ch 21

This chapter is filled with many major points in history. The chapter starts off talking about World War I, or also known as the Great War. It lasted from 1914–1918. After WWI, the Great Depression hit, followed by the rise of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, and then World War II. All of these events proved to be sad in one way or another. The death total of all of these historical events is just horrendous, and if one were to take a moment of there day to think about how many people, all around the world died in these horrific events, it would bring any person down. I just thought about how many people died in two major wars, the great depression, and during the holocaust, and this feeling of sadness just overtook me. To think that not only did millions and millions of people die during these years, but for each life that was taken, a family member of friend also suffered the loss. Now that I’m talking about such sad, horrific thoughts I think that I am going to talk about the Holocaust. I wanted to originally talk about the entire chapter, and summarize the major events of history, but it only feels right to dedicate most of this blog to the holocaust. I think that we have learned about the holocaust every year in school since the 6^th grade, or at least I have. Every time that the subject of the holocaust comes up, I think that its one of the saddest moments in history, and people often get very emotional over the subject. One of the most famous names in history, Adolf Hitler, one of the biggest communist the world has ever seen, became chancellor of Germany in 1933, and immediately outlawed other political parties, arrested opponents, censured the press, and assumed police power. Hitler succeeded in bringing Germany out of the depression, and he invoked rural and traditional values, and by the 1930’s had the majority of the support from his people. In my opinion, Hitler is the worst, most cruel, and heartless person that I have ever learned about. I don’t think that any other person in the world has made me so mad and depressed. How can one man do that? This is one question that puzzles my mind every time the subject of Hitler or the Holocaust is brought up. I think that many people around the world feel the same way that I do. For example, a middle school in Tennessee started this project, where one paper clip represented a person who died in the holocaust. It started off as a small project; the school had no idea about how many paper clips they actually needed. The paper clip project ended up being national project, and they received paper clips from people all around the country. The total number of paper clips they collected ended up being over 30 million. Just let that number sink in for a minute. It is truly sad. Following the holocaust, even more lives were taken during World War II. This Second World War was an even more global conflict, it is recorded that an estimated 60 million people died due to WWII, and roughly about half of those who died were civilians, the line between civilians and those in the military was blurred. The USSR suffered about 40% of the total number of deaths and Chinese civilians undertook massive attacks, in most villages at least one human and one animal was killed. China also suffered the Rape of Nanking, from the years of 1937-1938, it’s estimated that 200,000-300,000 civilians of china were killed, and countless more women were raped. World War II left Europe in ruins, and they no longer had the power or the strength to hold onto their Asians and African colonies.  Coincidently, WWII brought on feelings of internationalism, and the United Nations was created in 1945, and the Unites States became a superpower. I think that this chapter was filled with a lot of very important information, and I believe that it is one of the most chapters in our book and I’m glad that I got to reflect on it through this blog.

Ch 20

Colonial rule ended up disturbing the way of life that people had, and the concept of racism was becoming more widespread at an extremely fast rate, especially in places like Africa. The cultural identities that people had were being altered, and cultures were changing due to colonial rule. One aspect where change can be seen is in the way people viewed education. The idea of education was enlightening to many people, especially the illiterate. They saw it as a chance to move up in society, and attain better jobs, to escape from former obligations that they had, such as forced labor.  Along with embracing education, many people embraced other European ideas, for example the way that building and houses were designed, and the little girl fantasy of getting married in a white dress. Many people saw the colonial rule progress as a path to a better future, hoping to achieve a better life for themselves and their families. In India many reforms were taking place, people sought to change the Indian culture that was free of idolatry, child marriages, caste, and discrimination against women, while keeping their mindset along the texts of Hinduism. I think that while I was reading this, this particular section stood out to me because it mentioned the country that my ancestors are from. I may have not been born in India, or grown up in a traditional Indian household, and I think that has a lot to do because of the reforms that started years and years ago. For example, all of those horrid practices that took place, like child marriages, and the discrimination against women, were still part of the Indian culture today, I don’t think that I would be the person that I am today. Especially the part that has to due with discrimination against women, everyone knows that people do not see women equal to men in the society that we live in today. Especially in foreign countries outside of the U.S. like India and the middle east for example. Imagine what it was like before the reforms and colonial rule took place. So, I am glad that these reforms took place, and people became educated because it opened up new doors for many people, who previously were naïve to the rights they had as human beings. 

Collapse

          For this weeks blog we had to read Collapse by, Jared Diamond. I thought that the reading was really interesting; it really touched some points that are important to our world today. At the end of the reading there was quote that I would like to state again. Jared wrote “ I introduced this section by acknowledging that there are important differences between the ancient world and the modern world. The differences that I then went on to mention- today’s larger populations and more potent destructive technology, and today’s interconnectedness posing the risk of a global rather than a local collapse- may seem to suggest a pessimistic outcome.” I chose to talk about this quote because I think that it really connects everything that this last chapter was about. He talked about the different ways that our world is destructing itself and or losing its natural resources. I think that everyone has there own opinion when it comes to choosing which of the 12 would be the most important to preserve or work towards preserving. In my opinion, the most important thing to preserve would be destroying our natural habitats. By destroying the natural homes of animals we are breaking the cycle of life and eventually that is going to catch up to us humans today or to future generations, who will undoubtedly suffer because of us. Aside from hurting the natural habitats of animals, we are also depleting the natural resources like trees and plants. This therefore has a negative impact on our environment. Yes, paper and such is important, but people should recycle. I don’t think that people understand the importance of the world’s natural habitats, and it is a very bad thing because these natural resources are very important! Aside from this, I think another important thing off the list of 12 is depletion of fresh water. Water is obviously one of the most important resources in life. For humans, for animals, for plants, water is a basic essential. Yes, people could argue that fresh water is not that important because there are water cleaning systems and such things that could easily clean the water we drink and we would be able to keep living. But, it is not that simple for the millions of animals living in the world’s oceans and seas etc. The natural water that we pollute are polluting is wrong. Its not fair for the animals that are trying to survive, and its not fair for the words future population. All together, this reading was very eye opening and it made me realize how important our world is and not to take it for granted. 

ch 22

Communist Feminism

            As Communist countries began to develop a lot of their effort when into liberating and mobilizing the women of their countries, Western countries adopted these ideas later. These movements were largely state directed. In Russia or the USSR, women were declared full legal and political equality. After years and years of inequality women were now able to divorce easily. Before this became easier, women who were in abusive marriages or were unhappy for some reason were no able to leave, with these new freedoms women could now be happier and gained more freedom. Also, abortion was not allowed. Whether people were for or against it, women now had the opportunity to choose what they wanted to do with their bodies. During the industrial revolution, we learned that working conditions were very bad, and no special treatment was given to anyone even those who were pregnant. However, laws were now made to help these women. Pregnancy leave was now available to women who were expecting. Even though it took many years for these types of laws that were beneficial to women to flourish, I am happy that people began to notice that women are just as equal to men, and that we should of received the same rights as men from the very beginning. Lastly, women were now encouraged to work, and support their family. As all of these ideas were taking place in communist areas, the western world was beginning to pick up on these ideas. Thankfully, today women are just as equal as men. I am able to go to school, work, and have laws that protects me if I were ever to get into a troubling situation. I feel bad that women were once prone to such hard life conditions, it is just unfair and it makes me sad to think about it. In communist China, things began to look better for women there as well. The marriage law of 1950 allowed women to marry the man of their choice, and made divorce easier. Also, it was finally an end of concubines and child marriage. Along with all of these other laws, property rights were now given to women. Lastly, in communist china, women became much more active in the workforce.

Ch 19

Europe’s golden age of expansion was in the nineteenth century. Europe became the center of the world’s economy, many people were moving out of Europe and living in new lands, explorers and missionaries were reaching almost everywhere, and much of the world became part of Europe’s colonies. Europeans now had new motives and new means. With the Industrial Revolution fueling them, they felt like they had much to do. They were in demand for raw materials and agricultural products, they had a need for markets to sell their products, European capitalists often invested money abroad, and foreign markets kept workers inside Europe working. As Europe was doing all of this, nationalism was growing on all of them, this then lead to imperialism. Places like Italy and Germany unified, who were always competitive against each other. Colonies were becoming a symbol of “great power” for the Europeans, even if the land did not have much economic value. The developments from the industrial revolution made overseas expansion possible, from steamships to he underwater telegraph, to breech-loading rifles and machine guns, and the discovery of quinine, which prevented Malaria, which then reduced death rated in Europe. Europe was moving fast, and as they were making new discoveries and fighting of disease, and boasting about all they had they began to perceiver people and the world differently. Historically, Europeans had always defined others on a religious basis. But, they were now adopting many foreign techniques and ideas, communicated more freely with high class Africans and Asians. Europeans were growing more arrogant as the days went by. They felt superior because of religion and mixed with everything they already had. They were increasingly despising other cultures. In the eyes of the Europeans African societies had lost status, and a new type of racism formed which was based in terms of modern science. The Europeans were so arrogant that they felt a need to help “weaker races”, they felt responsible to help them, wanting to civilize them. To bring them education, health care, Christianity, good government, etc. They thought that they were helping them “progress” as societies and were making them more “civilized”. Reading this actually makes me kind of annoyed because of how arrogant the Europeans once were. But, I cannot classify all Europeans as being arrogant. Even though a lot of them felt superior, it would be unfair of me to say that all Europeans were, because that would very rude and unjust of me. I’m sure many of them, like those working in missionaries and etc, were not feeling a sense of arrogance.