ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a sense of the complexity of the origins of the global political and economic order, and its ever-shifting dynamics. The rise of European overseas empires—Portugal, Spain, France, the Netherlands, and Britain—engendered numerous developments in political control and economic organization. By the end of the eighteenth century, the world was grappling with twin revolutions that transformed the global political and economic landscape. The rise of democratic sentiment went hand-in-hand with the rise of nationalism as the most powerful political developments of the nineteenth century. European empires shifted policies in reaction to the rapidly changing economic climate of the nineteenth century. Agreeing to international time standards or postage rates was a minor hurdle compared to the more serious political challenge of mitigating the causes and symptoms of international conflict. Global capitalism may have been in ascendance in the nineteenth century, yet critics were already assembling.
