Impact Of Globalisation In The 20th Century

In the early 21st century, those living in the developed world encounter the effects of globalisation on a daily basis. On a most basic level, from the Internet to the food that is consumed, it is possible to instantly access a different part of the world. Globalisation has also affected lives in ways that are not instantly obvious – views, beliefs and attitudes shaped by globalisation have changed how the world is perceived. Globalisation is different in the 21st century to how it was in the 20th century, and though the most underlying difference is the rapid development of technology, there are subtle ways in which it has changed – and ways in which it has not changed at all.
Globalisation first came into the Western vernacular due to its relationship with global economics. Coming out of industrialisation in the late 19th century, mass produced items became the norm. Reduced prices and greater accessibility improved the well-being of the lower classes in society, with Ford’s assembly lines being a worldwide symbol of the economic boom of the 1920s. For most of the 20th century, however, mass production was confined to the national scale. With the development and increased accessibility of commercial air travel and shipping containers in the mid to late 20th century, mass production became a global affair, with major companies outsourcing product development to countries where workers’ wages and costs of materials were lower. In the 21st century this is now standard