Global history Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Global history - Essay Example The fall of the German Empire led to the Weimar Republic. The Social Democratic Sweden government endured through this period, but it must be noted that Sweden remained neutral in WWI. The United States implemented the New Deal, which made the government more involved in American life. The common theme across the world was bigger government in an effort to help citizens. As Hobsbawm points out, the diverse bigger government might have had as many negative effects as positive ones. Around the first of the twentieth century, in Russia, Imperialism was dying. Out of the ashes of WWI, the October Revolution was born. With Tsar Nicholas busy fighting the Germans in WWI, the Revolutionaries gained enough power to topple the Tsar’s government. Hobsbawm speculates â€Å"Tsarist Russia, but for the accident of the First World War and the Bolshevik Revolution, would have evolved into a flourishing liberal-capitalist industrial society† (p. 56). WWI caused the Bolsheviks to gain power, thus forming a bigger communist government out of the former Imperialistic Russia. The Great Slump made communism even more appealing to the Russia people. Communism was based on Karl Marx’s theories. Marx believed in equality among the masses. In a Marxist society, all workers should benefit equally from combined labor. The Russians believed communism would bring equality and prosperity to all citizens at first. In turn Russians believed communism was superior to capitalism (Hobsbawm, p. 56). The problem according to Hobsbawm was state communism betrayed socialist ideals from the beginning (p. 58). Any liberal or democratic aspects of Marxism were excluded by Lenin from the start. By the time Stalin came to power, communism was twisted away from Marx’s original concept of a socialist society. If the Russians had known the direction communism was taking, history might be different. As it stands, a strong government