Ch. 21-23

Chapters 21-23

I enjoyed chapter 21 in that it seemed to clear up a foggy memory of my adolescence.  I remember learning about the World War I and II, communism, socialism and the Iron Curtain but not too much of the details.  As a child of the 70’s and 80’s, the nuclear threat from the Russians was very real and very scary.  It seemed like in the 80’s, Russians or Germans were the bad guys in every movie Hollywood produced.  Every now and then when I come across one of them on cable, it seems so silly.  I supposed for my kids it will be the same with Iraq or Afghanistan.  I pray that the upheavals in these countries will have the same relatively underwhelming transition to a more democratic state as East Germany and the Soviet Union did.

What I didn’t grasp or comprehend as a child and what I found most interesting was that one of the major outcomes of the World Wars was that the United States emerged as the global super power by 1945.  After World War I, much of Europe was destroyed physically and economically.  The United States on the other hand was relatively untouched.  Their booming productivity had given them the unique advantage of being able to help Europe pick up the pieces.  They exported a myriad of products that Europe was unable to produce themselves.  At that time the United States was producing 50% of the world’s production.  They also lent money, about twelve billion dollars to rebuild infrastructures.  Lastly, they provided the military backing to protect nations from communism.

Strayer describes this notion as “empire by invitation”.  I think it perfectly describes what was happening around the world post war.  The United States had become the “step-father” so to speak to many of the recovering nations.  They had come to depend on the United States for products and services as well as financing for projects and military might.  All these things an empire would provide its colonies.

As the United States became this quasi new empire and democracy was becoming wide spread, Europe’s actual empire was crumbling in Asia and Africa.  The empires’ second and third generation, western-educated men as well as the Europeans themselves, saw colonial rule as something unnecessary.  They could no longer rationalize the rampant racism, exploitation and poverty with their Christian beliefs.  One of the last countries to find freedom was South Africa.  Strangely, South Africa was not even a colony.  Its problem was extreme segregation imposed on them by the “Afrikans”, or white Africans who had complete political and economic control of the country.  Native Africans had no political voice and were forced to live on reservations completely apart from the whites.  Their fight to be accepted as “civilized men” lasted for decades.  Apartheid finally ended after years of global political pressure and economic boycotts.  I remember when Nelson Mandela was freed from prison and subsequently elected president.  Pretty awesome!

Lastly, what I found interesting about the reading was the varied links with feminism and communism.  In Russia, women were given full legal and political equality in regards to marriage, divorce, abortion, labor, etc.  In China, “The Marriage Law” decreed free choice of marriage, easy divorce, the end of concubinage, child marriage, widows remarrying and property rights for women.  There are other examples in which communism was not all bad.  Cuba for example has one of the best public education and health care systems in the world.  Perhaps the United States could learn a little something from Cuba given how low we rank in either category.