https://padlet.com/jbrowning51/xi7rkd55vtgxijjq en-us 2023-06-14 17:17:57 UTC 2023-06-15 05:30:36 UTC hello@padlet.com jbrowning51 https://padlet.com/jbrowning51/xi7rkd55vtgxijjq/wish/2624113812 What started ww1 and the tensions leading up to the war - When the war was proposed there was much public fanfare as well as a private concern, this built tensions as nationalists thought it might bring glory but many knew it could disrupt years of prosperity. Many of that growing tension were bankers and financiers, they looked at the detrimental financial issues. Yet when the battle cry was heard soldiers lined up in droves believing that they would get their day of glory and the war would be finished by Christmas. All this eventually leads up to the beginning of it all; the Battle of the Somme, June 24, 1916, the British artillery built a barrage against German trenches along a 25-mile front. Chemical warfare was being used in ways it had never been used before.“The contest between artillery and machine guns was a war that was possible only in an industrialized world.” (Chapter 24, Pg 838). The mechanized ways of killing were efficient and deadly. This all was only ever possible in an industrialized world because industrialization had happened so recently no one had ever learned anything about the dangers it had brought. War left nine million dead soldiers behind, the world was not prepared for the advancements in technology and the drastic effects it would have. 

]]> 2023-06-15 04:19:27 UTC https://padlet.com/jbrowning51/xi7rkd55vtgxijjq/wish/2624113812 jbrowning51 https://padlet.com/jbrowning51/xi7rkd55vtgxijjq/wish/2624114121 After the war had been raging on for years, in the end, it became apparent the central powers had no hope of winning, the forces in Syria and Iraq were defeated, then Bulgaria was knocked out, and everyone slowly fell like dominos. Soon Germany was left alone to fight till the end when Germany's very own Kaiser abandoned his country and ran away to Holland. An armistice was soon put in place to end the fighting. Afterward, the belief in socialism grew rapidly, and the great war as it was called at the time, left people reeling at the horrors and grief of the nine million lost. “The most dramatic instance of democracy’s decline came with the rise of new authoritarian dictatorships, especially in Russia, Italy, and Germany” (Chapter 25, pg 278).   A contrast to this is the multitude of authoritarian dictatorships that rose, claiming that in to find order in chaos drastic measures had to be taken. There was no complete peace in this world suffering from the aftermath, and unfortunately, there wouldn't be for years to come. Hitler rose in popularity and soon became a kingpin in kicking off the Second great war, soon to bring the names World War 1 and World War 2. 

]]> 2023-06-15 04:19:53 UTC https://padlet.com/jbrowning51/xi7rkd55vtgxijjq/wish/2624114121 jbrowning51 https://padlet.com/jbrowning51/xi7rkd55vtgxijjq/wish/2624114390 The final knockout of World War 2 was the atomic bomb. It frightened the world, a newfound deadly power had been unleashed and could one day be what destroyed civilization. “After the Second World War, Europeans awoke to find a world they no longer recognized. In 1945, many Europeans emerged from shelters or began long trips back to their homes, faced with a world that hardly existed at all” (Chapter 26, pg 951). There was a certain finality to the war after that, a fear settled over everyone that while problems had not been solved, the death and tragedy had gone too far. The Allies took over control of Germany along with the soviet union, they separated it in two and attempted to help the country prosper while under complete safe control. However, when the two separated into West Berlin and East Berlin, people grew jealous of how much the West thrived. The Allies had given the people power and control over their lives and money in order to let the economy thrive. Capitalism grew in popularity and once the soviet union saw how many people were choosing to leave they chose to take the ‘safe’ drastic measure of building a physical divide between the two. The divide became so extreme and was a literal concrete wall and in some places, there was barbed wire, steel pikes, and groomed sand intended to capture anyone attempting to escape. This kicked off the cold war when the Allies wanted their people free to travel and the Soviet Union denied them. While no open fighting occurred this was a battle for freedom and a fight to find the right path to true peace.  

]]> 2023-06-15 04:20:17 UTC https://padlet.com/jbrowning51/xi7rkd55vtgxijjq/wish/2624114390 jbrowning51 https://padlet.com/jbrowning51/xi7rkd55vtgxijjq/wish/2624114546 The cold war was the standoff between America and the Soviet Union, when Germany was separated in two, they fought almost to prove their opposing beliefs in whether capitalism or communism was better, “Their rivalry, which came to be known as the cold war, pitted two military powers against one another, and two ideologies: capitalism and communism” (Chapter 27, pg 959). While people weren't dying in trenches in the Cold War, people still fought for their life. The Berlin Wall was erected during the cold war and became the physical divide between the freedom and prosperity of capitalism and the poor economy and suffering that communism brought. People would put their lives on the line for an opportunity to be reunited with family or to earn enough money to support themselves. Deaths skyrocketed because of the wall and soldiers were shooting down escapees regularly. The time after the darkest times was only getting darker.   

]]> 2023-06-15 04:20:31 UTC https://padlet.com/jbrowning51/xi7rkd55vtgxijjq/wish/2624114546 jbrowning51 https://padlet.com/jbrowning51/xi7rkd55vtgxijjq/wish/2624114690 When the East finally achieved its freedom and the Cold War had ended, not only did people feel a sense of finality, but this time it was real. This inspired everyone to shout their feelings, form new beliefs, and attempt to find ways of making the world a better place, “The Postwar Period brought a remarkable burst of cultural production. Writers and artists did not hesitate to take up big issues: freedom, civilization, and the human condition itself” (Chapter 27, pg 986). To bring back order there was a boom of democracy, reviving humanism and the capitalist values that gave individual power into the hands of each person and the world slowly rebuilt its economy and societies. Racism was brought up to be a problem and people came to a place of acceptance and realized that human life was what mattered and not the belief or color of skin. After so much tragedy and pain, it seemed to be necessary in order to enter into an age of freedom and economic growth. The world came out stronger and each country built up its society from the ground, eradicating the problems the war dug up. This prosperity and freedom have continued into today's world and the peace has been kept, there have been struggles along the way but after learning about the horrors humanity is capable of during the age of battle we have made sure to stay far from ever entering that situation again. However, it makes you wonder…after such a long period of peace, when we will inevitably fall apart?

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