HIST 410N WEEK 8 ASSIGNMENT: final exam discussion
WK 1 study material
Week 1 Discussion Board #1 Summary (1900: The Age of Hope and the Age of
'Isms') : In this forum we d the US and even some Asian and Pacific natio
...
HIST 410N WEEK 8 ASSIGNMENT: final exam discussion
WK 1 study material
Week 1 Discussion Board #1 Summary (1900: The Age of Hope and the Age of
'Isms') : In this forum we d the US and even some Asian and Pacific nations
have also been involved in this process. There are many potentially good things
to come from imperialism for undeveloped/underdeveloped nations, knowledge,
religion, health care, improved food supplies, trade, etc. but there are also have
been some really bad results from imperialism, like slavery, death from disease,
conquest, loss of freedom and lack of self determination.
Week 1 Discussion Boanry such as tanks, machine guns, larger artillery
than had ever been used before, and how these things and many more, along
with old style tactics for attacking the enemy via masses infantry charges let to
slaughter on the battlefield that had never been seen before. We also discussed
how this war was also a war against tens of millions of civilians for the first time
(at least on this scale) ever.
Wk2 study material
Thread One Summary (The Rise of Totalitarianism): In this thread we compared and contrasted
the 2 most extreme styles of totalitarianism of the 20th century fascism as it occurred in
Germany and communism as it existed in the old USSR. We discussed the basic makeup of both
styles of government, their ssed by any person trying to achieve ultimate power in this
manner.
Thread Two Summary (Nationalism and the Treaty of Versailles): In this thread we discussed
nationalism and the Treaty of Versailles. We analyzed the many causes of WW1 and the manynations responsible for it and how out of all those potential villains Germany was selected to
bear the brunt of blame by the rest of the world and wear the yoke of the Treaty of Versailles.
We analyzed the motivations and agendas of all the nations present at that conference, both
good and bad motivations with the ultimate motivating factor, greed playing such a major role
in leading the allies, especially Britain and France to push for Germany to be branded as "chiefly
responsible" and the real reasont to gain absolute power in German by using the hatred and
mistrust and economic hardships caused by this treaty.
Week 3:
Thread One Summary: (Dictatorship and Democracy). In this thread we discussed and
contrasted the basic personality traits and managerial styles of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.
We discussed their extreme ambition, their extreme paranoia, and how their individual styles
brought these traits to bear on running their nations' governments. We discussed their similar
upbringings, their early desires to become priests, and how their life experiences gradually
developed them into the compassionless monsters they became.
Thread Tcussed how Hitler used
the blaming of the Jews, among other things rise to absolute power in Germany and then once
in power he set about his promise to remove the Jews from the German nation one step at a
time, then under the cover of WW2 he and the Nazis planned and executed the Final Solution,
murdering 6 million Jews, and 5 million other people in a very cold and calculated manner, all to
make Germany and all of Europe what they considered to be a "better place" and a more highly
evolved place.
Week 4
Thread One Summary (The Cold War, Who Shot First): In this forum we discussed the
beginnings of what became known as the Cold War. Even before WWII ended the two former
allies, the US and the USSR began to give menacing glances towards each other and questioning
what their true long term intentions were. The US accused the USSR of going back on their
agreements regarding territories that were liberated or were supposed to be liberated from the
Germans and Japanese and how they seemed to be trying to seize as many of these territories
as possible and keep them for themselves, rather than giving them their freedom as has been
previously agreed upon. The Soviets claimed the US and her allies were trying to surround the
Soviet Union for some possible future attack.
Thread Two Summary ( Cold War, Iron Curtain, Containment, Domino Theory, theMarshall Plan, etc., became used for the first time. Also we looked at the world for the first
time as the main champion of peace and freedom from oppression. We decided to help rebuild
Germany, at least the parts of Germany we had access to via the Marshall Plan. We decided
this would create a long term ally instead of allowing them to get desperate enough to join the
Soviets. We also showed a l
Thread One Summary (Africa and the West): In this thread we discussed the European
exploration and colonization of the African continent. We discussed how even though Africa is
much closer to Europe than the Americas or Asia Europe was much slower to explore and
colonize and try to subjugate the area. We discussed the major reasons for this, including the
geography/terrain of Africa, d the Middle East): In this thread we discussed the seemingly
eternal conflict between the Arabs and Jews and the fights they seem to have over everything,
but especially over the territory we sometimes refer to as the Holy Land. We discussed how
the struggle goes all the way back to the man both races claim as their father/patriarch,
Abraham and his relationship with both the mother of the Arabs, Hagar, and the mother of the
Hebrews/Jews, Sarah. We discussed how this initial struggle over paternal attention and love
developed into a full scale war that has lasted about 4000 years (so far). We tried to find a
peaceful solution to this conflict but we were not able to do so, at least not within the one
week time frame we had to work with.
however was a new threat to world peace, global terrorism. We discussed how we could have
allowed this new threat tes from here. We now face new threats, new enemies, both
ones we can sometimes see, such as global terrorism, and some we can't see or maybe that we
simply won't see, such as pollution, climate change, acid rain, deforestation, shortages of food
and fresh water, as well as the question of where do we go from here regarding our energy
needs and will we ever come up with a good and usable alternative energy source.
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