I. Intro
A) Why do we have this course? Not to harass you, but to make you into global citizens who understand what is going on in the world and understand their own place in the world. I always say this course is "background reading to the New York Times": after this class, you should be able to know the context of just about any article in the NYT. And many of you have come up to tell me how you read or heard something in the news that you understood, or understood better, because of this class.
B)Today: I want to systematize what we've learned by grouping it into five big hunks, to try and help you relate information we've studied.
1) Could be a study technique.
2) Also a time line.
3) I'll talk a bit about how geographical ideas and techniques help us learn more about these topics.
II. Colonialism
A. Definitions'
1) Controlling places and peoples beyond own borders.
2) Setting up bureaucratic systems to control people defined as "other."
B. Economic reasons for colonialism
1) Focused on importing primary sector materials. (Minerals, crops, hardwoods) and exporting secondary sector goods (textiles, etc.)
2) Launched the "Scramble for Africa" in the 1880s, but other regions also colonized: India (tea), including what is now Pakistan and Bangladesh; Nepal, Indonesia (the Dutch), China, Philippines, huge swathes of Latin America and Mexico, the Caribbean.
3) Led to formation of "plantation economies" in which people who had grown many crops on small pieces of land for their own subsistence got sucked into working on the huge plantations which only grew one crop for sale on world market (Cocoa in Ghana, Coffee in Kenya, etc.)
C. Long term economic effects.
1) Division of world into "haves" and "have nots," or "The West and The Rest."
2) "Dessert economies" which are very dependent on the world market
--Rwanda---poverty when world coffee prices collapse.
3) Long term "underdevelopment" in which Third World countries are dependent on the "First World."
a) Don't have own car factories, or own software development, or own pharmaceutical research. (AIDS in Africa lecture).
D. Long term political effects.
1) Country boundaries don't match ethnic divisions already there.
2) Making new ethnic and racial groups---Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda, giving privileges to one. (Race is NOT biological, it's social!) Led to massive bloodshed.
3) Same thing happened in other places: one group was carved out, made into priviledged group. Ladinos over Mestizos in Latin America.
E. Colonialism has enduring legacies of injustice, underdevelopment and poverty---and we're still trying to address these. Gap between the richest and poorest countries is growing, not closing!
III. Socialism
A) Divided the world as surely as Colonialism did. Now into three parts:
1) Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 made Russia first country controlled by Communist Party
2) First, Second and Third Worlds (competition for Third World)
B) Battle for the Third World
1) Two superpowers duking it out.
2) US policy: containment. The idea that the communists were hell-bent on world domination, and we had to "contain" them within territory they already controlled.
3) Examples: Vietnam, Korea, but also our secret wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Who did we fund? Muslim fundamentalists who later became Al Quaeda and Taliban.
C) Socialism's own problems
1) Unlikely that anything the US did led directly to collapse of the socialist systems in countries around the world.
2) Problem was caused internally: in a planned economy, companies have SOFT BUDGET CONSTRAINTS and therefore use as many resources as they can lay their hands on.
3) This created shortages, which led to more hoarding, which led to more shortage and so on until the system collapsed.
D) Why socialism was bad for the environment
1) Socialist systems had no competition, so tried to create ECONOMIES OF SCALE - led to huge industrial complexes.
2) Because they had soft budget constraints, they could use as much energy as they wanted. So they used lots.
3) That energy came from soft coal, which was highly polluting, leading to the "Black Triangle" of pollution and acid rain.
4) Again, we have lasting legacies of this form of geographical organization, and we have to deal with them.
IV. Neoliberalism
A) Definitions:
1) Neoliberalism is the idea that the market is the best way to organize economies and societies.
2) Neoliberals want to reduce government intervention in economies.
3) Neoliberals argue that opening borders to the free flow of goods and capital leads to economic growth.
B) Examples of neoliberal policies
1) Small balanced budget
a) Cuts in social spending often hurt the poor
2) Opening borders to trade and investment
a) Decreasing tariffs, "harmonizing" standards.
b) Increases flow, decreases stability (Asian debt crisis)
3) Emphasis on export processing (Maquiladoras, Asian factory women).
C) Who are the main advocates of neoliberalism?
1) We've talked about THREE: World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the WTO.
V. Cultural homogenization and diversity
A. America exports its culture
1)Food and ways of preparing food (like in an industrial fast food restaurant).
Music
Television (now in Bhutan: WWF Smackdown!)
Cultural values (individualism, violence, ideas of sexuality, family).
2) Does this mean world culture is becoming homogenized? Are we all the same?
a) One World Hypothesis.
B. Cultural Imperialism
1) People feel very differently about American cultural products.
a) Some people welcome them and adopt them
a) hybridization and syncretism ("Inca Cola", Polish telenovelas).
b) Others feel more negative.
1) WWF a big problem in Buddhist Bhutan, which has religious emphasis on peace.
2) Many fundamentalist Muslims feel that American cultural values undermine Koranic teachings. This provokes a backlash. (Islam lecture).
3) Who has the power to decide values and culture?
VI. Tearful goodbyes
A. The world remains a diverse and fascinating place.
a) Travel! Explore!
b) All a geographer needs is a fast car, a clean windshield, and an attitude.
B. Using your geographical knowledge, you can make a difference!
C. I have come to believe in the strength and intellect you all possess. Take the knowledge you've gained here, and go use it in the world.
B.