Stages of Evolution of the Modern World-System

• Premodern geographies were organized around mini systems and regional empires while the modern world system was established over a long period of time beginning in the late fifteenth century

• More and more peoples around the world have become exposed to one anothers technologies and ideas

• Different resources, social Ideas and cultural systems resulted in quite different pathways of development

• Some societies were incorporated into the new European-based international economic system faster than others, some sought alternative economic & political systems and some resisted

The Industrial Revolution and Global Economic Systems

• New technologies triggered phases of geographic expansion allowing for an intensive period for external colonization and imperialism

• The core of the world system grew to Include the United States, Japan, and Europe, while most of the world was systemically incorporated into the capitalist world system

Interdependence of Different Regions

• Each region carries out its own role within the world-system because of this they are dependent on one another. their development affects and is affected by the development of other places the world system has been consolidated since the seventeenth century with strong economic ties between countries eventually becoming involved in the interdependence of the capitalist system and the flows of resources, capital, goods, ideas, and people among places and regions

The Modern World System

• The world system is highly structured and characterized by three tiers: core, semi peripheral and peripheral at regions

• Core regions are those that dominate trade, control the most advanced technologies and have high levels of productivity within diversified economies

• Peripheral regions are characterized by dependent and disadvantageous trading relationships, by primitive or obsolescent technologies and by undeveloped or narrowly specialized economies with low levels of productivity

• Semi peripheral regions are able to exploit peripheral regions but are exploited and dominated by core regions

• This system is fluid, providing a continually changing framework for geographical transformation within individual places and regions.

Outcomes of Globalization

• Many of the important issues facing modern society are consequences of human modification of our physical environment

• Globalization has intensified differences in prosperity between the core and the periphery contemporary society is characterized by new vulnerabilities and hazards