World War, Communism, and Great Changers of the Developing World

                This week’s reading introduces more modern topics.  We read first about World War I, or ‘’The Great War” and the fall of the Ottoman Empire.  This was followed by the Great Depression, with American companies producing more goods than the rest of the war-ravaged world was able to purchase.  We read about a growing Fascist movement in Italy and how Mussolini begins to lead the Italian people into a new militaristic regime, and then Hitler, who rallies the Germans and begins to attempt to take back some of the territories lost in the first world war.  As the Nazi party, led by Hitler, rises to power, the Jews are blamed for Germany’s troubles and a systematic extermination of them begins as the Nazis march across Europe, aggressively expanding their territory.  During this time, we also have great change happening in Japan, along with a growing military.   By 1941, Japan decided to assert itself in a battle for economic power with the United States and attacked Pearl Harbor, bringing the United States into what was now another World War.  Fighting continued with Japan for another 4 years until the atomic bombs were dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The conflicts with the Nazis ended in May 1945.  Europe and Asia were left in rubble, with many cities and villages completely devastated and hundreds of thousands dead.  The following decades were devoted to recovery.

                Our next chapter discusses the rise and fall of communism in the Soviet Union and in China.  The rise of communism brought redistribution of land, more equality to women and peasants, and more industrialization to the countries.  Both the Soviet Union and China were able to grow and rebuild under the communist regimes, yet there were problems with food shortages and famine that cost the lives of millions of people.  During the 1950s, communism spread to parts of Vietnam and Korea, and the Eastern European countries of Hungary and Czechoslovakia.  By the late 1980s however, there was a lot of unrest in some of the wide-spread countries within the Soviet Union.  There began to be rebellions in various areas, including communist China, and by 1989, the Berlin wall came down, and the Soviet Union began to break apart.  It’s interesting to look back at these events as history, as I remember when they happened! 

                Our final chapter of the week deals with changing values and rights in Africa and India during the past century.  We look at South Africa, with its history of apartheid and severe racial inequalities.  (Once again, I remember the slogan in the 1980s of “End Apartheid Now!”)  We read about the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela and the civil unrest in South Africa with the killings in Johannesburg.  The release of Nelson Mandela from prison in 1990 was the beginning of the end of apartheid, which pretty much ended by 1994.  In India, we look at the influence of Gandhi, who inspired millions of Indians to push back against the low status of the caste of “untouchables” and rise up in everyday life and status.  His practice of non-violent protest has been an inspiration to many, the world over, and the change he brought to the lowest of the low in India is a fine example of quiet, peaceful change in the world.