Industrialization's contribution to nationalism

In the corner of nearly every public school classroom throughout the United States, the stars and stripes of the American flag hang proudly. Next to this symbolic piece of cloth, stapled to the wall is the order of the presidents, starting with the recognizable George Washington. The words memorized in one’s young age recite the allegiance pledged to the flag, and the student continues their classes like any other school day. This small symbol of nationalism could not be nearly as powerful without the historical propaganda and widespread unification. However, such unification could not reach such great heights until the country had sufficient communication and efficient transportation. The flags and pictures of our founding fathers could not be distributed to the schooling systems unless we had a reliable industry that could develop such goods due to an increase in demand. The schooling system itself would not hang this common flag and teach a universal curriculum unless textbooks and lesson plans were easy accessible. Indeed, behind every sense of nationalism, there lies the powerful movement of industrialization.

Calvi's Essay on WWI

What made WWI

World War I could best be described as the war that finally drew a steady map of Europe. For eons, since the death of the Roman Empire, Europe had been something akin to a large dish of water. Nations and empires, whether it be the Holy Roman Empire, the states of Italy, or Napoleon’s conquered territories, floated around in this dish, swelling in shrinking to fill up different portions of the map. As a result wars between two nations were frequent as the different floating states would collide into one another and each would try to gain the same territory. Europe was in a constant state of friction, each nation rubbing against another.
It’s impossible to point out what factors exactly led to WWI breaking out. Saying that it was all Gavrillo Princep’s fault is just not correct. However it is possible to accurately say what WWI represented. In my esteemed opinion, I believe that WWI was a rebellion within Europe of Sorts. Nations that had previously been either occupied or regarded as redundant (Serbia, Italy, and Russia) were now moving against the dominant powers (Germany, Great Britain, Austro-Hungary.) These punk nations, fresh in the state of independence and relevancy, picked fights with nations much bigger and more powerful than them, feeling for the first time that they had a chance to stand up against the set powers in Europe. Whether it be when the Serbs marched against Austrian troops in the Balkans, when the Italians stormed Izonzo to claim land they felt was theirs, or when the Turks defended themselves from the Anglo invasion; WWI was the war of sticking it to the man.

Darwin and Atheism

Much of Darwin's scientific theories are responsible for the formation and acceptance of Atheism in 19th Century European Society.   

Awesome Thesis about Darwin

Darwin's theory of evolution led way to social darwinism, as well as the idea of White Man's Burden, which justified Imperialism as a socially and politically acceptable practice for European powers although it was in fact a way to control foreign lands and their people, and overtake their goods and resources for powerful European countries.

women and wwi

Sabrina Kureshy
European History
Pugliese E
March 5, 2009
Response #6

Women and WWI

WWI, as bad a time it was in history, had a somewhat positive outcome in the gender equality department. Women in some nations, like Germany, were granted suffrage post-WWI. Like wartime in pre-WWI Europe, WWI saw a similar increase in the role/participation of women in industry. Women were now earning an income and as a result, were experiencing a life that was much more independent than the life of a domestic homemaker.

I think it is interesting that a mere 60 or so years ago, women were enjoying little independence and were instead, only exposed to this independency during times of turmoil, warfare and chaos. In fact, it is a very strange connection, yet it makes sense. The world has come incredibly be far from where it was 100 years ago and even during WWI. Gender roles had always been clearly defined. Only when there was a significant need to interrupt the boundaries of gender roles, did women enjoy more independence because of their exposure to the ‘working world’.

While women today are much more independent and more prominent in the business world, there still exists this very fine line between the role of women and that of men, and I don’t know that we can ever transcend this line. It is something that is embedded not only in the culture in society of America and the world, but it is almost an inherent gene in our body that allows these gender roles to live on in the modern world, in a discrete and much altered way. I’m certainly not convinced that we’ve reached a point where stereotypical gender roles no longer exist. And this is where we must draw the subtle yet crucial difference between equality and gender roles. History has shown that, in the past, these two overlapped. Today however, I feel fairly confident when I say that there is a sense of equality, of course I’m only speaking for America (certainly not other places in the world). While women share equality in the eyes of the law, etc., there still exists the stereotype that women stay at home and men go out into the workforce and are the breadwinners. I don’t ever think that these stereotypes will disappear.