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.
