HIST 103: Global History in the Modern Era

HIST 103: Global History in the Modern Era

Scarboro (Spring 2020)

Section I: Lecture Questions

1. The cold war was a period between the 1947 Truman doctrine up to 1991, where there were tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, which were the eastern and western blocs after World War II. The US and the Soviet Union were initially allies. They fought together during WWII up until the end of the war when disputes began, particularly over the soviets takeover of the East European states. The Soviet Union and the United States sought to transform Europe into their image by taking over control of Europe after the defeat of Germany.
2. The Soviet Union and the United States fought the cold war in Europe through mutual perception ms of hostility between the military blocs and alliances, and sometimes proxy wars emanated between the allies of the two nations. The front-liners in the cold war were the allies of the USSR and the US, as the two protagonists never fought each other directly. The results were the secession of the war with the beginning of a new partnership between the two nations that could address global issues through the formation of the NATO of which German was later incorporated. The American dream, like the soviet dream after the cold war, was dedicated to building a peaceful and prosperous society after the instability. This matters because it explains the unity and the secession of conflict that led to the formation of NATO.
3. The logic of the cold war in the third world was the general support and assistance given to the third world movements for national and social liberation. For instance, the Soviet Union gave support to Angola and Ethiopia to aid in their quest for freedom. The implications were to have more control over the world. The lesson from the Korean war concerning superpower conflict is that nations should honor the implicit contracts that soldiers present to serve, especially those who fell in Vietnam.
4. At the heart of the Chinese civil war and revolution was the difference in thinking between the communist party and the nationalist Kuomintang and the legitimacy of the Chinese government. The communist party was formed on the Marxism-Leninism principle and sought to organize Chinese society through market reforms. To date, the Chinese state remains in a Leninist system, and its programs are the control of personnel, propaganda, and the liberation army. Deng, the paramount leader of the post-Mao era, established diplomatic relations with the United States, which was an achievement that allowed Deng to make crucial steps towards reforming china as the results were the opening up of China to international trade.
5. India was invented through the Indus valley civilization known as the Harappan civilization that flourished in the 2500 BC in South Asia, which is currently part of western India and Pakistan. The invention of India was a commentary on the broader question of modernity and identity since the Harappan civilization was primarily an urban civilization of the people who lived through well-planned towns, which served as centers of trade. Like much other civilization, violence played a role in India since the British colonial rule of India was formed through a series of wars in the 18th century that rested on military doctrine and coercion. Therefore, violence played a role in bringing harmony and enhancing trade in the Indus valley.
6. Through the process of decolonization of most of the African territories, the African leaders gained much political power under the European rule. They worked against the challenges of continued European political and cultural hegemony. As others worked with the European powers to protect their interests and maintain control over the political and economic resources, others set out programs that shaped the cultural and economic features of their countries through programs such as education and enhanced trade and industrialization. The plans were taken up well on the ground, although with a lot of challenges of illiteracy and colonial influence.
7. The Middle East has been at the forefront in trying to connect modernity, nationalism, and religion. As a consequence, religion has been the primary influencer of there political, social, and economic standings. However, the relationship between the three aspects has been adopted with nationalism coming as an ideology with a distant belief system of religion, which shapes the economy and modernity. The competing visions of a good society entail its gross national product and its domestic happiness.
8. The protest wave of 1968 comprised world escalation of social conflicts that were featured by rebellions against the bureaucratic states who, in turn, responded with political repression. To understand the demonstration, one has to look at the causes of the revolutions, which mainly revolved around social injustices and oppressive rules. In socialist countries, the displays were mostly because of the lack of freedom of speech and the extensive violation of civil rights. The protest relates to the question of modernity and good life as it shaped the discourses of everyday life that addressed the issues about the quality of life and the experience in the modern world.
9. In the 1970s, it was a period of stagflation, which meant slow growth that was accompanied by the rising prices of commodities and hence raising questions about unemployment and inflation. In the US, the new monetary policy saw the country brought out of the stagflation cycle. The 1970s represented both a crisis and a golden age of useful life as it was also a period when the economy prospered extending from the need of the Second World War in 1945. The 1970 good life meant that there was the achievement of high and sustained economic growth levels with high labor productivity with low unemployment.
10. The Iranian revolution comes about after a series of violations of human rights, allegiance to the west, and continued discrimination against women, which constituted the rejection of modernity and its outcomes. This was plausible because, after the revolution of 1979, most of the modernizing efforts of the Pahlavi dynasty were wholly reversed with violence and discrimination taking center stage. Westernization is the process where societies came under western culture in terms of politics, industrialization, and the general lifestyle and made it a norm. Westernization is different from colonialism, which is the establishment and maintenance of colonies in the territory of another country. The prescriptions of a good society include good security, responsibility, friendliness, and love.
11. 1979 was a hinge year in the 29th century because many changes occurred through revolutions that gave rise to social justice, it was a response to the failures and successes of the modern project as it ended the economic stagnation and helped the Americans fight the economic recession besides bringing modernity through good morals among leaders. Revolutionaries in the 1970s sought to remake the world around them through industrialization and collaboration in a trade that saw economic prosperity and good life. They used the idea of the past by incorporating partnerships and making of economic allies through regional blocs that shared a prevailing economic and social ideology.
12. The socialist regimes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union collapsed due to several combined factors, such as the leadership that was seen as incomplete. The exhaustion of the capital stocks that had accumulated for many years got used up. The revolutions of 1989 and 1991 represented the triumph of liberal capitalism as there was unanimity that the rate of growth in the soviet economies was positive. They have not reached the end of their alternatives as they can still use the regional blocs to push their agenda.
13. The idea of society initially was to enhance security and ensure economic prosperity. What is left of society today are the deregulated financial markets that have been developed in a self-referential system that is becoming more detached to the broader economy. Of the ideological movements of the 19th and 20th countries that pursued the idea of cooperation, there was economic prosperity gauged by the low unemployment and more civil rights. From here, world economies need to become more self-sufficient rather than depending on the global economic interdependency.

Section II: Reading Questions

1. Bayly understands small wars beneath in the post-war world as not only the proxy wars among allies but the economic wars that people had to struggle to ensure the social, political, and economic prosperity of which some occurred through movements and civil actions. The age of forced compromise accounted for the deals made informally to settle any impeding dispute that resulted in one side pulling out of a conflict. The implication in 1876 was the end of the reconstruction era.
2. The challenges of neo-liberalism emanated from the prominent members of Pink tide that included Venezuela and Brazil that challenged the neoliberalism and posed a challenge to the United States as the global hegemony in the 1980s. The hegemony has continually come under increased challenge over decades as the Latin Americans start to chart their political future. This America n hegemony occurred through the role of the politics of revolution that involved postcolonialism and independence movements.
3. Political leader Aime Cesaire understands colonialism as an inherent factor of racism that is a vector for capitalism and modern modernity. Cesaire considers colonialism as the precursor to the criticism of international development practices seen today. For instance, Cesaire argues that Nazism is an outgrowth of the inception of European history and the ultimate effect of civilization that has justified colonization. Therefore, decolonization was the only way to break capitalism and bring in communism in the modern world.
4. The tipping point of the 1970s was accounted for by the economic prosperity and monetary policies that brought the world back from the recession and saw low unemployment and industrialization. The long 1980s is defined by Bayly as the period of stagnation when little prosperity occurred. The expansion of human knowledge is a term used by Bayly to emphasis on the interdependencies and connectedness of social and political changes across the world. The results were improved economies and the formation of regional blocs that enhanced security and trade.
5. Galliano understands the 20th century in the western hemisphere as characterized by poverty, powerlessness, injustices, and exploitation, and lack of hope for the people. The major themes of contradictions, according to Galliano, is the good against evil as each time a new war disclosed in the name of fighting for the good, those who are killed are helpless. In comparison to Bayly, Galliano presents a version of history in five centuries and does not see a good life ahead.
6. Bayly understands the relationship between self and society to be close such that society is the regularities and customs that guide human behavior. Societal practices are essential to how humans interact, and hence society cannot exist without an individual self. Self is formed by society and requires much person to build a community that has its presents in ideologies such as religion. I the course of the high modern era, individuals change their self ideology and hence the ultimate change of society.
7. Bayly understands the question of violence in the high modernity era as a virtue or a vice that the modern liberal political arrangements made. Force in the modern world can be seen in its literal sense or as a metaphorical idea used to depict postmodernization and hence making it different from the violence that preceded it. The relationship between national and transnational institutions is essential for the economic growth of nations. It helps pool resources for a common goal.
8. By ‘pressure of the people’ Bayly means the action of the citizens that relies on o the use of their masses to push for a plan such as the 1960s civil rights movements. On the other hand, the triumph of the crisis of capitalism means that at the end of the day after the push and pull between government and civilians, capitalism took precedence as the new way of life in the modern economic realms. Bayly sees the future as being highly modernized, and there will be no boundaries to trade and prosperity.

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Section IV: Bayly

1. Bayly is claiming that the modern world had advanced in its war equipment with the inception of the atomic age and the creation of nuclear reactors compared to the traditional era when bombs were commonly used. Bayly is using the evidence of the modern world as it was portrayed in the past through art, literature, and architecture. The stakes are that in the future, there is going to more advanced technologies in regards to war armories besides another sector such as medicine and industry.
2. Bayly is claiming that the fall of socialism through the spontaneous revolutions across the world gave life to a new way of life that saw religious reinvention into modernity as they incorporated nationalism as well as there identity. Bayly is using the evidence of the progression of Islam, the Hindu nationalistic ideologies, as well as the Christian resurgence. The stakes are that the decline of socialism gave rise to progressive individualism in favor of religious doctrines.
3. Bayly is making claims that social provision does not have a role to play in modern society. Bayly was using the evidence of the collapse of neoliberalism in the 1940s when the English speaking nations that included Britain, Australia, Canada, and the united states came to a consensus that social provisions were now a reserve of the individual could try. The rules are that some citizens in English speaking countries still need social support.
4. Bayly is claiming that there have shifted ideologies since the 19th century to date. The evidence is that the 19th century had stressed cultural and racial evolution, which later transformed into an economic ideology ion the 20th century with people working together ad individually in the pursuit of profits, which triumphed, especially in the Soviet Union. As we move to a more modernized world, the stakes are that people will be more individualistic as the world will become one global village for trade and economic prosperity, as was the 19th-century ideology.

Section V: Cumulative Question

The narrative of the era of high modernity is presented in the story of people working to discover and establish a good society. A good society entails economic prosperity, security, and happiness, among other elements. A good community framed the ideology of development, which is better understood through modernity, which associated with progress. Belief is continuous progress that is aligned by human characteristics. In this regard, what is left of the grand ideas that opened the period of progress is individualism, as modernity has taken a new turn through technology to open up the world in a globalized process. Besides, globalization has includes collective actions that are meant to enhance trade and lift the less fortunate states. The role of the country in this regard is to be an active participant in the process of economic development through the enhancement of monetary and fiscal policies that will guide the direction of the financial activities. Although Francis Fukuyama outlines no alternatives for a good society, there is still hope for a good society as globalization has led to improved literacy levels as people have become more enlightened to the democratic and poetical spheres of life that shape not only the social life but also the economic processes in this post-historical world we are living in.