Globalization, Islam, and the West Between Homogenization and Hegemonization

Abstract

Let us begin with the challenge of a definition. What is globulizution?
It consists of processes that lead toward global interdependence and the
increasing rapidity of exchange across vast distances. The word globulizution
is itself quite new, but the actual processes toward global interdependence
and exchange started centuries ago.
Four forces have been major engines of globalization across time:
religion, technology, economy, and empire. These have not necessarily
acted separately, but often have reinforced each other. For example, the
globalization of Christianity started with the conversion of Emperor
Constantine I of Rome in 3 13. The religious conversion of an emperor
started the process under which Christianity became the dominant religion
not only of Europe but also of many other societies thousands of
miles distant from where the religion started. The globalization of Islam
began not with converting a ready-made empire, but with building an
empire almost from scratch. The Umayyads and Abbasids put together
bits of other people’s empires (e.g., former Byzantine Egypt and former
Zoroastrian Persia) and created a whole new civilization.
Voyages of exploration were another major stage in the process of
globalization. Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus opened up a ...