Chapter 21

                In the beginning of the chapter Strayer calls the 3 decades that began with World War I and ended with World War II a period of self-destruction in Europe with effects felt around the globe. The reason that the whole globe was impacted was due in large part to the fact that almost the entire world was at some point colonized by a European country where the wars took place. Strayer goes on to say that the world wars were an accident waiting to happen due to competition among the European states and in hindsight, of course he was right. I think that because one relatively small area had such power over the whole world, any sort of turmoil within this region could potentially be something destructive for all peoples around the world.  One big cause that was mentioned but not completely fleshed out was the idea of alliances playing a big role in starting the first world war. If not for the alliances made between two groups of countries, a relatively minor incident would not have turned into a full scale war. Something I found particularly interesting about this chapter is that the Treaty of Versailles ended WWI but also was a huge cause of WWII because of the conditions it established that punished Germany heavily. And not only did the ending of the war cause another war, but also resulted in the Great Depression because soldiers coming home and integrating them was a difficult challenge. I find it extremely ironic that the end of one war actually played a part in starting another war as well as played a role in what was one of the worst economic crises in human history. 

European Influence

The second half of chapter 20 made me feel as if the second wave of colonization was not all bad for the native peoples. While the racism and economic instability was definitely an issue, the Europeans did offer at least one good thing when they came to colonize. I think the biggest thing they did had to do with the education of the native people. Before the Europeans came, a lot of people were illiterate and did not have the ability to have access to things that previously seemed out of reach. However there were a lot of negative things that happened even with good intentions. Things did not actually work out to the best possible scenarios as a lot of times the people who embraced the European cultures were the wealthier elite classes that looked down upon their own people for not wanting to conform. Another big part of Western culture that spread to the colonies was Christianity. More specifically, the reading said that in Africa it only took 50 years for half of the population that were not Muslims to convert to Christianity. I think that the best thing to come out of these negatives was the formation of a new, more united identity that occurred in Africa. Before the colonization, most of the African people did not even refer to themselves as Africans; rather they were identified by the language they spoke or if they were Muslims. The unifying thing that brought them together was ironically the oppression that they all had to endure under European rule.