March 30

The abandonment of communist principles everywhere or the collapse of communist regimes have been witnessed during the last two decades of the twentieth century. In nineteenth-century European socialism, Karl Marx inspired the teachings of modern communism. European socialists who defined themselves as communists in the twentieth century advocated uncompromising revolution as the only possible route to a socialist future. The first country to experience such a revolution was Russia. Communist is what other movements that allied with the Soviet Union defined themselves as. By the 1970's, communist regimes governed about one-third of the world's population.While the Soviet Union was the world's largest country in size, China was the world's largest country in population.

March 28

A communist system promised equality and abundance for all; however, it delivered a dismal and uncertain economic life for many and great privileges for the few. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and another event that occurred was the end of communism. In the Twentieth Century, communism was a phenomenon of enormous significance. In the tumultuous wake of revolution, war, or both communist regimes came to power almost everywhere.Particularly during the decades of the cold war, world communism posed as a military and political/ideological threat to the Western world of democracy and capitalism. This prompted a global rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States for influence in the Global South.

Pope Pius XI's counsel to resist needless centralization echoes to when many people recognize the drawbacks and inefficiencies of large-scale government. Overly intrusive government lowers the amount of incentives for beneficial self-help. People should respect local institutions, from voluntary associations to families. National governments take place when citizens join their efforts together to accomplish important goals that could not happen on local levels. The proper circumstances that justify government action have been recognized by political philosophers, public officeholders, and other observers. The principle of subsidiarity includes the fact that people should neither be addicted nor allergic to state intervention. Government is not always the problem or solution to social problems.

Pope Pius XI suggests that there are many occasions when larger bodies "make a real and indispensable contribution to local efforts" (Massaro, 90). In American government, this refers to state or federal assistance which supplements the efforts of municipalities, countries, and towns. The only effective means of attaining resources needed for immense and complex tasks is large-scale efforts of national governments. Without a centralized government, national defense, parks system for preserving wildlife, and many other desirable resources would not be possible.

March 27

The proper division of labor among human institutions is what Pius XI's message is about. The more one governs, the better the guide to real-life situations as people are relying on government action. The principle of subsidiarity respects the natural groupings that people form with their neighbors. Pope Pius XI specifically mentions both geographical and vocational groupings among human associations that should exercise autonomy rightfully where possible. Without a centralized government, the national defense, a parks system for preserving wildlife, and other desirable resources would not be possible. Pope Pius XI lived in an age of totalitarianism, where there were threats of fascism, and communism.

March 26

Family ties were once more simple than they are now. Huge contributions can be made to the health of millions of families by wise public policies. Family-friendly economic policies are adopted more far ahead in certain nations, particularly Western Europe, than in the United States, and such nations guarantee necessary resources to struggling families. Any compassionate society views among the highest priorities on its policy agenda the health of family life. Subsidiarity has an original Latin meaning as assistance. Subsidiarity as a term was coined by Pope Pius XI. Proper division of labor among human institutions is what Pius XI's message is about.

March 25

While mating or breeding, the stronger must not blend with the weaker, thus dominating and sacrificing his own greatness. Those who are weak, sickly, or less determined succumb in the struggle for daily bread. Since the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning, all great cultures of the past perished. Those who want to live must fight, for those who do not want to fight do not deserve to live. Aryan was the founder of all higher humanity; he represented the prototype of all we understand by the word "man." All who are chaff in this world are not of good race. The foundations of a Jew's intellectual work were always provided by others.

March 24

The ideologies of the Axis power shared a repudiation of mainstream Western democracy and liberalism. Hitler was  in Austria and absorbed a radical form of German nationalism. The German Workers Party was a very small extremist group that Hitler joined in 1919. In 1923, Hitler was arrested and imprisoned for launching an unsuccessful armed uprising in Munich. The leadership of Germany was assumed by Hitler in 1933.

Since 1500, an increasingly prominent position on the global stage had been assumed by Europe. The world's other peoples by 1900, were controlled by Europeans through their formal empires, informal influence, or the weight of their numbers. Thus the Europeans' self-confidence, pride, and sense of superiority was provided by its foundation. A long-standing feature of European political life was formed by the most obvious division among its competing states. Around 1870, Germany and Italy "joined their fragmented territories into two major new powers" (Strayer, 982). Therefore, historical rivalries among European countries were further sharpened. Germany's arrival on the international scene created a disruptive new element in European political life. This was especially true for Britain, France, and Russia.

Improvements in sanitation and medicine drove down death rates and spurred population growth. There was a World War I veteran who died at the age of 109 in Scotland in November 2005 who's name was Alfred Anderson. Of the Christmas truce of 1914 he was the last survivor, when British and German soldiers mingled, exchanged gifts, and played football. His own unit, the Black Watch regiment, was ordered into Iraq in 2003 with other British forces. World War I, which effectively launched the twentieth century, provoked the Russian Revolution and the beginnings of world communism. This event was followed by the Great Depression, the Holocaust, and World War II. During those three decades Western Europe largely self-destructed. Western civilization had damaged itself beyond repair by 1945. The United States and the Soviet Union emerged as rival superpowers. After 1945, Europe lost "its overseas colonial possessions and its position as the political, economic, and military core of Western civilization" (Strayer, 982). This means that what once was a strong country or continent became weaker due to the aftermath of World War II. The role Europe once had was passed to the United States.

March 23

The terrible conflict of World War I lead to the Russian Revolution and the beginning of world communism. The most recent period of world history has probably ended with the Soviet Union collapsing in 1991, and with the attacks of September 11, 2001. European rivalries around the globe have been going on for centuries. The Russian and Chinese revolutions were the first large-scale attempts in modern world history to create a new and global division of humankind. Feminism became global in the twentieth century, and challenged women's subordination more extensively than ever before. Explosive population growth lead to human numbers more than quadrupling since 1900, thus the planet had about seven billion people by 2011.

States that clung to the past perished while states which undertook reforms became stronger. Change leads to people preserving themselves, while not being able to change causes people to perish. The purpose of preserving one's territory comes from institutions. Attempting a forward march by walking backward is as effective as a reform. Mencius is a famous Confucian writer who composed an example of loving the people. Both Japan's reforms and its religions and customs are somewhat similar to that of the United States. China could not effectively modernize because its examination system represented everything conservative, backward, and out of date. China's ancient examination system was abolished in 1905.

March 20

In a war, Japan faced a decisive military defeat in 1894 - 1895. This represented for a small country under the central influence of China a further humiliation. Widespread poverty among its peasant population was also occurring in China. The Boxer Uprising which took place from 1898 - 1901 represented the issues of foreign imperialism and peasant rebellion. The Boxer Rebellion disclosed the depth of feeling against imperialism. Foreign occupation of Beijing and China's government's large reparation payments were the outcome of the Boxer Rebellion. In the aftermath of China's defeat by Japan, one leading advocate of reform was Kang Youwei. Kang Youwei was a Confucian scholar, whose views informed others in China of the Hundred Days of Reform in 1898.

March 18

In 1853, Taiping forces established their capital in Nanjing. Provincial military leaders crushed the rebel forces in the end by mobilizing their own armies. China's economy was seriously disrupted and weakened by the devastation and destruction of the massive civil war. The number of lives lost estimates in range from 20 to 30 million. It took more than a decade for China to recover from the war's devastation. Opium was used as a drinkable medicine derived from Arab traders during the eighth century or earlier, and was regarded as a magical cure for dysentery. The British persistent trade imbalance with China was covered when they began to use opium.

March 16

The central state of China lost power to local gentry and provincial officials. Harsh treatment of peasants were common among such officials. Opposition to the Qing Dynasty was expressed because of its foreign Manchu origins. A man named Hong Xiuquan who sent to cleanse the world of demons proclaimed himself to be the younger brother of Jesus. Plans for transforming China into an industrial nation were developed by Hong Rengan. During the uprising, Hakka women fought as soldiers in their own regiments. Women and men were promised equal shares of land by the Hakka women's land reform program. The thing that was promoted as a basis for marriage is mutual attraction.

March 14

China was wrecked by peasant rebellion and population growth.  The stability of Japanese public life was eroded by internal social and economic changes. The Islamic World's great empires shrank or disappeared. Latin American societies were troubled by rivalry among competing elites. The activities of European missionaries and merchants were strictly limited and controlled by Chinese authorities. American food crops and China's robust economy enabled substantial population growth, from about 100 million people to some 430 million. This difference occurred between 1685 and 1853. The wealth and resources derived from Europe's overseas empires generated more than China's internal expansion to the west and south. As a result, China faced unemployment, impoverishment, starvation and misery.

March 13

The promise of great wealth was held in a continent which Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Italy all sought to get a piece of. Interest in acquiring territory and ruling large populations in Africa was not shown by Europeans until the last quarter of the nineteenth century. A British missionary and explorer of central Africa named David Livingstone had work that exposed the horrors of the Arab slave trade. The British who lived in Egypt enforced a law "that no major European power should be allowed to control the headwaters of the Nile" (Strayer, 924). For more than eighteen months, Jean-Baptiste Marchand led his troops across much of Africa. A British-born businessman and politician named Cecil Rhodes made a fortune in South African diamonds. He also became an enthusiastic advocate of British imperialism.

March 11

Imperialism became broadly popular in Europe because of the growth of mass nationalism. In 1869 steam-driven ships which moved through the Suez Canal were completed, which allowed Europeans to reach Asian and African ports in a faster manner and to penetrate interior rivers. As quinine was discovered, malaria was prevented and European deaths in the tropics were reduced. In Europe, religious superiority was replaced by or fused with a secular arrogance. African societies were demoted in the nineteenth-century by Europeans and were viewed as tribes led by chiefs. The prestige and apparatus of science were increasingly used by Europeans to support their racial preferences and prejudices. Moral development, destiny, and human intelligence were determined by race.

March 10

For both political and sexual reasons, the Europeans maintained distinction and distance between whites and blacks. The colonial era was experienced differently by men and women. The need for agricultural products and extensive raw materials was created by the huge productivity of industrial technology and Europe's growing affluence. More manufactured goods were produced from industrial capitalism than the amount of people in Europe who could afford to buy. Often, European investors "found it more profitable to invest their money abroad than at home" (Strayer, 880). Half of Britain's savings were sent overseas as foreign investment between 1910 and 1913. Europe's factories were kept humming and its workers employed due to the social benefits of the foreign markets.