Global Inequality of Wealth by Mr Pwes

Industrial Revolution (1760-1840)

doubledeathtaco — 2023-12-08 22:05:05 UTC

The industrial revolution was a period of time where the use of metal for machines was popularized to automate difficult tasks changing the workforce forever. The industrial revolution also brought about many political and economical reforms that changed how governments interacted with their population. "Reformers wanted to expand the franchise, to enable property holders to vote. Claims of popular sovereignty, the idea that political power depends on “the people,” became rooted in the idea of the nation" (Adelman "Worlds together" 608)These improvements to automation for production also changed the way people made money since it became more popular to work for a wage rather than making things to sell to others. The Industrial Revolution also created the first workers unions which made it so that the working class had protections against unsafe working conditions and exploitation through regulations that were required to be approved by the workers union.

The Great Depression (1929-1939/41)

doubledeathtaco — 2023-12-08 22:38:02 UTC

The great depression is presumed to be the largest economic downturn in american history. the Main cause of the Great Depression was the recently concluded first world war, which brought about economical turmoil for many nations especially Germany which had to pay war reparations that totaled to 33 billion dollars, these countries were unable to pay off their war debts alone and relied on America for loans to help "The whole financial system became dependent on loans from the United States. Through the 1920s, American lenders recycled old loans while European debtors struggled to pay them off."(Adelman "Worlds together" 797). But in the United States many banks began to fail because people were unable to pay their debts which would end up causing investors to panic, driving stock prices down and forcing the US to close its loans to other countries and making it so these other countries would suffer a recession as well. Many people would be forced to move away from their home to find work, or become homeless and move into a shantytown which was an area with small shacks made out of scavenged materials that the impoverished would live in when they could no longer afford their homes. The only people who's lifestyle remained unaffected(in America) were the wealthy who had already amassed their fortunes and could wait idly for the recession to end. In the end the Great Depression would expand the ever-increasing gap between the upper class and middle to lower class.

World War 2 (1939-1945)

doubledeathtaco — 2023-12-08 22:48:20 UTC

World War 2 was a massive conflict between the axis and allied powers where fighting between the two sides spanned from Europe to the pacific ocean. The axis powers contained Germany, Italy, and Japan while the allied powers contained many more countries most notably Russia, Great Britain and the US. WW2 forced many men to leave their homes because of drafts and most countries involved in the war needed to use most of their resources for weapon and supplies for the conflict. By the end of the war both sides had suffered a tremendous loss of lives and materials. In the Soviet Union alone approximately 70,000 villages were leveled, and bombing from both sides would kill millions of civilians, "Urban casualties were perhaps greatest in Leningrad, a city that was surrounded and besieged for 900 days; 900,000 people lost their lives during this struggle. By the war’s end, Poland had lost 6 million people and Great Britain had lost 400,000."(Adelman "Worlds together" 833).These costs of war would obviously deal a massive blow to the world economy and major countries like the United States needed to prepare for a post-war world in which a conflict like this can be prevented. So, the United Nations was formed as a worldwide association that each country recognized by the UN can have a say in global matters, this largely changed the way the global economy worked by giving each country a new way to communicate economic struggles or opportunities to each other.

decolonization (1945-1960)

doubledeathtaco — 2023-12-08 23:00:08 UTC

After World War 2 had come to its end colonies had begun to question their political future and efforts towards independence from their colonizers started to take shape. For most European colonies, independence was negotiated diplomatically and many nations were able to gain independence with no bloodshed, "The British, realizing that they could no longer rule India without coercion, bowed to the inevitable and withdrew. Much the same happened in Africa, where nationalists also succeeded in negotiating independence from European empires" (Adelman "Worlds together" 843). However in China the fight to remove Japanese occupiers would prove to be quite difficult and the conflict between the two would cause the currently ruling nationalist party to use most of their resources. After expending most of their resources on the Japanese, the nationalist party lacked the weaponry required to take on the ever-growing communist party led by Mao Zedong which had gained support from the soviet union. The communist party in china would successfully defeat both the Japanese and the nationalist party in China, after which Mao would claim the world had witnessed a "great people's revolution" which created hope in the newly formed third world.

The Three World Order and the Cold War (1947-1991)

doubledeathtaco — 2023-12-08 23:08:45 UTC

World War 2 and the following post-war decolonization had inadvertently created a three world order, of which is made up of the liberal democratic and capitalist first world, the communist second world, and the newly decolonized third world. The first world was made up of the North america, western Europe, and later on Japan. The second world included the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Mongolia, and North Korea. Among the first world anti-communist beliefs began spreading along with similar beliefs around capitalist for the second world, this created tension between the two and would cause them to fight for influence of new third world as an attempt to stop the growth of the other sides economic system. This battle for influence (in which neither side actually fought directly) would be known as the Cold War. The Cold War created many different economic opportunities and struggles for those involved, for example both Western Europe and Japan were able to re-strengthen their economies because of American assistance that was possible because of the recent economic success in the US after WW2 "While Europe lay in ruins, the United States boomed. The majority of Americans could afford more consumer goods than ever before. Home ownership became more common, especially in the burgeoning suburbs. Stimulating suburban development was a baby boom that reversed more than a century of declining birth rates."(Adelman "Worlds together" 852). While in the Soviet Union people struggled to afford food and those who opposed their government were sent to work camps known as gulags. But the most notable opportunities came to third world countries where most nations needed to choose an economic system and were influenced by offered support from the first and second world which would help give rise to new leaders and political parties. This gave these underdeveloped countries the chance to have a thriving economy and quickly open up trade to their new supporting nations. The way that certain nations were influenced toward and economic system also would change how these countries would interact even up until now due to the still lingering communism versus capitalism beliefs.