Unit 9: Globalization

“The infrastructure of communication was long a monopoly of the state, requiring massive capital investments in copper wires and landlines that rarely reached beyond urban centers in developing nations. The arrival of mobile telephony and satellite links in the late twentieth century dismantled these barriers. By bypassing the need for physical copper networks, remote rural communities in East Africa and South Asia suddenly gained access to global financial and information networks. The cell phone became not just a tool for conversation, but a handheld bank, a market price-ticker, and a primary connection to the global economy.”

—Adapted from a report on international development and telecommunication networks, 2004

Which of the following best explains how the technological developments described in the passage affected global economic structures in the late twentieth century?

The passage below is adapted from a speech delivered by Ken Saro-Wiwa, a Nigerian environmental activist, during his trial in 1995:

'We are stood before a situation where a multi-national oil company, Shell, has, with the active connivance of successive Nigerian military regimes, waged an ecological war against the Ogoni people. The Ogoni have been subjected to the degrading impacts of oil exploration: gas flaring, oil spills, and the destruction of our agricultural land and fishing waters. All this is done in the name of global progress and international trade, yet the local people receive none of the wealth. Instead, we are left with a ruined environment and political marginalization. We must resist this economic and environmental violence, which treats our homeland as a sacrifice zone for the benefit of distant shareholders and global markets.'

The resistance described in the passage is best understood as a critique of which of the following aspects of late twentieth-century globalization?

“The epidemiological transition of the late twentieth century has created a dual burden of disease. While wealthier nations grapple with the high costs of managing chronic, non-communicable conditions like Alzheimer's disease and coronary heart disease—diseases of longevity that have emerged as primary causes of death due to increased life expectancy—developing nations continue to face high mortality rates from infectious diseases. This divergence is not merely biological; it is structured by unequal access to medical technologies, clean water, and healthcare infrastructure, demonstrating that the benefits of globalization are unevenly distributed.”

—Adapted from a report by the World Health Organization, 2004

Based on the passage and your knowledge of world history, which of the following best explains the global divergence in disease patterns during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries?

“To the making of these fateful decisions, the United States pledges before you—and therefore before the world—its determination to help solve the fearful atomic dilemma—to find the way by which the miraculous inventiveness of man shall not be dedicated to his death, but consecrated to his life... The United States would seek more than the mere reduction or elimination of atomic materials for military purposes. A special purpose would be to provide abundant electrical energy in the power-starved areas of the world.”

— President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Address before the General Assembly of the United Nations, December 8, 1953

Which of the following mid-twentieth-century developments best explains the context of the proposal outlined in the passage?

Source: Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister of India, budget speech to the Parliament of India, July 24, 1991.

'No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come. The emergence of India as a major economic power in the world happens to be one such idea... For the last forty years, our policies have been guided by the objectives of growth with social justice... But our development process has also generated rigidities and inefficiencies... The industrial licensing system has outlived its utility and has become an obstacle to growth. We must dismantle it. We must welcome foreign investment as a means to secure technology and modern managerial practices... Our liberalization is a voluntary response to the changed global circumstances.'

The economic reforms proposed in the passage most directly reflect which of the following global trends of the late twentieth century?

"The developing countries are of the view that environmental problems must be addressed in a manner that does not hinder the development process of these countries. Since the developed countries bear the primary responsibility for the degradation of the global environment through their historical and current high levels of emissions, they must provide new and additional financial resources and transfer environmentally sound technologies on non-commercial and preferential terms to the developing countries. Environmental considerations should not be used as a pretext for introducing trade barriers or imposing new conditions on development assistance."

—Beijing Declaration on Environment and Development, adopted by representatives of 41 developing nations, June 1991

Based on the passage, the arguments expressed by the developing nations most clearly reflect which of the following debates about the environment after 1900?

“The global campaign to eradicate smallpox, culminated in 1980, was not merely a victory of medical science but a testament to a new era of global integration. The effort required unprecedented administrative coordination between the World Health Organization, the United States, and the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. Technologically, it was enabled by the development of highly stable freeze-dried vaccines that could survive in tropical climates without refrigeration, and the mass production of the bifurcated needle, which allowed non-medical volunteers to perform vaccinations rapidly. By eliminating a disease that had killed hundreds of millions, the campaign fundamentally altered demographic trajectories, particularly in newly independent nations of the Global South, where infant and child mortality rates plummeted, fueling rapid population growth.”

Based on the passage, the global eradication of smallpox best illustrates which of the following twentieth-century developments?

The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO) establishes global standards for intellectual property protection. However, when developing nations attempt to manufacture generic versions of patented medicines to combat public health crises, they face threats of trade sanctions and legal action from multinational pharmaceutical companies and high-income governments. The WTO's dispute settlement mechanisms are often leveraged to enforce these private patent rights, raising questions about whether global trade institutions serve human welfare or the interests of powerful transnational corporations, and whether they undermine the sovereignty of poorer nations to protect their own citizens.

—Adapted from a report by the Third World Network, a coalition of non-governmental organizations in developing nations, 2001

Based on the passage, the criticisms directed at the World Trade Organization most directly reflect which of the following broader tensions in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries?

Source:
"We have experienced ecological devastation, agricultural ruin, and the total destruction of our environment... The Ogoni people have been marginalized and denied the basic rights to their resources, while multinational corporations and the state reap the billions of dollars of oil revenue. Our struggle is not only for environmental rehabilitation but for the democratic control of our lands and resources."
—Ken Saro-Wiwa, Nigerian writer and environmental activist, statement to the World Council of Churches, 1993

Based on the passage and your knowledge of world history, which of the following best explains how the environmental concerns described by Saro-Wiwa relate to global economic developments after 1900?

Selected Health Indicators by World Health Organization (WHO) Region, 2002:

Based on the table and your knowledge of world history, the data best illustrates which of the following broader trends in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries?

Source: Rachel Carson, American biologist and writer, *Silent Spring*, 1962

"The most alarming of all man’s assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials. This pollution is for the most part irrecoverable; the chain of evil it initiates not only in the world that must support life but in living tissues is for the most part irreversible. In this now universal contamination of the environment, chemicals are the sinister and little-recognized partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world—the very nature of its life."

Which of the following mid-twentieth-century developments was the most direct cause of the environmental concerns described in the passage?

Source: Declaration of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), Mexico, January 1, 1994.

"For us, the indigenous people of Mexico, the free trade agreement is a death sentence. The entry of cheap agricultural imports from the United States will destroy our communal farming system, the *ejido*, and force us off our ancestral lands to become cheap labor for foreign-owned assembly plants (*maquiladoras*) along the northern border. Globalization is not about integration; it is about the recolonization of our territories by multinational corporations."

The concerns expressed in the passage are most directly a response to which of the following late-twentieth-century developments?

"We, the People of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know:
that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people;
and that our people have been robbed of their birthright to land, liberty and peace by a form of government founded on injustice and inequality;...
And therefore, we, the people of South Africa, black and white together—equals, countrymen and brothers—adopt this Freedom Charter."

— African National Congress, *The Freedom Charter*, 1955

Which of the following mid-twentieth-century developments is most directly reflected in the passage?

“In the latter half of the twentieth century, the dramatic reduction in infant mortality and the control of infectious diseases through antibiotics and vaccines led to a significant increase in average life expectancy. Consequently, populations lived long enough to experience chronic, non-communicable conditions that were less common in earlier historical eras. Conditions such as coronary heart disease and Alzheimer's disease emerged as leading causes of death, particularly in wealthier nations, requiring long-term medical management rather than short-term cures.”
—Adapted from a global health history report, 1998

Which of the following developments in the late twentieth century most directly explains the trend described in the passage?

Source: Wangari Maathai, Kenyan environmentalist and founder of the Green Belt Movement, Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, 2004.

"In Kenya, the Green Belt Movement was born out of a desire to address the basic needs of rural women. They reported that their streams were drying up, their food supply was less secure, and they had to walk further and further to get firewood... We came to understand that environmental degradation, poverty, and conflict are intimately related. Tree planting became a natural choice to address some of the initial basic needs. It was simple, attainable, and guaranteed quick, successful results."

The efforts described in the passage most directly reflect which of the following developments in the late twentieth century?

"If the present growth trends in world population, industrialization, pollution, food production, and resource depletion continue unchanged, the limits to growth on this planet will be reached sometime within the next one hundred years. The most probable result will be a rather sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity."

—Donella Meadows et al., The Limits to Growth, 1972

Which of the following global developments in the twentieth century best explains the concerns expressed in the passage?

"In 1991, cholera reemerged in Latin America for the first time in nearly a century, rapidly spreading from Peru to neighboring countries. While oral rehydration therapy and municipal water chlorination were well-established, cost-effective technologies, their deployment was severely hindered. Decades of rapid, unplanned urbanization had left millions in informal settlements without piped water or sewage systems. Furthermore, economic stabilization programs and debt crises during the 1980s had led to massive cuts in public health funding and infrastructure maintenance. Consequently, while the medical technology to treat and prevent cholera existed, social inequalities and economic constraints restricted its access, demonstrating the limits of globalization's benefits."

Based on the passage, which of the following best explains how economic and social factors limited the effectiveness of medical technologies during the 1991 Latin American cholera epidemic?

“The green revolution has won a temporary success in man's war against hunger and deprivation; it has given man a breathing space. If fully implemented, the revolution can provide sufficient food for sustenance during the next three decades. But the frightening power of human reproduction must also be tamed; otherwise the success of the green revolution will be only ephemeral.”

— Norman Borlaug, agricultural scientist, Nobel Lecture, 1970

Based on the passage and your knowledge of world history, which of the following was a primary technological innovation of the Green Revolution that led to the increased food production described by Borlaug?

The following is an excerpt from a study on global television flows published in 2012:

'While many cultural critics in the late twentieth century predicted that globalization would lead to a one-way imperialist export of American media, the actual flow of television programming has proven far more complex. Across Latin America, local television networks have not only dominated domestic markets with locally produced telenovelas but have also exported these shows to audiences in Eastern Europe, East Asia, and the Middle East, where they are frequently adapted to fit local cultural norms.'

Which of the following aspects of globalized culture after 1900 is best illustrated by the passage?

The Egyptian Feminist Union, founded in Cairo in 1923, published the following statement of goals:

"We demand political rights for women, specifically the right to vote and eligibility for parliamentary elections... We also demand reform of the marriage laws, particularly the restriction of polygamy and the regulation of divorce. Furthermore, we call for equal educational opportunities for girls and boys, and the opening of all professions and government offices to women. We believe these changes will strengthen the Egyptian family and serve as the foundation for a truly independent and progressive nation."

Which of the following best explains the historical context of the demands expressed in the passage?