Question 2: In what ways did communism have an impact on world history in the first half of the 20th century?
Communism was an economic-political philosophy which was founded by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the 2nd half of the 19th century. The major manifesto of communism was to end capitalism since they believed that it was a social class system that led to the exploitation of the workers in a country. Workers who were exploited would develop class consciousness. As a result, communism has major impacts on world history, mostly in the first 20th century. First, the philosophy led to end in capitalism in many countries. Communism also led to the abolishment of concepts of currency and ownership. As much as many ideologies of communism were not achieved, the philosophy led to socialism, since no country was ever completely communist in history. Socialism is considered to the stepping stone to communism, which means that everyone gets a share of property and profit, and wealth is distributed. This is unlike capitalism, where only a few individuals got to benefit from the profits and wealth.
However, a fraction of people feared communism, since they believed that it would lead to fascism, where many fascists came to power as the opposition to communism. These parties’ ideologies were completely different from what communism believed in. The communist impact on the globe was widespread. Some nations feared the philosophy since they believed that it would result in violent uprisings, hence allowing fascism to impact the economically and politically stable nations negatively. However, Europe experienced many communist uprisings, though none was able to succeed as aggressively as Russia, which experienced massive uprisings.
The communists in Russia got to benefit from the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, who was of similar ideologies and used propaganda campaigns as a way to bring reforms to the nation. He wanted people to be indoctrinated to communism, enroll in literacy programs and alleviate the country to the levels of the rest of European countries. Through such reforms, women in Russia were elevated to equal status with men and were granted equal pay. Russia also experienced state-funded infrastructural projects, hence becoming a tantamount example of communism to the rest of the world. However, despite the reforms brought about the reforms such as industrialization, equal rights, and literacy, many people still did not agree with the communist ideologies.
Question 3. How would you compare the historical experiences of India and China in the 20th century (and especially, after World War II)?
Both India and China found themselves under the considerable western influence. This was in the early part of the century. India was a part of the British Empire, whereas China was partially occupied by various European powers. The two nations secured their independence in the 1940s. China acquired independence through revolutionary struggles. On the other hand, India used peaceful means as a way of acquiring independence from the British Colonizers. The differences between the two nations is the fact that India’s revolution was peaceful, whereas China’s was quite different, with cases of war and struggles by the residents. After Independence, India has managed to maintain a democratic government in the second half of the century. China, on the other hand, adopted a communist approach of governance, which it has maintained up to today.
A difference between the two is that India maintained private property, where the state provided license loans, tariffs, subsidies, and overall planning. On the contrary, China adopted the communist approach to industrialization, where it gradually began shifting to a more capitalistic approach. The two nations have continually grown in the final decades to merge as economic powers with China being a larger economy than India pas of presently. The geopolitical significance of the two nations is significant, where they are both seen to be global players.
The two also possess a very huge population where they both have hit the billion-mark concerning the number of people in their countries. The two were orient of the imperial age. In the 20th century, they witnessed political leadership, which set out decisively where they aimed to be equal to the nation’s state of significance m and at the same time revive their civilizational grandeurs. The two also embraced the western style modernizing projects, as a way of preventing future foreign consequent and colonization. On mobility, India and China are quite different. Numerous Indian scientists and engineers travel back and forth to the Euro- American world, as compared to their Chinese counterparts. The role of diaspora has hence played a very significant role in the development of science and engineering in India. On the other hand, a majority of the Chinese diaspora is related to the manufacturing sector.
Question 6. What have been the costs and benefits of globalization for the world economy and the lives of workers since 1900?
Globalization has had multiple advantages and befits to economies across the globe and the lives of workers since the 1900s. First, the world economy has been enhanced in that the markets have become more efficient, hence making trading across the borders easier. Through globalization, there has been limited military conflicts, a factor that has made nations to have a better working environment, and also a suitable environment for investment.
The first wave of globalization happened by the end of 1914. By then, Britain was beginning to dominate the world geographically, where there was an establishment of the British Empire. It was also the era in the first industrial revolution. Britain and other nations were benefiting from globalization, where Britain has the most capital and technology. Globalization also led to mass exportation of products such as meat among other products.
Through globalization, there has enabled an equal sharing of wealth among nations, hence ensuring that the global economy thrives more than in the past. It has supported more inter trading between nations, since there are more communication and constant movement of goods between nations in each continent. Economies have also become more innovative, mostly with regard to technological advancements. As a result, there has been a growth in foreign direct innovation amongst nations, which helps in the improvement of economic output and making the processes more efficient.
Globalization has also enabled more global and local companies to realize economies of scale, which reduces the costs and process and in turn supports further economic growth. However, this has constantly hurt smaller businesses as they attempt to compete domestically. The United States, for example, was affected by two major factors, which included the internet and the North American Free trade Agreement. Internet, led to greater business efficiency and faster information exchange making more people across the globe communicate and undertake more business. It also led to rapid growth in the stock market, which includes investment companies. Elimination of tariffs, free trades were also experienced in nations like America. There was also a loss of jobs as a result of outsourcing, where the human resource was distributed among nations as a result of the increasing globalization. Despite the loss of manufacturing jobs in America, and an increase in such jobs in countries like China, the type of jobs in the USA shifted to higher skilled and higher education positions.
