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Ours truly is a small world. Almost every inch of our planet has been mapped in fine detail. Crowds of travelers constantly circle the globe—and can do so in about 24 hours. Newscasts report the latest events from continents thousands of miles away. Companies in Asia and Africa do business daily with their partners in America and Europe.
The world hasn’t always been this connected, this small. In fact, the world was once infinitely huge. No one knew where, or even if, it ended.
A trip from Asia to Europe took six long, difficult months. Most people, however, never traveled more than a few miles from their villages. They knew little about other cultures, and what they knew was usually mere rumor and myth.
So what made the world shrink? In a word: technology. The process began about 500 years ago, but has sped up tremendously in the last century. Hundreds of different technologies have helped in this process. But let’s take a look at the five most important inventions that have shrunk our world.

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