Sun Yatsen Case Study

1. China’s current modernization processes can be viewed as a historical rhyme to their past concerns. During Sun Yatsen’s era in China, one major concern in working towards modernization was the process of modernizing agricultural practices. Sun Yatsen felt the farmers were clinging to traditional ways, which made it more challenging to produce enough food. This was preventing the progress of the people as they did not have education about the better processes. Many other places, such as Kenya, struggled with agricultural needs, specifically land in many areas, as modernization happened also. Present day China, while they may have enough land to use for farming, is again struggling with agricultural modernization. The farmers have embraced …show more content…
Australia’s current military growth rhymes with the process most western nations went through when modernizing and imperializing. One of the major sources of power in the West during the Second Industrial Revolution was military technology. Leading up to World War I, Britain had the largest navy in the world. Britain had major influence over a large part of the world because of their military. Australia is trying to build up their military in order to have more influence in the Asia-Pacific region, where the United States and China currently dominate. Additionally, China is attempting to expand their influence further into the South China Sea by placing military equipment on large artificial island, which makes Australia feel as though they need to defend themselves better. It is safe to say that, if Australia builds up a big enough military, they will have more influence in their region of the world. Most of the major, modern imperial powers still have influence in their respective regions and worldwide even though their empires have since fallen. However, they need to be aware that there are already major powers at play. When modernizing, places like Britain did not have much competition, which allowed them to expand their sphere of influence much wider much faster. Australia should not expect to become a major world power just by expanding their military. The article also mentions multiple locations where Australia is considering buying the technology they need to …show more content…
The current upheaval in Libya rhymes the effects of World War I on both Russia and Germany. In Russia, the country was in a long war they could not afford or supply, and the people were starving. In 1917, the Tsar abdicates from the throne, and the country is thrown into even worse turmoil. A dual government is set up, based off of a constitutional monarchy creating the Provisional Government and Marxist Workers Councils at the same time. With no one really in charge, the country fights a three year civil war, which begins before they have officially left World War I. In Germany, the Kaiser stepped down immediately after surrendering. A democratic government later known as the Weimar Republic was quickly formed for peace talks at Versailles, but it was very weak. It had many major political parties and the president had very limited powers. Within about fifteen years, the Republic completely collapsed into the Nazi Germany of World War II. In both these situations, a government quickly put together after major turmoil such as war does not last very long. In Libya, the United States intervened in 2011 against the repressive Qaddafi regime. It began as an air strike to protect against a disaster in Benghazi became the United States overthrowing Qaddafi. Whatever government was set up has dissolved into a major civil war with no clear sides. While the country was not in war at the beginning of the US intervention, the government was certainly set up in a time of chaos. It