Indias unique independence

India like any other country was dominated by colonialism. They were under control and run by other countries with a upper hand in industrialization and development. What was unique about their Independence was their decision to become a democratic state and also the outcome religious struggles. India before gaining its independence consisted of Pakistan and Bangladesh. The reason for the split of the country was because of religious differences. The problem was that India consisted of both Hindu and Muslim followers. however, neither population was small, although Muslims had less followers in the area they were still a very large group. The two religious groups could not come to agreement and felt there needed to be separate countries in order to keep the peace. These struggles are so significant because a country was able to section off three separate area and still keep India a democratic state. The two religions belong to very different civilizations.

Communism and its possiblites

Communism is a tricky system, it has been proven that it needs an ideal nation to adopt the system in order to succeed. Communism is basically the idea that equality is everything and that if everyone does their own part there will be enough to go around. The communism experiment that took place and still continues to, is a search for a life that is better then capitalism. It hopes to obtain a "rely on your neighbor because he rely's on you" attitude. The first initial experiments with communism failed because of the nations lack of resources and power. Also a huge factor that made these communist countries unsuccessful was a corrupt leader or group of leaders. in my opinion, the leader of a nation is the most important part, especially in the case of communism. If a country is being lead in the wrong direction or even has any doubt in their leader it is a government that will surly fell. This is why communist nation have always had a such a struggle. Although their ethics attempt to spread the wealth their leaders and important official lack to execute. They may not take the wealth for themselves but the money used correctly. I feel that if communism was attempted with our country, their would be a very positive turnout. This is if everyone is willing to comply, the system depends on cooperation and this is usual why it faults.

Outcomes of global conflict

The world wars were important because they sparked change among several of the major powers. The war forced some countries to change by overpowering their enemies into submission and others changed because of what they had experienced,the powerful shock that would be known as modern warfare. Each country had an individual experience that would change their perspective on what should be done during the aftermath. Germany and Japan had very similar experiences, especially in the second war. Germany was to Europe what Japan was to Asia. Both in their own parts of the world an unsatisfied power that was hungry for land and domination. The Germans never got over the first war and again assumed the position of the aggressor sparking a second world. The Japanese desired to be a dominated culture and when threatened by Chinese nationalism they began to attempt to take over territories. The west, along with parts of Europe, would not let this happen. The west along with the allied forces would control the aggressive nations and influence them with western culture that would be infused in their history whether it was accepted or not. The west, on the other hand saw the massive destruction it cause and multiple mistakes it had made with its own people and other countries. The realization left the culture tentative and unsure of themselves. I feel that since the major wars our country has been unsure about solving exterior problems.

Karl Marx

After reading about Marx's background and what circumstances he grew up under it was easy to see why he stood by the views he did. Since he grew up in the middle of the british industrial revolution class struggle and inequality was a part of his everyday life and shaped his political opinions accordingly. His idea of the oppressor and the oppressed is directly related to his early years and the difficulties he had to watch and face while growing up. He felt that capitalism was not effective because private property, competition and class structure did no allow the proper distribution of economics to the workers as well as the owners. Which is why in his model it is an extremely evenly distributed society with everyone doing there own part. His philosophy is, in my opinion, a much better system then reality and although it did not flourish i think that it is a possible society to obtain. In the end it would create a much more equal world that benefits ALL of us, even if the lucky like us must downgrade.

wing yangmin

Wing Yangmin argued that truth and moral knowledge were a privilege that was only received by those who earned it. That if knowledge was not obtained by a person it is simpler to experience a life of virtue without consequence. In my opinion, Yangmin's idea was basically similar to the saying, "ignorance is bliss". I felt that this statement(along with yangmins's idea) is true to some extent. but on the other hand i do not believe that knowledge make you miserable because you are informed. I thought that it was interesting because it is impossible to compare two backgrounds that are so different. For instance a philosopher and an uneducated house servant.

Kaozheng

India and China did not face the same changes that occurred in European culture. Although religious and cultural changes occurred in both areas, China's was less dramatic compared to Europe. I think that this was because of the different approach each culture followed regarding religion and science. The idea of kaozheng (research based on evidence or seeking fact from truth) played a large role in keeping china more religiously stable. Since the Confucian philosophy did not challenge the religion it was a lot easier for Hindus and Confucius followers to believe only what they had verification and rigorous analysis for. Also another positive side of Kaozheng was that it produced many experiments which brought about numerous breakthroughs in agriculture, medicine, and many other useful techniques. The scientific approach that principled Kaozheng worked so well because it did not challenge religion and at the same time allowed the culture to explore different aspects of innovation.

Hawaii: unfairly annexed

the united states has a history of taking over lands because of their desirable qualities without any regards to the people who live there. i think that the way the united states treated the hawaiian nation was unfair. Even though hawaii as been part of the united states for years now they seem to have kept their distance from the rest of the nation and not fully assimilated to the mainland culture. I do not blame them...

What i found most ridiculous about the annexation of hawaii was the constitution written for the island in 1852. The first article states, "God hath created all men free and equal, and endowed them with certain inalienable rights; among which are life and liberty, the right of acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and of pursuing and obtaining safety and happiness." This contradicts everything that the authors are doing and had previously been doing. In my opinion it is truly say one thing and doing the opposite. Acts like this put a burden to the history of our nation, it is important that we as a nation be conscience of the actions we make in the present in order to not repeat our mistakes.

Social Darwinism

Chapter 19 covered a period spanning from 1800-1914 and although there were several topics in the chapter the one i found most interesting was the idea of social darwinism. Social darwinism is basically a myth. Europeans realized that many animals had been affected by darwinism aka evolution. So darwinism was applied to the human creature. For the most part the social chain started with the white man at the top, followed by an Asian, then an Native American, then a Indian, then a black man, and lastly a monkey. I felt that this was a very ignorant hypothesis. Im also confident that the fellow who thought it up was a white man and considered himself intelligent. However, it is not a surprise that this was an idea, after all europeans founds most other races extremely weaker and felt they had a superior white race. This also ties into europeans reasoning in there "duty to civilize" other races, which i feel could be related to the united states in present day. Social darwinism was basically biology and evolution being confused, and although there may be some truth to humans evolving from monkeys this is an over analyzation in my opinion.

industrialization

my prior knowledge about industrialization was limited to that of the united states. I figured that it was the first area to organize industry. I did not know that nearly a century before the U.S. had industry great Britain and the rest of europe were already underway with their own industrial revolution. The next question that arose, why was the U.S. so successful? It turns out that it was a huge advantage to have a basically virgin land full of resources available to everyone. This began to make sense after i realized the U.S. was the only country with such an advantage. Nevertheless I was surprised to find out that democracies were not the only successful governments leading their country through a industry boom. Russia had a very different and interesting system. However even though they were not quite as up to date i feel that hardships were caused by war rather then a flaw in the system. Also when the southern americas come to mind, i felt as if they could have been a industry powerhouse if their resources were not striped from them and sent back to europe with basically no reimbursement towards southern america.

sugar

For the most part i did not know the role sugar played in the 1600s. What i learned about it was that it was one of the most difficult and time consuming products to make. The colonist had a easy time making a lot of money off of this product. This is because they had free labor. African slaves and indigenous that were enslaved and taken advantage of. What i found interesting about the subject is the fact that the colonists would have the audacity to take people from other parts of the world and enslave them in unknown parts all for a luxury item. Not to mention that fact that the indigenous were run out of their home and/or forced to join the slaves. Sugar was the perfect product for such a feat because of the ability to mass market it. Although colonist say they weren't making away with a lot of riches i feel as if it would only be logical to make a killing off of this process. In conclusion sugar(and other plantation products) transformed the Americas forever. Although the exploitation of African and indigenous slaves may be a disgusting thought, i believe it is one of the main reasons the Americas are so advanced.

1st blog ever

how exciting...