ABSTRACT
Though the term “economic globalization” was not frequently used until the 1990s, economic globalization has existed for several centuries. International trade in ancient times, limited by the development of productivity and transportation, was basically dominated by regional trade and luxury goods. If the Great Geographical Discoveries was the start of global economic expansion, then the industrial revolution may be deemed as the beginning of high economic dependence and integration. The exploration of foreign lands and the world’s oceans had broken the relative isolation of world regions and connected the whole world. From the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, a new wave of inventions and innovations led to a second industrial revolution. Driven by electricity, which gradually replaced steam as a source of power, growth accelerated in the United States and a number of European countries. Many countries seized the opportunity of this second industrial revolution to develop.
