Rebecca Lee

Globalization, to most people, is referring to the acceleration in international economic transactions that occurred in the second half of the twentieth century. After World War II, the conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944 created a set of agreements and institutions that laid the foundations for postwar globalization. Technology contributed to the acceleration as well. In the 1970s this type of economic globalization was known as neoliberalism. Following the contractions of the 1930s a "reglobalization" occurred; money as well as goods increased global mobility in three ways. The fist was foreign direct investments. The second was short-term movement of capital. The third forms of money movement involved the personal funds of individuals. Central to this was the global businesses known as transnational corporations (TNCs), which produced goods or delivered services simultaneously in many countries. There were also new patterns of human migration that occurred ...

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...

I found the Introduction to part five, The European Moment In World History, interesting because it discusses European advancement in a way that in not Eurocentric. It talks about the "long nineteenth century" (Strayer 689), which lasted from 1750 to 1914. This time period saw the creation of "modern" human society that emerged from the Scientific, French, and Industrial Revolutions. The long nineteenth century also saw the influential power of these new modern societies. This was also the beginning of a new era called the Anthropocene or the age of man. This is because humans had an increasing impact on the environment and rapidly reshaped the planet. Since the Europeans gained so much power they rewrote geography and history, placing themselves at the center. This section also explained how it was going to avoid an Eurocentric view. First, is to remind the readers that the European movement occurred only recently and it was brief; other countries around the world ...

For Foundresses Week I went to Foundresses Fest. It was held today, Wednesday February 6th, and was in the quad from 11am to 2pm. This event was to celebrate, "our legacy with music, games, art & crafts, raffle prizes and a taco car". It started off with a prayer and then people could go to different tables that had different activities. There was one put on by student assembly and another by the Blood Drive and a few others. I learned a lot about our Foundresses from the reading Chapter 1: Julie Billiart and Francoise Blin de Bourdon . I found it very interesting to compare the lives of Julie Billiart and Francoise Blin de Boudon. Although, both of their lives were very different they were drawn together by a common purpose. I also liked how the reading about their lives related to this history class, because it explained the events of the French Revolution that affected the lives of our Foundresses. Francoise was from an aristocratic family and lived with her matern...

I found it important to read about how religion and scientific thinking spread globally during the Early Modern Era. As Christianity started to spread to areas such as Asia, Africa, and the Americas, a more modern scientific outlook was also developing, which challenged these spreading Christian views. In the 1500, "the world of Christendom stretched from Spain and England in the west to Russia in the east, with small and beleaguered communities of various kinds" (Strayer, 644). In the sixteenth century the Protestant Reformation began, with Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses (1517), which began to threaten the unity of the Roman Catholic Church. As Protestantism gained popularity in Europe it added to the class divisions and fractured political system, leading to the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). After the war, the Peace of Westphalia (1648) was constructed. However, the Protestant Reformation helped contribute to a Catholic Reformation, during which the Council of ...

Commerce In People: The Atlantic Slave Trade The Atlantic slave trade impacted the early modern era so greatly that its commercial ties contributed to a global next of exchange. The Atlantic slave trade is the most recent owning and exchange of human beings that existed on a large scale. Between 1500 and 1866, “this trade in human beings took an estimated 12.5 million people from African societies, shipped them across the Atlantic in the infamous Middle Passage, and deposited some 10.7 million of them in the Americas, where they lived out their often-brief lives as slave” (Strayer, 620). The slave trade added African descent into the European and Native American mix of the Americas. Slavery came in many forms, because before the 1500, the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean basins were where most of the Old World slave trade occurred. This means that the slavery practices that grew in the Americas varied greatly from the Old World practices. The first way was the huge size of...

I found it important to read that Europeans, Southeast Asians, Chinese, Indians, Armenians, Arabs, Africans, and Native Americans all play key roles in developing the world economy from the 1450s-1750s. This commerce, along with the growing empires of the time, “gave rise to new relationships, disrupted old patterns, brought distant peoples into contact with one another, enriched some, and impoverished or enslaved others” (Strayer, 602). The Portuguese sailed to India, lead by Vasco da Gama looking for an easier way to get tropical spices and other luxuries. They also used their military advantage to gain access into trading, since European goods were “crude and unattractive in the Asian market” (605). The Portuguese created a trading post empire, which by 1600 was in decline. Spain’s introduction into the Eastern trade was through the Philippine Islands. In the seventeenth century the Dutch and the English joined the Indian Ocean commerce. The Dutch was centered in Indonesia and focus...

I found it interesting to read about how in three centuries, from 1450 to 1750, the world and world relations began to resemble that of the present. It was during this time period that Western Europe began to establish itself as a powerhouse. Countries like Spain, England, Portugal, and France sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to build their empires and colonies. These countries settled on l and in North America, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. This European advantage occurred because the “countries on the Atlantic rim of Europe (Portugal, Spain, Britain, and France) were simply closer to the Americas than were any potential Asian competitors” (Strayer, 554). This was accompanied by innovations in mapping, navigation, sailing techniques, and designs of ships. Differing European countries were also fueled by competing countries. However, was one the leading causes for Western European countries gaining so much control in the Americas is the diseases they br...

I found it surprising to read that what is called the Early Modern Era in a lot of history class is actually more of a “Late Agrarian Era” (Strayer 548). There is only small signs and little evidence suggesting that during this era the world was to becoming classified as modern. Although there was some evidence, such as the the growth of the population starting to increase and explorations of the Atlantic and pacific ocean, which eventually led to the exploration of new lands, the characteristics of what is considered modern weren’t entirely present. Much of the world remained the same. Most of the people in the Early Modern Era still lived lives that were not much different that the Era before. According to Ways of the World , by Strayer, a larger portion of the world population “continued to live in long-established ways, and their societies operated according to traditional principles” (549). Europeans, at this point in time, were not the dominating force of the world,...

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