8 ms·

Globalization has benefits too, like preventing world war due to heavy interdependencies.

paganel 5y ago
The same discourse was made before WW1, and we all know how that turned out. As far as I could tell the world was even more globalised back then, at least for the elites.
- sofixa 5y ago
  > As far as I could tell the world was even more globalised back then It was not. How could it be? Cheap and fast long range transportation, the Internet, mass consumerism,interconnected financial systems... What could possibly make you think the world was more globalised in the 1910s than 2020s? And yes, many people said a war is impossible due to the globalisation. I guess what they missed was telling it to the people in charge ( many of whom,like the Kaiser and Tsar didn't want a war, but felt pressured and like it was inevitable).
  - inglor_cz 5y ago
    European economies were fairly integrated, though. Not as much as today, but enough that the war caused a massive disruption to everyone involved. Europe of 1914 was actually much more liberal than people tend to think. With the exception of Russia and Turkey, which required passports from visitors, you could travel passport-free around the entire Europe, settle down and work wherever you wanted. There were many railway lines crossing the borders and cargo flows among countries were fairly heavy. The social elite was used to sending their kids abroad to study languages and spending vacations in fashionable foreign resorts.
    - chrischen 5y ago
      If there was enough of a concentration of power then those things don't matter as much, but even then they'd be considered deterrents to war. Given we mostly have democratically elected governments now war will be much harder to sell.
  - paganel 5y ago
    > What could possibly make you think the world was more globalised in the 1910s than 2020s? For example borders were a lot more porous in the late 1800s - early 1900s compared to the 2020s, Ellis Island could have never happened today, when you have children from El Salvador or Guatemala kept in cages for basically doing the same thing that children from Calabria or Sicily were doing back then.
    - sofixa 5y ago
      That was either one way emigration, or roundtrip rich people travel. Hardly a sign of globalisation.

The same discourse was made before WW1, and we all know how that turned out. As far as I could tell the world was even more globalised back then, at least for the elites.

sofixa 5y ago
> As far as I could tell the world was even more globalised back then It was not. How could it be? Cheap and fast long range transportation, the Internet, mass consumerism,interconnected financial systems... What could possibly make you think the world was more globalised in the 1910s than 2020s? And yes, many people said a war is impossible due to the globalisation. I guess what they missed was telling it to the people in charge ( many of whom,like the Kaiser and Tsar didn't want a war, but felt pressured and like it was inevitable).
- inglor_cz 5y ago
  European economies were fairly integrated, though. Not as much as today, but enough that the war caused a massive disruption to everyone involved. Europe of 1914 was actually much more liberal than people tend to think. With the exception of Russia and Turkey, which required passports from visitors, you could travel passport-free around the entire Europe, settle down and work wherever you wanted. There were many railway lines crossing the borders and cargo flows among countries were fairly heavy. The social elite was used to sending their kids abroad to study languages and spending vacations in fashionable foreign resorts.
  - chrischen 5y ago
    If there was enough of a concentration of power then those things don't matter as much, but even then they'd be considered deterrents to war. Given we mostly have democratically elected governments now war will be much harder to sell.
- paganel 5y ago
  > What could possibly make you think the world was more globalised in the 1910s than 2020s? For example borders were a lot more porous in the late 1800s - early 1900s compared to the 2020s, Ellis Island could have never happened today, when you have children from El Salvador or Guatemala kept in cages for basically doing the same thing that children from Calabria or Sicily were doing back then.
  - sofixa 5y ago
    That was either one way emigration, or roundtrip rich people travel. Hardly a sign of globalisation.