Waves of Connection: How Historians Periodize Globalization

Historians often divide globalization into stages to show that it has grown, slowed and changed shape over time. A. G. Hopkins and C. A. Bayly proposed four phases: archaic globalization driven by empires, pilgrims and long-distance merchants; proto-globalization from about 1600, when European trading companies and plantation systems linked oceans; modern globalization from about 1800, powered by steam, telegraphs and nation-states; and postcolonial globalization after 1945.

This model is useful because it shows that globalization was not invented by the West, since Arab, Indian, Chinese and African networks were central to the early phases. It also reminds us that globalization can reverse: between 1914 and 1945, two world wars and the Great Depression shrank migration and cultural exchange. Critics argue that neat stages can hide how unevenly connections reached different regions. Periodization is therefore a tool for comparison, not a fixed truth.