GLOBALIZATION IN WESTERN EUROPE AND THE BALTIC STATES: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

This paper is an analysis carried out on the process of globalization, its historical perspective in Western Europe and the three Baltic States – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia after gaining their first independence in 1918. The core problem of the article, which the authors attempt to answer, is: how the process of globalization has been developing and influencing societies and economies in Western Europe and fragmentarily in the Baltic States in the course of history. The process of globalization in Western Europe and in the Baltic States is full of contrasts and has not been linear since the very beginning. Modern scientific literature proposes many ways of dividing and grouping globalization process into periods (stages). The most acknowledged is the division of the process into three main periods: the first period (from 1490 to 1890), the second period (from 1891-1989), and the third period (1990- until now). In contrast to Western Europe, the openness of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, to globalization process in the historical timeframe, is fragmented. The process of integration has been stopped several times due to foreign occupation. The consequence – The Baltics are still considered (though advanced) as transition economies.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.em.17.2.2187