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Human Geography: Places and Regions in Global

Context, 5eChapter 2: The Changing Global Context

Paul L. Knox & Sallie A. MarstonPowerPoint Author: Keith M. Bell

OverviewThis chapter further describes the process of globalization and introduces the idea of a world-system in which all countries participate. This world-system is divided into core, semiperipheral, and peripheral regions based on each region’s place within the world-system. The chapter begins by looking at the state of the world before 1500, when the world-system did not yet exist. The middle part of the chapter explains how the world-system came into being, especially due to innovations in industrial production and in transportation and communications technology. The final part of the chapter describes the current situation and proposes a division of the world’s population into Fast and Slow worlds, based on contrasting lifestyles and levels of living.Students should be aware of the existence of the world-system and the function of its core, semiperipheral, and peripheral components. The students should understand how the world system came into being, and why Europe was the initial core region, which later came to include the United States and Japan. Students should further realize that life in the United States—a core region—is very different from life in semiperipheral and peripheral countries.

Chapter Objectives

• The objectives of this chapter are to illustrate:– Geographic expansion, integration, and

change– Industrialization and geographic change– Forces that organize the periphery– The fast world and the slow world

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Chapter Outline• The Premodern World (p. 42)

– Hearth areas– Growth of early empires– Early geographic knowledge– Geography of the Premodern

world• Mapping a New World

Geography (p. 48)– Cartography and exploration– Core, semiperiphery, and

periphery– Beginnings of modern geography– Industrialization in core regions– Internal development in core

regions– International division of labor– Imperialism– The Third World and

neocolonialism

• Contemporary Globalization (p. 68)– Causes and consequences of

globalization– Outcomes of globalization– Jihad vs. McWorld– Opposition to globalization

• Conclusion (p. 78)

Geography Matters• 2.1 Geography Matters—Early Geographic Knowledge (p. 46)

– Ancient Greek and Roman development of geographical knowledge• 2.2 Geography Matters—Geography and Exploration (p. 50)

– The European Age of Discovery and its global impacts• 2.3 Geography Matters—The Foundations of Modern

Geography (p. 54)– Immanuel Kant, Alexander von Humboldt, Karl Ritter, Friedrich Ratzel,

and other founders of modern geography• 2.4 Geography Matters—World Leadership Cycles (p. 60)

– The historical rise of Portuguese, Dutch, British, and American global hegemony

• 2.5 Geography Matters—Commodity Chains (p. 70)– How commodity production is organized, especially in the global

garment industry

The Changing Global ContextThe modern world-system has evolved through

several distinctive stages.

The new technologies of the Industrial Revolution created a new global economic

system.

Places and regions are part of a world-system that has been created by the processes of private economic competition and political

competition.

The world-system is highly structured and is characterized by three tiers: core, semi-

peripheral, and peripheral regions.

The growth of the core regions could take place only with the foodstuffs, raw materials, and

markets provided by colonization of the periphery.

Successive technological innovations have transformed regional geographies.

Globalization has intensified the differences between the core and the periphery, creating a

digital divide.

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Hearth Areas: Old and New Worlds• The essential foundation for an

informed human geography is an ability to understand that places and regions constantly change: all geography is historical geography.

• Systematically differentiated human geographies began with minisystems, or societies with a single cultural base and a reciprocal social economy.

• Carl O. Sauer noted that agricultural breakthroughs could only occur in certain geographical settings: plentiful natural food supplies, diversified terrain, and rich/moist soils.

Minisystems• A transition to food-producing

minisystems had several implications for the long-term evolution of the world’s geographies:– It allowed much higher

population densities.– It brought about a change in

social organization.– It allowed some specialization

in non-agricultural crafts.– Specialization led to the

beginnings of barter and trade between communities, sometimes over substantial distances.

The Growth ofEarly Empires

A world-empire is a group of minisystems that have been

absorbed into a common political system while retaining

their fundamental cultural differences.

Urbanization: Towns and cities became essential as centers of

administration, military garrisons, and as theological

centers for ruling classes.Greek colonies and the extent

of the Roman Empire Colonization: The physical

settlement in a new territory of people from a colonizing state; an indirect consequence of the

operation of the law of diminishing returns.

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Early Geographic Knowledge• Greek scholars developed the idea

that places embody fundamental relationships between people and the natural environment, and that the study of geography provides the best way of addressing the interdependencies between places and between people and nature.

– Mathematics & Astronomy– Philosophy & Humans– Regional Approach

• The Romans were less interested than the Greeks in the scholastic and philosophical aspects of geography, though they did appreciate geographical knowledge as an aid to conquest, colonization, and political control.

The Geography of the Pre-modern World• The generalized framework of

human geographies in the Old World as they existed around A.D. 1400 are characteristically important:

– Harsher environments in continental interiors were still characterized by isolated, subsistence-level, kin-ordered hunting-and-gathering minisystems.

– The dry belt of steppes and desert margins was a continuous zone of kin-ordered pastoral minisystems.

– The hearths of sedentary agricultural production extended in a discontinuous arc from Morocco to China, with two main outliers.

The Silk Road

The dominant centers of global civilization were China, northern India (both of them hydraulic variants of world-empires), and the Ottoman Empire of the eastern Mediterranean. They were all linked by the Silk Road, a series of overland trade routes between China and Mediterranean Europe.

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The European Age of Discovery

Cartography is the name given to the system of practical and theoretical knowledge about making distinctive visual representations of Earth’s surface in the form of maps.

The Foundations of Modern Geography

• Kant, von Humboldt, Ritter, and Ratzel were German scholars who wanted to move geography away from straightforward descriptions of Earth.

• They wanted explanations and generalizations about the relationships of different phenomena within and among particular places.

• Kant saw human activities heavily influenced by physical geography.

• Von Humboldt emphasized the mutual causation among species and their physical environment.

• Ethnocentrism and Masculinism• Environmental determinism

Technology and Economic Development

The Industrial Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century was driven by a technology system based on water power and steam engines, cotton textiles, ironworking, river transportation systems, and canals. Each new technology system opens new geographic frontiers and rewrites the geography of economic development, shifting the balance of advantages between regions.

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Europe: Three Waves of

Industrialization

• 1790–1850: based on the initial cluster of industrial technologies (steam engines, cotton textiles, and ironworking); was very localized

• 1858–1870: involved the diffusion of industrialization to most of the rest of Britain and to parts of northwest Europe, particularly the coalfields of northern France, Belgium, and Germany

• 1870–1914: a further industrialization of the geography of Europe as yet another cluster of technologies imposed different needs and created new opportunities

New World System: Core-Periphery• Capitalism truly became a global system with the new

production and transportation technologies of the Industrial Revolution.

• New transportation technologies triggered successive phases of geographic expansion, allowing for internal development as well as for external colonization and imperialism.– Core Regions: dominate trade, control the most advanced

technologies, and have high levels of productivity within diversified economies

– Peripheral Regions: dependent and disadvantageous trading relationships by primitive or obsolescent technologies; undeveloped or narrowly specialized economies with low levels of productivity

– Semiperipheral Regions: able to exploit peripheral regions but are themselves exploited and dominated by core regions

The World-System: 1800

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The World System: 1900

The World System: 2000

Many places around the globe are connected like never before, leading to a backlash against globalization or “Americanization” (e.g., Jihad vs. McWorld).

The Manufacturing Belt of the United StatesThe cities of this region, already thriving industrial centers that were well connected through the early railroad system, were ideally placed to take advantage of a series of crucial shifts: telegraph system, manufacturing technologies, railroad system. Specialization required an increase in commodity flows.

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Major Steamship Routes, in 1920

The shipping routes reflect (1) the transatlantic trade between the bipolar core regions of the world-system at the time, and (2) the colonial and imperial relations between the world’s core economies and the periphery.

International Telegraph Network, in 1900

For Britain, submarine telegraph cables were the nervous system of its empire. This enabled businesses to monitor and coordinate supply and demand across vast distances on an hourly basis.

InternationalDivision of Labor

• The fundamental logic behind all colonization was economic.

– Need for extended arena of trade.– Need for an arena supplying

foodstuffs and raw materials in return for industrial goods of the core.

• The outcome was an international division of labor:

– where an established demand existed in the industrial core.

– where colonies had a comparative advantage in specializations that did not duplicate or compete with the domestic suppliers within core countries.

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The British Empire, late 1800s

Imperialism: The core countries engaged in preemptive geographic expansion in order to protect their established interests and to limit the opportunities of others.

Commodity Chainsand Containerization

Commodity chains: producer-driven, consumer-driven, and marketing driven

Containerization revolutionized long-distance transport of goods; wider geographical scope and faster pace

Communication Flows and 24-Hour Trading

In 2008, the fifth of the world’s population living in the highest-income countries had 75 percent of world income, 83 percent of world export market, and 76 percent of world telephone lines. The GDP of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s seven richest individuals combined. They are disaffected and disconnected. Is there spatial justice?

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Contemporary Globalization• Cultural anthropologist Arjun Appadurai described five

kinds of cultural flows that contribute to global cultures:– Ethnoscapes: produced by flows of people including tourists,

immigrants, refugees, exiles, and guest workers– Technoscapes: resulting from the diffusion of goods,

technologies, and architectural styles– Finanscapes: produced by rapid flows of money in currency

markets and stock exchanges– Mediascapes: images of the world produced by news agencies,

magazines, television, and film– Ideoscapes: resulting from the diffusion of ideas and ideologies,

concepts of human rights, democracy, welfare, and so on

Internal Development of the Core RegionsThe canal systems that opened up the interiors of Europe and North America in the eighteenth century were initially dependant on horse power. This photograph shows part of the Burgundy canal inFrance.

World Leadership Cycles: Hegemony• The modern world-system has

so far experienced five full leadership cycles.

• Portuguese dominance: Atlantic exploration, trade, and plunder

• Dutch dominance: fishing and shipping industries, Dutch West India Company

• British dominance: overseas trade and colonization, strong navy, Nelson at Trafalgar, Wellington at Waterloo

• United States dominance: economically dominant by 1920, hegemony in 1945, credit crisis in 2008 threatens U.S. leadership status

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World Leadership Cycles: The United StatesThe United States was economically dominant within the world-system by 1920 but did not achieve hegemonic power because of a failure of political will, choosing “splendid isolation”. All hegemonic powers must protect the economic foundations of their power, as represented by this photograph of U.S. air superiority in the Gulf War.

AntiglobalizationDemonstrations

Bern, Switzerland French farmers protest

Globalization often leads to the downward convergence of wages and environmental standards, an undermining of democratic governance, and a general recoding of nearly all aspects of life to the language and logic of global markets.

End of Chapter 2

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Discussion Topics and Lecture Themes

• The world-system did not always exist. Why did it develop, and why did Europe emerge as the core of the world-system?

– The world-system began in the 1400s, when Europeans started exploring and settling beyond their home regions. European expansion brought about the exchange of ideas, technologies, and resources between regions that previously had little to do with each other. Europe emerged as the core of the world-system because of its economic system of capitalism, its rapidly growing population, and its technological innovations. European expansion abroad and the exploitation of natural resources outside Europe were critical factors in Europe’s emergence as a core region. See pages 48–64 in the textbook for more information.


• Ask the students to give examples of core, semiperipheral, and peripheral states. Are there some countries that do not clearly fit in a single category?

– Examples of core states would include the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and most of western and central Europe. Examples of semiperipheral states include Mexico, Brazil, India, and Taiwan. Examples of peripheral states include Ethiopia, Nepal, Bolivia, and Guatemala, among many others. Ambiguous examples might include Singapore and Korea (core–semiperipheral) and Iran and Vietnam (semiperipheral–peripheral), but these distinctions are partly a matter of opinion.


• Have the students compare two countries, one in the core and one in the periphery (for example, Switzerland and Bolivia). Why is one of these countries richer and more economically developed than the other? How does the world-system model help to explain these differences?

– World-systems theory argues that it is the relationship between states that helps establish their place in the core–semiperiphery–periphery hierarchy. Much of the difference derives from the effectiveness of a state in insuring the international competitiveness of its products. Switzerland, for example, produces high-value goods—such as watches—and important services—such as banking—while Bolivia relies on low-value exports that are not processed locally—such things as tin ore and fruit.

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• Discuss the differences and similarities among colonialism, imperialism, and neo-colonialism.

– All are similar in that they are the means of domination by one state over another. Colonialism refers to the establishment and maintenance of political and legal domination, whereas neocolonialism is an indirect means whereby core states use political and economic strategies to wield their influence. Imperialism is largely a competitive form of colonialism that resulted in a scramble for territory as (mainly) European powers attempted to build colonial empires.


• Have the students describe the principal means of transportation and communication in the local region. When were these systems first introduced? What existed before them? What impacts did changes in transportation and communications technology have on the local area?

– Data on local transportation and communication networks can be obtained from maps as well as from the companies and agencies that operate these networks.


• Have the students give examples of each of the four factors (described on pages 72–74 of the textbook) that have led to globalization in the past twenty-five years. What evidence for these factors exists in the local area?

– The four factors are (1) a new international division of labor, (2) an internationalization of finance, (3) a new technology system, and (4) a homogenization of international consumer markets. See pages 72–74 in the textbook for more information.

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• Why does it no longer seem appropriate to speak of the First, Second, and Third Worlds? What advantages does a division into Fast and Slow worlds offer? Ask the students to describe their own experiences (if they have had them) in traveling between these worlds.

– Changes stemming from the four factors (see Question 6, above) have led to a Fast World, largely composed of the core regions, where people are involved, as producers and consumers, in transnational industry, modern telecommunications, materialistic consumption, and international news and entertainment. The Slow World refers to people, regions, and places where these things are limited. The breakup of the Soviet Union and the collapse of international communism generally have also made meaningless the concept of a Second World.


• What minisystems once existed in the local area? What happened to them?

– Consult ethnographies of the indigenous population. The local museum or library may also hold information on the area’s original minisystems.


• The Geography Matters 2.5 boxed text discusses the nature and meaning of commodity chains. Have the students gather data about the three kinds of commodity chains and then sketch out the “links.”

– The three kinds of commodity chains are 1) producer-driven, in which large, often transnational, corporations coordinate production networks; 2) consumer-driven, where large retailers, brand-name merchandisers, and trading companies influence decentralized production networks in a variety of exporting countries, often in the periphery; and 3) marketing-driven, which involves the production of inexpensive consumer goods that are global commodities and carryglobal brands yet are often manufactured in the periphery and semiperiphery for consumption in those regions.

– The Internet will provide a starting point for gathering this data, and you might also want to contact the companies (such as Wal-Mart) directly.

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• Figure 2.22 shows how North America is a key node in global telephonic communications flow, What accounts for the distribution shown in the figure?

– The wealth of North America and its pioneering of much communications technology are in part responsible for this position.

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Human Geography: Places and Regions in Global …Geography2.pdf · Human Geography: Places and Regions in Global ... – Imperialism – The Third World and ... The Growth of Early