fed the Rastafarian movement. The system was ended in 1921.
Indian entrepreneurs and trade
Shikaripuri shroffs and Nattukottai Chettiars financed farming in Central and South-east Asia. Indian textile exports to Britain fell as British cotton goods came into India. India exported raw cotton, indigo and opium (to China). Britain had a trade surplus with India, used to pay its deficit with other countries and the "home charges" (pensions and debts paid from India).
The inter-war economy
War-time changes
The First World War (1914–18) was the first modern industrial war: machine guns, tanks, aircraft and chemical weapons. About 9 million died and 20 million were wounded. Britain borrowed from the USA, so the USA became a creditor. After the war, Britain faced debt and lost markets like India to Japan.
Mass production in America
Henry Ford adapted the assembly line from a Chicago slaughterhouse to make the T-model car: each worker did one task, so cars came out every few minutes and became cheap. With hire purchase (buying on credit), Americans bought cars, fridges and radios.
The Great Depression (1929 to mid-1930s)
Causes: (1) farm overproduction made prices fall, so farmers produced even more to keep income, pushing prices lower; (2) many countries depended on loans from the USA; when US investors pulled back in 1928–29, banks in Europe failed. In the USA, banks called back loans, homes were lost, and by 1933 over 4,000 banks had closed.
India and the Depression
India's exports and imports nearly halved between 1928 and 1934. Wheat prices fell by 50%. Peasants still had to pay the same revenue, so they sold their savings and jewellery: India became an exporter of precious metals, especially gold. Town dwellers with fixed incomes gained from low prices. Peasant anger fed the Civil Disobedience Movement of 1931.
Rebuilding a world economy: the post-war era
The Second World War (1939–45) killed about 60 million people. Leaders drew two lessons: mass production needs mass buyers (so jobs must be kept), and countries must not stay isolated.
In July 1944 at Bretton Woods (New Hampshire, USA), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was set up to deal with external surpluses and deficits of member nations, and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) to pay for post-war rebuilding. They began work in 1947. The system used fixed exchange rates, with the dollar tied to gold. The years till the early 1970s are called the "golden age" of growth.
Many colonies became free, but newly independent countries found that the IMF and World Bank were controlled by rich countries. They formed the G-77 to demand a New International Economic Order (NIEO): control over their own resources, fairer prices and better access to markets. From the 1970s the Bretton Woods system weakened, countries borrowed from private banks, and MNCs moved factories to low-wage Asian countries such as China, which grew fast.
Note: for the board exam, sections 2 to 4.4 of this chapter are done as an interdisciplinary project, so read this part to understand it and use it for your project.
Try it yourself
Kitchen hunt: pick 5 things from your kitchen (potato, tomato, chilli, tea, rice…). Guess which came from the Americas, then check the list in this lesson. In the 3D free play, predict where the trade pillar is lowest before you move the slider.
Exam tips
Board questions often come from the pre-modern world: silk routes, food travel, conquest and disease. Also asked: three flows, role of technology, rinderpest, indentured labour, Great Depression and its effect on India, and Bretton Woods. Explain cause → effect in 3–5 marks answers.
Key formulas and definitions
- Three flows = trade (goods) + labour (people) + capital (money)
- Silk routes = land + sea routes joining Asia, Europe and Africa
- Great Depression = farm overproduction + US loans withdrawn → crash
- Bretton Woods 1944 = IMF + World Bank + fixed exchange rates
- Indenture = contract labour for fixed years, often far from home
Worked examples
1. Give two examples to show that the pre-modern world was linked.
1) Silk routes carried Chinese silk, Indian spices and textiles, and also Buddhist and Christian preachers. 2) Food crops like potato, maize and chillies spread from the Americas to Europe and Asia. (Also: germs like smallpox.)
2. How did rinderpest change African lives?
It killed about 90% of cattle in the 1890s. Cattle were Africans' wealth and livelihood. Without them, people were forced to work for wages on European mines and plantations, which is what colonisers wanted.
3. Explain two causes of the Great Depression.
1) Farm overproduction: prices fell, farmers produced more to keep income, prices fell even more and grain rotted unsold. 2) Many countries ran on US loans; when US lenders pulled back after 1928, European banks and currencies collapsed.
4. What were the aims of the IMF and World Bank?
The IMF was to handle the external surpluses and deficits of member countries; the World Bank was to finance post-war reconstruction and later development.
Common mistakes
- Saying globalisation started only in the 1990s. Links through silk routes, food and trade are thousands of years old.
- Mixing capital with labour: capital is money invested; labour is people moving to work.
- Thinking the Great Depression helped Indian farmers. Prices fell but revenue stayed the same, so they suffered badly.
- Writing that Bretton Woods set up the UN. It set up the IMF and the World Bank.