Living Justice, Thomas Massaro/ Section 7

What I took from this section on Colonialism and Economic Development is that, Catholic/ Christian teachings call their followers to be aware of the large and disturbing gaps between the world's richest and poorest lands. The Church insists that all people have a moral obligation if not to act on it, then to at least  care deeply about world poverty and try to do all they can to address this horrible thing in humanity. The other thing Catholic social teaching calls us to do, is to 'ponder the causes of these problems and to offer suggestions for improvement and ways to make our world a better place, free from the disparages of poverty and inequality. Just as this section says, progress is measured by baby steps and with each and every person taking baby steps to making our world a better place, eventually we will reach that common ground we want have, which is equality and a better life for all people on our earth!

Intro to Part 6 & Chapter 21.

The 20th century marked the beginning of crisis in the modern world! Political crisis through WWI & WWII, and Vietnam and Cold Wars. Economically the world went through what we call the Great Depression and faced mass genocide through the Holocaust. Nuclear threat also came about as a huge deal this new 20th century. The causes of this First world war were things such as system of alliances, presence of empires and new industries. Things began to escalate because of the new developments in technology and weaponry. We talked about what total war is, which is when war includes everyone, even civilians. This is when you know things are going to be bad. World War I faces off between Germany, Austria, and Italy vs. Russia, France, and Britain. Dun dun dun!!!

Ch. 22 Communism in Russia & China (pp. 659-674)

This section introduces the Rise and Fall of world Communism in China and Russia. Communism found its way into 19th century European socialism through the teachings of Karl Marx and spread its roots through the Soviet Union to China and Eastern Europe. Communist movements of the 20th century drew from the earlier French revolution, which suggested that new and better ideas could be constructed by human actions. China and Russia's periods of communism shared similarities but also contrasted immensely from each other. Where Russia's period of Revolution lasted only a single year with massive social upheaval, China, with the help of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) and new leader Mao Zedong, communism had a different presence than it did in Russia. Over all, the spread of communism in China seemed to be a bit more successful than the spread of communism in Russia.

Ch. 20 pp. 589-606

This section basically talked about the different waves of Colonialism. The first wave was in North and South America by Spain and Portugal (Iberia) and England and France. This wave resulted in a major demographic change in the county with increasingly huge numbers of people rapidly multiplying. The intent of this wave of colonialism was to stay in North and South America which is why the travelers brought their families and wives. The second wave was the wave on Colonialism in Africa and Asia. This wave was drastically contrasting to the wave in North and South America. This wave was deliberate, whereas the other wave was accidental. And it was by B=Germany, Belgium, Japan, England, and the US (non-Iberian). The demographic change was very little in this case and the travelers came temporarily to administrate, not to settle.

Ch. 20 pp. 607-614

This section starts with a header that reads, "Believing and Belonging: Identity and Cultural Change in the Colonial Era. This section talks about the changes that education brought in the western era and how this newly discovered way of life created a new identity for many people. This change brought on the escape from forced labor, access to better jobs, social mobility and elite status. Religion also changed and many converted to Christianity especially in New Zealand, The Pacific Islands, and non-muslim Africa.  Many became very attracted to Christianity for numerous reasons. It was associated with modern education, it gave opportunities to the young, the poor, and women. Christianity began to be Africanized. Some demonized their old gods, independent churches were established, but Christianity did not have the same impact on India. Although Christianity did lead intellectuals and reformers to define Hinduism and Hindu leaders to offer support to the spiritually sick.