Important Dates in a Connected/ing World

Friedman: 1800s to late 1920s: First era of globalization
Went: 1870-1913 increasing trade openness
Polanyi: 100 years' peace 1815-1914; rise of "new int'l economy";
Industrial revolution as beginning of revolution
— $ £ € ¥ —

1500s to late 1800s Period of European and North American colonialist expansion.

1850s-1880s Countries adopt gold standards for their national currencies.

— $ £ € ¥ —
Polanyi: unpredented emergence of independent haute finance;
gold standard intensifies importance of national units=1870s "new nationalism"; increased use of trade tariffs; rush to establish formal colonies="rush to empire" and rise of fascism. End 19th century peoples of world institutionally standardized to unprecedented degree
— $ £ € ¥ —

1866 Transatlantic cable connected.

1914 to 30s WWI, Gold standards collapse,(Great Britian off 1931), Great Depression in the U.S., U.S. off gold 1933.

1919 Establishment of the League of Nations after the Paris Peace Conference. U.S. did not join. Replaced by United Nations after WWII.

1930 Bank for International Settlements (BIS) established as international organization of central banks. Based in Basel, Switzerland, goal to "foster cooperation among central banks and other agencies in pursuit of monetary and financial stability".

— $ £ € ¥ —
Polanyi: 30s as revolutionary decade (vs. 20s conservatism)
abandon gold standard (Great Brit), 5 year plans in Russia,
New Deal in US; Nat'list socialst rev. in Germany; collapse of LON
— $ £ € ¥ —

1940 FCC rules limit media ownership concentration in radio and TV 

1944 Bretton Woods agreement among WWII allies establishing an international monetary system on a gold standard, establishment of the IMF and World Bank; next few years saw establishment of series of international organizations.

— $ £ € ¥ —
Friedman: 1945-1989 Cold War divided world; Hostilities between
Soviet bloc and U.S.-led NATO
Tsing: 1945- Rise of U.S. world hegemony; begin popularity of
modernization and development frameworks among western
academics and regimes vs. previous colonial segregation
B-W cut off earlier free-flow of finance, created
"national capitalisms" to fund welfare states
Went: 1945-mid-70s postwar "Golden Age" of capitalist expansion
— $ £ € ¥ —

1948 Marshall Plan. Post-WWII program of aid initiated by the U.S. to reconstruct Europe and repel communism. Establishment of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to adminster it.

• UN Declaration of Universal human rights
• First version of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) signed by 23 countries.

1948-1958 Rise and consolidation of development economics.

1949 Harry Truman's inaugural address: grand vision of achieving world peace by developing the "underdeveloped" world through increased production and the dissemination of "modern" scientific and technical knowledge.

1962, October. Cuban Missile Crisis.

1971 Collapse of Bretton-Woods system: Termination of currency exchange rates fixed to a gold value through the US dollar. Shift from fixed exchange rates set by governments to floating rates set by supply and demand for currencies.

— $ £ € ¥ —
Went: 1974-75 "Economic Watershed"
Went: Neoliberalism: early 1980s restructuring lead to enormous changes; globalization of macroeconomic policies, counterrevolution in economics

1978-80 Deng Xiaoping to power in China, begins liberalizing reforms. Stiglitz, Friedman to China as consultants.
            -Margaret Thatcher elected prime minister in Britian
            -Ronald Reagan elected president in the U.S.
            -rise of so-called "Washington Consensus" advocating free market reforms

1981 US begins deregulating Media ownership. Reagan Administration deregulation under the leadership of FCC Chairman Mark Fowler. Deregulatory moves, some made by Congress, others by the FCC, included extending television licenses to five years from three in 1981. The number of television stations any single entity could own grew from seven in 1981 to 12 in 1985.

1980s-90s IMF-led loans and structural adjustment policies; debt crisis among recipient countries; diverging growth rates, emerging new industrial countries: Taiwan, S. Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong

1987 Free Trade Agreement between U.S. and Canada

1989 Fall of Berlin Wall.

 

Top

— $ £ € ¥ —
Friedman: 1989- on New era of globalization
Tsing: 1990s time of popularization of "globalization" as
endorsement of free trade
— $ £ € ¥ —

1991 December. Fall of the Soviet Union.

• World Bank advocates "market friendly development" (cf. Stiglitz)

1992 Feb. 7 Maastricht Treaty signed, for creation of European Union

• Rio Declaration. Statement of principles calling for worldwide environmental protection by UN "Earth Summit" conference in Rio de Janeiro.

1994 GATT agreement updated, new obligations for signatories, sweeping liberalization of international trade, to be supervised by new World Trade Organization (WTO), 75 founding member countries. 109 regional trade agreements reported to WTO by end of 1994.

• Jan. 1 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) among Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
• Mexican Peso Crisis.

1994-5 Internet comes into widespread use via the new Worldwide Web

1995 Jan. 1, World Trade Organization (WTO) inaugurated in Geneva.

• Aug. Beijing Declaration: Principles and goals adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, September 1995.

1996 After mounting pressure from international activist coalitions, the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt-relief program was initiated by the IMF and the World Bank.

• Feb. President Clinton signs the Telecommunications Act of 1996. It is generally regarded as the most important legislation regulating media ownership in over a decade. Unprecedented media industry consolidation and cross-platform ownership. Tiered global media market emerges.

1997 Debt Crisis Network organized itself as the Jubilee 2000 coalition, seeking debt cancellation for poor countries by the year 2000.

• July. East Asian Financial Crisis. Investors pull large sums out of currency and stock markets in Thailand, South Korea and Indonesia, creating a snowball effect as investors lost confidence in "emerging markets".

1998 70,000 people peacefully demonstrated for debt relief at the G8 Summit in Birmingham, England.

• Near collapse of U.S.-based hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management

1999 November. Over 40,000 protestors demonstrate in the controversial "Battle of Seattle" at the 1999 WTO Ministerial Conference intended to begin a new round of trade negotiations.

2001 September 11. Terrorist attacks on World Trade Center, NYC and the Pentagon, U.S.

Top

This Web site created and maintained by
Professor Charlene Makley with help from
the Faculty Multimedia Lab at Reed College.
All content copyright Charlene Makley.
Broken links? Let me know!
Email Charlene Makley