The Influence of the Global Moment Essay Example

The Influence of the Global Moment Essay Western Area History Professor Klaus Dietrich July 15, 2014 The year 1919 has very significant meanings throughout the world history. It is because the World War One which took four years finally ended in November 1918. Germany surrendered to the Allies and a new world order was established under the Treaty of Versailles In 1919. Before the Great War, the almost whole Europe especially the Brittle Empire and France and also the united States and Japan which Is the first Asian nation were obsessed with the imperialism and the colonialism. It is because these countries needed a new land. After the Industrial Revolution, these countries experienced the excessive capital accumulation and the rapid population growth. Therefore, they needed a new market to export their capital surplus and a new territory for their overpopulation. Also, the Social Darwinism and the strengthened nationalism after Italian and German unification In 1861 and 1871 respectively justified their imperialism. Therefore, many Asia and Africa countries were their typical sacrifices. Korea and Poland were also the sacrifices. Both countries were under the control of other countries and Poland was colonized faster than Korea. Poland experienced three partitions in 1772, 1793 and 1795 by the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia and Hapsburg Austria. The occupied Polish society looked different depended on the occupying nation. The area occupied by Russia was the 1830 and the January Uprising in 1863, brutal revenge followed by the Russian government. It tried to erase all traces of former Polish autonomy. We will write a custom essay sample on The Influence of the Global Moment specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Influence of the Global Moment specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Influence of the Global Moment specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer For example, it changed the name of the Congress Pollards land into Fistula Land (Kara Individuals) and divided the kingdom into ten provinces. Also it banned the Polish language and Russian became the official language of the country. Only the area controlled by Austria was better than the others. The Austrian government allowed a certain local autonomy so the Poles in this area could have their own local government called Governor Commission (Osmosis Gubernatorial) which had a considerable power and Polish language was also accepted. However, all Poles have the same, single desire to achieve independence and unify the divided countries although they were controlled by different countries. On the other hand, in the late 19th century, the Korean Peninsula was ruled by the Jones dynasty. From 1800 the little children aged around 10 became the king continually and they could not manage the country very well. So internally there were many peasant uprisings continuously. The rebellion of Hong Geeing-Ana in 1811 and the peasant rebellion in Jinni in 1862 were typical examples. Many western countries coerced the Jones Dynasty to open the ports for trade but the Jones government was afraid that their ideology and social order which they had preserved with great effort by their ancestors would be destroyed by strange Westerners. It already had a conflict with the Roman Catholicism. It was introduced in Korea under the name of Western Learning (8%) after the late 18th century and brought shocking ideas such as the human equality and the refusal to carry out ancestral worship to the society. Nobles and the government who were deeply influenced by the Confucianism were hard to accept these ideas so they stuck to isolationism as their only measure to protect the country. In addition, the two Opium Wars between the Great Britain and the King Dynasty made the Someones door closed more tightly. However, this isolationism could not protect them unlike their expectation. It was Just a temporary expedient which made Jones fall behind international developments. As a result, the hermit Jones was unveiled forcibly by Japan and other imperialist countries. Jones was exposed to the world capitalistic market defenseless and eventually it was annexed by Japan in 1910. Toward the end of the World War One in 1918, people were totally exhausted with imperialism and disgusting wars. They wanted peace earnestly and Woodrow Willows Fourteen Points was good enough to satisfy the peoples desire. Wilson was the president of the United States and he presented the fourteen points in the Congress on the 8th of January, 1918 in order to make the fundamental principles for finishing the war and establishing a Justice and lasting peace. There are several reasons to say that Willows fourteen points succeeded in some degree. Firstly, the Fourteen Points helped the Allied Forces to win the World War One. Actually, the fact itself that the United States participated in the World War One was a tremendous assistance to the Allied Forces for sure. In addition, the points Justified and motivated he Allied Forces by censuring the German imperialism and the provocation. I think this Justification might be a mental supporter to help the Allied troops reassured and win. Also, Willows statement might succeed a little bit to persuade the German and the Austrian to cooperate to make the world peace together. Secondly, Willows foundation of the League of Nations. However, frankly speaking, the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations nominally spoke about the peace which was similar to Willows ideology, but both had a lot of weaknesses. The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties. It was very important because it would decide the future of Germany after the war. However, the victorious countries were not interested in her future at all. It was not the promise for the peace based on reconciliation but revenge. It was a very harsh and humiliating treaty for Germany. Germany lost all the foreign investment, colonies and vessels but the most brutal article was about reparations. It cost 132 billion Marks which was an exorbitant amount of money. The Germans thought that it was too severe and unfair even though they prepared for humiliation and loss as the people of the defeated country. The peace treaty ironically became a seed of another revenge. Another problem is the League of Nations could not impose tough sanctions because it did not have its own army. So it could only imposed economic sanctions which were not enough to solve international disputes. As a result, the onset of the Second World War proved that the League did not do its role well. Even though both had a lot of weaknesses, at least the Treaty of Versailles contributed to the postwar stability and also the League of Nations had some meanings as the first international peace organization. Lastly, Willows Fourteen Points helped many countries achieve their independence or affected their independence movements a lot. We cannot talk about the Fourteen Points without the self-determination. I think self-determination is the most important vocabulary in his speech because it affected the world the most among the other principles such as open diplomacy and agreements, free trade with the equal terms of trade, reduced armaments and democracy. It had a special meaning because the self-determination in the points was not simply for finishing the war but for eliminating the original reasons of the war. Wilson tried not to simply focus on the balance of the power but to focus on the self-determination which means all countries should have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or interferences regardless of their power. He said, It is the principle of Justice to all peoples and nationalities and their right to live on equal terms of liberty and safety with one another, whether they be strong or weak. 2 It gave a huge hope not only to European countries but also to the colonial countries in Asia. In reality, many ethnic minorities dominated by Germany ND Austria established independent nations. To be specific, Poland, Finland, Baltic countries (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia), Hungary, Czechoslovakia and many other countries achieved independence. These are the three reasons why Willows Fourteen Points are important and a series of worldwide situations resulted from the points so that is why some people call the global moment of 1919 as the Wilson Moment. Now, let us look more deeply about Poland and Korea situation after the global moment. As I said before, Poland enjoyed the pleasure of independence after 123 years of partitions but it was not all pleasure. Most regions in Poland were destroyed because of the war and they were poor. Also it had a serious regional imbalance problem because three regions were under the control of different countries before unification. They had used different currencies and had different combine all together. The Second Polish Republic was created after the independence and JÂ ¶kef Pulaski became the chief of State. It was a parliamentary democracy with the president who had limited powers. The global moment brought independence and democracy to Poland but could not maintain the peace and democracy for a long time because of Pulaski. He wanted to recover the former territory of the kingdom of Poland so he started the Polish-Soviet War in 1919. In addition, other wars with neighboring countries were continued even after independence to decide the borderline. At the end, he seized the power by a military coup in 1926 so democracy ended in short. On the other hand, Korea could not achieve the independence because Korea was the colony of the victorious country, Japan. The Fourteen Points was only for colonies of defeated countries. That is why some people say that Koreans who believed that the Willows speech would bring hem independence were too naive or they did not understand the situation well. However, I think this is not true. Koreans already knew that they could not achieve the independence according to the Willows Fourteen Points, especially the Korean students studying in Tokyo who did 2. 8 Independence Declaration in 1919. However they attempted to extend the range of application to establish a foothold for independence. Willows Fourteen Points failed to give Korea independence directly but it is certain that it gave Korea a huge hope and possibility of independence. This name out as the most famous Korean independence movement, March 1st Movement in 1919 and after this movement, many things changed. Firstly, there was a huge transition of independence method. The independence movement was done by secret associations in sass, so participants were limited. However, after this movement, they began to accept diverse ideologies like democracy and socialism. So many people could participate in the movement and the activities became more various. Secondly, March 1st Movement changed the Japanese governance. Japanese government realized that the Forced Rule in sass was not proper to control the Koreans, so the government changed the rule to Cultural Rule which allowed Koreans to have limited freedom. Lastly, March 1st Movement influenced other countries such as Sandhogs campaigns for independence from the British Empire which is famous for nonviolent disobedience in India and also had effect on the May Fourth Movement in China. I think the global moment still have important meanings in Korean history because of the reasons above. It proved Koreans strength. They continued independence movements rather than giving up, even though their hope was disregarded by Western countries. In conclusion, the global moment influenced lot not only Poland and Korea but also the whole world after the World War One. Peoples fatigue and desire for the peace led to Willows Fourteen Points and his speech opened the global moment.