World History II Blog

Daine Becerra Garcia  Professor Andrews World History II  16 April 2020 Global Pandemics Today the United States is suffering from a virus named COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus. Some historical context on coronaviruses is that this virus comes from a “large family of zoonotic viruses” (Vince Mcleod). This means that these viruses are able to be transmitted from an animal to humans and can cause severe respiratory problems or just a common cold. The symptoms of the COVID-19 are dry cough, fever, shortness of breath, and breathing difficulties, but this virus can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure, and even death. As we know most of the people that are affected by COVID-19 are older people with health conditions like diabetes, cancer, asthma, heart disease, and lung disease. The first case of COVID-19 was discovered around December of 2019 when Dr. Zhang Jixian, the head of the respiratory department at Hubei Provincial Hospita...

3) What international circumstances and social changes contributed to the end of colonial empires? The world wars weakened Europe and it discredited any sense of European moral superiority. Both the United States and the Soviet Union opposed the older European colonial empires even as they created empire-like international relationships of their own. The United Nations provided a prestigious platform from which to conduct anticolonial agitation. All this contributed to the global illegitimacy of the empire. By the twentieth century in Asia and the mid-twentieth century in Africa, a second or third generation of Western-educated elites, mainly male, had arisen throughout the colonial world. The young men were very familiar with European culture and were aware of the gap between their values and practice. They didn’t view the colonial rule as a vehicle for their peoples’ progress as their fathers had. There were also a lot of growing numbers of ordinary people who were also receptive ...

In 2020 the world is suffering from COVID-19. There have been many global pandemics in the world and long ago there was a pandemic that killed about 5 million people around 165 AD to 180 AD. This plague known as the Antonine Plague emerged during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. This epidemic brought the spread of religions like Christianity and Mithraism and renewal in spirituality. This plague affected Asia, Egypt, Greece, and Italy, but to this day the cause of this pandemic is still unknown. Many people believe that it was smallpox or measles. This disease was brought by Roman soldiers when they returned from Mesopotamia. Rome’s army was devastated. This plague was a very rapidly spreading disease, just like COVID-19. After the outbreak, Marcus Aurelius made the requirements for membership into Athens, Greece less harsh because there weren’t many surviving upper-class Athenians. This pandemic affected many people like COVID-19 is affecting many people today. https://www.biblicalar...

Fascism is a political ideology that was founded in Europe. Fascism is against individualism, liberalism, feminism, parliamentary democracy, communism. There were many small fascist movements in Western countries but they had small political impact. Benito Mussolini, a charismatic orator & former journalist with a socialist background, used violence to gain power. There were jobless men and veterans that Mussolini used, known as the Black Shirts, who attacked striking workers and destroyed socialist newspapers. According to my research, fascism is associated with the German Nazi. Some well-known fascists are Hitler from Germany, Benito Mussolini from Italy, Francisco Franco in Spain, and Juan Perón in Argentina. All these are well-known fascists from the 20th century. The source that I found also states that when it comes to these fascists being power they do, “not always keep their early promises” ( Jessie Szalay ). This connects to that President that is in power today. Has Don...

1. What accounts for the massive peasant rebellions of 19th century China? In China during the 19th century, there was a very substantial population growth because of the very strong economy. American food crops really helped the population. There were about 100 million people in 1685 and 430 million in 1853. Although this seemed great, there were a few problems. Because of the large population, there was a large peasant population and in many cases, there was also unemployment, impoverishment, misery, and starvation. Even after this, China was not able to effectively perform functions such as tax collection, flood control, social welfare, and public security. As time passed, the central state lost power to provincial officials and local gentry. The harsh treatment of peasants was very common. There was also European military pressure that disrupted internal trade routes, created substantial unemployment and raised peasant taxes. Peasants also embraced rebellion, finding leadership i...

1. In what ways did the Industrial Revolution shape the character of 19 th century European imperialism? The Industrial Revolution shaped European imperialism in several ways. One of those ways was by the enormous productivity of industrial technology and Europe’s growing affluence, which created the need for extensive raw materials and agricultural products. Since Central America, South Africa, southern Russia, etc. were already selling products Europe decided to sell its own products as well, but they produced more manufactured goods than its own people could afford to buy. Europeans adopted many ideas and techniques in advanced societies. There were technological innovations like the steam-driven ship, the underwater telegraph, quinine, the breech-loading rifles, and machine guns. All these produced technological innovations helped shape European imperialism because it was a quicker way of achieving different goals. For example, quinine prevents malaria and the underwater ...