Expert: Ralph Salier - 7/30/2009

Question
How does modernization relates to global interdependency?

Answer
Hi Khanyl,

Let me start with the industrial revolution.  With the industrial revolution the demand for goods began to rise.  This then lead to a need for raw materials and energy, especially oil, coal and gasoline.  In some places, these energy products were in short supply and the demand quickly out stripped the local availability to produce.  This lead to wide spread exploration within the colonial zones around the world.  It lead to the discovery of oil and coal in a number of places like Australia, the Middle East and Africa.  The industrializing countries exploited their colonies but it also began to bring money and industry to these places as well and education because an educated work force was needed.  Now lets move forward 100 years.  

By the time of World War II, England, Germany, the US/Canada, France, Japan, and to a lesser degree, China, Brazil, Argentina, India and South Africa were fully engaged in heavy industry with railway lines criss crossing the countries, the movement of goods by road was well underway and the exploitation of the natural resources from energy to minerals was going strong.  These goods were being used internally as well as being exported in large amounts. The war brought this exploitation to a head.  It lead to the need for the expansion of national wills. WIth Germany, it was an excuse to invade Poland, rich in coal and France with its industry and North Africa for its oil.  In Japan, Malaysia for its rubber, China for its vast resources and the Islands of the Pacific to create a barrier.  These actions by these two Axis powers pushed the US and Britain into the war if not just for survival but to not loose access to  the same goods now prevented from flowing due to the actions of the war.  The interdependency was highlighted by the war and grew strongly immediately after the war with the reconstruction of Europe and Asia.  The flow of goods in the form of trade, financials, services and communications then permanently globalized us but not necessarily modernized us.  This is a factor of the second half of the 1900's.  As people from other parts of the world moved into the middle class, they demanded cars, clothes and other goods made elsewhere.  This lead to the vast movement of industries and the growth of others and the competition for ever more scarce raw materials.  

Communications on a global scale (satellites and fiber optics) allowed the growth of TV, Radio and the demand for what other peoples had.  Thus the automotive companies, fast food, electronics and all manner of materials began to flow across borders at ever higher rates of speed.  The cost of these goods rose and lead to the even more industrial movement seeking lower waged areas to make the goods.  

Today we are in the thick of modernization in places with the infrastructure can barely keep up with demand.  It has pushed people to the margins in place of higher profits, education has suffered as has health and welfare of the people being exploited and the lands being destroyed for the sake of profit.  This along with global warming may lead to our extinction.  Unless we can work together to fix these problems, or interdependence may be our undoing.