Cultural globalization leads to the domination of some cultures over others. There are a large number of examples from the past and present that show that encounters between the cultures may lead to the very different outcomes. Usually the traditions and customs blend together and the people start to live differently. However, there are the cases when the local people oppose the globalization due to the friction in the beliefs and ideologies. Such controversies may cause hostility between the people with different background.
Many scholars state that globalization gathered pace with the emergence of world trade. Flynn and Giraldez (1995) state that 1571, which was a year when the city of Manila was founded, should be regarded as the date when the maritime trade became truly global (Flynn and Giraldez 201). The city of Manila became the first port city that made shipments of silver and other materials from South America to Asia easy. Since then the countries have had an enormous economic impact on each other and exposed their cultures to the foreign influence.
In many countries or territories, the arrival of the representatives of the other cultures led to the atrocities caused by the differences in religion and ethnicity. In all continents there were the facts of genocide or crimes on ethnic grounds. Therefore cultural globalization did not always use to be a peaceful process. For example, in 1492-1700 thousands of people migrated from one continent to another. A whole new Atlantic world was created and the indigenous people that lived at the borderlands suffered the most (Sundberg 4). Actually they were replaced with the new settlers with cross-cultural identities and mixed ethnicity (Sundberg 8).
Nowadays, cultural globalization rarely leads to the violence, but the principle is more or less the same: the developed countries usually influence the developing countries. For example, Japan has one of the strongest economies in the world and therefore it is very active in the international arena. One of the accomplishments of cultural globalization for Japan was popularization of sushi around the world. Japanese cookery became popular because of the increased tuna trade thanks to the new technologies, quick transportation and international environmental policies that make Japan import huge quantities of tuna (Bestor 55). Moreover, a lot of people have been travelling to Japan since the 1970s and they like the local food and the way of living of the Japanese people (Bestor 56). So a country does not have to be aggressive to dominate in terms of cultural expansion.
Finally, the social policies inside the developing country may also have a large impact on the exposure to the other culture. For instance, in the developed countries children have to go to school instead of working. They become independent in the very early age and the families’ influence is not as strong as in the developing countries. So as soon as the developing countries follow the same path, the local youth will become exposed to the influence of the other children and adolescents, because they are usually “exemplars of beauty, of vitality, and of fashion” (Fass 972). Consequently, the children will bring another culture to their countries by means of the information and commutation technology.
In conclusion, globalization leads to the situation when cultures of the developed countries dominate in the world. Due to the economic and political power, developed countries are able to popularize their culture. Children are especially exposed to the influence of the local and foreign pop culture. So as soon as they get more freedom via education and lower dependence on the family, the cultural globalization will be much more visible even in the most conservative countries.
Works Cited
Bestor, T. “How Sushi Went Global”. Foreign Policy, No. 121. November-December: 54-
63. Print.
Fass, P. “Children and Globalization”. Journal of Social History, Vol. 36, No. 4. Summer
2003: 963-977. Print.
Flynn, D. Giraldez, A. “Born with a "Silver Spoon": The Origin of World Trade in 1571”.
Sandberg, B. “Beyond Encounters: Religion, Ethnicity, and Violence in the Early Modern
Atlantic World, 1492 -1700”. Journal of World History, Vol. 17, No. 1. March 2006:
1-25. Print.
