REMINDER

1. REMINDER You are expected to have the chapter read BEFORE lecture and BEFORE recitation. TAs will be grading your participation. If you haven’t read the chapter and can’t participate, you will lose points and your grade will be affected! There WILL be questions on the exam from the reading that aren’t covered in lecture or recitation!

2. The World System Architecture of globalization

3. Today’s Question: What is the World System? • How has it shaped relationships among regions historically? • How does it make some places more powerful than others? • How does it shape globalization today?

4. Lecture Outline • I. Prehistories of globalization: minisystems and hearth areas. • II. Early empires: metropoles and hinterlands • III. Colonialism: core, periphery and semiperiphery • IV. Neocolonialism and US hegemony • V. The end of US empire?

5. I. Prehistories of Globalization

6. I. Prehistories of Globalization • Human communities started as minisystems. • Minisystems have a single cultural base and a reciprocal social economy. • They are limited in scale, and usually isolated from other social systems.

7. I. Prehistories of Globalization Hearth Areas Sedentary Agriculture Growing food, rather than hunting or gathering it, allowed minisystems to grow and expand into hearth areas. Sedentary agriculture allowed for larger populations, more complex social organization, and increased trade over long distances. • Eventually, some practices of one culture spread to others. • The place where a practice comes into being and from which it spreads is called a Hearth Area. • What is the hearth area of Christianity? Of gunpowder? Of noodles? Of the number zero?

8. II. Early Empires

9. II. Early Empires Over centuries, some hearth areas became politically dominant over other areas. An empire is a group of minisystems absorbed into a common political system, while maintaining fundamental cultural differences. Examples: Ottoman Empire. Others?

10. II. Early Empires Egypt and Rome Aztecs

11. Regional empires became a world system A world system is an interdependent set of places linked by political and economic competition or collaboration

12. World System and Silk Road

13. Uneven development: Metropoles and Hinterlands Metropoles Hinterlands The area where a metropole collects taxes and products to be exported, and where it imports goods for sale. What places in the world have historically been hinterlands? What places are hinterlands today? Can you match them with their metropoles? • Urban centers of empire. • Which world cities have historically been metropoles? • Which world cities are metropoles today?

14. III. Colonialism Core, periphery and semi-periphery

15. Merchant Capitalism Merchant Capitalism • Merchant Capitalism is the engine of the huge growth in European empire in the 15th and 16th centuries. • Motivated by large populations and not enough food, European countries sought to expand into new territories. The Santa Maria—Columbus in search of new territories for merchant capitalist trade

16. Plantations Plantation System • Colonial systems acquired new land and forced labor to produce a single good for export. • This system was called the plantation system. • What crops were produced on plantations?

17. Triangle Trade

18. Core, Periphery and Semi-Periphery

19. Core Countries • CORE countries • Dominate trade • Control advanced technology • Have high productivity • Have diversified economies • What were the core countries in 1800? Today? Steam engine invented by James Watt In 1763

20. Peripheral Countries • Are economically and politically unsuccessful • Are dependent on the core • Have disadvantageous trade relationships • Have primitive or obsolete technology • Have specialized economies with low productivity Copper mines in Zambia made the country Economically dependent on Britain.

21. Semi-Peripheral Countries • Are in-between core and periphery • They exploit the periphery, but are exploited by the core. • Semi-peripheral countries can rise into the core. • Core countries can sink into the semi-periphery • Can you name countries that have moved from semi-periphery to core?

22. Hegemony • Is the domination over the world economy by one country • It is created via economic, military, financial and cultural domination • Is this a durable situation? What countries have been hegemons that aren’t now? • It is usually based on control of advanced technology • Which technologies have supported hegemons? • Rome • Steam engine • Internal combustion engine • microchips

23. Control over advanced technology shifts the balance of power between regions Be sure and read your textbook about the industrial revolution!

24. IV. Ne0-colonialism and US hegemony

25. The United States has been world hegemon since 1945

28. Neocolonialism • Powerful states exercise indirect power over other areas of the world • Not direct rule, as in colonialism • Rather, financial transactions, commercial relations, and covert intelligence establish dominance US domination of Latin America was often carried out in the interests of companies like The United Fruit Company.

29. Transnational Corporations TNCs are actors in neoimperialist relations TNCs in peripheral countries United Fruit Newmont mining Nestle Trump Can you name more? How are they involved in neocolonial relations over peripheral countries? • They have alliances with hegemonic states advance the political agendas of states. • In exchange, nation-states often protect the TNCs’ economic interests through political and military means

30. Commodity Chains • The path a commodity takes from raw materials to consumption. • Are important paths through which TNCs link core countries to peripheral ones • Involve relationships of dominance and power Coltan miners in the Congo produce minerals essential to cell phones

31. V. The End of US hegemony? Are we witnessing the end?

32. The End of US hegemony? • 2008 financial crisis: Can we control global markets? • Iraq and Afghanistan: Can we control peripheral areas through military means? • 2011 political crisis: Can our system of government control an increasingly complex world system?

33. New Competitors in the World System: BRIC • Brazil • Russia • India • China • Have rapidly developing economies • Have significant investments in the United States and Europe • Have strong labor bases for expansion • Are flexing muscles in foreign countries

34. What world system comes next?