Change in the Global Community Between 1870 and 1945, Essay Example

1870- 1945 was a period of renaissance in the global perspective. It was a period with many happenings in the economic, social and political nature of the community globally. Some of the major happenings include imperialism, world wars, industrialization, and many others that affected the globe and brought in changes. This paper looks into some of the contributions from Anthony, Kevin and William regarding the effects of these happenings and changes brought into the community between 1870 and 1945.

The period of New Imperialism (1870-1914) had major impacts globally. The years 1870 and 1914 experienced the great expansion of Western power globally. By 1914, the West was dominating the entire planet. Kevin (2000) described the major players in Western countries of New Imperialism as including Britain, Italy, France, Germany, and the United States. Two non-Western powers in the new era of imperialism included Japan and Russia. Although the West featured in Africa for centuries, the respective colonies were mostly limited to the coast of Africa. Between 1870 and 1914, this is a period named as the Scramble for Africa, because of the high competition between European nations in need of control of Africa (Kevin, 2000). This brought in a change in the continent as it experienced more developments. The British and Italians being the two most dominant powers in Africa influenced the continent bringing in their governance systems. There were wars prominent after the imperial powers tried to conquer over the continent and gain more control over as many colonies as possible (William, 1996).

Tensions were high globally with rivalry existing between the imperial powers and their competitors and the colonies vs. the imperial powers. Some prominent changes were the establishment of schools across the continent. Many missionaries were sent to Africa to introduce the system of education. Industrialization increased globally in the period of imperialism (Anthony, 2003). The empires were a source of many raw materials for the imperial powers including rubber, gold and diamond. An ambitious change that Europeans brought globally owing to imperialism was the Suez Canal construction in Egypt. This was to allow ships to travel from Indian Ocean to the Atlantic without having to sail around Africa. The Western powers expanding at the time greatly changed many societies that they conquered. The empires were connected via telegraph and railroad and they constructed schools, churches, and factories. It was after the imperial period that led to settlements of Americans in the western countries. There was a population growth in the West leading to continuous creation of new western states. This was prolonged and by 1912, great land occupied by the Americans and of the contiguous U.S. became part of the state.

Since World War II, the central preoccupation of national politics in the United States has always been searching a post-imperial identity. After discussions in the twentieth century, the British government seemed to enhance recovery of a cultural consciousness as well as reconstructing the economic system through active participation in intra-European trade, labor markets and capital movements. Anthony (2003) argued that in addressing the large problem regarding the benefits as well as the costs flowing from the realms, moving away from Europe into three centuries of involvement with Empire seems opportune. World wars were also a great feature in this period. They introduced many changes globally. In Asia, Britain defeated China in the Opium War and later France and Britain in the Arrow War. This led to the opening up of trade within the West, a great change that lived to benefit the entire world. Soon other major Western power including Russia and Japan developed spheres of influence in the Chinese economy. The Civil War imparted great changes globally (William, 1996). The United States was affected severely and the effect trickled down to other dependent countries. After the civil war, former Confederate states were under federal occupation and there was an attempt by the federal lawmakers to gain equality for blacks through an outlaw of slavery and providing the slaves with citizenship (Kevin, 2000).

The slaves came from across the globe and there were protests in every corner all fighting for the rights of the blacks in the United States. The world war also contributed to changes globally in the sense that there were many experiences of immigration from all corners. The war instilled instability in many countries especially the Latin American and Hispanic Populations lending them poor and unstable. At the time, America’s population increased greatly between 1870 and 1914 because of these immigrations (Anthony, 2003). The U.S. had always received immigrants for many decades but the 20th century brought in a change with the numbers of these immigrants increasing drastically. In the same period, discrimination was on a high between relating to race, color, religion and tribe. Some major immigrant groups included Scandinavians, Germans, the Irish, Italians, and Jews. The vast majority changed American culture and the religious landscape bringing in their cultures and incorporating them into the American culture. World War I had a very significant impact globally. It led to the formation of alliances. The late 19th century was a period that brought in changes through the creation of alliances globally. , Italy, Germany and Austria-Hungary formed their own secret defensive alliance named the Triple Alliance. Russia and France developed a very strong relation because of the French capitalists financing the Russia’s Industrial Revolution. Britain also ended its isolation policy and joined France in an alliance named the Entente Cordiale. These alliances led to the cold war where there was great tension among countries and the future was at stake (Anthony, 2003).

Global economics involved investors and industrialists who purposed to develop the globe. Anthony (2003) argued that they brought in many innovations at the period and changed the scope of industrial levels of respective countries. Western inventors and many other industrialists transformed the countries of residence in the late 19th and some in the early 20th centuries. The American Thomas Edison was a pioneer who came up with electricity and the technology of motion picture. There were other American inventors for instance the Wright brothers, who completed and facilitated the first airplane flight in the year 1903 (Anthony, 2003). There were also discoveries of the first automobiles during this period. It was then that Petroleum emerged as an important commodity when discoveries indicated that it could be of use to in powering machines. Henry Bessemer developed steel in Britain at the same period. Because of their inventions, changes hit the globe in terms of trade and constructions. Steel in many economies was valuable because it was used in construction of elevators named skyscrapers (William. 1996). In the 19th century, Marconi an Italian was able to communicate using the radio an invention that brought in changes and ease communication. It led to more innovations where Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876. It was a period of Industrial Revolution where the American entrepreneurs and others globally including John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie formed unions to fight for workers rights. This led to more changes whereby in 1914, there was introduction of laws limiting working hours that applied globally and many Western countries accepted them into the system. Because of industrialization, cities grew enormously across the globe in the period 1870 and 1914. This led to crowded and unsanitary living conditions in many cities globally, especially in the poor developing countries. By 1914, many municipal governments were formed and they provided fire departments, garbage removal and police services to their citizens (Kevin, 2000).

References

Anthony, E. (Ed.). (2003). the Human Venture (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Kevin, R. (Ed.). (2000). Worlds of History: (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Bedford / St. Martin’s.

William, H. (1996). History of the Human Community. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 562-700.