history homework answers

history homework answers

The Importance of Studying History

1. The Relevance of History in Today’s World

An understanding about the past provides a unique perspective on the world. The events of the past have helped to shape our modern-day society, and comprehension and analysis of past events are crucial to maintaining an understanding about the world around us. Each specific instance in history has an effect on society, and whether that effect is positive or negative is purely subjective. Nonetheless, the study of past events is what helps to decide why things were changed, and whether it was to have a positive effect on society in the future. For example, the civil rights movement for African Americans in America during the 20th century. This event was a turning point in American history where they provided equal rights for all citizens, regardless of race, and a study of this era is what allows people to understand the positive impact of these decisions and how they have changed society today. On the contrary, an event might be studied to find out how to prevent a negative recurrence. The two world wars are an obvious area of study in an attempt to understand why global war occurred twice within a half-century. The decision of what to study is entirely up to the individual or the society, but as a whole, an understanding about the past is what helps to mold the future.

The world is full of leaders trying to amass more power for their own countries with little regard to everyone else (imperialism). Throughout history, nations have tried to increase their own power and prestige assuming that by ruling other countries, they would increase their own reputation. This occurred in the event of Japanese imperialism where Japan annexed Korea and Manchuria, as well as engaging in a full-scale war with China. This relentless power hunger is akin to the current state of the world, and studying the history of such activity would serve as a guideline of what we should not be doing today. An example of learning from past mistakes would be the nation of Czechoslovakia. This nation was created after WWI, made up of Czechs and Slovaks, and was a rather prosperous state. However, in the Munich Conference of 1938, western leaders agreed to part of Czechoslovakia being awarded to Germany as appeasement. This loss of faith from western allies made Czechoslovakia feel that it could not defend itself, and the nation agreed to allow Germany to occupy the country; an action which led to only more occupation by Germany in WWII. Although the country of Czechoslovakia no longer exists, there is still the lesson there for modern-day Slovakia and the Czech Republic, who achieved peaceful independence and split into two nations in 1993. By studying the past of what happened to their predecessor, these nations can look to avoid making the same decisions.

The need to study history is a topic that has become quite controversial in a day and age where the United States is 238 years young. Some might associate history with learning about the olden days and what the founding fathers were like; however, in this context, the term “history” pertains to those events that have changed the course of the world. These occurrences could be rich with positive influence, or it could be a point in time that has caused grief and adversity for generations. There are many reasons to study history. A few are: so that we do not repeat the same mistakes, to increase knowledge of human society, to understand global changes, and predict the future.

2. Understanding the Causes and Effects of Historical Events

Understanding the causes and effects of historical events can be a key to understanding the past as well as forecasting the future. Understanding helps individuals decipher between the real reasons and the excuses that are given for starting a war. It will help us avoid making the mistakes that were made in the past. History as a whole is a lengthy story of man’s efforts to control and utilize the environment to his own advantage. Therefore, it is largely a story of movement and change. Since a cause is an agent of change, the ability to recognize causes permits a student of history to discern the forces of change that have shaped human events. The better we understand how others have coped with change, the better we are able to cope with the change that faces us. Because most human behavior is caused or at least influenced by some sort of belief, the ability to understand the probable effects of a decision often proves to be understanding the real reasons behind it. Cause and effect analysis helps understand the sequence of events. It is helpful to know what happened first and what was the event which followed the other event and nothing more than putting it in a casual relationship in terms of cause and effect. This is a major principle of the scientific view of the world and without it, our knowledge of things is poor. Since we use knowledge of the past to guide our actions in the future, sorting out what happened is a prelude to understanding why things happened and an aid to anticipating what is likely to happen next. In other words, cause and effect is a tool to making our actions more effective.

3. Learning from Past Mistakes to Shape a Better Future

History is a race between education and catastrophe. The coming decades will decide the likelihood of chamber a third event of catastrophic war to climax of the history of the century, and our future possibilities of destruction of the nuclear war and the preservation of civilization in a time of limited wars. As students of foreign affairs, there is anything more timely then the study of contemporary history and for attempt by lessons for the future events. But we can find the meaning of history for the future in to the familiar intelligible at the personal level and almost the unconscious one. The study of history embraces the realm of real knowledge and increase our capacity of imaginative by the understanding of the human experiences before personal by the observation of the contemporary man. Our an age event does on the will better deal into the every situation on the value of degree by compromising the idea and the take of action, and we cannot solved to the contemporary manner. At this similarity we must seek the contrasting concrete of trying it in to the jobs. The imposing value of the history for the freeing us from the the intellectual magnitude, is the last both act of history and the contemporary world is the significance by the description and the comparison of past societies with own. Entailed in the more detailed of understanding of historical is the quest to absorptive a the sense of self understanding of we mean by the that confuse word essence of today. We have learn to the take of contemporaries values in to the base of the religion of ideology and the u rational analyzing and test it in the in experimental states to the better understanding the mechanisms which today between his often by precious ideals and a precarious world.

4. Appreciating the Cultural and Social Development of Humanity

A study of history shows that cultures were not static; they developed in many ways. The European explorers, discoverers, and colonists took about 12,000 plant species to the world. Different climates, soils, and availability of plant species determined what would be grown. For example, the sweet potato was not known to Polynesians until the coming of the Europeans. They used the sweet potato as a staple of their diet, and it became entrenched in their culture. It was grown and consumed all over Polynesia with the exception of New Zealand. This can be proved by the dialect word varies from “kumala” in the Cook Islands to “umar” in the Society Islands. These words are merely adaptations of the English word “kumara,” which is a kind of sweet potato. Besides the movement of people, food, and animals, the movement of disease, sometimes intentional and sometimes not, has had profound effects on other cultures. Coca was sacred to the Incas, but it was Pizzaro who took it to the world. He introduced it to Europe, and it spread quickly throughout the Old World. It did not have much effect on the Incas or other Andean people because the European method of using coca as a stimulant did not develop until the twentieth century, and the coca plant was not suitable for growth outside its native region. However, when Europeans discovered quinine as a treatment for malaria, it began establishing enormous demand. This had a serious effect on the colonies in the Caribbean and West Indies in the eighteenth century when fever was a major cause of death among colonists. It was found that coca counteracted the bitter taste of quinine, and the two were often mixed. This led to the establishment of a plantation economy to meet the demands of the Old World for tropical and subtropical goods. As Europeans ventured into Africa and Asia and into the interior of the Americas, they often unwittingly brought disease which had devastating effects on native peoples. From war, enslavement, conversion of land use to an adaptation of the Europeans’ cure for the disease, the effect was often unhealthy for the indigenous people. This also had a profound impact on culture and should be given more detailed treatment by historians. The recent decipherment of the human genome has revealed some fascinating information on disease and human adaptation, and it has been said that historians will increasingly have to be aware of genetic information and issues of human biological and cultural development.

5. Enhancing Critical Thinking and Analytical Skills through Historical Analysis

As mentioned by Sir Francis Bacon in the early 17th century, “Histories make men wise.” In connection to Bacon’s statement, history is an organized record of knowledge of the past. Study of history aids the development of critical thinking. When learning about historic evidence, historians and other students of history use critical thinking to analyze and interpret the past. They ask questions, weigh evidence, sort through conflicting interpretations, and develop more informed perspectives. This ability to think logically about an issue is in high demand by employers who need staff to be able to solve problems and to think in strategic terms. An understanding of the past and of the present can only be achieved when people have the ability to sort through evidence, assess conflicting interpretations, and challenge the writing of history.