Author: Paris Stirrat

Urbanization is a concept that is growing in relevance by the day. As our population grows the number of urban areas increases. The beginning of the 20th century marked a true explosion in the global population, in 1900 the population was just short of 2 billion people, today it is just under 8 (Lecture). This increase saw the immediate obligation for established cities to completely redesign their layout. The ideas that were brought about from this movement have been categorized as modernism. The movement of modernism had one main goal in mind, functionality (lecture). The modernistic movement sought to eliminate any forms of frivolous design that did not serve a purpose in the facilitation of an efficient city. This functionality focused on things like uniformity, efficient waste management (prior to the 20th century the concept of hygiene was non-existent), and areas of great space to emulate a more open environment. This movement was seen as progressive for its time, however not long after this movement caused more damage than good. In the mid-20th century, a prominent urban planner named Robert Moses sought to make traffic through cities as efficient as possible. His plan to accomplish this was to abruptly build massive causeways through densely populated urban areas, these causeways would intentionally direct people to regions which were planned to have heavy amounts of commercialization. Moses tried to implement this plan in New York, his plan came to fruition in areas that were of low income due to a financial inability to protest these massive developments (Lecture). His plan did, however, fail in areas of higher income such as Manhattan. Plans of modernization such as these aimed at hyper-efficacy, however, they did not take into account the fluidity of people. Rather than study the paths of movement people already used, Moses aimed to create an entirely new form of transportation regardless if people thought it to be an upgrade. Because of this, many “modernization” projects of the early to late 20th century are now being reversed to emphasize a more “grass-roots” idea of the urban environment. Modernization began as a beneficial progressive movement that benefited every persons quality of life, however, over time it became forceful and disrupted the natural fluidity of people.

1.) Tony Judt discusses numerous thematic shapes in post-war Europe, one more valuable theme that we see is the role America played in Europe during the postwar period. Europe after World War 1 was a place of great economic and cultural turmoil. Many countries, such as Germany, took on great amounts of debt which was nearly impossible to pay back. We see things like this become less dramatic with the help of US support with things such as the Dawes act. US support helped restructure much of Europe in a time where it was desperately needed, the cultural and economic turmoil is characterized by Judt when he says “in the west……not least thanks to American aid (and pressure).” (Judt 6). This overt American influenced much of western Europe in a way that made them emulate American culture and ideologies.

2.) The transitions of political topography in Europe over the past 130 years has been one that consists of great turmoil. From the territorial revisions made after World War 1 and 2 to the wars held in Yugoslavia, we see millions of deaths for the borders of countries to be changed. Europe and its political topography have directly reflected the conflicts that occurred within Europe as the transitions of boarders are usually a direct reason or result of the conflicts that occurred. A good example of this is the conflicts within Yugoslavia prior to its dissolution, the civil war that occurred there resulted in thousands of deaths and the creation of numerous new countries. This conflict occurred because of the need for new borders and as a result, the political topography of Europe was changed.

3.) The dichotomy between Judts description as a “limited Europe” vs the more optimistic description of the formation of the EU from  A World Transformed is one that depicts both outlooks on the new age of Europe. When Judt points to the “limitations of a post-national prescription for a better European future” (p.797) we see his outlook as one that has more pessimism regarding Europe’s future. Judt argues that Europe will be more reserved in their ideological decisions however is arguably wrong due to the formation of the EU. on the other hand, A World Transformed describes “Europe’s rightful role and place in a world being built” (P. 337). This characterization is somewhat more optimistic than Judt as it shows Europe as a place that wants to make itself the exact antithesis of what it once was.

Africa is a very good example of what happens when decolonization occurs the right way, as well as the wrong. By 1963 all of Africa was independent of European rule, Rhodesia is the only exception (Lecture). Africa was under rule by numerous countries at the height of imperialistic control, unsurprisingly these countries also felt their decolonization strategies should differ from one another. This disparity led to African countries either becoming somewhat successful in obtaining their own independence or becoming a place of major conflict resulting in death tolls that reached hundreds of thousands.

In countries such as Nigeria, education and a presence of “elite” groups were more present thanks to access to higher education from Britain. during the time that Britain had Nigeria as a protectorate, Britain hoped to create a group of elites who in theory would emulate Britain both politically and economically. This was done through investing in schools in Africa as well as programs made to offer the people of Nigeria a chance to go to Europe and go to a college or university at a reduced cost. As expected, this sounds good on paper but was ultimately given out to only a finite group of people. Regardless, when the time for de-colonization was upon them they still had people ready to take power who knew what to do.

Furthermore, we see countries such as Belgium stray away from this method of decolonization. Belgium had rule over the Congo during the imperialistic era of Europe. During this time, Belgium feared that educating the people of the Congo would lead to a revolt as it already had in other countries such as Russia or Germany. This method benefited them up until they abruptly decided to give Congo their independence, which resulted in conflicts that would ultimately kill hundreds of thousands. The lack of structure and self-sufficiency Belgium gave to the Congo would eventually be what caused such damaging conflict.

All in all, these two countries only provide a small idea of what decolonization did to the countries of Africa. When European countries gave independence to these countries it usually resulted in massive civil wars that sparked conflicts for decades to come.

Eastern Asia during its history was one which had most of its countries under the rule of a single autonomous ruler who held authority both politically and culturally. This absolute autonomy was one which presented political forms of superiority in the form of imperialism, however, it also presented a cultural form of superiority, we see this in how women were viewed when having power vs the ladder. A dichotomy is presented between the testimony of Kimiko Kaneda and a tabloid article about Mo Guokang, a politician of that era. The disparity between the treatment of men and women is depicted very graphically when Kimiko describes her coercion into becoming a “comfort women”. one account she stated “as many as 20 men would come to my room from early morning”, a result of this obscenity is her obligation to receive a hysterectomy, just so she did not have a child out of rape. Moreover, we see the other end of the dichotomy when we see how a woman of high political status is characterized. in this article Mo Guokang is depicted as someone who does not deserve her political power, in fact, it was said that “there are many people who joked about Mo Guokang being “the committee member for seduction.”. this dichotomy is indicative of just how much disdain was shown towards a woman of power during this era vs one who is a victim of treatment no living thing should experience. These differing depictions are indicative of how people were naturally inclined to view women of power vs ones who were under power in the most sadistic ways. This type of culture and behavior only implemented itself more and more in the coming years when the atrocities of war were committed across eastern Asia during the 19th and 20th century.

A common theme that was recurrent throughout the week was the concept of industrialization and primitive economic globalization, but more specifically, how it was achieved. As we saw with the market shift of cotton production between Bombay and America, trade and the international economy was already globalized by the mid 19th century. another indicative example of globalized industrialization was the heightened levels of production within the Ruhr Valley. Almost countries between 1850 and 1914 saw some level of industrialization or growth in international presence.

Furthermore, the industrialization of Bombay was due in great part to British influence. The aftermath of the civil war resulted in a great reduction of cost-efficient cotton production within the southern United States, which prior to the war was the worlds #1 exporter of cotton. This sudden market shift made the British look elsewhere for their supply of cotton, this is when they decided to start investing capital into Bombay and their cotton mills. Within 44 years the number of cotton mills in Bombay went from a modest 1 all the way to 136 mills. The ability for a city like Bombay, which prior to industrialization was relatively small, to grow in such size is only due to the recent advancements in transportation technology that was spreading across the globe. These technologies include the train, the steam engine, and overall more efficient production. similar to Bombay, the Ruhr valley saw heavy growth of industry resulting in population spikes upwards of 400%.

All in all, even with a brief description such as this, we can still see the magnitude of the indicators that show just how our planet obtained such a globalized industry in less than a century. This growth is only accomplished through advancements in transport and economic ideology. Globalization is one of the most vital accomplishments of the past couple hundred years because it acts as the facilitator for advancement in research and societal growth.

 

As we dwell on the multitude of different ideas and cultures of the start of the 20th centruy we notice a trend amongst most countries or regions. This trend is best categorized as a “dissatisfaction” of the political or cultural landscape of one’s country.  This is most prevalent in places such as Eastern Asia or South America during this period. Rio De Janeiro is indicative of this ideology through their attempts at westernization and incentivizing immigration to their country. They attempted to “westernize” their city through redesigning their infrastructure to emulate that of western Europe as well as incentivizing immigrants from the western world to come to Rio in an attempt to slowly make the dominant race in Rio one that was synonymous to the Western world.

Similarly, we see Eastern Asia attempt this as well in the form of “De-Asianization”. Japan during this era is another place that is indicative of the belief that countries had a dissatisfaction with their current landscape which they usually viewed as atavistic. They thought that “modern civilization was incompatible with the old customs of japan, and if we were to reject the old customs the government too would be abolished at the same time.” (Fukuzawa 130). This quote indicates that japan not only viewed their government as archaic but rather if they did not change this government soon the rest of the world would eventually triumph over them, ultimately leading to their demise.

All in all, countries did not attempt to emulate the western world out of superficiality or out of certain subjective beliefs. they wholeheartedly viewed the western world as the pioneer in a new era that they felt they needed to become a part of in order to survive. They felt threatened by the advancements and felt the need for urgent change otherwise they would lose their own freedoms which they valued more than anything.