The Outcomes of Globalization

Ever since the development of the Silk Road, vastly different civilizations and cultures have been trading and swapping goods, ideology, and culture.  These exchanges don’t only represent small-scale interactions, but lead to the rise of globalization.  Globalization is the process of different civilizations evolving based on knowledge learned from other cultures through exchange of products and ideas. 

         My question is, would globalization be positive for the future world, or negative? Do the pros of globalization outweigh the cons?

First, it is important to examine globalization’s positives impacts on the world.  People of different cultures traded ideas and information about what was going on in their civilizations.  This connected Europe and Asia because humans living in different civilizations were able to learn about each other’s ideologies, which in turn could inspire new ideas in new regions.  Trading between Europeans and Asians led to “cultural and economic exchanges that would occur throughout the rest of history.” I would actually argue that the apparent value of sharing ideas inspired printing press, one of the “single most important events in human history.” This is because the Silk Road made it clear that when cultures exchanged ideas, they could benefit by learning from each other.

On the other hand, the beginning of globalization had a very negative effect on the world.  Once international relations come into existence, conflicts between civilizations often emerge. For example, civilizations with different religions clashed such as the Christians and the Muslims during the Crusades.  Simple disagreements could soon turn into full on war, like in this case.  In a way, the black plague that was spread through the Silk Road trading route, killing millions, would foreshadow the wars and deaths that were to follow because of conflicting civilizations’ disagreements. 

A third way to look at the question about the pros and cons of globalization is to realize that it was probably inevitable that we would eventually globalize.  As populations grew, they would collide with other civilizations, resulting in intercultural interactions. However, I think it was beneficial that civilizations started interacting along trade routes because if they had waited until empires had collided while competing for the same land, then initial interactions between different cultures would be nothing but hostile.