Globalization and Imperialism

I want to begin my essay from the general definitions of globalization and imperialism.
Globalization is a process of world economic, political and cultural integration, main descriptions of which is dissemination of capitalism all over the world, world division of labor, migration in the scales of all of planet; money, human and production resources, standardization of legislation, economical and technological processes, and rapprochement of cultures of different countries.
Imperialism is a policy of creation of scale colonial and economic empires, expansionism, and fight of the state for world hegemony.
Nowadays many people say about the “imperialistic” policy of the USA, but America is no longer annexing foreign territories. In place of the imperialism the globalization comes at the beginning of millennium. This question is not new for our society and it can’t be unnoticed. In my essay I try to find the similarity between imperialism and globalization after analysis of "The World is Flat" by Thomas L.Friedman and "Debate about Imperialism".
The first similarity, to my mind, is the interlacing of cultures. Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, said about it in his speech. He affirmed that the foreigners are able to engulf the USA and its civilization.
The cultural globalization is characterized by rapprochement of business and consumer culture between different countries in the world, wide use of English for international intercourse, growth of the use of the Internet for the receipt of information and communication, distribution all over the world of the American films, TV-programs and software, and growth of international tourism. Thus, globalization in a culture is closely related to Americanization, so, for example, network of McDonald’s restaurants of fast-food and one of famous sandwiches Big Mac has already became the universal symbols of society cultural globalization.
In "The World is Flat" Thomas Friedman presents so called “Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention” and the “supply chain”. Thomas Friedman says: “The Dell Theory stipulates: No two countries that are both part of a major global supply chain, like Dell’s, will ever fight a war against each other as long as they are both part of the same global supply chain.”
In his book “The Lexus and the Olive Tree” Friedman says that two nations with a McDonald's franchise were never at war with one another. It was so called the Golden Arches theory. In his next book "The World is Flat" he has perfected this idea by saying that the people don’t want to have better standard as McDonald’s franchise symbolized, and the developing nations are afraid to loose the trust of international companies, which are able to include them into the world supply chain.
So, the second common and the main thing, which unites globalization and imperialism, is a trade. In "The World is Flat" trade is a base of almost all relationships in the world. The name of the book is a metaphor for understanding the world as flat or level within the limits of commerce and competition, where all participants have the equal rights. The author thinks that that world is a “flat”, in a sense that globalization levels the competitive fields between industrial and developing countries. The flattening is a result of convergence of personal computer with fiber-optic micro cable with the rise of work flow software. (Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia)
Albert Beveridge in his speech “The March of the Flag” mentioned the trade as a on of the key component of the successful policy: “For the conflicts of the future are to be conflicts of trade-struggles for markets-commercial wars for existence. And the golden rule of peace is impregnability of position and invincibility of preparedness.” But this idea differs from the Friedman’s idea of equality.
The third similarity is the connection of commerce with war and power. This idea becomes clear from the Albert J.Beveridge’s speech “In Support of an American Empire“, when he suggested the scheme of interrelation the USA with other countries in the trade relationships. He said: “Most future wars will be conflicts for commerce”.
Thomas L.Friedman in his book warns that Dell theory does not guarantee that the country will not go to war, but the governments of these countries certainly understand that they will incur losses in case of war.
Analyzing the conception of “globalization” and “imperialism” we shouldn’t forget about the differences of epochs. At the beginning of the 20-th century people didn’t have Internet and cell systems, they knew nothing about free trade and support chain. America has ceased to be an aggressive country, but she continues to spread new technologies and conceptions of developing. America influences on the world, but the world also influences on she.

References
1. Albert Beveridge .The March of the Flag. 16 Sept. 2000. 4 Febr. 2004. < http://www.historytools.org/sources/beveridge.html >
2. Bass, Warren. The Great Leveling. 3 Apr. 2005. < http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17314-2005Mar31.html>
3. Beveridge, Albert J. In Support of an American Empire. Record, 56 Cong., I Sess., pp. 704-712.
4. Gompers, Samuel. Imperialism - Its Dangers and Wrongs.
5. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The World is Flat. 5 Apr. 2007. 1 may 2008. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_is_Flat>