Unit 10: Globalization and the Industrialization in the Late 20th Century
The second half of the twentieth century saw many changes in the pattern of industrialization. While the capitalist states of the West enjoyed two decades of prosperity after 1945, problems in the global economy led to stagnation and decline in many manufacturing sectors in the 1960s and 1970s. Manufacturing power shifted from the West to the East, beginning with the reindustrialization of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Light and then heavy manufacturing moved to Asian production sites, as the cost of labor in the West rose. Southeast Asian states and then communist China entered the market as low-cost producers in the late 1970s and 1980s as previous barriers to international trade were eliminated. By the 1990s, free trade had replaced protectionism as the dominant economic ideology in the industrialized world, creating new opportunities for industrialized and industrializing states as well as new challenges to the stability of the global economic system.
In this unit, we will examine the causes and effects of the decline of manufacturing in the West and the rise of low-cost producers in Asia. We will also study important international agreements that gradually eased barriers to trade between nations.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 4 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- summarize the main developments in the global economy since 1945;
- connect the Western decline in manufacturing with the rise of new industrialization in Asia;
- explain the effect of the fall of the Soviet Union on the global economy; and
- identify the key features of the current global economy.
10.1: The Decline of Manufacturing in the West
10.1.1: Post-1945 Prosperity
Read this article about how Germany recovered from the Second World War and entered a period of industrial prosperity.
Read this article for more information about how Germany recovered from the Second World War and entered a period of industrial prosperity.
Read this article about how the United States recovered from the Second World War and entered a period of industrial prosperity.
10.1.2: Problems of the 1960s–1970s
10.1.3: Economic Origins of the European Union
Read this page and explore the images and films available. Be sure to read more about the Schuman Plan.
10.2: Industrial Growth in Asia
10.2.1: Reconstruction of Japan
Read this article to learn how Japan recovered from the destruction of the Second World War.
Read this article to learn how Japan recovered from the destruction of the Second World War.
10.2.2: The "Four Tigers"
10.3: Free Trade and Neoliberalism in the Modern World
10.3.1: Industrialization and Free Trade around the World
10.3.2: From the GATT to the WTO
Watch lectures 21, 23, and 25 to learn about China's entry into the world economy.
Read this timeline to learn how the GATT organization transformed into the WTO.
Unit 10 Assessment
- Receive a grade
This unit brings our study of the global history of industrialization to a close by taking us through the end of the 20th century. This assignment will help you review some of the important developments since the end of World War II and contextualize the development of the global economy since 1945.
- This assessment does not count towards your grade. It is just for practice!
- You will see the correct answers when you submit your answers. Use this to help you study for the final exam!
- You can take this assessment as many times as you want, whenever you want.
