This blog is the official class blog of Escenarios Regionales del Mundo Contemporaneo 2009. (Blog 2)
Students, you will use this blog to post anything interesting that you find, comment on each other's findings, and generally write reflections of classes so that everyone is learning together and contributing to making this blog a real online space in which we can discuss important world issues. This is in addition to other online spaces on YouTube, and the class wiki.
Nowadays having the greatest military power is not the decisive factor to be the most powerful country; however, it still sets apart world powers from other nations. Nuclear weapons are by far the most destructive ones in existence; and the proper regulation of their use is of outmost importance for the welfare of our world. The magnitude of their power is so big that they have been used for war only once, at the end of World War II, when their devastaing effects made us realize that a nuclear war could equal the destruction of humanity.
Here's a link to a video about the Russian "Tsar Bomba":
Since the Cold War, several treaties to control the number of nuclear weapons have been made, and most of them also regulate the development of new nuclear technology. This is supposed to protect the security of our world; however, the fact that these nuclear weapons exist, and are ready to be used is worrying enought if we consider that just in the US, there are enough nuclear missiles to destroy our world several times over.
Well, when studying World War II in class, it was mentioned that Spain never entered this international conflict because it had just had its own civil war. I think this is a quite interesting event to study, since it shows at a national level the diverse ideological conflicts of the time, and the influence that the Allies and the Axis-Powers had on other countries. Here's a two-and-a-half-minute video with an overview of the Spanish Civil War for you to check it out.
The main ideas you'd like to pay attention to are:
Which party had won the 1936 elections?
Who were the Loyalists and the Fascists?
Which countries supported each of these parties?
Who was Francisco Franco?
The Spanish Civil War (1936–39) was a "military revolt against the Republican government of Spain, supported by conservative elements within the country. When an initial military coup failed to win control of the entire country, a bloody civil war ensued, fought with great ferocity on both sides. [...] The political and emotional reverberations of the war far transcended those of a national conflict, for many in other countries saw the Spanish Civil War as part of an international conflict between—depending on their point of view—tyranny and democracy, or fascism and freedom, or communism and civilization"
I was reading today's news in CNN and came along some WWII news. It turns out that today is the 70th Anniversary of the Second World War, as it is generally held to be September 1, 1939. Just to let you know, in case you didn't already (like me). One of the articles talks about the commemoration of the anniversary in Poland. Also, while reading the articles I found how useful this class can be as, besides knowing more on the history of each war, they mentioned some important leaders that we saw in class today, one being the German chancellor Angela Merkel. Before today's class I didn't know her name and I didn't even know that Germany was governed by a woman, and I know more about some international leaders. Both articles talk about WWII in Poland, and has some testimonies from actual Polish WWII veterans. Here they are:
We all know that WWII was a conflict between world powers in their constant struggle to defeat one another. Well, what happens when the war ends? Far from having a happy ending, Europe was in its worst position in history, not only economically, but people's spirits were beyond comfort. Husbands who arrived home after years of being absent became strangers to their families. It's time to dig into a more individual perspective of what hapenned after 1945.
The link below contains a version of this story that we have not heard of just yet. I hope you find it as interesting as did I.
After watching the most recent Tarantino film (related to World War II), I came to realise about the value of propaganda during the nazi domination. What would have been of Hitler’s intentions without the support of the people? Absolutely nothing. So it was really clever of him to start a propaganda program in order to accomplish his ideals. For such matters, it was Joseph Goebbels who was named as the Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. Undoubtly, Goebbels made an extraordinary work. I am no pro-nazi and I am nowhere near of supporting their “perfect breeding” and “pure race” thoughts. It goes the completely opposite way for me: I deeply regret that humanity had to experience such difficult, savage, and violent times under the nazi regime. But it is also up to me to recognize the “good” (if it can possibly fit the word’s sense) strategies they had.
Please, read carefully Goebbels’ title: Reich Minister of PublicEnlightenment and Propaganda. Could their intentions have been even clearer? Nazis were looking forward to “open” their country’s eyes to what they believe it was “right”, achieve to go back to the pure origins of their nation.
Goebbels successfully used the media to reach Germans. Cinema was one of the tools used, for it was a media that received massive attention. Both Hitler and Goebbels agreed that by repeating over and over again their ideas through every possible mean, they would eventually get inside the people’s mind and make them be of the same opinion. They exerted complete control over cinema by revising and approving each movie (which obviously had to go along with the nazi model) to be displayed on any screen that was on a nazi occupied area. Needless to say, the films had a very high heroic content, they supported the war, emphasized the “glory” of being German and their superiority.
So how weak are we? Where does the power of government over the population ends? To what did this/could this control lead? Is this happening nowadays, how and where?
It´s been 64 years since the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. This link provides excellent high-quality photographs of the disaster, for you to appreciate just how destructive the bomb was, and why we really do need to think before we use nuclear weapons.
I will say that this website in general is excellent, but do be advised that some of the images are graphic in nature.
Nowadays having the greatest military power is not the decisive factor to be the most powerful country; however, it still sets apart world powers from other nations. Nuclear weapons are by far the most destructive ones in existence; and the proper regulation of their use is of outmost importance for the welfare of our world. The magnitude of their power is so big that they have been used for war only once, at the end of World War II, when their devastaing effects made us realize that a nuclear war could equal the destruction of humanity.