The Russian revolution occurred in 1917 when the country was an agrarian
nation and it resulted to the formation of the Soviet Union. It was a fight of
the working class against the ruling tsar and his army for the control of state
power. The army lost the war mainly because the First World War had left it
mutated and ill prepared for the revolution. Later in the year there was a civil
war between the socialists who were aligned to lower class citizens and the
provisional government that had taken power after the defeat of the army. The
Russian revolution was a result of public dissatisfaction in all social classes
like the peasants, the workers and soldiers. It led to the defeat of the
monarchs and ruling conservatives that were opposed to the restructuring of the
government into a socialist state as fronted by the Bolsheviks socialist party.
Political parties were the main fighting forces in the revolution and the
Bolsheviks party championed for socialist rule that was eventually adopted
after their victory (Ross p.6). The Chinese revolution happened in the 1940s.
After the revolution the Chinese Communist Party replaced the Chinese National
party that was out of favour with the civilian population because of
corruptions allegations despite having great financial support from the United
States. The revolution allowed the People’s Republic of China to be created.
The Chinese Communist party was responsible for the resulting socialist state
after its victory in the revolution (Schrecker p.6-14).
In both revolutions, the environment that allowed the establishment to
opposing political parties was responsible for the eventual emergence and victory
of the socialist parties. However the two revolutions were different in the
reasons behind the revolutions. The Chinese were motivated by the need to fight
corruption in the national party while the Russians were seeking to stop the
increasing power of the bourgeoisie.
The Creation and
Evolution of the 21st Century in a Geopolitical Context
The 21st century’s
current composition is as a result of assimilation and diffusion of ideologies
as well as cultures, machines and instruments. Diffusion is considered as a process by which cultures evolve by adoption of
new things by an individual or society from another society or individual. Advancement in communication has
facilitated diffusion of ideologies. This has been driven by the need and
desire of new traits as they oppose or compete with old traits. Diffusion has
also arisen due to the fact that inventors or those who bring new traits to a
society are respected. The 21st century is a diffusion of various
(Sharma p.136).
In the late 19th century,
much of the world was under colonialism, and the economies of the countries
focused on producing what was required by their colonizing country. The
Industrial Technology was not very developed and communication and
transportation was slow compared to the 20th century. The western
world had largely adopted democratic institutions while the other parts of the
world were mainly monarchies or lacked a formally defined form of government.
As transportation technologies like the steam engine appeared and were deployed
on a mass scale in the early 20th century, communication among
countries improved. The use of telephones and telegrams and the building of
railway lines created also favourable environment for an increase in
international trade. Discoveries made in one part of the world were immediately
adopted in another part. International trade then prospered, and as a result of
inter-state competition, new protective approaches were developed to safeguard
state interests. Colonialism became too
difficult to sustain as natives in the colonised countries became educated
started fighting for the right to rule their countries. In Africa the collapse
of colonialism occurred in the middle of the 20th century. A new
ideology of imperialism replaced colonialism. As international trade
flourished, disputes emerged with accusations of exploitation. Out of the
necessity to maintain order and provide a dispute resolution mechanism, new
world bodies were formed such as the World Trade Organization. Apart from the
global body, trade alliances also emerged among countries enjoying similar
levels of development. Political alignments also were formed depending on the
ideologies followed by individual countries.
Such formations also extended to subject countries that were still loyal
to their former colonial masters. For example, all countries previously under
British rule and were still loyal to its monarchy formed the commonwealth
union. On the other world first world countries in terms of development formed
the G8 union so as to assist in governance of world affairs. Other unions did
arise as a result of special needs. Oil producing nations formed Organization
of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to safeguard their interests as well as
regulate oil production in the world (Amuzegar p.6).
The assimilation of ideologies considered as the incorporation of
aspects of one ideology into another is shown in the US society in the 20th
century. After suffering the effects of the 1920s depression, aspects of the
socialist ideology were assimilated to the otherwise complete capitalist
society such as the introduction of pension systems and the guarantees on
education and healthcare made possible by government funding that was obtained
from tax revenues (Abramyan p.76). After
the cold war of the 1970s, communist countries assimilated part of capitalism
into their economies through liberalization of key economic sectors and opened
up their borders and ports for international trade.
In conclusion, geopolitics has emerged as the main factor that has
influenced the assimilation and diffusion of ideologies that has also resulted
in formation of new ideologies and country alignments to those ideologies.
Industrial technology has played a key part in transforming cultures, trade as
well as conflict. However the spread of technology has been had an opposition
like that faced by ideologies. Instead technology has become an instrument of
advancement embraced by all, for personal gains.
Works Cited
Abramyan, Evgeny. Civilisation in the 21st Century.
How to Save the Future, 2005.
Amuzegar, Jahangir. Managing the Oil Wealth:
OPEC’s Windfall and Pitfalls. New York, NY: I.B. Tauris Publishers, 2001.
Ross, Stewart. The Russian Revolution. London,
UK: Evan Brothers, 2002.
Schrecker, John. The Chinese Revolution in
Historical Perspective. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004.
Sharma, Rajendra Kumar. Social Change and
Social Control. New Delhi, India: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 2007.
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