World History chapters 22 & 23

Chapters 22 & 23

Chapter 22: End of Empire: The Global South on the Global Stage 1914-present

Chapter 23: Capitalism and Culture: The Acceleration of Globalization since 1945

When I entered high school and took my first AP history class, we had to process a large body of information for each unit in a short amount of time (kind of like this summer class). While studying African history, to supplement our understanding of conflicts, our teacher showed us films, such as one titled Hotel Rwanda. While the movie focused on a, horrifically, and sadly modern conflict, it had historical origins. And while it explained well the racial element of the conflict and resulting genocide that took place in the 1990s (the Belgian government giving power to the majority of the populace, the Hutu, over the Tutsi, the two groups of which were separated by categorized physical features) I was confused. This was not only due to the nature of the tragedy, but by my own personal lack of understanding. In all my previous (and limited) education on Africa in school, I felt like a key piece of information was missing. My understanding was enhanced when I read about colonialism in class, and that enhancement of comprehension furthered when reading this week’s readings, particularly chapter 22, on struggles for independence, and the experiments in setting up political, economic, and cultural order; how one of the underpinnings besides paradigms set in place by a previous colonial power and cultural barriers of that particular civil war was the low economic performance of a relatively new government, ultimately leading to ethnic conflict (p. 996).

 “Economic development was never simply a matter of technical expertise or deciding among competing theories. Every decision was political,…” and that it was “an experimental process, and the stakes were high” (1003). I found this interesting because I think sometimes we forget how relatively new and experimental current modes of government and economic development was and is, and how questions regarding these things are ever debated.

World History chapters 19, 20, 21

Chapter 19: Empires in Collision, 1800-1914

Chapter 20: Collapse at the Center, 1914-1970s

Chapter 21: Revolution, Socialism, and Global Conflict, 1917-Present

This week’s readings were really interesting, especially chapter 20, which covered the topics of the first World War, the Depression, and the next chapter which concerned the rise and fall of Communism. My father is a huge history buff with a special interest in World War II. He can tell you how many people were in certain battles and how many casualties and how it turned the tide of the war off the top of his head, so I have heard a lot about it. What was enlightening was finding out more details about the circumstances surrounding it in the previous and following events and how it effected the globe, like how World War II helped to discredit Capitalism for a time and influenced the creation of Communist states, mainly in Russia, and China. What was also interesting was seeing the shift in country alliances from World War I through to the Cold War.   

I found it striking, yet in retrospect not surprising, how women were utilized in war efforts and later in building socialism, going as far as obtaining more rights, but when met with opposition those rights were taken away. It was not surprising because it seems to follow a pattern that I have noticed thus far in past empires we have studied in this class. When there is revolutionary or empire building movements, women have more mobility economically and socially, but when things settle down, they end up being oppressed again. And often times the opposition to change is from the oppressed group itself. It is like a revolving door.

World History Chapters 16, 17, and 18

Chapter 16: Atlantic Revolutions

Chapter 17: Revolutions of Industrialization

Chapter 18: Colonial Encounters

              Reading about the Atlantic Revolutions was intriguing to me because of the little tidbits I already know about them. For example, regarding the North American Revolution, 1775-1787 (701), last year I was in a school production of the musical 1776, and got to play Lewis Morris, a continental congressional delegate from the colony of New York. It was fun to do research and get inside the characters’ heads. And though it was a dramatization, I did learn a lot about the history of the events surrounding the signing of the declaration of independence. There was real tension in the room when the matter of slavery came up in the second act. It was chilling.

The French Revolution, if I understand what I am reading correctly, never really led to a sustained republic, and if memory serves, nor did the subsequent revolution that took place later. Fun facts: Marie Antionette never actually said “let them eat cake” when she supposedly heard about the bread shortage of the common people. Also, everybody liked Napoleon until Waterloo (I think?), then kicked him out, and after he died they decided that they liked him again and now his tomb is located in the Hôtel des Invalides that houses the Musée de l'Armée. I found it kind of cool, kind of cliché when I was there, but a fitting location since it is an army museum.

But the most interesting things to come out of these revolutions, I think, were the three major movements that followed: abolition of slavery, nationalism, and feminism.

Learning more about colonialism was both interesting and horrifying, but it is not like I was not expecting that. Especially reading over the “Ways of Working” section, and about the Congo Free State governed by King Leopold II of Belgium together with the anecdotal evidence (802-803).

Ah! Chapter 18 brought up what I was talking about in my last post, which is technically called “social Darwinism” (792). Thought I would mention that…

Okay, now I can mark this week’s readings off the list. Glad I got it done.

World History Chapters 13, 14, 15

***posted late by prior arrangement

Ch. 13: Empires & Encounters

Ch. 14: Commerce & Consequence

Ch. 15: Religion & Science

These chapters together are Part 4 of Ways of the World and cover the years 1440-1750, essentially stepping into “The Early Modern Era,” or an age of empire.

The main thing to jump out at me while reading was in chapter 15, the belief in “the clockmaker god” of the religion of deism Voltaire and other “enlightenment” thinkers adhered to (671). The idea was that God does not interfere or intervene with worldly affairs. He built the world like a clock, with mechanisms to run itself. Also, the Pantheists (672), who thought God and nature were identical. I have encountered this theme before in other classes and it seems that these ways of thinking variously effected man’s relationship with the natural world and each other. By thinking of nature as mechanical, animals and other natural phenomena become nothing more than things run by mechanisms that make them move (or not move), and nothing beyond that. Those mechanisms could be used in order to progress (673, another Enlightenment theme) and improve human society. And if by changing the way people think of natural world, if they changed the way they thought about other humans, what would the consequences be? That is where the idea of race comes in, combined with people taking the concepts of the theory of evolution and survival of the fittest (674) totally out of context (which is a total a pet peeve of mine, whether people get it wrong on television or in conversation). This and other pseudo-sciences are what in big part what led to things like the horrors of slavery and generated the fuel for holocausts. Justification made easy and enforced by resultant wealth. There are definitely other factors, such as justification by traditional religious leaders (623), but these jumped out at me.

World History chapters 9, 11, 12

After last week’s readings on Christianity, it was interesting reading about Islam for this week and seeing the parallels between the two religions and the actions and ideas of the people who practiced them. Two points struck me the most. One was the division or schisms that occurred in both the Christian and Islamic worlds that were based on how worship should be carried out. For instance, the major division of Catholicism in Europe into Orthodox Catholics and Roman Catholics. Both sides saw the other’s views on theology and church practice as heretical, and their leaders even excommunicated each other. In the Islamic world, a rift emerged as well, forming two sides, the Sunni and the Shia (375). For the most part, the differences of all of these groups under the umbrella of the same faith have yet to be reconciliated. It makes one think, why did these serious rifts happen in exclusively monotheistic religions that have periodically led to conflict? In Buddhism, where some have come to worship the Buddha and others have only seen it as a way of living and thought, has there been such hostility or barriers between the two? Is there something within the ideology and exclusivity of these monotheistic religions that invites “black and white”, or, “one or the other” thinking/way of viewing the world? Does this fit into the paradigm of thought that that there must be one way of doing things? And does this contribute to the history of hostility between Islam and Christianity who themselves supposedly worship the same God?

The second thing to strike me was that not only were ideas about gender inequality, more specifically the subordination of women, not specifically cited in either the Bible of Quran, (and even in cases in the Bible where it might have been, most or all of these writings were not written by Jesus himself), but were written by later scholars of the faiths. For Muslims, these were mostly written in the Hadiths. For example, I had to give a sigh as I read about the gradual changing of the story of Adam and Eve in Islamic culture. It was like, here we go again, blame Eve why don’t you? I guess everyone needs a scapegoat?

I found reading about the “unlikely” empire of the Mongols, known for their brutality and physical and psychological warfare, refreshing because it is not something I remember really studying in depth about before. It was fascinating how Chinggis Khan was able to not only organize and mobilize warring tribes, but how he did so (469-472), especially within his army. I also realized that, had it not been for the plague, that empire could have lasted much longer. How different would things be now had it turned out that way?

I always wondered what the ideology behind the bloody sacrifices of the Aztec’s was, and so the section in chapter 12 that goes over it: (525) “Civilizations of the Fifteenth Century: The Americas: The Aztec Empire", was interesting to me. Apparently, it was this prominent official called Tlacaelel that solidified the ideology (525). Basically, the Gods, specifically the sun (called Huitzilopochtle- try saying that five times fast) needed the power of human blood to continue on its “constant battle against the encroaching darkness (525). Such a human thing to fear, the darkness. If I were someone living in that time, would I do all I could to keep the light from receding as well? It’s hard to think about, what with all of my modern sensibilities and my feeling queasy at the thought of sacrificing and blood-letting. I don’t even like vampires and can’t look when my blood gets drawn at the hospital…but I digress.

I barely got through this week’s readings, but I hope it is helpful in the long run.

Chapters 7, 8, 10

Chapters seven, eight, and ten of Ways of the World discuss the era of third-wave civilizations (around 500-1500); commerce and culture, China and it’s connections with the rest of the world, and the contraction, expansion, and divisions of Christendom, respectively.

The topics this week were not particularly new to me. I started learning in junior high about the Silk Road, Sea Roads, and Sand Roads, and their spread of not only goods but ideas and religion across Eurasia. What I did not know too much about was the American network of trade. There were many obstacles to trade, though regional trade flourished (307), such as lack of domesticated animals, and something I had never thought of before: the north/south orientation of the Americas verses the east/west axis of Eurasia. It is amazing that I have thought so little about it thus far. The climate changes were very little for Eurasia, as they were on a horizontal axis, but the orientation in America would mean adapting to all of the geographic, environmental, and climatic changes. As the book says, this “delayed the spread of agricultural products” (307). 

The next chapter, which covered China, reminded me of things I had seen in movies or read in books but never really understood. For example, the tribute system: “a set of practices that required non-Chinese authorities to acknowledge Chinese superiority and their own subordinate place in a Chinese-centered world order” (334). This view of themselves (the Chinese) as superior was not surprising in light of their practical devotion to Buddhism, where one strives to be their perfect self. Still, it was a little extreme to me, especially the sentence that the author uses that says, in regards to their view of themselves, that “China was a ‘radiating civilization,’ graciously shedding its light most fully to nearby barbarians and with diminished intensity to those farther away.” It was shocking to read at first, but then I remembered that many other civilizations before and after came to use similar types of thinking in one way or another, in order to create a unified state and justify their actions toward others with such an ideology.

I want to mention real quickly that though I had heard of binding young girls’ feet, and just imagining it makes me cringe, I had never seen a picture of it before. The pictures in the book and reading about it, well, it hurt my soul. And I was amazed how women would go through it and even be proud of it. That is a testament to how intense and pervasive the elements of a culture can be and how it can effect one’s mindset. I know I am effected by my culture for sure. 

The chapter on Christendom shed very little new knowledge to me, as I was not only raised Catholic and have learned about much of this in catechism and in school, but I am also a very curious student so I would ask questions. The chapter did, however, help to reinforce knowledge I had previously been familiar with but had forgotten, and I did learn some new things and a lot more details that I hope can be retained. I saw all the “hierarchical dualisms” that were presented by the faith and talked about in this chapter. Like what a teaching of the church declared “It is the will of the Creator,”…”that the higher shall always rule over the lower. Each individual and class should stay in its place [and] perform its tasks” (428). There are therefore, among other things, connections with Christianity and the subordination of women which extends to the association of women with the earth and the resultant treatment of it, such as deforestation (mentioned in this chapter and now the page escapes me). Together, this made a very fair point about the prominence of the very potentially ecologically damaging paradigm of thought that was Neoplatonism. Yet, I think a good counter argument to this is that Neoplatonism is not found in the Bible itself, but was an idea formed and appropriated by some early Christian theologians. (I know Neoplatonism is not mentioned in this particular history book, but I thought I would say this anyway).

Oh, before I forget, I thought it was nice that the book mentions Hildegard of Bingen, a twelfth century abbess. As a student of music, and as a woman, I find it incredible that she was able to carve out some autonomy for herself and the women that worked with her, and that she is the most famous composer of plain chant, and with a larger surviving body of work than any other composer from the middle ages (Campbell, Nathaniel M., et al. “Music.” www.hildegard-Society.org, International Society of Hildegard von Bingen Studies, 2014.

              www.hildegard-society.org/p/music.html#Symphonia.), and that her work is still being recorded today!

All in all, even though it took what felt like forever to finish, enjoyed this week’s readings.

World History chapter 6

Chapter 6

When I was in the sixth grade, I wrote a country report on Mexico. I wanted to learn a bit more about my heritage. One of the things that fascinated me then was learning about the societies that had been established in Mesoamerica during what the book calls the second-wave era. The city of Teotihuacan in particular is interesting, and like many other places that we have read about recently, even if so little is known about it, excites the imagination. The most interesting thing to me is that it seems to have been built to plan (244). I wonder if people had official positions as city planners, like we do now.

I like that this chapter talked about alternative societies that “are often neglected in favor of civilizations” (230). When I read this, it made sense to me as I was reading through that one of the reasons why many details of these societies are unknown might be because of this. It also probably does not help that apparently some of these societies did not develop writing or that it has not been translated yet.

It was interesting reading about Moroe, the Nubian civilization in the Nile Valley south of Egypt. Once the Egyptian trade route switched from the Nile Valley to that of the Red Sea, the state weakened (236). This was an example of how trade was and is such an important part of not only economic life but that of a society.

Reading about the Natchez people, a chiefdom located in southwestern Mississippi in North America, and there “sharp social classes” was thought-provoking. This was because even though they were so distinct, the upper-class people were required to marry commoners. Why was this? What was the intention behind it? Maybe I will look this up later.