"A historical perspective might be useful to show [...] that globalization is not particularly new, nor, in general, a folly. For thousands of years, travel and migration, trade goods or knowledge have been a form of globalization, which has contributed to human progress. And stop it would cause irreparable harm. Still, despite today's globalization is seen by many as a correlate of Western domination, the historical examination can help us to conceive of the possibility that this process occurs in the opposite direction "
(Sen, A., Globalization and freedom)
The concept of 'globalization', as known and widely published today, is related only to current or can be immediate, as it was backdated and verified in the light of major historical events that took place over several phases, at least, of modern and contemporary humanity? The answer to this question, which at first glance it might appear improper or trivial, depending on your point of view from which we place ourselves in dealing with a theme-and-a-term and continuously applicant at the same time, highly controversial. The method used, the approach to the problem and means to deepen the content as never before in this case were so crucial to load and render meaningless scientifically interesting analysis of this commitment, outside of any fashion, or blinding rush quota.
About the centuries immemorial, Amartya Sen has stated that: "Around the year one thousand the global spread of science, technology and mathematics was changing the nature of the old world, but the spread was followed to a large extent, a opposite direction to the current one. For example, high technologies such as the year one thousand paper and printing, gunpowder and sextant, watch and suspension bridge in iron chains, kites and magnetic compass, trolley on wheels and fan were known and widely used in China, but almost unknown elsewhere. Globalization has spread throughout the world, including Europe. The same thing happened in mathematics. The decimal system was born and developed in India between the second and sixth centuries and, shortly thereafter, was also used by the Arabs. These mathematical innovations reached Europe mainly in the last decades of the tenth century and began to have a significant impact at the beginning of the last millennium. Then they played a leading role in the scientific revolution that has led the transformation of Europe. Indeed, Europe would be much poorer, in terms of economic, scientific and cultural-if he had resisted the globalization of mathematics, science and technology that time "[1].
Two examples of the new and impetuous current phase of globalization is represented by the emergence of a global market and the realization of the so-called 'IT revolution', on the one hand, and the acceleration of the process of European integration on the other.
The first phenomenon, one that is fully recognized as the most obvious evidence of globalization depends on the combination of the evolution of the field of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and the organization 's economy, which led to the birth of the Net-Economy [2], ie a system in which the availability of real-time information and the ability to spread communications-and-trade without geographical limits and / or space are the basis for the success of any economic initiative, especially private type. There are those stresses, to this end, the character 'imperial' in the new economic system: an update of sorts in the continuity of the capitalist system, and the crisis of the traditional tools for training and monitoring processes of accumulation. There is, also, who points to a paradigm shift between the previous economic system, based on the goal of achieving ever higher levels of profit, and the new, more complex configuration, which assumes great significance in the possession of knowledge, or rather, the ability to understand the evolution of knowledge (know how) social. As noted: "In the background, we see the emergence of new cultural elite ambiguous profile, no longer characterized by the possession of a body of knowledge, but only the ability to intercept before the other trends and news of the moment" [3 ].
The same movement that has developed in parallel with the progress of globalization, has a unique character: indiscriminately against-the 'look-no global or for a process of' government 'from the bottom-' s-new global aspect? Or, more simply, the mere use, appropriation the tools of globalization to halt the process? The question then is whether the "anti-globalization movement is truly, as his rhetoric would suggest," because "the same anti-globalization protests are in fact one of the most globalized events in the contemporary world" [4]. However, the answer to these questions does not change the framework of the phenomenon, nor the thorough assessment and that progress must be made to understand the constraints and opportunities, the actual holding of a historical perspective and not just the virtual existence.
The second phenomenon, that has led to a decisive step forward in the process of economic integration of the European Union, adoption of the euro has its most representative symbol. The economic system (and political) emerged and consolidated as a result of Bretton Woods was focused on the prevalence of a single country-the USA-and-one currency-the dollar on the international stage. This choice was finally ousted the previous organization, based on the alternation (or coexistence) of some of the most developed nations in the key position of leadership of the international economic and financial system. During the second half of the nineteenth century, compared to a progressive strengthening of the dollar, contrasting phenomena occurred, as the organization of the common market countries Eastern Europe (CMEA), the rise of the Japanese economy and the yen, to the growth of European monetary union and the birth of the euro. The choice of a single currency for a large part of the Old Continent was the most obvious point of arrival of functionalist theories, which founded the European integration process on a gradualist vision, made up of sectoral agreements and a penchant for the -economic issues, especially the practical demonstration of a desire for growth that led to the final passing of the old barriers and internal barriers to trade within Europe, as well as the resumption of close relations between Europe and the rest of the world. In short, the euro has come to mean a symbol of unification and independence, the extension of competitive scale and affirmation of the role of 'power' of Europe, even in perspective. In this final stage, in particular, the substantial appreciation of the European currency against the dollar seems to show a new possibility of changing the system and, in particular, the opportunity to take on the euro value of an asset of refuge particular importance, as it has for a long time for gold.
This absolute and, in some ways, unexpected news-beyond-all disproportionate and inappropriate optimism seems to prefigure the opening of a new phase of international relations, within which a balance may be less established and assert a new dynamic of European economies, which already during the eighties had captured the centrality of the scene. In a nutshell, the framework of a long and undisputed hegemony of the dollar has added a new context of gradual habit of the single European currency system and an increasingly autonomous and 'strong' euro. However, a final assessment of the advantages, but also on the problems caused by the force (and appreciation) of the euro can be traced only in a few time. Meanwhile, it is worth pointing out that if the currencies in the world now there is a domain tend to be parity between euro and dollar in 'real' world, Europe must continue to build an economy worthy of its currency. On this ground, still in favor of the U.S., will play the decisive game for any future role of global leadership.
At this point, it made an assessment of the bottom: if, despite these recent events, there have been other steps or not to extend the area of \u200b\u200bhuman action and initiative, accelerating the pace of activity and growth of its 'factories'. If, in a word, 'globalization' is a rather recent phenomenon, or, conversely, has already been presented in various forms and sizes, at other times in history.
From theoretical point of view, as well the novelty-represented in general terms during the past century-from the school of "Annales" [5] should be specifically highlighted the contribution of Immanuel Wallerstein [6], that rethinking history in a very general, giving substance to the term coined from Braudel to define the Mediterranean of the sixteenth century, in its widest extent: the world-economy [7]. In this regard, Braudel observed that: "Immanuel Wallerstein there is no other world-economy outside the European Union, which was formed only in the sixteenth century, but for me the world was already divided into economic zones, more or less centralized, more or less consistent, that is, several world-economies coexisting since the Middle Ages and even ancient times, that is, long before European man possessed a precise knowledge of the total land extension [8]. However, this assessment did not prevent Braudel, Wallerstein introduction to the volume of the same , to agree on the fact that: "Every social reality is, first of all, space. But the spaces fit one inside the other, are welded together, are linked by relations of dependency. If you want to find a space self-consistent in its own extension, we are led necessarily to the infinitely small or, provided that there is a road almost autonomous, or to the larger space consistent, because of its trade and its matches, but separated from other areas of the same magnitude, which is a universe unto itself in which economies, societies and spaces are connected with each other and differ from the rest of the world "[9].
It is, therefore, a definition which clearly opens the door to that of 'globalization' (or 'globalization', meaning in French-speaking), understood as a "loss of clear boundaries in the different dimensions of everyday economics , information, ecology, technology, cross-cultural conflict and civil society, that is, after something familiar and yet incomprehensible, difficult to grasp, but radically transformed daily life, with a force clearly perceptible, forcing everyone to adapt, to find answers ". [10] The latter statement refers to a general phenomenon: the free circulation of ideas, goods and people in an increasingly 'universal', which tends to coincide with the entire planet. In this sense, globalization involves the human experience as a whole and goes far beyond a mere classification of economistic mold, covering the activities and relationships of 'humanity in all its aspects, the so-called' global society ': the same risks associated with the process of' globalization 'may be seen as-opportunity- to promote a 'second modernity', based on the values \u200b\u200bof equality, freedom, knowledge and information capacity.
In any event, the discussion so far conducted door to say, paraphrasing Wallerstein, the 'globalization' is not nothing new [11]. If you want to simplify the argument, following a very basic schematic, we can identify at least two more times-than-present in which time and space have now changed their character, they are 'shortened' considerably: the ' era of the New World and the phase of so-called 'industrial revolution' [12].
The Beginning Modern Age and, in particular, the two dates of 1492-the 'year of the discovery of America, 1519-e-l' year of the beginning of the first circumnavigation of the globe-are the watershed for the movement of center of gravity of traffic from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic (ie, the first major extension of the global economy) and mark the opening of a phase of economic globalization through trade "triangle" between the homeland, the colonies and European market. It must be said that the discovery of America and the prolongation of its effects throughout the period of the Modern Age had contributed to assume a totally new-found only in some respects the will of expansion of the Crusades and the spice routes in the Middle Ages, in search of new spaces and new relations on the globe terraqueous. As noted Dupront, with words of great efficacy imaginative: "The discovery of the world, which takes place slowly in the consciousness of the modern West, permits, from the earliest developments of its impact, to capture almost physically 'plans' man modern. dell'illimitatezza Feelings of space, attitude and willingness to possession of loneliness are the forces that are interwoven in it "[13].
However, the new frontier of the global economy, las Indias, has long represented not only their time of arrival of the initiative the adventurous voyages of exploration, technical innovations related to them and geographical discoveries, but also the starting point for the 'conquest' of a vast territory and the prevalence of a strict logic of economic dominance. Although the model of the Atlantic had many traits in common with that of commerce and navigation of the Mediterranean-Atlantic as much as to talk of a 'extroversion' Mediterranean-the oldest, you can not diminish the importance of novelty, which was based on the expansion of trade as a major lever for the connection between such different worlds, to spread a powerful mechanism for enrichment. In particular, the pattern of conquest foresaw a growth of prosperity in one way: the precious metals-and then, raw materials, imported from overseas territories in exchange for European goods of low value and low quality, except in rare cases, are targeted relentlessly to countries the most flourishing of the Old Continent, stopping only in the Iberian peninsula, which served as a great center of European mediation of wealth.
Mercantilism, a doctrine devoid of large and sophisticated theoretical basis but with a solid concrete and supported by an undisputed success in practice, managed to establish itself as a connecting element of a long historical period, which lasted until the beginning of the 'industrial revolution' . During this long period, the economy is increasingly tied to the role of States, their ability to sell the goods outside the national borders, internal protectionism and the propensity to accumulate precious metals. However, in this general context, which originated and consolidated the political power and unbalanced conditions are extremely favorable for gain, did not disappear the role of the human factor, which, indeed, was hailed by the traffic on a large scale and by ' trading activities typical of the trade, including that of large companies. The merchant (who was also a banker, insurance agent, owner, property owner and, often, industrial or agricultural entrepreneur) was not limited to develop his skills and competence in its organization, but became a connoisseur of art and the deep contents of his business and others in which gradually ventured in search of an expansion of its range, a diversity of sectors initiative and new opportunities for profit. The efforts and achievements of these men watch, diligent and innovators often depended on the fortunes of entire nations, the ability to succeed in a multitude of economic and commercial initiatives, mostly in private.
The Atlantic trade was not always equal to itself. Just look at the shift from an absolute prevalence of gold and silver on any other charge, to their progressive 'replacement' with the products and materials needed for manufacturing and, then, industrial European countries. In this way it was put into question the old model of the pacto colonial, which provided a mechanism of unequal exchange between all goods with differing value-also due to the lack of a monetary economy in colonial territories-, up to the nineteenth century to its final overcoming, at least in the most excessively oppressive. Over the centuries between the discovery of America and the 'industrial revolution' economic space of the Atlantic, the "Sea of \u200b\u200bDarkness" [14], was to begin- the formation of the Carrera de las Indias, a great tool of integration between different cultures and distant worlds. In short, the discovery of new, vast geographical areas involved, well beyond the ruinous effects of the 'conquest' and inequities of the colonial system, an unusual extension of social relations and the field of human activity, increasing the opportunities for individual success and economic growth also in the overseas territories. A process of 'globalization' certainly controversial, but so complex as to be able to offer a whole new field to each of the forces involved on both sides of the Atlantic.
The connected series of events that led to the creation of what is commonly called 'industrial revolution', depending upon the interpretation, can be considered as a fact that initially concerned the UK alone or with territorial largest in Europe. In fact, the exponents of the New Economic History, reviewing previous history, have proposed a broad framework-more-nuanced in both spatial and chronological periods of transition from the expansion of trade, the 'protoindustrializzazione', processing agricultural , to the advent of industrialization itself. The 'new economic history' has supported the idea of \u200b\u200ba gradual process of industrialization, that has not been limited to a single country, but has from the outset concerned a vast geographical space, a world-wide and articulated. When Sidney Pollard has shown a clear distinction between Europe and the internal device, identifying the former as the main place the start of the industrial processing, intended to delineate precisely this original opening to a deep economic innovation by an arc not limited Countries and productive forces [15].
Even if it were beginning to consider a more concentrated in space and time, the pace of industrialization of the phenomenon would stand out in any case, the expansion of economic opportunities and market enlargement unusual and territorial productive horizon within which they operate a large part of humanity, at least in a first-phase-in of the European continent. The production on an industrial scale, in fact, has several consequences, more or less close. First, the search for larger markets, once saturated the inside of the industrialized countries, but also the transition from protected economies to free trade, the formation and expansion of industrial capital, through the accumulation process, the intensification of massive distribution activities related to industrial products, including new forms of subordination of less developed countries, until the onset the first crisis of overproduction, such as striking sign of the change of an era [16].
The expansive nature of industrialization has become even clearer in the case of subsequent development of the United States of America, with the close link between this phenomenon and the myth of the 'border', the conquest of new spaces to productive activities-almost Unlimited-by man. Moreover, the global nature of that transformation has been shown very clearly in the passing of the baton in the role of guiding the country between England and the U.S., as an act emblematic of the affirmation of a new phase in the global economy and the trend to ever-greater interconnection between the different systems of production and trade. Indeed, the history of the twentieth century, despite its intractable conflicts and imbalances fund, presented the distinctive character of an integrated growth and continuous extension of international economic relations.
In conclusion, globalization, if they correspond to real observations made so far, is hardly a novelty, but can be traced back in another form-and size-even at times very far away. In addition, a more careful assessment of the phenomenon in terms of history may make it clearly intelligible picture of the risks and opportunities related to it.
The integration process and globalization is not in itself neither good nor bad. It is the 'Luddites' contemporary symptom of a malaise not only conservative but also an ideological rejection and ceiling, to confuse the horizon of the future. It is exaggerated and irrational optimism of the users of nothing, of 'hyper' and speculators without any rule to determine an adverse opinion on the processes of profound transformation. However, an analyst with baked observation skills and critical thinking seems quite plausible that the illiberal and authoritarian world of Orwell remains confined long in a beautiful novel [17]. Perilous, if the 'new economy' and-to paraphrase Huxley [18] - the 'new world' that should be identified as resulting from the development of knowledge from that of mere profits, innovative paradigm is entirely unambiguous.
However, simply having the intention to examine the evolution of a phenomenon that has been defined as 'globalization', we can limit ourselves to consider it as an outgrowth of the complex history of humanity, examining the nature and diversity of characters in different ages, as has been done, without expressing any final opinion of value. Already this analysis could be useful to those who are interested, especially young people, to provide an assessment of the phenomenon-weighted more than current-and to undertake its own self-effort of analysis and reflection, which is always welcome as a true element of enrichment of individuals and society.
Notes [1] Sen, A., Globalization and freedom. Milano, Arnoldo Mondadori, 2002, 15-16.
[2] Information Technology is the "term that expresses the set of all the technologies for processing, storage, use and disclosure of information" (Longo, F., computing dictionary. The database Information Technology. Venezia, Venice University, 1994-2002
[3] Da Empoli, G., Overdose. The society too. Venezia, Marsilio, 2002, 11.
[4] Sen, A., Globalization ..., op. cit., 14-15. Sen continues its consideration, noting that: "Globalization relations is certainly not what the participants want to stop the movement, since in that case they should start by stopping themselves. "
[5] Cf Burke, P., A historiographical revolution. The school of" Annales ", 1929-1989 . Bari, Laterza, 1992, ed. orig. The French historical revolution. The 'Annales' school, 1929-89. Oxford-Cambridge, Polity Press - Basil Blackwell, 1990. This fundamental historiographical school of the twentieth century, all linked to the experience of the innovative "Annales," provided a clue of great significance, especially in light of the latest theories. The great economic changes, in fact, could not be considered in their narrowest sense, but were included in a unified vision in a "global", which included geography as history, individual and group events such as the social processes and the events of a general nature: in this way, it loses any value type setting economic concerns and not just the reference to the quantitative data to provide a clear explanation of the phenomena and events essential humanity.
[6] Cf Wallerstein, I., The modern world economy (3 vols.). Bologna, Il Mulino, 1978-1995, ed. orig. The modern world-system. New York-London-San Diego, Academic Press, 1974-1989.
[7] Cf Braudel, F., The dynamics of capitalism. Bologna, Il Mulino, 1981, ed. orig. La dynamique du capitalisme. Paris, Éditions Arthaud, 1985 (first published in 1977 - a conference held at Johns Hopkins University in 1976 - in Paris, "Champs" - Flammarion, n. 192). According to Braudel: "You must use two words: global economy and world-economy, of which the latter is more important than the first. Global economy mean for the world economy at large, the 'market of the whole universe, "as said already Sismondi. For world-economy, a term that I built from Weltwirtschaft by the German, I mean the economy of this part of our planet, provided that it forms a totality, a whole "(ibid., 76). According to Wallerstein, in reference to the term world-economy: "In English it is a translation of the French world-economy, which in turn Braudel himself has invented as a translation from German Weltwirtschaft. However, Weltwirtschaft may mean "the economy of the whole world: world economy would be in French, English and Italian world economy "world economy". Weltwirtschaft but can also mean "an economy that is itself a world, although its boundaries do not enclose the entire world." To make this concept in France, Braudel has joined the two words with a hyphen monde economies and achieving world-economy "(Wallerstein, I., The ..., op. Cit., Vol. I, 15).
[ 8] Braudel, F., The dynamics ..., op. cit., 78.
[9] Idem, "Introduction to the Italian edition," in Wallerstein, I., The ..., op. cit ., vol. I, 9.
[10] Beck, U., What is globalization? risks and prospects planetary society. Roma, Carocci, 1999, 39, ed. orig. Was ist Globalisierung? Irtümer des globalismus - Antworten auf Globalisierung. Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp Verlag, 1997.
[11] Cf Wallerstein, I., "La mondialisation n'est pas nouvelle," Le capitalisme historique afterword. Paris, Éditions la Découverte, 2002, now
[12] For an overview of the economic history of these periods-but-not just with particular reference to the phenomenon of expansion and, later, of capitalist development on a large scale, refer to the recent volume of Vitoria , A. (Coord.), the expansion development. An economic history of Europe. Turin, Giappichelli, 2002.
[13] Dupront, A., Space and humanism. The invention of the new world. Venice, Marsilio, 1993, 103, ed. orig. Espace et humanism. Paris, the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 1946.
[14] With these words, the Arabs showed the Atlantic Ocean.
[15] Cf Pollard, S., Peaceful Conquest. The industrialization in Europe from 1760 to 1970. Bologna, Il Mulino, 1984, ed. orig. Peaceful conquest. The Industrialization of Europe 1760-1970. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1981.
[16] It is only after the success and spread of "industrial revolution" that even taking the crisis as inevitable because of the abundance of goods, excess capacity productive.
[17] Cf Orwell, G., 1984. Milano, Arnoldo Mondadori, 1950, ed. orig. Nineteen eighty-four: a novel. London, Secker & Warburg, 1949.
[18] Cf Huxley, A., Brave New World. Milano, Arnoldo Mondadori, 1933, ed. orig. Brave new world. London, Chatto & Windus, 1932.
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