Importance of the International Division of Labor

If one wishes to understand the geopolitical and economic world order, one must pay attention to the central concept of the international division of job. This idea, which has political, geographical and economic aspects, arose in the second half of the 19th century and had the objective of dividing the planet dominated by the West into two regions: the modern and powerful regions or 'center' and the dominated and impoverished countries or 'periphery'.

The reason for a division that governs to this day

To understand the need for the international division of labor, we must refer to the context in which this concept arises. In this sense, the second half of the 19th century saw the emergence in Europe of a need to create production markets. of cheap raw material that could then be marketed to the center and transformed into manufactures or products with value added. This phenomenon occurs mainly as a consequence of European industrialization that required more and more cheap material to produce.

In this sense, the most powerful European countries at the time (Great Britain, France, Germany) established an international division that designated activities and specificities, so indisputable. Thus, the industrialized countries began to dominate militarily the regions of the planet that were not dominated. (such as Africa or Southeast Asia) and economically to those that had already dominated for a while (especially America Latin). These three new markets allowed Europe to find regions of cheap production of raw materials to be industrialized.

Understanding the interests behind the international division of labor is a political necessity

When we look at the characteristics of the international division of labor that Western countries developed in the second half of the 19th century We understand that the intentions behind this geopolitical reorganization had to do with economic interests and geographical.

Thus, this division allowed the most powerful countries to consolidate their power over the rest of the known world, establish forms of link imperialists and encourage economic inequality due to the fact that the countries of the periphery were forced to sell their production at imposed prices for market international.

For their part, industrial-type products were sold at high prices and this meant that they were ultimately Only two or three countries on the entire planet were enriched while the rest produced according to the interest, need or consumption of the first. This regional division of the planet is maintained to this day and is what is also known as First World countries and Third World countries.

Images: Fotolia. Millie – Marinka Alisen