Aspects of Globalization
Globalized trade is nothing new. Societies in ancient Greece and Rome traded with other societies in Africa, the Middle East, India, and China. Trade expanded further during the Islamic Golden Age and after the rise of the Mongol Empire. The establishment of colonial empires after the voyages of discovery by European countries meant that trade was going on all over the world. In the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution led to even more trade of ever-increasing amounts of goods. However, the advance of technology, especially communications, after World War II and the Cold War triggered the explosive acceleration in the process occurring today.
One way to look at the similarities and differences that exist among the economies of different nations is to compare their standards of living. The statistic most commonly used to do this is the domestic process per capita. This is the gross domestic product, or GDP, of a country divided by its population. The table below compares the top 11 countries with the bottom 11 out of the 228 countries listed in the CIA World Factbook.
Country GDP Per Capita in
U.S. Dollars
Monaco 185,829.00
Liechtenstein 181,402.80
Bermuda 117,089.30
Luxembourg 114,704.60
Isle of Man 89,108.40
Cayman Islands 85,975.00
Macao SAR, China 84,096.40
Switzerland 81,993.70
Ireland 78,661.00
Norway 75,419.60
Burundi 261.2
Malawi 411.6
Sudan 441.5
Central African Republic 467.9
Mozambique 503.6
Afghanistan 507.1
Madagascar 523.4
Sierra Leone 527.5
Niger 553.9
Congo, Dem. Rep. 580.7
