unit 9

• Globalization


  Increasing global interconnectedness
• Technology and the exchange of goods

  • Communication and transportation technologies
  • New energy technology
  • Agricultural technology
  • Medical technology
• Communication and transportation technologies

  1. Radio

  2. Television

  3. Cellular technology

  4. Social media platforms
• Cellular technology and social media

  Allowed the rest of the world to know about people's discontent with their governments (e.g. Arab Spring)
• Communication and transportation technologies

  Reduced the metaphorical and literal space between people
• New energy technology


  • Petroleum and natural gas
  • Nuclear energy
• Nuclear energy is far more renewable than petroleum and much cleaner, but can also be disastrous (e.g. Chernobyl)
• Agricultural technology


  • Green Revolution
  • Genetic engineering
  • Fertilizers and pesticides
  • Irrigation
  • Rise of commercial farming
• New agricultural technologies led to the consolidation of small farms into the hands of corporations
• Medical technology


  • Antibiotics
  • Vaccines
  • Birth control pill
• Impoverished people live in poor housing conditions, often have to contend with contaminated water, and have relatively limited access to healthcare, leading to the spread of diseases that wealthier populations don't have to contend with
• Diseases associated with poverty

  • Malaria
  • Tuberculosis
  • Cholera
• Malaria is a disease carried by mosquitoes and is especially prevalent in tropical environments</b>
• Tuberculosis is an airborne disease transmitted through coughing and sneezing, and is associated with poverty because the impoverished, especially in urban areas, tend to live in very close quarters with one another
• Cholera is a bacterial disease transmitted through contaminated water, causes severe vomiting, diarrhea, and dehydration, and is associated with poverty because the impoverished usually don't have access to clean water
• Globalization has created the occasion for the spread of infectious diseases, such as the Spanish Flu in 1918, which infected about one-fifth of the world's population and led to 20-50 million deaths worldwide
• HIV/AIDS is a virus that depresses a person's immune system, leading to the deaths of about 25 million people in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, but new treatments have been developed to help infected people fight off other diseases
• Ebola is a disease with a devastating death rate of about 50%, with major outbreaks in 1976 and 2014
• COVID-19, or Coronavirus, is a new disease that has spread along trade and travel routes, significantly altering social and economic realities
• Longer lifespans have led to increased incidence of Alzheimer's Disease, a form of dementia that affects the aging population, and heart disease, which is the number 1 cause of death globally, claiming 18 million lives annually
• Medical technologies like antibiotics, vaccines, and birth control pill extended and changed people's lives
• Environmental problems after 1900

  • Deforestation
  • Desertification
  • Decline in air quality
  • Increased pressure on fresh water supply
  • Increase in global temperature
• Deforestation


  Cutting down trees due to increased need for land for agriculture
• Desertification


  Process by which fertile land becomes desert-like due to deforestation, drought, and harmful agricultural techniques
• Decline in air quality

  Caused by massive amounts of industrial byproducts being released into the air, e.g. the Great Smog in London in 1952
• The aim is to explain the continuities and changes in the global economy from 1900 to the present
• Increased pressure on fresh water supply

  Only 3% of the world's water is usable by humans, and demand is rising due to population growth and increased agriculture
• Three main movements to consider

  • Proliferation of free market economics
  • Rise of knowledge economies
  • Rise of transnational free trade organizations and multinational corporations
• Increase in global temperature

  Caused by greenhouse gas emissions from industrialization, leading to melting ice caps, rising sea levels, and desertification
• Proliferation of free market economics

  Trend of economic liberalization accelerated by the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union
• The Kyoto Protocol (1997) and Paris Agreement (2015) were international efforts to regulate and reduce greenhouse gas emissions
• The aim is to explain the continuities and changes in the global economy from 1900 to the present
• Three main movements to consider

  • Proliferation of free market economics
  • Rise of knowledge economies
  • Rise of transnational free trade organizations and multinational corporations
• Examples of increasing economic liberalization

  • United States under Ronald Reagan
  • Great Britain under Margaret Thatcher
  • Chile under Augusto Pinochet
  • China under Deng Xiaoping
• Proliferation of free market economics

  Trend of economic liberalization accelerated by the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union
• Knowledge economy


  Economy which depends on the quality and quantity of information available, which can then be monetized as a commodity
• Examples of increasing economic liberalization

  • United States under Ronald Reagan
  • Great Britain under Margaret Thatcher
  • Chile under Augusto Pinochet
  • China under Deng Xiaoping
• The reforms in Chile were unpopular and enforced with brutality by Pinochet
• The economic freedom in China led to a yearning for other basic freedoms, culminating in the Tiananmen Square protest
• Knowledge economy


  An economy which depends on the quality and quantity of information available, which can then be monetized as a commodity