1 00:00:00,110 --> 00:00:05,110 Hi, I'm John Green, this is Crash Course World History, and today is the penultimate episode of Crash Course. 2 00:00:05,110 --> 00:00:07,110 We're going to talk about globalization. 3 00:00:07,110 --> 00:00:10,109 This was going to be the last episode, but I just can't quit you, world historians. 4 00:00:10,109 --> 00:00:15,109 So today we're going to talk about globalization, and in doing so, we're going to talk about why we study history at all. 5 00:00:15,109 --> 00:00:16,109 Ooh, ooh, Mr. Green! 6 00:00:16,109 --> 00:00:17,109 Yes, me from the past? 7 00:00:17,109 --> 00:00:20,109 We study history to get a good grade, to go to a good college, to get a good job, 8 00:00:20,109 --> 00:00:22,109 so you can make more money than you would otherwise make, 9 00:00:22,109 --> 00:00:27,109 and be a slightly larger cog among the seven billion gears that turn the planet's economic engine, right? 10 00:00:27,109 --> 00:00:30,510 And that's fine, but if that's why you really study history, then you need to understand 11 00:00:30,510 --> 00:00:36,070 all the ways that the t-shirt you're wearing is both the cause and result of your ambition. 12 00:00:36,070 --> 00:00:42,310 This t-shirt contains the global economy, its efficiency, its massive surplus, its hyper-connectedness, 13 00:00:42,310 --> 00:00:43,490 and its unsustainability. 14 00:00:43,490 --> 00:00:56,039 This t-shirt tells one story of globalization, so let's follow it. 15 00:00:56,039 --> 00:00:57,700 So globalization is a cultural phenomenon. 16 00:00:57,700 --> 00:01:01,780 It's reflected in contemporary artwork and population migration and linguistic changes, 17 00:01:01,780 --> 00:01:05,819 But we're going to focus, as we so often have during Crash Course, on trade. 18 00:01:05,819 --> 00:01:11,620 So the world today, as symbolized by our international felt melange, experiences widespread global 19 00:01:11,620 --> 00:01:12,620 economic interdependence. 20 00:01:12,620 --> 00:01:16,640 Now, of course, economic interdependence and the accompanying cultural borrowing are nothing 21 00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:17,640 new. 22 00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:21,400 You'll remember that we found trade documents from the Indus Valley civilization all the 23 00:01:21,400 --> 00:01:22,599 way in Mesopotamia. 24 00:01:22,599 --> 00:01:25,900 But for a few reasons, the scale of this trade has increased dramatically. 25 00:01:25,900 --> 00:01:30,260 One, multinational corporations have global reach and increasing power. 26 00:01:30,260 --> 00:01:33,099 Two, travel and shipping are cheap and safe. 27 00:01:33,099 --> 00:01:35,700 It took about two months to cross the Atlantic in 1800. 28 00:01:35,700 --> 00:01:39,700 Today, it takes about five hours by plane and less than a week by ship. 29 00:01:39,700 --> 00:01:43,019 Three, governments have decreased tariffs and regulations on international trade, leading 30 00:01:43,019 --> 00:01:46,480 to what is sometimes called, euphemistically, free trade. 31 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:50,599 To which I say, if this trade is so free, how come BBC America is in the premium tier 32 00:01:50,599 --> 00:01:51,599 of my cable package? 33 00:01:51,599 --> 00:01:54,480 To understand the role that governments play in international trade, let's look again 34 00:01:54,480 --> 00:01:55,480 at this t-shirt. 35 00:01:55,480 --> 00:02:00,159 This t-shirt, like most t-shirts made in the world, contains 100% American cotton. 36 00:02:00,159 --> 00:02:03,280 And that's not because the U.S. makes the best cotton or the most efficient cotton. 37 00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:06,379 It's because the U.S. government subsidizes cotton production. 38 00:02:06,379 --> 00:02:09,280 And that's what makes this cotton cheaper than cotton of similar quality from Brazil 39 00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:10,280 or India. 40 00:02:10,280 --> 00:02:14,340 But in the last 30 years, the U.S.'s share of cotton exports has gone down as Brazil, 41 00:02:14,340 --> 00:02:16,879 India and Africa's cotton exports go up. 42 00:02:16,879 --> 00:02:20,340 And that trend will likely continue as the U.S. moves away from its expensive cotton 43 00:02:20,340 --> 00:02:21,340 subsidies. 44 00:02:21,340 --> 00:02:25,139 In fact, these days it's already possible to find t-shirts with Brazilian, Indian or 45 00:02:25,139 --> 00:02:28,479 Ugandan cotton or a mixture of cottons from all around the world. 46 00:02:28,479 --> 00:02:32,479 But because the American government doesn't subsidize industry in the way it does agricultural 47 00:02:32,479 --> 00:02:36,680 production, the actual spinning and weaving of the cotton takes place in lower wage countries 48 00:02:36,680 --> 00:02:42,819 – Mexico, Guatemala, Vietnam, China, India, China, China, sometimes even China. 49 00:02:42,819 --> 00:02:46,500 And then the finished shirts, called blanks, are usually sent to Europe or the United States 50 00:02:46,500 --> 00:02:48,280 for screen printing and then sold. 51 00:02:48,280 --> 00:02:52,099 You would think the most expensive part of this process is the part where we ship this 52 00:02:52,099 --> 00:02:58,460 across the Pacific Ocean, turn it into this, and then ship it back across the Pacific Ocean. 53 00:02:58,460 --> 00:03:02,379 you'd be wrong. Wholesale t-shirt blanks can cost as little as three dollars. The expense 54 00:03:02,379 --> 00:03:06,680 is in the printing, the retail side of things, and paying the designer at Thought Bubble 55 00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:11,319 who was tasked with the difficult job of creating a Mongol who is at once cute and terrifying. 56 00:03:11,319 --> 00:03:15,520 So contemporary global trade is pretty anarchic and unregulated, at least by international 57 00:03:15,520 --> 00:03:19,400 institutions and national governments. Much of this has to do with academic economists, 58 00:03:19,400 --> 00:03:23,639 mostly in the US and Europe, who have argued with great success that governmental regulation 59 00:03:23,639 --> 00:03:28,199 diminishes prosperity by limiting growth. Now some nations, in Latin America, the Caribbean 60 00:03:28,199 --> 00:03:32,460 in Africa haven't been particularly keen to pursue free trade, but they've been bullied 61 00:03:32,460 --> 00:03:36,400 into it by larger economies with whom they desperately need to trade. 62 00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:40,139 So in the past 30 years we've seen all these emerging markets lowering their tariffs, getting 63 00:03:40,139 --> 00:03:44,039 rid of regulation, and privatizing formerly state-run businesses. 64 00:03:44,039 --> 00:03:48,500 And they often do that to appease the International Monetary Fund, which offers low-interest loans 65 00:03:48,500 --> 00:03:52,159 to developing world economies with the motto, many strings attached. 66 00:03:52,159 --> 00:03:55,879 Now whether these decreased regulations have been a net positive for these developing world 67 00:03:55,879 --> 00:04:00,259 economies is a subject of much debate, and we will wade into it, but not until next week. 68 00:04:00,259 --> 00:04:03,120 First, we need to understand more about the nature of this trade. So you'll remember 69 00:04:03,120 --> 00:04:07,240 from the Industrial Revolution episode that industrial Western powers produced most of 70 00:04:07,240 --> 00:04:11,180 the manufactured goods, which were then sold in international markets. But you'll also 71 00:04:11,180 --> 00:04:16,120 remember that domestic consumption was extremely important. I mean, almost all early Model 72 00:04:16,120 --> 00:04:22,740 Ts were built by Americans and bought by Americans. But since the 1960s, and especially today, 73 00:04:22,740 --> 00:04:26,879 Former non-industrialized parts of the world have been manufacturing consumer goods, for 74 00:04:26,879 --> 00:04:30,220 domestic markets, yes, but primarily for foreign ones. 75 00:04:30,220 --> 00:04:34,000 This t-shirt, made in China and the Dominican Republic, before being imported to Mexico 76 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:37,459 and then to the United States, is a primary example of what I'm talking about, but so 77 00:04:37,459 --> 00:04:39,819 is the computer that you're watching me on. 78 00:04:39,819 --> 00:04:43,759 Your computer was probably manufactured in China, but with parts from all over the world, 79 00:04:43,759 --> 00:04:46,579 especially Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea. 80 00:04:46,579 --> 00:04:50,339 And this international manufacturing is always finding, like, new markets, too. 81 00:04:50,339 --> 00:04:54,120 Like Brazil, for instance, has a huge technology sector. 82 00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:55,680 They make iPads there, actually. 83 00:04:55,680 --> 00:04:57,279 Sorry, I'm trying to play Angry Birds. 84 00:04:57,279 --> 00:05:00,439 But what all these countries have in common is that while there is a domestic market for 85 00:05:00,439 --> 00:05:05,160 things like iPads and t-shirts, the foreign markets are much, much bigger. 86 00:05:05,160 --> 00:05:10,290 Oh, it's time for the open letter? 87 00:05:10,290 --> 00:05:11,629 An open letter to Cookie Monster. 88 00:05:11,629 --> 00:05:14,189 But first, let's see what's in the secret compartment today. 89 00:05:14,189 --> 00:05:17,029 Oh, it's a cookie dough flavored balance bar. 90 00:05:17,029 --> 00:05:19,790 For people who love cookies and pretending to be healthy. 91 00:05:19,790 --> 00:05:21,829 Dear Cookie Monster, here's the thing, man. 92 00:05:21,829 --> 00:05:22,829 You don't have a stomach. 93 00:05:22,829 --> 00:05:26,110 That's why when you put a cookie in your mouth, it crumbles up and then just falls out of 94 00:05:26,110 --> 00:05:27,110 your mouth. 95 00:05:27,110 --> 00:05:29,029 But here's what fascinates me, Cookie Monster. 96 00:05:29,029 --> 00:05:30,829 I believe you when you say you love cookies. 97 00:05:30,829 --> 00:05:33,810 It doesn't matter that you can't actually eat cookies, because where you would have 98 00:05:33,810 --> 00:05:36,129 a stomach, you instead have someone's arm. 99 00:05:36,129 --> 00:05:41,089 And that, Cookie Monster, is what makes you a beautiful symbol for contemporary consumption. 100 00:05:41,089 --> 00:05:45,389 You just keep eating, even though you can't eat. 101 00:05:45,389 --> 00:05:49,110 Cookie Monster, you are the best and the worst of us. 102 00:05:49,110 --> 00:05:50,569 Best wishes, John Green. 103 00:05:50,569 --> 00:05:54,990 So although die-hard Marxists might still resist this, by 2012 it's become pretty obvious 104 00:05:54,990 --> 00:05:58,490 that global capitalism has been good for a lot of people. 105 00:05:58,490 --> 00:06:01,810 It's certainly increased worldwide economic output, and while American auto workers may 106 00:06:01,810 --> 00:06:06,569 suffer job loss, moving manufacturing jobs from high-wage to lower-wage countries allows 107 00:06:06,569 --> 00:06:10,910 a greater number of people to live better than they did when the first and second worlds 108 00:06:10,910 --> 00:06:12,529 monopolized manufacturing. 109 00:06:12,529 --> 00:06:16,810 And while I don't want to conflate correlation and causation, some 600 million people have 110 00:06:16,810 --> 00:06:20,730 emerged from poverty in the last 30 years, at least according to the World Bank's definition 111 00:06:20,730 --> 00:06:24,490 of poverty, which is living on less than $1.25 a day. 112 00:06:24,490 --> 00:06:28,449 Americans can argue about whether absurdly inexpensive clothes, shoes and televisions 113 00:06:28,449 --> 00:06:32,730 are worth the domestic, economic and social dislocation, but for the Vietnamese worker 114 00:06:32,730 --> 00:06:37,810 stitching a pair of sneakers, that job represents an opportunity for a longer, healthier and 115 00:06:37,810 --> 00:06:41,769 more secure life than she would have had if those shoes were made in the USA. 116 00:06:41,769 --> 00:06:46,449 But before we jump on the celebratory globalization bandwagon, let's acknowledge that this brave 117 00:06:46,449 --> 00:06:50,990 new world has some side effects. For instance, it maybe hasn't been so good for families, 118 00:06:50,990 --> 00:06:55,949 it definitely has not been good for the environment, and also there's a chance that globalization 119 00:06:55,949 --> 00:06:57,949 will spark like the end of the human species. 120 00:06:57,949 --> 00:07:02,290 But we're going to talk about all that next week. For today, let's bring on the bandwagon 121 00:07:02,290 --> 00:07:04,269 and ride straight for the Thought Bubble. 122 00:07:04,269 --> 00:07:08,829 So these days, people move more than they ever have. 21% of people living in Canada 123 00:07:08,829 --> 00:07:15,089 were born somewhere else, as was an astonishing 69% of Kuwait's current population. Migration 124 00:07:15,089 --> 00:07:18,990 has become easier because, one, air travel is pretty cheap, especially if you only take 125 00:07:18,990 --> 00:07:23,449 a few plane trips in your life, and two, it's relatively easy and inexpensive to stay in 126 00:07:23,449 --> 00:07:27,970 touch with relatives living far away thanks to Skype, mobile phones, and inexpensive calling 127 00:07:27,970 --> 00:07:32,569 cards. Also, three, even with increased industrialization in the developing world, economic opportunities 128 00:07:32,569 --> 00:07:37,529 are often much better in wealthy countries. Remittances, money sent home by people working 129 00:07:37,529 --> 00:07:42,750 abroad, are now a huge driver of economic growth in the developing world. Like in Tajikistan, 130 00:07:42,750 --> 00:07:49,189 For instance, remittances are 35% of the country's total gross domestic product. 131 00:07:49,189 --> 00:07:52,689 With all these people moving around the world, it's not surprising that globalization also 132 00:07:52,689 --> 00:07:54,490 means cultural blending. 133 00:07:54,490 --> 00:07:58,569 When people move, they don't just give up their literary, culinary, artistic and musical 134 00:07:58,569 --> 00:07:59,750 traditions. 135 00:07:59,750 --> 00:08:03,089 Globalized culture is a bit of a paradox, though, because some people see culture today 136 00:08:03,089 --> 00:08:05,589 as increasingly Americanized, right? 137 00:08:05,589 --> 00:08:09,129 Like Friends is currently broadcast in over 100 countries. 138 00:08:09,129 --> 00:08:12,709 You can find Diet Coke for sale deep in the jungles of Madagascar. 139 00:08:12,709 --> 00:08:17,389 The NBA is huge in China, there are fewer languages spoken today, and probably less 140 00:08:17,389 --> 00:08:18,810 cultural diversity. 141 00:08:18,810 --> 00:08:23,029 But on the other hand, an individual's access to diverse cultural experience has never been 142 00:08:23,029 --> 00:08:24,029 greater. 143 00:08:24,029 --> 00:08:28,850 Bollywood movies, Swedish hip-hop, Brazilian soap operas, highlights from Congolese football 144 00:08:28,850 --> 00:08:31,389 matches, these are all available to us. 145 00:08:31,389 --> 00:08:35,769 Culinary-cultural fusion is all the rage, more novels are translated from languages 146 00:08:35,769 --> 00:08:38,710 than ever before, although fewer actually read. 147 00:08:38,710 --> 00:08:44,610 In the surest sign of cultural globalization, football, the world's game, has finally reached America, 148 00:08:44,870 --> 00:08:49,370 where broadcasts of the greatest collective enterprise humanity has ever known, 149 00:08:49,690 --> 00:08:52,850 Liverpool Football Club, got record ratings in 2012. 150 00:08:53,129 --> 00:08:53,789 Thanks, Thought Bubble. 151 00:08:53,789 --> 00:08:54,929 Hey, one last request. 152 00:08:55,129 --> 00:08:59,429 Could you put me in a Liverpool jersey, on the pitch at Anfield, 153 00:08:59,830 --> 00:09:03,450 raising the Premier League trophy, with Steven Gerrard hugging me? 154 00:09:03,570 --> 00:09:07,110 Yes, just like that! Oh, Thought Bubble, I love you so much! 155 00:09:07,110 --> 00:09:11,870 Okay, so this all brings us to how globalization has changed us, and whether it's for the better. 156 00:09:11,870 --> 00:09:15,549 Assuming you make the minimum wage here in the United States, this t-shirt, purchased 157 00:09:15,549 --> 00:09:21,529 at your friendly neighborhood e-tailer DFTBA.com, will cost you about three hours worth of work. 158 00:09:21,529 --> 00:09:23,090 And yes, that does include shipping. 159 00:09:23,090 --> 00:09:26,450 By the time it arrives at your door, the cotton within that t-shirt will have traveled by 160 00:09:26,450 --> 00:09:31,409 truck, train, ship, possibly even airplane if you opt for priority shipping. 161 00:09:31,409 --> 00:09:35,929 And it will probably have traveled further than Magellan did during his famous circumnavigation 162 00:09:35,929 --> 00:09:36,929 of the globe. 163 00:09:36,929 --> 00:09:39,929 And all that for three hours of work! 164 00:09:39,929 --> 00:09:44,629 By contrast, a far less comfortable garment several hundred years ago would have cost 165 00:09:44,629 --> 00:09:46,490 you ten times as much work. 166 00:09:46,490 --> 00:09:51,049 But these improvements have been accompanied by change so radical that we struggle to contextualize 167 00:09:51,049 --> 00:09:52,049 it. 168 00:09:52,049 --> 00:09:56,429 Like, the human population of our planet over time looks like this. 169 00:09:56,429 --> 00:09:57,429 Dang. 170 00:09:57,429 --> 00:10:02,409 Like, in 1800, there were a billion human beings on this planet, and that was more than 171 00:10:02,409 --> 00:10:03,809 had ever been seen before. 172 00:10:03,809 --> 00:10:07,889 And we live more than twice as long on average as humans did just two centuries ago, largely 173 00:10:07,889 --> 00:10:12,509 due to improved health care for women in childbirth and their infants, but also thanks to antibiotics 174 00:10:12,509 --> 00:10:17,710 and the second agricultural revolution that began in the 1950s, the so-called Green Revolution, 175 00:10:17,710 --> 00:10:22,230 that saw increased use of chemical fertilizers lead to dramatically higher crop yields. 176 00:10:22,230 --> 00:10:25,429 Of course, these gains haven't been evenly distributed around the world, but chances 177 00:10:25,429 --> 00:10:30,509 are, if you're watching this, you A survive childbirth, and B feel reasonably confident 178 00:10:30,509 --> 00:10:32,289 that your children will as well. 179 00:10:32,289 --> 00:10:36,669 It's a new feeling for humans, and as a parent I can assure you, it's a miracle, and one 180 00:10:36,669 --> 00:10:37,730 to be celebrated. 181 00:10:37,730 --> 00:10:41,389 We study history so that we can understand these changes, and so that we can remember 182 00:10:41,389 --> 00:10:45,590 both what we've gained and lost in getting to where we are. 183 00:10:45,590 --> 00:10:49,690 Next week, our last week, we'll look at the many facets of globalization that aren't 184 00:10:49,690 --> 00:10:50,789 causes for celebration. 185 00:10:50,789 --> 00:10:55,250 But for today, let's just pause to consider how we got from here to here. 186 00:10:55,250 --> 00:11:00,289 How the relentless and unquenchable ambition of humans led to a world where the entire 187 00:11:00,289 --> 00:11:05,850 contents of the Library of Alexandria would fit on my iPhone, along with recordings of 188 00:11:05,850 --> 00:11:07,669 everything Mozart ever composed. 189 00:11:07,669 --> 00:11:11,529 In such a world, it's easy to feel that we are big and powerful. 190 00:11:11,529 --> 00:11:13,529 Maybe even invincible. 191 00:11:13,529 --> 00:11:14,909 It's easy to feel that. 192 00:11:14,909 --> 00:11:15,909 And also dangerous. 193 00:11:15,909 --> 00:11:16,909 Thanks for watching. 194 00:11:16,909 --> 00:11:18,470 I'll see you next week. 195 00:11:18,470 --> 00:11:20,570 Crash Course is produced and directed by Stan Muller. 196 00:11:20,570 --> 00:11:24,169 Our script supervisor is Meredith Danko, associate producer Danica Johnson, and the show is 197 00:11:24,169 --> 00:11:27,149 written by my high school history teacher Raoul Meyer and myself. 198 00:11:27,149 --> 00:11:28,850 Our graphics team is Thought Bubble. 199 00:11:28,850 --> 00:11:30,730 Last week's Phrase of the Week was, crush those rebels. 200 00:11:30,850 --> 00:11:34,029 If you want to suggest future Phrases of the Week or guests at this week's, you can do 201 00:11:34,029 --> 00:11:37,330 so in comments, where you can also ask questions about today's video that will be answered 202 00:11:37,330 --> 00:11:38,350 by our team of historians. 203 00:11:38,750 --> 00:11:41,889 Thanks for watching Crash Course, and as we say in my hometown, don't forget to be awesome.