World History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

World History - Essay Example The former colonies and developing countries in the twentieth century experienced unequal distribution of wealth and widespread poverty due to colonialism (Strayer, 2013). Accordingly, the developing countries started mining precious metals like diamonds that were sold to former colonizers in return for imports. The developing countries had low levels of education and depended on manual labor thus leading to high costs of production and low output in the economy. The former colonies and developing countries were faced by several ethnic based tensions and conflicts due to struggle for control of political power and natural resources like land and grazing fields that supported the economy (Strayer, 2013). Accordingly, several developing countries engaged in wars with each other due to poorly documented international borders that were demarcated by the colonial powers in order to ease the control of violent tribal groups (Strayer, 2013). Differences in experiences of the former colonies and developing countries in the twentieth century to the earlier ‘new nations’ in the Americas in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries After attainment of independence, experienced internal power conflicts among the several states since the federal government had the powers to set the public policies and collect taxes across the country (Strayer, 2013). Accordingly, some states worried that centralization of power would lead to abuse of human rights and thus amendments to the US constitution was necessary in order to entrench the bill of rights (Strayer, 2013). The ‘new nations’ in Americas attained independence after revolutions that occurred in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The French revolution, Spanish and Portuguese revolutions led to creation of independent countries in Latin America such as Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia and Argentina. However, internal divisions in Latin America marked the onset of creation of many of the new governments and countless revolts that prohibited Latin America from being united (Strayer, 2013). The new nations experienced political instability due to lack of constitutions and weak political systems that granted opportunity to rise of military leaders. Latin American new nations experienced social instability since the ruling elite and rebellions that led to mass murders and population transfers from native agricultural lands (Strayer, 2013). Central and North America experienced high growth in trade-networks and economic expansion of commercial agriculture due to availability of indentured servitudes that came from countries like India and China (Strayer, 2013). Accordingly, ‘new nations’ Americas saw growth in the size of militaries in the 19th century due to increased war tensions and military innovation by European countries. The encounter with other people and migration of the citizens led to diseases like smallpox, measles and influenza thus leading to d eath of thousands of citizens in those countries (Strayer, 2013). The new nations experienced religious revival and Great Awakening that spread across America due to advent of evangelicalism that believed new ‘new birth’ in spreading the gospel. There was spread of various religious denominations such as Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians that countered the beliefs of Quakers and Congregationalists (Strayer, 2013). The former colonies experienced neo-colonialism that contributed to decline in autonomy and political viability of the existing independent states. The former colonizers desired to maintain their influence through providing economic assistance in return for development contracts and markets for goods thus contributing to cordial relations with the former