Post for 7-15-2015

Chapters 23 and 24, Independence and Development in the Global South and Accelerating Global Interaction

while titled differently in my edition of the book, a majority of the content is the same, judging from what we looked at in class.

Chapter 23: Independence and Development in the Global South aka End Of Empire

     The best summary of the decolonization chapter:

"Variously called the struggle for independence or decolonization, that process carried an immense significance for the history of the twentieth century. It marked a dramatic change in the world’s political architecture, as nation-states triumphed over the empires that had structured much of African and Asian life in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It mobilized millions of people, thrusting them into political activity and sometimes into violence and warfare. Decolonization signaled the declining legitimacy of both empire and race as credible bases for political or social life. It promised not only national freedom but also personal dignity, abundance, and opportunity. What followed in the decades after independence was equally significant. Political, economic, and cultural experiments proliferated across these newly independent nations, which during the cold war were labeled as the third world and now are often referred to as developing countries or the Global South.Their peoples, who represented the vast majority of the world’s population, faced enormous challenges: the legacies of empire; their own deep divisions of language, ethnicity, religion, and
class; their rapidly growing numbers; the competing demands of the capitalist West and the communist East; the difficult tasks of simultaneously building modern economies, stable politics, and coherent nations; and all of this in a world still shaped by the powerful economies and armies of the wealthy, already industrialized nations. The emergence of the developing countries onto the world stage as independent and assertive actors has been a distinguishing feature of world history in this most recent century." p.1081-1082

Many countries in the 20th century let go of their colonies in Africa, Asia, and the developing world.
the way that each occupied colony was decolonized and left alone had lasting impacts and reflected in those newly-emerged countries today. India separated from Britain with enough success that it now has one of the world's largest populations and has great business growth due to the tech revolution of the past decades.  in contrast, many East African countries like Sudan are in very deep water; with the African continent torn apart in many places by civil war.

In sum, decolonization did not turn out well for most colonies at first, but many of them persevered and today, those like India for example have a lot going for them :)

Chapter 24: Accelerating Global Interaction aka Capitalism & Culture

the recent population growth explosion is staggeringly massive.
sustainability has never been more important.
however, the globe is engulfed in constant struggle and while certain countries may fight wars with others, it is generally a most peaceful era from a military perspective. however the American Empire stands not on military might, but rather on economic leverage.

I recall as a child playing with made in usa toys, yet my younger brother and sister grew up with Made In China products. China depends on the US and the US depends on china for manufacturing, even though most products are designed domestically, such as Apple technology.

however, many US companies outsource their tech labor to India, for much lower costs, so India is indirectly tied to China. the worlds two LARGEST populations depend on each other economically, with the middleman (USA) dictating most of the terms.

I fear we will soon approach a path leading to Economic warfare and Terrorism in some cases.

that's all i have for now.

July 7th Post

on ch 20, colonial encounters:

    "For many millions of africans and asians, colonial rule—by the British, French, Germans, Italians, Belgians, Portuguese, Russians, or Americans—was the major new element in their historical experience during the nineteenth century. Between roughly 1750 and 1950,much of the Afro-Asian-Pacific world was enveloped within this new wave of European empire building.The encounter with European power in these colonized societies was more immediate, and often more intense, than in those regions that were buffered by their own independent governments, such as Latin America, China, Persia, and the Ottoman Empire. Of course, no single colonial experience characterized these two centuries across this vast region. Much depended on the cultures and prior history of various colonized people. Policies of the colonial powers sometimes differed sharply and changed over time. Men and women experienced the colonial era differently, as did traditional elites,Western-educated classes, urban artisans, peasant farmers, and migrant laborers. Furthermore, the varied actions and reactions of such people, despite their oppression and exploitation, shaped the colonial experience, perhaps as much as the policies, practices, and intentions of their temporary European rulers. All of them—colonizers and colonized alike— were caught up in the flood of change that accompanied the Industrial Revolution and a new burst of European imperialism." p.924

that pretty much sums it up :)

it is important to note that 19th century colonialism is its own animal and differs from other Emperial-colonial eras. Not only were Europeans foreign rulers, but they also bore the seeds of a very different way of life, which grew out of their own modern transformation.

on ch 21 & communism:

boy oh boy i spent semesters studying 19th-20th century communism and socialist history, one thing i missed however, was a sharp focus on China, especially from 1949-present day

i had no idea the China communist party was founded in 1921.