Local History vs World History IELTS Writing Task 2

The knowledge of the local past helps understand how their country has evolved from the past to the present undergoing various transformations, struggles, warfare, revolution, etc. For example, the knowledge of Indian history will help the Indian students know about their freedom struggle, how their country witnessed the reigns of different dynasties, empires, and rulers, from Aryans to Mughals to the Britishers. How the county has fought the war for freedom through different mediums and achieved the ultimate independence. Similarly, the knowledge of the local history will help the Russian students find out about their country transformed from the Soviet Union to modern-day Russia, how the second world war has completely changed the course of history for them. Secondly, the knowledge of the local history helps you in knowing the richness of your culture. Every country has a unique culture and lifestyle. Even a single country consists of diverse cultures and regional variations, languages, etc. Knowing the local history of the native country helps them in understanding the richness of their culture, its evolution, its shortcomings, and how the culture has helped them in becoming the person they are today. The past knowledge of their culture will help understand their lands, their richness, their resources, and their shortcomings. Although, the knowledge of world history will help them connect the dots together and give them a better comparison. The vitality of world history is lesser than the local history. It is true that local history and world history are the two sides of the same coin, but the significance and advantage of local history are far more than world history. The educational institutions must prioritize teaching local history to their students over world history.

Everything has reached beyond borders, be it the field of education, science, technology, arts, etc. This internationalization of the world demands a more comprehensive understanding of world history. It has become important for the students to learn about the past happenings in the world to understand the recent trends of the globalized world. For example, for the Russians to have a comprehensive understanding of their country’s relations with another world, they need to understand the past happenings of the world wars, cold wars, etc. In recent times, there is a mass scale movement of the workforce in different corners of the world for jobs. In this case, what helps them the most is an understanding of the past history of the country, their culture, ethnicity that will help them in building good relations on the foreign land, be it personal or professional. Globalization has also increased the trends of outsourcing. Different countries have outsourced their services beyond borders to increase the market reach and capital. To perform better in the business-oriented world, one needs to have a better knowledge of the past history of the outsourcing country to better strategize their business. Learning about world history helps the student in critically analyzing the past events of the world and suggesting better improvisations for the future. One must not forget the fact that understanding the world’s take gives an upper edge over the students who are strangled in local history. Even world history helps you understand local history in a better way. We need to break the stereotype that teaching local history is far better than teaching world history. Although local history is an essential part of the course, understanding world history is significantly important.

Knowledge of world history will help in understanding the local history and culture well. Similarly, knowledge of the local history will help in judging the cultural differences, positive and negative aspects of the native country and the world, and how both of them have influenced each other. All the major happenings in the different countries have been inspired by some of the major events that happened in the world. For example, the French Revolution has influenced the history of the south-east Asian countries and has helped them decolonize themselves. Similarly, the renaissance in different parts of the world has influenced the evolution pattern of many countries and started a chain of reform movements. Having a knowledge of the major world events will help the students analyze how these events have affected the local history of their country.

History is not just the understanding of the events of the past, but it gives a comprehensive understanding of the social, economic, cultural, and political aspects also. Many Asian countries have been influenced by the democratic structure of the western countries and have adopted the same, and socialist ideals of the European world, the technological advancement of the countries in the west has influenced the history of many countries in the eastern world.

All these factors clearly show that the world and local history cannot be separated and one cannot be prioritized over another. Both the local and the world history must be given equal importance and must be balanced together. A student must know both about the local as well as world history, only then one would be able to critically analyze the facts and draw a conclusion. Separating them will lead to incomplete knowledge of the events. Hence, local history and world history must be equally valued.