Describe and explain how the improvement in transport over the last 50 years has increased the global interactions between countries.

Describe and explain how the improvement in transport over the last 50 years has increased the global interactions between countries (10 marks)

Transportation is one of the main influences of the development of global interactions between countries. Over the years, transportation allows urban areas to expand, permit regional economic development and overcome the effect of distance –further developing universal communication. There are many forms of transport –road, rail, ocean, air and pipelines.

In this essay, by comparing both ocean and air transportation and analysing the various advantages, we can see how the improvements in transport over the last 50 years has increased the global interactions between countries.

First of all, although water transportation is considered to be quite expensive, however, it is fairly at a reasonable price as ocean shipping is able to bear more cargos than other forms of transport. The higher capacity enables more goods to be shipped at once which further improves trading activities, making it faster and more efficient. Besides that, free ports are available now in certain countries which attract more imports that can be manufactured into goods that are than exported without having to pay duties or tax. This allows more trading activities to take place without having to fuss over taxes and other additional payments. Moreover, more imports and exports signifies more trade is occurring, thus, making the port a hub of trade –attracting countries from all around the world to come together –further increasing global interactions between countries. Various innovations such as the development of Ro-Ro (roll on/roll off) method whereby lorries can drive straight on to ships helps the transition of cargos to be faster and it saves time consumption while reducing the need for cranes and dock workers. This allows shipping to be more dynamic and proficient –making more countries wanting to send their cargos to the hub, thus, increasing global interactions. Besides that, another new improvement of the ocean transport is containerisation where goods are packed into containers at factories and taken by trains or lorries to the container port where they are easily and quickly loaded onto ships. It is considered to have been one of the major driving forces in the process of globalisation.