World History II - Spring 2018

The beginning of this chapter was very hard to read as Strayer starts the chapter by telling the story of a young woman named Memey from Indonesia. Her husband died, and she was left in poverty with a young child. Being a mom she wanted to be able to provide for her son, so when she heard about a waitress job in Malaysia she quickly jumped at the opportunity. She entered Malaysia illegally and was ready for work. She was taken shopping for new clothes and makeup, and after dinner "a man came for her and took her to a hotel room nearby to start work." It was at that moment that she realized that she wasn't being hired for a waitressing job, rather was being made into a sex worker. She got to see the conditions of other women and how they were beaten and threatened, which scared her to run away. About 4 months later she was able to escape due to a sympathetic client. She escaped and returned to her home in Indonesia with bitter memories and an HIV infection. Later, she foun...

This chapter was definitely bit more interesting to read because it talked about more recent events in history. The 1900s was the time when the European colonial empires were coming to an end, and ultimately gained their independence. What caught my attention the most in this chapter was the fact that South Africa's struggle to freedom was very different than we had seen in other cases, such as India. South Africa was independent from Great Britain since 1910.  The problem for South Africa was the fact that independence had been granted to a government wholly controlled by a white settler minority, which represented less than 20% of the total population. So the other 80% of the population being black African's had absolutely no political rights whatsoever. That's why South Africa's struggle is so different, rather than fighting with a distant colony, they were fighting internally with the white settlers who now were calling themselves "Afrikaners" Afrikane...

Communism promised many things for people, equality and opportunity being the two main things which made it so appealing. The Communists movements of the twentieth century echoes the earlier French Revolution which promised new and better worlds could be constructed by human action. Communism was a movement that rose in many places, but the two most known for it are China & Russia.  "To communist regimes, building socialism meant first of all the modernization and industrialization of their backward societies. They sought, however, a distinctly socialist modernity. This involved a frontal attack on long-standing inequalities of class and gender, an effort to prevent the making of new inequalities as the process of modern development unfolded, and the promotion of cultural values of selflessness and collectivism that could support a socialist society." Communism isn't always seen as a great thing, but it did bring some great things to ...

As I mentioned in class, last summer I had the chance to finally visit the Holocaust Museum in D.C. I make it a point to visit my family in Virginia at least once a year, and last summer I finally had the chance to visit the Holocaust Museum with my cousin. It was something that I had wanted to do for years, and finally did it last year. It was the most rewarding, and sad experience that I've had in a museum, and I'll never forget it. It was very overwhelming, and definitely an emotional experience. I got to read stories of people who had survived the Holocaust, I got to see more behind the thinking of the Nazi's. The things that really just got to me where walking through a hall filled with pictures of people who lived through that time and didn't survive, as well as the hall that was filled with names of people who passed. I've uploaded some my own pictures to this post so that you all can see. It was definitely an experience...

Chapter 20 is filled with events that launched the 20th century. It's filled with events that had a huge impact in history that are  still looked at today as events that we don't want to happen again.  During this time in history events like The Great Depression, the rise of Nazi Germany, the Holocaust, and World War I and II happened. World War I had a huge impact in societies, and The Great Depression lead to our economy crashing down. All of these things happening were definitely effecting the people living in this time. But to me, nothing was worse than the Holocaust. It all started with a new political ideology known as fascism. "Fascism was intensely nationalistic, seeking to revitalize and purify the nation and to mobilize its people for some grand task. Its spokesman praised violence against enemies as a renewing force in society, celebrated action rather than reflection, and placed their father in a charis...

"Two distinct laws passed in Nazi Germany in September 1935 are known collectively as the Nuremberg Laws: the Reich Citizenship Law and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor. These laws embodied many of the racial theories underpinning Nazi ideology. The would provide the legal framework for the systematic persecution of Jews in Germany." I had definitely heard about the Nuremberg Laws before, but never knew all of it's details in how it defined a Jew. The Reich Citizenship Law identified Jews not by religious affiliation but according to racial antisemitism. Being a Jew wasn't something that could be identified by just looking at a person. Many of the people who were affected by the passing of this law didn't even practice Judaism, but the law stated that  "only people of German or kindred blood could be citizens of Germany." Being Jew isn't a race, but the Nazi's sure did call it that. "According to the Nazi Ger...

Chapter 18 really goes into talking about Europeans conquest for more land and its imperialism. England was hungry for more land to conquer, it just meant more power for them and they were willing to do just about anything to make that happen. On page 790 of the textbook, there is an image that really caught my attention while reading. The picture called, The Devilfish in Egyptian Water . It was known that England was pretty much taking the world, and this picture clearly shows that. The picture shows this octopus waiting to put its tentacle on Egypt, while already holding on to the other many colonies it already had power over. It was just waiting for the right time to to capture Egypt. Although that picture stood out to me a lot, there were other parts of this textbook that stood out more because of how cruel the actions being taken were. It's commonly known that colonial rule affected people living in this time period, it affected them in their way of living, but it affected t...

"In broad terms, the Industrial Revolution marks a human response to that dilemmas as nonrenewable fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas replaces the endlessly renewable energy sources of wind, water, wood, and the muscle power of people and animals. It was a breakthrough of unprecedented proportions that made available for human use, at least temporarily, immensely greater quantities of energy."  The Industrial Revolution was again another European event. But it's truly amazing to see all the change that was brought because of this one event. One change that happened because the Industrial Revolution was having Industrial Societies. Britain became the first industrialized society due to the fact that it was the most commercialized country in Europe at the time. This brought lots of changes, and as Strayer puts it, "not everyone was affected the same way." "The social transformation of the Industrial Revolution destroyed their old ways of...

Reading Chapter 16 for me was extremely interesting to me because it was a time where all these now countries were fighting to be free from Europe. The textbook named this chapter Atlantic Revolutions, and I think it's the perfect name for this time period and everything that was going on. Naturally being hispanic the Spanish American Revolutions of 1808-1825 really caught my attention. For many reasons this part in our textbook was one that caught my attention. For one, Strayer says that they didn't necessarily generate a revolution, "as have one thrust upon them by events in Europe." One event that really got this started was the fact that in 1808 Napoleon invaded Spain and Portugal, deposing the Spanish king Ferdinand VII and forcing the Portuguese royal family into exile in Brazil. With legitimate royal authority now in disarray, Latin Americans were forced to take action. Another thing that I found super interesting was the fact that the Spanish American Revo...

"The early modern era of world history gave birth to two intersecting cultural trends that continue to play out in the twenty-first century. The first was the spread of Christianity to Asians, Africans, and Native Americans, some of whom now seem to be returning the favor. The second was the emergence of a modern scientific outlook, which sharply challenged Western Christianity even as it too acquired a global presence." One of the important things that Chapter 15 talks about is the spread of the Christian faith. For a long time Christianity was very limited to Europe only. Things started to really change around the 1500's when the globalization of Christianity really began. It was during this time that it started to stretch out to different parts of the world.  "The world of Christendom stretched from Spain and England in the west to Russia in the east, with small and beleaguered communities of various kinds in Egypt, Ethiop...

I truly enjoyed reading about Notre Dame's Foundresses. It was very interesting to read about both Francoise Blin de Bourbon and Julie Billart. It's amazing to me how these two women lives were completely different but at the end of the day that difference didn't matter because the two women ended up developing a deep bond of mutual support and friendship. I found it to be very special that till this day their "loving mutuality of spiritual friendship continues to evolve today in response to the realities of the 21st century, acting as an energizing force in the lives and work of the SNDs throughout the world. I definitely admire both sister for not letting their struggles affect the vision and plan they had for the SNDs. Francoise Blin de Bourdon was born in 1756 to an aristocratic family in Gezaincourt, France. Francoise had a very different upbringing than most aristocratic people, from the time she was an infant she was raised by her maternal grandpar...