World trade is not new
• Roman Empire trade routes with products traded
• Silk Road trade - Marco Polo ~1100 AD - Old World Trade Routes
• British East India Company (1600)
• Dutch East India Company (1602) - (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC)
• European trade in North America; growth of American trade particularly in cotton

Turning points
• Industrial Revolutions
... Mechanization, steam, textiles, social upheaval
• Pre-WWI trade expansion
• World War I - 1914 to 1918
... Patriotism, war in the trenches, death of a generation
• Between wars
... Great Depression
... End of colonization
... Rise of technology
... World population growth [1 B (1820), 2 B (1930), 3 B (1960), 4 B (1974), 5 B (1988), 6 B (2000), 6.4 B (2004] - World PopClock
• World War II
... Defining event in 20th Century; "Join the Navy and free the world"
• Post War
... Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe - George C. Marshall, U.S. Secretary of State, Noble Peace Laureate
... Yalta and the Cold War
... Bipolar world until fall of Berlin Wall (9 November 1989) and USSR (25 December 1991); unipolar after - one superpower

Issues
• Population migrations - immigration and emigration; legal and illegal
• Megacities (pdf) - urban agglomerations > 10 M
• Global water issues - water shortages; water wars
• Globalization; anti-globalization; global economy; "free" trade
• Interlinked economies; changing patterns in world trade
• Polarization - haves vs. have nots in wealth, youth
• Terrorism
• Spread of technology; tech bubble
• U.S. recession ending September 2001; recovery; Iraq war
• Importance of U.S. consumer spending - 2/3rds US GDP
• Spread of AIDS/HIV - Sub-Saharan Africa; China; India