The course traces the fundamental stages of the globalization process starting from the end of the 1970s, when the liberalization policies of capital flows allowed for a profound change in international markets, leading to the current situation. Particular attention will be paid to the crises that have gone through the period examined to bring out how much they have depended on the globalization process and how they have changed it, in particular during the nineties and the first fifteen years of the new century.