Thus I have argued merely that national societies should be regarded as constituting but one general reference point for the analysis of the global-human circumstance, but that we have to recognize even more than we do now that the prevalence of the national society in the twentieth century is an aspect of globalisation (Robertson, 1989) - that the diffusion of the idea of the national society as a form of institutionalized societalism (Lechner, 1989) was central to the accelerated globalisation which began to occur just over one hundred years ago
I have also argued more specifically (Robertson, 1987a, 1989, 1990b) that the two other major components of globalisation have been, in addition to national societies and the system of international relations, conceptions of individuals and of humankind. It is in terms of the shifting relationships between and the "upgrading" og these reference points that globalisation has occurred in recent centuries.
With such considerations in mind I now propose - in unavoidable skeletal terms - that the temporal-historical path to the present circumstance of of a very high degree og global density and complexity can be delineated as follows:.
Phase I - The geminal phase, lasting in Europe from the early fifteenth until the mid-eighteenth century. Incipient growth of national communities and downplaying of the medieval "transnational" system. Accentuation of concepts of the individual and of ideas about humanity. Heliocentric theory of the world and beginning of modern geography; spread of Gregorian calendar.
Phase II - the incipient phase, lasting - mainly in Europe - from the mid-eighteenth century until the 1870's. Sharp shift towards the ides of the homogenous, unitary state; crystallization of conceptions of formalised international relations , of standardisedcitizenly individuals and a more concrete conception of humankind. Sharp increases in conventions and agencies concerned with international and transnational regulation and communication.
