An extremely brief history of globalization
One could say that globalization has been going on since the Middle Ages, when merchants traveled the Silk Road from Europe to China to buy and sell fabrics, perfumes, spices, jewels, glassware, and slaves. With every technological breakthrough bringing faster communication or more efficient transport of goods, the countries of the world have become more closely connected.
The modern era of globalization began just after World War II, when world leaders acted on their belief that interdependence would help prevent war, and that breaking down barriers to international trade would spread prosperity. At the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, representatives of 44 nations laid the foundations for the International Monetary Fund and what would become the World Bank.
In the 1950s, multinational corporations based in the U.S. and Europe grew tremendously. International trade mushroomed during the second half of the 20th century. The past two decades, especially, have seen more and more countries moving toward free-market economies and lowering barriers to trade.
National economies have now become so tightly interconnected that a problem in one country can affect the rest of the world—as we saw in the financial crisis that began in 2007.