Explain the similarities and differences between modern globalization and the globalization that occurred during the Age of Exploration.

The first exchange of culture and ideas happened after the expeditions of Christopher Columbus.  The native people of the Americas and Europeans from England, Spain, and Portugal were in contact with one another for the first time. The first exchange was primarily plants, animals, and diseases.  It is somewhat different than the globalization of today because these cultures did not even know each other existed before contact.  Consider the following differences between the Columbian Exchange and 21st Century globalization.

• Today corporations are leading the charge to gain influence and power in other cultures while in the Age of Exploration nations or monarchs sponsored expeditions.


• The major target of corporate imperialism today is a search for cheap labor markets; in the past, it was a push was for land and resources.


• A motivation for contacts with other people during the time of Columbus was to convert natives to Christianity.  There is no such religious motive for contact today.  

There are a number of similarities between modern-day globalization and the imperial practices of the 15th Century.  Consider the following similarities.  

• Both globalization accelerations were done to create wealth or profit.


• In both instances, a dominant player attempted to force their culture on a subordinate culture.


• In both cases, both sides (dominant and subordinate) benefited in some way from the contact with one another.  


• Both examples of globalization in the question possess the theme of exploitation.  This is the exploitation of a technologically inferior group by a technologically superior group.