Of all of the former communist states in Eastern Europe, the Czech Republic has perhaps had one of the most interesting and promising transformations to a market-system economy. Until a currency crisis in 1997, the Czech Republic was considered a role model transforming Eastern European nation. Dur...

THE COLD WAR The cold war is a post 1945 struggle between the U.S. and its allies and the group of nations led by the Soviet Union. Direct military conflict never occurred between the two superpowers, however economic and diplomatic struggles erupted instead. Different interests led to mutual ...

After WWII, there was an iron curtain dividing eastern and western Europe. And there were also two superpowers left standing, the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States dominated in western Europe while the Soviet Union dominated in eastern Europe. Tensions grew between the two superp...

Americans have always wanted the "best" of things. Brand new cars, big houses, and flashy clothes have historically been an American way of life. Even in the face of extreme hardships, Americans being Americans, go to extreme measures to preserve their way of life. Of course, we Americans have our...

The shocking fall of communism in Eastern and central Europe in the late eighties was remarkable for both it's rapidity and its scope. In each of the nations, the communist regimes in power were forces to transfer that power to radically different institutions than they were accustomed to. Dem...

The origins of the Cold War Up to 1945 the most dominant countries were European, Britain, France and Germany, by the end of the war however this was very different. The retreating German army had destroyed whole areas of towns and industries, and allied bombing had left most of Germany in ruin...

The World Imagined In 1498, the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama sailed with four ships from Europe to reach India. Because of the cold weather, the sailors could not prepare food. They went to Africa and collected all they needed and finally reached India and saw the flock of amazed citizens watc...

For many years, foreign travel to and from Albania was severely restricted. Although the country has been a tourist destination for Europeans for several years, the majority of people in the United State still know very little about this Eastern European country. The purpose of this paper is to di...

Scandinavian traders set up governments along their trade route at the city of Kiev. As the Kievan Russia and the Byzantium contacts grew, Kiev became a great trading center; Therefore Constantinople became a great trading center. The role of the East Orthodox religion was played in early Russian c...

PLANTS AND DISEASES IN THE WESTERN WORLD In 1215, a man named Marco Polo embarked on a journey towards Western Asia and China. His reason for going to Asia was to gain spices, silks, and other luxurious items only the Asians made. Along his journey, Polo soon realized that ...

The vampire as it is known in modern western society is a powerful, attractive, and majestic being. The vampire has become a symbol of that which most all human beings idolize, immortality. In western society, people have become desensitized towards the subject of vampirism, almost as if the vampi...

Almost 3 million Jews of Eastern European and Russian decent settled in New York City's Lower East side between 1890 and 1910. The primary reason for this large migration in such numbers was to escape the harsh persecution of the Russian government. During this time of mass European migration...

"She has a lot of chutzpah to talk like that!" Chutzpah is Yiddish for nerve. Yiddish came about between the ninth and twelfth centuries in southwestern Germany as an alteration of Middle High German dialects to the special needs of Jews. To the original German were added those Hebrew w...

The balance of power in Europe shifted to the United States and the Soviet Union during the years 1945 to 1970 making way for change. The balance of power in Europe came with the surrender of Germany to end WWII. With no common enemy to unite them, the inherent differences between East and West, c...

The Cold War lasted for over half a century, and many different factors fuelled the battle. All three major nations that were involved helped to escalate the Cold War farther. The Soviet's actions in Eastern Europe, American, perhaps too aggressive actions against Soviet expansion, and Churchil...

Since the announcement from there finance secretary, Jesus Silva Herzog that Mexico could not make payment on its $90 billion debt, it caused a lot of ruckus and chaos. A year after Mexico's announcement more than forty other countries ran out of money and announced that they could no longer pa...

Old and New Immigrants, Birds of Passage, and True Immigrants Historians have divided immigration to the United States into two categories: old and new immigrants. With population increases in almost every European country due to advances in medicine and public health standards resulti...

Creslaw Milosz's American Ignorance of War is a critique of America's obliviousness to the fact that there could exist differences in social orders and values, which could be as natural as the American way of thinking and life. It is important to note here that Milosz goes to great length ...

1984 In many ways, Orwell's view of the future has come true. Although we do not live in a world dominated by Communist super-powers, there are many aspects of our society that are prophesied in the book. Take, for example, the three land masses used in Nineteen Eighty-Four. There is O...

The outbreak of war in Europe in 1854, the Crimean War, broke up the cooperation Europe, led by four powers-Russia, Britain, Austria, and Prussia-tried to maintain, solidify, and improve after the Napoleonic Wars. Even worse, into two separate hostile groups: mainly the west with France and Britain,...

Both USA and USSR contributed to the slow evolvement of the Cold War, although I would accuse the USSR of being the more responsible of the two parties. Stalin's initial paranoid suspicions of the West gave him the need to cripple Germany to feel protected against future threats, and I believe that...

Government by the people. Until recently, democracies counted very few persons among 'the people'. Now they include all adult citizens, including, in many nations, recent immigrants, and democracy is virtually universally revered as the best or the right form of government. In the democratic upsu...

The idea of a global village in modern terms brings up thoughts of a world that is completely connected on each continent by telephone, media, and Internet. The idea of a small world has become a part of everyday life only recently. Although the world has not gotten smaller since the 13th centu...

Europe between Wars By Martin Kitchen A Book Review In this compelling account of Europe between the wars, Martin Kitchen outlines the intensifying crisis by looking at the peace settlement, followed by the economic and social troubles of the interwar period. Many of Martin's books r...

Despite its obvious financial advantages, Foreign Direct Investment has also been described as an "expensive" and "risky" international growth strategy. Other things being equal, why is FDI expensive and risky? Compare the risks involved with FDI to the risks involved with exporting and licensing. ...