Introductie: Globalisering en geschiedenis
Johan Schot en Jan-Pieter Smits
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Introduction: Globalization and history
This introduction explores various aspects of globalization from a historical perspective. It puts the various reviews on trade, migration, infrastructure, Americanization and space published in this issue in the context of the globalization debate. Three central debates are introduced: on the definition of globalization, its periodization, and finally on its relation with the nation-state. It is argued that the globalization literature calls for a transnational turn in history. It provides historians with a new transnational research agenda which focuses on the study of cross-border flows, the people and organizations involved, new spaces constructed, and on the influence of these flows on national and local histories.

Globalisering, geschiedenis en ruimte
Anton Schuurman
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Globalization, history and space
This contribution explores the analytical implications of using the concept of globalization in historical research. The article stresses that globalization deals with the transformation of the spatial organization of social relations and transactions. What makes the contemporary globalization different from earlier phases is that distance plays a much less distinctive role in the organization of production and consumption. History can increasingly be seen as a transnational history, focusing on the historical developments and their interaction in various parts of the world.

Globalisering zonder Regionalisering. Waarom handelen Latijns-Amerikaanse en Afrikaanse landen nauwelijks met hun buren?
Ewout Frankema en Jan Pieter Smits
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Globalization without regionalization. Why Latin American and African countries hardly trade with their neighbours?
The present contribution explores the long twentieth-century globalization process from a trade perspective, addressing the question why increasing international trade in the economically advancing regions (Europe, North America, East Asia) was, to a large extent, driven by trade within the region, whereas most Latin American and African countries failed to develop a strong integration of commodity markets in the region. The paper discusses three theoretical conjectures to explain this phenomenon and examines the possible advantages of regionalization for long run economic growth. The main argument of the paper is that, from a trade perspective at least, the process of globalization is often confused with a process of regionalization.

Van divergentie naar convergentie. Migratie en het proces van globalisering
Leo Lucassen
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From divergence to convergence. Migration and the process of globalization
In the discussion on the impact of global migration patterns two different definitions of globalization, with consequences for the periodization, are being used. The restricted one is applied by economic historians, like Jeffrey Williamson, who are interested in market integration and price convergence, and focuses on the nineteenth and twentieth century and the accompanying intercontinental mass migrations. World historians argue, both with economic, social and cultural arguments, that globalization started much earlier, at least with the ‘Columbian exchange’ at the end of the sixteenth century, when migrants (both traders, priests, soldiers and workers) established a world wide web of connections. By lack of quantification their broad definition of globalization, however, lends itself badly for a formal test, whereas the market oriented approach of economic historians is rather one-dimensional. The paper argues that the differentiated globalization approach of Held cum suis, distinguishing between intensity, extensity, impact and velocity, can help to bridge the gap between these two definitions and offers the basis for a fruitful discussion.

Is Globalization a Code Word for Americanization? Contemplating McDonalds, Coca-Cola, and military bases
Ruth Oldenziel
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In ‘Is Globalization a code word for Americanization?’, the author shows how globalization scholarship ignores the role of the American nation-state in shaping that process, while Americanists and historians of American history have had a blind spot in seeing the u.s. in global terms. Cast as a weak nation-state institutionally and anti-imperial in comparison with European colonial powers, scholarship had a difficulty to see the u.s. state as a global actor. Globalization, however, cannot be understood without analyzing the hegemonic power of the u.s. nation-state that has been crucial in shaping international and transnational politics and institutions during the twentieth century. Future research will therefore have to analyze in a historically grounded fashion the u.s. nation- state in relationship with corporate business and civil-society organizations to map the politics and institutions that have shaped globalization in the era that has been rightfully called the ‘American Century’.

Globalisering en infrastructur
Johan Schot
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Globalization and infrastructure
This article explores the role of infrastructure in globalization. The aim is to provide a historiographical overview. Telegraphy is used as a case-study. The overview shows that infrastructure is key to globalization. The pivotal role of infrastructure is captured in three conceptualizations. It can be studied by looking at ways in which 1) infrastructural landscapes generate and channel flows of people, goods, services, information and ideas; 2) migrants, business people, diplomats use infrastructures; 3) infrastructures constitute transnational regimes and a transnational society. The relation between globalization and infrastructure is pictured as a struggle between the ambitions of nation-states and this transnational society.