Historical Understanding: The Impact Of Historical Events In The 20th And 21st Century On Citizenship
For this paper, I am going to explore how the ideas, theories and philosophies found in research played out in the 20th and 21st century. I will then also be adding in how certain historical events influenced the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. All of this will be done by researching the best credible sources. The 20th invited a lot of changes around the world, but more for Russia and the USA. For Russia, it was a bit of a ropey first half for them, their political system was hugely transformed, Stalin led the country thought a very crazy industrialisation period and they became an independent state after it emerged as the successor of the Soviet Union. All this impact was when it was believed that they created enough force and resources to be the ones to defeat the Germans in WW2. However, WW2 completely changed the map of Europe which caused the fault of the crashing of the Russian Empire. After the collapse of the empire, the whole country seemed to care more about the level of transformation. For a small period, the New Economic Policy (NEP) was even put in place (Paranyushkin, 2015)
The New Economic Policy was a representation of temporary retreat from the previous extreme centralisation and doctrinaire socialism. The Measures of the NEP were to include, the return of mostly all agriculture, retail trade, and a small scale of private ownership and management which left the state retaining control of all the heavy industry, transport, banking and foreign trade. The war on communism had previously left the country without an economy, so it also meant that money was reintroduced in 1922. The job done by the New Economic Policy was to create a measure of control that helped people recover from years of war (Shukla, 2008). Going back to the early 1900s, Russia was seen by any as the most improvised country in Europe but with a huge peasantry and a growing of minority of poor industrial workers. This level of poor workers caused a revolution of 1905 which led angry workers on strike throughout the country. After this came alone Czar Nicholas II who promised a reforming of the country. This all came crashing down for the empire after their involvement of the first world war. Army wise, Russia was never going to be a match for Germany, this led to causalities greater than any war before and food/ fuel shortages that was a plague for Russia as their inflation grew. This example goes back to explain the reasons for the Russian economy to become hopefully. It was down to the cost of the effort of the War. The Bolshevik Revolution, led by Vladimir Lenin went against the provisional government. The provisional government was an assembled group of leaders from Russia top class. Lenin’s empowerment called for a soviet government in that would be ruled by direct councils of workers, peasants and soldiers. By Lenin becoming the first dictator of a communist state, the Russian civil war broke out, there was a red army who fought for the Bolshevik government and a white army who represented a group of allied forces included many monarchists, capitalists and supported or democracy. The ending of the war left the red army claiming victory and establishing the Soviet Union (History. com, 2009).
Like Russia, the 20th Century was a huge time for the USA, many changes were made which caused development for better and for worse. The early 20th century American people were experiencing industrial growth and also many adverse effects. Throughout this time, mass production was made possible due to the levels of cheap labour and the assembly line manufacturing set up. Railroads were the main source of making this happen, they would carry large amounts of good to different locations which in the end led to new technologies around the world. Intent of making the best situation out of the nation’s natural, human and financial resources, the government very much supported the industrial growth. Because of this big supported back by the government, it created protective tariffs, mass amounts of immigrants, railroad subsides and the biggest issue of looking the other way when abuse occurred (Marty, n. d. ). Industrial growth was the main problem which caused adverse effects. For many people named under the working class, the adverse effects caused by the growth included the lack of legal status, labour unions gave little public support, people becoming weakened by the economic depression and the lack of power to counter employers. There became a huge crowding of industrial workers and their families in small towns, this created a very poor level of life expectancy. At the turn of the century, life expectancy for the birth of a white male was 46. 6 years; Black male, 32. 5 years: female white, 48. 7 years and black females being 33. 5 years (Marty, n. d. ).
The Great Depression was another very impacting cause of the USA. The stock markets crash left the name ‘Black Tuesday’ on every October 29th. It was known as the biggest ad more severe economic depression in the 20th century. The Depression effected every country regardless of them being rich or poor. It left terrible outcomes on international trade, personal incomes, prices of good and profits people were making. The cause of the great depression could have started anywhere from quick economic growth to financial excess. During the time of the impact, many Americans were buying goods at prices they couldn’t afford, it was all done on credit. Although most businesses were making big profits, many low-end workers couldn’t keep up with the costs, their wages were increasing to the same rate. To look at Russia Realistically, you must realise that the civil liberties in which they are supposed to carry like the US and Great Britain has never fully existed in Russia. There is a clear understanding of political freedom and even personal liberties and how they are limited in Russia, the people are said to have been a great scope for initiative when it comes to the economy. Regarding modern views on Russia being an isolated country, Russia have actively been seeking out to foreign groups to immigrate and continue their lives on Russia soil. This was put in place to try and address the human capital need to continue growth. There is also a high level of legal emigration to attract people from places like Central Asia.
Russia are trying to get over the struggle they have when it comes to the questions of ethnicity and identity they have as a nation. Moving onto the 21st century, this is an era in that Russians believed started in 1991 due to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Vladimir Putin became the president of Russia in 2000, the first term so far of his is that the nation has already started to purse a seven-part strategy that helps them gain influence over former soviet republics which in turn should prevent them from moving into the more liberal part of the west. Putin is a character that many people aren’t a fan of, however over a recent phone call with him and President Trump, he has agreed to build the USA- Russia relationship. In recent years, Moscow has helped to actively pursue Putin’s long term plan which involves regaining Russian power and influencing those former Soviet Union states. Russia already has gained success in a few different ways with the policies across past Soviet republics, however the most effective application is in Ukraine. Russian citizens have manged to created illegal and half illegal groups in east Ukraine in which provides members with paramilitary training. During the late 2000s, media in the Ukraine reported that Russian passports were being handed out to citizens of the Ukraine. Soon after this movement happened, “estimates suggest that the number of Crimean’s with Russian citizenship ranged from 8,000 to 40,000” (Grigas, 2017).
To this day, the people of the world are waiting to see how Trump with manage Russia’s ideas in the former Soviet republics, there will always be a tension between both parties, however efforts to improve the relationship with Putin and the Kremlin plans. In the meantime, of this discussion, it is said that pro-Russian hackers have started to find ways into the Ukraine government. They are sending emails to targets, within the emails there is an attachment, once opened they will be able to access their computers (Grigas, 2017). Within the last century, the USA has grown from a mid-level of power to being one of the worlds powerhouse. Many people do worry that the US will be moved aside in this current century by china, but that isn’t the problem that they need to deal with now. Even if China does become the world’s largest economy, it will be years behind the US in per- capita income. The culture of the US being innovative will allow the country to keep central in the age of information and in an age where networking and technology supplement or even replace hierarchical power.
During the past few years, there has been little to none explanation on why the US are keeping Russia on suspicion and on the mind of the USA. The US currently has a better relationship with countries like China, they spend way more time and efforts in tendering to the relationship, but many people do say that the US should keep Russia closer due to the power and size of another nation trying to take over. Russian and the USA both have interests in both wanting to compact the level of terrorism around the world. Russia possesses a huge amount of natural resources which in turn have actually helped the USA with space missions (Hart, 2011) When it comes to citizenship in the US, many rules have changed based on results of history. Back in 1922, the US congress created a law that changed the procedure for married women gaining freedom in the country. Before this date, a woman would automatically become a citizen of the country if it was from the reasoning of marriage.
The new law put in place requires that if you are to get married you must meet chosen requirements of the naturalization laws. You must also become a resident for 1 year instead of 5. Recently, terrorist attracts have affects the perspectives Americans have had on things like immigration. The Dream Act has been created to provide an aid of legal residency and a path to citizenship for immigrants who have been to high school in the US and have chosen to attend college after. There have also been an increased number of types of visa that can be issues to people who wish to spend time in the USA. There is a difference with applying to work in the USA and trying to live permanently, this has come down to Obama, but in recent days, President Trump has his sights set to make things even harder or people trying to seek a life in the US.
