Transcription
Okay, next on the agenda for globalization is the big honking movement for human rights and liberation that it has created. And I don't know about you, but I'm in the mood to talk about it. So if you're ready to get them brain cows milks, let's get to it.
Okay, so as you'll no doubt recall by now, globalization has brought many different cultures into more abundant contact with one another, and that has led to a series of movements for reform on a variety of issues. But all of them shared a common theme, namely liberation.
Now, the first major manifestation of this new rights-based dialogue was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, created by the United Nations in 1948. This declaration articulated the basic human rights that belong to all human beings just by virtue of the fact that they were human beings. And more particularly, the Declaration sought to protect the rights of all those citizens of the global community who had long been trampled under oppressive structures—people like women and children and refugees, for example.
In order to uphold the rights of children, the UN established UNICEF, or the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, which devoted its resources to feeding children who were still hungry in the aftermath of World War II.
Second, with respect to women's rights, the 20th century produced some massive changes for them as well. In 1975, we saw the United Nations First World Conference on Women, in which representatives from all over the world met to plan steps for the advancement of women of the next decade. Four years later, in 1979, another conference was held, which bore the very descriptive but unwieldy title, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, at which they proposed an international Bill of Rights for women. This Bill of Rights included provisions for women's suffrage, the right to marry a spouse of their choosing, equality in education, and the right to birth control and other family planning measures.
So you know, noise. Oh, and by the way, if you need help studying for that National exam, which by this point is starting to breathe down your neck, then you should for sure check out my AP World History review guide, which has everything you need to study as fast as possible. It's got whole unit review videos that you're not going to see here on YouTube, note guides to follow along, practice questions, practice exams, and answer keys for every dang bit of it. So if that's something that you're into, link in the description. Okay.
Third, globalization has also led to the rise of a movement for Black Liberation. A good example here is the Negritude movement, which was a rights-based movement for Black equality that emerged in the 1930s and 1940s among French-speaking Caribbean and African artists. Now, it was primarily a literary and ideological movement that elevated Blackness and Black culture as worthy of celebration and dignity over against the racial legacy of colonialism and racism. And not only did this movement have the effect of promoting awareness of Black culture as a positive force, but it also provided the language and discourse for future anti-colonial and civil rights movements across the Caribbean and Africa and other marginalized communities.
Fourth, globalization created the conditions for the rise of rights-based religious movements, like we saw with the spread of Liberation Theology. Now, Liberation Theology was a movement that was born in Latin America as a re-envisioning of the Christian theology of the Catholic Church. And in a break with the power-based imperial character of Catholicism, Liberation Theology emphasized Christ's concern for the poor and the marginalized and called for the transformation of oppressive power structures. And as it turns out, Liberation Theology has had a significant effect on the Catholic Church, which has reformed itself to work for social justice and emphasize solidarity with the poor.
Then moving right along, the era of globalization has also created the conditions for discourse on access to education and politics. And what I mean is, as the global human rights discourse progressed throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, reforms were implemented in terms of education and politics to be more inclusive of gender and race and class and religion. For example, the 20th century became the context for the rapid expansion of women's suffrage throughout the world as a result of feminist movements. Many governments legally recognized women's right to vote and to hold political office. For example, in the United States, women's right to vote was legally recognized in 1920, and then in Turkey in 1934, in Japan 1945, only to name a few.
A second example comes from the marginalized Black communities of the United States who gained a victory with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was passed as a result of the relentless pressure of the Civil Rights Movement. Anyway, this law prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in public accommodations and publicly owned facilities and employment and in federally funded education programs. So liberation achieved—I mean, kind of like we'll talk about it when you get to Aush.
Then a third example comes to us from India with the introduction of the caste reservation system. Now, remember that traditionally members of the lowest castes in India were treated with shame and socially marginalized. But with the implementation of the caste reservation system, a certain percentage of seats in educational institutions and government jobs and elected positions were reserved for members of historically marginalized caste groups.
Finally, let's consider calls for environmental and economic reform that globalization created. I mean, to put it mildly, not everyone is a big fan of the effects of globalization, so let's hear some of their complaints. First, let's talk about protest against the environmental effects of globalization with the rise of environmentalism. Now, environmentalism as a movement had begun in the 19th century, but it was largely restricted to individual states and regions. So, for example, Romantic poets in Europe denounced the degradation of the landscape as industrial factories and their filthy pollution multiplied in their regions. Or in the United States, a conservation movement began under President Teddy Roosevelt that aimed to protect America's forests from the incessant march of industrial progress. But it wasn't until the 20th century that protest against the environmental effects of globalization became a truly global movement because those effects were not felt equally across the world. And so, in response to these pressures, Greenpeace was founded in 1971, which is known for its use of non-violent protest tactics, which they used to raise awareness and advocate for environmental protection. And they use all kinds of tactics like protests and blockades and direct interventions to confront environmental threats.
Then, on the other side, an effort at economic reform in a globalized world was the rise of the World Fair Trade Organization. Now, recall that a major economic effect of globalization was the large-scale movement of the manufacturing sector to developing nations where multinational corporations could save money by paying foreign laborers lower wages—shady as heck, but you know that's how it works. Anyway, the World Fair Trade Organization represents one movement that sought to reform such exploitative practices like low wages and long hours and unsafe working conditions and lack of job security. And so, fair trade principles advocated by the WFT aim to ensure that producers receive fair prices for their goods, enabling them to earn a sustainable livelihood and invest in their community.
Okay, click here to keep reviewing for unit 9, or you can click here to grab my AP World History review guide, which has everything you need to study for that National exam. I'm glad we got to hang out, and I'll catch you on the flip-flop. I'm L out.