Globalization and Its Merits and Demerits

[edit]Proto-globalization Main article:  Proto-globalization The next phase, known as  proto-globalization, was characterized by the rise of maritime European empires, in the 16th and 17th centuries, first the  Portuguese  and  Spanish Empires, and later the  Dutch  and  British Empires. In the 17th century, world trade developed further when  chartered companies  like the  British East India Company  (founded in 1600) and the  Dutch East India Company  (founded in 1602, often described as the first  multinational corporation  in which stock was offered) were established. [39]Animated map showing the development of European  colonial empiresfrom 1492 to present The  Age of Discovery  added the  New World  to the equation,[40]  beginning in the late 15th century. Portugal  and  Castile  sent the first exploratory voyages[41]  around the  Horn of Africa  and to the Americas, reached in 1492 by the Italian explorer  Christopher C olumbus. Global trade growth continued with the  European colonization of the Americas  initiating the  Columbian Exchange,[42]  the exchange of plants, animals, foods, human populations (including  slaves),  communicable diseases, and culture between theEastern  and  Western  hemispheres.New crops  that had come from the Americas via the European seafarers in the 16th century significantly contributed to world population growth. [43]  The Puritans migration to New England, starting in 1630 under John Winthrop with the professed mission of converting both the natives of North America to Puritan Christianity and raising up a â€Å"City Upon a Hill† that would influence the Western European world, is used as an example of globalization. [44]