World History

This chapter talks about four big aspects of globalization: the globalization of the world economy, feminism, religious transformations, and the anthropocene era. The prospects of the continuation of these transformative processes are seemingly different. The globalization of the international economy seemingly will continue absent some form of revolutionary upswing. The labor arbitrage at the root of this process has every reason to continue for the foreseeable future. Capital is always seeking cheap labor in order to maximize profits, and the technological changes, including that in transport, that have enabled transnational corporations to move production abroad will continue apace. It remains to be seen whether there will be a response from below due to the increasing inequality it has produced throughout the whole world. Feminism seems to be poised to continue to be an important movement. Even though this movement takes different forms and has different goals both within c...

I chose as my topic the Coronavirus pandemic and a problem that it raised for me. I have a 10 year old son, and I am very worried about the possibility of him getting infected. His school is planning a partial opening of in person education, so I wrote a letter to the school board about this. I found all three of my sources useful and quite concerning. Unfortunately, the United States is doing very poorly in terms of controlling this new pandemic, and it is very similar to the problems we had 100 years ago with the flu pandemic in which 675,000 Americans died and 50-100 million people died throughout the world. Countries like China that controlled the pandemic well had a centralized response, while our country both now and 100 years ago was first in denial and later had a decentralized response that failed to put out the fire. We know from past pandemics of plague in Europe and multiple infectious diseases in the Americas that diseases can overwhelm and destroy whole s...

Quiz 4  1) Umut Uras. “Turkey turning Hagia Sophia back into mosque divides social media.” Al Jazeera. July 11, 2020 The Al Jazeera article is about the reversion of Hagia Sophia.from a museum to a mosque. Hagia Sophia was built as a cathedral during the Byzantine Empire. After the Islamic conquest, it was converted into a mosque. After World War I, Kemal Ataturk became the ruler of Turkey. Ataturk was a secular modernizer, and in 1934 he converted the mosque nto a museum. Customary Islamic rules, such as wearing traditional clothing for men and covering one's hair or face for women, were put aside. Over the last 10 years, President Erdogan, who was elected as leader of Turkey as the head of an Islamic party, the secular nature of society and the government has been returning toward more traditional Islamic ways. In the recent court case, the court ruled that the deed to the site of Hagia Sophia was as a mosque. Erdogan used this ruling to change the museum back to a mosque. ...

Quiz 4  1) Umut Uras. “Turkey turning Hagia Sophia back into mosque divides social media.” Al Jazeera. July 11, 2020 The Al Jazeera article is about the reversion of Hagia Sophia.from a museum to a mosque. Hagia Sophia was built as a cathedral during the Byzantine Empire. After the Islamic conquest, it was converted into a mosque. After World War I, Kemal Ataturk became the ruler of Turkey. Ataturk was a secular modernizer, and in 1934 he converted the mosque nto a museum. Customary Islamic rules, such as wearing traditional clothing for men and covering one's hair or face for women, were put aside. Over the last 10 years, President Erdogan, who was elected as leader of Turkey as the head of an Islamic party, the secular nature of society and the government has been returning toward more traditional Islamic ways. In the recent court case, the court ruled that the deed to the site of Hagia Sophia was as a mosque. Erdogan used this ruling to change the museum back to a mosque. ...

Chapter 22 reminds me of the tides rolling in and out. In the second half of the century, many third world countries achieved political independence as new nations. Often, they adopted the democratic principles of their former colonial rulers. While rule by consent of the governed was important, it was also important that the desire of their people to lead lives of material abundance was also important. As this became increasingly difficult, military dictatorships and rule by individual and family dictatorships flourished. In Congo, the huge natural resources of the country were plundered by first world countries, which supported the Mobutu dictatorship. Mobuto allegedly had billions of dollars in Swiss bank accounts. In South America, US supported dictatorships in Argentina and Chile flourished. In fact, the overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile was plotted by its military in coordination with our CIA and the US government. The Chicago Boys had already laid down a blueprint for...

Why did the communist experiment, which was committed to equality, abundance, and a humane socialism, generate failed economies and oppressive, brutal, and totalitarian regimes? The first Communist Revolution occurred unexpectedly, according to Marxist theory, in the backward country called Russia.   Marxists thought that revolution would occur in the most advanced industrialized countries where the combination of class struggle by the industrial working class and the high productivity of advanced Capitalism would lead to a revolution in which the workers would control production and everyone would have plenty to live on. Unfortunately, the revolution took place in a backward peasant country that was very poor, illiterate, and wracked by a disastrous war. This was followed by a ruinous civil war.   The Russian Marxists did not believe their revolution could succeed without revolution in the West, especially Germany. However, revolution in Germany ...

Is it more useful to view the two world wars as separate and distinct conflicts or as a single briefly interrupted phenomenon? I believe the two world wars were a single briefly interrupted phenomenon. World War I was a continuation of the conflict between European Nation States over dominance in Europe and the fight over colonies abroad. It resulted in Revolution in Russia and near revolution in Germany and Hungary. The Germans never accepted their defeat. There was an armistice in 1918 which the allies turn in to a defeat for Germany. In his book Economic Consequences of the Peace, John Maynard Keynes argued that the sanctions imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles were so onerous that Germany could never pay them, and they would lead to another war. John Maynard Keynes was proven right even though the Great Depression was a major cause for Hitler’s rise to power.      

Question 2. There have been many epidemics in the past, some of which were so widespread that they could be called pandemics. The plague begin in China in 1331, by 1347 it had affected Europe and the Middle East.  In the first wave of infection in Europe it was thought that half of Europe’s population died. The mortality rate of the infection was as high as 90%. There is no immunity to the plague, and even today the mortality rate is 11%. The plague had some important consequences. The Mongol Empire and Its Silk Road trade suffered enormously and lead to the end of the Mongol Empire. In Europe the loss of the population was so severe that workers demanded higher wages which led to social tension and may have played a role in several peasant revolts. The devastation of the Mongol Empire led to an increase in European sea traffic, trade, and exploration.   Another great epidemic was the Great Dying. When the Spanish conquered MesoAmerica and the great i...

“ It was the best of times , it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,… it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…”( A Tale of Two Cities) This July 4 Th we are in the middle of a pandemic of which our nation is the epicenter, we have a president who seems incompetent, and once again the issue of race has boiled to the top. It seems that race and slavery were our original sin as a country. We celebrate July 4 Th because our Declaration of Independence was proclaimed on that date in 1776.   It declared that “All men are created equal.”   Among those left out were African slaves. Our civil war was fought over the issue of slavery. More American combatants were killed in the civil war than in all our other wars put together. Black slaves volunteered for the union army in large numbers and played a key role in the union victory and their own self liberation. Despite this, Reconstruction failed, and Black American...