Chapter 21: Revolution, Socialism, and Global Conflict (Week 12)

April 3, 2018

(1917-Present)

Here is the timeline of events from out textbook to help you understand what point in history I am discussing:

The Rise and Fall of World Communism

This was a time in history when communism came to be quite popular and appealing to countries who were desperate and not thriving. In the previous chapter we saw socialism in Europe fail so that economic system was no longer wanted by many countries. Both China and Russia became communist regimes which was huge considering Russia was the largest territory and China had the largest population. Many communist revolutions took place and followed Karl Marx’s ideas exactly. These countries were tired of traditional ways and wanted change and believed that communism would later on bring them success. It was very surprising that China and Russia quickly became communist countries because Marx preached that industrialization is needed in order to form a communist government and both of these places were not at all modernized or industrialized, they were very rural. I understand that Marxist ideology says that industrialization must happen before forming into a communist regime, but didn’t marx also say that industrialization causes many social classes to form? I was unclear on how this makes sense because to me they sound like two contradicting ideas. Please comment on my blog if you can help me further understand this concept!

Here is a picture of both China and Russia at the time of the Communist Regimes:

The Cold War

The Cold War was a war with very little physical war and that is where the name “cold war” comes from, instead of a hot war. The war was between nuclear armed countries who disagreed on economic views. This caused a major divide in those countries that were communist and those that were western democratic. The war between Russia and America cause conflicts all over the world and sparked the discussion of socialism and economics. I understand that it is important to have your ideas spread through most of the world and help countries in need, but it seems like it would’ve been easier to just stay to themselves and agree to disagree. I find that war does no good and causes even more problems, and hate. Communism in Russia and China failed and ended anyway, if we truly believed in our system, couldn’t we just sit back and watch their communist ideas fail their economy instead of actively fighting about it? War and world history sparks a lot of moral judgement from myself and reading about a lot of what happened is hard to do. However, it is important to learn from our past and also know where we came from.

Lastly, here is a map of the world during the time of the Cold War: