Local societies increasingly participate in wider systems, which are regional,
national, and global in scale. The modern world system refers to a global system
in which nations are economically and politically interdependent. The world economy is based on production for sale, guided by the profit motive.
This capitalist world economy has political and economic specialization based
on three positions: core, semiperiphery, and periphery. These positions have
existed since the 16th century, although the particular countries filling them
have changed. After 1760 industrialization increased production in farming and manufacturing.
The work force moved from homes to factories, from rural areas to industrial
cities. Today's world system maintains the distinction between those who own
the means of production and those who don't. But the division is now worldwide.
And a middle class of skilled and professional workers has been added to the
class structure. There is a marked contrast between capitalists and workers in the core nations
and workers on the periphery. Several forces have worked to remove people from
the land, as even peripheral nations have begun to industrialize. One effect
of industrialization has been the destruction of indigenous economies, ecologies,
cultures, and peoples. For the past 500 years, the main forces influencing cultural
interaction have been commercial expansion, industrial capitalism, and the differential
power of core nations. | 
2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education