Penicillin curbed the rampant, fatal application of ineffectual medicine during a time of brutality and mass killings. This is epitomised by the sheer difference in medical efforts in WWI, when antiseptic was liberally applied for wounded soldiers, and WWII, when Penicillin was democratised. Alexander Fleming found that antiseptic was killing more soldiers in WWI than infection itself, as antiseptic stripped patients’ beneficial agents, while leaving harmful bacteria in deep wounds untouched, leading to sepsis and ineluctable death. This is in stark contrast with the treatment of soldiers during the Normandy Landings in WWII, in which shiploads of Penicillin demonstrated the miraculous ability to prevent and treat infections of wounded Allied soldiers, which was previously deemed fatal. It is evident that Penicillin saved innumerable lives in the midst of savage genocides and vicious warfare.

  Penicillin revolutionised the course of medical history, and paved the way for modern medicine. To date, Penicillin has become the most-widely used antibiotic. In addition, after the miraculous discovery of Penicillin, a number of pharmaceutical industries began to screen a variety of other natural products for antibacterial activity, leading to the subsequent discovery of a host of new antibiotics. It introduced humanity to the wider study of bacteriology, and has thus served as an indispensable instrument in furthering humanity’s medical knowledge.

Europeans countries got a major head start over the rest of the world because of their naval powers, exemplified by Spain and Portugal in the 15th century. The Industrial Revolution spearheaded by Britain served as a great impetus for its continual colonization, pillaging the world of resources, and expanding power wherever it can. Sooner or later, the majority of European countries followed suit, giving rise to centuries of European domination. After World War II, however, the pecking order changed. The two super powers under the limelight, fighting for hegemony for decades, would be US and the Soviet Union, starting the Cold War era. After a series of failed policies as well as major screwups by Gorbachev, USSR lost control over Eastern Europe, and disintegrated into many countries, plunging into a state of chaos. The fight between these two countries is not merely over military strength, but on the supremacy of each’s ideology over the other. The collapse of USSR was a near fatal blow to Communism, reducing the number of Communist countries around the world to 5 and crippled its influence. US also successfully portrays Communism as the “red devil”, stigmatizing it and assumed moral high ground because of its questionble “freedom and democracy”, paving the way to its monopolization of ideologies (freedom and individualism), economics (free market capitalism) and political systems (democratic governance and voting rights) globally. After the fall of its greatest rival, US undertook an ambitious project of “Western Universalism” through globalization, meddling in the affairs of other countries and importing its political systems to other countries. The number of wars it’s been involved in, particularly those in the Middle East, is staggering. The victor mentality of the US compelled it into a state of over-confidence, claiming that Western values, ideas and culture would one day become global, illustrating an overwhelmingly Western-centric perspective. The book “The end of History and the Last Man”by Francis Fukuyama went as far as to put forth the argument, as captured in the title, that democracy is the final answer and most advanced form of human civilization. 

As two decades of the 21th Century went by, we are seeing massive changes year after year, witnessing history unfold before our eyes on a daily basis in 2020. It is reasonable to say that after the 2008 financial crisis, US and its Western allies had not entirely recovered from the setback. With financial slowdown, polarization of ideas and disparity of wealth, the very fabric of US society as well as many European countries have been threatened, showing the world how fragile and fallible their system is. With the rapid rise of China, there will be a huge shift in power from Europe to Asia, which unnerves US to its allies to no end. Bringing the question back on point, the fall of USSR pushed the US into a state of arrogance (无敌是多么寂寞), prompting it to try to shape the world in its image (simply unfeasible) , leading to disastrous consequences, most notably in Iraq and Ukraine. As US-China relations cooled, many have started to speculate then rise of a new form of Cold War. The rise and fall of great powers and change in power dynamics in the 21th century is a result of Cold War to a large extent. Its effects are widespread and can be felt up to this day. In fact, US still possesses a Cold War mentality whereby its instincts is competition, not cooperation. It is likely that Cold War would continue to impacts geo-politics for the foreseeable future. 

Pic: the fall of Berlin Wall

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