The Enemy Below - The Global Diffusion of Submarines and Related Technology

Abstract

Roughly 80,000 years ago, our ancestors first crossed out of Africa, and began the process which we now call globalization. (Indeed, even earlier humanoid remains have been found outside Africa as long as 1.75 million years ago). With the diffusion of people around the world came the development of culture and civilization as well as the spread of ideas, goods, technology, and so forth. The process of globalization then is a long standing one, and not an innovation of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Over the millennia, this process has been an uneven one, and has often caused great disruptions even to the societies that initiated various innovations in culture and civilization, including science and technology. Indeed, many cultures and civilizations have disappeared while some regions failed to advance as rapidly as others, so the process of globalization is not just one of continuing progress.