Unit 8: Cold War and Decolonization
1. Communism and the Cold War
* Cold War
* Lasted 1945 to early 1990’s
* Was an arms race between the Americans and Soviets
* Nuclear arsenals now a threat
2. Power Grab:Soviets and the Americans Want Everyone to Take Sides
* Soviet promoted communism
* Germany and other parts of Eastern Europe were divided into “Spheres of Influence” drawn up by the Allies during conferences at Yalta and Potsdam in 1945
* Berlin Blockade
* Soviets wanted Berlin to be within its control
* They cut off land access from the West
* West retaliate by flying in food and fuel to the trapped half AKA (Berlin Airlift)
East Versus West
* Soviet Bloc / Eastern Bloc
* (East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Hungry)
* Formed Warsaw Pact in retaliation of NATO
- Western Bloc
- Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, West Germany, Greece, Turkey
- Formed military alliance NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
- Truman Doctrine of 1947
- Would aid in countries that were threatened by communist powers AKA (Containment)
- Iron Curtain
- Churchill's name for the line between the East and West
- 1955 Bandung Conference
- Invited leaders from Africa and Assia to meet in Indonesia to discuss first steps towards the Non-Aligned Movement
Focus On: Nuclear Proliferations
* Efforts to limit nuclear technology to just five powers (China, Russia, United States, Great Britain, France)
* Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (1968)
* International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) (1957)
* Weapons continue to develop even after collapse of the Soviet Union
3. China: Communists Make Huge Gains
* Manchu Dynasty fell in 1911
* Sun Yat-sen led the Chinese Revolution of 1911 and as a result China became more Westernized
* He prompted Three Principles of the People
* (Nationalism, Socialism, Democracy)
* Established the political party Kuomintang (KMT)
* Was dedicated to his own goals
* Chiang Kai-Shek was Sun Yat-sen successor
* 1949 Communists under Mao Zedong rallied millions of peasants in northern China
* Drove the Kuomintang out to the island of Taiwan
* There they established the Republic of China
* Mainland China became People's Republic of China
* Largest communist nation in the world under Mao Zedong’s leadership
Mao Zedong: His Own Way
* Late 1950’s implemented the Great Leap Forward
* Goal was to create a true Marxist State
* 1966 Promoted the Cultural Revolution
* Discouraged anything approaching a privileged ruling class
China Looks West: Likes the Money, Not So Sure About the Democracy
* Deng Xiaping’s government entered into joint ventures with foreign companies in which profits and decisions were shared
* Tiananmen Square Massacre (1989)
* One million demonstrators called for democratic reform
* Gov. sent troops and opened fire
* Hundreds killed
Division of Korea: The Cold War Turns Hot and Now Possibly Nuclear
* Under General MacArthur the UN made big progress
Vietnam: The Cold War Turns Ugly
* After WW2 French tried to hold into their colony of Indochina
* Nationalists known as the Vietminh fought them back
* Communists under leadership of Ho CHi Minh gained control of land north of the 17th parallel
* Ngo Dinh Diem became president of the democratic south
* US withdrew in 1975, the North Vietnamese and communist Viet Cong fighters took control throughout South Vietnam
Genocide in Cambodia
* Communist faction Khmer Rouge gained support to take over the pro-western government
4. The Cuban Revolution
* Under terms of Platt Amendment the US remained involved in Cuban affairs, provided for the presence of US military bases
* 1939 to 1959 US supported the Batista Dictatorship, benefited the wealthy landowners
* 1956 Peasants began a revolt under Fidel Castro's leadership
* Using guerilla warfare the revolutions made progress and by 1959 Batisita feld
* Was a great success against a dictator
* 1961 President Kennedy authorized Bay of Pigs Invasion
* If missiles were launched from Cuba, the US would retaliate, became known as the Cuban Missile Crisis
5. Cold War Tensions and Democratization in Latin America
* Good Neighbor, complaints of imperial policies to the north increased
* Latin America's biggest issues were their export economies
* Relied on coffee, fruit, sugar, oil
* Resulted in weak domestic economies and lots of debt
* 2000 the National Action Party (PAN) won the presidency
6. The Cold War Finally Ends
* During the cold war, Western European standard of living dramatically improved
Poland: Solidarity Grows in Popularity
* 1980 workers began the solidarity movement under Lech Walesa’s leadership
* Workers joined in strike for reform of the communist economic system
* Solidarity legalized in 1989
* Solidarity member Tadeusz Mazowiecki became prime minister in first open elections since the end of WW2
German Reunification: All This, Just to be Back Where It Started
* Decline of communism in the Soviet bloc led to the reunification of Germany as a free-market democracy
The Soviet Union Collapses: Glasnost, Perestroika, Kaput
* Mikhail Gorbachev came in Soviet Union power in 1985
* Instituted policies of glasnost (openness)
* Urged perestroika (reconstructing) of the economy
* Nationalist movements within the former Yugoslavia led to “ethnic cleansing”
* Bosnian and Albanian Muslims were raped and slaughtered by Christian Serbians
* Muslim dominated Chechnya wanted to break away
* Used guerilla warfare and terriost methods to advance their cause
Democracy and Authoritarian Rule in Russia
* On paper Russia looked like a perfect federal state with three branches, checks and balances and an independent court
* Russia's rushed introduction to both democracy and capitalism led to 10 years of corruption, unemployment, poverty, crime, and Soviet-Style nostalgia for control and discipline
* Former KGB agent Vladimir Putin led Russia state for 8 years starting in 1999 after Yeltsin resigned
7. Independence Movements and Developments in Asia and Africa
* After WW2 independence movements marked the beginning of the end of European imperialism
The Indian Subcontinent
* Indian National Congress a primarily Hindu political party was established in 1885 to increase rights of Indians under colonial rule
* Muslim League in 1906 advanced the causes of Islamic Indians
* 1919 Amritsar massacre captured the movement
* 1920’s Mohandas Gandhi became important voice
* Philosophy of passive resistance, or civil disobedience gained support
Independence Won: Nations Two
* Second movement by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, aim was to split the subcontinent and form a separate Muslim nation in the northern region, where islam was the primary religion
Africa
* 1950’s independence movement gathered steam in Africa
* Gamal Nasser a Egyptian army general overthrew the king and established a republic
* Algerians fought a bitter war for independence from France (1954-1962)
* Early 1960’s Nigeria and Ghana negotiated their freedom into a Parliamentary governing style borrowed from England
* Kenya was under Jomo Kenyatta’s leadership
* Angola and Belgian Congo overthrew colonial governments
* Zimbabwe was among the last to establish African majority rule in 1980
* 53 of the 54 nations belonged to the African Union
* Formed in 2001 to replace the Organization of African Unity
* Chad, Sudan, Uganda, Somalia, and Rwanda, renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo
Note the Change: Globalization and the Rise of NGOs
* Non-governmental organizations
* Typically private, non-profit, provide relief and advocacy for underrepresented groups
Rwanda: Ethnic Genocide
* Human rights violations stemmed from conflicts between the Tutsi (15% of pop.) and Hutu (85% pop.)
Developments in South Africa: The Rise and Fall of Apartheid
* 1909 South Africa Act
* 1910 Union of South Africa was formed by combining two British colonies with two Dutch Boer republics
* Apartheid (“separation of races”) put in action in South Africa in 1948
* Divided the Black (80% pop.) and white
* 1950’s Nelson Mandela became leader of African National Congress
* Organization determined to abolish apartheid
* Advocated for peaceful protests following Gandhi
* In 1960 after the Sharpeville massacre, 67 protesters were killed, the African National congress began to support guerilla warfare
The Middle East
* At the end of WW1, largely comprised of old Ottoman lands, was temporary under control of the League of Nations
Israel: Balfour Declares a Mess
* In WW1, Jewish nationalists (Zionists) who lived in Britain convinced Arthur Balfour, British foreign secretary, that Jewish homeland in Palestine was desirable and just
* ISsue the Balfour Declaration of 1917, stated the right for a home in Palestine for the Jewish people
* Mainly Russian Jews fleeing pogroms (antisemitic mobs) came into Palestine
The Jewish Wait for a State Ends in 1948
* David Ben-Gurion, first prime minister of Israel, announced creation of Jewish homeland on May 14, 1948
* Muslims from six Arab countries attacked Israel in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
* Within months Israelis controlled most of Palestine, Jordan held the remaining parts (the West Bank)
* 1967 the Six-Day War resulted in total victory for the Israelis
* Took control of the West bank from Jordan, the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt, and the Golan Heights from Syria
* In 1977, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signed the Camp David Accords
* Led to Israel pulling out of the Sinai and Egypt
- Palestine Liberation Organization, a group dedicated to reclaiming the land and establishing a Palestinian state, has been unsuccessful in negotiating a homeland
- Newly Elected Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon approved the construction of a wall to be built between the Palestinian West Bank and Israel in order to protect Israelies against suicide attacks
- Progress on the Roadmap to Peace proposed in 2003 stalled until the death of Palestinian president Yasser Arafat in November 2004
- Following his 2005 January Election, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas signed a cease-fire with Israel that ended the intifada (uprising) that began in 2000
The Iranian Revolution: The Shah Gets Shooed
* Reza Shah Pahlavi rose to power in 1925
* President Jimmy Carter of the US visited Iran to congratulate it on its programs of modernization and westernization, Islamic fundamentalists had enough
* 1979 shah was forced from power during the Iranian Revolution , sent Iran back to a theocracy led by Ayatollah (“Mirror of God”) Khomeini
* Even with US support the Iran-Iraq War turned into an eight year war of attrition, with no side gained land until a ceasefire was called in 1988
* Ayatollah Khomeini was succeeded by Ayatollah Khamenei after his death in 1989
* Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a ultra conservative mayor president of Iran from 2005-2013
Oil: Enormous Amounts of Goo
* OPEC formed in 1960 (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries)