Introduction
America and the world at large have experienced many changes over the 20th century. Major events such as the world wars, the cold war, politics, culture of abundance, and the resulting rebellions have shaped the world history. The experiences from these occurrences have both positive and negative impacts. The events have caused changes such as gains in women rights, increased economic activities, advancements in military technology, increased labor movement, formation of the military alliances, political parties, individual spying, and many other activities have dominated the 20th century calendar.
Discussion
The world war had the greatest impact on America and the world as a whole. After World War II, the position of America in the world changed. When the American military brought down the Nazism, they cemented their position as the world new super power. In addition, this brought new roles and opportunities for the American population who were enthusiastic about living the American dream.
America, which had emerged from depression to the glory of being world new super power, had also developed a population that had a high demand for consumer products. In addition, it led to post-war explosion of demand in consumer goods, which in return caused an increase in the number of industries. Competition among the different manufacturers resulted in increased demand for advertisement that in return led to advancements in technology.
Increased production and consumption increased demand for manpower from the high number of the manufacturing companies. Decreased working population attributed to the loss of lives in world war coupled with increase in demand from the manufacturing companies opened up job opportunities for women. Jobs for women laid a foundation for the establishment of a women movement that fought for the inclusion of women in activities that were formally male-dominated. At one point, the number of women who were married and were also working outnumbered the single working women due to the increased pressure to provide for the families and a change in altitude allowing married women to take up employment.
Figure 1: working mothers of the post war America: Adopted from madeinamericathebook.wordpress (Fischer)
The weakening of most the European nations by the World War II led to the independence of many African nations who by that time were colonies of the Western powers. The war experience by the Africans soldiers during the War motivated rebellions and spirit of nationalism upon return to their countries, and this triggered demand for independence. Owing to the post-war effects, the colonial masters could not be able to resist the rebellions; hence, granting independence to most of their colonies.
Both African-American and Mexican-Americans who were initially considered inferior and could not be allowed to serve in the military had joined the war. Continued discrimination during military service resulted in the rise of civil disobedience and later formation of the civil society that were involved in championing for equality and end of discriminative practices. The civil societies made various achievements such as equal voting rights for all Americans, better employment, and education for all.
Figure 2: civil society holding Protest. Adopted from vachristian.org ("A Long Time Coming - The Civil Rights Movement | Denver Public Library")
Post-war time had a major impact on the American foreign policies. The relationship between American and some other countries was strained while others were improved. The post world war fears resulted in the formation of alliances as nations were afraid of possible attack by rival nations. Countries increased their military spending leading to what is referred to as the arms race and the increased military spending resulted in more research. These activities caused a breakthrough in both military arsenals’ and the medical fields. Military demand oversaw the birth of nuclear technology, which was used in the military activities and energy production.
Figure3: An atomic bomb of the Manhattan project: adopted from abc.ne.au (Phillips)
The rise of America and the Soviet Union as the two world superpowers led to ideological conflicts. Each super power struggled to gain control and spread their ideologies to the world resulting in a period of cold war. The Americans favored capitalism while the Soviet Union favored communism. The ideological differences led to strained relationships between the two superpowers since both of them were fighting to gain more control. Germany was split between the east who were for communism and the West for capitalism.
Continued strained relationship lead to the development of atomic weapons and advancement of other military weapons to strengthen the established military alliances. Nuclear advancements and introduction of intercontinental ballistic missiles saw increased suspicion among the two military alliances that were pro-capitalism and pro-communism. The superpowers started establishing military bases in the countries that were friendly to them. In addition, they strengthened friendly countries with the provision of military equipment, sharing of military technologies, and training military personnel for friendly nations. The American government had committed itself to containment policy, in which they were determined to check the advancement of Soviet Union by all means.
Heightened tension between military super powers shaped the world agenda, and it led to different wars including the Korean and the Vietnam wars, which were mainly caused by the ideological differences. The world agenda was characterized by cold power struggles with nations having to pledge allegiance to either the east or the west. The United States increased its involvement in Asia to cut the influence of Soviet Union by establishing military and trade pacts. The Americans interests were further increased with the discovery of Oil and natural gasses in the Middle East. Oil from the Middle East significantly fuelled the growth of the American economy.
Figure 4: an helicopter ambulance rescuing solders during the Vietnam war: image adopted from History.com ("Soldiers-Keeping-Lookout-Over-Us-Airbase - Vietnam War Pictures - Vietnam War History - HISTORY.Com")
Back at home, America was affected by the Red Scare. The fear of communist subversion made American reevaluate their day to day activities and the Federal employees were made to pledge allegiance to the United States. Anti-communist activities triggered the labor unions to fight for better pay in the capitalism spirits. The American free spirit was affected by the constant fear of attack, such that whatever was initially public was now private, and government information was never available to the public due to national security issues. As a result, there were many classified and secret information among the different American government agencies. The private lives of the Americans were under constant scrutiny from the American intelligence agencies.
Politically, with no physical war between the two superpowers, the republicans and democrats tore into each other. Foreign policy became a major key for any politicians with aspirations of leading either of the sides. Increased cultural differences between the two nations saw the population in either side, favor political parties that were less tolerance to the ideologies they are opposed too. Finally, a lot of resources were used by the superpowers to topple the regimes that were unfavorable to them.
Conclusion
The 21st century has been marked by tensions that have positively and negatively impacted the world. America has significantly shaped the world as a whole by introducing new technologies that are useful to the society such as advancement in medical technologies, military technologies, computing, and many others that have impacted the society in a big way. However, this has come at a great cost, loss of life, increased poverty levels, loss of freedom, and greater enslavement by the well-established systems.
References
"A Long Time Coming - The Civil Rights Movement | Denver Public Library". Denverlibrary.org. N.p., 2016. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.
Fischer, Claude. "The Big Change". MADE IN AMERICA. N.p., 2011. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.
Phillips, Sara. "Why Geoengineering Is Like The Manhattan Project – Blog – ABC Environment (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)". Abc.net.au. N.p., 2010. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.
"Soldiers-Keeping-Lookout-Over-Us-Airbase - Vietnam War Pictures - Vietnam War History - HISTORY.Com". HISTORY.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.
