Fukuyama Conclusion - Post-Cold War Era | Reflective Essay Writing Assessment Answers

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Question:In 1989 Fukuyama famously proclaimed ‘the end of history.’ Drawing on examples from the Cold War era, explain why Fukuyama came to this conclusion, and if his thesis remains relevant today.

In 1989 Fukuyama famously proclaimed ‘the end of history.’ Drawing on examples from the Cold War era, explain why Fukuyama came to this conclusion, and if his thesis remains relevant today.

Introduction

In his article written in the year 1989, Fukuyama proclaimed ‘the end of history.' Fukuyama came to this conclusion based on the events that took place during the cold war era. The cold war was a period that would dictate the history of the future thinking and traits that will take place. Engaging in activities that would make history would refer to something that is not likely to happen again. Therefore, people would live to remember that period as the only one that has ever happened to that extent. The events that take place in history usually shock people. For this reason, Fukuyama referred this period to the end of history because it would not happen again in the future. This period marked the end of a historical moment. However, there is more of the reasons why he termed this period that way.

Discussions

According to Fukuyama, the end of the Cold War commemorated the making of history. The cold war was the first war of its nature ever to happen. For this reason, the history was made. As the war continued, history was continually in the making. However, when the war ends, history making is halted. For this reason, peace began breaking out in a majority of the countries after the cold war was over. Fukuyama further states that there were numerous articles that were written about the cold war after it had ended (Fukuyama 1989, pp. 2). These articles were mostly commemorating the cold war. A majority of the authors scrambled to write about the rebirth of the world in an era of peace. These are some of the factors that caused Fukuyama to term it as the end of history. The end of the war came with it spread in ideas from various countries across the world. There was an ineluctable spread of the Western cultures across the world.

For example, coloured television sets were now available in China. Furthermore, the cooperative restaurants and clothing stores were now opened in Moscow. Also, rock music was listened to and enjoyed in Prague, Rangoon, and Tehran. According to Fukuyama, these actions commemorated the end of history and not just a passing wave of the post-war error. The western liberal democracy began forming the formal form of human government. The western trends began to take a big toll on the rest of the world. Therefore, stating that history had been made was an overstatement. The history was slowly faded away. This forms one of the major reasons why Fukuyama termed this period as the end of history (Fukuyama 1989, pp. 3). The world started becoming highly materialistic in nature. These changes caused the overrunning of the historical nature of the cold war.

According to Karl Marx, the development of history was a determinant of the interplay of material forces. Fukuyama drew his conclusions from other historical experts that existed before his time. Any and all contradictions that exist in history exist in the human consciousness. Industrial development was experienced after the cold war. Some of the activities and operations that were taking place during the cold war have been updated due to influence from the western cultures. The cold war was conquered by the western countries (Engerman 2010, pp. 398). Therefore, their influence was largely felt after the cold war. Liberalism has facilitated the reduction in historical memories. However, there are some challenges that have faced the liberalism in the world. These challenges include fascism and communism.

Fascism was largely focused on affecting the political nature in the world and also promoting the materialism era in the world. However, fascism was soon destroyed as living ideology among the human race by the emergence of World War II. In contradiction, a majority of the people viewed fascism as the idea that had the wave of the future. People thought that this was what would constitute the trend in the future. Fascism caused major changes after the cold war. According to Fukuyama, this is what brought about the end of history in itself (McKnight 2008, pp. 190). Eventually, it also seemed as if the fascism of the Germans and Europeans would also collapse as they adopted the trends of the western cultures. However, there were several environments in which the fascists could have emerged once again, even though they did not.

The communist nature in the developed western world was lower today that at any other time after the First World War (Prozorov 2008, pp. 220). This is evident from the fact that there is a decline in the membership of the electoral pull from the European communist parties. This was replaced by the success witnessed in the most conservative parties present in Germany, United States, and Britain. The experiences during the cold war dictated the future for many people. However, these expectations were overcome by the various developments that were witnessed during the post-war era. During this period, the global earth effect began to be felt across the world. The western culture quickly began spreading throughout the world as various authors begun writing stories about the cold war and their opinions about it. The effect of the cold war and the challenges that it brought were quickly disregarded when the people started being influenced by the western culture. According to Fukuyama, this was one of the major causes of his statement that the cold war was the end of history.

As part of the development era, the Chinese government engaged in the process of collectivizing agriculture for about 800 million Chinese citizens who still lived in the countryside (Fukuyama 1989, pp. 6). The government played a role in reducing the amount collected by the tax collector. As a result, the amount retained by the farmer would increase. Ultimately, farm produce would also increase. In only five years, the move doubled the Chinese grain output. The success of this project prompted the government to adopt the same principle in other states across the country. The same spirit and trend of development was experienced in other countries across the world. The history that was formed during the cold war era were beginning to end due to the post-war era. The thesis presented by the Fukuyama is still relevant to this day. The development era and the industrialization era continued, to create the world we live in today. Therefore, we can thank the development to the cold war that took place. The war brought about cultural interactions between various communities and residents of different nationalities.

The development that took place in the Chinese continent was a clear example of the positive effects that were witnessed by the post-war era. The war brought out the various operations that were done in a wrong manner (Zhang & Zhang 2010, pp. 640). Human nature is designed to learn from their past experiences they have witnessed. This is the reason history is usually valued highly. However, Fukuyama states that the cold war was followed by the end of history. This was because of the activities and trends that were witnessed soon after the war was over. Fukuyama attributes this to a series of reasons that all constitute to the end of history. Sharing of information between different cultures has resulted in the standardization of the economies on a worldwide scale.

Conclusion

According to Fukuyama, the end of history is brought about by the sharing of cultures between different countries. However, the cultural influence was primarily of the Western countries. The cultures experience on the western side of the continent were felt on the eastern side of the continent. For example, color television sets became available in the Chinese country. Rock music was being enjoyed on the eastern side as well. These cultures were largely enjoyed in the western countries but had spread across the world to sections where such activities were not known. The spread of this information was attributed to the cold war. As the countries were fighting with each other, people began to learn various qualities about each other. For this reason, Fukuyama suggested that the history made during the cold war was quickly disregarded based on the trends that have been shared between the different people belonging to different countries. Human concentration became centered on the post-war phase.