Chapters 23 & 24..farewell to my history blog

Just as the American revolutionaries fought and won their independence from the European colonies, the Asian and African European colonies also sought their independence. The colonists of the America only had to fight for political independence but the colonies that were governed by foreigners also had to rediscover and redefine their cultural vitality that had been lost under colonial rule. It is incomprehensible to be governed by a foreign land with dissimilar cultural, religious and political beliefs. I went to Hong Kong when it was under British rule and even though the Asian culture was very prevalent, the British and western culture were also present.

To further illustrate my lack of knowledge of world history…I was unaware that the boundaries of Pakistan were once a part of India. It is very unfortunate to learn that so many people died in the partition of the two countries and, as always, extremists arose from the struggles and, unfortunately, the result was the death of Gandhi.

I also found it interesting reading about Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and how he transformed the remnants of the strong political, religious and cultural Ottoman Empire to a more modernized society. He made such radical changes without great upheavals. I also enjoyed reading about the Shah of Iran and how his ideologies caused so much hostility amongst the citizens of Iran. Not to date myself…but I remember when Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini came into power. I remember when there was a shortage of gasoline due to the shut down of oil production. The gas stations would hang either red or green flags indicating whether they had gasoline that day. The day a person could purchase gasoline was determined by the last number on their license plate. If the day of the month was an even day and your license plate ended in an even number, than you could wait in a LONG line to receive gasoline. It was a mess!

Growing up in a very small town in Northern California my world existed basically in my surroundings. I would watch the news coverage of the Vietnam War, on our two channel black and white television set, but it was difficult for me to comprehend where on the globe Vietnam was. The world today is so drastically different. With the internet, the frequency of transcontinental flights, and cultural diversity our world has been integrated by modern globalization. Unfortunately along with the prosperous growth of economies there were economies of other regions that were poor and deprived of basic necessities. As we can see from Chapter 24, a disparity creates conflict. These conflicts can be present among neighborhoods, communities or globally.

I enjoyed reading that Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring had been included in our textbook. When I was enrolled in Way of the Earth religion class we watched a movie about Rachel Carson. She was an amazing woman who devoted her life to nature. In her movie there were movie clips of children playing in their front yards or eating their lunches at school as they were having pesticides heavily sprayed upon them. Because the pesticide spray was deemed harmless everyone thought that the poisons their bodies were ingesting was fine. There was a nice section of the Smithsonian in the American History museum dedicated to her work. Here is a clip of Rachel Carson.

Chapters 21 & 22

Reading Chapter 21 opened my eyes to the devastation of the wars of the twentieth century. As I said in previous blogs, my knowledge of history was very limited until I enrolled in this class. Even though I live in a family filled with discussions of historical accounts of World War I, II and Vietnam War, my knowledge was minimal.

The outbreak of World War I was an accident that began with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austrian throne. There was so much competition amongst the Great Powers of Europe that the war was inevitable. It is crazy to read how much popular support the war effort had. People couldn’t wait to enlist in the military and there were celebratory parades as the soldiers went off to war. The more conservative governments welcomed the war because of the gender-based conflicts of early twentieth century Europe. War promoted masculinity which created female inferiority. WWI was a “trench war” which depicts frightening images in my mind. There were so many lives lost and really for what?

When we hear about the Great Depression it is usually in the context of the United States. It was very informative to read about how the Depression impacted the global economy. I was sitting with my girlfriends at an airport reading my textbook when I read about Mother’s Day and how the French proclaimed the day as a new holiday designed to encourage childbearing. The children born would replace the millions of people who perished during the war. I read my friend the paragraph which made us both laugh. The day was originally not to honor your mother but to get your wife pregnant!!

The information about Germany, Italy and Japan (Axis powers) and what they did with their great power status was interesting. Even though the countries were experiencing industrialization and modernization the social impact of their less fortunate citizens were devastating. The global conflict of World War II began due to dissatisfaction of Japan, Italy and Germany with the international agreements that were the outcome of World War I. To read that 60 million people lost their lives in WWII is crazy especially when to find out that over half of them were civilians. That is an atrocity.

Communism did bring opportunities to the peoples of the communist governments because communist nations provided opportunities to its citizens by the modern and industrial revitalizations. However, communism also brought much hardship due to the horrific acts against the people of their nation such as unjustified imprisonment and human rights violations. Currently the people of Vietnam are oppressed by their communist leaders. A Vietnamese friend of mind states that the people of Vietnam do not have any freedom of speech. For instance, if a person speaks against the government they will receive a visit by some political authorities and be roughed around. If a citizen wishes to travel out of their city, they must receive approval from their government. This concept seems so unbelievable to people in a foreign land.

Paul Revere