North America's Culture Affecting International Business

In 1492 Columbus discovered the “new world” which is now known as the Americas today. Furthermore, in the 1700 people from the English origin traveled across the sea to North America to start a new life. When they got to North America the people settled in two regions, the Chesapeake and the New England region. Even though these people came from the same place they thrived in two different societies. Some of the countless reasons why these two regions are different from each other are religion, ways of life, and economics.

About 225 million years ago, according to the theory of “Pangaea,” the world was once a single supercontinent that contained all the dry land. Approximately 10 million years ago, North America was shaped by the majestic Canadian Shield. About 2 million years ago, in North America, the grand glaciers laid the land of Canada and the United States, southbound as far as from Pennsylvania all the way to the Pacific Northwest. Recently, about 135 million to 25 million years ago, four massive ranges—the Rockies, the Sierra Nevada, the Cascades, and the Coast Ranges, arose in western North America. About 35000 years ago, the ancestors of the Native Americans, the nomadic Asian hunters, first

1.The geological and geographical conditions that set the stage for North American history is that the earth formed slowly,10 million years ago North America was sculpted ,and the continent was anchored in a north eastern corner by a canadian shield.Around 2 million years ago the great ice age began,the ice sheets were about 2 miles thick crept from the polar region , in North America the glaciers carpeted most of canada and the U.S., parts of europe,Asia,and the americas werecovered with a blanket of snow.

Starting as humble continent with simple peoples, North and Central America developed rapidly, once the Europeans touched down. WIthin a few centuries, this quiet continent became a booming beacon of industrialization. WIth everyone from the Dutch to the Spaniards, legions of Europeans came flocking to this new land with hopes of gaining land, power, and religious freedom.

During the 17th century, North America was born by English settlements known as Jamestown and Plymouth. The two settlements found ways to adapt to the new world. However, due to the places they landed, and the type of people they were, they had similarities and differences with each other.

Millions of years ago according to scientist the whole world was one large mass called Pangea. When this mass began to split, it divided the Americas from the Eastern World along with the people on it. This resulted in tens of thousands years apart from one another which led to different developments on each continent. After all these years though a man named Columbus’s discovers the Americas in 1492. As soon as he took

America is situated on the continent of North America, in the Northern Hemisphere of the planet Earth, 4.6 light years southwest of Alpha Centauri. The local population is known as Homo Sapiens (Humans). The indigenous population of this land are known as American-Indians. Around 500 years ago small boats arrived from the east bringing both disease and guns; both of which were instrumental in both wiping out a large percentage of the native people and creating the modern America.

The United States and Mexico together take up the majority of the habitable lands of North America. In 1763, the Viceroyalty of New Spain controlled most of

Long before the Europeans discovered the Americas, the North American region went through a lot of geological and geographic changes. Originally there was just one super large mass of land but overtime that land broke apart forming continents. Shifting and folding of the earths crust formed mountains across North America and the rest of the world. One major change that the region of North America went through was during the period of the Great Ice Age. The Great Ice Age took place 2 million years ago. During the Great Ice Age, large glaciers covered North America (along with other continents). When the glaciers disappeared 10,000 years ago they left North America new and transformed. The changes that the glaciers made were forming of lakes,

Ten million years ago North America began to take form from the Canadian Shield. Then, eight million years later the Great Ice Age formed the Bering Land Bridge, which allowed nomadic people to cross from Eurasia to North America. Once the Ice Age ended the sea levels rose again, and the Americas were isolated. However, that did not stop the Americas from growing. Before the Europeans came to America, there were possibly fifty-four million people inhabiting the Americas.

The North America that is here today went through a struggle to get where it is now. Exploration, expansion, fighting, and purchases were slowly piecing America together. America up north started our first and carried the upper class people who were in need of something new; the south was the hotspot for all the slaves and low lives that just farmed for Europe; and the west came to be by a population boom that needed to be resolved, and people just going out to explore and escaping the troubles of the east.

The North American continent is located within the Northern, and Western Hemisphere bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the East, South America to the Southeast, Arctic Ocean to the North, and Pacific Ocean to the west. North America precedes Africa and Asia in largeness since it accommodates twenty three states with diverse population and cultures. North America comprises of 41 countries with United States of America having the highest population and Montserrat (UK) having the lowest population. The major cities of United States of America are notably, New York, Ottawa, Washington, New Orleans, and Detroit. These States have different features that shape environmental and economic growth. North America therefore, has various critiques for both human and physical geography.

In this negotiation, we learned that it is important to research your opponent, to understand their culture, not only of their country or backgrounds, but also their company culture. When we are able to understand our opponent’s way of thinking about business and doing business we can then understand how to approach a negotiation situation with them. In this exercise, we learned that it is difficult for us to adjust when it involves breaking or acting in a way opposite of what we are accustomed to. We also learned that although my classmates live in the same country as we do, their upbringings may have similarities to their origin country and will therefore help them to communicate and adjust to that country’s norms and standards. We were surprised how we were able to stay in character although it was hard and it was surprising how people responded when they were unaware of your intentions and strategies. If we had to do this exercise again, what we can do is do more research on our opponents so that we would have an idea of what to expect in the negotiation table.

     Cultures are varying among different parts of the globe. People with different cultures have different characteristics and viewpoints on the subjects due to diverse understanding and method of learning. During the past few decades, the international trade grows in a very rapid rate due to the advantages that it provides; “increased sales, operational efficiencies, exposure to new technologies and broader consumer choices” (Heslin). Therefore, when considering the culture aspect to current business world, it is crucial for business to understand the culture aspect because of the tremendous growth of international business as well as utilize the international market to its maximum

The five weeks of the Cultural aspects of international business course have been a truly enriching life experience for me. I must admit that I was a little skeptical about the value proposition of the course as I thought this was going to be one of those purely theoretical pro-diversity lectures with no potential for practical application. However, the fact that Professor Lane co-authored the textbook intrigued me so much (I have never had a Professor who actually wrote the textbook for the course) that I decided to give it a chance and sign-up for the course.