This article looks at the apparent similarities between the economic, political and social conditions that characterize the beginning and the end of the twentieth century. In both periods the entire world seems to be integrated in a single global market in which states are forced to compete with one another for scarce capital and resources. However, it is argued that these similarities are not to be interpreted as a sign of continuity of the global market. As the global market is being defined as the result of entrepreneurial forces acting under the leadership of the world’s most powerful state it can be concluded that a change of the global political leadership goes hand in hand with the demise and reconstruction of the global market on a new basis. Therefore the global market must be seen as a temporary construction, which is subject to a constant transformation process. The author ends with a comparison of the different conditions that lead to the destruction of the global market in former periods and rises the question if it is likely that the existing global market too is due to collapse because of the crisis of US-hegemony.
