Marissa's Blog

This chapter was about the end of the empire. It talked about the Global South on the Global stage from 1914 until present. Nelson Mandela was a South Africa's nationalist leader and believed in standing up to the power of the white domination and tried to free society so all people can live together in harmony and equal opportunity. I find it inspiring that he was prepared to die for what he believed in and he was so passionate about it he spent 27 years in prison. He lived in terrible conditions and was released in 1990. He became the first black African president in 1994 and he linked South Africa to dozens of other countries across Africa and Asia that were thrown off European rule in the second half of the 20th century. I believe that especially in this day with our president equality and harmony is something that might be taken away from us. With the constant ad-vocation of building a wall and the travel ban the president is doing things that in my opinion are setting this wo...

In this chapter it was talking about revolution, socialism, and global conflict. This really hit on the rise and fall of world communism. Communism was a phenomenon of enormous significance in the world of the twentieth century. Karl Marx inspired modern communism and found the political and philosophical roots in the nineteenth century European socialism. By the 1970s almost one-third of the world's population lived in societies governed by the communist regimes. The most significant were the Soviet Union (world's largest country in size), and China (world's largest country in population). The Korean war took place in 1950 and ended in 1953. The U.S.-Vietnam War started in 1965 and ended in 1973. In 1917 the Russian communists came to power on the back of a revolutionary upheaval that happened within a year. This is a picture of Russia in 1917 and also during the first world war. This brought to power the first communist government and launched an international communist m...

In the intro to part six they discuss "the most recent century" of 1914 to 2012 and question whether it qualifies for a separate phase of history. It's relatively short compared to other centuries that make up earlier eras. It discusses how our time periods get increasingly shorter the closer we get to the present and I think that makes sense because as time goes on I feel like we have gotten more and more innovative as far as technology and civilization goes. The book however, mentions that it's because with such a massive amount of information coming up in such a short amount of time it's hard to know what will matter and what won't. Part six is going to talk about how so many global themes have made this last century what it is that it could possibly be described as an entire new era in human history. Chapter twenty opens with briefly talking about World War I and how veterans who fought in that war thought it would be the "war that would end all wars...

This chapter was discussing the Empires in Collision in Europe, Middle East, and East Asia. One thing very interesting is just recently in 2011 the Chinese President Hu Jintao reminded the Chinese people about Britain's violent intrusion in the history of China just to sell opium to his people. The Chinese named this event as the "century of humiliation". In 1912 China's imperial state had collapsed and was transformed from a central presence in the global economy to a weak and dependent participant in a European dominated world. This is when Great Britain was the major economic and political player. At this time the Chinese thought they were the civilized center of the entire world and had a quite rude awakening. I think it is crazy how power can switch from country to country in a matter of a century or even less. It was interesting that China believed they were at the center of the world because I believe every country believes that about themselves. For example he...

This chapter is about Colonial Encounters in Asia and Africa. With the Industrial Revolution came many demands and productivity of materials and agriculture products. They needed to get wheat from the American Midwest and southern Russia, meat from Argentina, bananas from Central America, rubber from Brazil, cocoa and palm oil from West Africa, tea from Ceylon, and even gold and diamonds from South Africa. With all of these new demands came power from each country and the world had to rely on one another. In 1840 Britain was exporting 60% of its cotton production. They were selling annually 200 million yards to Europe, 300 million yards to Latin America, and 145 million yards to India. Europe didn't really offer Asian societies the right products they wanted to buy. Part of European and American fascination with Chine was evident back then and is still very evident now. You can see this when you look at the back of any products and it says "made in China". The lives of wo...

This weeks reading was on the Revolutions of Industrialization which took place between 1750 and 1900. It drew on the scientific revolution and the French revolution to transform European society. Most of the famous Indian nationalists believed that "Industrialization is, I am afraid, going to be a curse for mankind.." This is funny however because Mahatma Gandhi led his country to independence from the British colonial rule by 1947. Something to note is during the Industrial Revolution the human population grew from about 375 million people in the 1400s to about 1 billion people in the early 19th century. The Industrial revolution shows a response by human beings to nonrenewable fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas. These were all replaced for renewable sources like wind, water, wood, and the physical labor of humans and animals. This is the time where sewers and industrial waste were emptied into rivers which turned them into "poisonous cesspools." One quo...