Causes and Impact of Globalization

By the 19th century, trade between continents had become a force that could reshape entire societies. Knowing why it grew so fast helps explain why it hit China and Africa so hard.

Three economic pressures pushed it forward.

• Demand for markets. Britain's growing industries turned out manufactured goods, and its merchants wanted new places to sell them. China was one market they badly wanted to open, despite Chinese restrictions.
• Demand for raw materials and goods. Factories needed raw materials, and consumers wanted products Europe could not produce. Colonies supplied both. Raw cotton from India, for example, was made into cloth in Britain and then sold back to India. From China, Britain wanted cheap tea and silk.
• Profit. Merchants who succeeded overseas built up capital to invest in new businesses, so each success fed more trade. The slave trade was one of the most profitable branches of all.

Technology turned these wants into results. Western weapons, warships and steamships gave European states the power to force their way into markets that did not want them. Later, railways and telegraph lines carried Western influence deep inland. Again and again, the gap in technology decided who set the terms of trade.

How the Opium Wars unfolded and how the transatlantic slave trade was organized is covered in the lesson on the history of global trade.