BLOG #13

BLOG #13

“After the technological and social revolutions occurred in Europe, its Northwestern part became the most advanced region of the world. It set out, at first timidly and often out of adventurism, then more seriously to conquer the rest of the world. As Europe conquered other countries, the winners established rules that were economically advantageous to themselves, developed further the already-existing slave trade, and by flooding markets of their colonies (devoid of independent commercial and eco- nomic policy) with their own manufactures, contributed to colonies, deindustrialization. All the while, gross coercion, wars, and even genocides went on in the colonies––perhaps not much noticed in Europe. So, the days of universal peace were quite far from being truly so.” (Milanovic; pp. 678).

This quote and basically the entire paper bases the current “benign” of globalization as one of the two narratives that have being told in which as the quote expresses leaves colonialism and the deliberate ignorance of war and conflict in poor countries are direct results of an economic model design by colonial powers to maintain power and dominance. The importance of understanding that the era of colonialism had such a remarkable effect not only on the society of the time (for both those who benefited as for those who suffered the consequences) but also because that unprecedented historical event keeps shaping the world as we know it today. Most importantly, though, it stays as evidence of the historical and detrimental abusive power that this globalized and capital nations have had on the rest of the world. Capitalism and globalization as understood from a 19^th century perspective didn’t bring the peace and equality that it so much promised, neither the invisible hand equipped everybody equally. 

Globalization as perceived today is closely associated with the interests of dominant developed northwestern nations. Countries like the United States, France, England, Sweden, among others have experienced the good fruits of neoliberal policies because the institutions in charge of maintaining that world order even though they are engage in the development of the world, it would ludicrous to believe that they aren’t deliberately safeguarding the countries that created them and that influx capital into it. It’s a world dominant economic ideal that tilts the balance towards one side. The rest of us? Well, look at countries like China, India or any developing country in Latin America and lets not even mention Africa; do they equate to the supremacy and advancement of societies of those like in Europe or the United States? Absolutely not, and sure much of it is attributed to major political instability but that’s also a mention that Milanovic makes in this reading, the fact that while developed nations were reaping the benefits of industrialization and the colonialism, the colonies were deeply ingrained in conflict, health and grave economic conditions while they ignored the situations.

This can be closely perceived in Latin America where many countries follow a capitalist American model of the economy yet none of them compare to the United Sates (not even Brazil or Mexico). Why is that? Corruption, dictatorships, civil wars, hunger, poverty, environmental issues, and more, were all things that the United States wasn’t only aware of but that even initiated (Guatemala, Honduras, etc.). Growth is impossible in an socio political environment like that. Truly when the quote says that those says of universal peace were quite far it can even be argued that they are far today also because those in position to do something about it simply can’t or don’t want to.