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.