World History B Unit 3 Essay
Post date: Jan 09, 2012 3:42:39 PM
Unit Essay: A Century of Destruction
In order to get credit for this project you must write an essay on the following topic:
A Century of DestructionDespite the enormous promise that technological and political advances in the 18th and 19th centuries seemed to bestow on world civilizations in the 20th century, this century bears the distinction of being the most destructive century in human history. The century began with the Boxer Rebellion, a massive nationalist upheaval in China that was put down by international forces, followed by World War I, a disastrous enterprise that resulted in over 20 million deaths and the destruction of the old political order in Europe. The 1920's saw the rise of totalitarian governments who brutally destroyed all opposition to them, and in the 1930's and early 1940's, the world was again engulfed in total war that practiced brutality and was fought on a scale never before seen in human history.
The 1950's witnessed a colossal struggle in China between Communists and Nationalists resulting in millions of deaths, and "decolonization" in the late 1950's and 1960's saw uprisings throughout the globe, not to mention two "hot-spots" in the Cold War, the Korean and Vietnamese Conflicts. Because of all the developments listed above, historians term the twentieth century the most destructive century. Using events from the first 50 years of the twentieth century, write an essay of no less than 600 words affirming this title.
Destructive Events/Developments in 20th century to consider:
The Russian Revolution/Russian Civil War/Rise of the Soviet Union
This is actually a pretty straight-forward and simple essay to write. Pick three "destructive events" from the list above and make them your body paragraphs. If you are choosing events based on destruction and casualties, the three biggest are WWI, WWII, and the Chinese Civil War, but feel free to choose any three. In each body para, describe the destructive event and explain why it was so destructive and/or what about the 20th century heightened the destructivity of the event. (For example, both WWI and WWII were "total wars", which should be addressed if you use these events.)
