ABSTRACT
Global history began gradually with Portuguese exploratory voyages along the west coast of Africa in the first half of the 15th century. While China had sponsored much more elaborate voyages of trade and discovery in the Indian Ocean, by the middle of the 15th century these were suspended and China had withdrawn into itself. During the second wave of global integration, roughly between 1750 and 1989, capitalist transformation, mass production, technological change, the emergence of powerful states with engaged citizenries, competition for resources and markets around the world, resistance, and war reorganized the world. One reason to focus on three waves of global integration is to show that globalization in the contemporary era is the product of long-term historical trends. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman popularized the idea that globalization in the modern era has produced a world that is flat.
