<P> Global integration continued with the European colonization of the Americas initiating the Columbian Exchange, the enormous widespread exchange of plants, animals, foods, human populations (including slaves), communicable diseases, and culture between the Eastern and Western hemispheres . It was one of the most significant global events concerning ecology, agriculture, and culture in history . New crops that had come from the Americas via the European seafarers in the 16th century significantly contributed to the world's population growth . </P> <P> The 19th century witnessed the advent of globalization approaching its modern form . Industrialization allowed cheap production of household items using economies of scale, while rapid population growth created sustained demand for commodities . Globalization in this period was decisively shaped by nineteenth - century imperialism . After the First and Second Opium Wars, which opened up China to foreign trade, and the completion of the British conquest of India, the vast populations of these regions became ready consumers of European exports . It was in this period that areas of sub-Saharan Africa and the Pacific islands were incorporated into the world system . Meanwhile, the conquest of new parts of the globe, notably sub-Saharan Africa, by Europeans yielded valuable natural resources such as rubber, diamonds and coal and helped fuel trade and investment between the European imperial powers, their colonies, and the United States . </P> <P> The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea, the various products of the whole earth, and reasonably expect their early delivery upon his doorstep . Militarism and imperialism of racial and cultural rivalries were little more than the amusements of his daily newspaper . What an extraordinary episode in the economic progress of man was that age which came to an end in August 1914 . </P> <P> Between the globalization in the 19th and in the 20th there are significant differences . There are two main points on which the differences can be seen . One point is the global trade in this centuries as well as the capital, investment and the economy . </P>

When did globalization really begin to take place worldwide