Revolution, Socialsim, and Global Conflict

Global Communism 

• 1970s almost one-third of the worlds population lived in communist regimes 
• Most significant was the Soviet Union and China 
• After WW2 communist parties played important roles in Greece, France and Italy
• communism found expression primary in the second half of the 20th Century 

Revolutions as a Path to Communism 

• "New and better worlds could be constructed by human actions" 
• in Russia, communists came to power on the back of revolutionary upheaval that took place within a single year. 
• Communism triumphed in the ancient land of China

Building Socialism 

• once in power, communist parties everywhere set about the construction of socialist societies
• Among the earliest and most revolutionary actions of these new communist regimes were efforts at liberating and mobilizing women 
• to build socialism, China and Soviet Union, expropriated landlords' estates and redistributed 
• Soviet Union and China defined Industrialization as a fundamental task of their regimes 

East Versus West: A Global Divide and a Cold War 

• Communist regimes brought revolutionary changes to the societies they governed 
• Initial arena of the cold war was Europe 
• Cuban missile crises gave concrete expression 
• the arms race in nuclear weapons 
• WW2 and cold war provided the context for the emergence of the United States as a Global Superpower 

Collapse at the Center

The First World War: European Civilization in Crisis

• Division was among European competing states 
• Rivalries sharpened as nth Italy and Germany joined their fragmented territories 
• Triple Alliance: Germany, Italy, Astro-Hungarian Empire
• Triple Entente: Russia, France, Britain
• Serbian nationalist assassinated the heir to the Astro-Hungarinan throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand 

Capitalism Unraveling: The Great Depression 

• Most influential change of the postwar decades 
• Western Capitalism was likewise failing 
• Spread from America to Europe 
• Germany and Austria had to make huge reparation payments
• Britain and France depended on those reparations to repay their loans 

Democracy Denied: Comparing Italy, Germany, and Japan 

• Democratic political ideals and their cultural values came under attack after WW1 
• New political ideology known as fascism found expression across much of Europe
• German expression of European fascism .. Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler 
• Extreme Nationalism, openly advocated the use of violence as a political tool
• Japan, shared features w/ Italy and Germany, but remained less repressive

A Second World War 

• Genuinely global conflict with independent origins in both Asia and Europe 
• Began in Asia before it began in Europe 
• Japan was the dissatisfied power in Asia .. Germany was the dissatisfied power in Europe 
• War was central to the Nazi agenda 
• Deaths estimated to around 60 million, 6x that of WW1 

Empires in Collision

Reversal of Fortune: China's Century of Crisis 

• 1912, China"s long-established imperial state had collapsed 
• Turned to a weak and dependent participant in a European dominated system 
• China's state did not enlarge itself to keep pace with the foreign population
• China's relationship with Europe changed 
• Solution to reinvigorate a traditional China while borrowing cautiously from the west 

The Ottoman Empire and the West in the Nineteenth Century 

• Islamic world collided with an expanding and aggressive Europe
• Empires domains shrank at the hands of Russian, British, Austrian, and French aggression
• ambitious programs of defensive modernization
• experienced the consequences of a rapidly shifting balance of global power

The Japanese Difference: The rise of a New East Asian Power

• Japan confronted the aggressive power notably in the form of US commodore Mathew Perry 
• Opened up to more relation in the world
• turned into a powerful, modern, untied, industrialized nation 
• Foreign intervention brought matters to a head
• Raised a national army based on all social classes 

Colonial Encounters in Asia and Africa

Industry and Empire

• Periodically produced more manufactured goods then needed 
• Exporting 60% of it own cotton cloth production
• imperialism solved the class conflicts 
• Mass Nationalism 
• Imperialism, war and aggression seemed natural and progressive 

A Second Wave of European Conquests 

• Second phase of European Colonial Conquests 
• countless wars of conquest
• for India and Indonesia, colonial conquest grew out of interaction with Europe 
• "Scramble of Africa" pitted half a dozen European powers against each other 

Believing and Belonging: Identity and Cultural Change in the Colonial era 

• Education obtained through missionary or government schools 
• religion provided the basis for new or transformed identities 
• Ordinary people alike forged new ways of belonging as they confronted colonial life

Revolutions of Industrialization (Ch. 17)

Explaining the Industrial Revolution

• 18th century Britain - Technological creativity 
• industrial fuels became scarce 
• global energy demands began to push against the existing local limits 
• Global in the 20th century 

Why Europe? 

• First to have involvement in the revolution 
• restless, creative, and freedom-loving culture 
• commercialized, competitive, European societies  
• Cross cultural exchange 

Why Britain? 

• Clearly began in Britain 
• Political life encouraged commercialization and economic innovation 
• Scientific rev. fostered technological revolution 
• Britain's geography and history contributed to its success 
• Country had coal and iron ore/countries island protected it from invasions

Atlantic Revolutions, Global Echoes (Week VI)

Atlantic Revolution in a Global Context

• Atlantic Revolutions in North America, France Haiti, and Latin America
• Distinctive in that they were closely connected to one another 
• American, Thomas Jefferson, was the U.S. ambassador to France on the eve of the French Revolution
• Simon Bolivar, Spanish American, twice visited Haiti
• New ideas of liberty, equality, free trade, religious tolerance, republicanism, and human rationality where in the air
• Popular sovereignty - authority to govern derived from the people rather than from God or from established tradition

The North American Revolution, 1775-1787

• A struggle for independence from British rule
• Less poverty, more economic opportunity, fewer soul differences, and easier relationships among the classes than in Europe
• Ideas of enlightenment - Popular sovereignty, natural rights, the content of the governed 
• Went to war, by 1781 they had prevailed with aid from the French 
• Revolution accelerated the established democratic tendencies of the colonial societies

The French Revolution, 1789-1815

• Awakened by the American revolution 
• Declaration of the Right of Man and Citizen launched the French Revolution 
• Revolution driven by sharp conflicts within French society 
• "men are born and remain free and equal in rights"
• Women unlike in the Americas were involved and raised question for female political equality

Haitian Revolution, 1791-1804

• French Revolution lit several fuses and see win motion a spiral of violence 
• A war between social classes
• The only completely successful slave revolt in world history 
• First non-European state to emerge from Western colonialism 

Spanish American Revolution, 1810-1825

• Shaped by North America, French, and Haiti Revolutions as well as by their own distinctive societies
• Divided by class, race, and region
• Napoleon invaded Spain and Portugal
• Latin Americans were forced to take action .. independence for the various states of Latin America

 The Abolition of Slavery 1780-1790

• Enlightenment thinkers thought critical of slavery as violation of natural rights
• Slavery was not essential for economic progress
• Haitian Revolution led to rebellions, demonstrated that slaves weren't content
• Abolition movement-pamphlets, numerous petitions, lawsuits, boycotts of slave sugar
• Britain was the first to free slaves.. Patrolled slave water for illegal slave ships

Nations and Nationalism

• Novel form of political loyalty
• Single language used around the nation to make the 'citizens' feel like 'citizens'
• An aid to individual aspirations toward wider involvement in political life 
• Usually had to do with conforming people to: a religion, culture, or way of living

Feminist Beginnings

• Europe and North America 
• French Rev. raised the possibility for re-creating human society on foundations of the sexes
• National American Woman Suffrage Association claimed about 2 million members
• In China, modernists believed that education and a higher status for women strengthened the nation

Foundresses Week (Week V)

Foundresses week consisted of learning about many little known facts about Notre Dame de Namur through a campus tour led by one of NDNU's sisters. As a class we went through the campus analyzing a couple of buildings that have some significance in them. We started off at the chapel where one of the sisters explained to us the glass stained windows. What really caught my attention was that each held an important testimony of the bible. Not only that but the position of each window had a meaning. After the chapel we went to the SJ building where I learned many incredible facts about not only what the building had to offer but how the university came to be. I learned that SJ's lounge held three crests, one of which was the universities emblem. I learned that the univeristy first started in San Jose were it was an all girls campus. The most interesting fact that I learned that day in SJ was the adversity that two sisters had to go through to get here, the bay. After SJ we went down to the mansion where we learned the conditions of the university when it was purchased. We heard Ralston's story of how he became this wealthy man through out the Gold Rush and how he passed in a unfortunate set of events. Our campus tour ended with a statue next to what used to be Ralston's horse stable. A place hidden significantly from plain sight. I say this because of all the times I've gone down by the building and have never noticed it. The tour was no longer than the class period but it did its job in acknowledging our campus and its past history.

Cultural Transformation, Religion & Science (Ch. 15 / Week IV)

A New Way of Thinking: The Birth of Modern Science

• The Question of Origins: Why Europe? 
• Reinvigorated & fragmented civilization 
• Universities became more independent from religion 
• Science as Cultural Institution
• Nicolaus Copernicus, "at the middle off all things lies the sun."
• Giordano Bruno, proclaimed an infinite universe and many worlds
• Enormous cultural transformation were almost entirely men
• Science and Enlightenment 
• Belief in the power of knowledge to transform human society
• Women argued for the rights between sexes
• Too much reliance on human reason
• Looking Ahead: Science in the Nineteenth Century
• Enlightenment was challenged not only by romanticism and religion but by European science itself 
• Darwins idea of evolution were as Shattering than Copernicus's idea of sun-centered universe
• European Science beyond the West 
• The telescope was widely spread around the globe after the discoveries of the moons texture and various other planets
• Chinese Scientist adopted European mathematics 
• Ban on importing Western books were lifted and Japanese scholars started to translate medicine, astronomy, geography, and mathematics

Progress and Enlightenment 15.2

Marquis De Condorcet 

Sketch of the Progress of the Human Mind

Marquis De Condorcet in, Sketch of the Progress of the Human Mind, expresses that humanity has finally gained its reasoning and ability to proclaim every opinion to reason. He goes on to talk about three important points for the future: the destruction of inequality among nations, the progress of equality within nations themselves, and the real improvement of humanity. He claims that a day will come were the sun will shine only on free men born knowing no other master then their own reason. Human creation based own scientific theories will bring forward new tools and machines that will change the capabilities of mankind forever. An individual will work less time but more productively. In so boldly acknowledging the future with science theories, Condorcet believes that less waste and less raw materials will be wasted. Written in 1793-1794, Condorcet predicted something that up until the 21st century mankind has not yet figured out a way to waste less raw materials. 

Politcal & Economic Transformations (Ch. 13 & 14 / Week II)

Chapter 13 delt with political transformations, empires and encounters, in a premature America. European empires in America had a strong advantage compared to their competitors. Their geographical position in the atlantic ocean gave them strong air currents towards America. Apart from having effective mobilization and material resources, Europeans brought with them diseases and  germs which wiped out approximately 90% of the native american race. This biological wipeout is known as "the Great Dying" which included disease like small pox, measles, typhus, influenza, malaria, & yellow fever. This event gave way to labor shortages which created the Columbian Exchange. Columbia exchange brought immigrant newcomers and enslaved Africans. Among them were plants and animals. The food crops that were cropped changed populations in Europe, China, and Africa.

There were various colonies in the Americas at the time. There was the Aztecs and Incas which was dominated by Spanish settlers who promoted commercial agriculture and silver & gold mining. Spanish males in this colony would intact recreate with natives and form what they called mestizos which were declared middle class after pure spaniards. Then there were colonies of sugar which were in Brazil and Caribbean. Brazil was controlled by Portuguese forces and the Caribbean was controlled by the French. The value in sugar was in high demand in Europe where it would be used as medicine, spices, and sweetener. Due to sugar production being so dangerous the controlling forces looked at the atlantic slave trade for their workforce. Approximatly 80% of slaves ended in Brazil or the Caribbean. Settler colonies in North America (New England, New York, Pennsylvania) were under British control. North American Colonies were said to be pure colonies because they didn't really need slaves. Independent farmers worked their land therefore they were actual settlers. The Settler Colonies focused more soft-gold, fur, unlike the South and Brazil/Caribbean. 

Chapter 14 felt with economic transformations, commerce and consequences, in a premature America. The beginning of the chapter talked about European & Asian commerce. The European & Asian network of commerce stretched from East Asia to China. The Portuguese Empire of Commerce formed a Trading Port Empire which was basically piracy. They controlled more of half the spice trade to Europe because of their advanced naval capacity. The East India Companies (Dutch, & British East India Company) were military and economically strong. The Dutch Inda Company monopolized nutmeg, mace, & cloves through bloodshed and slavery. The British India Company Established 3 major trading settlements in Bombay, Calcutta and India's West Coast.