economic and political connections that tie the world's countries together
- according to this theory, industrialization led to four groups of nations...
1. core nations (industrialized first; britian, france, holland, germnany)
2. semiperiphery (mediterranean region, stagnated bc they grew dependent on trade w/ core nations)
3. periphery (eastern europe, fringe nations, developed even less)
4. external area (most of africa and asia)