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The World Is Flat Study Guide

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The World is Flat

1. There are three stages of globalization. The first stage of globalization lasted from about 1492 to the early 1800s. Thomas Friedman described this level of globalization as the shrinking of the world from a size large to a size medium. During this period, countries were globalizing by exploring the new world in search of resources and power. The dynamic agent of this stage of globalization the country.

Then. from the early 1800s to the year 2000 was the second stage of globalization. This stage shrunk the world from a size medium to a size small. This era was led by companies globalizing, rather than countries. Companies were the dynamic agent in this era as they were globalizing to expand their markets. …show more content…

During this time, the world shrunk from a size small to a size tiny. This is also when the flattening of the world’s economic playing field occurred. What makes this stage of globalization different from the others is it’s not about countries or companies globalizing, rather about individuals and small groups globalizing. In this stage of globalization, we now have to think of ourselves on a global level because of the new degree to which individuals and small groups can globalize. This stage is not lead or dominated by a group of white male westerners.

2. Friedman indicates that there are ten flatteners that caused the leveling of the world’s economic playing field. The first flattened of the world was the fall of the berlin wall on November 9, 1989. This event allowed us to see the world as a flat continuous plane. Prior to the fall of the wall, there were east and west policies not really any global policies because the wall was causing a divide. Freidman mentions that when the wall fell that window was put up in place, giving us a sort of single graphical user face to see the world.

August 9, 1995, a small startup company in Cali launched called Netscape. The reveal of the Netscape browser was the first commercial browser making it the second flattener. This browser really brought the internet alive, allowing the public to use it which allowed more ways to connect and communicate. This then triggered the .com

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