From the news today:

'GENGHIS GOES GLOBAL: Genghis (Khan) has been hailed been a group of academics as the true founder of globalisation. The experts, gathered in China to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the foundation of the notorious warrior's empire, said he contributed more to the concept than any ruler before him: "We think of globalisation as selling Coca-Cola in Calcutta and Starbucks in Shanghai but the process dates back to the time when Genghis Khan was building his empire," reported the China Daily.'