Chapter 10 The World System and Colonialism

The World System –Truly isolated societies do not exist today –Modern world system – a world in which nations are economically and politically interdependent

World System Theory –World-system theory – argues that an identifiable social system, based on wealth and power differentials, extends beyond individual states and nations Core Periphery Semiperiphery

Emergence of the world system –European exploration in the 15th century –16th and 17th centuries – development of colonial plantation economies based on single cash crops –Emergence of colonial plantation economies fueled the transatlantic slave trade

Industrial Revolution –Historical transformation –European industrialization replaced the domestic system of manufacture

Socioeconomic effects of industrialization –Prosperity was uneven Factory owners began recruiting labor in places where living standards were low and labor (including women and children) was cheap Social ills accompanying industrialization: –Pollution –Crowded and unsanitary housing –Insufficient water and sewage disposal –Disease –Rising death rates

Industrial stratification –Marx – viewed socioeconomic stratification as a sharp, simple division between two opposed classes: Bourgeoisie Proletariat –19th century – trade unions and socialist parties emerged

Industrial stratification - Weber –Defined three dimensions of social stratification Wealth (economic status) Power (political status) Prestige (social status)

Colonialism –Imperialism – a policy of extending rule of a nation or empire over foreign nations and of taking and holding foreign colonies –Colonialism – political, social, economic, and cultural domination of a territory and its people by a foreign power for an extended period of time –British Colonialism –French Colonialism

Colonialism and identity –Whole countries, along with social groups and divisions within them, were colonial inventions –Hundreds of ethnic groups and “tribes” are colonial constructions

Postcolonial studies –Three kinds of postcolonies: Settler countries – large numbers of European colonists and sparser native populations (e.g., Australia, Canada) Nonsettler countries – large native populations and relatively few Europeans (e.g., India) Mixed countries – sizable native and European populations (e.g., South Africa)

Development –Economic development plans also have intervention philosophies

The Second World –First World – the “democratic West” –Second World – Warsaw Pact nations, including the former Soviet Union and the socialist and once-socialist countries of Eastern Europe and Asia –Third World – “less developed” or “developing” countries

Communism –Communism – a social system in which property is owned by the community and in which people work for the common good –Communist systems are different from other authoritarian regimes and socialist (social democratic) societies:

The world system today –20th century – mass production gave rise to a culture of consumption, which in turn has led to the rapid depletion of fossil fuel energy –Americans are the world’s foremost consumers of nonrenewable resources

Industrial degradation Industrialization in Latin America, Africa, the Pacific, and Asia has led to the destruction of indigenous economies, ecologies, and populations Genocide