If you have been to college, you probably took a course called "Western Civilization," or some variant of it, loosely labeled as the history of the world.  Unless the course tracks the history of the world outside of the West, however, the name is a misnomer.  It assumes that anything that occurred outside the West is of minor or, worse, of no importance to the state of the world today.
     Although I suspect that few historians feel this way, simply retaining the name of such a course almost seems offensive to many parts of the world.  And perhaps it is.  If we for instance assume that history is nothing more than a mix of force and freedom, a continual and senseless striving for power, we have every reason to study the world from the standpoint of other parts of the globe.  It is these areas that have felt most acutely the tension of force and freedom in their lives, and it is these regions that have sensed, more than the West, the delicate balance between force and freedom.  It is a balance for which, ideally, all peoples should strive.
     What is my point?  If all of us are made in the image of one God, no one of us is more valuable than the other, and no nation has any call to subjugate the other.  Further, no nation has the right (and, yes, I realize that "right" is an overused and misunderstood term) to decide the destiny of another country.  Even if we insist that God has a master vision for human history, we of the West err in supposing that we have a unique window into it or that we are specially called to orchestrate it.  (When God called Abraham, he made clear that the initiative and impetus was God's alone).
     Enjoy learning about the world--your world--and everyone, of whom you are one, in it.