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Global Interrelatedness In The 20th Century

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The 20th century brought with it a rapid expansion of the global interrelatedness of the world. In the beginning of the 20th century the world was dominated by a European world system of colonial empires that was created through expansion by sea (Findley, 2011). The competition between Britain and the other colonial powers led to an insatiable appetite to expand their empires across the globe (Findley, 2011). As the 20th century progressed this European world system collapsed and a new three world system of the United States, Soviet Union, and the rest of the world emerged (Findley, 2011). The end of the century coincided with a new era of globalization that was made possible by the introduction of global communication via the internet (Findley, 2011). This new technology brought the entire world closer together than it had ever been before. The four events that best illustrate the progression of global interrelatedness throughout the 20th century are the Great Depression, World War II, Cold War, and the introduction of instant global communications via the internet.
The Great Depression
The Great Depression perfectly illustrates how the world had shifted to a truly global economy because it affected nearly every manufacturing, food producing, and raw material producing country (Crafts, 2010). An example of this is half of the Indian laborers working on Ceylonese rubber plantations having to return to their homeland jobless because natural rubber prices plummeted 75 percent

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