Chapter 22: The rise and fall of world communism cont'd

This chapter was about the conflicts that arose from communist leaders and societies. Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, his nationalization of American assets provoked great U.S. hostility. The start of the Cold War is discussed as a war that never really went through on a physical level. There was a nuclear standoff, where both sides courted third world countries just emerging from colonial rule. The U.S. soon rose to power, becoming the new and improved powerhouse. It had a strong army, technology, stable economic system, and a government system. The two political parties left no room for communism to be tolerated in America. In the present, when we think of communism has a negative connotation, when there have been countries founded on communism. There are still various people that I talk to that have a positive view on communism and how America should actually try it out. But there are so many pros and cons when comes to switching the structure of a country, that already has governmental and economic problems.

Chapter 22:The Rise and Fall of World Communism

This chapter goes through how communism became popular in the eastern hemisphere of the world. The original ideas of Karl Marx helped spark the ideas of what communism will look like. Of course various countries (Soviet Union and China) took it upon themselves to make a plan of what communism would look like for their country, what it would do for their country, and how it may help them rise to the top. After the World Wars, they caused a lot of fusion between the winning alliances. During this chapter, we can see a border form between America and the use of the world. They were seen as the ones to get involved with political matters that aren't or weren't their own. Countries like Cuba had leaders such as Fidel Castro stand up to Americanized Cuban government and create a communist movement in order to get rid of the "repressive" ways of the Americans. As we can see in present day Cuba, America won that battle, but what for? This seems to always be the case when it comes to America, always getting involved in political and military matters that aren't our own. We should be known as the "ball-out" nation, because in almost every war that wasn't America's own, the U.S. seemed to have some part in helping the citizens of oppression or was the oppressor. Communism just seemed like another way for countries getting away from the American political norm, capitalism.

Chapter 21:The Collapse and recovery of Europe

This chapter went over what happened during the years of the World Wars. It went over how it affected the countries that were involved in both wars and mainly how Europe lost its power house abilities. The start of World War I, began because of an accidental assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the Austrian archduke. The Slavic nationalism and Austrian opposition was the beginning of the war. During the war there were alliances that were: Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria, and Italy, and Triple Entente of Russia, France, and Britain. Europe was ahead of most of the countries when it came to their tools, but not when it came to their military services. 

The wars caused economic damage of the European empire that was once a power house on its own. As men were away from home while fighting the war, women were able to take over the jobs that the men were working before they left. During the other countries were being damaged by the war, Japan were just on the rise of industrialization and economic stability during the 20th century. Since Germany was the blame of  World War I their land was split up into pieces to be shared among the winners of the war, which was established in the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles also listed other: "Germany lost its colonial empire and 15 percent of its European territory, was required to pay heavy reparations to the winners, had its military forces severely restricted, and had to accept sole responsibility for the outbreak of the war." A positive that came from this is that America was the center stage instead Europe, because it was coming up from being colonies into a full nation that had its own military, wars, independence, technology, government,etc. 

Chapter 20:Colonial Encounters

In this chapter, it covered the encounters of European conquests among other countries. Subjects such as education, religion, and race&tribe were among the important points that were made. When it comes to education, western education was a wide spread influence to most countries. The ability to read and write was a powerful skill to do during the 18th century throughout the world. Just how knowledge is equal to power in the present, it helps us get to the goals in life that we thrive for throughout all of our years in schooling. Once we are done with schooling we are able to work in our field and live successfully. It's a long process, but once the hard work is done, we are able to live a stable life that we will most likely enjoy.

When it come religion Christianity was a religion that made its way around the world. Places like New Zealand, Pacific Islands, and non-Muslim Africa, were influenced by the christian religion and soon were converted. Missionaries helped with the spread of Christianity to various countries, especially in Africa. Race and tribe was another topic that was interesting because it focused on European and African differences in each society. Europeans are much like Americans, we are an individual community, whereas Africans are more about the community's well being. It was interesting how the textbook made the differences very clear.