'Globalization' v.s. 'Americanization'

Globalization is the process by which different peoples all across the world share ideas. It began in 1492, when Christopher Columbus reached the Caribbean and made contact with another face of the world. Previously, around ~1000 A.D., Erik the Red settled in Greenland while his son, Leif Erickson, sailed to Vinland (modern Nova Scotia). Neither of these settlements lasted long enough for continued and significant contact between European and Native American peoples. Columbus is credited with popularizing the exploration and colonization (not to mention subjugation and extermination) of Native America. Losing Native worker populations to Old World diseases to quickly, the European colonists needed another source of slave labor. Sub-saharan Africa was contacted by Portuguese sailors about half a century prior. However, the demand for African people in mines, plantations, etc. established Africa as part of this new Eurocentric global system. Eurasia had small amounts of intercontinental trade, but it wasn’t until the rise of the Pax Mongolica (Mon.-Mongolyn Enkh taivny) when this trade was centralized and encouraged by the Khans. Once the Mongols fell and the Ottomans blocked trade between East and West, Europeans set out to get their hands on Asian goods directly. With the decline of the Mughal and Qing Empires and the improvement of European technology (ie. military and navigation), these European powers began controlling Asia directly, either colonizing it or creating spheres of influence (as in China). The final human-inhabited part of the world to fall under European influence was Oceania, which occured in the 18^th and 19^th Centuries. 

The Salvadorian Connection

El Salvador is a rather complex corner of the Americas. Located in Central America, it lies on the Pacific Ocean, not far from the Caribbean coasts of neighboring Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, leaving it in the path of hurricanes from both sides. It also lies on the Middle American Trench, part of the larger Ring of Fire, that separates the North American, Caribbean, and Cocos plates. As a result, El Salvador is prone to frequent and intense earthquakes. Each major city in the country has its own volcano of the same name (some cities have two or more). Obviously, these pose great risk to the Salvadorans, but they also have provided the country with fertile soil. Historically, agriculture has been the primary economy. However, in recent decades, they have transitioned into a manufacturing economy, especially for clothes. Much of these are maquilas, with Salvadoran workers being paid very little, and most of the profit and socioeconomic development going to service-based developed nations, notably the United States.

Revolutions!

Revolutions occurred, historically, because the middle class, eager to obtain power and compete with the nobles, harnessed the sheer numbers of the lower classes against the upper classes and create their own order of some kind. This was the case in many modern revolutions, including those of the United States and France. Usually, these middle classes are interested in profit-maximization policies such as lower taxes, lower tariffs, a laissez-faire attitude, etc. Again, true for both American burgesses and la bourgeoisie française.