Unit 9 · Globalization, c. 1900–Present

Communication technologies (radio, cellular, internet) ● (core concept) — New modes of communication, including radio communication, cellular communication, and the internet, that reduced the problem of geographic distance and connected people across the globe.

Transportation technologies (air travel, shipping containers) ● (core concept) — New transportation technologies, including air travel and shipping containers, that reduced the problem of geographic distance and made the movement of people and goods faster and cheaper.

Energy technologies (petroleum and nuclear power) ● (core concept) — Energy technologies, including the use of petroleum and nuclear power, that raised productivity and increased the production of material goods.

Birth control (contraception) ● (core concept) — More effective forms of birth control that gave women greater control over fertility, transformed reproductive practices, and contributed to declining rates of fertility in much of the world.

Green Revolution ● (core concept) — The spread of chemically and genetically modified, high-yield forms of agriculture that increased productivity and sustained the earth's growing population.

Commercial agriculture ● (core concept) — Large-scale agriculture organized for market sale rather than subsistence, whose productivity rose sharply with the Green Revolution's new farming methods.

Medical innovations (vaccines and antibiotics) ● (core concept) — Medical innovations, including vaccines and antibiotics, that increased the ability of humans to survive and live longer lives.

Diseases associated with poverty ● (core concept) — Diseases tied to poverty and poor living conditions that persisted around the world even as medical science advanced.

Emergent epidemic diseases ● (core concept) — New diseases that emerged as epidemics and threats to human populations, in some cases causing social disruption. These outbreaks also spurred new technological and medical advances.

Diseases associated with increased longevity ● (core concept) — Diseases that occurred at higher rates simply because medical advances let people live longer, not because the diseases themselves were new.

Disease, social disruption, and medical advance ● (core concept) — Disease outbreaks could disrupt societies on a large scale, while at the same time spurring new technological and medical advances in response.

1918 influenza pandemic ○ — The 1918 global influenza outbreak, a classic emergent epidemic disease. It spread rapidly in the conditions of World War I and showed how new epidemics could threaten populations worldwide.

Environmental degradation (deforestation, desertification, air, water) ● (core concept) — Human-driven environmental damage in the 20th century: deforestation, desertification, a decline in air quality, and intense consumption of the world's supply of fresh water.

Intensified competition over resources ● (core concept) — As human activity strained the environment, people competed over land, water, and other resources more intensely than ever before.

Greenhouse gases and pollutants ● (core concept) — Gases and pollutants released into the atmosphere by human activity, contributing to debates about the nature and causes of climate change.

Debates about climate change ● (core concept) — Ongoing debates about the nature and causes of climate change, driven by the release of greenhouse gases and pollutants into the atmosphere.

Free-market economic policies ● (core concept) — Government policies favoring market-based economies with reduced state control. In a trend accelerated by the end of the Cold War, many governments encouraged these policies in the late 20th century.

Economic liberalization ● (core concept) — The late-20th-century trend in which governments opened their economies to market forces, reducing state direction of economic life.

Knowledge economies ● (core concept) — Economies based on information, technology, and services, which grew in some regions thanks to late-20th-century revolutions in information and communications technology.

Shift of manufacturing to Asia and Latin America ● (core concept) — In the late 20th century, industrial production and manufacturing were increasingly situated in Asia and Latin America, while knowledge economies grew elsewhere.

Multinational corporations ● (core concept) — Companies that operate across national borders, reflecting the spread of free-market economic principles and practices throughout the world.

Regional trade agreements ● (core concept) — Agreements between states in a region to promote trade and economic cooperation, reflecting the spread of free-market principles and practices.

Global spread of free-market economics ● (core concept) — The worldwide spread of free-market principles and practices, reflected in changing economic institutions, multinational corporations, and regional trade agreements.

Rights-based discourses ● (core concept) — Arguments grounded in human rights that challenged old assumptions about race, class, gender, and religion.

Expanded inclusion in education and public roles ● (core concept) — In much of the world, access to education and participation in new political and professional roles became more inclusive in terms of race, class, gender, and religion.

Protests against global integration's inequalities ● (core concept) — Movements throughout the world that protested the unequal environmental and economic consequences of global integration.

U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights ○ — The 1948 United Nations declaration establishing universal human rights, including protections for the rights of children, women, and refugees. A landmark rights-based document of the postwar era.

Globalized popular culture and the arts ● (core concept) — In the second half of the 20th century, political and social changes transformed the arts, and popular culture became more global, increasingly reflecting the influence of a globalized society.

Global consumer culture ● (core concept) — Consumer culture became globalized and transcended national borders, as global brands and commerce spread worldwide.

Resistance to globalization ● (core concept) — The diverse responses to rising cultural and economic globalization, which took a variety of forms around the world.

United Nations ● (core concept) — The international organization formed after World War II with the stated goals of maintaining world peace and facilitating international cooperation among states.

International organizations ● (core concept) — New international organizations that formed in the globalized world with the stated goal of maintaining world peace and facilitating international cooperation.