Chapter 23

Daniel Guerrero

Professor Patricia Andrews, MA

04/15/19

Chapter 23

Capitalism and Culture 

Throughout the 20th century, dense web of political relationships economic transactions, and cultural 

influences increasingly bound the world together. In the 1990s the process of accelerating 

engagement is known as globalization. The pace of globalization increased rapidly and dramatically  

after World War Two. Most commonly globalization refers to international economic transactions 

and it also comes to be seen as inevitable since the 1950. Global economic connections contracted 

significantly in the first half of the 20th century especially between the two world wars.  Many of 

those capitalist winners of World War Two were determined to not let the Great Depression happen 

again. And this lead to the 1944 Bretton Woods (New Hampshire) agreement, during this moment 

technology helped accelerate economic globalization. Now that Bretton Woods agreement that was a 

system of managing funds and money that established the rules for commercial and financial 

relationships between lots of different countries, the United States, Canada, countries in Western 

Europe, Australia and even Japan. In the 1970s there are some major countries that dropped controls 

on economic activities. Increasingly viewed the world as a single market. This approach was known 

as neoliberalism. Favored reduction of tariffs, free global movement capital, mobile workforce, 

privatization of state enterprises, and less government economic regulations and tax and spending 

cuts. Neo-liberalism was imposed on many poor countries to give them loans.