Ch. 10 The World System Flashcards
Colonialism
COLONIALISM – refers to the political, social, economic, and cultural domination of a territory and its people by a foreign power for an extended period of time.
- Modern colonialism began with the “AGE OF DISCOVERY,” during which European nations founded colonies throughout the New World.
- The first phase of European colonialism ended in the early 19th (1800s) century as a result of rebellions and independence wars in LATIN AMERICA.
IMPERIALISM – refers to a policy of extending the rule of a nation or empire over foreign nations and of taking and holding foreign colonies.
- Imperialism is as old as the state.
HARD POWER is the use of military and economic means to influence other political bodies.
SOFT POWER involves shaping the preferences of others through appeal and attraction.
- A defining feature of soft power is that it is NON-COERCIVE.
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Uses the appeal of culture, political values, and foreign policies.
- Ex: Setting up beneficial trade status for “Preferred Nations” or imposing “Trade Tariffs” to punish – also, embargos, travel restrictions, etc.
- Imperialist nations employ BOTH hard and soft power.
IMPACT of COLONIALISM ENDURES:
- Whole countries, along with social groups and divisions within them, were colonial inventions.
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Ex: Many of the modern political boundaries in West Africa are based on linguistic, political, and economic contrasts that were promoted under colonialism.
- Hundreds of ethnic groups and “tribes” are colonial constructions.
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Ex: Many of the modern political boundaries in West Africa are based on linguistic, political, and economic contrasts that were promoted under colonialism.
Categorizing Nations (1st 2nd 3rd World)
FIRST WORLD COUNTRIES: Refers to the wealthy Democratic West.
- The concept of “First World” originated during the Cold War and included countries that were aligned with NATO and the US, and opposed to the Soviet Union and/or communism
- Since the collapse of the USSR, the definition has largely shifted to any country with little political risk and well-functioning democracy, rule of law, economic stability, and high level of living.
SECOND WORLD COUNTRIES: During the Cold War this term was used for industrial Soviet states and nowadays refers to FORMER communist countries that are between poverty and prosperity.
- Includes:
- The former Soviet Union
- Socialist countries of BOTH Eastern Europe and Asia
- Once-socialist countries of BOTH Eastern Europe and Asia
THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES: During the Cold war it included any country that remained non-aligned to NATO or the Warsaw Pact. Now it refers to the poorest countries.
World System
- Truly isolated societies do not exist today (and probably have never existed). Societies have been in contact for thousands of years.
MODERN WORLD SYSTEM refers to a world in which nations are economically and politically INTERDEPENDENT.
CAPITALIST WORLD ECONOMY – Refers to the single-world system of commerce targeted toward MAXIMIZING PROFITS rather than SUPPLYING DOMESTIC NEEDS, as in the past.
CAPITAL – Wealth or Resources Invested in business, with the intent of producing a profit.
WORLD SYSTEM THEORY – says that the social, political, and economic significance of an identifiable global system, based on wealth and power differentials, extends beyond individual countries.
- According to WALLERSTEIN, the nations within the world system occupy three different positions: CORE, PERIPHERY, and SEMIPERIPHERY:
- CORE – consists of the strongest, most powerful nations which monopolize world finance.
- SEMIPERIPHERY – consists of industrialized nations that export industrial goods and commodities but lack the power and economic dominance of core nations.
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PERIPHERY – consists of nations whose economies—less mechanized than those in the semiperiphery—are focused on the production of raw materials, agricultural commodities, and human labor for export to the core and semiperiphery.
- Immigrants from noncore nations provide cheap labor for agriculture in core countries.
- This emerged in the 1500s (16th Century) along with the increasing dominance of international trade, linking the old and new world forever.
- Led by Spain and Portugal, extracting gold, silver, and slaves.
- Beginning in the 17th century, colonial plantation systems led to monocrop production, focused on a single cash crop, in areas that once had diverse subsistence bases.
- This has since shaped the relations between the countries within this system.
Industrialization
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION – refers to the historical transformation (in Europe, after 1750) of “traditional” into “modern” societies through the industrialization of the economy.
- European industrialization developed from, and eventually replaced, the domestic system of manufacture (or HOME-HANDICRAFT SYSTEM) in which an organizer-entrepreneur supplied the raw materials to workers in their homes and collected the finished products from them.
CAUSES of the INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION:
- MACHINES REPETITIVE ACTION – Industrialization began with widely used goods (cotton products, iron, pottery) whose manufacture could be broken down into simple routine motions that machines could perform.
- FARMS to FACTORIES – Agrarian societies evolved into industrial ones when manufacturing moved into factories, where machinery was used to produce cheap staple goods on a large scale.
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CITIES – Industrialization fueled urban growth and created a new kind of city, with factories crowded together in places where coal and labor were cheap.
- The Industrial Revolution began in England, and as its population began expanding rapidly, it led to increased consumption and entrepreneurs had to innovate to meet increased demand.
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Factors that favored English industrialization:
- The country’s natural resources.
- Its location at the crossroads of international trade
- The demand for staples from English settlers
- Protestant beliefs of the emerging English middle class.
Socioeconomic Effects of Industrialization
PROSPERITY from INDUSTRIALIZATION was UNEVEN:
- CHEAPER LABOR – Factory workers initially received wages higher than those available in the domestic system, but factory owners began recruiting labor in places where living standards were low and labor (including women and children) was cheap.
- POLLUTION, SANITATION, TREATMENT of WORKERS – Many social ills accompanied industrialization, including pollution, crowded and unsanitary housing, insufficient water and sewage disposal, disease, and rising death rates.
INDUSTRIAL STRATIFICATION – the battle between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’
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KARL MARX (MARXISM) saw socioeconomic stratification as a sharp and simple division between two opposed classes:
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BOURGEOISIE – capitalists
- The bourgeoisie owned the means of production (e.g., factories, mines, large farms) and dominated the means of communication, schools, and other key institutions.
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PROLETARIAT – propertyless workers
- Members of the proletariat, or working class, had to sell their labor to survive.
- INDUSTRIALIZATION contributed to proletarianization—the separation of workers from the means of production.
- Marx believed that through CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS – recognition of collective interests and personal identification with one’s economic group – workers could mobilize human energies to influence the course of history – lead to revolutionary change among workers.
- This occurred in the 19th Century with UNIONS and SOCIALIST PARTIES, expressing a rising anti-capitalist spirit.
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BOURGEOISIE – capitalists
- In today’s CAPITALIST WORLD SYSTEM the class division between owners and workers is now WORLDWIDE.
- PENSIONS – Through pension plans and personal investments, many American workers now have some PROPRIETARY INTEREST in the means of production and they may be considered part-owners; the wealthy still however have control over these means.
- MODERN STRATIFICATION SYSTEMS are NOT simple and dichotomous, as they include a middle class of skilled and professional workers.
MAX WEBER – In contrast to Marx’s strictly economic-based view of stratification, MAX WEBER argued that there are three dimensions of social stratification: wealth, power, and prestige.
- However, WEALTH, POWER, and PRESTIGE tend to be HIGHLY correlated, even though they are separate components of social ranking.
- Social identities based on other criteria, such as ethnicity (European), religion (Dominant), race (Majority), or nationality may take priority over class (social identity based on economic status).
- The current world stratification system is characterized by a substantial CONTRAST between capitalists and workers in BOTH the CORE NATIONS and workers on the PERIPHERY.
- Added surplus from the periphery allows core capitalists to maintain their profits while satisfying the demands of their workers.
- In contrast, wages and living standards are much lower in the periphery.
Economic Development
COLONIALISTS used an INTERVENTION PHILOSOPHY – An ideological justification for outsiders to guide native peoples in specific directions – to justify taking over other nations.
- Britain’s notion of the WHITE MAN’s BURDEN
- France’s notion of the MISSION CIVILSATRICE
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT also has intervention philosophies.
- INTERVENTIONS – whether by colonialists, missionaries, governments, or development planners – are based on the belief that industrialization, modernization, Westernization, and individualism are DESIRABLE EVOLUTIONARY ADVANCES and that development schemes that promote them will bring long-term benefits to local people.
NEOLIBERALISM – the view (first proposed by ADAM SMITH) that government should not regulate private enterprise and market forces.
- Neoliberalism is the current form of classic economic liberalism.
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Liberalism entails:
- tariff- and barrier-free international trade and investment
- maximization of profits through cost reduction
- austere measures that cut government expenses.
- Currently, neoliberalism is a dominant intervention philosophy.
- In exchange for loans, the governments of postsocialist and developing nations have been required to accept the neoliberal premise that deregulation leads to economic growth.
British Colonialism
At its peak about 1914, the BRITISH EMPIRE covered a FIFTH of the world’s land surface and ruled a fourth of its population.
- The first phase of British colonialism was concentrated in the New World, West Africa, and India.
- Ended with the American Revolution.
- In the second phase of colonialism, Britain eventually controlled most of India, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and large portions of eastern and southern Africa.
- British imperialism was justified by what RUDYARD KIPLING called “THE WHITE MAN’s BURDEN” – a paternalistic and racist doctrine asserting that native peoples in the empire were incapable of governing themselves, and thus that British guidance was needed to civilize and Christianize them.
- The British empire disintegrated after World War II as a result of nationalist independence movements.
French Colonialism
FRENCH COLONIALISM – was driven more by the state, church, and armed forces than by pure business interests.
- In CONTRAST to British expansion, which was driven by profit.
- The first phase of French colonialism was focused in Canada, the Louisiana territory, the Caribbean, and parts of India.
- During the second phase of French colonialism, the empire grew to include most of North and West Africa as well as Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia).
- To legitimize their colonialism, the French claimed to be engaged in a “MISSION CIVILSATRICE” – a civilizing mission (equivalent to Britain’s “white man’s burden”), the goal of which was to spread French culture, language, and religion (Roman Catholicism) throughout the colonies.
The French used two forms of colonial rule:
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INDIRECT RULE of governing through native leaders and established political structures in areas with long histories of state organization
- (e.g., Morocco, Tunisia)
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DIRECT RULE of governing – imposing new government structures to control diverse societies, many of them previously stateless.
- (e.g., in many areas of Africa)
- The French empire (like the British empire) began to disintegrate following World War II.
World System Today
INDUSTRIALIZATION continues today, although nations have shifted their positions within the world system.
- By 1900, the United States had become a CORE NATION within the world system and had overtaken Great Britain in iron, coal, and cotton production.
- In the 20th century, industrialization created new industries and jobs.
- But in the 21st century, jobs are increasingly scarce as businesses seek to increase profits by replacing people with automation.
Industrialization effect on Energy use and Societies:
- Industrialization shifted the world’s ENERGY RELIANCE from renewable sources, like sun, wind, and hydro, to non-renewable (and highly polluting) fossil fuels.
- GENOCIDE – the physical destruction of ethnic groups by murder, warfare, and introduced diseases – has occurred on a grand scale as industrial states have conquered, annexed, and “developed” nonstates.
- Many native groups (INDIGENOUS PEOPLE) have been INCORPORATED within nation-states, in which they have BECOME ETHNIC MINORITIES.
