This process started 500 years ago, when conquest and colonialism laid the foundation of our modern global economy.
Today, the process of economic globalization is driven by the deregulation of trade and finance, which gives corporations and banks the freedom to operate globally. This process started 500 years ago, when conquest and colonialism laid the foundation of our modern global economy. European powers spread an extractive economic system – one reliant on slavery, the destruction of local cultures and economies, and the imposition of monocultural ideas and practices – all across the world.