Week 2 Reading Reflection - Book Report/Review Example

Week Two Reading Reflection Week Two Reading Reflection The week’s readings started by focusing on Chapter three that details the changes Asia underwent after the World War II. It is expected that the culmination of the war would have effects, particularly to the undeveloped nations. As for the Asian leaders, they started exploiting the land for their advantage and resisted any form of external control. They were keen to seen the East flourish and become independent, not only in leadership but also economically.

The readings capture some details regarding Japan. Although the defeat of Japan was to the benefit of Korea, the American and Soviet forces ended dividing the nation into two; South and North. On the other hand, China was not lagging behind but was doing its best to gain prestige and power (Hunt 2014). As argued by Prashad (2008), nations all over the world were seeking ways of improving their economies by enacting relevant development policies. The struggle for better economies forms the basis of the problems of development.

The new nations wanted to relieve off the burden of importing finished goods while exporting raw materials at cheap prices. Colonization had left countries impoverished and given an advantage to the European powers and the United States (Prashad 2008). The reading by Hunt gives a lot of details about China. I learnt that under the leadership and influence of Mao Zedong and other like leaders, China sought similar power and wealth as that enjoyed by the West. The Vietnamese and Chinese movements hoped to shape their peasant-based economies.

The Western control also took control over India. About two-thirds of the nation was indeed under the control of the British crown. Some of the notable Indian leaders in the reading are Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru (Hunt 2014). African countries were also not left behind as they also started to overthrow external control. Countries such as Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria started manifesting changes in governments and economy. With the knowledge that their nations had the potential for growth because of the availability of raw resources, African leaders had to develop appropriate strategies to tap those resources.

RReferenceHunt, M. H. (2014). The world transformed: 1945 to the present : a documentary reader.Prashad, V. (2008). The darker nations: A peoples history of the Third World. New York: New Press.