Chapter 22

I learned about the struggle that many countries within Africa had to go through to try to gain independence.  Empires started to fall after WWI and WWII which weakened Europe and discredited their thought of them being the most superior, opening a perfect door for them to be overthrown in colonies. Europeans began to alter relationships with colonies so they could still gain profit, but not have to deal with the headache of colonial governments. Europeans were able to successfully do this, using elections, writing constitutions and building railroads and ports.

Chapter 21

In chapter 21 I learned the  journey to Russia becoming the USSR. World War I made lower class Russians unhappy, forcing them to take more drastic measures such as organizing into parties and overthrowing elites. Many changes were instantly made throughout Russia, soldiers abandoned their posts, trade unions were created, peasants took over landlords' land and redistributed them. Even then, the government wasn't able to meet peoples demands, so a small socialist party, the Bolsheviks, came to power. The Bolsheviks managed to stay in power and renamed the country USSR. This was also Russian's road to communism and how it came to be.

Chapter 20

Chapter 20 talks about important historical events such as World War 1 and 2 as well as the great depression. WW1 was pretty much a civil was between Europe and is what resulted in the great depression. However, after WW1 the United States did become the superpower in the West. What I didn't know was exactly why the WW1 help spiral the United States into a Great Depression. During the war American produced more goods than it could sell, creating a huge deficit. Something I learned in-class was that another main cause was the crash of the housing market. I was baffled to learn that interest rates were so much that people that paid off their mortgage on time every month weren't actually making a dent in their mortgage, but instead just the interest rate. So people that thought they were paying off their mortgage, realistically never started paying it.

Chapter 19

Chapter 19 taught me many things I didn't previously know about the 1800's such as that British sold addictive opium to the Japanese's  against the Japanese' will. The problem of opium addiction was one of the many reasons their country began to decline, but also because of Japan's rising population and little wealth and resources. Japan especially did not want their citizens to be addicted to opium because if those citizens are addicted to drugs and aren't doing anything for the country like have a job then they are useless to society.

Chapter 18

Chapter 18 taught me a lot of things I didn't previously know about European conquest and colonial economies. Europe started having struggles with gathering colonies because during this time nationalism began to arise. These colonies wanted to be a strong independent colonies and became hard to conquer. Chapter 18 also made me aware of how screwed the farmers got in the colonial times. Machinery became more efficient than Artisans could be, as well, blacksmiths were no longer needed.  Slowly but surely machines and assembly lines took over individual human work. The Industrial Revolution was good to a select amount of people, but were more importantly devastating to others.

Chapter 17

I learned many things from chapter 17, almost all including things about the Industrial Revolution.
First, I was not aware that The Industrial Revolution specifically began in Britain because of the amount of available workers and how easy it was to create a company with these workers. Britain believed in science, and through experiments were able to create advancements in medical. I was also intrigued to find out that without the industrial revolution there would be no working or middle class. These are vital class' to our society today. Along with the introduction of new class', came the representation of those people. I learned that there was no political party presenting the workers, as well, socialist ideas didn't resonate with Americans because the population was so diverse, making many different view points.

Chapter 16 (Part 2) summary

The abolition of slavery
Enlightenment thinkers thought slavery as a violation to the rights a person has. To add to the argument, at the time it was found that slavery was not essential for economic progress. Movements were a very effective way to bring attention to your concern, which at the time was wanting slavery to end. Finally Britain cut off the sale of slaves in 1807 and by 1834, emancipated the rest of their slaves that were still captive. Soon after, other nations followed because of the growing international pressures to do so from Britain. Life after slave life wasn't all what it was cracked up to be, most slaves economic lives did not improve dramatically. With former slaves reluctant to work on plantations for low-wages, this caused a shortage of workers, in return brought a whole new wave of immigrants mainly from India and china. The former slaves were right not to work for the plantation owners because the conditions the new wave of immigrants worked in were slave like.
Nations to nationalism 
Nationalism was extremely important to civilizations and proved to be a powerful idea during the nineteenth century Europe. This caused some areas to unify and some areas to branch out from the rule they were under. It also caused a highly competitive drive for colonies in Asia and Africa. It also  caused nations to invest in themselves and their future by adding schools, public rituals, mass media, and military services. There were many different versions of nationalism, liberal democracy and representative governments used by France and the US emphasized "the people" to control. Germany defined the nation in racial terms, they excluded those who did not share common ancestry, such as Jews.
Feminist Beginnings
Feminism started widely in Europe and North America. European thinkers challenged ancient traditions like women inferiority. With a growing middle class, women found more opportunities in education and profession. What women saught most was access to schools, universities and professions. By 1914, there were a whopping two million member's of the National American Women Suffrage Association. By 1900, women were starting to get what they ask for, a small number of women got access to universities and literacy rates for women began to rise.