Hi guys, this is DT, welcome back to Global Business Environment part one. This is the second module and this is an introduction to that module. We'll be looking at a very important question about the global business environment in this module. We'll be asking and trying to answer the question, is globalization new? In module one we looked at, what is globalization, and we try to answer that question and now we're asking more of a, a question about timing. I have here on screen a map of the world in the first century CE and you, can see highlighted some trade routes between different parts of the world at that time. For example, you see trade routes between the Middle East and, what was in the Middle East and, Africa. And other parts of the world were also connected Europe for example, to Asia. And so, first of all, the, the, the simple answer to our question, is globalization new, the answer would be no, it's not. We have seen plenty of periods in history when the world has interacted with itself across country, across countries, across political borders, and so it's not a new phenomenon. We're not that special. This is not that different a time. Continuing with that theme, you can see a more recent map of the world. This is a map of the world that looks at political boundaries that developed between the 1400s and the 1800s. And you can see similarly that there were lots of trade routes that developed between lots of different regions of the world, all across Asia, Europe a, Africa and including the America's began to be important in world trade. And so, there's been an evolution over time, changing importance between regions and countries and, po, political boundaries. So once again, a simple answer to our question, is globalization new, of course not. It's existed for a long time, interactions between countries have existed for a long time. What we might ask then is, if it's not new, and if we're not so special then what is different, or is there anything different, about this era of globalization that we're living in? And the common answer that we give to that is, well, in today's world we are experiencing unbelievable growth rates in technological advances. We have seen decreased costs and increased ability to travel and to transport goods across boundaries over the last decades and centuries. And so, there is something that does appear to be unique about this era in which we're living with respect to technology and communication, their costs and, and the advances made, and the facilitation that that, those provide for increased interactions across borders. So, therefore, maybe we are a little bit special in that respect. What we want to do now is we'll have several parts to this module where we'll talk about how we got to the point that we're at in today's world in the 2010s, and talk a little more about developments that have occurred that have allowed a very globalized world to develop. So that ends the introduction to module two, Is Globalization New. We'll see you back next time for the first part of module two and we'll look at the the history of globalization over the past century