Transformation in the Past 500 Years - Term Paper Example

s School Transformation in the Past 500 Years The world of 1500`s and that of 2000`s are immensely different from each other, given the economic, political and socio-economic indicators of both the eras. 1500`s was the world of imperialism, racism, religious domination in politics and the hegemony of the popes and the feudal lords not only in Europe but also in the world. Miseries like Slavery and “White Man Burden” had dominated the course of international world system, and military power defined the strength of an imperialistic empire (Currie 2001). As for now, the trends have changed immensely and the world is now defined by ethics and technology. The imperialistic world has been replaced by the ideals of sovereignty and self determination, where a nation-state is more powerful than anything else. The international political scenario has transformed into a nation-states system where every state has a defined territory and any breach in the territory of one`s state is considered as illegal and unlawful. The governance of the empires has been replaced by concepts like Mutually Assured Destruction and the governance of democratic states as all states are under the oath of UN. As for the economy, earlier the colonizers were the sole resource owners of the world, and to fulfill their industrial appetite, resources were being transferred to the hegemonic states. As for now, no state has the right to the resource of any other state. The barter system has been exchanged by monetary reserves which define the financial state of any nation. The cultural variables have also been re-defined to a great extent. The white man burden implied that the colonial white masters were the superior race and they had the burden of civilizing the inferiors they were ruling. Nowadays, the ethical concerns are of huge importance and every global citizen irrespective of their race, caste or origin is equal to any other citizen of the world. Thus, it is only sane to say that the world of 2015 is definitely in every sense better than the world of 1500`s. To prove the point that the world of 2015 is better than the world of 1500`s in many aspects, the era needs to be discussed in detail to understand the ideals followed during that time as opposed to those found in the recent times. 1500`s was the era when the trade routes were recently discovered by the European travelers like Vasco da Gama and Christian Columbus. These trade routes opened way towards Asia, Africa and even America where colonies were explored and due to the naval superiority and higher development owned by Europeans, they claimed to right to the resources of the world. This was the time when the Europeans believed that their white skin color owed much to the higher intellect and better culture due to which it was their responsibility to teach the non-whites and train them by ruling them. Thus, they started forming colonies where they were the sole land owner as well as the human resource owners where the locals of the area were being treated like aliens and inferiors. This way the colonizers started attaining right over all resources and these lands started becoming rich. The world system was being governed by the rule of “might is right” (Currie 2001). Since the Europeans were the first to explore the far off lands and had the naval superiority to rule the colonies, they claimed right over the resources of the world. Thus, economy and politics was interlinked during that era as the colonizers attained resources like silk, gold, silver, coal, cotton, spices etc from the colonies and developed their economies accordingly. Moreover, they developed the strategy of “divide and rule”, and by virtue of this rule they destroyed the cultures of the locals. Thus, the principles of self rule and ethics were absent from the mindsets of the colonial masters. Religion was thougwh the supreme power by virtue of which the pope controlled the power of the state, and inflicted political power by virtue of “God`s will” to which everyone complied. Technology was absent during that time, and the world economy was closed, thus cultural fusion didn’t occur. Eventually as the 1900`s approached and the world saw the deadliest wars of the era, technology started coming into existence. As radio and television started becoming common, cultural transformation started occurring in the 21st century. Eventually as the World War 1 and the World War 2 occurred, ideals like democracy, liberty and self rule started coming into existence, and after the dissolution of Soviet Union, decolonization, evolution in technology and formation of world governance and the ideals of peace, the new and the modern world came into existence. The politics and economy of 2012 are two separate businesses and apparently are dealt differently. Both the aspects are dealt independently by the state which is a property of the locals of the area and not that of a far off land. The concept of open economy is a modern concept which involves trade between different states with an open competition yet all states have to comply by similar standards set under the World Trade Organization formed in the 21st century. Similarly, democracy is now believed to be highest form of governance where people are considered to have the right to make decisions for their states. Liberty and transparency are the sole ethical concerns of the time, and the world governance system in the form of UN is present to ensure that fair world decisions are made. With globalization and high technology, the world has transformed into the global village where citizens now belong to a global world. Religion and culture is not the set standard to judge a state, and the concept of a secular state has gained immense important in the developed world. Instead to sucking resources from the underdeveloped world, the developed world now give loans and aid to the underdeveloped to help them grow. Though, even in the recent times the developed world often tries to dominate the underdeveloped by virtue of economic dependency, but even that is not as open. Wars have now been reduced to a great extent, and every state is somehow answerable to the UN for any kinds of breaches. Every citizen of the world is now treated equally and military no more sets the standards of survival of the state. In fact, peaceful states like Japan, Switzerland, Singapore etc are now also booming and competing with the world economies, and the standard of supremacy now isn’t race, rather the ability to compete with the world, and the ability to adapt to the technological changes. Thus, since the ideals of Justice, Transparency, Equality, Self-Rule, Liberalism etc have prevailed in the recent times, 2015 is definitely a far better and a civilized era as compared to that of the 1500`s. References: Currie, Stephen. The 1500s. San Diego, Calif: Greenhaven Press, 2001. Print. Read More