Causes
How can we explain globalization? Some attibute it to conquest, which was perhaps an early version of globalization. The answer to the major cause seems to be in the development of technology.
Take a look at the costs of transport, travel, and communicating information - these have all fallen dramatically since World War II thanks to progress of technology. According to Wikipedia, "a three minute telephone call from the USA to Britain cost $12 in 1946, whereas today it can cost as little as 48 cents"
Can you remember the first computers? HUGE, grey monoliths that filled entire rooms - requring enormous amounts of power and data to do very little and take forever to do it. They used punch cards, tape, floppy disks! Can you imagine a world where the telegram was the fastest form of communication - no email, no mobile phones, not even a fax machine! Where were PC's, satellites, the world wide web. Just in someone's imagination! Who could have imagined the world in which we now find ourselves - where an Indian living in Bangalore with a medical degree can earn a decent living by typing the letter of doctors in the USA from their dictation overnight.
It is clearly the availability of inexpensive, fast and reliable communications that permits such happenings. And, looking at the way that outsourcing and intercountry and intercompany communications has increase, it looks like that globalization is here to stay.
