What is Power?

Power was a main theme that we covered this year in almost all the topics we studied.
First, during the topic of imperialism, we covered power because some countries had the power, while the other countries, in Africa for example, had no power whatsoever. The Europeans achieved the goals of gold, god, and glory. There was nothing positive for the Africans who were basically turned into slaves to accomplish European needs. This would probably go under political power, because politics basically has to do with governments. Later on, power was shown in both the World Wars. In WWI the Kaiser had power over all of Germany, and wanted to expand that power throughout the world. Unfortunately for him, the countries on the opposing side, like England and France, had much more power and were able to overcome Germany and its allies in the war. Political power was also shown during the Russian Revolution. The Russians revolted because they weren’t treated properly; as a result, the Bolsheviks took the power. Under the rule of Stalin, the Russians were even worse off than before the change of political power.
The World Wars are examples of economic power, because the countries with a greater economy won the war. They could afford better weapons and rations for the soldiers. As a result of this war, all the financial power shifted to New York, in the United States. The countries in the war lost most of their power because they owed money to lots of countries, of, in Germanys case, had to pay reparations for all the damage that was caused. After the wars, the two super powers were the USSR and the US. With all their power, both believed that their ideologies were the best. They tried their hardest to bring down the other countries economy, and in the end, the US won because Russia went bankrupt. Basically, higher economies have more power because they can achieve their goals much more efficiently.
The last type of power is personal power which was also shown throughout the year. One example is in the book Animal Farm. The pigs were the smarter animals, so, as a result they could control the environment around them and make everything work to their personal benefit. Because the book was an allegory of the Russian Revolution, it shows how Stalin took the power for himself and became dictator. Another example of personal power is from the book The House of the Scorpion. El Patron has all the power and makes everything around him work to his personal needs. He even lived 8 lives, because that’s what he wanted, and he was able to achieve it because of his power. Not all personal power has to be bad though. Matt had power, and made it work toward the good of society. I thought that power meant complete control over everyone, but then I realized that many times, people with power don’t always have control. This is why revolutions start, and why power is always shifting. And, this is why I think power is the ability to achieve a certain goal or purpose.