Globalization is not a new phenomenon – the transition to the 20th century also had many aspects which could be covered by this term. This is the conclusion of an analysis of European and American cultural journals made by the "Turn of the Century Project" of the Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Göttingen. The three examples in this book serve as a cross-section of these perspectives of modernization: the fifth Paris World Exhibition of 1900, which attracted 50 million visitors, the discussion of social questions in selected cultural journals as well as the reactions to the upheaval in colonial China.