Week 7

There were really only 2 chapters this week and the more this book gets into the 20^th and 21^st century I am that much more interested. In the first chapter this was centered on World War 1 and World War 2. The First World War (also called the Great War) started with an assassination on a political figure. This sparked for Germany to side with the Austro-Hungarian Empire angst Russia and France. Later on each side began to get other countries to side with them. It eventually turned into Japan, Serbia, Portugal, Romania, Italy, and China joined the Allies (Britain, France, and Russia) verses Ottoman Empire cast its lot with the Central Powers (Germany and Austro-Hungary). After this war ended it sparked for Nazism to form with Hitler leading things into World War 2.

            I was unaware that World War 2 had a lot of beginnings in Asia with Japan trying to seize more control over China and Korea. The chapter continued with more of the history I was familiar with like Germany trying to control Europe and invading France and Poland. Germany also started to attach England. Once the Perl Harbor attack happened the United States became involved. This then introduced a major human development with the Atomic Bomb. Once this was launched on Japan the human race discovered it could kill itself quickly. This was a major turning point in science and also military technology. After the WW2 Europe was divided up with the East becoming more influenced by communism and the west influenced by capitalism. These two ideologies would be discussed (more so communism) in the next chapter.

            The next chapter told how communism rose to power in Russia and how China was exposed to it. Communism even spread to Cuba making it more global. This scared many other countries such as the United States. Both the USA and Russia had become military super powers and feared each other with nuclear weapons. In the end communism did not really become the dominant way of running a country. Russia economy became stagnant and China started a hybrid way of handling its economy by introducing some capitalism. Other countries like Cuba and Vietnam still have communism the United States has proven shown that a capitalistic society is more beneficial to its people.