Rebecca Lee

In the 1900 the European empires in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and the Pacific Ocean were still very much alive, but by the end of the 1900s they were gone. This disappearance started in Asia and the Middle East in the late 1940s. In the mid-1950s through mid-1970s African countries gained their independence. In the 1970s the regions in the Pacific Ocean also became independent. The Caribbeans countries achieved their independence in the 1960s and 1970s. In a sense these empire breaks were the latest case of imperial dissolution, which in some ways is comparable to the first decolonization in the Americas. However, these newly independent countries not only asserted their political independence, they also affirmed the vitality of their cultures. Empire after empire was dissolved. The Austrian and Ottoman empires collapsed after World War I, the Russian empire, the German and Japanese empires after World War II. Out of these collapses grew the idea that humankind was divided into sepa...

Communism arose from the the political and philosophical roots of the nineteenth century socialist movement. It was inspired by the teachings of Karl Marx. The Marxist theory referred to communism as the "final stage of historical development when social equality and collective living would be most fully developed, largely without private property" (Strayer 930). By the 1970s about 1/3 of the world's population lived in communist societies. The two biggest being Russia (the world's largest country in size) and China (the world's largest population). Also under communist rule was Mongolia, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Latin America, and Afghanistan. However, communist movements took place all over the world, especially in Greece, Italy, France, and sometimes in the United States (this lead to political repression known as McCarthyism). Also many African states were Marxist for some time. All these different expressions of communism were linked by a common ideolo...

The Holocaust last from January 30, 1993 (When Hitler became Chancellor) to May 8, 1945 (the end of World War II). During this time, the Jewish people became Germany's scapegoat. In the newspaper Der Sturmer, it claimed, "The Jews are out misfortune". In alignment with fascism core values Hitler called for new elections in order to get the Nazi party to control German Parliament. They terrorized other parties, arrested their leaders, and banned their political meetings. Soon the Nazi's turned their power into a dictatorship and March 23rd, with the passing of the Enabling Act. As Nazi propaganda spread, so did their power. Hitler and the Nazi Party gained control over the police, terrorizing opponents of his power. These opponents were beaten or sent to concentration camps, which later was where Hitler would send the Jews. Hitler created a "massive government-supported propaganda machine" that turned Germany very anti- Semitic, with the superior race being t...

While Europe was going through its second wave of colonization, a few countries maintained independence. Among them were China, Japan, the Ottoman Empire, Persia (present day Iran), Ethiopia, Siam (present day Thailand), and Latin America. However, these independent countries faced four dimensions of the European expansion. The first was the military and political power of European states. Second, they faced the networks of trade, investments, and migration that was a product of industrialization, which created a new world economy. The third was the aspects of European culture, which bleed into their own tradition cultures. Lastly, they faced the culture of modernity. China was affected by the success it generated years earlier. They witnessed a huge population growth, but no Industrial Revolution of agricultural production to accompany it. This put pressure on the land, the unemployment rates, and the rates of starvation. China's bureaucratic state didn't grow with the popula...

Colonial rule became a major event in the histories of Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. The British, French, Germans, Belgians, Portuguese, Russians, and Americas were all involved in colonizing in the long nineteenth century. The Industrial Revolution in Europe created a grater need for raw goods and products while also increased their need to sell their own products. This effected the economic and social constructs in various nations. Europeans also started investing aboard. Imperialism began to grow as it "promised to solve the class conflict of an industrializing society while avoiding revolution or the serious redistribution of wealth" (Strayer 790). The idea of imperialism was then promoted by nationalism. The Industrial Revolution also made it easier for oversea expansion to occur. It also changed the way Europeans perceived themselves and other nations. This allowed Europe to justify expansion as natural and progressive, leading to a new form of racism. This exp...

The Industrial Revolution occurred between 1750 and 1900, beginning in Western Europe, particularly Great Britain. From there it spread rapidly, growing out of ideas from the Scientific and French Revolutions. It began when the world population rapidly grew from 375 million people in 1400 to about 1 billion in the early 1800s. However, the Industrial Revolution had enormous impacts on the environment as humans turned to unsustainable ways of increasing production. The early signs of the Industrial Revolution started with innovations that focused on the cotton textile industry and from there it grew into a global transformation affecting Asia, Africa, and Latin American countries as well. The Industrial Revolution started in Western Europe for a few reason. The first was that Europe was already divided into separate competing states. Another reason was that European countries needed revenue that did not come from effective taxes. This led to the government working closely with the merch...