Chapter 22: Feminism and Communism Part 2

This last section really intrigued me because the term used to describe the problems between the United States and the Soviet Union(Russia) and that term is "The Cold War."  It is called that because it really wasn't a war it was more of a competition, mainly the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union.  The Soviet Union was the first nation to send a satellite into space, which caused American to be extremely scared and paranoid since Americans saw it as the Soviets becoming more advanced with their technology and they feared that the satellite was going to attack.  At that time things were more extreme than they are now.  The U.S. tried to out beat the Soviets by sending Apollo 11 to the moon.  The U.S. was the first nation to put man on the moon.  The other thing talked about was the Cuban Missile Crisis where at the time President Kennedy was in office when this event happened.  The way it happened was that U.S. jets flew over Cuba since it was their territory at the time and took survaillence photos of missiles being set up in Cuba with the Soviet logo on it.  This caused fear because a nuclear war could erupt with a simple push of a button by the Soviets and it was so close to the United States.  Kennedy decided that the U.S should make a blockade to prevent more missiles from coming in and it worked and the U.S. promised to remove their secret missiles that were located in Italy and Turkey as long as the Soviets got rid of theirs.  Crazy stuff

Section 5 And 6

The section that I was interested the most was section 6 when it talked about the labor work force and how the catholic social teaching is trying to make conditions better for the farm workers.  This section got me thinking about the Bracereo Program that was initiated during World War II which brought citizens from Mexico to the US in order to work in the fields.  My grandpa was part of the program and that is how my family got to the US, because of my grandpa.  Labor unions were a good and bad thing, it was good because many people, mostly immigrants were able to make money and escape poverty.  It was bad due to the conditions, like during the bracero program there was a situation called operation wetback where Mexicans were brutally beaten were sent back to Mexico, even the ones who were born in the US. People need to be more thankful when it comes to labor workers since they are the ones who provide the little necessities that they have.

Chapter 22: Feminism and Communism

The following chapter talks about the rise of communism and the evolution of the feminist movement. The thing that got my attention was that during this time, women were beginning to gain their independence.  For instance women able to do work and get a better education.  It was a time where women were treated as equals and that influence is seen today since a lot of women work and have equal rights

Chapter 21

This chapter focuses more about current world history with the beginning of World War I.  The Triple Alliance which consisted of: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy and the Triple Entente: Britain, Russia, and France were created in order to keep Europe in balance, but eventually in 1914 war broke out.  The main factor that contributes to starting a war is nationalism where a nation likes to proclaim that it is better than the other nations and accompanying it is militarism where a nation has a lot of power when it comes weapons.  A nation with weapons is what causes fear.  At this time women began to have more rights with jobs since men were out fighting in the war.  In 1929 the Great Depression hit so hard and so many people were effected by it.  Only a few were privilged to live the good life while the rest were forced to live in poverty.  Because of the depression the rise of bottleging came along which was an illegal, but very easy way to make money and fast, like Al Capone for instance.  Also at this time Hitler was part of the Army for Germany and in time was arrested and during his time in person his thoughts created the infamous book known as Mein Kampf which translates to "My struggle" which showed extreme racism towards other races, mainly Jews stating that they are the source of evil and must be eliminated.  

DGP Catholic Social Teaching

I really liked reading this section since it support the logic and ideas that I have in my head when it came to colonialism.  What people tend to lack when it comes to history is the basic concept of the word itself.  People look at the word "History" people just see it as a class to take.  When I see the word "History" I see two separate words rather than one "His Story."  What that means is that only the winners side of the story gets told, the guys like Columbus who are seen as "hero's" but in reality the hero's were evil since they killed of many natives.  That is what this packet talks about the fact that people only see one side of the story, the hero side and never the loser side.  

Chapter 20: Colonial Encounters Continued

The next section of chapter 20 moves past the rough times of slave labor and tyranny towards the spread and acceptance of education.  The idea of education represented class rather than knowledge.  Yes it was great since now people were able to gain knowledge and had a better possibility of getting a job, but there was more to it.  The Europeans made education a status of class and sophistication.  They spoke different languages, came up with their own style, and even made their own custom houses.  Getting an education  at that time meant that you were a sophisticated and classy person.  Then came the influence of religion, in other words the spread of Christianity.  It is a negative thing since Religion is such an important thing for all cultures and to eliminate a belief is very insulting and disgraceful.   

Chapter 20: Colonial Encounters

The following section talks about the colonies and the colonial experience.  The Europeans used military force in order to conquer since Europe had a flourish of natural resources like their creations of guns and weapons.  To become a colony you had to conquer another territory, the Europeans had a great advantage due to their resources.  Obviously when Europe took over other colonies, the citizens began to rebel towards their new leader, it is only natural.  No one like a power hungry colony, so of course there is going to be conflict.  Not to mention the way Europeans treated their new colonies, for instance workers worked with no payment at all by force.  Plus money and land were taken form the citizens, like in the Netherlands in the East Indies where peasants had to give up 20% of their land in order to pay for taxes.  Also this is the first time that we are introduced to child labor, who were treated as adults when it came to work.  It was bad since children were not as strong as adults which resulted in more deaths and accidents at work than adults.