Something that stood out to me very early on in the reading was how interconnected the world is and how much of an influence globalization has on the world. Even when a country intends to stay neutral in a global crisis, it’s difficult for an isolationist policy to actually occur. Especially when it comes to a powerful country like the U.S. who had been claiming neutrality but was actually supporting one side of the conflict, it is hard to stay out of these major conflicts. The fact that the U.S. was supplying war materials to Germany’s enemies shows the importance of trade and industrialization. The U.S. becoming involved was in some ways an assertion of dominance as a global power with a strong and stable economy. Knowing that the First World War resulted in the Great Depression and stock market crash is interesting to look at in comparison to the successes of the United States prior to this. This is where more class conflicts come into play. As Zinn says, capitalism creates “a safety valve for explosive class conflict” (p. 363). It’s interesting how so many historical events all relate back to class struggles and socio-economic development. It seems that any conflict that occurs at a global scale can result in shifting classes and economic statuses because of how interconnected the world is and how economies rely on each other.
Zinn’s reading is also interesting to compare the statuses of several groups in different countries. The United States clearly had higher levels of racism and different standards of living. Zinn says that “American capitalism needed international rivalry” which creates an “artificial community of interest between rich and poor” (p. 363). I think this means that because the United States is constantly competing with other global economies, there becomes a sense of unity within the country. However, this sense of unity is false because there is so much economic disparity and wealth gaps within the country. This became more evident after major conflicts because the country unites while the conflict is current but then frequently results in a worse internal economic situation such as the Great Depression. Now, citizens are fighting for jobs and economic disparity is even worse which diminishes any sense of false unity that may have been present previously.
I liked your comments on how this was the first world war because it was the first time the world was actually all connected. Even If countries didn’t directly fight in the war, they were affected through trade and imperialism. You mentioned how the repercussions of the war lead to the Great Depression at the end of the 20s, but it is also important to note that the country was in a recession in 1914 and they used the war to help get out of the recession. They knew they needed to increase trade and manufacturing to get out of the depression so they started trading more with their allies and producing military goods to boost the economy.
I agree with your statements and something that I too found interesting that Zinn described was that the First World War helped to interconnect numerous different nations. More specifically is, war leads to a massive boom in the economy due to the numerous amounts of military exports and supplies that we are selling to other nations. During the 4 year long war, the American economy kept on rising and rising. Then when the war finally came to an end, there was no need to keep creating and exporting so many military goods. This led to the loss of jobs for people. Because we were at such an economic high, then we lost out main target market, the economy plummeted not only due to the loss of jobs and markets overseas but also because of the thousands of people who came back to the US and needed jobs.
I also found it interesting how much of an impact globalization has on our world. When so many countries are declaring war on each other, I can see how it is difficult for some countries to not get involved. An example is the United States, after saying they were going to stay neutral in the war, they went back on their word.
I also found it interesting how hard it is for a powerful country like America to stay neutral and stay out of such a major conflict. I agree with you saying the sense of unity is false because of how much economic disparity and wealth gaps there is in this country, and how when there is a major conflict we unite as a country.