Contemporary World History - 2021

Seventh
Edition
Contemporary
World History
Seventh
Edition
Contemporary
World History
William J. Duiker
The Pennsylvania State University
Australia ● Brazil ● Mexico ● Singapore ● United Kingdom ● United States

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
WILLIAM J. DUIKER is liberal arts professor emeritus of East Asian studies at The Pennsylvania
State University. A former U.S. diplomat with service in Taiwan, South Vietnam, and Washington,
D.C., he received his doctorate in Far Eastern history from Georgetown University in 1968, where his
dissertation dealt with the Chinese educator and reformer Cai Yuanpei. At Penn State, he has writ-
ten extensively on the history of Vietnam and modern China, including the highly acclaimed The
Communist Road to Power in Vietnam (revised edition, Westview Press, 1996), which was selected for a
Choice Outstanding Academic Book Award in 1982–1983 and 1996–1997. Other published books are
China and Vietnam: The Roots of Conflict (Berkeley, 1987); Sacred War: Nationalism and Revolution in a
Divided Vietnam (McGraw-Hill, 1995); and Ho Chi Minh (Hyperion, 2000), which was nominated for a
Pulitzer Prize in 2001. He is the author, with colleague Jackson Spielvogel, of World History (ninth edi-
tion, Cengage, 2019). While his research specialization is in the field of nationalism and Asian revolu-
tions, his intellectual interests are considerably more diverse. At Penn State, he served for ten years as
Director of International Programs in the College of Liberal Arts, and was awarded a Faculty Scholar
Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the spring of 1996. In 2002 the College of Liberal Arts hon-
ored him with an Emeritus Distinction Award.
TO JULES F. DIEBENOW (1929–2013),

INVETERATE FELLOW TRAVELER, MENTOR, AND FRIEND.
W.J.D.
v
BRIEF CONTENTS
Historical Voices: Documents xiv

Maps xvi
Features xvii
Preface xviii
Themes for Understanding World History xxii
Part I Part iV
New World in the Making 1 Third World Rising 277
1 The Rise of Industrial Society in the West 2 11 Toward the Pacific Century? Japan and the Little
Tigers 278
2 The High Tide of Imperialism: Africa and Asia in
an Era of Western Dominance 28 12 The East Is Red: China Under Communism 298
3 Shadows over the Pacific: East Asia Under 13 Nationalism Triumphant: The Emergence of
Challenge 53 Independent States in South and Southeast
Asia 321
Part ii 14 Emerging Africa 345
cultures in collision 77 15 Ferment in the Middle East 367
4 War and Revolution: World War I and Its
Aftermath 78 Part V
5 Nationalism, Revolution, and Dictatorship: The New Millennium 395
Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America
1919 –1939 105 16 The Challenge of a New Millennium 396
Glossary 429
6 The Crisis Deepens: The Outbreak of World
War II 133 Index 435
Part iii
Across the Ideological Divide 163
7 East and West in the Grip of the Cold War 164
8 The United States, Canada, and Latin America 190
9 Brave New World: The Rise and Fall of
Communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern
Europe 220
10 Postwar Europe: On the Path to Unity? 246
vi
Detailed COntents
Historical Voices: Documents xiv HISTORICAL VOICES

Maps xvi The Classless Society 21
Features xvii 1-7 T
oward the Modern Consciousness: Intellectual
Preface xviii and Cultural Developments 22
Themes for Understanding World History xxii 1-7a Developments in the Sciences: The Emergence of a
New Physics 22
Part I 1-7b Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution 23
1-7c Sigmund Freud and the Emergence of
New World in the Making 1 Psychoanalysis 23
1-7d Literature and the Arts: The Culture of
1 The Rise of Industrial Society Modernity 23
in the West 2 HISTORICAL VOICES
The Theory of Evolution 24
1-1 The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain 3
MAKING CONNECTIONS ● REFLECTION
1-2 The Spread of the Industrial Revolution 4 QUESTIONS ● CHAPTER TIMELINE ● CHAPTER
1-2a The Pace Quickens 4 NOTES 26
1-3 The Emergence of a Mass Society 7

1-3a Social Structures 7 2 The High Tide of Imperialism:
1-3b Changing Roles for Women 8 Africa and Asia in an Era of
HISTORICAL VOICES Western Dominance 28
Discipline in the New Factories 9
2-1 The Spread of Colonial Rule 29
Comparative Illustration 2-1a The Myth of European Superiority 29
The Dual Face of the Industrial Revolution 10
2-1b The Advent of Western Imperialism 30
HISTORICAL VOICES
A Plea for Women’s Rights 11 2-2 The Colonial System 31
2-2a The Philosophy of Colonialism 31
MOVIES & HISTORY
Suffragette (2015) 12 2-3 India Under the British Raj 32
1-4 R
eaction and Revolution: The Decline of the Opposing Viewpoints
Old Order 12 White Man’s Burden, Black Man’s Sorrow 33
1-4a Liberalism and Nationalism 12 2-3a The Nature of British Rule 34
1-4b The Revolutions of 1848 13 MOVIES & HISTORY
1-4c The Unifications of Italy and Germany 13 A Passage to India (1984) 36
1-4d Roots of Revolution in Russia 14
2-4 The Colonial Takeover of Southeast Asia 36
1-4e The Ottoman Empire and Nationalism in the
2-4a The Imposition of Colonial Rule 36
Balkans 15
2-4b Colonial Regimes in Southeast Asia 38
1-5 The Triumph of Liberalism in the West 16 Comparative Illustration
1-5a The United States and Canada 17 Cultural Influences, East and West 39
1-5b Tradition and Change in Latin America 17
2-5 Empire Building in Africa 40
1-6 The Rise of the Socialist Movement 19 2-5a Africa Before Imperialism 41
1-6a The Rise of Marxism 20 2-5b The Growing European Presence in West
1-6b Capitalism in Transition 20 Africa 41
vii
HISTORICAL VOICES MAKING CONNECTIONS ● REFLECTION
Tragedy at Caffard Cove 42 QUESTIONS ● CHAPTER TIMELINE ● CHAPTER
2-5c Imperialist Shadow over the Nile 43 NOTES 72
2-5d The Scramble for Africa 43 Part I REFLECTIONS 74
2-5e Bantus, Boers, and British in South Africa 45
2-5f Colonialism in Africa 46 Part II
2-6 Patterns of Resistance to Colonial Conquest 47 cultures in collision 77
2-6a Opposition to Colonial Rule in Africa 47
Opposing Viewpoints
To Resist or Not to Resist 48 4 War and Revolution: World War I
2-6b The Sepoy Uprising 49
and Its Aftermath 78
2-6c The Path of Collaboration 50 4-1 The Coming of War 79
2-6d Imperialism: Drawing Up the Balance Sheet 50 4-1a Rising Tensions in Europe 79
MAKING CONNECTIONS ● REFLECTION 4-1b Crisis in the Balkans, 1908–1913 79
QUESTIONS ● CHAPTER TIMELINE ● CHAPTER 4-1c The Outbreak of War 80
NOTES 51
4-2 The World at War 80
4-2a Illusions of Victory, 1914–1915 81
3 Shadows over the Pacific: 4-2b The Great Slaughter, 1916–1917 81
East Asia Under Challenge 53 4-2c The Widening of the War 83
3-1 China at Its Apex 54 Opposing Viewpoints
3-1a Changeless China? 54 The Excitement and the Reality of War 84
MOVIES & HISTORY
3-2 Traditional China in Transition 56 Lawrence of Arabia (1962) 85
3-2a Opium and Rebellion 56 4-2d The Home Front: The Impact of Total War 86
3-2b The Taiping Rebellion 56 4-2e The Last Year of the War 86
3-2c Efforts at Reform 58
HISTORICAL VOICES
Opposing Viewpoints Women in the Factories 87
Practical Learning or Confucian Essence:
The Debate over Reform 58 4-3 The Peace Settlement 88
3-2d The Climax of Imperialism in China 59 4-3a The Vision of Woodrow Wilson 88
3-2e The Collapse of the Old Order 60 4-3b The Treaty of Versailles 89
HISTORICAL VOICES 4-4 Revolution in Russia 90
Program for a New China 62
4-4a The March Uprising 90
3-3 Chinese Society in Transition 63 4-4b The Bolshevik Revolution 91
3-3a The Impact of Western Imperialism 63 HISTORICAL VOICES
3-3b Daily Life in Qing China 63 All Power to the Soviets! 92
3-3c Changing Roles for Women 64 4-4c The Civil War 93
3-4 Traditional Japan and the End of Isolation 65 4-5 An Uncertain Peace 94
3-4a A “Closed Country” 65 4-5a The Search for Security 94
3-4b The Opening of Japan 66 4-5b A Return to Normalcy? 96
4-5c The Great Depression 97
3-5 Rich Country, Strong Army 67
4-5d Building Socialism in Soviet Russia 98
3-5a The Transformation of Japanese Politics 67
3-5b Meiji Economics 68 4-6 The Search for a New Reality in the Arts 101
3-5c Building a Modern Social Structure 68 4-6a New Schools of Artistic Expression 101
HISTORICAL VOICES 4-6b Culture for the Masses 102
The Rules of Good Citizenship in Meiji Japan 69 making connections ● REFLECTION
3-5d Joining the Imperialist Club 70 QUESTIONS ● CHAPTER Timeline ● CHAPTER
3-5e Japanese Culture in Transition 71 NOTES 103
viii ■ Detailed Contents

5 Nationalism, Revolution, and MOVIES & HISTORY
Triumph of the Will (1934) 136
Dictatorship: Asia, the Middle East,
6-1c The Spread of Authoritarianism in Europe 137
and Latin America 1919 –1939 105
6-1d The Rise of Militarism in Japan 138
5-1 T
he Spread of Nationalism in Asia and the
Middle East 106 6-2 The Path to War in Europe 139
6-2a Stalin Seeks a United Front 139
5-1a Stirrings of Nationhood 106
6-2b Decision at Munich 140
5-1b Modern Nationalism 107
5-1c Gandhi and the Indian National Congress 108 Opposing Viewpoints
The Munich Conference 141
MOVIES & HISTORY
Gandhi (1982) 109 6-3 The Path to War in Asia 142
5-1d Revolt in the Middle East 110 6-3a A Monroe Doctrine for Asia 142
Comparative Illustration 6-3b Tokyo’s “Southern Strategy” 143
Masters and Disciples 111 HISTORICAL VOICES
Opposing Viewpoints Japan’s Justification for Expansion 144
Islam in the Modern World: Two Views 113 HISTORICAL VOICES
5-1e Nationalism and Revolution 116 The Four Freedoms 145
5-2 Revolution in China 117 6-4 The World at War 145

5-2a Mr. Science and Mr. Democracy: The New Culture 6-4a The War in Europe 146
Movement 117 6-4b The New Order in Europe 148
HISTORICAL VOICES 6-4c War Spreads in Asia 149
The Path of Liberation 118 6-4d The New Order in Asia 151
5-2b The Nanjing Republic 119 6-4e The Turning Point of the War, 1942–1943 152
HISTORICAL VOICES 6-4f The Last Years of the War 152
A Call for Revolt 121
5-2c
“Down with Confucius and Sons”: Economic, Social,
6-5 The Peace Settlement in Europe 154
and Cultural Change in Republican China 122 6-5a The Yalta Agreement 154
6-5b Confrontation at Potsdam 154
HISTORICAL VOICES
An Arranged Marriage 124 Comparative Illustration
The Bombing of Civilians in World War II 156
5-3 Japan Between the Wars 125 6-5c The War in the Pacific Ends 156
5-3a Experiment in Democracy 125
making connections ● REFLECTION
5-3b A Zaibatsu Economy 125
QUESTIONS ● CHAPTER Timeline ● Chapter
5-3c Shidehara Diplomacy 126 Notes 157
5-3d Taisho Democracy: An Aberration? 126
Part II reflections 160
5-4 N
ationalism and Dictatorship in Latin
America 127
5-4a A Changing Economy 127 Part III
5-4b The Effects of Dependency 128 Across the Ideological Divide 163
5-4c Latin American Culture 130
QUESTIONS ● CHAPTER Timeline ● Chapter
7 East and West in the Grip of the
Notes 131
Cold War 164
7-1 The Collapse of the Grand Alliance 165
7-1a The Iron Curtain Descends 165
6 The Crisis Deepens: The Outbreak of
7-1b The Truman Doctrine and the Beginnings of
World War II 133 Containment 166
6-1 The Rise of Dictatorial Regimes 134 HISTORICAL VOICES
6-1a The Birth of Fascism 134 The Truman Doctrine 167
6-1b Hitler and Nazi Germany 135 7-1c Europe Divided 168
Detailed Contents ■ ix
7-2 Cold War in Asia 171 8-3 The World of Culture 206
7-2a The Chinese Civil War 171 8-3a Art and Architecture 207
7-2b Red Star Rising: The New China 173 8-3b New Concepts in Music 207
Comparative Illustration 8-3c New Trends in Literature 207
Friends and Enemies 174 8-3d Popular Culture 208
7-2c The Korean War 175
8-4 Canada: In the Shadow of Goliath 208
7-2d Conflict in Indochina 175
8-4a Society and Culture: The Canadian Difference 209
7-3 From Confrontation to Coexistence 176 8-5 D
emocracy, Dictatorship, and Development in
7-3a Khrushchev and the Era of Peaceful
Coexistence 177
Latin America Since 1945 210
8-5a An Era of Dependency 210
Opposing Viewpoints
Peaceful Coexistence or People’s War? 178 Comparative Illustration
Shifting Patterns of Religious Belief in Latin
MOVIES & HISTORY America 212
Bridge of Spies (2015) 180 8-5b Nationalism and the Military: The Examples of
7-3b The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Move Toward Argentina and Brazil 213
Détente 180 8-5c The Mexican Way 215
7-3c The Sino-Soviet Dispute 181 8-5d The Leftist Variant 215
7-3d The Second Indochina War 181 8-5e Trends in Latin American Culture 217
Opposing Viewpoints
MAKING CONNECTIONS ● Reflection
Confrontation in Southeast Asia 183
Questions ● CHAPTER TIMELINE ● CHAPTER
Comparative Illustration NOTES 218
War in the Rice Paddies 184
7-4 An Era of Equivalence 185 9 Brave New World: The Rise and Fall
7-4a An End to Détente? 186 of Communism in the Soviet Union
7-4b Countering the Evil Empire 186 and Eastern Europe 220
7-4c Toward a New World Order 187
9-1 The Postwar Soviet Union 221
QUESTIONS ● Chapter Timeline ● Chapter
9-1a From Stalin to Khrushchev 221
Notes 188 9-1b The Brezhnev Years, 1964–1982 223
HISTORICAL VOICES
8 The United States, Canada, Khrushchev Denounces Stalin 224
and Latin America 190 HISTORICAL VOICES
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich 226
8-1 The United States Since 1945 191
8-1a An Era of Prosperity and Social Commitment 191 9-2 Ferment in Eastern Europe 227
9-2a Unrest in Poland 228
HISTORICAL VOICES
From Dream to Reality 194 9-2b The Hungarian Uprising 228
8-1b America Shifts to the Right 195 9-2c The Prague Spring 229
8-1c Seizing the Political Center 196 9-2d The Persistence of Stalinism in East
Germany 229
8-1d Making America Great Again? 198
HISTORICAL VOICES
8-2 The Changing Face of American Society 199 The Brezhnev Doctrine 230
8-2a A Consumer Society, a Permissive Society 199 MOVIES & HISTORY
8-2b The Melting Pot in Action 200 The Lives of Others (2006) 231
8-2c The Struggle for Sexual Equality 201
9-3 Culture and Society in the Soviet Bloc 232
HISTORICAL VOICES
9-3a Cultural Expression 232
Escaping the Doll’s House 202
9-3b Social Changes in Eastern Europe 233
8-2d The Environment 203
9-3c Women in the Soviet Bloc 234
HISTORICAL VOICES
An Early Warning 205 9-4 The Disintegration of the Soviet Empire 234
8-2e Science and Technology 206 9-4a The Gorbachev Era 234
x ■ Detailed Contents
Comparative Illustration HISTORICAL VOICES
Sideline Industries: Creeping Capitalism in a Socialist The Voice of the Women’s Liberation Movement 269
Paradise 235
9-4b Eastern Europe: From Soviet Satellites to Sovereign 10-6 Aspects of Culture in Postwar Europe 269
Nations 236 10-6a Postwar Literature 269
HISTORICAL VOICES Comparative Illustration
Vaclav Havel: A Call for a New Politics 237 Cleaning Up the Environment 270
9-4c End of Empire 238 10-6b Music and the Arts 271
9-5 The New Russia: From Empire to Nation 239 making connections ● Reflection
Questions ● Chapter Timeline ● Chapter
9-5a The Putin Era 240 Notes 272
9-5b Russia Under the New Tsar 241
Part III reflections 274
QUESTIONS ● CHAPTER TIMELINE ● CHAPTER Part Iv
NOTES 244
Third World Rising 277
10 Postwar Europe: On the Path
to Unity? 246 11 Toward the Pacific Century?
Japan and the Little Tigers 278
10-1 Western Europe: Recovery and Renewal 247
10-1a The Triumph of Democracy in Postwar 11-1 Japan: Asian Giant 279
Europe 247 11-1a The Occupation Era 279
10-1b The Integration of Europe 248 11-1b The Transformation of Modern Japan: Politics
and Government 280
10-2 T
he Modern Welfare State: Three European
HISTORICAL VOICES
Models 249 Japan Renounces War 281
10-2a France 249 11-1c The Economy 282
10-2b Germany: Across the Cold War Divide 252 11-1d A Society in Transition 284
10-2c Great Britain 254
HISTORICAL VOICES
HISTORICAL VOICES Growing Up in Japan 285
Manifesto for Germany 255
Comparative Illustration
MOVIES & HISTORY From Conformity to Counterculture 286
The Iron Lady (2011) 256 11-1e Religion and Culture 287
10-3 Eastern Europe After the Fall of the Iron 11-1f The Japanese Difference 288
Curtain 258 11-2 Taiwan: The Other China 288
10-3a Tragedy in the Balkans: The Disintegration of 11-2a From Dictatorship to Democracy 289
Yugoslavia 258
11-2b Crafting a Taiwanese Identity 290
10-4 Western Europe: The Search for Unity 260
11-3 Korea: A Peninsula Divided 290
10-4a The Curtain Rises: The Creation of the Common
Market 260 11-3a The Korean Model 291
10-4b The European Union 261 11-3b South Korea: The Little Tiger with Sharp
Teeth 292
10-4c Plans for Expansion: A Bridge Too Far? 261
HISTORICAL VOICES 11-4 S ingapore and Hong Kong: The Littlest
Toward a United Europe 262 Tigers 292
11-4a The East Asian Miracle: Fact or Myth? 294
10-5 Aspects of Society in Postwar Europe 263
10-5a An Age of Affluence 263 HISTORICAL VOICES
Return to the Motherland 295
10-5b Rethinking the Welfare State 264
10-5c Beware of Greeks Seeking Gifts 265 11-5 O
n the Margins of Asia: Postwar Australia and
10-5d Democracy Under Stress 265 New Zealand 296
10-5e Social Changes: A Transvaluation of Values? 266 MAKING CONNECTIONS ● REFLECTION
10-5f Expanding Roles for Women 267 QUESTIONS ● CHAPTER TIMELINE ● CHAPTER
10-5g The Environment 268 NOTES 296
Detailed Contents ■ xi
12 The East Is Red: China Under HISTORICAL VOICES
Say No to McDonald’s and KFC! 328
Communism 298
12-1 China Under Mao Zedong 299 Two Indias 330
12-1a New Democracy 299 13-1e South Asian Literature Since Independence 331
12-1b The Transition to Socialism 299 13-1f What Is the Future of India? 331
12-1c The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution 300
HISTORICAL VOICES
MOVIES & HISTORY A Marriage of Convenience 332
The Last Emperor (1987) 301
13-2 Southeast Asia 333
HISTORICAL VOICES
13-2a The End of the Colonial Era 333
Make Revolution! 302
13-2b In the Shadow of the Cold War 333
12-2 From Mao to Deng 303 13-2c Southeast Asia in the New Millennium 335
12-2a The Four Modernizations 303 HISTORICAL VOICES
12-2b Incident at Tiananmen Square 304 The Golden Throat of President Sukarno 336
12-2c Riding the Tiger 304
MOVIES & HISTORY
Opposing Viewpoints The Year of Living Dangerously (1983) 337
Students Appeal for Democracy 305 13-2d Regional Conflict and Cooperation: The Rise of
12-2d Back to Confucius? 306 ASEAN 339
13-2e Daily Life: Town and Country in Contemporary
12-3 S erve the People: Chinese Society Under Southeast Asia 340
Communism 308 13-2f Cultural Trends 341
12-3a The Politics of the Mass Line 309 13-2g A Region in Flux 342
12-3b Economics in Command 309
MAKING CONNECTIONS ● REFLECTION
12-3c Chinese Society in Flux 312
QUESTIONS ● CHAPTER TIMELINE ● CHAPTER
HISTORICAL VOICES NOTES 343
Love and Marriage in China 314
Then and Now: Changing Clothing Styles 14 Emerging Africa 345
in China 315
huru: The Struggle for Independence
14-1 U
12-4 China’s Changing Culture 316 in Africa 346
12-4a Culture in a Revolutionary Era 316 14-1a The Colonial Legacy 346
12-4b Art and Architecture 316 14-1b The Rise of Nationalism 347
12-4c Literature 317
14-2 The Era of Independence 349
12-4d Confucius and Marx: What Explains the Tenacity
14-2a The Destiny of Africa: Unity or Diversity? 349
of Tradition in China? 317
HISTORICAL VOICES
making connections ● REFLECTION Toward African Unity 350
NOTES 318 14-2b Dream and Reality: Political and Economic
Conditions in Independent Africa 350
HISTORICAL VOICES
13 Nationalism Triumphant: The Stealing the Nation’s Riches 351
Emergence of Independent States in 14-2c The Search for Solutions 353
South and Southeast Asia 321 HISTORICAL VOICES
Socialism Is Not Racialism 354
13-1 South Asia 322 14-2d Africa: A Continent in Flux 356
13-1a The End of the British Raj 322
13-1b Independent India 322
New Housing for the Poor 358
Opposing Viewpoints
Two Visions for India 323 14-3 C
ontinuity and Change in Modern African
13-1c The Land of the Pure: Pakistan Since Societies 358
Independence 325 14-3a Education 359
13-1d Poverty and Pluralism in South Asia 326 14-3b Urban and Rural Life 359
xii ■ Detailed Contents

14-3c Religious Belief 360
Part v
14-3d African Women 360
14-3e African Culture 361 The New Millennium 395
Opposing Viewpoints
Africa: Dark Continent or Radiant Land? 363 16 The Challenge of a New
making connections ● REFLECTION Millennium 396
NOTES 365 16-1 After the Cold War: The Revenge of History 397
16-2 C
ontemporary Capitalism and Its
15 Ferment in the Middle East 367 Discontents 398
16-2a The View from the Top 398
15-1 Crescent of Conflict 368 16-2b Life on the Margins of Capitalism 401
HISTORICAL VOICES HISTORICAL VOICES
I Accuse! 369 Women on the Front Lines of Development 403
15-1a The Question of Palestine 370
HISTORICAL VOICES
15-1b Nasser and Pan-Arabism 370
Migration and Climate Change 406
Opposing Viewpoints
The Arab and the Jewish Case for Palestine 371 16-3 F rom the Industrial to the Technological
15-1c The Arab-Israeli Dispute 373 Revolution 407
15-1d Revolution in Iran 375 16-3a Is Technology a Magic Wand? 409
MOVIES & HISTORY 16-4 Democracy in Crisis 410
Persepolis (2007) 377 16-4a Europe Today: Nationalism Redux 411
15-1e Crisis in the Persian Gulf 378 16-4b The Making of Two Americas 412
15-1f Turmoil in the Middle East 379
16-5 A
Transvaluation of Values: Social Change in the
15-2 S ociety and Culture in the Contemporary Technological Era 413
Middle East 381 16-5a Family and Society 413
15-2a Varieties of Government: The Politics of 16-5b Religion: A Matter of Faith 414
Islam 381
16-5c Technology and Society 416
15-2b The Economics of the Middle East: Oil and
Sand 382 16-6 One World, One Environment 417
HISTORICAL VOICES 16-6a A Nightmare Scenario 419
Islam and Democracy 383 16-6b Facing the Prospect of Climate Change 419
Comparative Illustration 16-6c The Debate over Global Warming 420
From Rags to Riches in the Middle East 384 16-6d Population Growth and the Environment 421
15-2c The Islamic Revival 385 HISTORICAL VOICES
15-2d Women in the Middle East 386 The UN Raises the Alarm 422
15-2e Literature and Art 387
16-7 The Arts: Mirror of the Age 423
HISTORICAL VOICES
Keeping the Camel Out of the Tent 388 making connections ● REFLECTION
QUESTIONS ● Chapter Timeline ● Chapter
making connections ● CHAPTER Notes 424
Timeline ● Chapter Notes ● REFLECTION
QUESTIONS 389 Glossary 429
Part IV reflections 391 Index 435
Detailed Contents ■ xiii

HISTORICAL VOICES: DOCUMENTS
The Four Freedoms 145

CHAPTER 1 Franklin D. Roosevelt, Address to Congress,
Discipline in the New Factories 9 January 6, 1941
Factory Rules, Foundry and Engineering Works, Royal
Overseas Trading Company
CHAPTER 7
A Plea for Women’s Rights 11
The Declaration of Sentiments The Truman Doctrine 167
Truman’s Speech to Congress, March 12, 1947
The Classless Society 21
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist
Manifesto CHAPTER 8
The Theory of Evolution 24 From Dream to Reality 194
Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man The Civil Rights Act of 1964
Escaping the Doll’s House 202
CHAPTER 2 Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique
Tragedy at Caffard Cove 42 An Early Warning 205
The Caffard Memorial Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (1962)
CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 9
Program for a New China 62 Khrushchev Denounces Stalin 224
Sun Yat-sen, Manifesto for the Tongmenghui Khrushchev Addresses the Twentieth Party Congress,
February 1956
The Rules of Good Citizenship in Meiji Japan 69
Imperial Rescript on Education, 1890 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich 226
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan
Denisovich
CHAPTER 4 The Brezhnev Doctrine 230
Women in the Factories 87 A Letter to Czechoslovakia
Naomi Loughnan, “Munition Work” Vaclav Havel: A Call for a New Politics 237
All Power to the Soviets! 92 Address to the People of Czechoslovakia,
Lenin’s April Theses, 1917 January 1, 1990
CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 10
The Path of Liberation 118 Manifesto for Germany 255
Ho Chi Minh, “The Path Which Led Me to Leninism” Alternative for Germany, Manifesto Preamble
A Call for Revolt 121 Toward a United Europe 262
Mao Zedong, “The Peasant Movement in Hunan” The Treaty of Maastricht
An Arranged Marriage 124 The Voice of the Women’s Liberation
Ba Jin, Family Movement 269
Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
CHAPTER 6
Japan’s Justification for Expansion 144 CHAPTER 11
Hashimoto Kingoro on the Need for Emigration and Japan Renounces War 281
Expansion Excerpts from the Japanese Constitution of 1947
xiv
Growing Up in Japan 285 Stealing the Nation’s Riches 351
School Regulations: Japanese Style Ayi Kwei Armah, The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born
Return to the Motherland 295 Socialism Is Not Racialism 354
The Joint Declaration on Hong Kong Julius Nyerere, The Arusha Declaration
CHAPTER 12 CHAPTER 15
Make Revolution! 302 I Accuse! 369
Nien Cheng, Life and Death in Shanghai Interview with Osama bin Laden by
Love and Marriage in China 314 His Followers (1998)
Zhang Xinxin, Chinese Lives Islam and Democracy 383
M. J. Akbar, “Linking Islam to Dictatorship”
CHAPTER 13 Keeping the Camel Out of the Tent 388
Geraldine Brooks, Nine Parts Desire
Say No to McDonald’s and KFC! 328
Why India Doesn’t Need Fast Food
A Marriage of Convenience 332 CHAPTER 16
A Suitable Boy Women on the Front Lines of Development 403
The Golden Throat of President Sukarno 336 Half the Sky
Sukarno on Indonesian Greatness Migration and Climate Change 406
Sukarno on Guided Democracy Dina Ionesco, Climate Change and Global Migration
The UN Raises the Alarm 422
CHAPTER 14 A Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
Toward African Unity 350
Charter of the Organization of African Unity
Historical Voices: Documents ■ xv

MAPS
MAP 1.1 The Industrial Regions of Europe at the End of MAP 7.4 The Chinese Civil War 173
the Nineteenth Century 5 MAP 7.5 The Korean Peninsula 175
MAP 1.2 Europe in 1871 15 MAP 7.6 Indochina after 1954 176
MAP 7.7 The Global Cold War 177
MAP 2.1 India Under British Rule, 1805–1931 35
MAP 2.2 Colonial Southeast Asia 37 MAP 8.1 Quebec 209
MAP 2.3 The Spread of Islam in Africa 41 MAP 8.2 South America 210
MAP 2.4 The Suez Canal 43
MAP 2.5 Africa in 1914 44 MAP 9.1 The Soviet Union 222
MAP 2.6 The Struggle for Southern Africa 45 MAP 9.2 Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet
Union 239
MAP 3.1 The Qing Empire 55
MAP 3.2 Area Under Taiping Rebellion Control 57 MAP 10.1 Territorial Changes in Europe After World
War II 248
MAP 3.3 Foreign Possessions and Spheres of Influence
About 1900 60 MAP 10.2 The European Union, 2013 259
MAP 3.4 Japanese Overseas Expansion During the
MAP 11.1 Modern Japan 280
Meiji Era 70
MAP 11.2 Modern Taiwan 288
MAP 4.1 Europe in 1914 80 MAP 11.3 The Korean Peninsula Since 1953 291
MAP 4.2 World War I, 1914–1918 82 MAP 11.4 The Republic of Singapore 293
MAP 4.3 Territorial Changes in Europe and the Middle MAP 11.5 Hong Kong 293
East After World War I 89
MAP 12.1 The People’s Republic of China 307
MAP 5.1 British India Between the Wars 108
MAP 5.2 The Middle East in 1923 112 MAP 13.1 Modern South Asia 324
MAP 5.3 The Northern Expedition and the Long MAP 13.2 Modern Southeast Asia 334
March 120
MAP 14.1 Contemporary Africa 348
MAP 5.4 Latin America in the First Half of the Twentieth
Century 128
MAP 15.1 The Modern Middle East 368
MAP 6.1 Central Europe in 1939 140 MAP 15.2 Israel and Its Neighbors 373
MAP 6.2 Japanese Advances into China, 1931–1939 142 MAP 15.3 Iran 376
MAP 6.3 World War II in Europe and North Africa 147 MAP 15.4 Afghanistan 379
MAP 6.4 World War II in Asia and the Pacific 150 MAP 15.5 Iraq 379
MAP 6.5 Territorial Changes in Europe After World
MAP 16.1 Global Patterns of Trade 401
War II 155
MAP 16.2 Patterns of International Migration 404
MAP 7.1 Eastern Europe in 1948 166 MAP 16.3 Global Climate Change 418
MAP 7.2 Berlin Divided 168
MAP 7.3 The New European Alliance Systems During the
Cold War 170
xvi
FEATURES
COMPARATIVE ILLUSTRATION
The Dual Face of the Industrial Revolution 10 Sideline Industries: Creeping Capitalism in a Socialist
Cultural Influences, East and West 39 Paradise 235
Masters and Disciples 111 Cleaning Up the Environment 270
The Bombing of Civilians in World War II 156 From Conformity to Counterculture 286
Friends and Enemies 174 Then and Now: Changing Clothing Styles in China 315
War in the Rice Paddies 184 Two Indias 330
Shifting Patterns of Religious Belief in Latin New Housing for the Poor 358
America 212 From Rags to Riches in the Middle East 384
MOVIES & HISTORY

Suffragette (2015) 12 The Lives of Others (2006) 231
A Passage to India (1984) 36 The Iron Lady (2011) 256
Lawrence of Arabia (1962) 85 The Last Emperor (1987) 301
Gandhi (1982) 109 The Year of Living Dangerously (1983) 337
Triumph of the Will (1934) 136 Persepolis (2007) 377
Bridge of Spies (2015) 180
OPPOSING VIEWPOINTS
White Man’s Burden, Black Man’s Sorrow 33 Peaceful Coexistence or People’s War? 178
To Resist or Not to Resist 48 Confrontation in Southeast Asia 183
Practical Learning or Confucian Essence: The Debate Students Appeal for Democracy 305
over Reform 58 Two Visions for India 323
The Excitement and the Reality of War 84 Africa: Dark Continent or Radiant Land? 363
Islam in the Modern World: Two Views 113 The Arab and the Jewish Case for Palestine 371
The Munich Conference 141
xvii
PREFACE
The twentieth century was an era of paradox. When it followed by a “Pacific century,” with economic and politi-
began, Western civilization was an emerging powerhouse cal power shifting to the nations of eastern Asia? Will the
that bestrode the world like a colossus. Internally, how- end of the Cold War eventually lead to a “new world order”
ever, the continent of Europe was a patchwork of squab- marked by global cooperation, or are we now entering an
bling states that within a period of less than three decades unstable era of ethnic and national conflict? Will the dream
engaged in two bitter internecine wars that threatened to of liberal democracy and human freedom give way to a
obliterate two centuries of human progress. As the cen- new reality marked by political authoritarianism and social
tury came to an end, the Western world had become pros- regimentation? Why has a time of unparalleled prosper-
perous and increasingly united, yet there were clear signs ity and technological advance been accompanied by deep
that global economic and political hegemony was begin- pockets of poverty and widespread doubts about the role
ning to shift to the East. In the minds of many observers, of government and the capabilities of human reason? Will
the era of Western dominance had come to a close. the relentless process of globalization lead to a new world
In other ways as well, the twentieth century was civilization or to an era of conflict similar to that brought
marked by countervailing trends. While parts of the world about by the Industrial Revolution? Although this book
experienced rapid industrial growth and increasing eco- does not promise final answers to such questions, it seeks
nomic prosperity, other regions were still mired in abject to provide a framework for analysis and a better under-
poverty. The century’s final decades were characterized by standing of some of the salient issues of modern times.
a growing awareness of not only global interdependence, Any author who seeks to encompass in a single vol-
but also burgeoning ethnic and national consciousness; the ume the history of our turbulent times faces some impor-
period witnessed both the rising power of science and a tant choices. First, should the book be arranged in strict
new era of fervent religiosity and growing doubts about chronological order, or should separate chapters focus on
the impact of technology on the human experience. individual cultures and societies in order to place greater
As the closing chapters of this book indicate, these emphasis on the course of events taking place in different
trends have continued and even intensified in the two regions of the world? In this book, I have sought to achieve
decades that have ensued since the advent of the new mil- a balance between a global and a regional approach. I
lennium. The eastward shift of power and influence that accept the commonplace observation that the world we
had already occurred with the rise of China and Japan has live in is increasingly interdependent in terms of econom-
become more pronounced, while the Western democra- ics as well as culture and communications. Yet the inescap-
cies have become increasingly mired in economic stagna- able reality is that this process of globalization is at best a
tion, self-doubt, and political disunity. In the meantime, the work in progress, as ethnic, religious, and regional differ-
Technological Revolution, along with the inexorable force ences continue to proliferate and to shape the course of
of globalization, is exerting an influence on world society our times. It seems increasingly clear that the oft-predicted
similar to that exerted by the Industrial Revolution during transformation of the world into what has been termed a
the course of the nineteenth century. Although the ulti- “global village” marked by the inevitable triumph of the
mate effects cannot yet be foreseen, it is increasingly clear democratic capitalist way of life is by no means a preor-
that the Enlightenment vision of a world characterized by dained vision of the future of the human experience. In
peace, prosperity, and human freedom can no longer be fact, influential figures in many countries, from China to
taken for granted. Russia and the Middle East, emphatically deny that the
Contemporary World History (formerly titled Twentieth- forces of globalization will inevitably lead to the world-
Century World History) seeks to chronicle the key events wide adoption of the Western model and have provided
in this revolutionary era while seeking to throw light on their own formula for the world experience.
some of the underlying issues that have shaped our times. There is another reason for avoiding a strictly the-
Did the beginning of a new millennium indeed mark the matic approach in favor of focusing on the historical expe-
end of the long period of Western dominance? If so, will rience of different countries and regions as they attempt
recent decades of European and American superiority be to navigate the complexities of the contemporary world.
xviii
College students today are often not well informed about of the modern era within an integrated and chronologi-
the distinctive character of civilizations such as China, cally ordered synthesis. In my judgment, a strong narra-
India, and sub-Saharan Africa. Without sufficient expo- tive, linking key issues in a broad interpretive framework,
sure to the historical evolution of such societies, students is still the most effective way to present the story of the
will assume all too readily that the peoples in these coun- past to young minds.
tries have had historical experiences similar to their own Four different feature boxes appear throughout the
and react to various stimuli in a fashion similar to those chapters to supplement the text. Historical Voices present
living in western Europe or the United States. If it is a documents that illustrate key issues within each chapter.
mistake to ignore the forces that link us together, it is Another feature, Opposing Viewpoints, presents a com-
equally erroneous to underestimate the factors that still parison of two or more primary sources to facilitate student
divide us. analysis of historical documents, including examples such
Balancing the global and regional perspectives means as “Islam in the Modern World: Two Views” (Chapter 5),
that some chapters of this book focus on issues that have “Two Visions for India” (Chapter 13), and “Africa: Dark
a global impact, such as the Industrial Revolution, the Continent or Radiant Land?” (Chapter 14). Movies &
era of imperialism, and the two world wars. Others cen- History presents a brief analysis of the plot as well as the
ter on individual regions of the world, while singling out historical significance, value, and accuracy of eleven films,
contrasts and comparisons that link them to the broader including such movies as Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Gandhi
world community. The book is divided into five parts. The (1982), The Last Emperor (1987), The Lives of Others (2006),
first four parts are each followed by a short section labeled and Persepolis (2007). New to this edition, Comparative
“Reflections,” which attempts to link events in a broad Illustrations encourage readers to adopt a comparative
comparative and global framework. The chapter in the approach in their understanding of the human experience.
fifth and final part examines some of the common prob- Each of these four different feature presentations includes
lems of our time—including human inequality, climate a Focus Question to help students develop analysis skills
change, the population explosion, the impact of technol- in working with documents and images. Extensive maps
ogy, and spiritual malaise—and takes a cautious look into and illustrations, each positioned at the appropriate place
the future to explore how such issues might evolve over the in the chapter, serve to deepen the reader’s understanding
course of the twenty-first century. of the text. “Spot maps” provide details not visible in the
One issue that has recently attracted widespread dis- larger maps.
cussion and debate among world historians is how to bal- The following resources are available to accompany
ance the treatment of Western civilization with that given this text.
other parts of the world. Until recently, the modern world
Instructor’s Companion Website The Instructor’s
has usually been viewed by Western historians essentially
Companion Website, accessed through the Instructor
as the history of Europe and the United States, with other
Resource Center (login.cengage.com), houses all of the
regions treated as mere appendages of the industrial coun-
supplemental materials you can use for your course. This
tries. It is certainly true that much of the twentieth century
includes a Test Bank, Instructor’s Manual, and PowerPoint
was dominated by events that were initiated in Europe and
Lecture Presentations.
North America, and in recognition of this fact, the opening
chapters in this book focus on the Industrial Revolution ●● Cognero® Test Bank The Test Bank contains multiple-
and the age of imperialism, both issues directly related to choice, short-answer historical identification, and essay
the rise of the West and its impact on the modern world. In questions for each chapter. Cognero® is a flexible, online
recent decades, however, other regions of the world have system that allows you to author, edit, and manage test
assumed greater importance, thus restoring a global bal- bank content for Contemporary World History, seventh
ance that had existed prior to the scientific and technologi- edition. With Cognero®, you can create multiple test
cal revolution that transformed the West in the eighteenth versions instantly and deliver them through your LMS
and nineteenth centuries. Later chapters in this book from your classroom or wherever you may be, with no
examine this phenomenon in more detail, thus accord- special software installs or downloads required. The fol-
ing to regions such as Africa, Asia, and Latin America the lowing format types are available for download from
importance that they merit today. the Instructor Companion Site: Blackboard, Angel,
In sum, this seventh edition of Contemporary World Moodle, Canvas, and Desire2Learn. You can import
History seeks to present a balanced treatment of the most these files directly into your LMS to edit, manage ques-
important political, economic, social, and cultural events tions, and create tests.
Preface ■ xix
●● PowerPoint Lectures These are ADA-compliant slide ●● Over 20,000 digital products, covering 70 disciplines and
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Doing History: Research and Writing in the Digital Age, 2e
slides and is focused on supporting instructors who are
(ISBN: 9781133587880) Prepared by Michael J. Galgano,
new to teaching or new to using Contemporary World
J. Chris Arndt, and Raymond M. Hyser of James Madison
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maries, chapter outlines, brief descriptions of specific
tory major or simply looking for a straightforward, system-
chapter features (Historical Voices, Opposing Viewpoints,
atic guide to writing a successful paper, this text’s “soup to
Movies & History), and notes for using the Activity slides
nuts” approach to researching and writing about history
featured in the PowerPoint deck for each chapter.
addresses every step of the process: locating your sources,
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Acknowledgments
I would like to express my appreciation to the reviewers Jeremy Rich, Marywood University; and Laurie Sprankle,
who have read individual chapters and provided useful The Community College of Allegheny County.
suggestions for improvement on this edition, including: Jackson Spielvogel, coauthor of our textbook World
Marcus Allen, North Carolina A&T State University; History, was kind enough to permit me to use some of his
Thomas Apel, Menlo College; Elizabeth Clark, West Texas sections in that book for the purposes of writing this one.
A&M University; Stephen Gibson, Allegany College of Several of my other colleagues at Penn State—including
Maryland; Edmund La Clair, Monroe County Community E-tu Zen Sun, On-cho Ng, Arthur F. Goldschmidt, and
College; Bruce Nye, Front Range Community College; the late Cyril Griffith—have provided me with valuable
xx ■ Preface
assistance in understanding parts of the world that are senior product manager; Philip Lanza, senior content man-
beyond my own area of concentration. Ian Bell, Ruth ager; Kate MacLean, learning designer; Haley Gaudreau,
Petzold, and my daughter Claire L. Duiker have provided product assistant; and Matt Kennedy, Ph.D., subject matter
useful illustrations. I have also benefited from Nan Johnson’s expert. Thanks also to Charu Verma and the team at MPS
broad understanding of the growth of the women’s move- Limited for production services.
ment in the United States, and from Jim McMichael for his Finally, I am eternally grateful to my wife, Yvonne V.
assistance in understanding the nature of the environmen- Duiker, Ph.D. Her research and her written contributions
tal challenges facing the world today. My Tuesday lunch on art, architecture, literature, and music have added spar-
group, the Knights of the Wobbly Round Table, have pro- kle to this book. Our many travels together have helped
vided a useful forum to discuss issues of common concern. me to understand more fully the wonders and the com-
To Clark Baxter, whose unfailing good humor, patience, plexities of the vast world around us. Most important, her
and sage advice so often eased the trauma of textbook pub- presence at my side has added immeasurable sparkle to
lishing, I will always owe my heartfelt thanks. I am also my life.
grateful to the history group at Cengage for their assis- William J. Duiker
tance in bringing this project to fruition: Joseph Potvin, The Pennsylvania State University
Preface ■ xxi
THEMES FOR UNDERSTANDING WORLD HISTORY
As they pursue their craft, historians often organize their Family & 4. Family & Society The most basic social
Society unit in human society has always been the
material according to themes that enable them to ask and
try to answer basic questions about the past. Such is the family. From a study of family and social patterns, we learn
intention here. This new edition highlights several major about the different social classes that make up a society and
themes that I believe are especially important in under- their relationships with one another. We also learn about
standing the course of world history. Thinking about the role of gender in individual societies. What different
these themes will help students to perceive the similarities roles did men and women play in their societies? How and
and differences among cultures since the beginning of the why were those roles different?
human experience. You will see these theme labels applied
Science & 5. Science & Technology For thousands of
to the various feature boxes appearing throughout the Technology
years, people around the world have made
chapters that follow.
scientific discoveries and technological innovations that
Politics & 1. Politics & Government The study of poli- have changed our world. From the creation of stone tools
Government that made farming easier to advanced computers that
tics seeks to answer certain basic questions
that historians have about the structure of a society: How guide our airplanes, science and technology have altered
were people governed? What was the relationship between how humans have related to their world.
the ruler and the ruled? What people or groups of people
Earth & 6. Earth & Environment Throughout his-
(the political elites) held political power? What actions did Environment
tory, peoples and societies have been affected
people take to guarantee their security or change their
by the physical world in which they live. Climatic changes
form of government?
alone have been an important factor in human history.
Art & 2. Art & Ideas We cannot understand a soci- Through their economic activities, peoples and societies,
Ideas ety without looking at its culture, or the in turn, have also made an impact on their world.
common ideas, beliefs, and patterns of behavior that are Human activities have affected the physical environment
passed on from one generation to the next. Culture and even endangered the very existence of entire societies
includes both high culture and popular culture. High cul- and species.
ture consists of the writings of a society’s thinkers and the
Interaction 7. Interaction & Exchange Many world his-
works of its artists. A society’s popular culture encom- & Exchange
torians believe that the exchange of ideas
passes the ideas and experiences of ordinary people. Today,
and innovations is the driving force behind the evolution of
the media have embraced the term popular culture to
human societies. Knowledge of agriculture, writing and
describe the current trends and fashionable styles.
printing, metalworking, and navigational techniques, for
Religion & 3. Religion & Philosophy Throughout his- example, spread gradually from one part of the world to
Philosophy tory, people have sought to find a deeper other regions and eventually changed the face of the entire
meaning to human life. How have the world’s great reli- globe. The process of cultural and technological exchange
gions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, took place in various ways, including trade, conquest, and
and Islam, influenced people’s lives? How have they spread the migration of peoples.
to create new patterns of culture in other parts of the world?
xxii
PA R T I
New World in the Making

1 The Rise of Industrial Society in the West 3 Shadows over the Pacific: East Asia Under
Challenge
2 The High Tide of Imperialism: Africa and Asia
in an Era of Western Dominance
Everett Collection
The Crystal Palace in London

CHAPTER
The Rise of Industrial
1 Society in the West
Chapter Outline and

Focus Questions
1-1 The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain
QQWhat factors appear to explain why Great Britain
was the first nation to enter the industrial age?
1-2 The Spread of the Industrial Revolution
QQTo what degree did other nations in Europe and
North America follow the example of Great
Britain in entering the industrial age?
1-3 The Emergence of a Mass Society
Hulton Archive/Getty Images

QQHow did the advent of the Industrial Revolution
change the nature of the social class system in IMAGE 1.1 Sheffield became one of England’s greatest
manufacturing cities during the nineteenth century.
Europe?
1-4 R
eaction and Revolution: The Decline of
the Old Order
QQWhat were the major ideas associated with the IMAGE 1.1 Sheffield became one of England’s greatest manufacturing
cities during the nineteenth century.
growth of liberalism and nationalism in nineteenth-
century Europe? In the light of the ambiguous
character of the term “nationalism,” in what
conditions should it be applied today? Connections to Today
1-5 The Triumph of Liberalism in the West In your observation, how would you compare the
QQWhat factors do you think are responsible for the impact of the Industrial Revolution in the European
triumph of liberal principles in late nineteenth- continent with the changes taking place as a result
century western Europe and the United States? Do of technological inventions in the world today?
you think such factors are relevant today?
1-6 The Rise of the Socialist Movement
QQHow did Karl Marx predict that the Industrial THE TWENTIETH CENTURY was a turbulent era, marked
Revolution would affect and change the nature of by two violent global conflicts, a bitter ideologi-
cal struggle between two dominant world powers,
European society? Were his predictions correct?
explosive developments in the realm of science, and
1-7 T
oward the Modern Consciousness: dramatic social change. When the century began, the
vast majority of the world’s peoples lived on farms,
Intellectual and Cultural Developments and the horse was still the most common means of
QQWhat intellectual and cultural developments transportation. By its end, human beings had trod on
opened the way to a modern consciousness in the moon and lived in a world increasingly defined by
Europe, and how did this consciousness differ from urban sprawl and modern technology.
earlier worldviews? What had happened to bring about these momen-
tous changes? Although a world as complex as ours
2
cannot be assigned a single cause, a good candidate for one key factor was the changing nature of the British
consideration is the Industrial Revolution, which began political culture. A turbulent period of political strife in
on the British Isles at the end of the eighteenth century the mid-seventeenth century resulted in the weakening of
and spread steadily throughout the world during the royal authority and the establishment of a constitutional
next 200 years. The Industrial Revolution was unques- monarchy, in which power was divided equally between
tionably one of the most important factors in laying the
the king and parliament. A Declaration of Rights, enacted
foundation of the modern world. It not only transformed
in 1688, created a new political atmosphere based on the
the economic means of production and distribution,
but also altered the political systems, the social insti- rule of law which shielded individuals and private property
tutions and values, and the intellectual and cultural from arbitrary seizure and arrest. Under the cover of such
life of all the societies that it touched. The impact has protections, an emerging class of landed gentry and mer-
been both massive and controversial. While proponents chant capitalists, many of them animated by the Protestant
have stressed the enormous material and technologi- belief that material rewards in this world were a sign of
cal benefits that industrialization has brought, critics heavenly salvation to come, began to make their contribu-
have pointed out the high costs involved, from grow- tions to a growing national economy.
ing economic inequality and environmental pollution A number of other factors contributed to a quicken-
to the dehumanization of everyday life. Already in the ing pace of economic change in late eighteenth-century
nineteenth century, the German philosopher Karl Marx
Britain. First, improvements in agriculture—stimulated by
charged that factory labor had reduced workers to a
a number of technological innovations—led to a signifi-
mere “appendage of the machine,” and the English
novelist Charles Dickens wrote about an urban environ- cant increase in food production. British agriculture could
ment of factories, smoke, and ashes that seemed an now feed more people at lower prices with less labor; even
apparition from Dante’s Hell. ordinary British families no longer had to use most of their
Today the world is undergoing a vast new social income to buy food, giving them the potential to purchase
upheaval, spurred on by a revolution in science and manufactured goods. At the same time, a rapidly growing
technology—most notably in the fields of knowledge population in the second half of the eighteenth century
and communications. Like its predecessor, the techno- provided a pool of surplus labor for the new factories of
logical revolution has begun to transform the attitudes, the emerging British industrial sector.
the behavioral patterns, and the livelihood of all the Another factor that played a role in promoting the
world’s peoples. Some of the consequences have been
Industrial Revolution in Great Britain was the rapid increase
beneficial, while others clearly have not. A retrospec-
in national wealth. Two centuries of expanding trade with
tive look at the dramatic events that took place during
the nineteenth century can help us to understand how the rest of the world, a product of the settlement and exploi-
our own world came into being, as well as to provide us tation of the American colonies, as well as growing access to
with a glimpse of what the future holds for our species. cheap materials from Africa and Asia, had provided Britain
with a ready supply of capital for investment in the new
industrial machines and the factories that were required to
house them (see Chapter 2).1 Infrastructural changes, such
as an effective central bank and well-developed, flexible
1-1The Industrial Revolution credit facilities, also contributed. Many early factory own-
ers were merchants and entrepreneurs who had profited
in Great Britain from the eighteenth-century cottage industry and now took
advantage of new possibilities to expand their horizons.
QQ Focus Question: What factors appear to
explain why Great Britain was the first nation
Not the least of British advantages was the fact that
the country was richly supplied with important mineral
to enter the industrial age? resources, such as coal and iron ore, soon to be vitally
needed in the manufacturing process. Britain was also a
Why the Industrial Revolution occurred first in Great small country with ready proximity to the sea, thus mak-
Britain rather than in another part of the world has been ing transportation facilities readily accessible. In addition
a subject for debate among historians for many decades, to abundant rivers, from the mid-seventeenth century
and I will briefly address this issue in the Reflection sec- onward both private and public investment poured into the
tion at the end of Part I of this book. But it is important construction of new roads, bridges, and canals.
to note here that a number of distinctive features can help A final factor was the appearance during the last decades
to explain why the transformation from an agricultural to of the eighteenth century of a number of technological
an industrial society began in the British Isles. Certainly, inventions, including the flying shuttle, the spinning jenny,
1-1 The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain ■ 3

and the power loom, that led to a significant increase in Across the Atlantic Ocean, the United States expe-
textile production. Cotton had begun to replace wool as rienced the first stages of its industrial revolution in the
the clothing material of choice as awareness of its advan- first half of the nineteenth century. In 1800, America was
tages became public knowledge. But price was an obstacle, still a predominantly agrarian society, as six out of every
because imports of finished goods from India—a major pro- seven workers were farmers. Sixty years later, only half
ducer of cotton goods for centuries—were expensive. Once of all workers were farmers, while the total population
mechanized textile factories had begun to appear in Great had grown from 5 to 30 million people, larger than Great
Britain, the country could provide for its own needs, using Britain itself.
cheap cotton fibers imported from South Asia, now increas- The initial application of machinery to production was
ingly under British domination (see Chapter 2). The cotton accomplished by borrowing from Great Britain. Soon, how-
textile industry achieved even greater heights of productiv- ever, Americans began to equal or surpass British technical
ity with the invention of the steam engine, which proved achievements. The Harpers Ferry arsenal, for example,
invaluable to Britain’s Industrial Revolution. The steam built muskets with interchangeable parts. Because all the
engine was a tireless source of power and depended for fuel individual parts of a musket were identical (for example,
on a substance—namely, coal—that seemed then to be avail- all triggers were the same), the final product could be
able in unlimited quantities. The success of the steam engine put together quickly and easily; this innovation enabled
increased the demand for coal and led to an expansion in coal Americans to avoid the more costly system in which skilled
production. In turn, new processes using coal furthered the craftsmen fitted together individual parts made separately.
development of an iron industry, the production of machin- The so-called American system reduced costs and revolu-
ery, and the invention of the railroad. By the first quarter of tionized production by saving labor, an important consid-
the nineteenth century, the key elements of a fully industrial- eration in a society that had few skilled artisans.
ized society were in place, and Great Britain—which by 1871 Unlike Britain, the United States was a large country,
was producing almost one-fifth of all manufactured prod- and the lack of a good system of internal transportation
ucts in the entire world—was well on its way to earning the initially seemed to limit American economic development
popular sobriquet of “the world’s workshop.” by making the transport of goods prohibitively expen-
sive. This difficulty was gradually remedied, however.
Thousands of miles of roads and canals were built linking
east and west. The steamboat facilitated transportation on
1-2The Spread of the rivers and the Great Lakes and in Atlantic coastal waters.
Industrial Revolution Most important of all in the development of an American
transportation system was the railroad. Beginning with
QQ Focus Question: To what degree did other

nations in Europe and North America follow
100 miles in 1830, more than 27,000 miles of railroad
track were laid in the next thirty years. This transportation
revolution turned the United States into a single massive
the example of Great Britain in entering the
industrial age? market for the manufactured goods of the northeast, the
early center of American industrialization, and by 1860,
By the turn of the nineteenth century, industrialization had the United States was well on its way to being an industrial
begun to spread to the continent of Europe, where it took nation.
a different path than had been followed in Great Britain (see
Map 1.1). Unlike the situation in Great Britain, where much 1-2a The Pace Quickens
of the stimulus for entering the industrial age had been ini- During the fifty years before the outbreak of World War I
tiated by private entrepreneurs, no independent merchant in 1914, the Western world witnessed a dynamic age of
class existed in Europe, so governments on the European material prosperity. Thanks to new industries, new sources
continent were accustomed to playing a major role in of energy, and new technological achievements, a second
economic affairs and continued to do so as the Industrial stage of the Industrial Revolution transformed the human
Revolution got under way, subsidizing inventors, providing environment and led many people to believe that material
incentives to factory owners, and improving the transporta- progress would improve world conditions and thus bring
tion network. By 1850, a network of iron rails (described by the problem of world poverty to an end.
the French novelist Émile Zola as a “monstrous great steel The first major change in industrial development after
skeleton”) had spread across much of western and central 1870 was the substitution of steel for iron. Steel, an alloy
Europe, while water routes were improved by the deepen- stronger and more malleable than iron, soon became
ing and widening of rivers and canals. an essential component of the Industrial Revolution
4 ■ CHAPTER 1 The Rise of Industrial Society in the West
0 250 500 750 Kilometers
FINLAND
0 250 500 Miles SWEDEN Saint Petersburg
NORWAY Stockholm
ea
North Moscow
cS
Sea
GREAT DENMARK
Ba lti
BRITAIN
RUSSIA
Berlin
London NETHERLANDS Breslau
Dn
BELGIUM
ieper
GERMANY
Sei Nuremberg R.
ne R.
Paris Dan be Vienna
u
R. AUSTRIA-
Atlantic SWITZERLAND HUNGARY
FRANCE Laibach
Ocean Limoges
Belgrade
Saint-Etienne
Toulouse
Marseilles
Black
Ebr
ITALY Sea
o
R. Corsica Rome
Constantinople
Naples
Barcelona
PORTUGAL Madrid
Sardinia Salerno OTTOMAN
SPAIN
ds
EMPIRE
an
Lisbon Isl
ic
ea r
Bal
Mediterran GREECE
ea Sicily
n
Sea
Railroad development Steel Low-grade coal Oil production

Lines completed by 1848 Engineering High-grade coal Industrial concentration:
Area of main railroad
completed by1870 Chemicals Iron ore deposits Cities
Other major lines Electrical industry Petroleum deposits Areas
MAP 1.1 The Industrial Regions of Europe at the End of the Nineteenth Century. By the end of the nineteenth
century, the Industrial Revolution—in steelmaking, electricity, petroleum, and chemicals—had spurred
substantial economic growth and prosperity in western and central Europe; it had also sparked economic and
political competition between Great Britain and Germany.
Q Which parts of Europe became industrialized most quickly in the nineteenth century? Why do you think
this was?
(see Image 1.2). New methods for rolling and shaping The Invention of Electricity Electricity was a major
steel made it useful in the construction of lighter, smaller, new form of energy that proved to be of great value since
and faster machines and engines, as well as for railways, it moved relatively effortlessly through space by means of
shipbuilding, and armaments. It also paved the way for transmitting wires. The first commercially practical genera-
the building of the first skyscrapers, a development that tors of electric current were not developed until the 1870s.
would eventually transform the skylines of the cities of By 1910, hydroelectric power stations and coal-fired steam-
the West. In 1860, Great Britain, France, Germany, and generating plants enabled entire districts to be tied into a
Belgium produced 125,000 tons of steel; by 1913, the total single power distribution system that provided a common
was 32 million tons. source of power for homes, shops, and industrial enterprises.
1-2 The Spread of the Industrial Revolution ■ 5
The Internal Combustion Engine The development of
the internal combustion engine had a similar effect. The
processing of liquid fuels—petroleum and its distilled
derivatives—made possible the widespread use of the
internal combustion engine as a source of power in trans-
portation. An oil-fired engine was made in 1897, and by
1902, the Hamburg-Amerika Line had switched from coal
to oil on its new ocean liners. By the beginning of the
twentieth century, some naval fleets had been converted
to oil burners as well.
The internal combustion engine gave rise to the auto-
mobile and the airplane. In 1900, world production, ini-
tially led by the French, stood at 9,000 cars, but by 1906,
Americans had taken the lead. It was an American, Henry
Ford, who revolutionized the automotive industry with
the mass production of the Model T. By 1916, Ford’s facto-
ries were producing 735,000 cars a year. In the meantime,
air transportation had emerged with the Zeppelin air-
ship in 1900. In 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the
Wright brothers made the first flight in a fixed-wing plane
powered by a gasoline engine. World War I stimulated the
aircraft industry, and in 1919 the first regular passenger air
service was established.
William J. Duiker
Trade and Manufacturing The growth of industrial pro-

duction depended on the development of markets for
the sale of manufactured goods. Competition for foreign
IMAGE 1.2 The Colossus of Paris. When it was completed for markets was keen, and by 1870, European countries were
the Paris World’s Fair in 1889, the Eiffel Tower became, at increasingly compelled to focus on promoting domestic
1,056 feet, the tallest human-made monument in the world. demand. Between 1850 and 1900, real wages increased
The colossus, which seemed to be rising from the shadows
of the city’s feudal past like some new technological giant,
in Britain by two-thirds and in Germany by one-third. A
symbolized the triumph of the Industrial Revolution and decline in the cost of food combined with lower prices for
machine-age capitalism, proclaiming the dawn of a new era manufactured goods because of reduced production and
of endless possibilities and power. Constructed of wrought transportation costs made it easier for Europeans to buy
iron with more than 2.5 million rivet holes, the structure consumer products. In the cities, new methods for retail
was completed in two years and was paid for entirely by the
builder himself, the engineer Gustave Eiffel. From the outset,
distribution—in particular, the department store—were
the monument was wildly popular. Nearly 2 million people used to expand sales of a whole new range of consumer
lined up at the fair to visit this gravity-defying marvel. goods made possible by the development of the steel and
electric industries. The desire to own sewing machines,
clocks, bicycles, electric lights, and typewriters generated
Electricity spawned a whole series of new products. a new consumer ethic that has since become a crucial part
The invention of the incandescent filament lamp opened of the modern economy.
homes and cities to illumination by electric lights. Although Meanwhile, increased competition for foreign markets
most electricity was initially used for lighting, it was even- and the growing importance of domestic demand led to a
tually put to use in transportation. By the 1880s, street- reaction against the free trade that had characterized the
cars and subways had appeared in major European cities. European economy between 1820 and 1870. By the 1870s,
Electricity also transformed the factory. Conveyor belts, European governments were returning to the use of pro-
cranes, machines, and machine tools could all be powered tective tariffs to guarantee domestic markets for the prod-
by electricity and located anywhere. Meanwhile, a revolu- ucts of their own industries. At the same time, cartels were
tion in communications ensued when Alexander Graham being formed to decrease competition internally. In a cartel,
Bell invented the telephone in 1876 and Guglielmo Marconi independent enterprises worked together to control prices
sent the first radio waves across the Atlantic in 1901. and fix production quotas, thereby restraining the kind
of competition that led to reduced prices. The Rhenish- began to rise in various parts of the continent. In big indus-
Westphalian Coal Syndicate, founded in 1893, controlled trialized cities like London, coal particles concentrated in
98 percent of Germany’s coal production by 1904. dense “killer fogs” with deadly human consequences.
The formation of cartels was paralleled by a move
toward larger and more efficient manufacturing plants, 1-3a Social Structures
especially in the iron and steel, machinery, heavy elec- At the top of European society stood a wealthy elite, con-
tric equipment, and chemical industries. The result was a stituting only 5 percent of the population but controlling
desire to streamline or rationalize production as much as between 30 and 40 percent of its wealth. This privileged
possible. The development of precision tools enabled man- minority was an amalgamation of the traditional landed
ufacturers to produce interchangeable parts, which in turn aristocracy that had dominated European society for
led to the creation of the assembly line for production. centuries and the emerging upper middle class, some-
By 1900, much of western and central Europe had times called the bourgeoisie (literally “burghers” or “city
entered a new era, characterized by rising industrial pro- people”). Over the course of the nineteenth century, aris-
duction and growing material prosperity. With its capital, tocrats coalesced with the most successful industrialists,
industries, and military might, the region dominated the bankers, and merchants to form a new elite.
world economy. Eastern and southern Europe, however, Increasingly, aristocrats and the affluent bourgeoisie
was still largely agricultural and relegated by the industri- fused as the latter purchased landed estates to join the
alized countries to providing food and raw materials. The aristocrats in the pleasures of country living, while the
presence of Romanian oil, Greek olive oil, and Serbian pigs aristocrats bought lavish town houses for part-time urban
and prunes in western Europe served as reminders of an life. Common bonds were also created when the sons
economic division in Europe that continued well into the of wealthy bourgeois families were admitted to the elite
twentieth century. schools dominated by the children of the aristocracy. This
educated elite assumed leadership roles in the govern-
1-3The Emergence of a Mass ment and the armed forces. Marriage also served to unite
the two groups. Daughters of tycoons gained titles, and
Society aristocratic heirs gained new sources of cash. When the
American heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt married the duke
QQ Focus Question: How did the advent of the
Industrial Revolution change the nature of the
of Marlborough, the new duchess brought £2 million
(approximately $10 million) to her husband.
social class system in Europe?
A New Middle Class Below the upper class was a middle
The new world created by the Industrial Revolution led to level of the bourgeoisie that included professionals in law,
the emergence of a mass society in western Europe and the medicine, and the civil service as well as moderately well-to-
United States by the end of the nineteenth century. A mass do industrialists and merchants. The industrial expansion of
society meant new forms of expression for the lower classes the nineteenth century also added new vocations to Western
as they benefited from the extension of voting rights, an society such as business managers, office workers, engi-
improved standard of living, and compulsory elemen- neers, architects, accountants, and chemists, who formed
tary education. But there was a price to pay. Urbanization professional associations as the symbols of their newfound
and rapid population growth led to overcrowding in the importance. At the lower end of the middle class were the
burgeoning cities and increasing public health problems. small shopkeepers, traders, manufacturers, and prosperous
Eventually, governments were driven to construct cheap peasants. Their chief preoccupation was the provision of
housing for the working classes, thus being forced to step goods and services for the classes above them.
into areas of social engineering that they would never have The moderately prosperous and successful members
touched earlier. In the meantime, air and water pollution, a of this new mass society shared a certain style of life, one
product of the growing use of coal and factory waste, began whose values tended to dominate much of nineteenth-
to rise in industrial areas throughout the continent. In big century society. They were especially active in preaching
cities like London and Birmingham, coal particles concen- their worldview to their children and to the upper and
trated in dense fogs often had deadly consequences. For lower classes of their society. This was especially evident in
the first time, Europeans began to encounter the environ- Victorian Britain, often considered a model of middle-class
mental costs of the Industrial Revolution. In the meantime, society. It was the European middle classes who accepted
Europeans began for the first time to appreciate the environ- and promulgated the importance of progress and science.
mental costs of industrialization, as air and water pollution They believed in hard work, which they viewed as the
1-3 The Emergence of a Mass Society ■ 7
primary human good, open to everyone and guaranteed (see Comparative Illustration, “The Dual Face of the Industrial
to have positive results. They also believed in the good con- Revolution,” p. 10). According to a report commissioned in
duct associated with traditional Christian morality. 1832 to inquire into the conditions for child factory workers
Such values were often scorned at the time by members in Great Britain, children as young as six years of age began
of the economic and intellectual elite, and in later years, it work before dawn. Those who were drowsy or fell asleep
became commonplace for observers to mock the Victorian were tapped on the head, doused with cold water, strapped
era—the years of the long reign of Queen Victoria (r. 1837– to a chair, or flogged with a stick. Another commission con-
1901) in Great Britain—for its vulgar materialism, cultural vened in the 1840s described conditions for underage work-
philistinism, and conformist values. As the historian Peter ers in the coal mines as follows: “Chained, belted, harnessed
Gay has recently shown, however, this harsh portrayal of like dogs in a go-cart, black, saturated with wet, and more
the “bourgeois” character of the age distorts the reality of than half naked—crawling upon their hands and feet, and
an era of complexity and contradiction, with diverse forces dragging their heavy loads behind them—they present an
interacting to lay the foundations of the modern world.2 appearance indescribably disgusting and unnatural.”3
The Working Class The working classes constituted 1-3b Changing Roles for Women
almost 80 percent of the population of Europe. In rural The position of women during the Industrial Revolution
areas, many of these people were landholding peasants, was also changing. During much of the nineteenth cen-
agricultural laborers, and sharecroppers, especially in east- tury, many women adhered to the ideal of femininity pop-
ern Europe. Only about 10 percent of the British popu- ularized by writers and poets. The British poet Alfred, Lord
lation worked in agriculture, however; in Germany, the Tennyson’s poem The Princess expressed it well:
figure was 25 percent.
Man for the field and woman for the hearth:
There was no homogeneous urban working class. At
Man for the sword and for the needle she:
the top were skilled artisans in such traditional handicraft
Man with the head and woman with the heart:
trades as cabinetmaking, printing, and jewelry making. The
Man to command and woman to obey; All else confusion.
Industrial Revolution also brought new entrants into the
group of highly skilled workers, including machine-tool The reality was somewhat different. Under the impact
specialists, shipbuilders, and metalworkers. Many skilled of the Industrial Revolution, which created a wide variety
workers attempted to pattern themselves after the middle of service and white-collar jobs, women began to accept
class by seeking good housing and educating their children. employment as clerks, typists, secretaries, and salesclerks.
Semiskilled laborers, including such people as carpen- Compulsory education opened the door to new opportuni-
ters, bricklayers, and many factory workers, earned wages ties in the teaching profession, and the expansion of hos-
that were about two-thirds of those of highly skilled pital services enabled more women to find employment
workers (see Historical Voices, “Discipline in the New as nurses. In some countries in western Europe, women’s
Factories,” p. 9). At the bottom of the hierarchy stood the legal rights increased. Still, most women remained confined
largest group of workers, the unskilled laborers. They to their traditional roles of homemaking and child rearing.
included day laborers, who worked irregularly for very low The less fortunate were compelled to undertake marginal
wages, and large numbers of domestic servants. One of work as domestic servants or as pieceworkers in sweatshops.
every seven employed persons in Great Britain in 1900 was Paradoxically, however, employment in the new textile
a domestic servant. mills in the United States served as an effective means for
Urban workers did experience a betterment in the mate- young women in New England to escape their homes and
rial conditions of their lives after 1870. A rise in real wages, establish an independent existence. As one female factory
accompanied by a decline in many consumer costs, espe- worker expressed it:
cially in the 1880s and 1890s, made it possible for workers
Despite the toil we all agree
to buy more than just food and housing. Workers’ budgets
Out of the mill or in,
now included money for more clothes and even leisure at
Dependent on others we ne’er will be
the same time that strikes and labor agitation were win-
As long as we’re able to spin.4
ning ten-hour days and Saturday afternoons off. The com-
bination of more income and more free time produced Eventually, however, female textile workers began
whole new patterns of mass leisure. to organize their efforts to increase wages and improve
Among the least attractive aspects of the era, how- working conditions, provoking mill owners to move their
ever, was the widespread practice of child labor. Working factories to the southern states, where newly freed slaves
conditions for underage workers were often abysmal provided a rich source of cheap labor.
HISTORICAL VOICES
Discipline in the New Factories

having first received permission from the over-
Q Which, if any, of the worker regulations described
seer and having given his name to the gatekeeper.
below do you believe would be acceptable to
employers and employees in today’s labor market?
Omission of these two actions shall lead to a fine of
Why?
ten silver groschen payable to the sick fund.
4. Repeated irregular arrival at work shall lead to dis-
missal. This shall also apply to those who are found
Family & Workers in the new factories of the idling by an official or overseer, and refused to obey
Society Industrial Revolution had been accustomed their order to resume work. . . .
to a lifestyle free of overseers. Unlike the cottage industry, 6. No worker may leave his place of work otherwise
where home-based workers spun thread and wove cloth in than for reasons connected with his work.
their own rhythm and time, the factories demanded a new, 7. All conversation with fellow-workers is prohibited; if
rigorous discipline geared to the requirements and operating any worker requires information about his work, he
hours of the machines. This selection is taken from a set of must turn to the overseer, or to the particular fellow-
rules for a factory in Berlin in 1844. They were typical of worker designated for the purpose.
company rules everywhere the factory system had been 8. Smoking in the workshops or in the yard is prohib-
established. ited during working hours; anyone caught smoking
shall be fined five silver groschen for the sick fund for
Factory Rules, Foundry and Engineering Works, every such offense. . . .
Royal Overseas Trading Company 10. Natural functions must be performed at the appropri-
In every large works, and in the coordination of any large ate places, and whoever is found soiling walls, fences,
number of workmen, good order and harmony must be squares, etc., and similarly, whoever is found washing
looked upon as the fundamentals of success, and there- his face and hands in the workshop and not in the
fore the following rules shall be strictly observed. places assigned for the purpose, shall be fined five sil-
ver groschen for the sick fund. . . .
1. The normal working day begins at all seasons at 12. It goes without saying that all overseers and officials
6 a.m. precisely and ends, after the usual break of of the firm shall be obeyed without question, and
half an hour for breakfast, an hour for dinner, and shall be treated with due deference. Disobedience will
half an hour for tea, at 7 p.m., and it shall be strictly be punished by dismissal.
observed. . . . 13. Immediate dismissal shall also be the fate of anyone
2. Workers arriving 2 minutes late shall lose half an found drunk in any of the workshops. . . .
hour’s wages; whoever is more than 2 minutes late 14. Every workman is obliged to report to his superiors
may not start work until after the next break, or at any acts of dishonesty or embezzlement on the part
least shall lose his wages until then. Any disputes of his fellow workmen. If he omits to do so, and it is
about the correct time shall be settled by the clock shown after subsequent discovery of a misdemeanor
mounted above the gatekeeper’s lodge. . . . that he knew about it at the time, he shall be liable to
3. No workman, whether employed by time or piece, be taken to court as an accessory after the fact and the
may leave before the end of the working day, without wage due to him shall be retained as punishment.
Source: From Documents of European Economic History by Sidney Pollard and Colin Holmes (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1968). Copyright © 1968 by
S. Pollard and C. Holmes.
Many of the improvements in women’s position resulted 1830s, a number of women in the United States and Europe
from the rise of the first feminist movements. Feminism sought improvements for women by focusing on family and
in Europe had its origins in the social upheaval of the marriage law to strengthen the property rights of wives and
French Revolution, when some women advocated equality enhance their ability to secure a divorce. Later in the cen-
for women based on the doctrine of natural rights. In the tury, attention shifted to the issue of equal political rights.
The Dual Face of the Industrial Revolution

shows prosperous shoppers sampling the wares of a newly
Q How would you compare these contrasting visions erected department store in late-nineteenth century Paris.
of the Industrial Revolution with conditions in the
United States today?
Politics & To many contemporaries, the Industrial

Government
Revolution often appeared to present
contrasting visions of the society being produced by its
consequences. In Image 1.3a, a woman and a young boy
engage in hard labor in a British coal mine. Image 1.3b
Universal History Archive/UniversalImagesGroup/Getty Images
Mary Evans Picture Library/The Image Works

IMAGE 1.3a Women and Children in the Mines IMAGE 1.3b Shopping at Le Bon Marché
Many feminists believed that the right to vote was the key use political power responsibly if they wanted Parliament
to all other reforms to improve the position of women. to grant them the right to vote. Another group, how-
The struggle to obtain women’s suffrage in the United ever, favored a more radical approach. In 1903, Emmeline
States was spearheaded by the efforts of the social activist Pankhurst (1858–1928) and her daughters, Christabel and
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Quaker Lucretia Mott, who Sylvia, founded the Women’s Social and Political Union,
hosted a meeting on women’s rights at Seneca Falls, N.Y. which enrolled mostly middle- and upper-class women. The
in July 1848. The convention, attended by 300 delegates, members of Pankhurst’s organization realized the value of
drafted a Declaration of Sentiments and passed a number the media and used unusual publicity stunts to call attention
of resolutions calling for the realization of full civil, social, to their insistence on winning women the right to vote and
and religious rights for all women in the United States. other demands. They pelted government officials with eggs,
Although progress was slow, their efforts were finally real- chained themselves to lampposts, smashed the windows of
ized when the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution department stores on fashionable shopping streets, burned
calling for women’s right to vote was finally passed in 1920 railroad cars, and went on hunger strikes in jail.
(see Historical Voices, “A Plea for Women’s Rights,” p. 11). Before World War I, demands for women’s rights were
The British women’s movement was the most vocal and being heard throughout Europe, although only in Norway,
active in Europe, but it was divided over tactics. Moderates as well as in Australia and New Zealand, did women actu-
believed that women must demonstrate that they would ally receive the right to vote before 1914. It would take the
HISTORICAL VOICES
A Plea for Women’s Rights

to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no
Q Which of the complaints outlined in the declaration do
voice. He has withheld from her rights which are given to
you feel have not been addressed or corrected today?
the most ignorant and degraded men—both natives and
foreigners...
Politics & In July 1848, a group of over 300 people He has taken from her all rights in property, even to
Government gathered in the town of Seneca Falls, New the wages she earns.
York, to demand action on the issue of women’s suffrage in He has made her, morally, an irresponsible being, as
the United States. The meeting was organized by the civil she can commit many crimes with impunity, provided
rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her Quaker they be done in the presence of her husband. In the cov-
colleague Lucretia Mott. At the meeting, the delegates drew enant of marriage, she is compelled to promise obedience
up a list of demands that were put up for a vote by those in to her husband, he becoming, to all intents and purposes,
attendance. Some signed the declaration, while others her master—the law giving him power to deprive her of
agreed with the document in principle. Still others opposed her liberty, and to administer chastisement.
it in the belief that it might hinder other goals for improving He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shall
the rights of women in the United States. be the proper causes, and in case of separation, to whom
The declaration, which was deliberately patterned after the guardianship of the children shall be given, as to be
the wording of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, wholly regardless of the happiness of women—the law, in
aroused considerable controversy at the time, but women’s all cases, going upon a false supposition of the supremacy
suffrage was finally realized by a constitutional amendment of man, and giving all power into his hands.
passed by Congress at the end of World War I. He has monopolized nearly all the profitable employ-
ments, and from those she is permitted to follow, she
The Declaration of Sentiments receives but a scanty remuneration. He closes against her
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary all the avenues to wealth and distinction which he consid-
for one portion of the family of man to assume among the ers most honorable to himself. As a teacher of theology,
people of the earth a position different from that which they medicine, or law, she is not known.
have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thor-
and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the ough education, all colleges being closed against her.
opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the He allows her in church, as well as state, but a subordi-
causes that impel them to such a course... nate position, claiming apostolic authority for her exclu-
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men sion from the ministry, and, with some exceptions, from
and women are created equal; that they are endowed by any public participation in the affairs of the church.
their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among He has created a false public sentiment by giving to
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness... the world a different code of morals for men and women,
Whenever any form of government becomes destructive by which moral delinquencies which exclude women
of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to from society, are not tolerated, but deemed of little
refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution account in man…
of a new government, laying its foundation on such prin- He has endeavored, in every way that he could, to destroy
ciples, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them her confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect,
shall seem likely to effect their safety and happiness... and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life.
The history of mankind is a history of repeated inju- Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of one-
ries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, half the people of this country, their social and religious
having in direct object the establishment of an absolute degradation—in view of the unjust laws above men-
tyranny over her... tioned... we insist that [women] have immediate admis-
He has never permitted her to exercise her inalien- sion to all the rights and privileges which belong to them
able right to the elective franchise. He has compelled her as citizens of the United States.
Source: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, A History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 1 (Rochester, N.Y.: Fowler and Wells,1889), pp. 70–71.

dramatic upheaval of World War I before male-dominated prerevolutionary political system. For years afterward,
governments capitulated on this basic issue (see Movies & it appeared that the old order had recovered from the
History, Suffragette, below). serious threats to its primacy. But by mid-century, tradi-
tional Europe was again under attack along a wide front.
Arrayed against the conservative forces was a set of new
1-4Reaction and Revolution: political ideas that began to come into their own in the
The Decline of the Old Order first half of the nineteenth century and continue to affect
the entire world today.
QQ Focus Questions: What were the major ideas

associated with the growth of liberalism and 1-4a Liberalism and Nationalism
nationalism in nineteenth-century Europe? In One of these new political ideas was liberalism. Liberalism
the light of the ambiguous character of the owed much to the Enlightenment and the American and
term “nationalism,” in what conditions should French Revolutions that erupted at the end of the eigh-
it be applied today? teenth century, all of which proclaimed the autonomy of
the individual against the power of the state. Opinions
While the Industrial Revolution shook the economic and diverged among people classified as liberals—many of
social foundations of European society, similar revolution- them members of the emerging middle class—but all
ary developments were reshaping the political map of the began with a common denominator, a conviction that in
European continent. These developments were the prod- both economic and political terms, people should be as
uct of a variety of factors, including the French Revolution, free from restraint as possible. Economic liberalism, also
which broke out in 1789, and the intellectual movement known as classical economics, was based on the tenet of
known as the Enlightenment. The French Revolution had laissez-faire—the belief that the state should not inter-
severely undermined the traditional concept of hereditary fere in the free play of natural economic forces, especially
monarchy, as well as the very existence of the traditional supply and demand. Political liberalism was based on the
system of multinational empires such as Tsarist Russia, the concept of a constitutional monarchy or constitutional
Habsburg monarchy, and the Ottoman Empire, while the state, with limits on the powers of government and a writ-
Enlightenment gave birth to the idea of the rights of the indi ten charter to protect the basic civil rights of the people.
vidual against the power of the state and the church. Although they held that people were entitled to equal civil
With the defeat of French forces under Napoleon rights, most liberals believed that the right to vote and to
Bonaparte at the battle of Waterloo in 1815, the dele- hold office should be open only to males who met certain
gates at the Congress of Vienna sought to reinstate the property qualifications.
MOVIES & HISTORY

Suffragette (2015)
Issued in 2015 under director Sarah Gavron, this British
film concerns the suffragist movement in Great Britain. The
chief actress in the film is the fictitious character Maud
Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection
Watts (Carey Mulligan), a laundry worker who—as a result

of physical abuse at work and in her home—gradually
becomes involved in suffragette activities. After hearing
a speech by the suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst
(Meryl Streep) that “deeds, not words” will only give women
the right to vote, she and her friends turn to acts of violent
destruction. This leads to police violence, imprisonment,
and dismissal from her job. After a close colleague is killed
while taking part in a public protest, the movement begins
to receive more publicity, and the film concludes by noting Q Do you agree with Maud Watts that if peaceful protest
that women’s suffrage began to be achieved in the 1920s. fails to right a social wrong, violent action is justified?

Nationalism was an even more powerful ideology for German-speaking peoples. An assembly of delegates con-
change in the nineteenth century. The idea arose out of an vened in Frankfurt in July to carry through on the demand
awareness of being part of a community that had common and draw up a constitution for a future united Germany.
institutions, traditions, language, and customs. In some cases, It shortly became clear, however, that optimism about
that sense of identity was based on shared ethnic or linguistic the imminence of a new order in Europe had not been
characteristics. In others, it was the result of a common com- justified. In France, the shaky alliance between workers
mitment to a particular religion or culture. Such a commu- and the urban bourgeoisie that followed the overthrow of
nity came to be called a “nation,” and the primary political Louis Philippe was ruptured when workers’ groups and
loyalty of individuals would be to this “nation” rather than, their representatives in the government began to demand
as was the case in much of Europe at that time, to a dynasty extensive social reforms to provide guaranteed benefits
or a city-state or some other political unit. Nationalism did to the poor. Moderates, frightened by rising political ten-
not become a popular force for change until the French sions in Paris, resisted such demands. Facing the specter of
Revolution, when the overthrow of the French monarchy class war, the French nation drew back and welcomed the
under King Louis XV encouraged the popular belief that gov- rise to power of Louis Napoleon, a nephew of Napoleon
ernments should not be a royal patrimony, but rather should Bonaparte. Within three years, he declared himself, to
represent the interests of the local population. general approbation, Emperor Napoleon III. Meanwhile,
Thus, long-divided peoples such as the Germans or the the demands for reform voiced by the delegates to the
Italians now began to demand national unity in a nation- Frankfurt Assembly were dismissed by the German rulers,
state with one central government. Subject peoples in while popular uprisings in several regions of the Italian
Eastern Europe, such as the Poles, the Czechs, and the peninsula failed to unseat autocratic monarchs and over-
Hungarians, wanted national self-determination, or the turn the existing political order.
right to establish their own autonomy rather than be sub-
ject to a Russian or German minority in a multinational 1-4c The Unifications of Italy and Germany
state such as Tsarist Russia or the Habsburg Empire. Although the bright hopes of 1848 had seemingly been
crushed, the rising force of nationalism was not to be
1-4b The Revolutions of 1848 quenched. Nationalist sentiment, at first restricted primarily
At first, the advocates of liberalism and nationalism to the small educated elite, had now begun to spread among
appeared to march in tandem. When discontent with the the general population as a result of the rise in literacy
Congress of Vienna system began to emerge in the 1830s, rates and the increasing availability of books, journals, and
the two groups joined forces to topple the conservative newspapers printed in the vernacular languages. Ordinary
government in Paris and install a constitutional monarchy Europeans, previously unconcerned about political affairs,
in France. Other uprisings took place in Italy, Poland, and now became increasingly aware of the nationalist debate
Belgium (although only the latter was successful, lead- and some became actively involved in the political process.
ing to a breakaway of the area from the Netherlands). By the 1860s, the growing demand for nationhood
Elsewhere, however, Russian troops successfully crushed finally began to produce results. Italy, long divided into sepa-
a rebellion in Poland, while Austrian forces intervened to rate kingdoms, was finally united under the kingdom of
uphold reactionary regimes in a number of Italian states. Piedmont. In Germany, a North German Confederation was
But the desire for change had not been quenched. In formed in 1866 under the leadership of Prussia, its strongest
the spring of 1848, a new series of uprisings against estab- member. Under the urging of Otto von Bismarck (1815–
lished authority broke out in several countries in central 1898), who had been appointed chancellor by King William I
and western Europe. The most dramatic was in France, (r. 1861–1888), Prussia now sought to bring about the unifica-
where an uprising centered in Paris overthrew the so-called tion of Germany based on a policy of “iron and blood.” This
bourgeois monarchy of King Louis Philippe and briefly more aggressive approach was heralded by many German
brought to power a new republic composed of an alliance nationalists who had been stirred up to a fever pitch by the
of workers, intellectuals, and progressive representatives writings of intellectuals such as the philosopher Johann
of the urban middle class. Gottfried Herder, who argued that the German people (the
In Germany, progressive forces began to call for the volk) had a sacred duty to purify the corrupt old world, as
abolition of the German Confederation (a patchwork personified by German’s perennial rival France. Nationalism
of 38 semi-independent kingdoms and principalities had now begun to take on a chauvinistic tinge.
that had replaced the archaic Holy Roman Empire after Convinced that the strongest opposition to German
the Congress of Vienna) and the establishment of a new hegemony in Europe would come from neighboring
unified state, based on liberal principles, to represent all France, Bismarck provoked a war with his neighbor in 1870.
1-4 Reaction and Revolution: The Decline of the Old Order ■ 13
After France’s crushing defeat, a year later a new German As we have seen, in western Europe it was the urban
Empire was declared in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of bourgeoisie that took the lead in the struggle for change. In
Versailles, just outside Paris. preindustrial Russia, the middle class was still small in size
Many German liberals were initially delighted at the and lacking in self-confidence. Some, calling themselves
unification of their country after centuries of division. But Slavophiles, looked with scorn on their allegedly corrupt
they were soon to discover that the new German Empire counterparts elsewhere in Europe and lauded the purity
would not usher in a new era of peace and freedom. Under of traditional Slavic civilization—defined in their eyes by
Prussian leadership, the new state quickly proclaimed the monarchical absolutism and the holy Russian Orthodox
superiority of authoritarian and militaristic values and Church. Others, however, had traveled to the West and
abandoned the principles of liberalism and constitutional were determined to import Western values and institu-
government. Nationalism had become a two-edged sword, tions into the Russian environment. At mid-century, a
as advocates of a greater Germany began to promote the few progressive intellectuals went out to the villages to
idea of German expansionism over non-Germanic peoples arouse their rural brethren to the need for change. Known
elsewhere on the continent. as narodniks (from the Russian term narod, for “people”
Liberal principles made similarly little headway else- or “nation”), they sought to energize the peasantry as a
where in central and eastern Europe. After the transforma- force for the transformation of Russian society. Although
tion of the Habsburg Empire into the dual monarchy of many saw the answer to Russian problems in the western
Austria-Hungary in 1867, the Austrian segment received a European model, others insisted on the uniqueness of the
constitution that theoretically recognized the equality of Russian experience and sought to bring about a revitaliza-
the nationalities and established a parliamentary system tion of the country on the basis of the communal tradi-
with the principle of ministerial responsibility. But the tions of the native village.
problem of reconciling the interests of the various nation- For the most part, such efforts achieved little. The
alities remained a difficult one. The German minority that Russian peasant was resistant to change and suspicious
governed Austria felt increasingly threatened by the Czechs, of outsiders. In desperation, some radicals turned to ter-
Poles, and other Slavic groups within the empire, and when rorism in the hope that assassinations of public officials
representatives of the latter began to agitate for autonomy, would spark tsarist repression, thereby demonstrating the
the government ignored the parliament and relied increas- brutality of the system and galvanizing popular anger.
ingly on imperial emergency decrees to govern. On the Chief among such groups was the Narodnaya Volya (“the
eve of World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was far People’s Will”), a terrorist organization that assassinated
from solving its minorities problem (see Map 1.2). Tsar Alexander II in 1881.
The assassination of Alexander II convinced his son and
successor, Alexander III (r. 1881–1894), that reform had
1-4d Roots of Revolution in Russia been a mistake, and he quickly returned to the repressive
To the east, in the vast Russian Empire, neither the measures of earlier tsars. When Alexander III died, his son
Industrial Revolution nor the European Enlightenment had and successor, Nicholas II (r. 1894–1917), began his rule
exerted much impact. Always a vast nation situated on the armed with his father’s conviction that the absolute power
eastern borders of the continent of Europe, at the begin- of the tsars should be preserved.
ning of the nineteenth century Russia was overwhelmingly But it was too late, for conditions were changing.
rural, agricultural, and autocratic. The Russian tsar was still Although industrialization came late to Russia, it pro-
regarded as a divine-right monarch with unlimited power, gressed rapidly after 1890, especially with the assistance
although the physical extent of the empire made the claim of foreign investment. By 1900, Russia had become the
impracticable. For centuries, Russian farmers had groaned fourth-largest producer of steel, behind the United States,
under the yoke of an oppressive system that tied the peas- Germany, and Great Britain. At the same time, Russia
ants to poverty conditions and the legal status of serfs under was turning out half of the world’s production of oil.
the authority of their manor lord. An enlightened tsar, Conditions for the working class, however, were abysmal,
Alexander II (r. 1855–1881), had sought to alleviate condi- and opposition to the tsarist regime from workers, peas-
tions by emancipating the serfs in 1861, but under condi- ants, and intellectuals, long frustrated, finally exploded
tions that left most Russian peasants still poor and with little into revolt in 1905. Facing an exhausting war with Japan
hope for social or economic betterment. In desperation, the in Asia (see Chapter 3), Tsar Nicholas reluctantly granted
Russian peasants frequently lashed out at their oppressors civil liberties and agreed to create a legislative assembly,
in sporadic rebellions, but all such uprisings were quelled the Duma, elected directly by a broad franchise. But real
with brutal efficiency by the tsarist regime. constitutional monarchy proved short-lived. By 1907, the

A rct i c O cea n
German Empire France
Austria-Hungary Ottoman Empire
Italy
FINLAND
NORWAY
0 250 500 Miles RUSSIAN
and
SWEDEN Helsingfors EMPIRE
Kristiania Vo
Stockholm lga R.
Saint Petersburg
Baltic
North
Sea Moscow
Sea DENMARK Copenhagen
GREAT
BRITAIN NETHERLANDS Elbe
R
Berlin
.
Rhin O Warsaw
Dresden er R
eR
London
d
GERMAN .
.
BELGIUM Prague Kiev
EMPIRE BE
Paris LUXEMBOURG AUSTRIA-
Vienna
SS
Munich HUNGARY
AR
A t l a n tic SWITZERLAND AUSTRIA Budapest
AB
Odessa
s HUNGARY
O cea n
IA
Alp
FRANCE Po R.Venice CRIMEA

SERBIA Belgrade .
Danube R Sevastopol
Marseilles
Pyre ITALY Black Sea
Ebr nees
O
o Corsica Rome MONTENEGRO T Sinope
PORTUGAL R. T Constantinople
Naples O
Sardinia M
Madrid
ds AN
an EM
Lisbon I sl
SPAIN ar i c PIRE
Bale
Sicily Athens
GREECE Tau
Tunis
rus Mts.
Algiers
Tangier TUNISIA
ALGERIA Crete
MOROCCO Mediterranean Sea Cyprus
MAP 1.2 Europe in 1871. German unification in 1871 upset the balance of power that had prevailed in Europe
for more than half a century and eventually led to a restructuring of European alliances. By 1907, Europe
was divided into two opposing camps: the Triple Entente of Great Britain, Russia, and France and the Triple
Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.
Q Which of the countries identified on this map could be described as multinational empires?
tsar had curtailed the power of the Duma and fell back on and along the northern coast of Africa. Soon they con-
the army and the bureaucracy to rule Russia. trolled the entire eastern half of the Mediterranean Sea.
But by the nineteenth century, despite state reform pro-
grams designed to modernize the empire, increasing social
1-4e The Ottoman Empire and Nationalism unrest and the intervention of the European powers in
in the Balkans Ottoman affairs challenged the legitimacy of the Ottoman
Like the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire state.
was threatened by the rising nationalist aspirations of Gradually, the emotional appeal of nationhood began
its subject peoples. Beginning in the fourteenth century, to make inroads among the various ethnic and linguis-
the Ottoman Turks had expanded from their base in the tic groups in southeastern Europe. In the course of the
Anatolian peninsula into the Balkans and southern Russia, nineteenth century, the Balkan provinces of the Ottoman
1-4 Reaction and Revolution: The Decline of the Old Order ■ 15

Empire began to gain their freedom, although the intense The governing Liberal and Conservative parties were both
rivalry in the region between Austria-Hungary and Russia still dominated by a coalition of aristocratic landowners
complicated the process. Greece became an independent and upper-middle-class business magnates. But both par-
kingdom in 1830 after a successful revolt. After Russia’s ties also saw the necessity of adopting political reforms to
defeat of the Ottoman Empire in 1878, Serbia and Romania avoid violence and competed in supporting legislation that
were recognized as independent states. Bulgaria achieved expanded the right to vote. Reform acts in 1867 and 1884
autonomous status under Russia’s protection, and the greatly expanded the number of adult males who could
Balkan territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina were placed vote, and by the end of World War I, all males over twenty-
under Austria’s. Despite such changes, the force of Balkan one and women over thirty had that right.
nationalism was by no means stilled. The political reforms grudgingly enacted in the last half
Meanwhile, other parts of the empire began to break of the nineteenth century led eventually to the growth of
away from central control. In Egypt, the ambitious gov- trade unions and the emergence in 1900 of the Labour
ernor Muhammad Ali declared the region’s autonomy Party, which dedicated itself to workers’ interests. As
from Ottoman rule and initiated a series of reforms a result, the Liberals felt pressure to seek the workers’
designed to promote economic growth and government support by promoting a program of social welfare. The
efficiency. During the 1830s, he sought to improve agricul- National Insurance Act of 1911 provided benefits for work-
tural production and reform the educational system, and ers in case of sickness or unemployment, to be paid for by
he imported machinery and technicians from Europe to compulsory contributions from workers, employers, and
carry out the first industrial revolution on African soil. In the state. Additional legislation provided a small pension
the end, however, the effort failed, partly because Egypt’s for those over seventy and compensation for those injured
manufactures could not compete with those of Europe in accidents at work.
and also because much of the profit from the export of A similar process was under way in France, where
cash crops went into the hands of conservative landlords. the overthrow of Napoleon III’s Second Empire in 1870
Measures to promote industrialization elsewhere in led to the creation of a republican form of government.
the empire had even less success. By mid-century, a small France failed, however, to develop a strong parliamen-
industrial sector, built with equipment imported from tary system on the British two-party model because the
Europe, took shape, and a modern system of transport existence of a dozen political parties forced the premier
and communications began to make its appearance. By the to depend on a coalition of parties to stay in power. The
end of the century, however, the results were meager, and Third Republic was notorious for its changes of govern-
members of the empire’s small westernized elite, led by ment. Between 1875 and 1914, there were no fewer than
a small group of reformist military officers known as the fifty cabinet changes; during the same period, the British
Young Turks, became increasingly restive (see Chapter 5). had eleven. Nevertheless, the government’s political and
social reforms gradually won more and more middle-class
and peasant support, and by 1914, the Third Republic com-
1-5The Triumph of Liberalism manded the loyalty of most French people.
Even in Germany, the situation was changing. Although
in the West the levers of power were firmly controlled by a partnership
between a conservative landed aristocracy and wealthy
QQ Focus Questions: What factors do you think
are responsible for the triumph of liberal
industrialists, the country was rapidly becoming urban-
ized, as the impact of the Industrial Revolution began to
principles in late nineteenth-century western seep through the economy. After the formation of the pro-
Europe and the United States? Do you think gressive German Social Democratic Party in 1875, several
such factors are relevant today? representatives of the working class were elected to the
Reichstag, the country’s parliament. By the end of the cen-
In western Europe, where democratic principles had tury, a number of reforms had been enacted to benefit the
already been introduced into the political discussion, and lives of German farmers and workers.
where an affluent urban middle class represented a growing By 1870, Italy had emerged as a geographically united
political force, liberal principles experienced a better fate. state, but sectional differences (exacerbated by a poverty-
The British political and economic elites had been fright- stricken south and an industrializing north) weakened any
ened by the specter of social revolution that periodically sense of community. Chronic turmoil between labor and
raged on the European continent, and by 1871 the coun- industry undermined the social fabric, as did the preva-
try had a functioning two-party parliamentary system. lence of extensive corruption among government officials

and the lack of stability created by ever-changing gov- economic and social legislation, including laws that gov-
ernment coalitions. Abroad, Italy’s pretensions to great- erned hours, wages, and working conditions, especially for
power status proved equally hollow when it became the women and children. The realization that state laws were
first European power to lose a war to an African state, ineffective in dealing with nationwide problems, however,
Ethiopia, a humiliation that later led to the costly (but suc- led to a progressive movement at the national level.
cessful) attempt to compensate by conquering Libya in National progressivism was evident in the administra-
1911 and 1912. tions of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Under
Roosevelt (1901–1909), the Meat Inspection Act and Pure
Food and Drug Act provided for a limited degree of federal
1-5a The United States and Canada regulation of corrupt industrial practices. Wilson (1913–
A similar process took place in the Western hemisphere. 1921) was responsible for the creation of a graduated fed-
Between 1860 and World War I, the United States made eral income tax and the Federal Reserve System, which
the shift from an agrarian to a mighty industrial nation. gave the federal government a role in important economic
American heavy industry stood unchallenged in 1900. In decisions formerly made by bankers. Like many European
that year, the Carnegie Steel Company alone produced nations, the United States was moving into policies that
more steel than Great Britain’s entire steel industry. extended the functions of the state.
Industrialization also led to urbanization. While estab- Canada, economically somewhat more homogeneous
lished cities, such as New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, than its southern neighbor, faced fewer problems in
grew even larger, other moderate-size cities, such as addressing issues related to social and economic equality.
Pittsburgh, grew by leaps and bounds because of indus- The larger issue for Canada was that of national unity. At
trialization and the arrival of millions of immigrants from the beginning of 1870, the Dominion of Canada had only
eastern Europe. Whereas 20 percent of Americans lived in four provinces: Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and New
cities in 1860, more than 40 percent did in 1900. One factor Brunswick. With the addition of two more provinces in
underlying the change was a vast increase in agricultural 1871—Manitoba and British Columbia—the Dominion
productivity, creating a food surplus that enabled millions now extended from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. But
of Americans to move from the farm to the factory. real unity was difficult to achieve because of the distrust
By 1900, the United States had become the world’s between the English-speaking and the French-speaking
richest nation and greatest industrial power. Less inclined peoples of Canada, most of whom lived in the province
than their European counterparts to accept government of Quebec. Fortunately for Canada, Sir Wilfrid Laurier,
intervention as a means of redressing economic or social who became the first French Canadian prime minister in
ills, Americans experienced both the benefits and the dis- 1896, was able to reconcile Canada’s two major groups and
advantages of unfettered capitalism. In 1890, the richest resolve the issue of separate schools for French Canadians.
9 percent of Americans owned an incredible 71 percent of Laurier’s administration also witnessed increased indus-
all the wealth. Labor unrest over unsafe working condi- trialization and successfully encouraged immigrants from
tions, strict work discipline, and periodic cycles of devastat- central and eastern Europe to help populate Canada’s vast
ing unemployment led workers to organize. By the turn territories.
of the twentieth century, one national organization, the
American Federation of Labor, emerged as labor’s domi-
nant voice. Its lack of real power, however, is reflected 1-5b Tradition and Change in Latin America
in its membership figures: in 1900, it constituted but In the three centuries following the arrival of Christopher
8.4 percent of the American industrial labor force. And Columbus in the Western Hemisphere in 1492, South and
part of the U.S. labor force remained almost entirely disen- Central America fell increasingly into the European orbit.
franchised. Although the victory of the North in the Civil Portugal dominated Brazil, and Spain created a vast empire
War led to the abolition of slavery, political, economic, and that included most of the remainder of South America as
social opportunities for the African American population well as Central America. Hence, the entire area is generally
remained limited, and racist attitudes were widespread. described as Latin America. Almost from the beginning,
During the so-called Progressive Era after 1900, the it was a multicultural society composed of European set-
reform of many features of American life became a pri- tlers, indigenous American Indians, immigrants from Asia,
mary issue. At the state level, reforming governors sought and black slaves brought from Africa to work on the sugar
to achieve clean government by introducing elements of plantations and in other menial occupations. Intermarriage
direct democracy, such as direct primaries for selecting among the four groups resulted in the creation of a diverse
nominees for public office. State governments also enacted population with a less rigid view of race than was the case
1-5 The Triumph of Liberalism in the West ■ 17

in North America. Latin American culture also came to
reflect a rich mixture of Iberian, Asian, African, and Native
American themes.
The Emergence of Independent States Until the begin-

ning of the nineteenth century, the various Latin American
societies were ruled by colonial officials appointed by
monarchical governments in Europe. An additional
instrument of control was the Catholic Church, which
undertook a major effort to Christianize the indigenous
peoples and transform them into docile and loyal sub-
jects of the Portuguese and Spanish Empires. By 1800,
however, local elites, mostly descendants of Europeans
who had become permanent inhabitants of the Western
Hemisphere, became increasingly affected by the spirit of
nationalism that had emerged after the Napoleonic era in
Europe. During the first quarter of the nineteenth century,
under great leaders like Simón Bolívar of Venezuela and
José de San Martín of Argentina (see Image 1.4), they
launched a series of revolts that led to the eviction of the
3LH/Superstock
monarchical regimes and the formation of independent
states from Argentina and Chile in the south to Mexico
in North America. Brazil received its independence from
Portugal in 1825.
IMAGE 1.4 The Liberators of South America. José de San Martín
Many of the new states were based on the administra- and Simón Bolívar are hailed as the joint leaders of the South
tive divisions that had been established by the Spanish in the American independence movement. The former focused his
early colonial era. Although all shared the legacy of Iberian campaign on the southern section of the continent, while the
culture brought to the Americas by the conquistadors, the Venezuelan Bolívar carried on his activities in the north. This
depiction of Bolívar leading impeccably uniformed troops into
particular mix of European, African, and indigenous peo-
a campaign is undoubtedly unrealistic.
ples resulted in distinctive characteristics for each country.
One of the goals of the independence movement Q Given the conditions pertaining at independence, what do
you think some of the major challenges to building stable
had been to free the economies of Latin America from modern societies were for the independence leaders in
European control and to exploit the riches of the continent South America?
for local benefit. In fact, however, political independence
did not lead to a new era of prosperity for the people of
Latin America. Most of the powerful elites in the region balanced economies after 1900, they concentrated on
earned their wealth from the land and had few incentives building a manufacturing base, notably in textiles, food
to follow the European model of promoting an industrial processing, and construction materials.
revolution. As a result, the previous trade pattern per- Nevertheless, the growth of the Latin American econ-
sisted, with Latin America exporting raw materials and omy came largely from the export of raw materials, and
foodstuffs (wheat and sugar) as well as tobacco and hides the gradual transformation of the national economies in
in exchange for manufactured goods from Europe and the Latin America simply added to the region’s growing depen-
United States. dence on the capitalist nations of the West. Modernization
was basically a surface feature of Latin American society;
Problems of Economic Dependence With economic past patterns still largely prevailed. Rural elites dominated
growth came a boom in foreign investment. Between their estates and their rural workers. Although slavery was
1870 and 1913, British investments—mostly in railroads, abolished by 1888, former slaves and their descendants
mining, and public utilities—grew from £85 million to were still at the bottom of society. The Native Americans
£757 million, which constituted two-thirds of all foreign remained poverty-stricken, debt servitude was still a way
investment in Latin America. By the end of the century, of life, and the region remained economically dependent
however, the U.S. economic presence began to increase on foreigners. Despite its economic growth, Latin America
dramatically. As Latin Americans struggled to create more was still sorely underdeveloped.
One potential bright spot for the future economic Latin America also experienced a political transforma-
prosperity of Latin America was the discovery of natural tion after 1870. Large landowners began to take a more
rubber in Brazil. Derived from the sap of a tree native direct interest in national politics, sometimes expressed
to the Amazon River basin, rubber rapidly achieved by a direct involvement in governing. In Argentina and
popularity throughout the world as products made of Chile, for example, landholding elites controlled the
it—from erasers, footwear, and raincoats to automobile governments, and although they produced constitutions
tires— flooded the markets of Europe and the United similar to those of the United States and European coun-
States. The boom was short-lived, however. After seeds tries, they were careful to ensure their power by regulat-
of the rubber tree were secretly shipped to Great Britain ing voting rights.
in the 1870s, rubber plantations began to be established In some countries, large landowners made use of dic-
by European growers in colonial Southeast Asia, and tators to maintain their interests. Porfirio Díaz, who ruled
the Brazilian industry—plagued by poor management Mexico from 1876 to 1911, established a conservative govern-
practices—quickly declined in the first quarter of the ment with the support of the army, foreign capitalists, large
twentieth century (see Chapter 2). landowners, and the Catholic Church, all of whom bene-
The surface prosperity that resulted from the emer- fited from their alliance. But there were forces for change
gence of an export economy had a number of repercus- in Mexico that sought to precipitate a true social revolution.
sions. One result was the modernization of the elites, who Díaz was ousted from power in 1911 (see Chapter 2), open-
grew determined to pursue their vision of progress. Large ing an extended era of revolutionary unrest.
landowners increasingly sought ways to rationalize their Sometimes political instability led to foreign interven-
production methods to make greater profits. As a result, tion. In 1898, the United States sent military forces in
cattle ranchers in Argentina and coffee barons in Brazil support of an independence movement in Cuba, bring-
became more aggressive entrepreneurs. ing an end to 400 years of Spanish rule on the island. U.S.
Another result of the new prosperity was the growth of occupation forces then remained for several years, despite
a small but increasingly visible middle class—lawyers, mer- growing opposition from the local population. The United
chants, shopkeepers, businessmen, schoolteachers, pro- States also intervened militarily in Nicaragua, Honduras,
fessors, bureaucrats, and military officers. Living mainly and the Dominican Republic to restore law and order and
in the cities, these people sought education and decent protect U.S. economic interests in the region, sparking
incomes and increasingly regarded the United States as the cries of “Yankee imperialism.”
model to emulate, especially in regard to industrialization
and education.
As Latin American export economies boomed, the
working class expanded, and this in turn led to the growth The Rise of the Socialist
1-6
of labor unions, which often advocated the use of the gen- Movement
eral strike as an instrument for change. By and large, how-
ever, the governing elites succeeded in stifling the political
influence of the working class by restricting the right to
vote. The need for industrial labor also led Latin American
QQ Focus Questions: How did Karl Marx predict
that the Industrial Revolution would affect and
change the nature of European society? Were
countries to encourage European immigrants. Between his predictions correct?
1880 and 1914, 3 million Europeans, primarily Italians
and Spaniards, settled in Argentina. More than 100,000 One of the less desirable consequences of the Industrial
Europeans, mostly Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, arrived Revolution was the yawning disparity in the distribution
in Brazil each year between 1891 and 1900. of wealth. While industrialization brought increasing
affluence to an emerging middle class, it brought grind-
Social and Political Changes As in Europe and the ing hardship to millions of others in the form of low-
United States, industrialization led to urbanization. paying jobs in mines or factories characterized by long
Buenos Aires (known as the “Paris of South America” for working hours under squalid conditions. The underlying
its European atmosphere) had 750,000 inhabitants by 1900 cause was clear: because of the rapid population growth
and 2 million by 1914—one-fourth of Argentina’s popu- taking place in most industrializing societies in Europe,
lation. By that time, urban dwellers made up 53 percent factory owners remained largely free to hire labor on
of Argentina’s population overall. Brazil and Chile also their own terms, based on market forces.
witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of urban Beginning in the last decades of the eighteenth century,
dwellers. radical groups, inspired by the egalitarian ideals of the
1-6 The Rise of the Socialist Movement ■ 19
French Revolution, began to seek the means to rectify the did not occur, Marx belatedly concluded that urban mer-
problem. Some found the answer in intellectual schemes chants and peasants were too conservative by nature to
that envisaged a classless society based on the elimination support the workers and would oppose revolution once
of private property. Others prepared for an armed revolt to their own immediate economic demands were satisfied.
overthrow the ruling order and create a new society con- As for the workers’ movement itself, it was clearly still too
trolled by the working masses. Still others began to form weak to seize power and could not expect to achieve its
trade unions to fight for improved working conditions and own objectives until the workers had become politically
higher wages. Only one group sought to combine all of more sophisticated and better organized. In effect, Marx
these factors into a comprehensive program to destroy the concluded that revolution would not take place in western
governing forces and create a new egalitarian society based Europe until capitalism had “ripened,” leading to a concen-
on the concept of “scientific socialism.” The founder of tration of capital in the hands of a wealthy minority and an
that movement was Karl Marx, a German intellectual who “epidemic of overproduction” because of inadequate pur-
had abandoned an academic career in philosophy to take chasing power by the impoverished lower classes. Then a
up radical political activities in Paris. large and increasingly alienated proletariat could drive the
capitalists from power and bring about a classless utopia.
For the remainder of his life, Marx acted out the logic of
1-6a The Rise of Marxism these conclusions. From his base in London, he undertook
Marxism made its first appearance in 1847 with the pub- a massive study of the dynamics of the capitalist system, a
lication of a short treatise, The Communist Manifesto, writ- project that resulted in the publication of the first volume
ten by Karl Marx (1818–1883) and his close collaborator, of his most ambitious work, Das Kapital (Capital), in 1869. In
Friedrich Engels (1820–1895). In the Manifesto, the two the meantime, he attempted to prepare for the future revo-
authors predicted the outbreak of a massive uprising that lution by organizing the scattered radical parties throughout
would overthrow the existing ruling class and bring to Europe into a cohesive revolutionary movement, called the
power a new revolutionary regime based on their ideas International Workingmen’s Association (usually known
(see Historical Voices, “The Classless Society,” p. 21). today as the First International), that would be ready to
Marx, the son of a Jewish lawyer in the city of Trier in rouse the workers to action when the opportunity came.
western Germany, was trained in philosophy and became an Unity was short-lived. Although all members of the
admirer of the German philosopher Georg W. F. Hegel, who First International shared a common distaste for the capi-
viewed historical change as the result of conflict between talist system, some preferred to reform it from within
contending forces. The clash between such forces would (many of the labor groups from Great Britain), whereas
eventually lead to synthesis in a new and higher reality. others were convinced that only violent insurrection
Marx appropriated Hegel’s ideas and applied them to would suffice to destroy the existing ruling class (Karl
the economic and social conditions of mid-nineteenth- Marx and the anarchists around Russian revolution-
century Europe, where he envisioned an intense struggle ary Mikhail Bakunin). Even the radicals could not agree.
between the owners of the means of production and dis- Marx believed that revolution could not succeed without
tribution and the oppressed majority who labored on their a core of committed communists to organize and lead the
behalf. In his view, as he put it in The Communist Manifesto, masses; Bakunin contended that the general insurrection
“the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of should be a spontaneous uprising from below. In 1871, the
class struggle.”5 During the feudal era, landless serfs rose First International disintegrated.
up to overthrow their manor lords, giving birth to capital-
ism. In turn, Marx predicted, the proletariat (the urban
working class) would eventually revolt against subhuman 1-6b Capitalism in Transition
conditions to bring down the capitalist order and establish While Marx was grappling with the problems of preparing
a new classless society to be called communism. According for the coming revolution, European society was undergo-
to Marx, the achievement of communist societies through- ing significant changes. The advanced capitalist states such
out the world would represent the final stage of history. as Great Britain, France, and the Low Countries (Belgium,
When revolutions broke out all over Europe in the Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) were gradually evolv-
eventful year of 1848, Marx and Engels eagerly but mistak- ing into mature, politically stable societies in which Marx’s
enly predicted that the uprisings would spread throughout dire predictions were not being borne out. His forecast
Europe and lead to the destruction of all national borders of periodic economic crises was correct enough, but
and the rise of a new revolutionary regime led by work- his warnings of concentration of capital and the impov-
ers, dispossessed bourgeois, and communists. When that erishment of labor were somewhat wide of the mark,
HISTORICAL VOICES
The Classless Society

of the movement, outstrip themselves, necessitate further
Q How did Marx and Engels define the proletariat? The
inroads upon the old social order, and are unavoidable as a
bourgeoisie? Why did Marxists come to believe that
this distinction was paramount for understanding
means of entirely revolutionizing the mode of production.
history? For shaping the future?
These measures will of course be different in different
countries.
Nevertheless, in the most advanced countries, the fol-
Politics &In The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx lowing will be pretty generally applicable:
Government and Friedrich Engels predicted the creation 1. Abolition of property in land and application of all
of a classless society as the end product of the struggle rents of land to public purposes.
between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. In this 2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
selection, they discuss the steps by which that classless 3. Abolition of all right of inheritance. . . .
society would be reached. 5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by
means of a national bank with State capital and an
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto
exclusive monopoly.
A spectre is haunting Europe—the spectre of Communism. 6. Centralization of the means of communication and
All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alli- transport in the hands of the State.
ance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Czar, … French radi- 7. Extension of factories and instruments of production
cals and German police spies. owned by the State. . . .
Where is the party in opposition that has not been 8. Equal liability of all to labor. Establishment of indus-
decried as Communistic by its opponents in power? trial armies, especially for agriculture.
Where the opposition that has not hurled back the brand- 9. Combination of agriculture with manufactur-
ing reproach of Communism? ... ing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction
Two things result from this fact: between town and country, by a more equable distri-
1) Communism is already acknowledged by all bution of the population over the country.
European Powers to be itself a Power. 10. Free education for all children in public schools.
2) It is high time that Communists should openly, in the Abolition of children’s factory labor in its present
face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, form. . . .
their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the spec- When, in the course of development, class distinctions
tre of Communism with a manifesto of the party itself. have disappeared, and all production has been concentrated
To this end, Communists of various nationalities have in the whole nation, the public power will lose its political
assembled in London, and sketched the following Manifesto. character. Political power, properly so called, is merely the
We have seen . . . that the first step in the revolution by organized power of one class for oppressing another. If the
the working class is to raise the proletariat to the position proletariat during its contest with the bourgeoisie is com-
of ruling class. . . . The proletariat will use its political pelled, by the force of circumstances, to organize itself as a
supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bour- class, if, by means of a revolution, it makes itself the ruling
geoisie, to centralize all instruments of production in the class, and, as such, sweeps away by force the old conditions
hands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat organized as the of production, then it will, along with these conditions,
ruling class; and to increase the total of productive forces have swept away the conditions for the existence of class
as rapidly as possible. antagonisms and of classes generally, and will thereby have
Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected abolished its own supremacy as a class.
except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes
property, and on the conditions of bourgeois production; and class antagonisms, we shall have an association, in
by means of measures, therefore, which appear economi- which the free development of each is the condition for
cally insufficient and untenable, but which, in the course the free development of all.
Source: From Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto.
1-6 The Rise of the Socialist Movement ■ 21

as capitalist societies began to eliminate or at least reduce a better society seemed to be well demonstrated by a rising
some of the more flagrant inequities apparent in the standard of living, urban improvements, and mass educa-
early stages of capitalist development. These reforms tion. Between 1870 and 1914, however, a dramatic transfor-
occurred because workers and their representatives had mation in the realm of ideas and culture began to challenge
begun to use the democratic political process to their own many of these assumptions. A new view of the physical
advantage, organizing labor unions and political parties universe, alternative views of human nature, and radically
to improve working conditions and enhance the role of innovative forms of literary and artistic expression shattered
workers in the political system. Some of these political par- old beliefs and opened the way to a more complex view of
ties were led by Marxists, who were learning that in the the human condition. Although the real impact of many of
absence of a social revolution to bring the masses to power, these ideas was not felt until after World War I, they served
the capitalist democratic system could be reformed from to provoke a sense of confusion and anxiety before 1914 that
within to improve the working and living conditions of its would become even more pronounced after the war.
constituents. In 1889, after Marx’s death, several such par-
ties (often labeled “social democratic” parties) formed the
Second International, dominated by reformist elements 1-7a Developments in the Sciences:
committed to achieving socialism within the bounds of The Emergence of a New Physics
the Western parliamentary system. A prime example of this development took place in the
Marx had also underestimated the degree to which realm of physics. Throughout much of the nineteenth
nationalism would appeal to workers in most European century, Westerners adhered to the mechanical concep-
countries. Marx had viewed nation and culture as false tion of the universe postulated by the classical physics of
idols diverting the interests of the oppressed from their true Isaac Newton (1642–1727). In this perspective, the universe
concern, the struggle against the ruling class. In his view, was a giant machine in which time, space, and matter were
the proletariat would throw off its chains and unite in the objective realities that existed independently of the parties
sacred cause of “internationalist” world revolution. In real- observing them. Matter was thought to be composed of
ity, workers joined peasants and urban merchants in defend- indivisible, solid material bodies called atoms.
ing the cause of the nation against its foreign enemies. A But these views began to be questioned at the end of
generation later, French workers would die in the trenches the nineteenth century. Some scientists had discovered
defending France from workers across the German border. that certain elements such as radium and polonium spon-
A historian of the late nineteenth century might have taneously gave off rays or radiation that apparently came
been forgiven for predicting that Marxism, as a revolution- from within the atom itself. Atoms were therefore not
ary ideology, was dead. To the east, however, in the vast hard material bodies but small worlds containing such sub-
plains and steppes of central Russia, it was about to be atomic particles as electrons and protons that behaved in
reborn (see Chapter 4). a seemingly random and inexplicable fashion. Inquiry into
the disintegrative process within atoms became a central
theme of the new physics.
1-7Toward the Modern Building on this work, in 1900, a Berlin physicist, Max
Consciousness: Intellectual Planck (1858–1947), rejected the belief that a heated body
radiates energy in a steady stream but maintained instead
and Cultural Developments that it did so discontinuously, in irregular packets of energy
that he called “quanta.” The quantum theory raised funda-
QQ Focus Question: What intellectual and cultural
developments opened the way to a modern
mental questions about the subatomic realm of the atom.
By 1900, the old view of atoms as the basic building blocks
consciousness in Europe, and how did this of the material world was being seriously questioned, and
consciousness differ from earlier worldviews? Newtonian physics was in trouble.
Albert Einstein (1879–1955), a German-born patent
The physical changes that were taking place in societies officer working in Switzerland, pushed these new theories
exposed to the Industrial Revolution were accompanied by of thermodynamics into new terrain. In 1905, Einstein
an equally significant transformation in the arena of culture. published a paper setting forth his theory of relativity.
Before 1914, most Westerners continued to believe in the According to relativity theory, space and time are not
values and ideals that had been generated by the impact of absolute but relative to the observer, and both are inter-
the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment. The ability woven into what Einstein called a four-dimensional space–
of rational human beings to improve themselves and achieve time continuum. Neither space nor time has an existence
independent of human experience. Moreover, matter and nineteenth century, the Viennese doctor Sigmund Freud
energy reflect the relativity of time and space. Einstein (1856–1939) put forth a series of theories that undermined
concluded that matter was nothing but another form of optimism about the rational nature of the human mind.
energy. His epochal formula E = mc2—each particle of mat- Freud’s thought, like the new physics, added to the uncer-
ter is equivalent to its mass times the square of the velocity tainties of the age. His major ideas were published in 1900
of light—was the key theory explaining the vast energies in The Interpretation of Dreams, which laid the basic founda-
contained within the atom. It led to the atomic age. tion for what came to be known as psychoanalysis.
According to Freud, human behavior is strongly deter-
mined by the unconscious—former experiences and inner
1-7b Charles Darwin and the Theory
drives of which people are largely oblivious. To explore the
of Evolution contents of the unconscious, Freud relied not only on hyp-
Equally dramatic changes took place in the biological sci- nosis but also on dreams, which were dressed in an elab-
ences, where the British scientist Charles Darwin (1809– orate code that needed to be deciphered if the contents
1882) stunned the world in 1859 with the publication of were to be properly understood.
his book The Origin of Species. Drawing from evidence Why do some experiences whose influence persists
obtained during a scientific expedition to the Galapagos in controlling an individual’s life remain unconscious?
Islands, Darwin concluded that plants and animals were According to Freud, repression is a process by which unset-
not the finished product of divine creation but evolved tling experiences are blotted from conscious awareness
over time from earlier and simpler forms of life through a but still continue to influence behavior because they have
process of natural selection. In the universal struggle for become part of the unconscious. To explain how repres-
existence, only the fittest species survived. Later, Darwin sion works, Freud elaborated an intricate theory of the
provoked even more controversy by applying his theory inner life of human beings.
of organic evolution to human beings. Speculating that Although Freud’s theory has had numerous critics, his
modern humans had evolved over millions of years from insistence that a human being’s inner life is a battleground
primates and were thus not the unique creation of God of contending forces undermined the prevailing belief in
but “a co-descendant with other mammals of a common the power of reason and opened a new era of psychoanaly-
progenitor,” Darwin’s theory represented a direct affront sis, in which a psychotherapist assists a patient in probing
to the biblical interpretation of the creation of man as deep into memory to retrace the chain of repression back
described in the book of Genesis (see Historical Voices, to its childhood origins and bring about a resolution of
“The Theory of Evolution,” p. 24). Critics mocked his the inner psychic conflict. Belief in the primacy of rational
ideas as demeaning to human dignity and made scathing thought over the emotions would never be the same.
references to his own forebears.
But Darwin was not alone in questioning the verac- 1-7dLiterature and the Arts:
ity of the Biblical message relating to the origins of the
The Culture of Modernity
human species. Prodded by the tendency of the age to
question old truths, some began to question the histo- The revolutions in physics and psychology were paralleled
ricity of the life of Jesus, while the German philosopher by similar changes in literature and the arts. Throughout
Friedrich Nietzsche pronounced that “God is dead” and much of the late nineteenth century, literature was domi-
mocked traditional Christian morality as “the best known nated by Naturalism. Naturalists accepted the material
device for leading mankind by the nose.” Paradoxically, the world as real and believed that literature should be realistic.
mid-nineteenth century also witnessed a rise in religios- By addressing social problems, writers could contribute to
ity, especially in the United States and Great Britain, where an objective understanding of the world.
millions of Christians abandoned established churches to The novels of the French writer Émile Zola (1840–1902)
seek refuge in evangelical faiths. provide a good example of Naturalism. Against a backdrop
of the urban slums and coalfields of northern France, Zola
showed how alcoholism and challenging environments
1-7c Sigmund Freud and the Emergence affected people’s lives. The materialistic science of his age
of Psychoanalysis had an important influence on Zola. He had read Darwin’s
Although poets and mystics had revealed a world of uncon- Origin of Species and had been impressed by its emphasis
scious and irrational behavior, many scientifically oriented on the struggle for survival and the importance of environ-
intellectuals under the impact of Enlightenment thought ment and heredity.
continued to believe that human beings responded to con- By the beginning of the twentieth century, however,
scious motives in a rational fashion. But at the end of the the belief that the task of literature was to represent
1-7 Toward the Modern Consciousness: Intellectual and Cultural Developments ■ 23
HISTORICAL VOICES
The Theory of Evolution

their geographical distribution in past and present times,
Q What evidence does Darwin cite to defend his theory
and their geological succession. It is incredible that all
of evolution? What is the essence of the theory?
these facts should speak falsely. He who is not content to
look, like a savage, at the phenomena of nature as discon-
Science & Darwin published his theory of organic nected, cannot any longer believe that man is the work of
Technology evolution in 1859, followed twelve years later a separate act of creation.
by The Descent of Man, in which he argued that human He will be forced to admit that the close resemblance
beings, like other animals, evolved from lower forms of life. of the embryo of man to that, for instance, of a dog—the
The theory provoked a firestorm of criticism, especially from construction of his skull, limbs and whole frame on the
the clergy. One critic described Darwin’s theory as a “brutal same plan with that of other mammals, independently of
philosophy— to wit, there is no God, and the ape is our the uses to which the parts may be put—the occasional
Adam.” reappearance of various structures, for instance of several
muscles, which man does not normally possess . . .—and
Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man a crowd of analogous facts—all point in the plainest man-
The main conclusion here arrived at, and now held by ner to the conclusion that man is the co-descendant with
many naturalists, who are well competent to form a other mammals of a common progenitor. . . .
sound judgment, is that man is descended from some Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having
less highly organized form. The grounds upon which risen, though not through his own exertions, to the very
this conclusion rests will never be shaken, for the close summit of the organic scale; and the fact of his having
similarity between man and the lower animals in embry- thus risen, instead of having been aboriginally placed
onic development, as well as in innumerable points of there, may give him hope for a still higher destiny in the
structure and constitution, both of high and of the most distant future. But we are not here concerned with hopes
trifling importance—the rudiments which he retains, or fears, only with the truth as far as our reason permits
and the abnormal reversions to which he is occasionally us to discover it; and I have given the evidence to the best
liable—are facts which cannot be disputed. They have of my ability. We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems
long been known, but until recently they told us nothing to me, that man with all his noble qualities, with sympa-
with respect to the origin of man. Now when viewed by thy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence
the light of our knowledge of the whole organic world, which extends not only to other men but to the humblest
their meaning is unmistakable. The great principle of living creature, with his god-like intellect which has pen-
evolution stands up clear and firm, when these groups of etrated into the movements and constitution of the solar
facts are considered in connection with others, such as system— with all these exalted power—Man still bears in
the mutual affinities of the members of the same group, his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.
Source: From Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man (New York: Appleton, 1876), pp. 606–607, 619.
“reality” had lost much of its meaning. By that time, the The first to embark on the challenge were the
new psychology and the new physics had made it evident Impressionists. Originating in France in the 1870s, they
that many people were not sure what constituted reality rejected indoor painting and preferred to go out to the
anyway. The same was true in the realm of art, where in countryside to paint nature directly. As Camille Pissarro
the late nineteenth century, painters were beginning to (1830–1903), one of the movement’s founders, expressed
respond to ongoing investigations into the nature of optics it: “Don’t proceed according to rules and principles, but
and human perception by experimenting with radical new paint what you observe and feel. Paint generously and
techniques to represent the multiplicity of reality. The unhesitatingly, for it is best not to lose the first impression.”
changes that such cultural innovators produced have since The most influential of the Impressionists was Claude
been called Modernism. Monet (1840–1926), who painted several series of canvases
on the same object—such as haystacks, Rouen Cathedral, painting that would have a significant impact on the world
and water lilies in the garden of his house on the Seine of art for decades to come.
River—in the hope of breaking down the essential lines, In Expressionism, the artist employed an exaggerated
planes, colors, and shadows of what the eye observed. His use of colors and distorted shapes to achieve emotional
paintings that deal with the interplay of light and reflection expression. Painters such as the Dutchman Vincent van
on a water surface are considered to be among the won- Gogh (1853–1890) and the Norwegian Edvard Munch
ders of modern painting. (1863–1944) were interested not in capturing the optical
The growth of photography gave artists another reason play of light on a landscape but in projecting their inner
to reject visual realism. Invented in the 1830s, photography selves onto the hostile universe around them. Who cannot
became popular and widespread after George Eastman cre- be affected by the intensity of van Gogh’s dazzling sun-
ated the first Kodak camera for the mass market in 1888. flowers or by the ominous swirling stars above a church
What was the point of an artist’s doing what the camera steeple in his Starry Night (1890)?
did better? Unlike the camera, which could only mirror Another important artist obsessed with finding a
reality, artists could create reality. As in literature, so also in new way to portray reality was the French painter Paul
modern art, individual consciousness became the source Cézanne (1839–1906). Scorning the photographic dupli-
of meaning. Between the beginning of the new century cation of a landscape, he sought to isolate the pulsating
and the outbreak of World War I in 1914, this search for structure beneath the surface (see Image 1.5). During the
individual expression produced several new schools of last years of his life, he produced several paintings of Mont
PRISMA ARCHIVO/Alamy Stock Photo
IMAGE 1.5 Paul Cézanne, Bathing Women. Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) was one of the outstanding figures in
modern art, propelling it to seek new ways of expressing reality. Abandoning the one-point perspective of
Renaissance painting, he tried to extract the internal dimension underlying the panorama of his canvases.
In Bathing Women, he is not interested in re-creating the surface details of individual women, but rather
the inner pulse of energy emanating from a group of women in harmony with their surroundings. The blue
of the lake and the sky is reflected on their skin as they relax, chat, and embrace one another in the midst
of a natural scene.
1-7 Toward the Modern Consciousness: Intellectual and Cultural Developments ■ 25

Sainte-Victoire, a mountain located near Aix-en-Provence free of external ornamentation. One of Sullivan’s most
in the south of France. Although each canvas differed in successful pupils was Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959),
perspective, composition, and color, they all reflect the who became known for innovative designs in domestic
same technique of reducing the landscape to virtual geo- architecture. Wright’s private houses, built chiefly for
metric slabs of color to represent the interconnection of wealthy patrons, featured geometric structures with long
trees, earth, tiled roofs, mountain, and sky. lines, overhanging roofs, and severe planes of brick and
Following Cézanne was the Spaniard Pablo Picasso stone. The interiors were open spaces and included cathe-
(1881–1973), one of the giants of twentieth-century paint- dral ceilings and built-in furniture and lighting features.
ing. Settling in Paris in 1904, he and the French artist Georges Wright pioneered the modern American house.
Braque (1882–1963) collaborated in founding Cubism, the At the beginning of the twentieth century, develop-
first truly radical approach in representing visual reality. To ments in music paralleled those in painting. Expressionism
the Cubist, any perception of an object was a composite of in music was a Russian creation, the product of composer
simultaneous and different perspectives. Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) and the Ballet Russe, the dance
Modernism in the arts also revolutionized architecture company of Sergei Diaghilev (1872–1929). Together they
and architectural practices. A new principle known as func- revolutionized the world of music with Stravinsky’s ballet
tionalism motivated this revolution by maintaining that The Rite of Spring. When it was performed in Paris in 1913,
buildings, like the products of machines, should be “func- the savage and primitive sounds and beats of the music
tional” or useful, fulfilling the purpose for which they were and dance caused a near riot among an audience outraged
constructed. Art and engineering were to be unified, and at its audacity.
all unnecessary ornamentation was to be stripped away. By the end of the nineteenth century, then, traditional
The United States took the lead in this effort. forms of literary, artistic, and musical expression were in a
Unprecedented urban growth and the absence of restric- state of rapid retreat. Freed from conventional tastes and
tive architectural traditions allowed for new building responding to the intellectual and social revolution that
methods, especially in the relatively new city of Chicago. was getting under way throughout the Western world,
The Chicago school of the 1890s, led by Louis H. Sullivan painters, writers, composers, and architects launched
(1856–1924), used reinforced concrete, steel frames, elec- a variety of radical new ideas that would revolutionize
tric elevators, and sheet glass to build skyscrapers virtually Western culture in coming decades.
MAKING CONNECTIONS
During the course of the nineteenth century, Western soci- and working and living conditions for millions of Europeans
ety underwent a number of dramatic changes. Countries had deteriorated. The psychological impact of such rapid
that were predominantly agricultural in 1750 had by 1900 changes had also produced feelings of anger, frustration,
been transformed into essentially industrial and urban and alienation on the part of many who lived through them.
societies. The amount of material goods available to con- Uprooted from their ancestral homes, with the old certain-
sumers had increased manyfold, and machines were rap- ties of religion and science now increasingly under challenge,
idly replacing labor-intensive methods of production and many faced the future with doubt or foreboding.
distribution. The social changes were equally striking. Meanwhile, along the borders of Europe—in Russia,
Human beings were becoming more mobile and enjoyed in the Balkans, and in the vast Ottoman Empire—the
more creature comforts than at any time since the Roman Industrial Revolution had not yet made an impact or was
Empire. A mass society, based on the principles of univer- just getting under way. For the most part, traditional val-
sal education, limited government, and an expanding fran- ues and institutions continued to rule without challenge.
chise, was in the process of creation. Still, the winds of change were beginning to blow from the
The Industrial Revolution had thus vastly expanded the west, and old autocracies began to find themselves under
horizons and the potential of the human race. It had also bro- increasing pressure from ethnic minorities and other dis-
ken down many walls of aristocratic privilege and opened the contented subjects even though they continued to resist
door to a new era based on merit. Yet for some the costs had pressure for reform. As the world prepared to enter a new
been high. The distribution of wealth was as unequal as ever, century, the stage was set for dramatic change.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
QQWhat were the major similarities and differences practice in Europe, Latin America, and Asia in the first
between the first and second stages of the Industrial half of the nineteenth century?
Revolution? QQTo what extent were the major goals of establishing
QQIn what ways was the development of liberal practices and achieving the growth of political
industrialization related to the rise of nationalism in democracy realized in Great Britain, France, Germany,
nineteenth-century Europe? Austria-Hungary, and Russia between 1871 and 1914?
QQWhat were the chief ideas associated with liberalism
and nationalism, and how were these ideas put into
CHAPTER TIMELINE
1800 1825 1850 1875 1900
Europe Battle of Waterloo Revolutions Creation of Third
(1815) of 1848 Republic of France
(1870)
Unification of
Industrial Revolution begins Germany and Italy
in western Europe (1860–1871)
Karl Marx,
The Communist Impressionism
Manifesto Sigmund Freud‘s
(1847) Interpretation of Dreams
(1900)
Charles Darwin‘s
Origin of Species
(1859)
Emancipation of Assassination of
Russia Russian serfs Tsar Alexander II
(1861) (1881)
The Americas
Wars of independence Seneca Falls American Rule of Porfirio Díaz in Mexico
in Latin America Convention Civil War (1876–1911)
(1804–1824) (1848) (1861–1865)
CHAPTER NOTES
1. See Kenneth Pomeranz, The Great Divergence: China, 4. From Stephen Yafa, Cotton: The Biography of a
Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy Revolutionary Fiber (New York, 2005), p. 94, citing
(Princeton, 2000). William Moran, The Belles of New England (New York,
2. See Peter Gay, Pleasure Wars: The Bourgeois Experience: 2002), p. 23.
Victoria to Freud (New York, 1998). 5. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist
3. Quoted in Barbara Freese, Coal: A Human History (New Manifesto (Middlesex, England, 1985), p. 79.
York, 2003), p. 78.
Making Connections ■ 27
CHAPTER The High Tide of Imperialism:
2 Africa and Asia in an Era of

Western Dominance
Chapter Outline and

Focus Questions
2-1 The Spread of Colonial Rule
QQWhat were the causes of the new
imperialism of the nineteenth century,
and how did new imperialism differ
from European expansion in earlier
periods of history?
Time Life Pictures/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

2-2 The Colonial System
QQDo you believe that apologists for Western
imperialism in the nineteenth century
were justified in claiming that control over
non-Western peoples would ultimately be
in the latter’s best interest?
2-3 India Under the British Raj
QQWhat were some of the major
consequences of British rule in India, and
how did they affect the Indian people? Image 2.1 Revere the conquering heroes: British rule in Africa
2-4 T
he Colonial Takeover of
Southeast Asia
Connections to Today
QQWhich Western countries were most active in
seeking colonial possessions in Southeast Asia, Imperialist nations in the nineteenth century were
and what were their motives in doing so? provoked into expanding their influence into other
2-5 Empire Building in Africa parts of the world because of their need to obtain
access to vital raw materials as well as markets for
QQWhat factors were behind the “scramble for the manufactured goods produced in their factories
Africa,” and what impact did it have on the
at home. Do you think they were justified in doing
continent?
so, and is that a fair argument for countries to
2-6 Patterns of Resistance to Colonial Conquest become involved beyond their own borders today?
QQHow did the indigenous response to the imperialist
attacks in Africa and Asia differ from place to place,
and how do you account for such differences? There is a statue of Cecil Rhodes on the campus
of Oriel College at Oxford University. Rhodes, an
industrial and diamond magnate who became prime
minister of the Cape Colony in the 1890s, was one of
the most prominent proponents of British imperial-
ist expansion at the end of the nineteenth century.
28
Eventually, he used some of his wealth to endow the the non-Western world. Spurred by the demands of the
famous Rhodes Scholarships, which provide financial Industrial Revolution, a few powerful states—notably
support for deserving students from all over the world Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and the United
to attend Oxford University. States—competed avariciously for consumer markets and
In the fall of 2015, a group of students at Oxford raw materials for their expanding economies. By the end
organized protests demanding that Rhodes’s statue be
of the nineteenth century, virtually all of the traditional
removed on the grounds that he was responsible for
societies in Asia and Africa were under direct or indirect
the enslavement of millions of Africans. To them, he
embodied the worst aspects of European colonial rule colonial rule.
over the non-Western world. Although similar protests
at the University of Cape Town in South Africa had 2-1a The Myth of European Superiority
been successful, the student demands at Oxford were To many Western observers at the time, the apparent ease
denied, as opponents argued that, whatever his faults, of the European conquest provided a clear affirmation of
Rhodes had been an important historical figure and a
the innate superiority of Western civilization to its coun-
major benefactor for the cause of education.
terparts elsewhere in the world. Influenced by the popu-
The protest movements at Oxford and Cape Town
brought into sharp relief the complex debate over the lar theory of social Darwinism, which applied Charles
motives and consequences of a century of Western Darwin’s theory of natural selection to the evolution of
imperialism. For Rhodes and like-minded contempo- human societies (see Chapter 1 and “2-2a The Philosophy
raries, European colonial rule had been a necessary of Colonialism,” p. 31), historians in Europe and the United
step in the arduous task of bringing modern civiliza- States began to view world history as essentially the story
tion to backward peoples around the world. To critics, of the inexorable rise of the West, from the glories of
in the words of one of the recent protesters, Rhodes ancient Greece to the emergence of modern Europe after
was responsible for “stealing land, massacring tens the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, to a posi-
of thousands of black Africans, imposing a regime of tion of global dominance. The extension of Western influ-
unspeakable labor exploitation in the diamond mines
ence to Africa and Asia, a process that had gotten underway
and devising pro-apartheid policies.”1
with the exploratory voyages of European navigators into
Rhodes was no apologetic imperialist. When draw-
ing up his last will and testament, he instructed two the Indian Ocean in the early-sixteenth century, was thus
of his closest friends to use his vast inheritance to viewed as a reflection of Western cultural superiority and
bring about the extension of British rule throughout represented a necessary step in bringing civilization to the
the world, as well as the recovery of the United States peoples beyond the borders of Europe.
as an integral part of the British Empire. A fervent The truth, however, was quite different, for Western
supporter of the imperial vision, Rhodes actively pro- global hegemony was a relatively recent phenomenon.
moted the extension of British rule until his untimely Prior to the age of Christopher Columbus at the end of the
death in 1902. fifteenth century, Europe was only an isolated appendage
of a much larger world system of states stretching across
the Eurasian landmass from the Atlantic Ocean to the
Pacific. The center of gravity in this trade network was not
in Europe or even in the Mediterranean Sea but much far-
2-1 The Spread of Colonial Rule ther to the east, in the Persian Gulf and in Central Asia. The
most sophisticated and technologically advanced region in
QQ Focus Question: What were the causes of the
new imperialism of the nineteenth century, and
the world was not Europe but China, whose proud history
could be traced back several thousand years to the rise of
how did new imperialism differ from European the first Chinese state in the Yellow River valley.
expansion in earlier periods of history? As for the transcontinental trade network that linked
Europe with the nations of the Middle East, South Asia,
Preposterous as Cecil Rhodes’s ideas seem to us today, and the Pacific basin, maritime commerce throughout the
they serve as a graphic reminder of the hubris that char- region had not been created by Portuguese and Spanish
acterized the worldview of Rhodes and many of his navigators in the early-sixteenth century but had been
European contemporaries during the Age of Imperialism, gradually developed by local traders from East Africa, Asia,
as well as the complex union of moral concern and vault- and the Middle East centuries previously. In the meantime,
ing ambition that motivated their actions on the world the Mongols had opened up land trade routes from the
stage. During the nineteenth and early-twentieth centu- shores of the Pacific to the bounds of central Europe after
ries, Western colonialism spread throughout much of their conquest of much of the Eurasian supercontinent in
2-1 The Spread of Colonial Rule ■ 29
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. For centuries, car- As Western economic expansion into Asia and Africa
avan routes and sea lanes stretched across Eurasia and the gathered strength during the last quarter of the nine-
Indian Ocean between China, Africa, and Europe, carrying teenth century, it became fashionable to call the process
not only commercial goods but also ideas and inventions imperialism. Although the term imperialism has many
such as the compass, paper, Arabic numerals, and gunpow- meanings and can trace its linguistic heritage back to
der. Inventions such as these, many of them originating in the glories of ancient Rome, when it referred to a mul-
China or India, would later play a major role in the emer- tinational state ruled by an emperor who represented
gence of Europe as a major player on the world’s stage. one dominant ethnic or religious group, in this instance
Only in the sixteenth century, with the onset of the Age of it referred to the efforts of capitalist states in the West to
Exploration, did Europe become important in the process. seize markets, cheap raw materials, and lucrative areas
For the next three centuries, the ships of several European for capital investment beyond traditional Western coun-
nations crossed the seas in quest of the spices, silks, pre- tries. In this interpretation, the primary motives behind
cious metals, and porcelains of the Orient. the Western expansion were economic. The best-known
For the first time since the decline of the Roman promoter of this view was the British political economist
Empire, beginning in the sixteenth century, Europe John A. Hobson, who in 1902 published a major analysis,
became a major player in the global trade network. In a Imperialism: A Study. In this influential book, Hobson main-
few cases, Europeans—aided by technological advances in tained that modern imperialism was a direct consequence
shipbuilding and weaponry—engaged in military conquest of the modern industrial economy. In his view, the indus-
as a means of seeking their objective. For the most part, trialized states of the West often produced more goods
however, European nations were satisfied to trade with than could be absorbed by the domestic market and thus
their Asian and African counterparts from coastal enclaves had to export their manufactures to make a profit.
that they had established along the trade routes that The issue was not simply an economic one, however,
threaded across the seas from the ports along the Atlantic since economic concerns were inevitably tinged with
and the Mediterranean Sea to their far-off destinations. In political ones and with questions of national grandeur
1800, only the Philippine Islands and parts of the Indian and moral purpose as well. In nineteenth-century Europe,
subcontinent and the Indonesian archipelago were under economic wealth, national status, and political power went
full European control. hand in hand with the possession of a colonial empire, at
least in the minds of observers at the time. To global strate-
2-1b The Advent of Western Imperialism gists of the day, colonies brought tangible benefits in the
world of power politics as well as economic profits, and
In the nineteenth century, a new phase of Western expan-
many nations became involved in the pursuit of colonies
sion into Asia and Africa began. Whereas European aims in
as much to gain advantage over their rivals as to acquire
the East before 1800 could be summed up in the Portuguese
territory for its own sake.
explorer Vasco da Gama’s famous phrase “Christians and
The relationship between colonialism and national
spices,” in the early-nineteenth century, a new relation-
survival was expressed directly in a speech by the French
ship took shape: European nations began to view Asian
politician Jules Ferry in 1885. A policy of “containment or
and African societies as a source of industrial raw mate-
abstinence,” he warned, would set France on “the broad
rials and a market for Western manufactured goods. No
road to decadence” and initiate its decline into a “third- or
longer were Western gold and silver exchanged for cloves,
fourth-rate power.” British imperialists agreed. To Cecil
pepper, tea, silk, and porcelain. Now the prodigious output
Rhodes, the extraction of material wealth from the colo-
of European factories was sent to Africa and Asia in return
nies was only a secondary matter. “My ruling purpose,”
for oil, tin, rubber, and the other resources needed to fuel
he remarked, “is the extension of the British Empire.”2
the Western industrial machine.
That British Empire, on which (as the saying went) “the
The Impact of the Industrial Revolution The reason for sun never set,” was the envy of its rivals and was viewed as
this change, of course, was the Industrial Revolution. the primary source of British global dominance during the
Now industrializing countries in the West needed vital raw latter half of the nineteenth century.
materials that were not available at home, as well as a reli-
able market for the goods produced in their factories. The Tactics of Conquest With the change in European
latter factor became increasingly crucial as capitalist soci- motives for colonization came a corresponding shift in tac-
eties began to discover that their home markets could not tics. Earlier, when their economic interests were more lim-
always absorb domestic output. When consumer demand ited, European states had generally been satisfied to deal
lagged, economic depression threatened. with existing independent states rather than attempt to
30 ■ CHAPTER 2 The High Tide of Imperialism: Africa and Asia in an Era of Western Dominance
establish direct control over vast territories. There had been exploit the natural resources of the subject areas and to
exceptions where state power at the local level was on the open up markets for manufactured goods and capital
point of collapse (as in India), where European economic investment from the mother country. In some cases, that
interests were especially intense (as in Latin America and goal could be realized in cooperation with local political
the East Indies), or where there was no centralized author- elites, whose loyalty could be earned (or purchased) by
ity (as in North America and the Philippines). But for the economic rewards or by confirming them in their posi-
most part, the Western presence in Asia and Africa had tions of authority and status in a new colonial setting.
been limited to controlling the regional trade network and Sometimes, however, this policy of indirect rule was not
establishing a few footholds where the foreigners could feasible because local leaders refused to cooperate with
carry on trade and missionary activity. their colonial masters or even actively resisted the foreign
After 1800, the demands of industrialization in Europe conquest. In such cases, the local elites were removed from
created a new set of dynamics. Maintaining access to power and replaced with a new set of officials recruited
industrial raw materials, such as oil and rubber, and setting from the mother country.
up reliable markets for European manufactured products The distinction between direct rule and indirect rule
required more extensive control over colonial territories. was not always clearly drawn, and many colonial powers
As competition for colonies increased, the colonial powers vacillated between the two approaches, sometimes in the
sought to solidify their hold over their territories to pro- same colonial territory. The decision often had fateful con-
tect them from attack by their rivals. During the last two sequences for the peoples involved. Where colonial pow-
decades of the nineteenth century, the quest for colonies ers encountered resistance and were forced to overthrow
became a scramble as all the major European states, now local political elites, they often adopted policies designed
joined by the United States and Japan, engaged in a global to eradicate the source of resistance and destroy the tra-
land grab. In many cases, economic interests were second- ditional culture. Such policies often had corrosive effects
ary to security concerns or national prestige. In Africa, for on the indigenous societies and provoked resentment that
example, the British engaged in a struggle with their rivals not only marked the colonial relationship but even affected
to protect their interests in the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. relations after the restoration of national independence
In Southeast Asia, the United States seized the Philippines (see Part V).
from Spain at least partly to keep them out of the hands of The situation in Latin America, which was also affected
the Japanese, and the French took over Indochina for fear in various ways by Western imperial expansion in the nine-
that it would otherwise be occupied by Germany, Japan, or teenth century, was a special case. There the Western pow-
the United States. ers sought to protect their economic interests and preserve
By 1900, virtually all the societies of Africa and Asia access to crucial raw materials and markets by propping up
were either under full colonial rule or, as in the case of pseudo-independent regimes. The United States, in partic-
China and the Ottoman Empire, on the point of virtual ular, sent troops to protect its interests in Central America
collapse. Only a handful of states, such as Japan in East and the Caribbean on several occasions.
Asia, Thailand in Southeast Asia, Afghanistan and Iran in
the Middle East, and mountainous Ethiopia in East Africa,
managed to escape internal disintegration or political sub- 2-2a The Philosophy of Colonialism
jection to colonial rule. As the twentieth century began, To justify their conquests, the colonial powers appealed,
European hegemony over the ancient civilizations of Asia in part, to the time-honored maxim of “might makes
and Africa seemed complete. right.” Western powers viewed industrial resources as vital
to national survival and security and felt that no moral
justification was needed for any action to protect access
2-2 The Colonial System to them. By the end of the nineteenth century, that atti-
tude received pseudoscientific validity from the concept
QQ Focus Question: Do you believe that

apologists for Western imperialism in the
of social Darwinism, which maintained that only societ-
ies that moved aggressively to adapt to changing circum-
stances would survive and prosper in a world governed by
nineteenth century were justified in claiming
that control over non-Western peoples would the Darwinist law of “survival of the fittest.”
ultimately be in the latter’s best interest?
The White Man’s Burden Some people, however, were
Once they had control of most of the world, the colo- uncomfortable with such a brutal view of the law of nature
nial powers set out to achieve their primary objective—to and sought a moral justification that appeared to benefit
2-2 The Colonial System ■ 31
the victim. Here again, social Darwinism pointed the way: alternatives and then proceeded to vacillate between
since human societies, like living organisms, must adapt to them. French policy in Indochina, for example, began
survive, the advanced nations of the West were obliged to as one of association but switched to assimilation under
assist the backward peoples of Asia and Africa so that they, pressure from liberal elements who felt that colonial
too, could adjust to the challenges of the modern world. powers owed a debt to their subject peoples. But assimi-
Few expressed this view as graphically as the English poet lation aroused resentment among the local population,
Rudyard Kipling, who called on the Anglo-Saxon peoples many of whom opposed the destruction of their culture
(in particular, the United States) to take up the “white and traditions.
man’s burden” in Asia (see Opposing Viewpoints, “White Most colonial powers were not as inclined to debate
Man’s Burden, Black Man’s Sorrow,” p. 33). the theory of colonialism as the French were. The United
Buttressed by such comforting theories, humane souls States, in formulating a colonial policy for the Philippines,
in Western countries could ignore the brutal aspects of adopted a strategy of assimilation in theory but was not
the colonial process and persuade themselves that in the quick to put it into practice. The British refused to enter-
long run, the results would be beneficial to both sides. tain the possibility of assimilation and generally treated
Some saw the issue primarily in religious terms. During their subject peoples as culturally and racially distinct
the nineteenth century, Christian missionaries by the thou- (as Queen Victoria declared in 1858, her government dis-
sands went to Asia and Africa to bring the gospel to the claimed “the right and desire to impose Our conditions on
“heathen masses.” To others, the objective was the more Our subjects”).
secular one of bringing the benefits of Western democ-
racy and capitalism to the tradition-ridden societies of the
Orient. Either way, sensitive Western minds could console 2-3 India Under the British Raj
themselves with the belief that their governments were
bringing civilization to the primitive peoples of the world.
If commercial profit and national prestige happened to be
by-products of that effort, so much the better. Few were as
QQ Focus Question: What were some of the
major consequences of British rule in India,
and how did they affect the Indian people?
effective at making the case as the silver-tongued French
colonial official Albert Sarraut. Conceding that colonial- The first of the major Asian civilizations to fall victim to
ism was originally an “act of force” taken for material European predatory activities was India. An organized
profit, he declared that the end result would be a “better society (commonly known today as the Harappan civiliza-
life on this planet” for conqueror and conquered alike. tion) had emerged in the Indus River valley in the fourth
But what about the possibility that historically and cul- and third millennia b.c.e. After the influx of Aryan peoples
turally, the societies of Asia and Africa were fundamentally across the mountains of what is present-day Afghanistan
different from those of the West and could not, or would into the Indian subcontinent around 1500 b.c.e., a new
not, be persuaded to transform themselves along Western civilization based on sedentary agriculture and a regional
lines? After all, even Kipling had remarked that “East is East trade network gradually emerged, with its central focus in
and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.” Was the Ganges River basin in north central India. A religious
the human condition universal, in which case the Asian faith brought to the subcontinent by the Aryan people,
and African peoples could be transformed, in the quaint known today as Hinduism, evolved into the dominant
American phrase for the subject Filipinos, into “little religion of the Indian people.
brown Americans”? Or were human beings so shaped by Beginning in the eleventh century, much of northern
their history and geographic environment that their civili- India fell under the rule of Turkic-speaking people who
zations would inevitably remain distinctive from those of penetrated into the subcontinent from the northwest and
the West? If so, a policy of cultural transformation could introduced the Islamic religion and civilization. Indian
not be expected to succeed. society, however, was not entirely receptive to the new
faith. Where Islam was fiercely monotheistic, the Indian
Assimilation and Association In fact, colonial theory cosmos was peopled with a multiplicity of deities, each
never decided this issue one way or the other. The French, representing different aspects of an all-knowing world
who were most inclined to philosophize about the prob- spirit known as Brahma. While Islam was egalitarian, and
lem, adopted the terms assimilation (which implied at least technically viewed women as the equal of men in
an effort to transform colonial societies in the Western the eyes of God, Indian society since early times had been
image) and association (collaborating with local elites divided into several classes (known as varna, or “color”),
while leaving local traditions alone) to describe the two each historically identified with a particular economic or
Opposing Viewpoints
White Man’s Burden, Black Man’s Sorrow

By open speech and simple,
Q According to Kipling, why should Western nations An hundred times made plain
take up the “white man’s burden”? What was the To seek another’s profit,
“black man’s burden,” in the eyes of Edmund Morel? And work another’s gain.
Take up the White Man’s burden—

Interaction One of the justifications for modern
& Exchange The savage wars of peace—
imperialism was the notion that the
Fill full the mouth of Famine
supposedly “more advanced” white peoples had the moral
And bid the sickness cease;
responsibility to raise presumably ignorant indigenous
And when your goal is nearest
peoples to a higher level of civilization. Few captured this
The end for others sought,
notion better than the British poet Rudyard Kipling (1865–
Watch Sloth and heathen Folly
1936) in his famous poem The White Man’s Burden. His
Bring all your hopes to nought.
appeal, directed to the United States, became one of the
most famous sets of verses in the English-speaking world.
That sense of moral responsibility, however, was often Edmund Morel, The Black Man’s Burden
misplaced or, even worse, laced with hypocrisy. All too It is [the Africans] who carry the “Black man’s burden.”
often, the consequences of imperial rule were detrimental They have not withered away before the white man’s
to those living under colonial authority. Few observers occupation. Indeed . . . Africa has ultimately absorbed
described the destructive effects of Western imperialism within itself every Caucasian and, for that matter, every
on the African people as well as British journalist Edmund Semitic invader, too. In hewing out for himself a fixed
Morel. His book The Black Man’s Burden, as well as a abode in Africa, the white man has massacred the African
number of articles written during the first decade of the in heaps. The African has survived, and it is well for the
twentieth century, pointed out some of the more horrific white settlers that he has. . . .
aspects of colonialism in the Belgian Congo. Morel’s reports What the partial occupation of his soil by the white
on the brutal treatment of Congolese workers involved in man has failed to do; what the mapping out of European
gathering rubber, ivory, and palm oil for export helped to political “spheres of influence” has failed to do; what
spur the formation of an investigative commission, whose the Maxim and the rifle, the slave gang, labour in the
report in 1904 ultimately led to reforms. bowels of the earth and the lash, have failed to do; what
imported measles, smallpox and syphilis have failed to
Rudyard Kipling, The White Man’s Burden do; whatever the overseas slave trade failed to do; the
Take up the White Man’s burden— power of modern capitalistic exploitation, assisted by
Send forth the best ye breed— modern engines of destruction, may yet succeed
Go bind your sons to exile in accomplishing.
To serve your captives’ need; For from the evils of the latter, scientifically applied
To wait in heavy harness, and enforced, there is no escape for the African. Its
On fluttered folk and wild— destructive effects are not spasmodic; they are perma-
Your new-caught sullen peoples, nent. In its permanence resides its fatal consequences. It
Half-devil and half-child. kills not the body merely, but the soul. It breaks the spirit.
It attacks the African at every turn, from every point of
Take up the White Man’s burden— vantage. It wrecks his polity, uproots him from the land,
In patience to abide, invades his family life, destroys his natural pursuits and
To veil the threat of terror occupations, claims his whole time, enslaves him in his
And check the show of pride; own home.
Sources: Rudyard Kipling, The White Man’s Burden. From Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden,” McClure’s Magazine 12 (Feb. 1899). Edmund
Morel, The Black Man’s Burden. From Edmund Morel, The Black Man’s Burden (New York: Metro Books, 1972).
2-3 India Under the British Raj ■ 33

social function—priests, warriors, merchants, and farm- 2-3a The Nature of British Rule
ers. Indian women of all classes were viewed legally and British rule in India brought stability to a region that had
socially as occupying a clearly inferior position. Although recently been wracked by civil strife, as the British adopted
Indian class distinctions had blurred over time, the sys- reforms that led to a relatively honest and efficient gov-
tem also possessed a religious component that deter- ernment that in some respects operated to the benefit of
mined not only one’s status in society but also one’s hope the average Indian. For example, heightened attention
for heavenly salvation. At the bottom of the social and was given to education. Through the efforts of the British
religious scale were the “untouchables,” individuals who administrator and historian Thomas Babington Macaulay,
were assigned to carry out the myriad “unclean” tasks in a new school system was established to train the children
Indian society. of Indian elites, and the British civil service examination
The Indian people did not belong to one of the classes was introduced to create a dedicated and honest bureau-
as individuals, but as part of a larger kinship group, a cracy to help govern the vast country.
system of extended families known in English as castes. British rule also brought an end to some of the more
Each caste was identified with a particular varna, creat- inhumane aspects of Indian tradition. The practice of
ing a highly stratified society in which social movement sati (the forced or voluntary cremation of a widow on
along the scale was extremely unusual; individuals thus her husband’s funeral pyre) was outlawed, and widows
lived their entire lives within the boundaries of caste were legally permitted to remarry. Other signs of tra-
distinctions. ditional female inferiority, such as child marriage and
At the end of the fifteenth century, a powerful new women’s social and legal dependence on their fathers
force penetrated the Indian subcontinent from the moun- and husbands, were left essentially untouched. Some
tains to the north. The Mughals, as they were known, were Indian husbands of the Hindu faith also kept their wives
a Turkic-speaking people whose founding ruler Babur secluded from public view, according the Muslim prac-
(1483–1530) traced his ancestral heritage back to the great tice of purdah.
Mongol chieftain Genghis Khan. Although foreigners and The British also attempted to put an end to the brigand-
Muslims like many of their immediate predecessors, the age (known as thuggee, which gave rise to the English word
Mughals nevertheless brought India to a level of political thug) that had plagued travelers in India throughout much
power and cultural achievement that inspired admiration of its history. Railroads, the telegraph, and the postal ser-
and envy throughout the entire region. vice were introduced to India shortly after they appeared
The Mughal Empire reached the peak of its greatness in Great Britain, all of which would eventually serve to
under the famed Emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605), arguably promote the gradual emergence of a modern manufactur-
the greatest monarch in Indian history. Eventually, how- ing and commercial economy in the country. A new penal
ever, the dynasty began to weaken as Hindu forces in south- code based on the British model was adopted, and health
ern India sought to challenge the authority of the Mughal and sanitation conditions were improved.
court in Delhi. This process of fragmentation was prob-
ably hastened by the growing presence of European trad- Agricultural Reforms In many ways, however, the Indian
ers, who had begun to establish enclaves along the fringes people paid dearly for the peace and stability brought by
of the subcontinent. By the end of the eighteenth century, the British raj (from the Indian raja, or prince). Perhaps
the British and the French had begun to seize control of the most flagrant cost was economic. In rural areas, the
the regional trade routes and to meddle in the internal British adopted the zamindar system, according to which
politics of the subcontinent. Soon nothing remained of the local landlords were authorized to collect taxes from peas-
empire but a shell. Into the vacuum left by its final decay ants and turn the taxes over to the government. The British
stepped the British, who used a combination of firepower mistakenly anticipated that by continuing the system, they
and guile to consolidate their power over the subcontinent. would not only facilitate the collection of agricultural taxes
Some territories were taken over directly by the East India but also create a landed gentry that could, as in Britain
Company, a privately organized British trading organiza- itself, become the conservative foundation of an imperial
tion which at that time was given authority to administer ruling class. But many of the local gentry took advantage
Asian territories under British occupation, while others of their authority to increase taxes and force the less fortu-
were ruled indirectly through their local maharajas (see nate peasants to become tenants or lose their land entirely.
Map 2.1). British rule extended northward as far as present- When rural unrest threatened, the government passed leg-
day Afghanistan, where British fears of Russian expansion- islation protecting farmers against eviction and unreason-
ism led to a lengthy imperialist rivalry that was popularly able rent increases, but this measure had little effect outside
labeled “the Great Game.” the southern provinces, where it was originally enacted.
although foreign trade thrived, as
CHINA Indian goods, notably high-quality
cotton textiles, tropical food prod-
AFGHANISTAN KASHMIR ucts, spices, and precious stones,
AND
JAMMU were exported in return for gold
and silver. Under the British, limited
PUNJAB
Lahore Amritsar
A TIBET forms of industrialization took place,
notably in the manufacturing of tex-
R.
us
Delhi
UNITED
tiles and rope. The first textile mill
opened in 1856; seventy years later,
In d
RAJPUTANA Agra
Tist
PROVINCES
Lucknow R. there were eighty mills in the city
a
Cawnpore Ganges
R. ASSAM
Karachi SIND Varanasi
(Benares)
Patna
BENGAL of Bombay (now Mumbai) alone.
BIHAR Nevertheless, the lack of local capital
AND Calcutta
CENTRAL ORISSA BURMA and the advantages given to British
Arabian Sea PROVINCES imports prevented the emergence
Bombay of other vital new commercial and
BOMBAY Bay of Bengal manufacturing operations, and the
HYDERABAD
introduction of cheap British textiles
Goa
put thousands of Bengali women
Madras
out of work and severely damaged
MYSORE the village textile industry.
Pondicherry
Cochin
A Civilizing Mission? Foreign
CEYLON rule also had an effect on the psyche
0 250 500 750 Kilometers (CROWN
COLONY) of the Indian people. Although
0 250 500 Miles
many British colonial officials sin-
cerely tried to improve the lot of
Territory under British rule French enclave the people under their charge, the
Territories permanently administered Hindu-majority provinces government made few efforts to
by government of India (mostly tribal)
Muslim-majority provinces
introduce democratic institutions
States and territories under Indian and values to the Indian people.
Area of large Sikh population
administration Moreover, British arrogance and
Portuguese enclave contempt for local traditions cut
deeply into the pride of many
Indians, especially those of high
MAP 2.1 India Under British Rule, 1805–1931. This map shows the different forms of rule that caste who were accustomed to a
the British applied in India under their control. The Sikhs, located primarily in the Punjab, position of superior status in India
were adherents of a religion that began in the sixteenth century as an attempt to reconcile
(see Movies & History, A Passage to
the Hindu and Muslim traditions and ultimately developed into an alternative to both.
India, p. 36). The British raj would
Q Where were the major cities of the subcontinent located, and under whose rule did
they fall?
pay dearly for its dismissal of Indian
customs, when Indian troops
serving under British command
One particular period of extreme drought in the 1870s, suddenly revolted against their masters and threat-
which was probably caused by regional El Nino condi- ened the very foundations of British rule in India
tions, resulted in the death of over a million Indians, and (see “2-6 Patterns of Resistance to Colonial Conquest,” p. 47).
was locally blamed on the British authorities for their inac- By the end of the nineteenth century, some educated
tion in the face of the crisis (see Chapter 13 and “16-6 One Indians became increasingly disillusioned with the failure of
World, One Environment,” p. 417). the British to live up to their “civilizing mission” and began
to clamor for a greater role in the governance of their coun-
Manufacturing British colonialism was also remiss in bring- try. In 1885, a new organization designed to represent the
ing modern science and technology to India. Industrial interests of the indigenous population—the Indian National
development was still in its infancy during the Mughal era, Congress—was born (see Section 5-1c , p. 108).
2-3 India Under the British Raj ■ 35

had attracted the attention of English and Dutch competi-
movies & HIstory tors. By mid-century, the spice trade was fast becoming
a monopoly of Dutch mariners, whose sturdy ships and
A Passage to India (1984) ample supply of capital gave them a significant advantage
In 1984, the celebra
over their rivals.
ted director David
Well before the arrival of the first Europeans, however,
Lean turned E.M.
Southeast Asia had been an active participant in the global
Forster’s famous novel
trade network, purchasing textiles from India and luxury
A Passage to India
goods from China in return for spices, precious metals,
(1924) into a feature
and various tropical woods and herbs. Although no single
film. Like the novel,
empire had ever controlled all of Southeast Asia, several
EVERETT COLLECTION, INC.

the film traces the
powerful states had emerged in the region since the early
adventures of Adela
centuries of the first millennium c.e. Some, like Sailendra
Quested (Judy Davis),
and Srivijaya in the Indonesian archipelago, were primar-
a young British woman
ily trading states. Others, like Vietnam, Angkor, and the
who visits colonial
Burmese empire of Pagan, were predominantly agricul-
India during the 1920s. During a visit to local caves, she
tural, although they too sought actively to participate in
abruptly accuses an Indian doctor who had accompanied
the commerce passing through the region. As a result of
her to the site of rape, although in fact it appears unlikely
such trade contacts, most of the emerging states in the area
in the film that the encounter ever took place. At a court
had patterned their political systems and religious beliefs
trial, however, Adela suddenly recants, and the accused,
after those practiced on the Indian subcontinent. Only
Doctor Aziz (Victor Bannerjee), is acquitted. Ostracized
Vietnam, located along the eastern coast of the peninsula,
by the local foreign community, she decides to return to
was strongly influenced by China. Eventually, Islam—
England, while Aziz writes to thank her for marshalling
promoted by Muslim merchants from India and the
the courage to change her story to affirm his innocence.
Middle East—began to make inroads into the southern
The film brilliantly portrays the mysterious circumstances
part of the region.
surrounding the alleged event, while shedding a harsh
Fleets from a number of European states had begun
light on the racist attitudes prevalent within the British
patrolling the shipping lanes in the region since the six-
community regarding the surrounding Indian population.
teenth century, although in 1800, only two societies in
Southeast Asia were under effective colonial rule: the
Spanish Philippines and parts of the Indonesian archipel-
Q In this context, why would an accusation of rape
ago. The latter would eventually be consolidated into the
become an even more sensitive issue in terms of
its effect on Anglo-Indian relations?
Dutch East Indies. The British had been driven out of the
Spice Islands trade by the Dutch in the seventeenth cen-
tury and possessed only a small enclave on the southern
coast of the island of Sumatra and some territory on the
2-4The Colonial Takeover Malay peninsula. The French had actively engaged in trade
with states on the Asian mainland, but their activity in the
of Southeast Asia area was eventually reduced to a small missionary effort
run by the Society for Foreign Missions. The only legacy
QQ Focus Question: Which Western countries
were most active in seeking colonial possessions
of Portuguese expansion in the region was the possession
of half of the small island of Timor. The remainder of
in Southeast Asia, and what were their motives the region continued to be governed by indigenous rulers.
in doing so?
2-4a The Imposition of Colonial Rule
Southeast Asia had been one of the first destinations for During the second half of the nineteenth century, how-
European fleets en route to the East. Lured by the riches of ever, European interest in Southeast Asia grew rapidly,
the Spice Islands (located at the eastern end of the present- and by 1900, virtually the entire area was under colonial
day Republic of Indonesia), adventurers from Spain and rule (see Map 2.2). The process began after the Napoleonic
Portugal sailed to the area in the early-sixteenth century wars, when the British, by agreement with the Dutch,
in the hope of seizing control of the spice trade from Arab abandoned their claims to territorial possessions in the
and Indian merchants. A century later, the lure of profits East Indies in return for a free hand in the Malay peninsula.
French rule was extended over the
CHINA 0 500 1,000 1,500 Kilometers remainder of Vietnam. By the end
0 500 1,000 Miles of the century, French seizure of
neighboring Cambodia and Laos
Portuguese had led to the creation of the
BURMA Spanish and American
French-ruled Indochinese Union.
(1826) LAOS With the French conquest
(1893) Dutch
of Indochina, Thailand—then
VIETNAM British known as Siam—was the only
THAILAND (1859) French remaining independent state on
CAMBODIA PHILIPPINES
(1863) (Spain, 1521; Not colonized the Southeast Asian mainland.
United During the last quarter of the
States, 1898) (1895) Date of initial claim
or control century, British and French rivalry
BRUNEI threatened to place the Thai, too,
MALAYA (1888)
NORTH BORNEO under colonial rule. But under the
(1786) SARAWAK (1888) astute leadership of two remark-
(1888)
able rulers, King Mongkut (later
MALACCA SINGAPORE
(Port., 1511) (1819) familiar to millions of movie-
goers in the West as the monarch
NEW in the 1956 film The King and I) and
INDONESIA (early 1600s)
GUINEA his son King Chulalongkorn, the
Thai sought to introduce Western
TIMOR (1566)
learning and maintain relations
with the major European pow-
MAP 2.2 Colonial Southeast Asia. European colonial rule spread into Southeast Asia between
ers without undermining internal
the sixteenth century and the end of the nineteenth.
stability or inviting an imperialist
Q What was the strategic significance of Malacca? attack. In this case, accommoda-
tion proved more effective than
violent resistance. In 1896, the
In 1819, the colonial administrator Stamford Raffles founded British and the French agreed to preserve Thailand as an
a new British colony on a small island at the tip of the pen- independent buffer zone between their colonial posses-
insula. Called Singapore (“City of the Lion”), it had previ- sions in Southeast Asia.
ously been used by Malay pirates as a base for raiding ships The final piece of the colonial edifice in Southeast
passing through the Strait of Malacca. When the inven- Asia was put in place in 1898, when U.S. naval forces
tion of steam power enabled merchant ships to save time under Commodore George Dewey defeated the Spanish
and distance by passing through the strait rather than sail- fleet in Manila Bay on the island of Luzon in the Spanish
ing with the westerlies across the southern Indian Ocean, Philippines. Since gaining independence in the late-
Singapore became a major stopping point for traffic to and eighteenth century, the United States had always consid-
from China and other commercial centers in the region. ered itself to be an anticolonialist nation, but by the end
A few decades later, the British took over the kingdom of the nineteenth century, many Americans believed that
of Burma and placed it under the colonial administration the United States was ready to expand abroad. The Pacific
in India. islands were the scene of great-power competition and
The British advance into Burma was watched ner- witnessed the entry of the United States on the imperi-
vously in Paris, where French geopoliticians were increas- alist stage. Eastern Samoa became the first important
ingly concerned that their traditional rival might obtain a American colony; the Hawaiian Islands were the next to
monopoly on trade with south China. The French main- fall. Soon after an American naval station had been estab-
tained a clandestine missionary organization in Vietnam lished at Pearl Harbor in 1887, American settlers gained
despite harsh persecution by the local authorities, and now control of the sugar industry on the islands. When the
began to pressure Vietnamese authorities to allow them local Hawaiians tried to reassert their authority, the U.S.
commercial access to the country. After many rebuffs, in Marines were brought in to “protect” American lives.
the late 1850s the French forced the latter to cede territo- Hawaii was annexed by the United States in 1898 during
ries in the southern part of the country. A generation later, the era of American nationalistic fervor generated by the
2-4 The Colonial Takeover of Southeast Asia ■ 37

Spanish-American War, which broke out after an explo- Colonial Administration In the Dutch East Indies, for
sion damaged a U.S. battleship anchored at Havana on the example, officials of the Dutch East India Company (VOC,
Spanish-held island of Cuba. from the initials of its Dutch name) entrusted local admin-
The defeat of Spain in the war of 1898 encouraged istration to the indigenous landed aristocracy, known as
the Americans to extend their empire by acquiring Puerto the priyayi. The priyayi maintained law and order and col-
Rico, Guam, and the Philippine Islands. Although President lected taxes in return for a payment from the VOC. The
William McKinley justified the seizure of the Philippines British followed a similar practice in Malaya. While estab-
on moral grounds, the real reason was to prevent them lishing direct rule over areas of crucial importance, such as
from falling into the hands of the Japanese. In fact, the the commercial centers of Singapore and Malacca and the
Americans (like the Spanish before them) found the islands island of Penang, the British signed agreements with local
a convenient jumping-off point for the China trade (see Muslim rulers to maintain princely power in the interior
Chapter 3). Although guerrilla forces led by Emilio Aguinaldo of the peninsula.
fought bitterly against U.S. troops to maintain independence, In some instances, however, local resistance to the colo-
the resistance collapsed in 1901. President McKinley had his nial conquest made such a policy impossible. In Burma,
stepping-stone to the rich markets of China. faced with staunch opposition from traditionalist forces,
the British abolished the monarchy and administered the
country directly through their colonial government in
2-4b Colonial Regimes in Southeast Asia India. In Indochina, the French used both direct and indi-
In Southeast Asia, economic profit was the immediate and rect means. They imposed direct rule on the southern prov-
primary aim of the colonial enterprise. For that purpose, inces in the Mekong delta, which had been ceded to France
colonial powers tried wherever possible to work with local as a colony in 1860. The northern parts of the country,
elites to facilitate the exploitation of natural resources such seized in the 1880s, were governed as a protectorate, with
as rubber, tin, and oil (see Image 2.2). Indirect rule reduced the emperor retaining titular authority from his palace in
the cost of training European administrators and had a less Hué. The French adopted a similar policy in Cambodia and
corrosive impact on the local culture. Laos, where local rulers were left in charge with French
William J. Duiker
William J. Duiker
IMAGE 2.2 The Production of Rubber. Natural rubber was one of the most important cash crops in the
European colonies in Asia. Rubber trees, native to the Amazon River basin in Brazil, were eventually
transplanted to Southeast Asia, where they became a major source of profit. Workers on the plantations
received few benefits, however. Once the sap of the tree, called latex, was extracted (left photo), it was
hardened and pressed into sheets (right photo) and then sent to Europe for refining.
Cultural Influences, East and West

young Vietnamese during the 1920s dressed in Western
Q Compare and contrast the artistic styles of these two sports clothes, learning to play tennis. Sometimes,
paintings. What message do they send to the viewer? however, the cultural influence went the other way. In
Image 2.3b, an English nabob, as European residents in
India were often called, apes the manner of an Indian
WHEN EUROPEANS MOVED INTO ASIA in the
Interaction
& Exchange
aristocrat, complete with harem and hookah, the Indian
nineteenth century, some Asians began
water pipe. The paintings on the wall, however, are in the
to imitate European customs for prestige or social
European style.
advancement. Seen in Image 2.3a, for example, is a
Vietnamese School (20th century)/INDIVISION CHARMET/Ecole Francaise d’Extreme Orient,
Symbols of the progress of civilization: a tennis player and an athlete, c.1920 (colour litho)/
British Library, London/Werner Forman/Art Resource, NY

Paris, France/Bridgeman Images
IMAGE 2.3a IMAGE 2.3b
advisers to counsel them. Even the Dutch were eventually began to complain, colonial officials gradually and reluc-
forced into a more direct approach. When the develop- tantly began to broaden the franchise, but even such lib-
ment of plantation agriculture and the extraction of oil eral thinkers as Albert Sarraut advised patience in awaiting
in Sumatra made effective exploitation of local resources the full benefits of colonial policy. “I will treat you like my
more complicated, they dispensed with indirect rule and younger brothers,” he promised, “but do not forget that
tightened their administrative control over the archipelago. I am the older brother. I will slowly give you the dignity
Whatever method was used, colonial regimes in Southeast of humanity.”3
Asia, as elsewhere, were slow to create democratic insti-
tutions. The first legislative councils and assemblies were Economic Development Colonial powers were equally
composed almost exclusively of European residents in the reluctant to shoulder the “white man’s burden” in the area
colonies, while the first representatives from the indigenous of economic development. As we have seen, their primary
population were wealthy and thus conservative in their goals were to secure a source of cheap raw materials and to
political views (see Comparative Illustration, “Cultural maintain markets for manufactured goods. So colonial pol-
Influences, East and West,” above). When Southeast Asians icy concentrated on the export of raw materials—teakwood
2-4 The Colonial Takeover of Southeast Asia ■ 39
from Burma; rubber and tin from Malaya; spices, tea, coffee, Imperialism in the Balance As in India, colonial rule
and palm oil from the East Indies; and sugar and copra from did bring some benefits to Southeast Asia. It led to the
the Philippines. beginnings of a modern economic infrastructure, and
In some Southeast Asian colonial societies, a measure of the development of an export market helped create an
industrial development did take place to meet the needs of entrepreneurial class in rural areas. On the outer islands
the European population and local elites. Major manufac- of the Dutch East Indies (such as Borneo and Sumatra),
turing cities, including Rangoon in lower Burma, Batavia for example, small growers of rubber, palm oil, coffee,
(now renamed Jakarta) on the island of Java, and Saigon in tea, and spices began to share in the profits of the colonial
French Indochina, grew rapidly. Although the local middle enterprise.
class benefited in various ways from the Western pres- A balanced assessment of the colonial legacy in
ence, most industrial and commercial establishments were Southeast Asia must take into account that the early stages
owned and managed by Europeans or, in some cases, by of industrialization are difficult in any society. Even in
Indian or Chinese merchants who had long been active in western Europe, industrialization led to the creation of
the area. In Saigon, for example, even the manufacture of an impoverished and powerless proletariat, urban slums,
nuoc mam, the traditional Vietnamese fish sauce, was under and displaced peasants driven from the land. In much of
Chinese ownership. Most urban residents were coolies Europe, however, the bulk of the population eventually
(laborers, literally “hard labor” in Chinese), factory work- enjoyed better material conditions as the profits from
ers, or rickshaw drivers or eked out a living in family shops manufacturing and plantation agriculture were reinvested
as they had during the traditional era. in the national economy and gave rise to increased con-
sumer demand. In contrast, in Southeast Asia, most of the
Rural Policies Despite the growth of an urban economy, profits were repatriated to the colonial mother country,
the vast majority of people in Southeast Asia continued while displaced peasants fleeing to cities such as Rangoon,
to farm the land. Many continued to live by subsistence Batavia, and Saigon found little opportunity for employ-
agriculture, but the colonial policy of emphasizing cash ment. Many were left with seasonal jobs, with one foot on
crops for export led to the creation of a form of planta- the farm and one in the factory. The old world was being
tion agriculture in which peasants were recruited to work destroyed, and the new had yet to be born.
as wage laborers on rubber and tea plantations owned by
Europeans. To maintain a competitive edge, the planta-
tion owners kept the wages of their workers at the poverty 2-5 Empire Building in Africa
level. Many plantation workers were “shanghaied” (the
English term originated from the practice of recruiting
laborers, often from the docks and streets of Shanghai,
QQ Focus Question: What factors were behind the
“scramble for Africa,” and what impact did it
by the use of force, alcohol, drugs, or other unscrupu- have on the continent?
lous means) to work on plantations, where conditions
were often so inhumane that thousands died. High taxes, The last of the equatorial regions of the world to be placed
enacted by colonial governments to pay for administrative under European colonial rule was the continent of Africa.
costs or improvements in the local infrastructure, were a European navigators had first established contacts with
heavy burden for poor peasants. Africans south of the Sahara during the late-fifteenth cen-
The situation was made even more difficult by the tury, when Portuguese fleets sailed down the Atlantic coast
steady growth of the population. Peasants in Asia had on their way to the Indian Ocean. During the next three
always had large families on the assumption that a high centuries, Europeans established port facilities along the
proportion of their children would die in infancy. But coasts of East and West Africa to service their voyages into
improved sanitation and medical treatment resulted in the Indian Ocean and to engage in limited commercial
lower rates of infant mortality and a staggering increase relations with African societies. Although European explo-
in population. The population of the island of Java, for ration of the area was originally motivated by the search
example, increased from about a million in the precolo- for gold, eventually the trade in slaves took precedence,
nial era to about 40 million at the end of the nineteenth and over the next three centuries several million unfor-
century. Under these conditions, the rural areas could no tunate Africans were loaded onto slave ships destined to
longer support the growing populations, and many young serve as laborers on the sugar and cotton plantations of the
people fled to the cities to seek jobs in factories or shops. Americas. For a variety of reasons, however, Europeans
The migratory pattern gave rise to squatter settlements in made little effort to penetrate the vast continent and were
the suburbs of the major cities. generally content to deal with African intermediaries
along the coast to maintain their trading relationship. The articles in return for gold, ivory, and various tropical prod-
Western psyche developed a deeply ingrained image of ucts from Africa. With the settlement of Arab traders
“darkest Africa”—a continent without a history, its people along the eastern coast, the entire region developed a new
living out their days bereft of cultural contact with the synthetic culture, known as Swahili, that combined ele-
outside world. ments of Arabic and indigenous cultures. Although the
Portuguese briefly seized or destroyed most of the exist-
2-5a Africa Before Imperialism ing trading ports along the eastern coast, by the eighteenth
There was a glimmer of truth in the Western image of century they had been driven out, and local authority
sub-Saharan Africa as a region outside the mainstream of was restored.
civilization on the Eurasian landmass. Although the conti- In the vast interior of the continent, from the Congo
nent was the original seedbed of humankind and the site River basin southward to the Cape of Good Hope, con-
of much of its early evolutionary experience, the desicca- tacts with the outside world were rare, and the majority
tion of the Sahara during the fourth and third millennia of the population lived in autonomous villages organized
b.c.e. had erected a major obstacle to communications by clans or a local chieftain; they supported themselves
between the peoples south of the desert and societies else- by farming, pastoral pursuits, or hunting and gathering.
where in the world. The barrier was never total, however. In a few cases, some of these individual communities had
From ancient times, caravans crossed the Sahara from the begun to consolidate into small states, which took part
Niger River basin to the shores of the Mediterranean car- in a growing interregional trade network based on the
rying gold and tropical products in exchange for salt, textile exchange of metal goods and foodstuffs.
goods, and other manufactured articles from the north. By
the seventh century c.e., several prosperous trading soci-
eties, whose renown extended to medieval Europe and 2-5b The Growing European Presence
the Middle East, had begun to arise in the savanna belt (a in West Africa
region of grasslands on the southern edge of the desert) By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the horrific
of West Africa. slave trade was in decline. One reason was the growing
One crucial consequence of this new trade network sense of outrage in Europe over the purchase, sale, and
was the introduction of Islam to the peoples of the region exploitation of human beings. Traffic in slaves by Dutch
(see Map 2.3). Arab armies sweeping westward along the merchants effectively came to an end in 1795 and by Danes
coast of the Mediterranean Sea had already brought the in 1803. The slave trade was declared illegal in Great Britain
message of the Prophet Muhammad as far as Morocco in 1807 and in the United States in 1808. The British began
and the Iberian peninsula. Soon, Islamic religion and cul- to apply pressure on other nations to follow suit, and most
ture began to cross the Sahara in the baggage of Muslim did so after the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815, leav-
merchants. Along with the Qur’an, Islam’s holy book, the ing only Portugal and Spain as practitioners of the trade
new faith introduced its African converts to a new code south of the equator. Meanwhile, the demand for slaves
of law and ethics—the Shari’a—and to the Prophet’s began to decline in the Western Hemisphere, although an
uncompromising message of the equality of all in the eyes illegal trade in slaves across the Atlantic persisted for some
of God. The city of Timbuktu, on the time (see Historical Voices, “Tragedy
banks of the Niger River, soon became at Caffard Cove,” p. 42). By the 1880s,
a major center of Islamic scholarship slavery had been abolished in all major
and schools providing education in the Marrakech Cairo countries of the world.
Arabic language. ARABIA The decline of the slave trade in the
In the eastern half of the continent, Ni
g e rR
.
Gao
o Atlantic during the nineteenth century,
the Sahara posed no obstacle to com- A ICA
AFR
however, did not lead to an overall
munication beyond the seas. The long R.
reduction in the European presence in
eastern coast had played a role in the West Africa. On the contrary, European
o
ng
Co
trade network of the Indian Ocean interest in what was sometimes called
Atlantic Kilwa
K l
since the time of the pharaohs along Ocean
“legitimate trade” in natural resources
the Nile. Ships from India, the Persian increased. Exports of peanuts, timber,
Gulf, and as far away as China made hides, and palm oil increased substan-
MADAGA
MADAGAS
MADA GASCAR
GASC
regular visits to the East African ports Cape of Good Hop
op
pe
tially during the first decades of the cen-
of Kilwa, Malindi, and Sofala, bring- tury, and imports of textile goods and
ing textiles, metal goods, and luxury MAP 2.3 The Spread of Islam in Africa other manufactured products also rose.
2-5 Empire Building in Africa ■ 41
HISTORICAL VOICES
Tragedy at Caffard Cove

The rescuers on shore then observed a large number of
Q How were the surviving victims of the shipwreck panic-stricken males clinging desperately to the ship’s fore-
at Caffard Cove dealt with by the government mast, which suddenly broke in two, tossing them into the
authorities in Martinique? Under what provisions of foam or onto the rocks. Broken masts lying on the rocks,
the law was the decision reached? fragments of torn sails floating alongside ropes caught in the
reef where the ship itself lay on the rocks all provided visual
evidence of the frightful incident that had just occurred.
Interaction The slave trade was declared illegal in
& Exchange Forty-six bodies, four of whom were white males, were
France in 1818, but the clandestine shipment
lying amidst the rocks. . . . “I ordered the bodies of the black
of Africans to the Americas continued for many years afterward.
victims to be buried at a short distance from the shore,
At the same time, slavery was widely tolerated in the French
then directed that those of the white males be carried to
colonies, especially in the Caribbean, where sugar plantations
the cemetery of Diamant parish, where they received a
on the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique depended on
Christian burial. I was then taken to the cabin of a certain
cheap labor for their profits. It was not until 1849 that
Borromé, a free man of color, where those black castaways
slavery was abolished throughout the French Empire.
who had been rescued from the shipwreck had been given
Among the tragic events that characterized the shipment
temporary shelter. Among the victims, six were found to be
of slaves to the Americas (often called the “Middle
in such poor condition that they could not be taken to the
Passage”), few are as poignant as the incident described in
Latournelle plantation. The other 80 survivors were handed
the passage below, which took place in 1830 on the island
over to the naval authorities at Fort Royal. In all, 86 African
of Martinique. The text, which includes passages from
captives, of whom 60 were women or girls, were rescued
the original official report of the incident, is taken from a
out of a ship’s “cargo” estimated at nearly 300 persons.
memorial erected at the site many years later. Laurent Valère,
“I ordered the interrogation of the surviving black
a local sculptor, erected fifteen statues to commemorate the
castaways by interpreters, and it became clear from their
victims. The name of the ship and the name and nationality
testimony that the ship had been at sea for four months,
of the ship’s captain, as well as the ultimate fate of the
and that most of the white sailors on board had died dur-
surviving victims, remain a mystery to this day.
ing the crossing [of the Atlantic], and that an additional
The Caffard Memorial 70 blacks had died from illness and had been thrown
Around noon on the 8th of April 1830, a sailing ship overboard during the voyage. Another 260 individuals
[was observed] carrying out odd maneuvers off the remained on the ship when it was sunk off the coast of
coast of [the town of] Diamant [on the southern coast Diamant. . . . Only a few males had thus survived, since
of Martinique]; at about five p.m. [the vessel] cast anchor all of them were shackled together in the ship’s hold with
off the dangerous coast of nearby Caffard Cove. François irons on their feet at the time of the wreck.”
Dizac, a resident of the neighborhood and manager of the At that point, a legal issue was raised: what should be
Plage du Diamant, a plantation owned by the Count de done with the surviving castaways who, although they
Latournelle, realized that the ship’s situation was perilous, could not be classified as slaves under existing law (since
but a heavy swell prevented him from launching a boat to they were victims of illegal trade), yet could not be consid-
warn the captain that the vessel was in imminent danger ered in this colony as men and therefore couldn’t be freed.
of running aground. He therefore sent signals that the In May 1830, the Privy Council of Martinique ordered that
captain either could not, or chose not, to acknowledge. the captured Negroes were to be shipped to Cayenne [the
At 11 p.m. that evening, anguished cries and cracking capital of French Guiana] in order to avoid having in the
sounds suddenly began to shatter the silence of the night. [French] West Indies a special class of people who could
Dizac and a party of slaves from the nearby plantation not be classified either as slaves or as free individuals. . . .
rushed promptly to the scene, only to encounter a horrify- Thus, in July 1830, a second deportation followed the
ing sight: the ship had been dashed on the rocks and first, adding to the ordeal of the [African] slaves who had
its passengers thrown into the fury of the raging seas. survived the shipwreck at Caffard Cove.
Source: Association de Sauvegarde du Patrimoine du Diamant. Text by Merlande, MOANDA SATURNIN, historian. Translation from the original
French by the author.
Stimulated by growing commercial interests in the Egyptian government and forced a growing level of depen-
area, European governments began to push for a more dence on foreign financial support. When an army revolt
permanent presence along the coast. During the early- against the increasing foreign influence broke out in 1881,
nineteenth century, the British established settlements the British stepped in to protect their investment (they had
along the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana) and in Sierra bought Egypt’s canal company shares in 1875) and set up
Leone, where they attempted to set up agricultural planta- an informal protectorate that would last until World War I.
tions for freed slaves who had returned from the Western Rising discontent in the Sudan added to Egypt’s inter-
Hemisphere or had been liberated by British ships while nal problems. In 1881, the Muslim cleric Muhammad
en route to the Americas. A similar haven for ex-slaves Ahmad, known as the Mahdi (in Arabic, the “rightly
was developed with the assistance of the United States in guided one”), led a religious revolt that brought much
Liberia. The French occupied the area around the Senegal of the upper Nile under his control. The famous British
River near Cape Verde, where they attempted to develop general Charles Gordon led a military force to Khartoum
peanut plantations. to restore Egyptian authority, but his besieged army was
The growing European presence in West Africa led to captured in 1885 by the Mahdi’s troops, thirty-six hours
tensions with local governments in the area. British efforts before a British rescue mission reached Khartoum. Gordon
to increase trade with the state of Ashanti, in the area of himself died in the battle.
the present-day state of Ghana, led to conflict in the 1820s, The weakening of Turkish rule in the Nile valley had a
but did not halt their efforts. Most African states, especially parallel farther along the Mediterranean coast to the west,
those with a fairly high degree of political integration, where autonomous regions had begun to emerge under
were able to maintain their independence from this creep- local viceroys in Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers. In 1830, the
ing European encroachment, called “informal empire” French, on the pretext of reducing the threat of piracy to
by some historians, but eventually, in 1874, the British European shipping in the Mediterranean, seized the area
stepped in and annexed the Ashanti kingdom as Britain’s surrounding Algiers and annexed it to the kingdom of
first African colony of the Gold Coast. At about the same France. By the mid-1850s, more than 150,000 Europeans
time, the British extended an informal protectorate over had settled in the fertile region adjacent to the coast, though
warring tribal groups in the Niger delta. Berber resistance continued in the desert to the south. In
1881, the French imposed a protectorate on neighboring
2-5c Imperialist Shadow over the Nile Tunisia. Only Tripoli and Cyrenaica (Ottoman provinces
A similar process was under way in the Nile valley. Ever that make up modern-day Libya) remained under Turkish
since the voyages of the Portuguese explorers at the close rule until the Italians took them in 1911–1912.
of the fifteenth century, European trade with the East had
been carried on almost exclusively by the route around 2-5d The Scramble for Africa
the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa. At the beginning of the 1880s, most of Africa was still
But from the outset, there was interest in shortening the independent. European rule was limited to the fringes of
route by digging a canal east of Cairo, the continent, and a few areas, such
where only a low, swampy isthmus as Egypt, lower Nigeria, Senegal, and
separated the Mediterranean from the Mozambique, were under various
OT
M di
Me dite
terr
r an
anea
eann Se Seaa
TO
Red Sea. The Ottoman Turks, who forms of loose protectorate. But the
MA IRE
controlled the area, had considered trends were ominous, as the pace of
EM
N
constructing a canal in the sixteenth European penetration was accelerat-

P
Suezz Cana
Sue Cana
anall
century, but nothing was accomplished ing and the constraints that had lim-
until 1854, when the French entrepre- ited European rapaciousness were fast
neur Ferdinand de Lesseps signed a S INAI
SINAI
SIN disappearing.
contract to begin construction of the PEN
PE E N INSU
EN INS
NS ULA
U LA The scramble began in the mid-
canal, which was completed in 1869 1880s, when several European states
Gu
(see Map 2.4). The project brought engaged in what today would be called
lf
of
EGYPT
EG T
little immediate benefit to Egypt, how- a feeding frenzy. All sought to seize a
Su
ez
ever, which was attempting to adopt piece of African territory before the
reforms on the European model under 0 1 Kilo
150 Kiilo
l mmete
meete
e rsrs carcass had been picked clean. By
the vigorous rule of the Ottoman offi- 0 100
00 Miile
lees
Re
e d S
Se a 1900, virtually the entire continent had
cial Muhammad Ali. The costs of con- been placed under one form or an
struction imposed a major debt on the Map 2.4 The Suez Canal other of European rule (see Map 2.5).
The Motives What had happened
to spark the sudden imperialist hys-
OTTOM
MOROCCO
TUNIS
Mediterranean Sea teria that brought an end to African
RIO independence? Economic interests
DE
AN
ORO in the narrow sense were not at
ALGERIA
EM
LIBYA
EGYPT stake as they had been in South and
PIR
Southeast Asia: the level of trade
E
between Europe and Africa was
SENEGAL FRENCH FRENCH SOMALILAND
simply not sufficient to justify the
GAMBIA WEST AFRICA EQUATORIAL Khartoum
ERITREA risks and the expense of conquest.
i AFRICA
Ng
GUINEA SUDAN Clearly, one factor was the grow-

er
Nile
ing rivalry among the imperialist
R.
NIGERIA ABYSSINIA
(ETHIOPIA)
powers. European leaders might
R.
SIERRA CAMEROONS be provoked into an imperialist
LEONE TOGOLAND
LIBERIA GOLD RIO C o n g o
UGANDA
takeover not by economic consider-
R
COAST MUNI KENYA ations but by the fear that another
.
FRENCH
EQUATORIAL BELGIAN In
n d
di an state might do so, leaving them at a
AFRICA
CONGO GERMAN ZANZIBAR disadvantage.
EAST
Atlantic AFRICA O
Oc ean Another consideration might be
ANGOLA NORTHERN
called the “missionary factor,” as
Ocean RHODESIA
European religious interests lob-
Zambez bied with their governments for a
i
colonial takeover to facilitate their

R.
GERMAN SOUTHERN
SOUTHWEST RHODESIA MADAGASCAR
AFRICA efforts to convert the African popu-
BECHUANALAND lation to Christianity. In fact, con-
UNION MOZAMBIQUE siderable moral complacency was
0 750 1,500 2,250 Kilometers OF SWAZILAND inherent in the process. The con-
SOUTH
0 750 1,500 Miles AFRICA
BASUTOLAND cept of the “white man’s burden”
persuaded many that it was in the
Possessions, 1914 interests of the African people to
Spain Great Britain Germany Belgium
be introduced more rapidly to the
benefits of Western civilization.
Portugal France Italy Independent
Even the highly respected Scottish
missionary David Livingstone had
MAP 2.5 Africa in 1914. By the beginning of 1900, virtually all of Africa was under some become convinced that missionary
form of European rule. The territorial divisions established by colonial powers on the work and economic development
continent of Africa on the eve of World War I are shown here. had to go hand in hand, pleading
Q Which European countries possessed the most colonies in Africa? Why did Ethiopia
remain independent?
to his fellow Europeans to intro-
duce the “three Cs” (Christianity,
commerce, and civilization) to the
continent. How much easier such a
The British had consolidated their authority over the Nile task would be if African peoples were under benevolent
valley and seized additional territories in East Africa. The European rule! There were more prosaic reasons as well.
French retaliated by advancing eastward from Senegal Advances in Western technology and European superior-
into the central Sahara, where they eventually came eye- ity in firearms made it easier than ever for a small European
ball to eyeball with the British in the Nile valley. They force to defeat superior numbers. Furthermore, life expec-
also occupied the island of Madagascar and other coastal tancy for Europeans living in Africa had improved. With
territories in West and Central Africa. In between, the the discovery that quinine (extracted from the bark of the
Germans claimed the hinterland opposite Zanzibar, as cinchona tree) could provide partial immunity from the
well as coastal strips in West and Southwest Africa north ravages of malaria, the mortality rate for Europeans liv-
of the Cape, and King Leopold II of Belgium claimed ing in Africa dropped dramatically in the 1840s. By the end
the Congo. of the century, European residents in tropical Africa faced
only slightly higher risks of death by disease than individu- original Dutch settlers in the seventeenth century. But in
als living in Europe. the early-nineteenth century, a Bantu people called the
Under these circumstances, King Leopold of Belgium Zulus, under the talented ruler Shaka, counterattacked,
used missionary activities as an excuse to claim vast ter- setting off a series of wars between the Europeans and
ritories in the Congo River basin—Belgium, he said, as the Zulus. Eventually, Shaka was overthrown, and the
“a small country, with a small people,” needed a colony to Boers continued their advance northeastward during the
enhance its image.4 The royal land grab set off a desperate so-called Great Trek of the mid-1830s (see Map 2.6). By
race among European nations to stake claims throughout 1865, the total European population of the area had risen
sub-Saharan Africa. Leopold ended up with the territories to nearly 200,000 people.
south of the Congo River, while France occupied areas to The Boers’ eastward migration was provoked in part by
the north. Rapacious European adventurers established the British seizure of the Cape from the Dutch during the
plantations in the new Belgian Congo to grow rubber, Napoleonic wars. The British government was generally
palm oil, and other valuable export products. more sympathetic to the rights of the local African popula-
tion than were the Afrikaners, many of whom saw white
The Berlin Conference As rivalry among the competing superiority as ordained by God and fled from British rule
powers heated up, a conference was convened at Berlin in to control their own destiny. Eventually, the Boers formed
1884 to avert war and reduce tensions among European their own independent republics, the Orange Free State and
nations competing for the spoils of Africa. It proved the South African Republic (usually known as Transvaal).
reasonably successful at achieving the first
objective but less so at the second. During the
next few years, African territories were an
nexed without provoking a major confrontation
between Western powers, but in the late 1890s, 0 250 500 Miles
Britain and France reached the brink of con-
R.
po
flict at Fashoda, a small town on the Nile River mp
o
Li
in the Sudan. The French had been advancing 18 52)
eastward across the Sahara with the transpar- L (
AA
ent objective of controlling the regions around N SV Pretoria
the upper Nile. In 1898, British and Egyptian T RA
R.
troops seized the Sudan and then marched Va
al E 854
southward to head off the French. After a tense ANGTE 1
OR STA
face-off between units of the two European EE ZULULAND
FR
Or
countries at Fashoda, the French government Annexed by

an
e Britain, 1877–1881
g
backed down, and British authority over the .

R
NATAL
area was secured. Except for Djibouti, a tiny Ea
ster o Annexed by
f
n frontier Britain, 1845

portion of the Somali coast, the French were Ca p
e Colony TRANSKEI
restricted to equatorial Africa. CAPE COLONY Annexed by
Cape Colony, 1871–1894
Cape Town
2-5e Bantus, Boers, and British
in South Africa Cape of
Nowhere in Africa did the European presence Good Hope African nations or tribal groups
grow more rapidly than in the south. During Land partly emptied by African migrations
the eighteenth century, Dutch settlers from Great Trek (Boer migration)
the Cape Colony began to migrate eastward
Boer republics
into territory inhabited by local Khoisan- and
Bantu-speaking peoples, the latter of whom
had recently entered the area from the north. MAP 2.6 The Struggle for Southern Africa. Shown here is the expansion of
Internecine warfare among the Bantus had European settlers from the Cape Colony into adjacent areas of southern
largely depopulated the region, facilitating Africa in the nineteenth century. The arrows indicate the routes taken by the
occupation of the land by the Boers, the Afrikaans-speaking Boers.
Afrikaans-speaking farmers descended from the Q Who were the Boers, and why did they migrate eastward?

Much of the African population in these areas was con- traditional British ruling class. Such a policy provided few
fined to reserves. In the meantime, British troops began to opportunities for ambitious and talented young Africans
move into areas nearer the coast, sometimes encountering from outside the traditional elite and thus sowed the seeds
fierce resistance from Zulu warriors. for class tensions after the restoration of independence in
the twentieth century.
The Boer War The discovery of gold and diamonds in the
Transvaal complicated the situation. Clashes between the The British in East Africa The situation was somewhat
Afrikaner population and foreign (mainly British) miners different in Kenya, which had a relatively large European
and developers led to an attempt by Cecil Rhodes, prime population attracted by the temperate climate in the cen-
minister of the Cape Colony and a prominent entrepre- tral highlands. The local government had encouraged
neur in the area, to subvert the Transvaal and bring it Europeans to migrate to the area as a means of promot-
under British rule. In 1899, the so-called Boer War broke ing economic development and encouraging financial
out between Britain and the Transvaal, which was backed self-sufficiency. To attract them, fertile farmlands in the
by the Orange Free State. Guerrilla resistance by the Boers central highlands were reserved for European settlement
was fierce, but the vastly superior forces of the British while, as in South Africa, specified reserve lands were set
were able to prevail by 1902. To compensate the defeated aside for Africans. The presence of a privileged European
Afrikaner population for the loss of independence, the minority had an impact on Kenya’s political development.
British government agreed that only whites would vote in The European settlers actively sought self-government and
the now essentially self-governing colony. The Boers were dominion status similar to that granted to such former
placated, but the brutalities committed during the war (the British possessions as Canada and Australia. The British
British introduced an institution later to be known as the government, however, was not willing to run the risk of
concentration camp) created bitterness on both sides that provoking racial tensions with the African majority and
continued to fester for decades. agreed only to establish separate government organs for
the European and African populations.
2-5f Colonialism in Africa South Africa The situation in South Africa, of course,
In general, Western economic interests were more lim- was unique, not only because of the high percentage
ited in Africa than elsewhere. As a result, most colonial of European settlers but also because of the division
governments settled down to govern their new territo- between English-speaking and Afrikaner elements within
ries with the least effort and expense possible. In many the European population. In 1910, the British agreed to
cases, they pursued a form of indirect rule reminiscent the creation of the independent Union of South Africa,
of the British approach to the princely states in the which combined the old Cape Colony and Natal with
Indian peninsula. the two Boer republics. The new union adopted a repre-
sentative government, but only for the European popula-
British Rule in Nigeria Nigeria offers a typical example of tion. The African reserves of Basutoland (now Lesotho),
British-style indirect rule. British officials operated at the Bechuanaland (now Botswana), and Swaziland were sub-
central level, but local authority was assigned to Nigerian ordinated directly to the crown. The union was now free
chiefs, with British district officers serving as intermediar- to manage its own domestic affairs and possessed consider-
ies with the central administration. The local authorities able autonomy in foreign relations. Remaining areas south
were expected to maintain law and order and to collect of the Zambezi River, eventually divided into the territo-
taxes from the indigenous population. A dual legal system ries of Northern and Southern Rhodesia, were also placed
was instituted that applied African laws to Africans and under British rule. British immigration into Southern
European laws to foreigners. Rhodesia was extensive, and in 1922, after a popular refer-
One advantage of such an administrative system was endum, it became a crown colony.
that it did not severely disrupt local customs and insti-
tutions. At the same time, it was misleading because all Direct Rule Most other European nations governed
major decisions were made by the British administrators their African possessions through a form of direct rule.
while the African authorities served primarily as the means The prototype was the French system, which reflected
of enforcing the decisions. Moreover, indirect rule served the centralized administrative system introduced in
to perpetuate the autocratic system that often existed prior France by Napoleon. As in the British colonies, at the top
to colonial takeover since there was a natural tendency to of the pyramid was a French official, usually known as
view the local aristocracy as the African equivalent of the a governor-general, who was appointed from Paris and
governed with the aid of a bureaucracy in the capital men applied chemical fertilizer to the fields, women con-
city. At the provincial level, French commissioners were tinued to use manure. While men began to use bicycles,
assigned to deal with local administrators, but the latter and eventually trucks, to transport goods, women still car-
were required to be conversant in French and could be ried their goods on their heads, a practice that continues
transferred to a new position to meet the needs of the today. In British colonies, Victorian attitudes of female
central government. subordination led to restrictions on women’s freedom, and
After World War I, European colonial policy in Africa positions in government that they had formerly held were
entered a new and more formal phase, sometimes labeled now closed to them.
“high colonialism.” Colonial governments paid more
attention to improving social services, including educa-
tion, medicine, sanitation, and communications. More 2-6Patterns of Resistance
Africans were now serving in colonial administrations,
though relatively few were in positions of responsibility.
to Colonial Conquest
On the other hand, race consciousness probably increased
during this period. Segregated clubs, schools, and churches
were established as more European officials brought their
QQ Focus Question: How did the indigenous
response to the imperialist attacks in Africa and
Asia differ from place to place, and how do you
wives with them and began to raise families in the colonies.
More directly affected by the colonial presence than account for such differences?
the small African elite were ordinary Africans, who were
subjected to countless indignities reminiscent of Western Local resistance to the establishment of colonial rule in
practices in Asia. While the institution of slavery was dis- Asia and Africa took various forms. For the most part,
couraged in much of the continent, African workers were it was led by the existing ruling elites, although in some
routinely exposed to unbelievably harsh conditions as they instances traditionalist forces continued their opposition
were put to use as manual laborers to promote the cause even after resistance by the indigenous rulers had ceased.
of imperialism. In India, for example, many local leaders fought against
The most flagrant example was in the Belgian Congo. the expansion of British rule even after the virtual col-
Conditions on the plantations there were so abysmal that lapse of the Mughal Dynasty. Some, like the local leader
an international outcry eventually led to the formation Haider Ali, used guerrilla tactics with considerable suc-
of a commission under British consul Roger Casement cess. Similarly, after the decrepit monarch in Vietnam had
to investigate. The commission’s report, issued in 1904, been defeated by a French attack on the capital of Hanoi in
helped to bring about reforms (see Opposing Viewpoints, 1884, civilian and military officials set up an independent
“White Man’s Burden, Black Man’s Sorrow,” p. 33). organization called Can Vuong (literally, “save the king”)
and continued their own resistance campaign without
imperial sanction (see Opposing Viewpoints, “To Resist or
Women in Colonial Africa Colonial rule had a mixed
Not to Resist,” p. 48).
impact on the rights and status of women in Africa. Sexual
Sometimes opposition to Western penetration took
relationships changed profoundly during the colonial era,
the form of peasant revolts. In traditional Asian societies,
sometimes in ways that could justly be described as ben-
peasant discontent over high taxes, official corruption, ris-
eficial. Colonial governments attempted to put an end to
ing debt, and famine had often led to rural uprisings. Such
such traditional practices as forced marriage, bodily muti-
conditions frequently existed under colonialism, since
lation such as clitoridectomy, and polygyny. Missionaries
rural conditions often deteriorated as population density
introduced women to Western education and encouraged
increased and peasants were driven off the land to make
them to organize to defend their interests.
way for plantation agriculture. Angry peasants then vented
But the colonial system had some unfavorable conse-
their frustration at the foreign invaders.
quences as well. African women had traditionally ben-
efited from the prestige of matrilineal systems and were
empowered by their traditional role as the primary agri- 2-6a Opposition to Colonial Rule in Africa
cultural producers in their community. Under colonialism, Because of the continent’s sheer size and its ethnic, reli-
European settlers not only took the best land for them- gious, and linguistic diversity, resistance to the European
selves but also, in introducing new agricultural techniques, invaders in Africa was often sporadic and uncoordinated,
tended to deal exclusively with males, encouraging the but fierce nonetheless. The uprising led by the Mahdi in
latter to develop lucrative cash crops, while women were the Sudan was only the most dramatic example. In South
restricted to traditional farming methods. Whereas African Africa, the Zulus engaged in a bitter war of resistance to
2-6 Patterns of Resistance to Colonial Conquest ■ 47
Opposing Viewpoints
To Resist or Not to Resist

be destroyed but our entire country will be transformed
Q Explain briefly the reasons advanced by each into a sea of blood and a mountain of bones. It is my
writer to justify his actions. Which argument do hope that men of your superior morality and honesty will
you think would have earned more support from pause a while to appraise the situation.
contemporaries? Why?
Reply of Phan Dinh Phung to Hoang Cao Khai

Interaction HOW TO RESPOND TO COLONIAL RULE could In your letter, you revealed to me the causes of calamities
& Exchange be an excruciating problem for political elites and of happiness. You showed me clearly where advan-
in many Asian countries because resistance often seemed tages and disadvantages lie. All of which sufficed to indi-
futile while often adding to the suffering of the indigenous cate that your anxious concern was not only for my own
population. Hoang Cao Khai and Phan Dinh Phung were security but also for the peace and order of our entire
members of the Confucian scholar-gentry from the same region. I understood plainly your sincere arguments.
village in Vietnam. Yet they reacted in dramatically different I have concluded that if our country has survived these
ways to the French conquest of their country. Their past thousand years when its territory was not large,
exchange of letters, reproduced here, illustrates the its army not strong, its wealth not great, it was because
dilemmas they faced. the relationships between king and subjects, fathers and
children, have always been regulated by the five moral
Hoang Cao Khai’s Letter to Phan Dinh Phung obligations. In the past, the Han, the Sung, the Yuan, the
Soon, it will be seventeen years since we ventured upon Ming time and again dreamt of annexing our country and
different paths of life. How sweet was our friendship of dividing it up into prefectures and districts within the
when we both lived in our village. . . . At the time when Chinese administrative system. But never were they able
the capital was lost and after the royal carriage had to realize their dream. Ah! if even China, which shares
departed, you courageously answered the appeals of the a common border with our territory, and is a thousand
King by raising the banner of righteousness. It was cer- times more powerful than Vietnam, could not rely upon
tainly the only thing to do in those circumstances. No one her strength to swallow us, it was surely because the des-
will question that. tiny of our country had been willed by Heaven itself.
But now the situation has changed and even those The French, separated from our country until the pres-
without intelligence or education have concluded that ent day by I do not know how many thousand miles, have
nothing remains to be saved. How is it that you, a man crossed the oceans to come to our country. Wherever
of vast understanding, do not realize this?. . . You are they came, they acted like a storm, so much so that the
determined to do whatever you deem righteous. . . . But Emperor had to flee. The whole country was cast into dis-
though you have no thoughts for your own person or for order. Our rivers and our mountains have been annexed
your own fate, you should at least attend to the sufferings by them at a stroke and turned into a foreign territory.
of the population of a whole region. . . . How can the French not be aware of all the suffering
Until now your actions have undoubtedly accorded that the rural population has had to endure? Under these
with your loyalty. May I ask however what sin our people circumstances, is it surprising that families should be dis-
have committed to deserve so much hardship? I would rupted and the people scattered?
understand your resistance, did you involve but your fam- My friend, if you are troubled about our people, then
ily for the benefit of a large number. As of now, hundreds I advise you to place yourself in my position and to think
of families are subject to grief; how do you have the heart about the circumstances in which I live. You will under-
to fight on? I venture to predict that, should you pursue stand naturally and see clearly that I do not need to add
your struggle, not only will the population of our village anything else.
Source: From Truong Buu Lam, Patterns of Vietnamese Response to Foreign Intervention, Monograph Series No. 11. Southeast Asian Studies, Yale
University, 1967. Dist. By Celler Bookshop, Detroit, MI.
Boer colonists arriving from the Cape Colony. Later they 2-6b The Sepoy Uprising
fought with equal determination against the British occu- Perhaps the most famous revolt against European author-
pation of their territory and were not finally subdued until ity in the mid-nineteenth century was that of the sepoys
the end of the century. In West Africa, the Ashanti ruling in India. The sepoys were Indian troops hired by the East
class led a bitter struggle against the British with broad- India Company to protect British interests in the subcon-
based popular support. tinent. Unrest within Indian units of the colonial army
Resistance to the colonial onslaught, therefore, was had been common since early in the century, when it had
fairly widespread. The lack of modern weapons, how- been sparked by economic issues, religious sensitivities,
ever, was decisive, and African forces eventually suffered or nascent anticolonial sentiment. In 1857, new tensions
defeat after defeat throughout the continent. The first erupted when the British adopted the new Enfield rifle
effective modern weapon in the hands of the Europeans for use by sepoy infantrymen. The rifle was a muzzle-
was the Gatling gun, a repeating rifle first put in use in loader that used paper cartridges covered with animal
the 1860s. But the most fearsome was the Maxim gun, fat and lard; because the cartridge had to be bitten off,
the first recoil-operated machine gun, which had been it broke strictures against high-class Hindus’ eating ani-
invented by the American Hiram Stevens in 1883. In mal products and Muslim prohibitions against eating
the hands of colonial troops it enabled the Europeans pork. Protests among sepoy units in northern India were
to defeat adversaries many times their own size (in the initially ignored by British authorities and soon turned
widely quoted words of the British poet Hilaire Belloc: into a full-scale mutiny, supported by uprisings in vari-
“Whatever happens, we have got The Maxim gun, and ous parts of the country. Although the movement lacked
they have not.”). clear goals and was eventually suppressed, the revolt
The one notable exception was in Ethiopia, where, at frightened the British and led to several reforms, as well
the Battle of Adowa in 1896, the modern army of Emperor as a decision to give precedence for military service to
Menelik III was able to fend off an Italian invasion force ethnic groups more likely to be loyal to the British, such
with firearms purchased from several European countries, as the Sikhs of Punjab and the Gurkhas, a mountain
and thus preserve the country’s national independence people from Nepal. The British also decided to suppress
well into the next century (see Image 2.4).
William Duiker/Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Image 2.4 The Battle of Adowa. During the 1890s, ambitious Italian leaders—their country only recent
reunited—sought to follow the example of their European counterparts by creating their own colony in East
Africa. After forcing the kingdom of Ethiopia to cede territories along the coast, in the winter of 1896 they
determined to complete their conquest of the entire country. But on March 1, 1897, Ethiopian forces armed
with European firearms inflicted a major defeat on the Italian army near the town of Adowa. In the ensuing
Treaty of Addis Ababa, Italy formally recognized Ethiopian independence. The victory inspired African
resistance leaders for decades, as well as the anonymous artists of this painting, which shows Ethiopian
forces, led by their patron St. George on his white horse, matched against their Italian adversaries.
2-6 Patterns of Resistance to Colonial Conquest ■ 49

the final remnants of the hapless Mughal Dynasty, which prove to be ultimately beneficial to colonial powers and
had supported the mutiny, and turn responsibility for the subjects alike because it created the conditions for global
administration of the subcontinent from the East India economic development and the universal application of
Company over to the crown. democratic institutions.
Critics take exception to such views, portraying impe-
2-6c The Path of Collaboration rialism as a tragedy of major proportions. The insatiable
Not all Asians and Africans reacted to the colonial take- drive of the advanced economic powers for access to raw
over by choosing the path of violent resistance. Some materials and markets created an exploitative environment
found elements to admire in Western civilization and that transformed the vast majority of colonial peoples into
compared it favorably with their own traditional prac- a permanent underclass while restricting the benefits of
tices and institutions. The decision to collaborate with modern technology to a privileged few. Kipling’s “white
the colonial administration was undoubtedly often moti- man’s burden” was dismissed as a hypocritical gesture to
vated by self-interest. In those cases, the collaborators hoodwink the naive and salve the guilty feelings of those
might be treated by their compatriots with scorn or even who recognized imperialism for what it was – a savage act
hostility, especially by those who had chosen the path of of rape. They dismiss the Western civilizing mission itself
resistance. On occasion, the decision was undoubtedly as a fig leaf to cover naked greed and reject the notion that
reached only after painful consideration of the alter- imperialism played a salutary role in hastening the adjust-
natives. Whatever the circumstances, it often divided ment of traditional societies to the demands of industrial
friends and families, as occurred with two onetime child- civilization. Rather, it locked them into what many social
hood friends in Vietnam, when one chose resistance, scientists today describe as a “dependency relationship”
the other collaboration (see Opposing Viewpoints, “To with their colonial masters. “Why is Africa (or for that mat-
Resist or Not to Resist,” p. 48). ter Latin America and much of Asia) so poor?” asked one
Not all colonial subjects, of course, felt required to Western critique of imperialism. “The answer is very brief:
choose between resistance and collaboration. Most simply we have made it poor.”5
lived out their lives without engaging in the political arena. Between these two irreconcilable views, where does
Even so, in some cases their actions affected their country’s the truth lie? It is difficult to provide a simple answer to
future. A prime example was Ram Mohan Roy, a brahmin this question, as the colonial record varied from country to
from Bengal, who founded the Brahmo Samaj (Society of country. In some cases, the colonial experience was prob-
Brahma) in 1828 to help his fellow Hindus defend their faith ably beneficial in introducing Western technology, values,
against verbal attacks from British acquaintances. Roy was and democratic institutions into traditional societies with
by no means a hide-bound traditionalist. He opposed such a minimum of social disruption. As its defenders are quick
practices as sati and recognized the benefit of introducing to point out, colonialism often laid the foundation for pre-
the best aspects of European culture into Indian society, industrial societies to play an active and rewarding role in
but he felt it was important to encourage his compatriots the global economic marketplace.
to defend their traditional values against the onslaught Still, the critics have a point. Although colonialism
of Western civilization. In so doing, he helped promote did introduce the peoples of Asia and Africa to new
the first stirrings of nationalist sentiment in nineteenth- technology and the expanding economic marketplace,
century India. it was unnecessarily brutal in its application and all too
often failed to realize the exalted claims and objectives
of its promoters. Existing social and economic net-
Historians
Debate
2-6d Imperialism: Drawing works—often potentially valuable as a foundation for
Up the Balance Sheet later development—were ruthlessly swept aside in the
Few periods of history are as controversial among scholars interests of providing markets for Western manufac-
and casual observers alike as the era of imperialism. To tured goods. Potential sources of local industrialization
defenders of the colonial enterprise like the poet Rudyard were nipped in the bud to avoid competition for facto-
Kipling, imperialism was the “white man’s burden,” a dis- ries in Amsterdam, London, Pittsburgh, or Manchester.
agreeable but necessary phase in the evolution of human Training in Western democratic ideals and practices was
society, lifting up the toiling races from tradition to moder- ignored out of fear that the recipients might use them as
nity and bringing an end to poverty, famine, and disease. weapons against the ruling authorities.
Although its immediate consequences were sometimes A fundamental weakness of colonialism, then, was
unfortunate, they concede, Western imperialism would that it was ultimately based on the self-interests of the
citizens of the colonial powers. When those interests revolution in their own way were thus squeezed dry
collided with the needs of the colonial peoples, the for- of precious national resources under the false guise
mer always triumphed. However sincerely the David a of a “civilizing mission.” As the sociologist Clifford
Livingstones, Albert Sarrauts, and William McKinleys Geertz remarked in his book Agricultural Involution: The
of the world were convinced of the rightness of their Processes of Economical Change in Indonesia, the tragedy
civilizing mission, the ultimate result was to deprive the is not that the colonial peoples suffered throughout the
colonial peoples of the right to make their own choices colonial era, but that they suffered for nothing. We shall
about their destiny. Sophisticated, age-old societies that address this issue again in the Reflections at the end
could have been left to respond to the technological of Part I.
MAKING CONNECTIONS
By the first quarter of the twentieth century, virtually all it was weapons, more than ideas, that ushered in the age
of Africa and a good part of South and Southeast Asia of imperialism.
were under some form of colonial rule. With the advent Africa and southern Asia were not the only areas of
of the age of imperialism, a global economy was finally the world that were buffeted by the winds of Western
established, and the domination of Western civiliza- expansionism in the late nineteenth century. The nations
tion over the civilizations of Africa and Asia appeared to of eastern Asia, and those of Latin America and the Middle
be complete. East as well, were also affected in significant ways. The
The imperialist rush for colonies did not take place consequences of Western political, economic, and military
without opposition. In most areas of the world, local gov- penetration varied substantially from one region to another,
ernments and peoples resisted the onslaught, sometimes however, and therefore require separate treatment. The
to the bitter end. But with few exceptions, they were experience of East Asia will be dealt with in the next chapter.
unable to overcome the fearsome new warships and fire- That of Latin America and the Middle East will be discussed
arms that the Industrial Revolution in Europe had brought in Chapter 24. In these areas, new rivals—notably the United
into being. Although the material benefits and democratic States, Russia, and Japan—entered the scene and played an
values of the occupying powers aroused admiration from active role in the process. By the end of the nineteenth
many observers in much of the colonial world, in the end century, the rush to secure colonies had circled the world.
QQWhat were the consequences of the new imperialism and Africa—assimilation and association. What were
of the nineteenth century for the colonies of the the principles behind these philosophies, and how
European powers? How should the motives and stated did they work in practice? Which do you believe was
objectives of the imperialist countries be evaluated? more successful?
QQWhat arguments have been advanced to justify the QQHow did the forms of imperialism applied by the
European takeover of societies in Asia and Africa during advanced industrial powers in the nineteenth century
the latter part of the nineteenth century? To what degree compare with earlier examples of imperial rule as
are such arguments justified? established throughout history? How would you draw up
QQThe colonial powers adopted two basic philosophies the balance sheet?
in seeking to govern their conquered territories in Asia
CHAPTER TIMELINE
1800 1820 1840 1860 1880 1900
Africa
Slave trade French seize Completion of Berlin
declared illegal Algeria Suez Canal Conference
in Great Britain (1830) (1869) on Africa
(1807) (1884)
Boer War
(1899–1902)
Asia
First textile mill opened in India
(1856)
Stamford Raffles founds Singapore French attack Vietnam Spanish-American War

(1819) (1858) (1898)
French and British agree to neutralize Thailand

(1896)
CHAPTER NOTES
1. Quoted in The New York Times, January 30, 2016. 4. Quoted in T. Pakenham, The Scramble for Africa (New
2. The quotations are from Henri Brunschwig, French York, 1991), p. 13.
Colonialism, 1871–1914 (London, 1961), p. 80. 5. Quoted in Tony Smith, The Pattern of Imperialism: The
3. Quoted in Louis Roubaud, Vietnam: La Tragédie United States, Great Britain and the Late-Industrializing
Indochinoise (Paris, 1926), p. 80. World Since 1815 (Cambridge, 1981), p. 81.
Chapter
Shadows over the Pacific:
3 East Asia Under Challenge
Chapter Outline and

Focus Questions
3-1 China at Its Apex
QQWhy did the Qing Dynasty
decline and ultimately
collapse, and what role did
the Western powers play in
this process?
3-2 Traditional China
in Transition
QQWhy did the Qing Dynasty
decline and ultimately
William J. Duiker
collapse, and what role did
the Western powers play in
this process?
3-3 Chinese Society Image 3.1 The Imperial City in Beijing
in Transition
QQWhat political, economic, and social reforms were
instituted by the Qing Dynasty during its final IN AUGUST 1793, a British diplomatic mission led
decades, and why were they not more successful in by Lord Macartney arrived at the north Chinese
reversing the decline of Qing rule? port of Dagu and embarked on the road to Beijing.
His caravan, which included 600 cases filled with
3-4 Traditional Japan and the End of Isolation presents for the emperor, bore flags and banners
QQHow did the Japanese reaction to the Western provided by the Chinese that proclaimed in Chinese
onslaught differ from that of China, and what were characters “Ambassador bearing tribute from the
the consequences? country of England.” Upon his arrival in the capital,
Macartney was admitted into the imperial presence
3-5 Rich Country, Strong Army in the Forbidden City but, in spite of the awesome
QQTo what degree was the Meiji Restoration a majesty of the surroundings, he refused his hosts’
“revolution,” and to what extent did it succeed in demand that he perform the kowtow, a traditional
symbol of submission to the emperor. Eventually, the
transforming Japan?
dispute over protocol was resolved with a compromise:
Macartney agreed to bend on one knee, a courtesy that
he displayed to his own sovereign (see Image 3.1).
Connections to Today To his disappointment, however, the mission was
a failure, for Emperor Qianlong rejected the British
What lessons can emerging nations today learn request for an increase in trade between the two
from the experiences encountered by China and countries, and Macartney left Beijing in October with
Japan during the period covered in this chapter? nothing to show for his efforts. Not until half a cen-
tury later would the ruling Qing dynasty—at the point
53
of a gun—agree to the British demand for an expan- 3-1a Changeless China?
sion of commercial ties.
Historians once assumed that the primary reason for the
Historians have often viewed the failure of the
Macartney mission as a reflection of the disdain of
rapid decline and fall of the Manchu dynasty was the
Chinese rulers toward their counterparts in other intense pressure applied to a proud but somewhat com-
countries, and their serene confidence in the supe- placent traditional society by the modern West. There is
riority of Chinese civilization in a world inhabited by indeed some truth in that allegation. On the surface, China
barbarians. Indeed it was, for the Emperor dismissed had long appeared to be an unchanging society patterned
with contempt Macartney’s request for regular trade after the Confucian vision of a Golden Age in the remote
relations. “There is nothing we lack,” he noted, add- past. This, in fact, was the image presented by China’s rul-
ing that “we have never set much store on strange ers, who referred constantly to tradition as a model for
or ingenious objects, nor do we need more of your imperial institutions and cultural values. That tradition
country’s manufactures.” As it turned out, however, was based firmly on Confucianism, a set of ideas that
the Chinese emperor Qianlong’s confidence was mis-
were identified with the ancient philosopher Confucius
placed, for in the decades immediately following the
abortive Macartney mission to Beijing, China faced a
(551–479 b.c.e.), who emphasized such qualities as obedi-
growing challenge not only from the escalating power ence, hard work, rule by merit, and the subordination of
and ambitions of the West but also from its own grow- the individual to the interests of the community. Such prin-
ing internal weaknesses. Backed by European guns, ciples, which had emerged out of the conditions of a con-
European merchants and missionaries pressed insis- tinental society based on agriculture as the primary source
tently for the right to carry out their activities in China of national wealth, had formed the basis for Chinese politi-
and the neighboring islands of Japan. Despite their cal and social institutions and values since the rise of the
initial reluctance, the Chinese and Japanese govern- Han dynasty in the late third century b.c.e.
ments were eventually forced to open their doors to When European ships first appeared off the coast of
the foreigners, whose presence and threat to the local China in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, they
way of life escalated rapidly during the final years of
brought with them dangerous new ideas and values that
the nineteenth century.
were strikingly at variance with those of imperial China.
China’s rulers soon came to recognize the nature of the
threat represented by European Christian missionaries
and merchants and attempted to expel the former while
restricting the latter to a limited presence in the southern
3-1 China at Its Apex coastal city of Canton. For the next two centuries, China
was, at least in intent, an essentially closed society.
QQ Focus Question: Why did the Qing Dynasty
decline and ultimately collapse, and what role
It was the hope of influential figures at the imperial
court in Beijing that by expelling the barbarians, they could
did the Western powers play in this process? protect Chinese civilization from the virus of foreign ideas.
Their effort to freeze time was futile, however, for in real-
In 1800, the Qing or Manchu dynasty (1644–1911) ity, Chinese society was already beginning to change under
appeared to be at the height of its power. The Manchus, a their feet—and changing rather rapidly. Although few
seminomadic people whose original homeland was north observers may have been aware of it at the time, by the
of the Great Wall, had invaded North China in the mid- beginning of the Manchu era in the seventeenth century,
seventeenth century and conquered the tottering Ming many traditional precepts were becoming increasingly irrel-
dynasty in 1644. Under the rule of two great emperors, evant in a society that was becoming ever more complex.
Kangxi (1661–1722) and Qianlong (1736–1795), China had
then experienced a long period of peace and prosperity. Changes in Rural Areas Nowhere was change more evi-
Its borders were secure, and its culture and intellectual dent than in the economic sector. During the early modern
achievements were the envy of the world. Its rulers, hid- period, China was still a predominantly agricultural society,
den behind the walls of the Forbidden City in Beijing, had as it had been throughout recorded history. Nearly 85 per-
every reason to describe their patrimony as the Central cent of the people were farmers. In the south, the main crop
Kingdom, China’s historical name for itself. But a little over was rice; in the north, it was wheat or dry crops. But even
a century later, humiliated and harassed by the black ships though China still had few urban centers, the population
and big guns of the Western powers, the Qing dynasty, the was beginning to increase rapidly. Thanks to a long era of
last in a series that had endured for more than 2000 years, peace and stability, the introduction of new crops from the
collapsed in the dust (see Map 3.1). Americas, and the cultivation of new, fast-ripening strains
54 ■ CHAPTER 3 Shadows over the Pacific: East Asia Under Challenge
RUSSIAN EMPIRE
(acquired 1600s–1 8 0 0 s ) Lake
Baikal
(acquired by
Al
Russia,
i
ta
1858–1860) SAKHALIN
KAZAKHSTAN Mt MANCHURIA
s. (1853–1875)
Lake MONGOLIA
Aral Balkhash
Sea Urumchi Vladivostok
Gobi Desert Mukden
XINJIANG Sea of
ts.
ir M Dairen Japan
Pam Beijing
Tianjin Port Arthur (East Sea)
Chefoo
HINDU KOREA JAPAN
Lanzhou
KUSH Yellow R.
Hi TIBET
Nanjing
M
ma East
ek
Yan Wuhan
laya
on
gzi
Mts. China
gR
R.
R. Changsha
.
Sea
I nd us
Fuzhou RYUKYU
Ga
nge s R. Taipei IS.
Amoy
Macao
TAIWAN
0 500 1,000 1,500 Kilometers Hong Kong
BURMA (Port.) (Br. 1842) (FORMOSA)
0 500 1,000 Miles INDIA LAOS
Bay of South Pacific
Chinese sphere of influence, 1775 THAILAND China
Bengal
Chinese Empire, 1911
VIETNAM Sea Ocean
Sometime tributary states to China CAMBODIA PHILIPPINE
ISLANDS
Territories lost to Japan
MAP 3.1 The Qing Empire. Shown here is the Qing Empire at the height of its power in the late-eighteenth
century, together with its shrunken boundaries at the moment of its dissolution in 1911.
Q Where are China’s tributary states on the map? How had their status changed by 1911?
of rice, the Chinese population doubled between the time manufacturing and commerce. Trade and manufacturing
of the early Qing and the end of the eighteenth century. had existed in China since early times, but they had been
And it continued to grow during the nineteenth century, limited by a number of factors, including social prejudice,
reaching the unprecedented level of 400 million by 1900. official restrictions, and state monopolies on mining and
Of course, this population increase meant much greater on the production of such commodities as alcohol and
pressure on the land, smaller farms, and an ever-thinner salt. Chinese moral precepts had always viewed trading
margin of safety in the event of climatic disaster. The activities as a somewhat base occupation compared to the
imperial court had attempted to deal with the problem by sacred responsibilities of feeding the people. Now, taking
various means—most notably by preventing the concen- advantage of the long era of peace and prosperity under the
tration of land in the hands of wealthy landowners—but Qing, merchants and manufacturers began to expand their
by the end of the eighteenth century, almost all the land operations beyond their immediate provinces. Trade in silk,
that could be irrigated was already under cultivation, and metal and wood products, porcelain, cotton goods, and cash
the problems of rural hunger and landlessness became crops such as tea and tobacco developed rapidly, and com-
increasingly serious. Not surprisingly, economic hardship mercial networks began to operate on a regional and some-
quickly translated into rural unrest. times even a national basis.
With the growth of trade came an expansion of com-
Seeds of Industrialization Another change that took mercial contacts and guild organizations nationwide.
place during the Qing dynasty was the steady growth of Merchants began organizing guilds in cities and market
3-1 China at Its Apex ■ 55
towns throughout the country to provide legal protection, exacerbate the existing strains in Chinese society. By 1800,
an opportunity to do business, and food and lodging for the trade relationship that restricted Western merchants to
merchants from particular provinces. Foreign trade also a small commercial outlet at Canton was no longer accept-
expanded, as Chinese merchants, mainly from the coastal able to the British, who were increasingly concerned about
provinces of the south, established extensive contacts with the trade imbalance resulting from the growing appetite
countries in Southeast Asia. In many instances, the confor Chinese tea in Britain. Their solution was opium. A
tacts in Southeast Asia were themselves ethnic Chinese product more addictive than tea, opium was grown in
who had settled in the area during earlier centuries. northeastern India under British East India Company
Some historians have suggested that this rise in indus- sponsorship and then shipped directly to the Chinese mar-
trial and commercial activity would, under other circum- ket. Soon demand for the product in South China became
stances, have led to an indigenous industrial revolution and insatiable, despite an official prohibition on its use. Bullion
the emergence of a capitalist society such as that taking now flowed out of the Chinese imperial treasury into the
shape in Europe. The significance of these changes should pockets of British merchants and officials.
not be exaggerated, however, for there were some key dif-
ferences between China and western Europe that would
3-2a Opium and Rebellion
have impeded the emergence of industrial capitalism in
China. In the first place, although industrial production in When the Qing attempted to prohibit the opium trade—
China was on the rise, it was still based almost entirely on viewing it as an evil drug that diverted the common people
traditional methods of production. China had no uniform from carrying out their other responsibilities—the British
system of weights and measures, and the banking system declared war. The Opium War, as it was called, lasted
was still primitive by European standards. The use of paper three years (1839–1842) and graphically demonstrated the
money, invented centuries earlier, was still relatively limited. superiority of British firepower and military tactics (see
There were few paved roads, and the Grand Canal, long the Image 3.2). After a series of humiliating defeats, China
most efficient means of carrying goods between the north sued for peace and, in the Treaty of Nanjing, agreed to
and the south, was silting up. As a result, merchants had to open five coastal ports to British trade, limit tariffs on
rely more and more on the coastal route, where they faced imported British goods, grant extraterritorial rights to
increasing competition from foreign shipping. British citizens in China, and pay a substantial indemnity
There were other, more deep-seated differences as well. to cover the British costs of the war. Beijing also agreed to
The bourgeois class in China was not as independent as its cede the small island of Hong Kong (dismissed by a senior
European counterpart. Reflecting an ancient preference for British official as a “barren rock”) to Great Britain. Nothing
agriculture over manufacturing and trade, the state levied was said in the treaty about the opium trade.
heavy taxes on manufacturing and commerce while seek- Although the Opium War is now considered the begin-
ing to keep agricultural taxes low. Such attitudes were still ning of modern Chinese history, it is unlikely that many
shared by key groups in the population. Although much Chinese at the time would have seen it that way. This was
money could be made in commerce, most merchants who not the first time that a ruling dynasty had been forced to
accumulated wealth used it to buy their way into the ranks make concessions to foreigners, and the opening of five
of the landed gentry. The most that can really be said, then, coastal ports to the British (derisively described by one
is that during the Qing dynasty, China was beginning to imperial official as “an insignificant and detestable race”)_
undergo major economic and social changes that might hardly constituted a serious threat to the security of the
have led, even in the absence of external influence, to the empire. Although a few concerned Chinese argued that
eventual emergence of an industrialized society. the court should learn more about European civilization to
find the secret of the British success, others contended
that China had nothing to learn from the barbarians, and
3-2 Traditional China that borrowing foreign ways would undercut the purity of
in Transition Confucian civilization.1
QQ Focus Question: Why did the Qing Dynasty

decline and ultimately collapse, and what role
3-2b The Taiping Rebellion
The Manchus attempted to deal with the problem in the
did the Western powers play in this process? traditional way of playing the foreigners off against each
other. Concessions granted to the British were offered to
When Western pressure on the Manchu Empire began to other Western nations, including the United States, and
increase during the early nineteenth century, it served to soon thriving foreign concession areas were operating in
Niday Picture Library/Alamy Stock Photo
Image 3.2 The Opium War. Waged between China and Great Britain between 1839 and 1842, the Opium
War was China’s first major conflict with a European power. Lacking modern military technology, the
Chinese suffered a humiliating defeat. In this painting, heavily armed British steamships destroy unwieldy
Chinese junks along the Chinese coast. The steamship in the right background is the HMS Nemesis. Built
in 1839, it was Britain’s first iron-hulled steamship, and its ability to navigate shallow coastal waters
inspired Chinese defenders to dub it “the devil ship.” China’s humiliation at sea was a legacy of its rulers’
lack of interest in maritime matters since the middle of the fifteenth century, when Chinese junks were
among the most advanced sailing ships in the world.
Q Why do you think China was unable to develop military weaponry to fend off the foreign threat?
treaty ports along the southern Chinese coast from Canton March 1853. The revolt continued for ten more years but
in the south to Shanghai, a bustling new port on a tributary gradually lost momentum, and in 1864, the Qing, though
of the Yangzi River, in the center. weakened, retook Nanjing and destroyed the remnants of
In the meantime, the Qing court’s failure to deal with the rebel force. The rebellion had cost the lives of millions
pressing internal economic problems led to a major peas- of Chinese (see Map 3.2).
ant revolt that shook the foundations One reason for the dynasty’s failure
of the empire. On the surface, the so- to deal effectively with internal unrest
called Taiping Rebellion owed some- Grand Canal Nanjing was its continuing difficulties with
thing to the Western incursion; the the Western imperialists. In 1856, the
leader of the uprising, Hong Xiuquan, R Shanghai
British and the French, smarting from
.
Yangtze
was a Christian convert who viewed trade restrictions and limitations on
himself as a younger brother of Jesus their missionary activities, launched a
Christ and hoped to establish what he C H I N A series of attacks and seized the capital
referred to as a “Heavenly Kingdom of East of Beijing in 1860. In the ensuing Treaty
Supreme Peace” in China. With their China of Tianjin, the Qing agreed to humiliat-
ranks swelled by impoverished peas- Sea ing new concessions: legalization of the
ants and other discontented elements 0 300 Kilometers opium trade, the opening of additional
throughout the southern provinces, Xiamen
Taiwan
ports to foreign trade, and cession of
0 200 Miles
the rebels swept northward, seizing the peninsula of Kowloon (opposite
the Yangzi river port of Nanjing in Map 3.2 Area Under Taiping Rebellion Control the island of Hong Kong) to the British.
3-2 Traditional China in Transition ■ 57
Opposing Viewpoints
Practical Learning or Confucian Essence: The Debate over Reform

foreign countries—about the schools, the political sys-
Q Why does journalist Wang Tao believe that the tems, military training, and manufacture of armaments.
reforms he proposes are necessary? What are Zhang Even supposing the confused and clamorous people are
Zhidong’s criticisms of such reforms? assembled in one house, for every one of them who is
clear-sighted, there will be a hundred others whose vision
is beclouded; they will converse at random and talks if in
Politics & BY THE LAST QUARTER OF THE NINETEENTH
Government a dream—what use will it be?. . . .
CENTURY , Chinese officials and intellectuals
had become increasingly alarmed at the country’s inability
to counter the steady pressure emanating from the West. Wang Tao, A General History of France
Some, like the journalist Wang Tao (1828–1897), asserted Since the National Assembly is established as a public
that nothing less than a full-scale reform of Chinese society body, not a private one, the people all submit to it. It is
was required, including the adoption of the Western concept like this in all the countries of Europe . . . Under such a
of political rights and democratic institutions. Others, like [system], those above and those below are at peace with
the scholar-official Zhang Zhidong (1837–1909), countered one another and the monarch and his subjects share in
that such values and institutions would not work in China, the governing. Things can go on for a long time, without
and that the adoption of Western technology and science getting to the point where people suffer from tyrannical
would be sufficient to protect the country from collapse. administration and popular support is lost through the
These two excerpts display the depth of disagreement avarice and cruelty [of the officials]. For the members
between the two opposing views. of both the upper and the lower assemblies are chosen
entirely by the public, and from the time they first put
Zhang Zhidong, Rectification of Political Rights themselves forward [as candidate] they must display fair-
The doctrine of people’s rights will bring us not a single ness and rectitude in order to win. If they should at some
benefit but a hundred evils. Are we going to establish point do something that is improper, in flagrant violation
a parliament? Among the Chinese scholars and people of public sentiment and not in accord with popular opin-
there are still many today who are content to be vulgar ion, the same people who elected them can also remove
and rustic. They are ignorant of the general situation of them. Thus, even if they are inclined to turn a deaf ear
the world, they do not understand the basic system of the to people’s criticisms, there are definite bounds to their
state. They have not the most rudimentary ideas about misconduct. . . .
Sources: From Ssu-yu Teng and John K. Fairbank, China’s Response to the West: A Documentary Survey, 1839–1923 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1954), p. 167. From Paul Cohen, Between Tradition and Modernity: Wang T’ao and Reform in Late Ch’ing China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1974, p. 221, citing Fa-kuo chih-lueh (A General History of France, 1890.
3-2c Efforts at Reform Western technology would be adopted while Confucian

By the late 1870s, the old dynasty was on the verge of col- principles and institutions were maintained intact. This
lapse. In fending off the Taiping Rebellion, the Manchus policy, popularly known by its slogan “East for essence,
had been compelled to rely for support on armed forces West for practical use,” remained the guiding standard
under regional command. After quelling the revolt, many for Chinese foreign and domestic policy for nearly a
of these regional commanders refused to disband their quarter of a century. Some advisers went further and
units and, with the support of the local gentry, continued even called for reforms in education and in China’s hal-
to collect local taxes for their own use. The dreaded pat- lowed political institutions (see Opposing Viewpoints,
tern of imperial breakdown, so familiar in Chinese history, “Practical Learning or Confucian Essence: The Debate
was beginning to appear once again. over Reform,” above).
In their weakened state, the Qing rulers finally began to For the time being, the more cautious arguments won
listen to the appeals of reform-minded officials who advo- the day. During the last quarter of the century, the Manchus
cated a new policy called self-strengthening, in which attempted to modernize their military establishment and
build up an industrial base without disturbing the essen- mainland adjacent to the island of Hong Kong, as well as a
tial elements of traditional Chinese civilization. Railroads, coaling station in northern China.
weapons arsenals, and shipyards were built, but the value The latest scramble for territory had taken place at a
system remained essentially unchanged. time of internal crisis in China. In the spring of 1898, an
outspoken advocate of reform, the progressive Confucian
3-2d The Climax of Imperialism in China scholar Kang Youwei, won the support of the young
In the end, the results spoke for themselves. During the last emperor Guangxu for a comprehensive reform program
two decades of the nineteenth century, the European pen- (known as the “One Hundred Days”) patterned after recent
etration of China, both political and military, intensified. changes initiated in Japan. Without change, Kang argued,
Rapacious imperialists began to bite off territory at the China would perish. During the next several weeks, the
outer edges of the Qing Empire. The Gobi Desert north emperor issued edicts calling for major political, adminis-
of the Great Wall, Chinese Central Asia (known in Chinese trative, and educational reforms. Not surprisingly, Kang’s
as Xinjiang), and Tibet, all inhabited by non-Chinese peo- ideas for reform were opposed by many conservatives, who
ples and never fully assimilated into the Chinese Empire, saw little advantage to copying the West. Most important,
were now gradually removed totally from Beijing’s con- the new program was opposed by the emperor’s aunt, the
trol. In the north and northwest, the main beneficiary was Empress Dowager Cixi, who was the real source of power
Russia, which took advantage of the dynasty’s weakness at court. Cixi had begun her political career as a concu-
to force the cession of territories north of the Amur River bine to an earlier emperor. After his death, she became
in Siberia. In Tibet, competition between Russia and Great a dominant force at court and in 1878 placed her infant
Britain prevented either power from seizing the territory nephew, the future emperor Guangxu, on the throne. For
outright but at the same time enabled Tibetan authorities two decades, she ruled in his name as regent. Cixi inter-
to revive local autonomy never recognized by the Chinese. preted Guangxu’s action as a British-supported effort to
On the southern borders of the empire, British and French reduce her influence at court. With the aid of conserva-
advances in mainland Southeast Asia removed Burma and tives in the army, she arrested and executed several of
Vietnam from their traditional vassal relationship with the the reformers and had the emperor incarcerated in the
Manchu court. palace. Kang Youwei managed to flee abroad. With Cixi’s
Even more ominous developments were taking place in palace coup, the so-called One Hundred Days of reform
the Chinese heartland, where European economic penetra- came to an end.
tion led to the creation of so-called spheres of influence
dominated by diverse foreign powers. Although the impe- Opening the Door to China During the next two years,
rial court retained theoretical sovereignty throughout the foreign pressure on the dynasty intensified (see Map 3.3).
country, in practice its political, economic, and administra- With encouragement from the British, who hoped to avert
tive influence beyond the region of the capital was increas- a total collapse of the Manchu Empire, U.S. Secretary of
ingly circumscribed. State John Hay presented the other imperialist powers with
The breakup of the Manchu dynasty accelerated during a proposal to ensure equal economic access to the China
the last five years of the nineteenth century. In 1894, the market for all nations. Hay also suggested that all powers
Qing went to war with Japan over Japanese incursions into join together to guarantee the territorial and administra-
the Korean peninsula, which threatened China’s long-held tive integrity of the Chinese Empire. When none of the
suzerainty over the area (see “3-5d Joining the Imperialist other governments flatly opposed the idea, Hay issued
Club,” p. 70). To the surprise of many observers, the a second note declaring that all major nations with eco-
Chinese were roundly defeated, confirming to some critics nomic interests in China had agreed to an “Open Door”
the devastating failure of the policy of self-strengthening policy in China.
by halfway measures. Though probably motivated more by a U.S. desire for
More humiliation came in 1897, when Germany, a new open markets than by a benevolent wish to protect China,
entrant in the race for spoils in East Asia, used the pretext of the Open Door Notes did have the practical effect of
the murder of two German missionaries by Chinese riot- reducing the imperialist hysteria over access to the China
ers to demand the cession of territories in the Shandong market. That hysteria—the product of decades of mythol-
peninsula. The imperial court’s approval of this demand ogizing among Western commercial interests about the
set off a scramble for territory by other interested powers. “400 million” Chinese customers—had accelerated at
Russia now demanded the Liaodong peninsula with its ice- the end of the century as fears of China’s imminent col-
free harbor at Port Arthur, and Great Britain obtained a lapse increased. The “gentlemen’s agreement” about the
100-year lease on the New Territories, a peninsula on the Open Door (it was not a treaty but merely a pious and
foreign residents and besieged the
RUSSIA
SIBERIA foreign legation quarter in Beijing
until the foreigners were rescued
Sakhalin
by an international expeditionary
O V.
force in the late summer of 1900
R.
r
PR
MANCHURIA Amu
(see Image 3.3). As punishment,
ME
MONGOLIA
TI
the foreign troops destroyed a
RI
A
M
Vladivostok number of temples in the capital
Beijing
Sea of suburbs, and the Chinese gov-
KOREA Japan
Tianjin ernment was compelled to pay
R.
Port Arthur (Russ.) (East Sea)

lo w Weihaiwei (Br.)
a heavy indemnity to the foreign
Seoul
el
Y Tokyo
G
Qingdao
NDO
N
(Ger.) Pacific governments involved in sup-
A
CHINA SH
JAPAN pressing the uprising.
TIBET
R. Nanjing Shanghai Ocean
ze
gt Ningpo
Ya n
s.
uI
INDIA 3-2e The Collapse
ky
Fuzhou Pescadores Is. Spheres of Influence
YUNNAN yu
of the Old Order
R
Amoy Russian
Canton TAIWAN
Macao (Port.) (FORMOSA) During the next few years, the old
Japanese
BURMA Guangzhouwan Hong dynasty tried desperately to reform
(Fr.) Kong British
(Br.) itself. The empress dowager, who
THAILAND FR.
PHILIPPINE German had long resisted change, now
ISLANDS French embraced a number of reforms
INDO- South
CHINA China Sea Italian in education, administration, and
the legal system. The venerable
0 500 1,000 1,500 Kilometers civil service examination sys-
0 500 1,000 Miles
tem, a centuries-old merit system
for selecting government offi-
cials based on knowledge of the
MAP 3.3 Foreign Possessions and Spheres of Influence About 1900. At the end of the
nineteenth century, China and its tributary areas were being carved up like a melon by Confucian classics, was replaced
foreign imperialist powers. by a new educational system pat-
terned after the Western model.
Q Which of the areas marked on the map were removed from Chinese control during
the nineteenth century? In 1905, a commission was formed
to study constitutional changes,
and over the next few years, leg-
nonbinding expression of intent) served to diminish fears islative assemblies were established at the provincial level.
in Britain, France, Germany, and Russia that other powers Elections for a national assembly were held in 1910.
would take advantage of China’s weakness to dominate Such moves helped shore up the dynasty temporarily,
the China market. but Qing officials now discovered that the most danger-
ous period for an authoritarian system is often when it
The Boxer Rebellion In the long run, then, the Open begins to reform itself, because change breeds instabil-
Door was a positive step that brought a measure of sanity ity and performance rarely matches rising expectations.
to the imperialist meddling in East Asia. Unfortunately, it Such was the case in China. The emerging new provincial
came too late to stop the domestic explosion known as the elite, composed of merchants, professionals, and reform-
Boxer Rebellion. The Boxers (literally, “righteous and har- minded gentry, soon became impatient with the slow pace
monious fists”), so called because of the physical exercises of political change and were disillusioned to find that the
they performed, were members of a secret society operat- new assemblies were intended to be primarily advisory
ing primarily in rural areas in North China. Provoked by rather than legislative. The government also alienated
a damaging drought and high levels of unemployment influential elements by financing railway development
caused in part by foreign economic activity (the introduc- projects through lucrative contracts to foreign firms
tion of railroads and steamships, for example, undercut rather than by turning to local investors. The reforms
the livelihood of boat workers who traditionally carried also had little meaning for peasants, artisans, miners, and
merchandise on the rivers and canals), the Boxers attacked transportation workers, whose living conditions were
leading bands of radicals in small-scale insurrections to
attract attention.
At first, Sun’s efforts yielded few positive results other
than creating a symbol of resistance and the new century’s
first revolutionary martyrs. But at a convention held in
Tokyo in 1905, Sun managed to unite radical groups from
across China into the so-called Revolutionary Alliance
(Tongmenghui). The new organization’s program was based
on Sun’s Three People’s Principles: nationalism (mean-
ing primarily the destruction of Manchu rule over China),
democracy, and “people’s livelihood,” which was a program
to improve social and economic conditions (see Historical
Voices, “Program for a New China,” p. 62). Although the
new organization was small and relatively inexperienced, it
benefited from rising popular discontent with the failure of
Manchu reforms to improve conditions in China.
Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, October 14, 1900

The October Uprising In October 1911, followers of Sun
Yat-sen launched an uprising in the industrial center of
Wuhan, in central China. With Sun traveling in the United
States, the insurrection lacked leadership, but the decrepit
government’s inability to react quickly encouraged politi-
cal forces at the provincial level to take measures into their
own hands. The dynasty was now in a state of virtual col-
lapse: the dowager empress had died in 1908, one day after
Image 3.3 Justice or mercy? Uncle Sam decides. In the summer
her nephew Guangxu; the throne was now occupied by the
of 1900, Chinese rebels known as Boxers besieged Western infant Puyi, the son of Guangxu’s younger brother. Sun’s
embassies in the imperial capital of Beijing. Western nations, party, however, had neither the military strength nor the
including the United States, dispatched troops to north China political support necessary to seize the initiative and was
to rescue their compatriots. In this cartoon, which appeared forced to turn to a representative of the old order, General
in a contemporary American newsmagazine, China figuratively
seeks pardon from a stern Uncle Sam.
Yuan Shikai (1859–1916). A prominent figure in military
circles since the beginning of the century, Yuan had been
Q Why do you think the United States viewed itself as a
mediator in the dispute between China and European
placed in charge of the imperial forces sent to suppress the
imperialist nations? rebellion, but now he abandoned the Manchus and acted
on his own behalf. In negotiations with representatives of
Sun Yat-sen’s party (Sun himself had arrived back in China
being eroded by rising taxes and official venality. Rising in January 1912), he agreed to serve as president of a new
rural unrest, as yet poorly organized and often centered Chinese republic. The old dynasty and the age-old system
on secret societies such as the Boxers, was an ominous it had attempted to preserve were no more.
sign of deep-seated resentment to which the dynasty
would not, or could not, respond. Historians The 1911 Revolution: Success or Failure?
Debate
Propagandists for Sun Yat-sen’s party
The Rise of Sun Yat-Sen To China’s reformist elite, such have often portrayed the events of 1911 as a glorious revo-
signs of social unrest were a threat to be avoided; to its tiny lution that brought 2000 years of imperial tradition to an
revolutionary movement, they were a harbinger of prom- end. But a true revolution does not just destroy an old
ise. The first physical manifestations of future revolution order; it also brings new political and social forces into
appeared during the last decade of the nineteenth century power and creates new institutions and values that provide
with the formation of the Revive China Society by the a new framework for a changing society. In this sense,
young radical Sun Yat-sen (1866–1925). Born to a peasant the 1911 revolution did not live up to its name. Sun and
family in a village south of Canton, Sun was educated in his followers were unable to consolidate their gains.
Hawaii and returned to China to practice medicine. Soon The Revolutionary Alliance found the bulk of its support
he turned his full attention to the ills of Chinese society, in an emerging urban middle class and set forth a program
HISTORICAL VOICES
Program for a New China

the Chinese. After driving out the Tartars we must
Q What were Sun Yat-sen’s key proposals for the restore our national state. . . .
modernization of Chinese society? Why can he be 3. Establish the Republic: Now our revolution is based on
described as a revolutionary rather than a reformer? equality, in order to establish a republican govern-
ment. All our people are equal and all enjoy political
In 1905, Sun Yat-sen united a number of anti-
rights. . . .
Politics &
Government
Manchu groups into a single patriotic
4. Equalize land ownership: The good fortune of civiliza-
organization called the Revolutionary Alliance (Tongmenghui).
tion is to be shared equally by all the people of the
The new organization was eventually renamed the
nation. We should improve our social and economic
Guomindang, or Nationalist Party. This excerpt is from the
organization, and assess the value of all the land in
organization’s manifesto, published in 1905 in Tokyo. Note
the country. Its present price shall be received by the
that Sun believed that the Chinese people were not ready for
owner, but all increases in value resulting from reform
democracy and required a period of tutelage to prepare
and social improvements after the revolution shall
them for constitutional political government. This was a
belong to the state, to be shared by all the people, in
formula that would be adopted by many other political
order to create a socialist state, where each family
leaders in Asia and Africa after World War II.
within the empire can be well supported, each person
satisfied, and no one fail to secure employment. . . .
Sun Yat-sen, Manifesto for the Tongmenghui The above four points will be carried out in three steps in
By order of the Military Government, . . . the due order. The first period is government by military law.
Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese National Army When the righteous army has arisen, various places will
proclaims the purposes and platform of the Military join the cause. . . . Evils like the oppression of the govern-
Government to the people of the nation: ment, the greed and graft of officials, . . . the cruelty of
Therefore we proclaim to the world in utmost sincer- tortures and penalties, the tyranny of tax collections, shall
ity the outline of the present revolution and the funda- all be exterminated together with the Manchu rule. Evils
mental plan for the future administration of the nation. in social customs, such as the keeping of slaves, the cru-
1. Drive out the Tartars: The Manchus of today were orig- elty of foot binding, the spread of the poison of opium,
inally the eastern barbarians beyond the Great Wall. should also all be prohibited. . . .
They frequently caused border troubles during the The second period is that of government by a provi-
Ming dynasty; then when China was in a disturbed sional constitution. When military law is lifted in each
state they came inside Shanhaikuan [the eastern hsien [district], the Military Government shall return the
terminus of the Great Wall], conquered China, and right of self-government to the local people. . . .
enslaved our Chinese people. . . . The extreme cruel- The third period will be government under the
ties and tyrannies of the Manchu government have constitution. Six years after the provisional constitu-
now reached their limit. With the righteous army tion has been enforced, a constitution shall be made.
poised against them, we will overthrow that govern- The military and administrative powers of the Military
ment, and restore our sovereign rights. Government shall be annulled; the people shall elect the
2. Restore China: China is the China of the Chinese. president, and elect the members of parliament to orga-
The government of China should be in the hands of nize the parliament.
Source: From Sources of Chinese Tradition by Wm. Theodore de Bary. Copyright © 1964 Columbia University Press. Reprinted with permission
of the publisher.
based generally on Western liberal democratic principles. centuries, but the bourgeois class in China was too small to
That class and that program had provided the foundation form the basis for a new post-Confucian political order.
for the capitalist democratic revolutions in western Europe The vast majority of the Chinese people were still illiterate
and North America in the late-eighteenth and nineteenth and lived on the land. Sun had hoped to win their support
with a land reform program that relied on fiscal incentives capita consumption of food was on the decline is not clear
to persuade landlords to sell excess lands to their tenants, from the available evidence, but apparently rice as a staple
but the plan was not widely publicized in the countryside, of the diet was increasingly being replaced by less nutritious
and few peasants had participated in the 1911 revolution. foods, many of which depleted the soil, already under pres-
In effect, then, the 1911 uprising was less a revolution than sure from the dramatic increase in population. Some farm-
a collapse of the old order. Undermined by imperialism ers benefited from switching to commercial agriculture to
and its own internal weaknesses, the old dynasty had come supply the markets of the growing coastal cities. The shift
to an abrupt end before new political and social forces were entailed a sizable investment, however, and many farmers
ready to fill the vacuum. went so deeply into debt that they eventually lost their land.
What China had experienced was part of a historical At the same time, the traditional patron–client relationship
process that was bringing down traditional empires across was frayed as landlords moved to the cities to take advan-
the globe, both in regions threatened by Western imperial- tage of the glittering urban lifestyle introduced by the West.
ism and in Europe itself, where tsarist Russia, the Austro-
Hungarian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire all came to
3-3a The Impact of Western Imperialism
an end within a few years of the collapse of the Qing (see
Chapters 4 and 5). The circumstances of their demise were The advent of the imperialist era in the second half of the
not all the same, but all four regimes bore responsibility nineteenth century thus appeared in a society already fac-
for their common fate because they had failed to meet the ing serious challenges. Whether the Western intrusion was
challenges posed by the times. All had responded to the beneficial or harmful is debated to this day. The Western
forces of economic change and popular participation in presence undoubtedly accelerated the transformation of
the political process with hesitation and reluctance, and the Chinese economy in some ways: the introduction of
their attempts at reform were too little and too late. All modern means of production, transport, and communica-
paid the supreme price for their folly. tions; the expansion of an export market; and the steady
integration of the Chinese market into the nineteenth-
century global economy. To many Westerners at the time,
it was self-evident that such changes would ultimately
3-3 Chinese Society benefit the Chinese people. Critics, however, retorted that
in Transition Western imperialism actually hindered the process of struc-
tural change in preindustrial societies like China because
QQ Focus Question: What political, economic,

and social reforms were instituted by the Qing
the Western powers thwarted the rise of local industrial
and commercial sectors in order to maintain colonies and
semicolonies as a market for Western manufactured goods
Dynasty during its final decades, and why and a source of cheap labor and materials. If the West had
were they not more successful in reversing the not intervened, some argued, China would have found its
decline of Qing rule? own road to becoming an advanced industrial society.
Whatever the truth of these conjectures, the hesitant
The growing Western presence in China during the late- efforts of the Qing to cope with these challenges suggest
nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries had provided the that the most important obstacle to reform was at the top:
imperial government with an opportunity to take measures Qing officials often seemed overwhelmed by the combina-
to recover from its internal difficulties. The results, however, tion of external pressure and internal strife. At a time when
were meager. Although foreign concession areas in the other traditional societies, such as Russia, the Ottoman
coastal cities provided a conduit for the importation of Empire, and Japan, were making attempts to modernize
Western technology and modern manufacturing methods, their economies, the Manchu court, along with much of
the Chinese borrowed less than they might have. Foreign the elite class, still exhibited an alarming degree of compla-
manufacturing enterprises could not legally operate in China cency at the magnitude of the threat that now faced them.
until the last decade of the nineteenth century, and their
methods had little influence beyond the concession areas.
Chinese efforts to imitate Western methods, notably in ship- 3-3b Daily Life in Qing China
building and weapons manufacture, were dominated by the At the beginning of the nineteenth century, daily life for
government and often suffered from mismanagement. most Chinese was not substantially different from what it
Equally serious problems persisted in the countryside. had been in earlier centuries. Most were farmers, living in
The rapid increase in population had led to smaller plots millions of villages in rice fields and on hillsides through-
and growing numbers of tenant farmers. Whether per out the countryside. Their lives were governed by the
3-3 Chinese Society in Transition ■ 63
harvest cycle, village custom, and family ritual. Their roles government abolished the civil service examinations, a
in society were firmly fixed by the time-honored principles Confucian education ceased to be the key to a success-
of Confucian social ethics. Male children, at least the more ful career, and Western-style education became more
fortunate ones, were educated in the Confucian classics, desirable. The old dynasty attempted to modernize
while females remained in the home or in the fields. All by establishing an educational system on the Western
children were expected to obey their parents, and wives to model with universal education at the elementary level.
submit to their husbands. The plan was too poorly funded to have much effect in
Unlike the situation in many traditional societies, orga- the countryside, but it did produce some changes in the
nized religion did not play a major role in the lives of most large cities, where public schools, missionary schools, and
Chinese. Religious practices were in fact highly eclectic. other private institutions educated a new generation of
While some elites followed Confucian tradition in view- Chinese with little knowledge of or respect for China’s
ing Heaven as more a force of Nature than a personal and venerable history.
transcendent deity, many ordinary Chinese were at least
nominally Buddhist—an ethico-religious belief system 3-3c Changing Roles for Women
founded in India during the first millennium b.c.e. and The status of women was also in transition. During the
imported into China hundreds of years later. mid-Qing era, women were still expected to remain in
Buddhist practices were highly personal and focused the home. Their status as useless sex objects was pain-
on individual salvation and betterment, and attendance fully symbolized by the practice of foot binding, a custom
at religious ceremonies in Buddhist temples normally that had probably originated among court entertain-
occurred on an individual basis. Beyond any organized ers in the eighth century and later spread to the com-
religious system, many Chinese—like their counterparts mon people. By the mid-nineteenth century, more
elsewhere in Asia—believed in a multiplicity of household, than half of all adult women probably had bound feet
community, and Nature deities, some of them loosely (see Image 3.4).
subsumed under an ancient belief system
known as Daoism (sometimes, Taoism).
Shanghai Barrow Taxi, c.1870s (b/w photo)/Saunders, William (1832–1892)/JOHN HILLELSON

Significantly, one set of beliefs did not neces-
sarily negate another, and a Chinese could be
at once a Confucian, a Buddhist, or a Daoist,
depending on the situation.
A visitor to China 100 years later would
have seen a very different society, although
still recognizably Chinese. Change was most
striking in the coastal cities, where the edu-
COLLECTION/Private Collection/Bridgeman Images

cated and affluent had been visibly affected
by the growing Western cultural presence.
Confucian social institutions and behavioral
norms were declining rapidly in influence,
while those of Europe and North America
were ascendant. Christianity, introduced by
Jesuit priests during the sixteenth century,
was growing in popularity, especially among
the upwardly mobile. Change was much
less noticeable in the countryside, but even Image 3.4 Women with Bound Feet. To provide the best possible marriage for their
there, the customary bonds had been daughters, upper-class families began to perform foot binding during the Song
dangerously frayed by the rapidly changing dynasty. The two young women shown here are clearly from an upper-class family
times. and are being taken for an outing on a rickshaw. Eventually, the practice of foot
Some of the change can be traced to the binding spread to all social classes in China. Although small feet were supposed
to denote a woman of leisure, most Chinese women with bound feet were in the
educational system. During the nineteenth labor force, working mainly in textiles and handicrafts to supplement the family
century, the importance of a Confucian income. During the author’s first visit to China during the 1970s, it was not
education steadily declined because up uncommon to see older women with bound feet, even in metropolitan areas.
to half of the degree holders had pur-
chased their degrees. After 1906, when the
Q How would you compare the treatment of women in China with what you
have learned about the role of women in other societies at the time?

During the second half of the nineteenth century, the effect of strengthening the Japanese sense of ethnic
signs of change began to appear. Women began to seek and cultural distinctiveness. Although the Japanese self-
employment in factories—notably in the cotton mills and image of ethnic homogeneity may not be entirely justi-
in the silk industry, established in Shanghai in the 1890s. fied, it enabled them to import ideas from abroad without
Some women were active in dissident activities, such as the risk of destroying the uniqueness of their own culture.
the Taiping Rebellion and the Boxer movement, and a few As a result, although the Japanese borrowed liberally
fought beside men in the 1911 revolution. Qiu Jin, a well- from China over the centuries, they turned Chinese ideas
known female revolutionary, wrote a manifesto calling for and institutions to their own uses. In contrast to China,
women’s liberation and then organized a revolt against the where a centralized political system was viewed as crucial
Manchu government, only to be captured and executed at to protecting the vast country from foreign conquest or
the age of thirty-two in 1907. internal fractionalization, a decentralized political system
By the end of the century, educational opportunities for reminiscent of the feudal system in medieval Europe held
women appeared for the first time. Christian missionaries sway in Japan under the hegemony of a powerful military
began to open girls’ schools, mainly in the foreign concession leader, or shogun, who ruled with varying degrees of
areas. Although only a relatively small number of women effectiveness in the name of the hereditary emperor. This
were educated in these schools, they had a significant impact system lasted until the early-seventeenth century, when a
on Chinese society as progressive intellectuals began to argue strong shogunate called the Tokugawa rose to power after
that ignorant women produced ignorant children. In 1905, a protracted civil war. The Tokugawa managed to revital-
the court announced its intention to open public schools for ize the traditional system in a somewhat more centralized
girls, but few such schools ever materialized. The govern- form that enabled it to survive for another 250 years.
ment also began to take steps to discourage the practice of
foot binding, initially with only minimal success. 3-4a A “Closed Country”
One of the many factors contributing to the rise of the
3-4Traditional Japan and Tokugawa was the impending collapse of the old system
under the impact of decades of internal civil strife. Another
the End of Isolation was contact with the West, which had begun with the
arrival of Portuguese ships in Japanese harbors in the mid-
QQ Focus Question: How did the Japanese
reaction to the Western onslaught differ
sixteenth century. After an initial period of hesitation, Japan
opened its doors eagerly to European trade and missionary
from that of China, and what were the activity, but later Japanese elites became concerned about
consequences? the corrosive effects of Western religious practices and
attempted to evict the foreigners. For the next two centu-
While Chinese rulers were coping with the dual problems ries, the Tokugawa adopted a policy of “closed country” (to
of external threat and internal instability, similar develop- use the contemporary Japanese phrase) to keep out foreign
ments were taking place in Japan. An agricultural society ideas and protect Japanese values and institutions. Only the
like its powerful neighbor, Japan had borrowed extensively Dutch—who had little interest in converting their hosts to
from Chinese civilization for more than a millennium; its the Christian faith—were allowed to trade with Japan on a
political institutions, religious beliefs, and cultural achieve- limited basis. Despite such efforts, however, Japanese soci-
ments all bore the clear imprint of the Chinese model. ety was changing from within, and by the early-nineteenth
Nevertheless, the Japanese were able to retain not only century, it was quite different from what it had been two
their political independence but also their cultural unique- centuries earlier. Traditional institutions and the aristocratic
ness and had created a distinct civilization. feudal system were under increasing strain, not only from
One reason for the historical differences between China the emergence of a new merchant class but also from the
and Japan is that, while China was a large continental coun- centralizing tendencies of the powerful shogunate.
try, Japan was a small island nation. Proud of their own Some historians have noted strong parallels between
considerable cultural achievements and their dominant Tokugawa Japan and early modern Europe, which wit-
position throughout the region, the Chinese were tradi- nessed the emergence of centralized states and a strong
tionally reluctant to dilute the purity of their culture with merchant class at the same time in history. Certainly, there
foreign innovations. Often subject to invasion by nomadic were signs that the shogunate system was becoming less
peoples from the north, they viewed culture rather than effective. Factionalism and corruption plagued the central
race as the key factor shaping their sense of identity. By bureaucracy. Feudal lords in the countryside (known as
contrast, the island character of Japan undoubtedly had daimyo, or “great names”) reacted to increasing economic
3-4 Traditional Japan and the End of Isolation ■ 65

pressures by intensifying their exactions from the peasants world capitalism that the expansion of trade on a global
who farmed their manorial holdings and by engaging in basis would benefit all nations, Western nations began to
manufacturing and commercial pursuits, such as the sale approach Japan in the hope of opening up the country to
of textiles, forestry products, and sake ( Japanese rice wine). foreign economic interests.
As peasants were whipsawed by rising manorial exactions
and a series of poor harvests caused by bad weather, rural 3-4b The Opening of Japan
unrest swept the countryside. The first to succeed was the United States. American ships
Japan, then, was ripe for change. Some historians main- following the northern route across the Pacific needed a
tain that the country was poised to experience an industrial fueling station before completing their long journey to
revolution under the stimulus of internal conditions. As China and other ports in the area. The efforts to pry the
in China, the resumption of contacts with the West in the Japanese out of their cloistered existence initially failed,
middle of the nineteenth century rendered the question but the Americans persisted. In the summer of 1853,
somewhat academic. To the Western powers, the contin- an American fleet of four warships under Commodore
ued isolation of Japanese society was an affront and a chal- Matthew C. Perry arrived in Edo Bay (now Tokyo Bay)
lenge. Driven by growing rivalry among themselves and with a letter from President Millard Fillmore addressed to
convinced by their own propaganda and the ideology of the shogun (see Image 3.5). A few months later, intimidated
Glasshouse Images/JT Vintage/Alamy stock photo
Image 3.5 Black Ships in Tokyo Bay. The arrival of a U.S. fleet commanded by Commodore Matthew
Perry in 1853 caused consternation among many Japanese observers, who were intimidated by the size
and ominous presence of the American ships. This nineteenth-century woodblock print shows curious
Japanese paddling out to greet the arrivals.
Q Do you believe that the United States was justified in seeking to pressure Japanese leaders to open
the door to foreign commerce?
officials in the shogunate relented and agreed to the Treaty of political power, the new capital was located at Edo,
of Kanagawa, providing for the opening of two ports and which was renamed Tokyo (“Eastern Capital”), and the
the establishment of a U.S. consulate on Japanese soil. In imperial court was moved to the shogun’s palace in the
1858, U.S. Consul Townsend Harris signed a more elabo- center of the city.
rate commercial treaty calling for the opening of several
ports to U.S. trade and residence, an exchange of ministers, 3-5a The Transformation of Japanese Politics
and extraterritorial privileges for U.S. residents in Japan.
Once in power, the new leaders launched a comprehensive
The Japanese soon signed similar treaties with several
reform of Japanese political, social, economic, and cultural
European nations.
institutions and values. They moved first to abolish the
The decision to open relations with the Western barbar-
remnants of the old order and strengthen their executive
ians was highly unpopular in some quarters, particularly in
power. To undercut the power of the daimyo, hereditary
regions distant from the shogunate headquarters in Edo.
feudal privileges were abolished in 1871, and the great lords
Resistance was especially strong in two key daimyo terri-
lost title to their lands. As compensation, they were named
tories in the south, Satsuma and Choshu, both of which
governors of the territories formerly under their control.
had strong military traditions. In 1863, the “Sat-Cho” alli-
The samurai received a lump-sum payment to replace their
ance forced the hapless shogun to promise to bring rela-
traditional stipends but were forbidden to wear the sword,
tions with the West to an end, but the rebellious groups
the symbol of their hereditary status.
soon disclosed their own weakness. When Choshu troops
The abolition of the legal underpinnings of the
fired on Western ships in the Strait of Shimonoseki, the
Tokugawa system permitted the Meiji modernizers to
Westerners fired back and destroyed the Choshu fortifi-
embark on the creation of a modern political system
cations. The incident convinced the rebellious samurai
based on the Western model. In the Charter Oath of
(“retainers,” the traditional warrior class subordinated to
1868, the new leaders promised to create a new delibera-
the daimyo lords) of the need to strengthen their own
tive assembly within the framework of continued imperial
military and intensified their unwillingness to give in to
rule. Although senior positions in the new government
the West. Having strengthened their influence at the impe-
were given to the daimyo, the key posts were dominated
rial court in Kyoto, they demanded the resignation of the
by modernizing samurai, known as the genro, from the
shogun and the restoration of the power of the emperor.
Sat-Cho clique.
In January 1868, rebel armies attacked the shogun’s pal-
During the next two decades, the Meiji government
ace in Kyoto and proclaimed the restored authority of the
undertook a systematic study of Western political sys-
emperor. After a few weeks, resistance collapsed, and the
tems. A constitutional commission under Prince Ito
venerable shogunate system was brought to an end.
Hirobumi traveled to several Western countries, including
Great Britain, Germany, Russia, and the United States, to
study their political institutions. As the process evolved, a
3-5 Rich Country, Strong Army number of factions appeared, each representing different
QQ Focus Question: To what degree was the Meiji

Restoration a “revolution,” and to what extent
ideas. The most prominent were the Liberals, who favored
political reform on the Western liberal democratic model,
and the Progressives, who called for a division of power
did it succeed in transforming Japan? between the legislative and executive branches, with a
slight nod to the latter. There was also an imperial party
Although the victory of the Sat-Cho faction over the that advocated the retention of supreme authority in the
shogunate appeared on the surface to be a triumph of hands of the emperor.
tradition over change, the new leaders soon realized that
Japan must modernize to survive and embarked on a The Meiji Constitution In the end, the Progressives
policy of comprehensive reform that would lay the foun- emerged victorious. The Meiji constitution, adopted in
dations of a modern industrial nation within a genera- 1890, vested authority in the executive branch, although
tion. The symbol of the new era was the young emperor the imperialist faction was pacified by the statement that
himself, who had taken the reign name Meiji (“enlight- the constitution was the gift of the emperor. Members
ened rule”) on ascending the throne after the death of his of the cabinet were to be handpicked by the Meiji oligarchs.
father in 1867. Although the post-Tokugawa period was The upper house of parliament was to be appointed and
termed a “restoration,” the Meiji ruler was controlled have equal legislative powers with the lower house, called
by the new leadership, just as the shogun had controlled the Diet, whose members would be elected. The core
his predecessors. In tacit recognition of the real source ideology of the state, called the kokutai (national polity),
3-5 Rich Country, Strong Army ■ 67
embodied (although in very imprecise form) the concept established a universal system of education emphasizing
of the uniqueness of the Japanese system based on the applied science. In contrast to China, Japan was able to
supreme authority of the emperor. achieve results with minimum reliance on foreign capital.
The result was a system that was democratic in form Although the first railroad—built in 1872—was underwrit-
but despotic in practice, modern in external appearance ten by a loan from Great Britain, future projects were all
but still recognizably traditional in that power remained in financed locally. Foreign currency holdings came largely
the hands of a ruling oligarchy. The system permitted the from tea and silk, which were exported in significant quan-
traditional ruling class to retain its influence and economic tities during the latter half of the nineteenth century.
power while acquiescing in the emergence of a new set of During the late Meiji era, Japan’s industrial sector
institutions and values. began to grow. Besides tea and silk, other key industries
were weaponry, shipbuilding, and sake. From the start,
3-5b Meiji Economics the distinctive feature of the Meiji model was the intimate
With the end of the daimyo domains, the government relationship between government and private business in
needed to establish a new system of land ownership that terms of operations and regulations. Once an individual
would transform the mass of the rural population from enterprise or industry was on its feet (or sometimes, when
indentured serfs into citizens. To do so, it enacted a land it had ceased to make a profit), it was turned over entirely
reform program that redefined the domain lands as the to private ownership, although the government often con-
private property of the tillers, while compensating the tinued to play some role even after its direct involvement
previous owner with government bonds. One reason for in management was terminated. Many new entrepreneurs
the new policy was that the government needed operat- were members of the samurai class, who had lost their live-
ing revenues. At the time, public funds came mainly from lihood with the destruction of the large daimyo domains
customs duties, which were limited by agreement with the and now sought to find their place in the new economy.
foreign powers to 5 percent of the value of the product. To Also noteworthy is the effect that the Meiji reforms had
remedy the problem, the Meiji leaders added a new agri- on rural areas. As we have seen, the new land tax provided
culture tax, which was set at an annual rate of 3 percent of the government with funds to subsidize the industrial sec-
the estimated value of the land. The new tax proved to be a tor, but it imposed severe hardship on the rural popula-
lucrative and dependable source of income for the govern- tion, many of whom abandoned their farms and fled to the
ment, but it was quite onerous for many farmers, who had cities in search of jobs. This influx of people in turn ben-
previously paid a fixed percentage of their harvest to the efited Japanese industry by providing an abundant source
landowner. As a result, in bad years, many peasants were of cheap labor. As in early modern Europe, the industrial
unable to pay their taxes and were forced to sell their lands revolution in Japan was built on the strong backs of the
to wealthy neighbors. Eventually, the government reduced long-suffering peasantry.
the tax to 2.5 percent of the land value. Still, by the end of
the century, about 40 percent of all farmers were tenants. 3-5c Building a Modern Social Structure
The Meiji Restoration also transformed several other
Launching the Industrial Revolution With its budget feudal institutions. A key focus of their attention was
needs secured, the government turned to the promotion the army. The Sat-Cho reformers had been struck by the
of industry. A small but growing industrial economy had weakness of the Japanese armed forces in clashes with the
already existed under the Tokugawa. In its early stages, Western powers and embarked on a major program to cre-
manufacturing in Japan had been the exclusive responsi- ate a modern military force that could compete in a social
bility of an artisan caste, who often worked for the local Darwinist world in which only the fittest would survive.
daimyo. Eventually, these artisans began to expand their The old feudal army based on the traditional warrior class
activities, hiring workers and borrowing capital from mer- was abolished, and an imperial army based on universal
chants. By the end of the seventeenth century, manufactur- conscription was formed in 1871. The army also played an
ing centers had developed in Japan’s growing cities, such as important role in Japanese society, becoming a means of
Edo, Kyoto, and Osaka. According to one historian, by 1700, upward mobility for many rural males.
Japan already had four cities with a population over 100,000
and was one of the most urbanized societies in the world. Education Education also underwent major changes.
Japan’s industrial sector received a massive stimulus The Meiji leaders recognized the need for universal educa-
from the Meiji Restoration. The government provided tion, including instruction in modern technology. After a
financial subsidies to needy industries, imported foreign few years of experimenting, they adopted the American
advisers, improved transport and communications, and model of a three-tiered system culminating in a series of
HISTORICAL VOICES
The Rules of Good Citizenship in Meiji Japan

loyalty and filial piety have from generation to genera-
Q According to the Imperial Rescript, what was the tion illustrated the beauty thereof. This is the glory of
primary purpose of education in Meiji Japan? How the fundamental character of Our Empire, and herein
did these goals compare with those in China and also lies the source of Our education. Ye, Our subjects,
the West? be filial to your parents, affectionate to your brothers
and sisters; as husbands and wives be harmonious, as
friends true; bear yourselves in modesty and modera-
Politics & AFTER SEIZING POWER from the Tokugawa
Government tion; extend your benevolence to all; pursue learning
Shogunate in 1868, the new Japanese
and cultivate arts, and thereby develop intellectual fac-
leaders turned their attention to the creation of a new
ulties and perfect moral powers; furthermore, advance
political system that would bring the country into the
public good and promote common interests; always
modern world. After exploring various systems in use in the
respect the Constitution and observe the laws; should
West, a constitutional commission decided to adopt the
emergency arise, offer yourselves courageously to the
system used in imperial Germany because of its paternalistic
State; and thus guard and maintain the prosperity of
character. To promote civic virtue and obedience among the
Our Imperial state; and thus guard and maintain the
citizenry, the government then drafted an imperial rescript
prosperity of Our Imperial Throne coeval with heaven
that was to be taught to every schoolchild in the country.
and earth. So shall ye not only be Our good and faith-
The rescript instructed all children to obey their sovereign
ful subjects, but render illustrious the best traditions of
and place the interests of the community and the state
your forefathers.
above their own personal desires.
The way here set forth is indeed the teaching
Imperial Rescript on Education, 1890 bequeathed by Our Imperial Ancestors, to be observed
alike by Their Descendants and the subjects, infallible for
Know ye, Our subjects:
all ages and true in all places. It is Our wish to lay it to
Our Imperial Ancestors have founded Our Empire
heart in all reverence, in common with you, Our subjects,
on a basis broad and everlasting, and have deeply and
that we may all attain to the same virtue.
firmly implanted virtue; Our subjects ever united in
Source: Dairoku, Kikuchi. “The Imperial Rescript on Education (1890).” 2–3 in Japanese Education. London: John Murray, 1909.
universities and specialized institutes. In the meantime, for females was sixteen years. Females did not share inheri-
they sent bright students to study abroad and brought tance rights with males, and few received any education
foreign specialists to Japan to teach in the new schools. outside the family.
Much of the content of the new system was inspired by The Meiji reforms had a significant impact on the role
Western models. Yet its ethical foundations, as embodied of women in Japanese society. Education was open to
in the Imperial Rescript on Education promulgated in them through an educational order in 1872. By the end of
1890, had a distinctly Confucian orientation, emphasiz- the nineteenth century, women were beginning to play a
ing such values as filial piety and loyalty to the emperor crucial role in their nation’s effort to modernize. Urged by
(see Historical Voices, “The Rules of Good Citizenship in their parents to augment the family income as well as by
Meiji Japan,” above). the government to fulfill their patriotic duty, young girls
were sent en masse to work in the textile mills. From 1894
Traditional Values and Women’s Rights In traditional to 1912, women made up 60 percent of the Japanese labor
Japan, women were constrained by the “three obediences” force. Thanks to them, by 1914, Japan was the world’s lead-
imposed on them: child to father, wife to husband, and ing exporter of silk and dominated cotton manufacturing.
widow to son. Husbands could easily obtain a divorce, If it had not been for the export revenues earned from tex-
but wives could not (supposedly, a husband could divorce tile exports, Japan might not have been able to develop its
his spouse if she drank too much tea or talked too much). heavy industry and military prowess without an infusion
Marriages were arranged, and the average age of marriage of foreign capital.
Japanese women received few rewards, however, for
RU
their contribution to the nation. Traditional values were Amur R.
SS
IA
provided with a firm legal basis in the Constitution of 1890, SAKHALIN
which restricted the franchise to males, while a civil code MAN KARAFUTO
75
adopted in 1898 de-emphasized individual human rights and CHUR 1905
18
IA IS
.
essentially placed women within the context of their role in Changchun RI
LE
KU
the family. In 1900, new regulations prohibited women from SOUTH MANCHURI
A
Sea
joining political organizations or attending public meetings. Port Arthur of Japan
Beginning in 1905, a group of independent-minded women KOREA
(East Sea)
petitioned the Japanese parliament to rescind this restriction, SHANDONG

Qingdao
1908
im
a
AN
sh
but it was not repealed until 1922. Liaodong T su JAP
Peninsula of
its
ra
NA
S t
3-5d Joining the Imperialist Club P acific
CHI
YU
Japan’s rapid advance was viewed with proprietary pride and Ocea n
UK
7 2
RY
18
admiration by sympathetic observers around the world. The FUJIAN
.
IS
Amoy Japan’s possessions at
Japanese, however, did not just imitate the domestic policies TAIWAN the end of 1875
of their Western mentors; they also emulated the latter’s (FORMOSA)
Territorial acquisitions,
1895
aggressive approach to foreign affairs. That they adopted 1894–1914
this course is perhaps not surprising. In their own minds, the 0 500 1,000 Kilometers Spheres of Japanese
influence in 1918
Japanese were particularly vulnerable in the world economic 0 250 500 Miles
arena. Their territory was small, lacking in resources, and
densely populated, and they had no natural outlet for expan-
MAP 3.4 Japanese Overseas Expansion During the Meiji Era.
sion. To observant Japanese, it seemed that the lessons of
Beginning in the late-nineteenth century, Japan ventured beyond
history were clear. Western nations had amassed wealth and its home islands and became an imperialist power. The extent of
power not only because of their democratic systems and high Japanese colonial expansion through World War I is shown here.
level of education but also because of their colonies, which
provided them with sources of raw materials, cheap labor, Q Which parts of the Chinese Empire came under Japanese
influence during this period?
and markets for their manufactured products.
Traditionally, Japan had not been an expansionist coun- rivalry over Korea intensified. In 1894, China and Japan
try. Although some Japanese merchants eagerly partici- intervened on opposite sides of an internal rebellion in
pated in the commercial network that stretched southward Korea. When hostilities broke out between the two pow-
into the South China Sea, most Japanese had generally ers, Japanese ships destroyed the Chinese fleet and seized
been satisfied to remain on their home islands, while the the Manchurian city of Port Arthur. In the Treaty of
shogunate had even sought to isolate the country from Shimonoseki, the Manchus were forced to recognize the
most of its neighbors during the Tokugawa era. Perhaps independence of Korea, which they had long claimed as a
the most notable exception was a short-lived attempt at tributary state, and to cede Taiwan and the Liaodong pen-
the end of the sixteenth century to extend Japanese control insula, with its strategic naval base at Port Arthur, to Japan.
over the Korean peninsula. Shortly thereafter, under pressure from the European
The Japanese began their program of territorial expan- powers, the Japanese returned the Liaodong peninsula to
sion (see Map 3.4) close to home. In 1874, they claimed com- China, but in the early-twentieth century, they returned
pensation from China for fifty-four sailors from the Ryukyu to the offensive. Rivalry with Russia over influence in
Islands who had been killed by the local population on the Korea led to increasingly strained relations between the
island of Taiwan and sent a Japanese fleet to Taiwan to pun- two countries. In 1904, Japan launched a surprise attack
ish the perpetrators. When the Qing dynasty evaded respon- on the Russian naval base at Port Arthur, which Russia had
sibility for the incident while agreeing to pay an indemnity to taken from China in 1898. Technically, the Japanese armed
Japan to cover the cost of the expedition, it weakened its claim forces were weaker, but Russia faced difficult logistical
to ownership of the island of Taiwan. Japan was then able problems along its new Trans-Siberian Railway and severe
to claim suzerainty over the Ryukyu Islands, long tributary to political instability at home (see Chapter 1). In 1905, after
the Chinese Empire. Two years later, Japanese naval pressure Japanese warships sank almost the entire Russian fleet off
forced the opening of Korean ports to Japanese commerce. the coast of Korea, the Russians agreed to a humiliating
During the 1880s, as the Meiji leaders began to modern- peace, ceding the strategically located Liaodong penin-
ize their military forces along Western lines, Sino-Japanese sula back to Japan, along with southern Sakhalin and the
Kurile Islands. Russia also agreed to abandon its political 3-5e Japanese Culture in Transition
and economic influence in Korea and southern Manchuria, The wave of Western technology and ideas that entered Japan
which now came increasingly under Japanese control. The in the second half of the nineteenth century greatly altered the
Japanese victory stunned the world, including the colonial shape of traditional Japanese culture. Literature in particular
peoples of Southeast Asia, who now began to realize that was affected as European models eclipsed the familiar tales of
Europeans were not necessarily invincible. the Tokugawa era. Dazzled by this “new” literature, Japanese
During the next few years, the Japanese consolidated authors began translating and imitating the imported models.
their position in northeastern Asia, annexing Korea in 1908 Experimenting with Western verse, Japanese poets were at
as an integral part of Japan. When the Koreans protested first influenced primarily by the British but eventually adopted
the seizure, Japanese reprisals resulted in thousands of such styles as Symbolism, Dadaism, and Surrealism, although
deaths. The United States was the first nation to recognize some traditional poetry was still composed.
the annexation in return for Tokyo’s declaration of respect As the Japanese invited technicians, engineers, architects,
for U.S. authority in the Philippines, which many American and artists from Europe and the United States to teach their
merchant interests viewed as a stepping-stone to the China “modern” skills to a generation of eager students, the Meiji
market. In 1908, the two countries reached an agreement era became a time of massive consumption of Western
in which the United States recognized Japanese interests in artistic techniques and styles. Japanese architects and art-
the region in return for Japanese acceptance of the princi- ists created huge buildings of steel and reinforced concrete
ples of the Open Door. But mutual suspicion between the adorned with Greek columns and cupolas, oil paintings
two countries was growing, sparked in part by U.S. efforts reflecting the European concern with depth perception
to restrict immigration from all Asian countries. President and shading, and bronze sculptures of secular subjects.
Theodore Roosevelt, who mediated the Russo-Japanese European influence even affected the familiar Japanese tech-
War, had aroused the anger of many Japanese by turning nique of woodblock printing, as in the print of the Ginza,
down a Japanese demand for reparations from Russia. In which uses a traditional technique to depict Tokyo’s most
turn, some Americans began to fear the “yellow peril,” modern thoroughfare complete with streetcar and electric
manifested by Japanese expansion in East Asia. lights (see Image 3.6).
Art Resource, NY
Image 3.6 The Ginza in Downtown Tokyo. This 1877 woodblock print shows the Ginza, a major commercial
thoroughfare in downtown Tokyo, with modern brick buildings and a horse-drawn streetcar. The centerpiece
and focus of public attention is a new electric streetlight. In combining traditional form with modern
content, this print symbolizes the unique ability of the Japanese to borrow ideas from abroad while
preserving much of the essence of their traditional culture.
Q Why do you think the Japanese were so quick to imitate Western ways and adopt Western technology?

Cultural exchange also went the other way as Japanese nineteenth century as many artists returned to pre-
arts and crafts, porcelains, textiles, fans, folding screens, and Meiji techniques. In 1889, the Tokyo School of Fine Arts
woodblock prints became the vogue in Europe and North (today the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and
America. Japanese art influenced Western painters such as Music) was founded to promote traditional Japanese art.
Vincent van Gogh, Edgar Degas, and James Whistler, who Over the next several decades, Japanese art underwent a
experimented with flatter compositional perspectives and dynamic resurgence, reflecting the nation’s emergence
unusual poses. Japanese gardens, with their exquisite atten- as a prosperous and powerful state. While some art-
tion to the positioning of rocks and falling water, became ists attempted to synthesize Japanese and foreign tech-
especially popular. niques, others returned to past artistic traditions for
After the initial period of mass absorption of Western inspiration.
art, a national reaction occurred at the end of the
MAKING CONNECTIONS
The Meiji Restoration was one of the great success stories Chinese gentleman, his Japanese counterpart, in the famil-
of modern times. Not only did the Meiji leaders put Japan iar image, could discard his sword and kimono and don a
firmly on the path to economic and political development, modern military uniform or a Western business suit and
they also managed to remove the unequal treaty provisions still feel comfortable in both worlds.
that had been imposed on them at mid-century. Japanese Whatever the case, the Meiji Restoration was pos-
achievements are especially impressive when compared sible because aristocratic and capitalist elements man-
with the difficulties experienced by China, which was not aged to work together in a common effort to fend off
only unable to effect significant changes in its traditional the foreign threat and seek national wealth and power.
society but had not even reached a consensus on the need The nature of the Japanese value system, with its empha-
for doing so. Japan’s achievements more closely resemble sis on practicality and military achievement, may also
those of Europe, but whereas the West needed a century have contributed. Finally, the Meiji benefited from the
and a half to achieve a significant level of industrial devel- fact that the pace of urbanization and commercial and
opment, the Japanese achieved it in forty years. industrial development had already begun to quicken
The differences between the Japanese and Chinese under the Tokugawa. Japan, it has been said, was ripe for
responses to the West have sparked considerable debate change, and nothing could have been more suitable as an
among students of comparative history. Some have argued antidote for the collapsing old system than the Western
that Japan’s success was partly due to good fortune; lack- emphasis on wealth and power. It was a classic example
ing abundant natural resources, it was exposed to less pres- of challenge and response.
sure from the West than many of its neighbors. Be that One thing stands out in any analysis of the impact of
as it may, it seems clear that Japanese leaders were much imperialism in East Asia: almost alone among the societ-
quicker than their Chinese counterparts to recognize the ies of Asia and Africa, both China and Japan were able to
implications of the threat that they faced from the Western maintain at least the semblance of national independence
onslaught, and quicker to take action to address the chal- during the height of the Western onslaught. For China,
lenge. Perhaps, as some historians have suggested, Japan’s once the most advanced country in the world, survival was
unique geographic position in Asia was a factor. China, a very much in doubt, as waves of Western political, military,
continental nation with a heterogeneous ethnic composi- and economic influence lapped at the edges and even the
tion, was distinguished from its neighbors by its Confucian heartland of the Qing Empire. Only Japan responded with
culture. By contrast, Japan was an island nation, ethnically vigor and effectiveness, launching a comprehensive reform
and linguistically homogeneous, that had never been con- program that by the end of the century had transformed
quered. Unlike the Chinese, who showed considerable the island nation into an industrial power in its own right.
reluctance to abandon key components of their traditional What explains the ability of the two major societies in
system, the Japanese had little to fear from cultural change East Asia to avoid total domination by the Western pow-
in terms of its effect on their national identity. If Confucian ers? In the case of China, the answer may lie in its sheer
culture, with all its accoutrements, was what defined the size, as well as the fact that rivalry among the covetous
industrial nations prevented any single power from placing member of the imperialist club on its own. Whatever the
the almost continental nation within its own orbit. Japan, reasons for the difference, as the new century dawned,
however, stands out as the one true exception. By its own East Asia was the exception; elsewhere, the industrialized
efforts, it not only fended off the Western challenge, but by nations’ stranglehold on most of the world appeared virtu-
the end of the century threatened to become an emerging ally complete.
QQHow did China and Japan each respond to QQWhat impact did colonial rule have on the
Western pressures in the nineteenth century, and what environment in the European colonies in Asia and Africa
implications did their different responses have for each during the nineteenth century? Did some of these same
nation’s history? factors apply in China and Japan?
QQWhat were some of the key reasons why the Meiji QQHow did Western values and institutions influence
reformers were so successful in launching Japan on the Chinese and Japanese social mores and traditions during
road to industrialization? Which of those reasons also the imperialist era?
applied to China under the Qing?
CHAPTER TIMELINE
1830 1850 1870 1890 1910

China
Opium War Manchus suppress Sun Yat-sen’s forces overthrow Manchu dynasty
(1839–1842) Taiping Rebellion (1911)
(1864)
One Hundred Days reform
(1898)
Japan
Commodore Perry Collapse of Tokugawa shogunate Meiji constitution
in Tokyo Bay (1868) adopted
(1853) (1890)
Abolition of feudalism in Japan

(1871)
Sino-Japanese War Russo-Japanese War

(1894–1895) (1904–1905)
CHAPTER NOTES
1. The quote is from H.F. MacNair, Modern Chinese and Orville Schell (eds.), Imperial Reader: The Decline of
History: Selected Readings (Shanghai: Commercial Press the Last Dynasty and the Origins of Modern China (New
Ltd. 1923), p. 136, and reproduced in F. Schurmann York, 1967), pp. 146–147.
Pa r t I
REFLECTIONS
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY witnessed two major devel- of crucial raw materials like coal and water power, along
opments: the onset of the Industrial Revolution and with the capital and experience accumulated during the
the ensuing drama of the European domination of the early stages of European expansion in the early mod-
world. The two were clearly related, since the former ern era, provided the primary impetus for the Industrial
had created the conditions for the latter. It was, of Revolution in Great Britain. The importance of the early
course, the major industrial powers—Great Britain, modern era was also emphasized by the sociologist
France, Germany, and the United States—that took Andre Gunder Frank, who argued that the Industrial
the lead in building the large colonial empires that Revolution was less important as the driving force
spanned the globe. of the modern age than the age of exploration and
expansion—a period marked by Western military con-
EXPLAINING THE WINNERS AND LOSERS Why some
quest and degradation of many non-Western peoples—
societies were able to master the challenge of indus-
that preceded it.
trialization and others were not has been a matter of
It is clear that neither side possesses a monopoly of
considerable scholarly debate. Some observers have
truth in this debate. Although culture clearly matters,
found the answer in the cultural characteristics of indi-
other factors, such as climate and geography—which
vidual societies, such as the expansion of the rule of
are certainly crucial in determining a given society’s
law in Great Britain, the Protestant work ethic in vari-
innate capacity to enter the industrial age—are equally
ous parts of Europe, or the tradition of social discipline
if not more important. On the other hand, critics who
and class hierarchy in Japan. According to historian
maintain that imperialism was the main culprit in hold-
David Landes, cultural differences were the key reason
ing back industrial development in colonial or semicolo-
why the Industrial Revolution took place first in Europe
nial societies in Asia and Africa must take into account
rather than elsewhere in the world. While admitting
the fact that some have succeeded in mounting the
that other factors-such as climate and the presence
ladder of economic success much more successfully
of natural resources-played a role in the process, what
than others. What is increasingly evident is that there
was most important, he maintained in his provocative
is no single answer, or solution, to the question.2
book The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, was “work,
thrift, honesty, patience, and tenacity,” all character- THE LEGACY OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
istics that are present to a greater or lesser degree in Whatever the ultimate causes, the advent of the
European civilization. Other societies, he declared, industrial age had a number of lasting consequences
were entangled in a “web of tradition” composed of for the world at large. On the one hand, the mate-
political authoritarianism, religious prejudice, and a rial wealth of those nations that successfully passed
suspicion of material wealth. Thus, they failed to over- through the process increased significantly. In many
come obstacles to rapid cases, the creation of advanced industrial societies
economic development. strengthened democratic institutions and led to a
Only Japan, with its own higher standard of living for the majority of the popu-
tradition of hard work and lation. The spread of technology and trade outside of
self-sacrifice, succeeded Europe created the basis for a new international eco-
in emulating the European nomic order based on the global exchange of goods.
experience.1 On the other hand, as we have seen, not all the con-
Other observers have taken issue with Landes’ sequences of the Industrial Revolution were beneficial,
cultural thesis and have argued that other consider- even within the industrializing societies themselves. In
ations played more important roles in determining the European society, there were losers as well as winners,
winners and losers in the race to achieve economic and because the print revolution and an increase in lit-
wealth and power. As we have seen above, historian eracy rates had made Europeans much more aware of
Kenneth Pomeranz has maintained that the availability what was taking place around them, public resentment
74 ■ Part I Reflections
over the vast disparities in Looking back from the perspective of our own day,
the distribution of wealth was the enduring historical debate over the impact of the
probably much more intense Industrial Revolution has taken on an element of par-
than it had been in earlier ticular relevance for our own times. The global econ-
centuries. At the same time, omy today is in the throes of another period of what the
the economic and social dis- futurist writer Alvin Toffler once termed a “third wave”
ruption engendered by the of rapid technological change. If the first two great his-
transition from an agricultural torical transformations he described—the Agricultural
to an industrial society led to an increased sense of root- and the Industrial Revolutions—each significantly
lessness and alienation among much of the population reshaped the political, economic, and social founda-
that had not benefitted from the transition. tions of human society in their own time, the explosion
The Industrial Revolution also created resentment of scientific and technological knowledge that is taking
among the nations taking part in the experience. Some place today has begun to exert an equivalent impact on
countries, notably Great Britain and France, were able our own world, revamping the political culture, the eco-
to make good use of their advantages to extend their nomic networks, and the norms and institutions of our
power and influence beyond the borders of Europe. As contemporary society—and in dramatic and sometimes
a result, they were the first and foremost to succeed destructive ways. In a similar manner to the impact of
in the land grab for colonies. Later arrivals, such as the Industrial Revolution, the current turmoil has been
Germany, Italy, and Japan, became increasingly resent- characterized by a substantial degree of what might be
ful at being left out in the search for the spoils of con- called “creative destruction,” in which the advent of
quest. Inevitably, there would eventually be a reckoning the New necessarily entails the destruction of much of
for this disparity in benefits, as we shall see in Part II the Old, thus arousing a considerable sense of unease
of this book. among many groups in society at large. For those most
In the meantime, old empires like Imperial Russia, affected, it is an unsettling experience.3
Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Turks were not
directly exposed to the full impact of the Industrial IMPERIALISM: INDUSTRIALIZATION’S “EVIL TWIN”?
Revolution during the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, What about the impact of the Industrial Revolution
they felt some of its shockwaves, since the dramatic beyond the borders of Europe? On balance, did it help
political, economic, and social changes taking place in or hinder those Asian and African societies who were
Western Europe inevitably drew great interest among affected in various ways by the transition to a new
restive elements far to the east. Some radical groups, industrial era? As we have seen above, the debate over
like the Narodniks in Russia and the Young Turks in this topic today is as contentious as ever. In recent
the Ottoman Empire, began to put increasing pressure years it has been a commonplace for many scholars to
on their sclerotic monarchies to bring their countries view the imperialist era through a highly critical lens.
into the modern age. The surge in national conscious- It was misguided, they argue, to believe that Western
ness that had originally manifested itself in places like intervention into traditional societies would result in
France, Germany, and Italy also began to seep east- improved conditions and lives; and it was hypocriti-
ward as well, arousing a growing sense of ethnic, lin- cal to assign benevolent motives to actions that were
guistic, and cultural awareness among subject peoples almost always often patently self-serving.
like the Poles, the Czechs, and the southern Slavic That viewpoint is not universal, however, as a few
peoples who had long been voiceless entities living recent writers continue to defend the actions taken
in multiethnic empires. For them, the events taking during the era of imperialism as not only benevolent in
place in the west were a harbinger of potential future their intentions, but salutary in their consequences. In
dramatic change. his Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World
Part I Reflections ■ 75
Order and the Lessons for Global Power, historian Niall it seems that the defend-
Ferguson argued that while the British performance ers of imperialism have
during the imperial era was by no means flawless, it much to explain.
nonetheless provided subjects of the Empire with many We shall have cause to
benefits, including the rule of law, free trade, the abo- return to this topic later in
lition of slavery, and a long period of global peace. this book, when we evaluate the recent performance
Arguing that the concept of imperialism itself has been of many of those societies once subjugated to imperial
unfairly maligned, Ferguson expressed the hope that rule. For the moment, it is sufficient to note that—two
the United States would take up the mantle left by the centuries after the opening of the imperialist era—the
British without apology.4 debate over the wealth and poverty of nations and the
It is debatable whether a consensus on this issue will means to be used to narrow the differences has contin-
ever be reached, since (as in the case of the Industrial ued unresolved into our own day.
Revolution itself) the consequences of the imperialist Ironically, however, in opening the door for the rest of
era are much too complex to be summed up with facile the world to become more familiar with the momentous
conclusions. While countries like Japan can be singled events taking place in Europe, the imperialist nations
out as a success story (keeping in mind that Japan may have sown the seeds of their own ultimate defeat.
eventually became an imperialist nation in its own Colonized peoples eventually learned how to operate
right), many others serve as an example of how impe- within the accepted bounds of European social theo-
rialist intervention probably delayed or distorted their ries, mobilizing themselves by appeals to new concepts
capacity to develop institutions and values appropriate of nationality. Subjugated peoples were thus provided
to the modern era. And although colonial rule did ulti- with a weapon that could ultimately be used with great
mately introduce countless traditional societies to the effectiveness against their new masters. In introducing
technology, the institutions, and the values that char- such explosive ideas as liberalism and nationalism—
acterize the most advanced nations in the world today, however inadvertently—to their newly conquered sub-
the price was high, as millions of people were uprooted jects, colonial officials soon found themselves riding
from their traditional environments and exposed to a the tiger of an aroused populace determined to throw
life marked by poverty and degradation. Although there them out. And, as the Chinese proverb goes, when you
is not much ground here to reach a scholarly consensus, ride a tiger, it’s hard to dismount.
Notes
1. David Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: by the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter to
Why Some are So Rich and Some So Poor (New York: describe the operation of the modern capitalist sys-
W.W. Norton, 1998. tem. I apply it here in a broader socio-historical sense.
2. The importance of climate and geography in shaping 4. Niall Ferguson, Empire: The Rise and Demise of
world history has been emphasized by Jared Diamond the British World Order and the Lessons for Global
in his ground-breaking study Guns, Germs, and Steel: Power (New York: Basic Books, 2003). A similar
the Fates of Human Societies (New York: W.W. Norton, point of view regarding French imperialism appears
1997). While I do not necessarily subscribe to all of in Daniel LeFeuvre, Pour en Finir avec la Répentance
his conclusions, the author’s case for the importance Coloniale (Paris: Flammerion, 2008). LeFeuvre con-
of these two factors is quite persuasive. tends that French colonialism was a child not only of
3. See Alvin and Heidi Toffler, Creating a New Civilization: the Industrial Revolution, but of the French Revolution
the Politics of the Third Wave (Atlanta, Ga., 1995). and the Declaration of Rights of Man as well.
The term “creative destruction” was first applied
76 ■ Part I Reflections
Pa r t I I
cultures in collision
4 War and Revolution: World War I and 6 The Crisis Deepens: The Outbreak of
Its Aftermath World War II
5 Nationalism, Revolution, and Dictatorship:
Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America
1919 –1939
Everett Collection Inc/Alamy Stock Photo
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaiian Islands, December 7, 1941

Chapter
War and Revolution: World
4 War I and Its Aftermath
Chapter Outline and

Focus Questions
4-1 The Coming of War
QQHow did internal Austrian politics influence
the outbreak of World War I?
4-2 The World at War
QQWhy do you think the war did not come
to an end within a few weeks, as most
Mary Evans Picture Library/The Image Works

observers at the time anticipated?
4-3 The Peace Settlement
QQWhat were the primary objectives of U.S.
President Woodrow Wilson at the Versailles
Peace Conference, and how did they differ
from the postwar aims of other Allied
nations?
4-4 Revolution in Russia IMAGE 4.1 The excitement of war
QQWhat were the causes of the Russian Revolution

of 1917 and why do you believe the Bolsheviks were
able to seize and retain power? NEGOTIATIONS AMONG THE great powers had been
going on for weeks. Anguished messages had been
4-5 An Uncertain Peace exchanged between Berlin, Vienna, and Saint
QQWhy did the Versailles Peace Conference fail to Petersburg as the crowned heads of three empires—
resolve the problems left over by the war and William II of Germany, Francis Joseph of Austria, and
introduce a new era of democracy and economic Nicholas II of Russia—alternated between threats and
progress in Europe? appeals as they sought to avoid the outbreak of all-out
war in Europe. To many observers at the time, the
4-6 The Search for a New Reality in the Arts apparent cause of the sudden international crisis—
QQHow did the cultural and intellectual trends of the assassination of a relatively little-known Austrian
the post-World War I era reflect the political and official in the town of Sarajevo, in the Balkans—
socioeconomic conditions experienced at the time? seemed to be almost absurdly insignificant.
The efforts of these world leaders to avoid a
direct confrontation, however, were in vain: on
August 1, 1914, Germany declared war on Russia.
Three days later, France and Great Britain had
Connections to Today entered the fray on the side of Russia. Surprisingly,
the outbreak of conflict was not generally greeted
What lessons do you believe can be learned today with high anxiety in the countries involved. Many
about the outbreak of World War I that might on both sides even welcomed the prospect of what
enable us to avoid a repeat performance? they expected to be a tidy little war that might be
over in a few weeks. For their part, many followers
78
of the philosophy of Karl Marx were convinced that 4-1a Rising Tensions in Europe
working men and women in Europe would refuse
Between 1871 and 1914, Europeans experienced a long
to fight for their capitalist overlords against their
period of peace, as the great powers sought to main-
counterparts in hostile countries.
A few, however, were more wary. In London, British tain a fragile balance of power in an effort to avert the
Foreign Secretary Edward Grey remarked sorrowfully reemergence of the destructive forces unleashed during
to an acquaintance: “The lamps are going out all over the Napoleonic era. But rivalries among the major world
Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our life- powers continued, and even intensified, leading to a series
time.”1 As it turned out, his comment was all too pre- of crises that might have erupted into a general war. Some
scient. A century of peace and progress was about to of these crises, as we have seen in Chapters 2 and 3, took
come to an end in four years of bloody conflict on the place outside Europe, as the imperialist nations scuffled
battlefields of Europe. The continent would take more for advantage in the race for new colonial territories.
than a generation to recover from the slaughter. But the main focus of European statesmen remained on
Europe itself, where the emergence of Germany as the
most powerful state on the European continent threat-
ened to upset the fragile balance of power that had been
4-1 The Coming of War established at the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Fearful
of a possible anti-German alliance between France and
QQ Focus Question: How did internal
Austrian politics influence the outbreak of
Russia, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck signed a
defensive treaty with Austria in 1879. Three years later,
the alliance was enlarged to include Italy, which was
World War I?
angry with the French over conflicting colonial ambi-
The new century had dawned on a much brighter note. tions in North Africa. The so-called Triple Alliance of
To some contemporaries, the magnificent promise offered 1882 committed the three powers to support the existing
by recent scientific advances and the flowering of the political and social order while maintaining a defensive
Industrial Revolution appeared about to be fulfilled. Few alliance against France.
expressed this mood of optimism better than the renowned While Bismarck was chancellor, German policy had
British historian Arnold Toynbee. In a retrospective look at been essentially cautious, as he sought to prevent rival
the opening of a tumultuous century written many years powers from conspiring against Berlin. But in 1890 the
later, Toynbee remarked: country’s new Emperor William II dismissed the “iron
chancellor” from office and embarked on a more aggres-
[We had expected] that life throughout the world sive foreign policy dedicated to providing Germany with
would become more rational, more humane, and its rightful “place in the sun.” As Bismarck had feared,
more democratic and that, slowly, but surely, political
France and Russia responded by concluding their own
democracy would produce greater social justice. We had
military alliance in 1894. By 1907, a loose confedera-
also expected that the progress of science and technology
tion of Great Britain, France, and Russia—known as the
would make mankind richer, and that this increasing
Triple Entente—stood opposed to the Triple Alliance
wealth would gradually spread from a minority to a
of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. Europe was
majority. We had expected that all this would happen
divided into two opposing camps that became more and
peacefully. In fact we thought that mankind’s course was
more inflexible and unwilling to compromise. The stage
set for an earthly paradise.2
was set for war.
Such bright hopes for the future of humankind were
sadly misplaced. In the summer of 1914, simmering rival-
ries between the major imperialist powers erupted into 4-1b Crisis in the Balkans, 1908–1913
full-scale war. By the time it ended, Europe had suffered The dispute that led to world war began in the Balkans,
extensive physical destruction and the deaths of millions. where the decline of Ottoman power had turned the
Several venerable empires across the continent were in region into a tinderbox of ethnic and religious tensions.
a state of collapse, and the rising power of nationalism In 1908, Austria decided to annex its two protectorates of
appeared unstoppable. Many survivors faced the prospects Bosnia and Herzegovina to prevent them from being seized
for the future with a profound sense of pessimism. The by neighboring Serbia, a young nation whose leaders had
Great War, as it came to be called, was an eerie prelude to visions of creating a large kingdom that would include
a tumultuous century marked by widespread violence and most of the southern Slavic-speaking peoples. When
dramatic change. Russia backed its protégé Serbia, Germany announced its
4-1 The Coming of War ■ 79
Oslo government issued an ultima-
NORWAY Stockholm Saint Petersburg
tum to Serbia, demanding that
SWEDEN
North the latter conduct a full inquiry
Sea
Sea DENMARK Moscow into the event and root out all
GREAT BRITAIN
Copenhagen a l tic signs of anti-Austrian terrorist
B
NETHERLANDS
Amsterdam
activity in the country. Serbian
London
R Berlin
RUSSIA
leaders, confident of Russian
hin
BELGIUM GERMANY support, rejected Austrian
e
Brussels
Se Paris Dn demands as a threat to the
R.
in e iep
er country’s sovereignty. Austrian
R.
Atlantic D a n ub R.
leaders—counting on German
Zürich Vienna e
Ocean R.
FRANCE
SWITZERLAND AUSTRIA-HUNGARY support and determined not to
back down to an insignificant
Po R.
E ROMANIA
rival—then declared war on
Serbia on July 28. Russia, how-
br
R ITALY BOSNIA Bucharest Black

o
Belgrade
MONTENEGRO ever, was still smarting from
.
Madrid Corsica SERBIA Sofia Sea

SPAIN
Rome Sarajevo Tirana BULGARIA Constantinople its humiliation in the Bosnian
ALBANIA crisis of 1908, and thus was
ds
n Sardinia
Isla
Balearic OTTOMAN determined to support Serbia’s
GREECE EMPIRE cause. On July 28, Tsar Nicholas
Sicily
Athens II ordered a partial mobiliza-
tion of the Russian army against
AFRICA Austria. But when the Russian
Me Crete
diter
ranean Se general staff informed the tsar
Triple Entente a that its mobilization plans were
0 250 500 750 Kilometers based on a war against both
Triple Alliance
0 250 500 Miles
Germany and Austria simulta-
neously, he ordered a full mobi-
lization the next day, even while
MAP 4.1 Europe in 1914. By 1914, two alliances dominated Europe: the Triple Entente of
Britain, France, and Russia and the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. knowing that the Germans
Russia sought to bolster fellow Slavs in Serbia, whereas Austria-Hungary was intent on would consider this an act of
increasing its power in the Balkans and thwarting Serbia’s ambitions. Thus, the Balkans war against them. As predicted,
became the flash point for World War I. Berlin responded by demanding
Q Which nonaligned nations were positioned between the two alliances? that the Russians halt their mobi-
lization within twelve hours.
When the Russians ignored the
support of Austria, thus raising the stakes in a potential ultimatum, Germany declared war on Russia on August 1.
conflict. The standoff ended when Russia backed down, Great Britain and France followed suit in defense of their
but tensions within the Balkans had intensified, leading in ally shortly after.
1912 and 1913 to a brief and inconclusive struggle for ter-
ritory among the newly independent states in the region
(see Map 4.1). In the meantime, Great Britain and France The World at War
4-2
drew closer to Saint Petersburg.
4-1c The Outbreak of War QQ Focus Question: Why do you think the war
did not come to an end within a few weeks, as
By now Austrian officials in Vienna had become convinced most observers at the time anticipated?
that Serbia was a mortal threat to their empire and must
be crushed. When Archduke Francis Ferdinand (the heir Before 1914, many political leaders had become con-
to the Austrian throne) and his wife, Sophia, were assas- vinced that war entailed so many political and economic
sinated on June 28, 1914, in the Bosnian city of Sarajevo by risks that it was not worth fighting. A highly popular
a member of a Serbian terrorist organization, the Austrian book published in 1910—British economist Norman
80 ■ CHAPTER 4 War and Revolution: World War I and Its Aftermath

Angell’s The Great Illusion—had argued that the economic The War in the East Faced with the intimidating pros-
costs of a general war would be so high that any rational pect of a two-fronted war, German strategists had counted
national leader would seek to avoid provoking one. Many on achieving a rapid victory on the Western Front before
readers were convinced by this reasoning, in the expecta- launching their offensive against Russia. But the unex-
tion that experienced diplomats could control any situa- pected success of the French in halting the initial attack
tion and prevent the outbreak of war. At the beginning changed the equation. At the beginning of the war, the
of August 1914, both of these illusions were shattered, Russian army moved into eastern Germany but was deci-
but the new illusions that replaced them soon proved to sively defeated at the Battles of Tannenberg on August 30
be equally foolish. and the Masurian Lakes on September 15. The Russians
were no longer a threat to German territory. The Austrians,
4-2a Illusions of Victory, 1914–1915 Germany’s allies, fared less well initially. After they were
Europeans went to war in 1914 with remarkable enthusi- defeated by the Russians in Galicia and thrown out of
asm. Government propaganda in every belligerent nation Serbia as well, the Germans came to their aid. A German-
had been successful in stirring up national antagonisms Austrian army defeated and routed the poorly equipped
before the war. Now, in August 1914, the urgent pleas of Russian army in Galicia and pushed the Russians back
governments for defense against aggressors fell on recep- 300 miles into their own territory. Russian casualties
tive ears, as most people seemed genuinely convinced already stood at 2.5 million killed, captured, or wounded;
that their nation’s cause was just. A new set of illusions the Russians had almost been knocked out of the war.
also fed the general lust for war. In August 1914, almost Buoyed by their success, the Germans and Austrians,
everyone believed that because of the risk of damage joined by the Bulgarians in September 1915, attacked and
to the regional economy, the war would not last long. eliminated Serbia from the war.
People were reminded that most of the major battles in
European wars since 1815 had in fact ended in a matter 4-2b The Great Slaughter, 1916–1917
of weeks. Both the soldiers who exuberantly boarded the By 1916, the early trenches dug in 1914 along the Western
trains for the war front in August 1914 and the jubilant citi- front had by now become elaborate systems of defense.
zens who bombarded them with flowers as they departed Both lines of trenches were protected by barbed-wire
were convinced that that the warriors would be home by entanglements 3 to 5 feet high and 30 yards wide, concrete
Christmas. machine-gun nests, and mortar batteries, supported far-
German hopes for a quick end to the war rested on a ther back by heavy artillery. Troops lived in holes in the
military gamble. The so-called Schlieffen Plan (named ground, separated from the enemy by a no-man’s land.
after its creator, Alfred von Schlieffen, the German Chief The unexpected development of trench warfare baf-
of Staff from 1891 to 1905) had called for the German army fled military leaders who had been trained to fight wars
to march quickly through the neutral state of Belgium of movement and maneuver. Military strategists on both
into northern France with a vast encircling movement sides began to look for technological breakthroughs to
that would sweep around Paris and surround the bulk of end the stalemate. First to do so was Great Britain. Taking
the French army. But the high command had not heeded advantage of the recent invention of the Caterpillar trac-
Schlieffen’s advice to place sufficient troops on the west- tor in the United States, the British introduced tanks (so-
ern salient near the English Channel to guarantee success, called because workers in British factories assembling the
and the German advance was halted only 20 miles from new weapon compared them to large water tanks) on the
Paris at the First Battle of the Marne (September 6–10), Western Front in 1915. The plan was to combine the tanks
where French troops—many of them rushed to the front with infantry assaults to break through enemy lines and
in taxis—soon blunted the German offensive. change the balance of forces on the battlefield. Success,
With Germany’s initial thrust blunted, the war quickly however, was elusive. Tank performance was often unre-
turned into a stalemate, as neither the Germans nor the liable, while rapid advances were difficult because of the
French could dislodge the other from the trenches they uneven terrain, pockmarked by trenches and potholes
had begun to dig for shelter. Two lines of trenches soon caused by heavy artillery bombardments. Airplanes—just a
extended over 400 miles from the English Channel to the few years into their development—were utilized primarily
frontiers of Switzerland (see Map 4.2). The Western Front for reconnaissance purposes, since their capacity to serve
had become bogged down in trench warfare that kept as an offensive weapon was still limited. For the most part,
both sides immobilized in virtually the same positions for the war in the air was characterized by dogfights between
four years. squadrons of fighters on both sides.
4-2 The World at War ■ 81

0 200 400 Miles

SWEDEN
Saint Petersburg
Stockholm
North
Sea RUSSIA
a
Se
ic
Balt
Moscow
(EAST
PRUSSIA)
GREAT Tannenberg
BRITAIN NETHERLANDS GERMAN Masurian Lakes
Do
EMPIRE Brest-Litovsk
n
London Antwerp Warsaw
Ypres Brussels Cologne
R.
Le Calais BELGIUM Coblenz
Havre Arras LUX. Frankfurt Prague Dn
Luxembourg GALICIA Kiev iepe
Paris AUSTRIA- r
Seine R. Verdun D ni e R.
Versailles Nancy Vienna ste
Carpathi r (UKRAINE)
an M
ts.
R.
SWITZERLAND Budapest
HUNGARY
ps
TRANSYLVANIA
Al
FRANCE (CRIMEA)
Po R.
Belgrade ROMANIA
Danube R. Bucharest
(BOSNIA)
SERBIA Sofia
Black Sea
Corsica MONTE-
NEGRO BULGARIA
ITALY Constantinople
ALBANIA Salonika Gallipoli Bosporus
Sardinia GREECE Dardanelles OTTOMAN EMPIRE
Eastern Front: Western Front:
Battle site, 1914 Farthest German advance, September 1914 German advances
Russian advances, 1914–1916 German offensive, March–July 1918 Allied advances
Deepest German penetration Winter, 1914–1915 (CRIMEA) Regions of national

states
Brest-Litovsk boundary, 1918 Armistice line
MAP 4.2 World War I, 1914–1918. This map shows how greatly the Western and Eastern Fronts of World War
I differed. After initial German gains in the west, the war became bogged down in trench warfare, with little
change in the battle lines throughout the war. The Eastern Front was marked by considerable mobility, with
battle lines shifting by hundreds of miles.
Q How do you explain the difference in the two fronts?
Stymied by limits to their capacity to effectively uti- open fields at a severe disadvantage. In 1916 and 1917,
lize the latest advances in military technology effectively, millions of young men were sacrificed in the search for
military commanders on both sides fell back on continu- the elusive breakthrough. In ten months at Verdun in
ous attempts to achieve a breakthrough by throwing 1916, 700,000 men lost their lives over a few miles of ter-
masses of men against enemy lines that had first been rain (see Image 4.2).
battered by artillery barrages. After “softening up” the Warfare in the trenches of the Western Front produced
enemy in this fashion, a mass of soldiers would climb out unimaginable horrors. Battlefields were hellish landscapes
of their trenches with fixed bayonets and hope to work of barbed wire, shell holes, mud, and injured and dying men.
their way toward the opposing trenches. The attacks The bright visions of quick victory that had motivated all
rarely worked, as the machine gun—ever more effective sides to enlist quickly evaporated (see Opposing Viewpoints,
since the invention of the Maxim gun a few years previ- “The Excitement and the Reality of War,” p. 84). The intro-
ously—put hordes of men advancing unprotected across duction of poison gas in 1915 produced new forms of
countries began to recruit troops from their colonies to
serve on the front lines. Punjabis and Gurkhas from India,
Zouaves from North Africa, Cossacks from Central Asia,
and infantry units from Australia and New Zealand (tied
defensively to Great Britain by their shared membership
in the British Commonwealth) fought side by side with
their European counterparts. Thousands of others, mainly
from Africa and French Indochina, served as laborers on
the battlefield or in factories to replace workers who had
been drafted into military service. An estimated 80,000
Africans were killed or injured in the war, where they
served as front-line troops, workers, or as bearers of provi-
sions at the Front.
The Middle East, in particular, became an important
front in the war. German war planners had hoped that the
Hulton Archive/Stringer/Getty Images
Ottoman Empire, long an influential force in the Middle

East, could be persuaded to conduct a holy war that would
eliminate British and French influence throughout the
region, especially in the Arabian peninsula, where vast oil
reserves had recently been discovered. German Emperor
William II was personally obsessed with destroying the
British Empire, pledging that “if we are to be bled to death,
IMAGE 4.2 The Horrors of War. The slaughter of millions of England shall at least lose India.”3
men in the trenches of World War I created unimaginable
The Turks, always suspicious of the Russians, eventu-
horrors for the participants. For the sake of survival, many
soldiers learned to harden themselves against the stench ally agreed to enter the war on the German side, a deci-
of decomposing bodies and the sight of bodies horribly sion that provoked the British to launch a disastrous attack
dismembered by artillery barrages. at Gallipoli, south of Constantinople, in 1915. But Berlin
had miscalculated, for the Turks had their own vulnerabili-
Q Do you think it is understandable that under these
conditions, many soldiers on both sides of the conflict ties. In 1917, the dashing but eccentric British adventurer
would desert their posts or refuse to fight? T. E. Lawrence (1888–1935), popularly known as Lawrence
of Arabia, incited tribal groups in the Arabian peninsula
to revolt against their Ottoman overlords (see Movies &
injuries, but the first aerial battles were a rare sideshow and History, Lawrence of Arabia, p. 85). Then, in 1918, British
gave no hint of the horrors to come with air warfare in the forces from Egypt destroyed the rest of the Ottoman
future. Empire in the Middle East. For these campaigns, the British
Soldiers in the trenches also lived with the persistent mobilized forces from India, Australia, and New Zealand.
presence of death. Since combat went on for months, sol- The Allies also took advantage of Germany’s preoccupa-
diers had to carry on in the midst of countless dead bodies tions in Europe and lack of naval strength to seize German
and the remains of men dismembered by artillery bar- colonies in Africa. Japan – which had recently signed a
rages. Many soldiers remembered the stench of decom- defensive treaty with Great Britain – seized a number of
posing bodies and the swarms of rats that grew fat in the German-held islands in the Pacific, and Australia took
trenches. At one point, battlefield conditions became so bad over German New Guinea (for further discussion of these
that units of the French army erupted in open mutiny. The events, see Chapter 5). Germany’s effort to adopt a global
high command responded by carrying out widespread exe- strategy to counter British control over the oceans had
cutions of suspected ringleaders. Similar events occurred disastrously failed to achieve its objective.
within the armies of the other belligerent countries.
The Yanks are Coming Another important factor to the
4-2c The Widening of the War Allied cause was the entry of the United States into the war.
As the war settled into a long, grueling struggle that con- At first, the administration of President Woodrow Wilson
sumed almost the entire continent, its tentacles began to tried to remain neutral, but that became more difficult as the
stretch into other parts of the world as well. Faced with war dragged on. The naval conflict between Germany and
high casualties on the battlefield, the major imperialist Great Britain was the immediate reason for U.S. concern.
Opposing Viewpoints
The Excitement and the Reality of War

What did the great mass know of war in 1914, after
Q According to Stefan Zweig, why did so many nearly half a century of peace? They did not know war,
Europeans welcome the outbreak of war in 1914? they had hardly given it a thought. It had become legend-
Why had they so badly underestimated the cost? ary, and distance had made it seem romantic and heroic.
They still saw it in the perspective of their school readers
and of paintings in museums; brilliant cavalry attacks in
Politics & The incredible outpouring of patriotic
Government glittering uniforms, the fatal shot always straight through
enthusiasm that greeted the declaration of
the heart, the entire campaign a resounding march of
war at the beginning of August 1914 demonstrated the
victory—“We’ll be home at Christmas,” the recruits
power that nationalistic feeling had attained at the
shouted laughingly to their mothers in August of 1914.
beginning of the twentieth century. Many Europeans seemed
. . . A rapid excursion into the romantic, a wild, manly
to believe that the war had given them a higher purpose, a
adventure—that is how the war of 1914 was painted in
renewed dedication to the greatness of their nation. That
the imagination of the simple man, and the younger peo-
sense of enthusiasm was captured by the Austrian writer
ple were honestly afraid that they might miss this most
Stefan Zweig in his book The World of Yesterday.
wonderful and exciting experience of their lives; that
The reality of war was entirely different. Soldiers who
is why they hurried and thronged to the colors, and that
had left for the front in August 1914 in the belief that they
is why they shouted and sang in the trains that carried
would be home by Christmas found themselves shivering
them to the slaughter; wildly and feverishly the red wave
and dying in the vast networks of trenches along the
of blood coursed through the veins of the entire nation.
battlefront. Few expressed the horror of trench warfare as
well as the German writer Erich Maria Remarque in his Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front
famous novel All Quiet on the Western Front, first published
We wake up in the middle of the night. The earth booms.
in a German newspaper in 1928.
Heavy fire is falling on us. We crouch into corners. . . .
Stefan Zweig, The World of Yesterday Every man is aware of the heavy shells tearing down the
parapet, rooting up the embankment and demolishing
The next morning I was in Austria. In every station
the upper layers of concrete. . . . Already by morning a
placards had been put up announcing general mobiliza-
few of the recruits are green and vomiting. . . .
tion. The trains were filled with fresh recruits, banners
No one would believe that in this howling waste there
were flying, music sounded, and in Vienna I found the
could still be men, but steel helmets now appear on all
entire city in a tumult. . . . There were parades in the
sides out of the trench, and fifty yards from us a machine-
street, flags, ribbons, and music burst forth everywhere,
gun is already in position and barking.
young recruits were marching triumphantly, their faces
The wire-entanglements are torn to pieces. Yet they
lighting up at the cheering. . . .
offer some obstacle. We see the storm-troops coming. . . .
And to be truthful, I must acknowledge that there was
We recognize the distorted faces, the smooth helmets: they
a majestic, rapturous, and even seductive something in
are French. They have already suffered heavily when they
this first outbreak of the people from which one could
reach the remnants of the barbed wire entanglements.
escape only with difficulty. And in spite of all my hatred
I see one of them, his face upturned, fall into a wire
and aversion for war, I should not like to have missed the
cradle. His body collapses, his hands remain suspended as
memory of those days. As never before, thousands and
though he were praying. Then his body drops clear away
hundreds of thousands felt what they should have felt in
and only his hands with the stumps of his arms, shot off,
peace time, that they belonged together.
now hang in the wire.
Sources: From The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig, translated by Helmut Ripperger. Translation copyright 1943 by the Viking Press, Inc. All Quiet
on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. Im Westen nichts Neues, copyright 1928 by Ullstein A. G.; copyright renewed © 1956 by Erich Maria
Remarque. All Quiet on the Western Front, copyright 1929, 1930 by Little, Brown and Company. Copyright renewed © 1957, 1958 by Erich Maria
Remarque. All Rights Reserved.

MOVIES & HISTORY
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
The conflict in the Middle East produced one of the
great romantic heroes of World War I. T. E. Lawrence,
a British army officer popularly known as Lawrence of
Arabia, organized Arab tribesmen and led them in battle
against the Ottoman Turks, who had become allies of the
Ronald Grant Archive/Alamy Stock Photo

Central Powers (Germany and its allies). Although the
military significance of Lawrence’s exploits was limited,
their long-term implications for the region were enormous.
During the peace negotiations that followed the German
surrender in November 1918, most Ottoman possessions
in the Middle East were replaced by British and French
mandates, while the Arabian peninsula embarked on the
road to independence under the tribal chieftain Ibn Saud. T. E. Lawrence (Peter O’Toole in white) at the head of the
The political implications of that settlement are still Arab tribes.
important today.
The movie Lawrence of Arabia, directed by the great Faisal—languidly played by the consummate actor Alec
British filmmaker David Lean, won seven Oscars and Guinness—openly sought their independence from
made an instant star of actor Peter O’Toole, who played Turkish rule, but initially appeared hopelessly divided.
the eccentric Lawrence with mesmerizing perfection. It was Major Lawrence who provided the spark and the
The cinematography and the acting are both superb, and determination to knit together a coalition of Arab forces
Lean’s deft portrayal of the behavior and motives of all capable of winning crucial victories in the final year of
participants makes the lengthy film (more than three the war. Faisal himself would eventually be chosen by the
hours) essential viewing for those interested in compre- British to become the king of the artificial state of Iraq.
hending the complex roots of the current situation in the Lawrence himself remains an enigma—in the movie
Middle East. as in real life. Combining a fervent idealism about the
British objectives, as voiced by the British general Arab cause with an overweening sense of self-promotion,
Viscount Edmund Allenby (played by the veteran actor he played to the end an ambiguous role in the geopoli-
Jack Hawkins), were unabashedly military in nature— tics of the Middle East. Disenchanted with the postwar
use Arab unrest in the region as a means of taking the peace settlement, he eventually removed himself from the
Ottomans out of the war. Arab leaders such as Prince public eye and died in a motorcycle accident in 1935.
Britain took advantage of its superior naval power to impose to launch a military attack to recover territories lost to the
a naval blockade on Germany. The latter retaliated with a United States in the American Southwest.
counterblockade enforced by unrestricted submarine war- The resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare,
fare. Strong U.S. protests over the German sinking of pas- combined with outrage over the Zimmerman telegram
senger liners—especially the British ship Lusitania on May 7, (which had been decoded by the British and provided to
1915, when more than 100 Americans lost their lives—forced U.S. diplomats in London), finally brought the United
the German government to suspend unrestricted submarine States into the war on April 6, 1917. Although American
warfare to avoid further antagonizing the Americans. troops did not arrive in Europe in large numbers until 1918,
In January 1917, however, German naval officers con- the U.S. entry into the war gave the Allies a badly needed
vinced Emperor William II that the renewed use of unre- psychological boost at a time when their offensive efforts
stricted submarine warfare could starve the British into on the Western Front had achieved disappointing results.
submission within five months. To create a distraction Then, in November 1917, the Bolshevik Revolution in
in case the White House should decide to enter the war Russia (see “4-4 Revolution in Russia,” p. 90) led to Russia’s
on the Allied side, German Foreign Minister Alfred von withdrawal from the war, leaving Germany free to concen-
Zimmerman secretly encouraged the Mexican government trate entirely on the Western Front.
4-2d The Home Front: The Impact of Total War Morale Problems As the Great War dragged on and both
Because most of the participants had expected the war to casualties and privations worsened, internal dissatisfaction
be short, they had given little thought to economic prob- replaced the patriotic enthusiasm that had marked the
lems and long-term wartime needs. Governments had to early stages of the conflict. By 1916, there were numerous
respond quickly, however, when the war machines failed signs that civilian morale was beginning to crack under the
to achieve their knockout blows and made ever-greater pressure of total war. War governments, however, fought
demands for men and matériel. The extension of govern- back against the growing opposition to the war, as even
ment power was a logical outgrowth of these needs. Most parliamentary regimes resorted to an expansion of police
European countries had already devised some system of powers to stifle internal dissent. At the very beginning of
mass conscription or military draft. It was now carried the war, the British Parliament passed the Defence of the
to unprecedented heights as countries mobilized tens of Realm Act (DORA), which allowed the public authorities
millions of young men for that elusive breakthrough to to arrest dissenters as traitors. The act was later extended
victory. to authorize public officials to censor newspapers by delet-
Throughout Europe, wartime governments also ing objectionable material and even to suspend newspa-
expanded their powers over their economies. Free per publication. In France, government authorities had
market capitalistic systems were temporarily shelved as initially been lenient about public opposition to the war,
governments experimented with price, wage, and rent but by 1917, they began to fear that open opposition to the
controls; the rationing of food supplies and matériel; the war might weaken the French will to fight. When Georges
regulation of imports and exports; and the nationalization Clemenceau (1841–1929) became premier near the end of
of transportation systems and industries. Compulsory 1917, the lenient French policies came to an end, and basic
military service was adopted for all eligible males. Some civil liberties were suppressed for the duration of the war.
governments even moved toward compulsory employ- When a former premier publicly advocated a negotiated
ment. In effect, to mobilize the entire resources of the peace, Clemenceau’s government had him sentenced to
nation for the war effort, European countries had moved prison for two years for treason.
toward planned economies directed by government
agencies. 4-2e The Last Year of the War
Germany was suffering from morale problems as well,
not only on the battlefield but on the home front, where
Women in World War I The war also created new roles the Allied blockade caused severe privation for civilians
for women. Because so many men went off to fight at the and aroused growing discontent over the continuation of
front, women were called on to take over jobs and responsi- the war. The withdrawal of the Russians from the war in
bilities that had not been available to them before. Overall, March 1918 briefly offered renewed hope for a favorable
the number of women employed in Britain who held new end to the conflict. Erich von Ludendorff (1865–1937),
jobs or replaced men rose by 1,345,000. Their occupations who guided German military operations, persuaded civil-
included chimney sweeps, truck drivers, farm laborers, and ian leaders to make one final gamble—a grand offensive
factory workers in heavy industry (see Historical Voices, in the west to break the military stalemate. The German
“Women in the Factories,” p. 87). By 1918, some 38 per- attack was launched in March and lasted into July, but an
cent of the workers in the Krupp armaments factories in Allied counterattack, supported by the arrival of 140,000
Germany were women. fresh American troops, defeated the Germans at the Second
While male workers expressed concern that Battle of the Marne on July 18. Ludendorff ’s gamble had
the employment of females at lower wages would failed. With the arrival of 2 million more American troops
depress their own wages, women began to demand equal on the European continent, Allied forces began to advance
pay legislation. A law passed by the French government steadily toward Germany.
in July 1915 established a minimum wage for women On September 29, 1918, General Ludendorff informed
home-workers in textiles, an industry that had grown German leaders that the war was lost and recommended
dramatically thanks to the demand for military uni- that the government sue for peace. When German offi-
forms. Later in 1917, the government decreed that men cials discovered that the Allies were unwilling to nego-
and women should receive equal rates for piecework. tiate a settlement with the wartime leadership, reforms
Despite the noticeable increase in women’s wages that were instituted to create a liberal government that would
resulted from government regulations, women’s indus- be more acceptable to the Allies. But these constitu-
trial wages still were not equal to men’s wages by the end tional reforms came too late for the exhausted and res-
of the war. tive German people. On November 3, naval units in Kiel
HISTORICAL VOICES
Women in the Factories

not attempt to use our brains, we give entire satisfac-
Q What did Naomi Loughnan learn about men and tion, and are treated as nice, good children. Any swerving
lower-class women while working in the munitions from the easy path prepared for us by our males arouses
factory? What did she learn about herself? the most scathing contempt in their manly bosoms. . . .
Women have, however, proved that their entry into the
munition world has increased the output. Employers who
Family & DURING WORLD WAR I, women were called on
Society forget things personal in their patriotic desire for large
to assume new job responsibilities, including
results are enthusiastic over the success of women in the
factory work. In this selection, Naomi Loughnan, a young,
shops. But their workmen have to be handled with the
upper-middle-class woman, describes the experiences in a
utmost tenderness and caution lest they should actually
munitions plant that considerably broadened her perspective
imagine it was being suggested that women could do their
on life.
work equally well, given equal conditions of training—at
Naomi Loughnan, “Munition Work” least where muscle is not the driving force. . . .
The coming of the mixed classes of women into the
We little thought when we first put on our overalls and
factory is slowly but surely having an educative effect
caps and enlisted in the Munition Army how much
upon the men. “Language” is almost unconsciously
more inspiring our life was to be than we had dared to
becoming subdued. There are fiery exceptions, who
hope. . . . Our long days are filled with interest, and with
make our hair stand up on end under our close-fitting
the zest of doing work for our country in the grand
caps, but a sharp rebuke or a look of horror will often
cause of Freedom. As we handle the weapons of war
straighten out the most savage. . . . It is grievous to hear
we are learning great lessons of life. In the busy noisy
the girls also swearing and using disgusting language.
workshops we come face to face with every kind of class,
Shoulder to shoulder with the children of the slums, the
and each one of these classes has something to learn
upper classes are having their eyes opened at last to the
from the others. . . .
awful conditions among which their sisters have dwelt.
Engineering mankind is possessed of the unshakable
Foul language, immorality and many other evils are but
opinion that no woman can have the mechanical sense. If
the natural outcome of overcrowding and bitter poverty .
one of us asks humbly why such and such an alteration is
. . Sometimes disgust will overcome us, but we are learn-
not made to prevent this or that drawback to a machine,
ing with painful clarity that the fault is not theirs whose
she is told, with a superior smile, that a man has worked
actions disgust us, but must be placed to the discredit
her machine before her for years, and that therefore if
of those other classes who have allowed the continued
there were any improvement possible it would have been
existence of conditions which generate the things from
made. As long as we do exactly what we are told and do
which we shrink appalled.
Source: From “Munition Work” by Naomi Loughnan in Gilbert Stone, ed., Women War Workers (London: George Harrap and Company, 1971),
pp. 25, 35, 38.
mutinied, and within days, councils of workers and sol- The news of the armistice brought tears of joy to the
diers were forming throughout northern Germany and eyes of millions. But the way the conflict had ended—with
taking over civilian and military administrations. Bowing German armies still fighting on foreign battlefields—was
to public pressure, William II abdicated on November 9, ominous. Rumors soon began to circulate in Germany that
and members of the German Socialist Party under its armies had not actually been defeated, but had been
Friedrich Ebert (1871–1925) announced the establishment “stabbed in the back” by defeatists (many of them Jews or
of a republic. Two days later, on November 11, 1918, the Marxists) who had just established the new republic. The
new German government agreed to an armistice. The Great War was over, but anger at the result had begun to
war was over. fester in the minds of millions of Germans.
The final tally of casualties from the war was appalling. was enthusiastically cheered by many Europeans when he
Nearly 10 million soldiers were dead, including 5 million arrived in Europe for the peace conference.
on the Allied side and 3.5 million from the Central Powers. Wilson soon found, however, that his soaring rhetoric did
Millions more were mutilated from their wounds on the not always match the reality on the ground. In particular,
battlefield. Civilian deaths were nearly as high. France, representatives of other states at the conference were guided
which had borne much of the burden of the war, suffered by considerably more pragmatic motives. The secret treaties
nearly 2 million deaths, including one out of every four and agreements that had been made before and during the
males between eighteen and thirty years of age. war could not be totally ignored, even if they conflicted with
Wilson’s principle of self-determination. National interests
also complicated the deliberations of the conference. In
4-3 The Peace Settlement particular, he discovered that two of his key allies were
determined to punish their adversaries severely for having
QQ Focus Question: What were the primary
objectives of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson
provoked the conflict. David Lloyd George (1863–1945),
prime minister of Great Britain, had in fact won a decisive
at the Versailles Peace Conference, and how electoral victory in December 1918 on a platform of making
did they differ from the postwar aims of other the Germans pay for this dreadful war.
Allied nations? Georges Clemenceau, the feisty French premier who
had led his country to victory, appeared to be even more
In January 1919, the delegations of twenty-seven victori- vindictive. In his view, the French people had borne
ous Allied nations gathered at the palace of Versailles near the brunt of German aggression and deserved security
Paris to conclude a final settlement of the Great War. Some against any possible future attack. To achieve that goal,
delegates hoped that this conference would avoid the mis- Clemenceau wanted a demilitarized Germany, vast rep-
takes made at Vienna in 1815 by aristocrats who rearranged arations to pay for the costs of the war, and a separate
the map of Europe to meet the selfish desires of the great Rhineland as a buffer state between France and Germany—
powers. As Harold Nicolson, one of the British delegates, demands that Wilson viewed as contrary to the principle
remarked: “We were journeying to Paris not merely to liq- of national self-determination. The Europeans, he once
uidate the war, but to found a New Order in Europe. We complained to a colleague, just want to “divide the swag.”5
were preparing not Peace only, but Eternal Peace. There was Although twenty-seven nations were represented at the
about us the halo of some divine mission. . . . For we were Paris Peace Conference, the most important decisions were
bent on doing great, permanent and noble things.”4 made by Wilson, Clemenceau, and Lloyd George. Italy was
technically considered one of the so-called Big Four pow-
4-3a The Vision of Woodrow Wilson ers, but it played a much less important role than the other
National expectations, however, made Nicolson’s quest for three countries. Germany was not invited to attend, and
“eternal peace” a difficult one. Over the course of the war, the Russia could not because it was embroiled in civil war.
reasons for fighting had been tacitly transformed from self-
ish national interests to idealistic principles. No one expressed Forming the League of Nations In view of the many con-
the latter better than Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924). The flicting demands at Versailles, it was inevitable that the Big
American president outlined to the U.S. Congress “Fourteen Three would quarrel. Wilson was determined to create a
Points” that he believed justified the enormous military League of Nations to prevent future wars. Clemenceau and
struggle then being waged. Wilson’s proposals included Lloyd George were equally determined to punish Germany.
“open covenants of peace, openly arrived at” instead of secret In the end, only compromise made it possible to achieve
diplomacy; the reduction of national armaments to a “point a peace settlement. On January 25, 1919, the conference
consistent with domestic safety”; and the self-determination adopted the principle of the League of Nations (the details
of peoples so that “all well-defined national aspirations shall of its structure were left for later sessions); Wilson willingly
be accorded the utmost satisfaction.” Wilson characterized agreed to make compromises on territorial arrangements
World War I as a people’s war waged against “absolutism and to guarantee the League’s establishment, believing that a
militarism,” two scourges of liberty that could be eliminated functioning League could later rectify bad arrangements.
only by creating democratic governments and a “general asso- Clemenceau also compromised to obtain some guarantees
ciation of nations” that would guarantee “political indepen- for French security. He renounced France’s desire for a sep-
dence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.” arate Rhineland and instead accepted a defensive alliance
As the self-proclaimed spokesman for a new world order with Great Britain and the United States, both of which
based on democracy and international cooperation, Wilson pledged to help France if it was attacked by Germany.
4-3b The Treaty of Versailles air force. German territorial losses included the return of
The final peace settlement at Paris consisted of five sepa- Alsace and Lorraine to France and sections of Prussia to
rate treaties with the defeated nations—Germany, Austria, the new Polish state. German territory west and as far as
Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey. The Treaty of Versailles 30 miles east of the Rhine was established as a demilita-
with Germany, signed on June 28, 1919, was by far the rized zone and stripped of all armaments or fortifications
most important one. The Germans considered it a harsh to serve as a barrier to any future German military moves
peace and were particularly unhappy with Article 231, westward against France. Although outraged by what it
the so-called war guilt clause, which declared Germany considered a “dictated peace,” the new German govern-
(and Austria) responsible for starting the war and ordered ment had no choice but to accept the treaty.
Germany to pay reparations for all the damage to which The separate peace treaties made with the other
the Allied governments and their people had been sub- Central Powers extensively redrew the map of eastern
jected as a result of the war “imposed upon them by the Europe (see Map 4.3). Many of these changes merely
aggression of Germany and her allies.” ratified what the war had already accomplished. Both
The military and territorial provisions of the treaty also Germany and Russia lost considerable territory in eastern
rankled the Germans. Germany was required to lower its Europe; the Austro-Hungarian Empire disappeared alto-
army to 100,000 men, reduce its navy, and eliminate its gether. New nation-states emerged from the remnants of
FINLAND 0 300 600 900 Kilometers

NORWAY Helsinki
Oslo Stockholm
Reval Petrograd 0 300 600 Miles
ESTONIA
Sea
North SWEDEN Riga

c
LATVIA
lti
DENMARK Moscow
Sea
Ba
Copenhagen MEMEL LITHUANIA

SCHLESWIG EAST Kaunus SOVIET
GREAT
Danzig PRUSSIA UNION
BRITAIN WHITE
Amsterdam Berlin CORRIDOR Brest-Litovsk RUSSIA
Don
London NETH.GERMANY Warsaw
POLAND
BELGIUM Weimar Prague Dn
LUX. Lvov Kiev iepe
r R.
Paris CZECHOSLOVAKIA R.
GALICIA Vo
ALSACE- SAAR Munich lg
LORRAINE Vienna Budapest UKRAINE
a
AUSTRIA R.
SWITZ. HUNGARY
FRANCE S. TYROL Trieste
Po R.
Fiume Belgrade ROMANIA CRIMEA
ITALY Bucharest
Ad YUGOSLAVIA
Ca
ria Black Sea
sp
Ebr tic Sofia
ian
o Corsica Rome Se Tirana BULGARIA TRA
R. a NSC
ALBANIA AU
Constantinople
Se
Madrid CA
s
SIA
nd
Ankara
a
Sardinia A
ENI
sl a
SPAIN c I GREECE RM AZ
ER
ari TURKEY A B
Bale Tigris
AI
Sicily Athens KUR
JA
DIS
N
ME TA
S
Euph OPO N
TA
Med IRAN
R.
Crete
ra
Cyprus SYRIA
M
s
te
iterra
IA
nean Sea Damascus R. Baghdad

Lost immediately after World War I
PALESTINE IRAQ
By Russia By Bulgaria TRANS-
Suez JORDAN
By Germany By Austria-Hungary Cairo Canal
EGYPT
By Ottoman Empire
SAUDI ARABIA
MAP 4.3 Territorial Changes in Europe and the Middle East After World War I. The victorious Allies met in Paris
to determine the shape and nature of postwar Europe. At the urging of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, many
nationalist aspirations of former imperial subjects were realized with the creation of several new countries
from the prewar territory of Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire.
Q What new countries emerged in Europe and the Middle East?
4-3 The Peace Settlement ■ 89

these three empires: Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, As it turned out, the onset of war served not to revive
Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Hungary. Territorial the Russian monarchy, but rather—as is so often the case
rearrangements were also made in the Balkans. Romania with decrepit empires undergoing dramatic change—to
acquired additional lands from Russia, Hungary, and undermine its already fragile foundations. World War I
Bulgaria. Serbia formed the nucleus of a new south Slav halted the trajectory of Russia’s economic growth and
state, called Yugoslavia, which combined Serbs, Croats, set the stage for the final collapse of the old order.
and Slovenes. The Ottoman Empire was also broken up, After stirring victories in the early stages of the war,
remaking the map of the Middle East (see Chapter 5). news from the battlefield turned increasingly grim as
Although the Paris Peace Conference was supposedly poorly armed Russian soldiers were slaughtered by the
guided by the principle of self-determination, the mixtures modern armies of the German emperor. Between 1914
of peoples in eastern Europe made it impossible to draw and 1916, 2 million Russian soldiers were killed, and
boundaries along neat ethnic lines. Compromises had to be another 4 to 6 million were wounded or captured. The
made, sometimes to satisfy the national interest of the vic- conscription of peasants from the countryside caused
tors. France, for example, had lost Russia as its major ally food prices to rise and led to periodic bread shortages
on Germany’s eastern border and wanted to strengthen in the major cities. Workers grew increasingly restive at
Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Romania as the wartime schedule of long hours with low pay and
much as possible so that those states could serve as bar- joined army deserters in angry marches through the
riers against Germany and Communist Russia. As a result capital of Saint Petersburg (now for patriotic reasons
of such compromises, virtually every eastern European renamed Petrograd).
state was left with national minorities that could lead to It was a classic scenario for revolution—discontent in
future conflicts: Germans in Poland; Hungarians, Poles, the big cities fueled by mutinous troops streaming home
and Germans in Czechoslovakia; and the combination of from the battlefield and a rising level of lawlessness in rural
Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Macedonians, and Albanians in areas as angry peasants seized land and burned the manor
Yugoslavia all became sources of later conflict. Moreover, houses of the wealthy. Even the urban middle class, always
the new map of eastern Europe was based on the tem- a bellwether on the political scene, grew impatient with the
porary collapse of power in both Germany and Russia. economic crisis and the bad news from the front and began
As neither country accepted the new eastern frontiers, to question the competence of the tsar and his advisers. In
it seemed only a matter of time before both would seek March 1917 (late February according to the old-style Julian
to make changes. In retrospect, the fear expressed by U.S. calendar still in use in Russia), government troops fired at
Secretary of State Robert Lansing that the principle of self- demonstrators in the streets of the capital and killed sev-
determination aroused hopes that “can never be realized” eral. An angry mob marched to the Duma (the ineffectual
seems all too justified. legislative body established after the abortive revolution in
1905), where restive delegates demanded the resignation
of the tsar’s cabinet.
4-4 Revolution in Russia
4-4a The March Uprising
QQ Focus Question: What were the causes of the

Russian Revolution of 1917 and why do you
Nicholas II, whose character combined the fatal quali-
ties of stupidity and stubbornness, had never wanted to
believe the Bolsheviks were able to seize and share the supreme power he had inherited. After a brief
retain power? period of hesitation, he abdicated, leaving a vacuum that
was quickly seized by leading elements in the Duma,
One of the more important consequences of the Great War who formed a provisional government to steer Russia
was the impact that it had on Imperial Russia. In the summer through the crisis. On the left, reformist and radical
of 1914, Tsar Nicholas II had almost appeared to welcome political parties—including the Social Revolutionaries
the prospect of a European war. Such a conflict, he hoped, (the legal successors of the outlawed terrorist orga-
would unite his subjects at a time when his empire was pass- nization Narodnaya Volya) and the Russian Social
ing through a period of rapid social change and political Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP), the only orthodox
unrest. The imperial government had survived the popu- Marxist party active in Russia—cooperated in creating a
lar demonstrations that erupted during the Russo-Japanese shadow government called the Saint Petersburg Soviet.
War of 1904–1905, although the tsar had been forced to It supported the provisional government in pursuing the
grant a series of reforms in a desperate effort to forestall the war but attempted to compel it to grant economic and
collapse of the traditional system (see Chapter 1). social reforms that would benefit the masses.
The March 1917 uprising had brought about the col- From his residence in exile in Switzerland, Lenin heard
lapse of the monarchy but offered little promise of solving the news of the collapse of the tsarist monarchy and
the deeper problems that had led Russia to the brink of decided to return to Russia. The German government
civil war. As the crisis continued, radical members of the secretly provided him and his followers with a sealed rail-
RSDLP began to hope that a social revolution was at hand. road car to travel through Germany, undoubtedly in the
Marxism had first appeared in Russia in the 1880s. hope that his presence would promote instability in Russia.
Early Marxists, aware of the primitive conditions in their On his arrival in Petrograd in April 1917, Lenin laid out a
country, asked Karl Marx himself for advice. The Russian program for the RSDLP: all power to the soviets (locally
proletariat was oppressed—indeed, brutalized—but small elected government councils), an end to the war, and the
in numbers and unsophisticated. Could agrarian Russia distribution of land to poor peasants. But Lenin’s April
make the transition to socialism without an intervening Theses (see Historical Voices, “All Power to the Soviets,”
stage of capitalism? Marx, who always showed more tac- p. 92) were too radical even for his fellow Bolsheviks, who
tical flexibility than the rigid determinism of his system continued to cooperate with the provisional government
suggested, replied that Russia might be able to avoid the while attempting to push it to the left. His onetime mentor
capitalist stage by building on the communal traditions of Plekhanov remarked that Lenin’s plans for a general upris-
the Russian village, known as the mir. ing were “delirious.”
But as Russian Marxism evolved, its leaders turned more
toward Marxist orthodoxy. Founding member George
Plekhanov saw signs in the early stages of its industrial 4-4b The Bolshevik Revolution
revolution that Russia would follow the classic pattern. In During the summer, the crisis worsened, and in July, riots
1898, the RSDLP held its first congress. by workers and soldiers in the capital led the provisional
government to outlaw the Bolsheviks and call for Lenin’s
Lenin and the Bolsheviks During the last decade of arrest. The “July Days,” raising the threat of disorder and
the nineteenth century, a new force entered the Russian class war, aroused the fears of conservatives and split the
Marxist movement in the figure of Vladimir Ulyanov, later fragile political consensus within the provisional govern-
to be known as Lenin (1870–1924). Initially radicalized by ment. In September, General Lavr Kornilov, commander
the execution of his older brother for terrorism in 1886, in chief of Russian imperial forces, launched a coup d’état
he became a revolutionary and a member of Plekhanov’s to seize power from Alexander Kerensky, a lawyer who
RSDLP. Like Plekhanov, Lenin believed in the revolution, was now the dominant figure in the provisional govern-
but he was a man in a hurry. Whereas Plekhanov sought ment. The revolt was put down with the help of so-called
to prepare patiently for revolution by education and mass Red Guard units, formed by the Bolsheviks within army
work, Lenin wanted to build up the party rapidly as a regiments in the capital area (these troops would later be
vanguard instrument to galvanize the masses and spur regarded as the first units of the Red Army), but Lenin
the workers to revolt. In a pamphlet titled What Is to Be now sensed the weakness of the provisional government
Done? he proposed the transformation of the RSDLP into and persuaded his colleagues to prepare for revolt. On
a compact and highly disciplined group of professional the night of November 7 (October 25, old style), forces
revolutionaries that would not merely ride the crest of the under the command of Lenin’s lieutenant, Leon Trotsky
revolutionary wave but would unleash the storm clouds (1879–1940), seized key installations in the capital area,
of revolt. while other units loyal to the Bolsheviks, including muti-
At the Second National Congress of the RSDLP, nous sailors from the battleship Aurora stationed nearby
held in 1903 in Brussels and London, Lenin’s ideas on the Neva River, stormed the Winter Palace, where
were supported by a majority of the delegates (thus, supporters of the provisional government were quickly
the term Bolsheviks, or “majorityites,” for his follow- overwhelmed. Alexander Kerensky was forced to flee from
ers). His victory was short-lived, however, and for the Russia in disguise.
next decade, Lenin was a brooding figure living in exile The following morning, at a national congress of
on the fringe of the Russian revolutionary movement, delegates from soviet organizations throughout the
which was now dominated by the Mensheviks (“minor- country, the Bolsheviks declared a new socialist order.
ityites”), who opposed Lenin’s single-minded pursuit of Moderate elements from the Menshevik faction and the
violent revolution. Scoffing at his more cautious rivals, Social Revolutionary Party protested the illegality of the
Lenin declared that revolution was “a tough business” Bolshevik action and left the conference hall in anger. They
and could not be waged “wearing white gloves and with were derided by Trotsky, who proclaimed that they were
clean hands.”6 relegated “to the dustbin of history.”
4-4 Revolution in Russia ■ 91
HISTORICAL VOICES
All Power to the Soviets!

2. No support for the Provisional Government: the
Q What were the key provisions of Lenin’s April utter falsity of all the promises should be made clear,
Theses? To what degree were they carried out? particularly of those relating to the renunciation
of annexations. Exposure in place of the impermis-
sible, illusion-breeding “demand” that this govern-
Politics & On his return to Petrograd in April
Government ment of capitalists should cease to be an imperialist
1917, the revolutionary Marxist Vladimir
government.
Lenin issued a series of proposals designed to overthrow
the provisional government and bring his Bolshevik Party to The masses must be made to see that the Soviets of
power in Russia. At the time his April Theses were delivered, Workers’ Deputies are the only possible form of revolu-
his ideas appeared to be too radical, even for his closest tionary government, and that therefore our task is, as long
followers. But the Bolsheviks’ simple slogan of “Peace, as this government yields to the influence of the bour-
Land, and Bread” soon began to gain traction on the streets geoisie, to present a patient, systematic and persistent
of the capital. By the end of the year, Lenin’s compelling explanation of the errors of their tactics, an explanation
vision had been realized, and the world would never be the especially adapted to the practical needs of the masses.
same again. As long as we are in the minority we carry on the
work of criticizing and exposing errors and at the same
Lenin’s April Theses, 1917 time we preach the necessity of transferring the entire
1. The specific feature of the present situation in Russia state power to the Soviets of Workers’ Deputies, so that
is that the country is passing from the first stage of the people may overcome their mistakes by experience.
the revolution—which, owing to the insufficient class- Nationalization of all lands in the country, the land
consciousness and organization of the proletariat, to be disposed of by the local Soviets of Agricultural
placed power in the hands of the bourgeoisie—to its Laborers’ and Peasants’ Deputies. The organization of
second stage, which must place power in the hands separate Soviets of Deputies of Poor Peasants. The set-
of the proletariat and the poorest sections of the ting up of a model farm on each of the large estates
peasants. . . . (ranging in size from 100 to 300 dessiatines [about 270 to
This peculiar situation demands of us an ability 810 acres], according to local and other conditions, and
to adapt ourselves to the special conditions of Party to the decisions of the local bodies) under the control of
work among unprecedentedly large masses of prole- the Soviets of Agricultural Laborers’ Deputies and for the
tarians who have just awakened to political life. . . . public account.
Source: V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, 4th ed. (Moscow: Progress, 1964), Vol. XXIV, pp. 21–24.
With the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917, Historians The Bolshevik Revolution in Retrospect
Debate
Lenin was now in command (see Image 4.3). His power The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 has
was tenuous and extended only from the capital to a few of been the subject of vigorous debate by scholars and stu-
the larger cities, such as Moscow and Kiev, where radicals dents of world affairs. Could it have been avoided if the
had waged their own insurrections. There were, in fact, provisional government had provided more effective lead-
few Bolsheviks in rural areas, where most peasants sup- ership, or was it inevitable? Did the November revolution
ported the moderate leftist Social Revolutionaries. On the stifle Russia’s halting progress toward a Western-style
fringes of the Russian Empire, restive minorities prepared capitalist democracy, or was the Bolshevik victory preor-
to take advantage of the anarchy to seize their own inde- dained by the autocratic conditions and lack of demo-
pendence, while supporters of the monarchy began raising cratic traditions in Imperial Russia? Finally, would the
armies to destroy the “Red menace” in Petrograd. Lenin Bolsheviks have succeeded in seizing power without
was in power, but for how long? Lenin’s insistence on carrying it out? Such questions have
brazen new challenge to their global supremacy, but it also
demonstrated that Lenin’s concept of revolution, carried
through at the will of a determined minority of revolu-
tionary activists “in the interests of the masses,” could suc-
ceed in a society going through the difficult early stages of
the Industrial Revolution. It was a repudiation of orthodox
“late Marxism” and a return to Marx’s pre-1848 vision of a
multiclass revolt leading rapidly from a capitalist to a pro-
letarian takeover (see Chapter 1). It was, in short, a lesson
that would not be ignored by radical intellectuals through-
out the world, as we shall see in the chapter to follow.
4-4c The Civil War

The Bolshevik seizure of power in Petrograd (soon to be
Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
renamed Leningrad after Lenin’s death in 1924) was only

the first, and not necessarily the most difficult, stage in
the Russian Revolution. Although the Bolshevik slogan of
“Peace, Land, and Bread” had considerable appeal among
workers, petty merchants, and soldiers in the vicinity of
the capital and other major cities, the party—only 50,000
strong in November—had little representation in the rural
IMAGE 4.3 Lenin Addresses a Crowd. Vladimir Lenin was the areas, where the majority of the peasants supported the
driving force behind the success of the Bolsheviks in seizing moderate leftist Social Revolutionary Party. On the fringes
power in Russia and creating the Union of Soviet Socialist of the Russian Empire, ethnic minority groups took advan-
Republics. Here Lenin is seen addressing a rally in Moscow
in 1917.
tage of the confusion in Petrograd to launch movements
to restore their own independence or achieve a position of
Q Do you find the argument convincing that without the
overwhelming strength of Lenin’s determination, the
autonomy within the Russian state. In the meantime, sup-
Bolshevik Revolution might not have succeeded? porters of the deposed Romanov dynasty and other politi-
cal opponents of the Bolsheviks, known as White Russians,
attempted to mobilize support to drive the Bolsheviks out
of the capital and reverse the verdict of “Red October.”
no simple answers, but some hypotheses are possible. The And beyond all that, the war with Germany continued.
weakness of the moderate government created by the Lenin was aware of these problems and hoped that a
March revolution was probably predictable, given the wave of socialist revolutions in the economically advanced
political inexperience of the urban middle class, the hor- countries of central and western Europe would bring the
rendous conditions in Russia at the time, and the deep world war to an end and usher in a new age of peace,
divisions within the ruling coalition over issues of peace socialism, and growing economic prosperity. In the
and war. At the same time, it seems highly unlikely that meantime, his first priority was to consolidate the rule
the Bolsheviks would have possessed the self-confidence of the working class and its party vanguard (now to
to act without the presence of their leader, Vladimir be renamed the Communist Party) in Russia. The first
Lenin, who almost single-handedly employed his strength step was to set up a new order in Petrograd to replace
of will to urge his cautious c olleagues to make their bid the provisional government that had been created after
for power. The November revolution in Russia is often the March Uprising. For lack of a better alternative,
cited as a cardinal example of the role that a single indi- outlying areas were simply informed of the change in
vidual can sometimes have on the course of history. government—a “revolution by telegraph,” as Leon Trotsky
Without Lenin, it would probably have been left to the termed it. Then Lenin moved to create new organs of
army to intervene in an effort to maintain law and order, proletarian power, setting up the Council of People’s
as would happen, with uncertain consequences, so often Commissars (the word “commissar,” Lenin remarked
elsewhere during the turbulent twentieth century. “smells of revolution”) to serve as a provisional govern-
In any event, the Bolshevik Revolution was a momen- ment. Lenin was unwilling to share power with moderate
tous development for Russia and for the entire world. leftists who had resisted the Bolshevik coup in November,
Not only did it present Western capitalist societies with a and he created security forces (popularly called the Cheka,
4-4 Revolution in Russia ■ 93
or “extraordinary commission”), which imprisoned and
brutally executed opponents of the new regime. In
4-5 An Uncertain Peace
January 1918, the Constituent Assembly, which had been
elected on the basis of plans established by the previous
government, convened in Petrograd. Composed primarily
QQ Focus Question: Why did the Versailles Peace
Conference fail to resolve the problems left
over by the war and introduce a new era of
of delegates from the Social Revolutionary Party and other
democracy and economic progress in Europe?
parties opposed to the Bolsheviks, it showed itself critical
of the new regime and was immediately abolished.
Lenin was determined to prevent the Romanov family In the years following the end of World War I, many peo-
from becoming a rallying cry for opponents of the new ple hoped that the world was about to enter a new era
Bolshevik regime. In the spring of 1918, the former tsar of international peace, economic growth, and political
and his family were placed under guard in Ekaterinburg, a democracy. In all of these areas, the optimistic hopes of
small mining town in the Ural Mountains. On the night of the 1920s failed to be realized.
July 16, the entire family was murdered on Lenin’s order.
The bodies were dropped into a nearby mine shaft. For 4-5a The Search for Security
decades, rumors persisted that one of Nicholas II’s daugh- The peace settlement at the end of World War I had
ters, Anastasia, had survived execution. tried to fulfill the nineteenth-century dream of nation-
In foreign affairs, Lenin’s first major decision was to alism by creating new boundaries and new states out of
seek peace with Germany in order to permit the new gov- the now-defunct empires in central and eastern Europe.
ernment to focus its efforts on the growing threat posed From the outset, however, the settlement had left many
by White Russian forces within the country. In March unhappy. Conflicts over disputed border regions between
1918, a peace settlement with Germany was reached at Germany and Poland, Poland and Lithuania, Poland
Brest-Litovsk, although at enormous cost. Soviet Russia and Czechoslovakia, Austria and Hungary, and Italy and
lost nearly one-fourth of the territory and one-third of the Yugoslavia poisoned mutual relations in eastern Europe
population of the prewar Russian Empire. In retrospect, for years. Many Germans viewed the peace of Versailles as
however, Lenin’s controversial decision to accept a puni- a dictated peace and vowed to seek its revision.
tive peace may have been a stroke of genius, for it gained To its supporters, the League of Nations was the place
time for the regime to build up its internal strength and to resolve such problems. The League, however, proved
defeat its many adversaries still operating in the territories ineffectual in maintaining the peace. One of the reasons
that once composed the empire of the tsars. for its weakness was the lack of adequate provisions for
Indeed, the odds for a Bolshevik success must have enforcement. Because many nations were reluctant to
seemed dim in the immediate aftermath of the seizure compromise their own national security, the League
of power. Lenin himself initially predicted that defeat could use only economic sanctions to halt aggression. The
was likely in the absence of successful revolutionary out- French attempt to strengthen the League’s effectiveness as
breaks elsewhere in Europe. Support for the Bolsheviks in an instrument of collective security by creating a peace-
Russia was limited, and the regime antagonized farmers keeping force was rejected by nations that feared giving
by the harsh measures it used to obtain provisions for its up any of their sovereignty to a larger international body.
troops. Although Leon Trotsky showed traces of genius in Another reason that the League failed to achieve its
organizing the Red Army, he was forced to station trusted promise was that the United States, where many were dis-
lieutenants as “political commissars” in army units to guar- illusioned by the disputes at Versailles, failed to join the
antee the loyalty of his commanders. new organization. The U.S. Senate also rejected President
In the end, Lenin’s gamble that the Russian people were Wilson’s proposal for a defensive alliance with Great
desperate enough to embrace radical change paid off. The Britain and France. Two other nations important to the
White Russian forces were larger than those of the Red future of the world—Germany and Soviet Russia—were
Army, and they were supported by armed contingents sent not even members of the League.
by Great Britain, France, and the United States to assist
in the extinction of the “Red menace.” Nevertheless, they France Goes it Alone The weakness of the League of
were also rent by factionalism and hindered by a tendency Nations and the failure of both the United States and
to fight “red terror” with “white terror” and to return con- Great Britain to honor their promise of a defensive
quered land to the original landowners, thereby driving military alliance with France led the latter to insist on
many peasants to support the Soviet regime. By 1920, the a strict enforcement of the Treaty of Versailles. This
civil war was over, and Soviet power was secure. tough policy toward Germany began with the issue of

reparations—the payments that the Germans were sup-
posed to make to compensate for the “damage done
to the civilian population of the Allied and Associated
Powers and to their property,” as the treaty asserted. In
April 1921, the Allied Reparations Commission settled
on a sum of 132 billion marks ($33 billion) for German
reparations, payable in annual installments of 2.5 billion
(gold) marks. Allied threats to occupy the Ruhr valley,
Germany’s chief industrial and mining center, induced
the new German republic to accept the reparations settle-
ment and to make its first payment in 1921. By the fol-
lowing year, however, facing rising inflation, domestic
William J. Duiker
turmoil, and lack of revenues because of low tax rates,
the German government announced that it was unable
to pay more. Outraged by what they considered to be
Germany’s violation of one aspect of the peace settle- IMAGE 4.4 The Cruel Face of Inflation. To pay for reparations,
ment, the French government sent troops to occupy the the postwar German government was forced to print paper
currency to finance government expenditures. The German
Ruhr valley. If the Germans would not pay reparations,
mark, once valued at approximately four to the U.S. dollar,
the French would collect reparations in kind by operating rapidly declined in value. By the fall of 1923, German
and using the Ruhr mines and factories. banknotes had become virtually worthless, and sardonic
French occupation of the Ruhr seriously undermined observers remarked that they were only useful as wall paper.
the fragile German economy. The German government Although the inflationary spiral was eventually stemmed,
the damage had been done, as millions of Germans became
adopted a policy of passive resistance to French occupa-
convinced that their hapless government was unable to
tion that was largely financed by printing more paper prevent erstwhile enemies from seeking to cripple their
money, thus intensifying the inflationary pressures that economy. The banknotes shown here, issued—from left to
had already begun at the end of the war. The German right—in 1908, 1922, and late 1923 graphically illustrate
mark became worthless (see Image 4.4). Economic disaster the drastic decline in the value of the German currency.
fueled political upheavals as communists staged uprisings
in October and nationalist elements under the leadership
Q Why does inflation often pose a severe threat to the
well-being of a country?
of an as yet little-known army veteran by the name of
Adolf Hitler attempted to seize power in Munich in 1923.
The following year, a new conference of experts was con- The Spirit of Locarno A new approach to European
vened to reassess the reparations problem. diplomacy accompanied the new economic stability.
A spirit of international cooperation was fostered by
Solving the Reparations Problem The formation of the foreign ministers of Germany and France, Gustav
liberal-socialist governments in both Great Britain and Stresemann and Aristide Briand (1862–1932), who con-
France opened the door to a more conciliatory approach to cluded the Treaty of Locarno in 1925. This treaty guar-
Germany and the reparations problem. At the same time, anteed Germany’s new western borders with France and
a new German government led by Gustav Stresemann Belgium. Although Germany’s new eastern borders with
(1878–1929) ended the policy of passive resistance and Poland were conspicuously absent from the agreement,
committed Germany to carry out the provisions of the the Locarno pact was viewed by many as the beginning
Versailles Treaty while seeking a new settlement of the of a new era of European peace. On the day after the pact
reparations question. was concluded, the headline in the New York Times read
In August 1924, an international commission produced “France and Germany Ban War Forever,” and the London
a new plan for reparations. Named the Dawes Plan after Times declared “Peace at Last.”7
the American banker who chaired the commission, it Germany’s entry into the League of Nations in March
reduced reparations and stabilized Germany’s payments 1926 soon reinforced the atmosphere of conciliation
on the basis of its ability to pay. The Dawes Plan also engendered at Locarno. Two years later, similar atti-
granted an initial $200 million loan for Germany’s recov- tudes prevailed in the Kellogg-Briand Pact, drafted by U.S.
ery, which opened the door to heavy American invest- Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg and French Foreign
ments in Europe that helped create a new era of European Minister Briand. Sixty-three nations signed this accord, in
prosperity between 1924 and 1929. which they pledged “to renounce war as an instrument of
4-5 An Uncertain Peace ■ 95

national policy.” Nothing was said, however, about what In the immediate postwar era, the United States
would be done if anyone violated the treaty. alone continued its gradual emergence as an industrial
The spirit of Locarno was based on little real sub- powerhouse—marked by the rapid development of the
stance. Germany lacked the military power to alter its motor car industry under the leadership of Henry Ford.
western borders even if it wanted to. Pious promises An ambitious entrepreneur with innovative ideas, Ford
to renounce war without mechanisms to enforce them had revolutionized the industry by adopting the con-
were virtually worthless. And the issue of disarmament tinuous assembly line in the factories devoted to the
soon proved that paper promises could not bring nations manufacture of his automobiles. With the assembly line
to cut back on their weapons. The League of Nations operated by a conveyer belt, a new “Model T” car could
Covenant had recommended the “reduction of national be assembled in about 90 minutes, as compared with
armaments to the lowest point consistent with national over twelve hours in previous years. By the late 1920s,
safety.” Numerous disarmament conferences, however, his River Rouge manufacturing plant was the biggest in
failed to achieve anything substantial as states proved the United States and employed more than 100,000 work-
unwilling to trust their security to anyone but their own ers, many of whom became prosperous enough to pur-
military forces. By the time the World Disarmament chase his new automobiles. Some of them were African
Conference finally met in Geneva in 1932, the issue was Americans, who migrated from rural areas in the South
already dead. to seek employment in the growing factories in the North
and the Midwest. With its capacity to produce multiple
4-5b A Return to Normalcy? goods rapidly and at reduced expense, the new factory
According to Woodrow Wilson, World War I had been showed the promise of ending the “boom and bust” cycle
fought to make the world “safe for democracy.” During of the modern capitalist economy.
the decade that followed the signing of the Treaty of There were some social gains as well. A Constitutional
Versailles, there seemed to be some justification for his amendment to grant women’s suffrage, first proposed by
optimism. Several major European states, as well as a num- the social activist Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) in 1878,
ber of the new countries established in eastern Europe, had was finally ratified as Congress as the 19th Amendment on
functioning political democracies. A number of nations, August 18, 1920. President Woodrow Wilson, once a skep-
including the United States, broadened the right to vote tic, supported the measure on the grounds that American
to include women, and the individual liberties of citizens women, who had actively supported the war effort, should
were strengthened in other ways as well. Even Germany be allowed to vote. Although efforts by activists to intro-
appeared to share in the shift toward political pluralism, duce other measures to broaden women’s rights had mixed
as a new republic based in the city of Weimar took steps results, the more socially permissive culture that thrived
to establish democratic political institutions under the able in the free-wheeling 1920s helped to liberate American
leadership of moderate statesmen like Friedrich Ebert women from the social restrictions that had prevailed in
(1871–1925) and Gustav Stresemann. the prewar years. Dress codes were relaxed, and women
But the “return to normalcy,” as Woodrow Wilson’s for the first time began to smoke cigarettes, although at a
successor, President Warren Harding (1865–1923), called lesser rate than their male counterparts.
it, was based on fragile economic foundations, as recovery African Americans saw their economic horizons
from the four years of bitter conflict was slow and halt- expanded as well, with the opening up of job opportuni-
ing. France was only partially successful in reconstructing ties in the new factories in the North and the Midwest,
areas in the northern parts of the country that had been although they still faced restrictions on their civil rights,
devastated by the Great War. Great Britain went through especially in the South, where racial prejudice was still
its own period of painful adjustment. The country had lost deeply imbedded within the white population. “Whites
many of its markets for industrial products, especially to only” policies were freely proclaimed in hotels, restau-
the United States and Japan. The postwar decline of such rants, and other social establishments. The Ku Klux Klan
staple industries as coal, steel, and textiles led to a rise (KKK), a white supremacist organization that had been
in unemployment, which reached the 2 million mark by established by disgruntled Confederate soldiers shortly
1922. An economic recovery began in the next few years after the civil war, continued to operate freely in many
but proved to be superficial, and unemployment remained southern states, intimidating and frequently terrorizing
at the 10 percent level throughout the decade. Coal miners their black neighbors. Lynchings of African Americans,
were especially affected by the decline of the antiquated often accused falsely of crimes, still took place, although
and inefficient British coal mines, which suffered from a perhaps at a lower rate than had been the case during the
global glut of coal. nineteenth century.

In the meantime, the benefits of U.S. economic expan- of funds seriously weakened the banks of Germany and
sion in the 1920s were uneven. Rural areas generally did other central European states. The Credit-Anstalt, Vienna’s
not share in the surface prosperity that had begun to appear most prestigious bank, collapsed on May 31, 1931. By that
in the larger industrialized cities. At the same time, labor time, trade was slowing down, industrialists were cutting
organizations fought with only limited success to improve back production, and unemployment was increasing as the
the working conditions and wages of their constituents in ripple effects of international bank failures had a devastat-
the face of legal hurdles and stiff resistance by corporate ing impact on domestic economies.
interests. By the end of the decade, income disparity in the
United States was growing, and the initial promise of the Repercussions Economic downturns were by no means
“roaring twenties” (as the era had been dubbed by pundits) a new phenomenon in the rise of Western capitalism, but
had begun to fade. the Great Depression was exceptionally severe and had
None of the larger Western democracies faced greater immediate repercussions. In the United States, great for-
challenges than Germany, where the Weimar Republic, tunes were lost overnight, and, with consumer demand
burdened by heavy war reparations, had encountered seri- dropping, industrial production fell dramatically, throwing
ous economic difficulties from the start. The runaway infla- millions out of work. President Herbert Hoover (1874–
tion of 1922 and 1923 mentioned earlier had grave social 1964) responded in the traditional way, signing legislation
effects, as widows, orphans, the elderly, army officers, that imposed high tariffs on imported goods. In Great
civil servants, and others who lived on fixed incomes all Britain, when the ruling Labour Party failed to resolve the
watched their monthly stipends become worthless or their crisis, it was replaced by a Conservative government which
lifetime savings disappear. Ominously, these continuing followed the U.S. lead by using the traditional policies of
economic difficulties inexorably pushed the middle class, balanced budgets and protective tariffs. France—with a
which still lacked experience in using its political influ- protected market based on small enterprises—was initially
ence to achieve its objectives, toward the young German less affected by the crisis, but nevertheless began to feel
Communist Party or to rightist parties that were equally the impact in 1931. For the next several years, six different
hostile to the republic. cabinets were formed as the country faced political chaos.
But the European nation that suffered the most
damage from the Depression was probably Germany.
4-5c The Great Depression
Unemployment increased to more than 4 million by
During the first few years after the end of World War I, the end of 1930. For many Germans, who had already
there had been some tantalizing signs that Europe was on suffered through difficult times in the early 1920s, the
the path of recovery from the consequences of that devas- democratic experiment represented by the Weimar
tating conflict. But that illusion was burst in 1929, with the Republic had appeared to become an outright failure.
onset of the Great Depression. Some reacted by turning to the ideas of Karl Marx,
who had long predicted that capitalism would destroy
Causes Two factors played a major role in the coming of itself through overproduction. Although communism
the Great Depression: a downturn in European economies took on a new popularity, the real beneficiary of the
and an international financial crisis created by the collapse Great Depression in Germany was Adolf Hitler, whose
of the American stock market in 1929. Already in the mid- National Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi) Party came
1920s, global prices for agricultural goods were beginning to power in 1933 (see Chapter 6).
to decline rapidly as a result of the overproduction of basic The first reaction of all major Western governments
commodities, such as wheat, elsewhere in the world. In faced with the crisis had been to adopt the traditional pol-
1925, states in central and eastern Europe began to impose icy of tight money, balanced budgets, and a “beggar thy
tariffs to close their markets to other countries’ goods. neighbor” policy of high tariffs on foreign goods. But as
Meanwhile, an increase in the use of oil and hydroelectric- the Great Depression worsened, the Cambridge University
ity led to a slump in the coal industry. economist John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) took issue
Much of the European prosperity in the mid-1920s was with the traditional view that depressions should be
built on U.S. bank loans to Germany, but in 1928 and 1929, left to work themselves out through the self-regulatory
American investors began to pull money out of Germany mechanisms of a free economy. Rather, he argued that
to invest in the booming New York stock market. When unemployment stemmed not from overproduction but
that market crashed in October 1929, panicky American from a decline in consumer demand, which could most
investors withdrew even more of their funds from effectively be increased by public works, financed if nec-
Germany and other European markets. The withdrawal essary through deficit spending to stimulate production.

measures to deal with a crisis situation, FDR (as he was
popularly known) rejected a proposal to invoke emergency
executive powers to deal with the challenge and pursued a
Keynesian policy of active government intervention in the
economy that came to be known as the New Deal.
Initially, the New Deal attempted to restore prosperity
by creating the National Recovery Administration (NRA),
which required government, labor, and industrial leaders
to work out regulations for each industry. Declared uncon-
stitutional by the Supreme Court in 1935, the NRA was
soon superseded by other efforts collectively known as
the Second New Deal. Its programs included the Works
Progress Administration (WPA), established in 1935, which
employed between 2 and 3 million people building bridges,
roads, post offices, airports, and other public works. The
Roosevelt administration was also responsible for new
social legislation that launched the American welfare state.
In 1935, the Social Security Act created a system of old-age
pensions and unemployment insurance. At the same time,
the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 encouraged the
rapid growth of labor unions.
Archive Holdings Inc./Getty Images
The New Deal undoubtedly provided some social

reform measures and may even have averted social revolu-
tion in the United States by stimulating economic growth
through government intervention. But the New Deal did
not immediately solve the unemployment problems cre-
ated by the Great Depression. In May 1937, during what
was considered a period of recovery, American unemploy-
IMAGE 4.5 Brother, Can You Spare a Job? T
he Great Depression ment still stood at 7 million; a recession the following year,
devastated the world economy and led to a dramatic rise in triggered in part by a decline in public spending, increased
unemployment throughout the industrialized world. In the
United States, manufacturing centers like Chicago, Cleveland,
that number to 11 million. Discouraged by the slow recov-
and Detroit were especially hard hit as consumer demand ery from the economic downturn, many Americans began
for appliances and automobiles plummeted throughout the to lose confidence in the capitalist system and turned to fas-
decade of the 1930s. In this poignant photograph taken in cist or communist ideas emanating from Europe. Nativist
1930, an unemployed worker in Detroit pleads for a job at the organizations like the KKK revived in popularity, targeting
beginning of the depression. Unfortunately, full recovery would
not come until many years later.
foreigners, African Americans, Roman Catholics, and Jews
as responsible for the ills afflicting American society. Only
Q What was Roosevelt’s strategy to put Americans back to
work. Was it successful?
World War II and the subsequent growth of armaments
industries brought American workers back to full employ-
ment and eased the crisis.
Such policies, he insisted, could be accomplished only by
government intervention in the economy, a measure that 4-5d Building Socialism in Soviet Russia
most political leaders had long been unwilling to undertake. In Russia, Bolshevik leaders had their own plans for the
future. With their victory over the White Russians in 1920,
Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal The full force of Lenin and his colleagues could turn for the first time to the
the Great Depression struck the United States by 1932. In challenging task of building the first socialist society in a
that year, industrial production fell to 50 percent of what it world dominated by their capitalist enemies. A new Union
had been in 1929. By 1933, there were 15 million workers of Socialist Soviet Republics (U.S.S.R.) was created in 1924
unemployed (see Image 4.5). Under these circumstances, and a constitution was adopted that granted the multiple
Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) was able minority groups that had lived under the old Russian
to win a landslide victory in the presidential election of Empire broad legal rights to preserve their own unique
1932. A pragmatist who was willing to adopt unorthodox cultures. In fact, however, Lenin and his colleagues were

determined to remake all Soviet citizens into the vision of to operate at the lower levels. The forced requisition of
the pure “Communist Man,” who would live by the slogan, grain, which had caused serious unrest among the peas-
“from each according to his ability, to each according to his antry, was replaced by a tax, and land remained firmly in
need” in helping to build a classless society. private hands. The theoretical justification for the program
In his writings, Karl Marx had said little about the nature of was that Soviet Russia now needed to go through its own
the final communist utopia or how to get there. He had spo- “capitalist stage” (albeit under the control of the party)
ken briefly of a transitional phase, variously known as “raw before beginning the difficult transition to socialism.
communism” or “socialism,” that would precede the final As an economic strategy, the NEP succeeded brilliantly.
stage of communism. During this phase, the Communist During the early and mid-1920s, the Soviet economy recov-
Party would establish a “dictatorship of the proletariat” to rid ered rapidly from the ravages of war and civil war. A more
society of the capitalist oppressors, set up the institutions of lax hand over the affairs of state allowed a modest degree
the new order, and indoctrinate the population in the commu- of free expression of opinion within the ranks of the party
nist ethic. In recognition of the fact that traces of “bourgeois and in Soviet society at large. Under the surface, however,
thinking” would remain among the population, profit incen- trouble loomed. Lenin had been increasingly disabled by a
tives would be used to encourage productivity (in Marxist ter- bullet lodged in his neck from an attempted assassination,
minology, payment would be on the basis of “work” rather and he began to lose his grip over a fractious party. Even
than solely on “need”), but major industries would be nation- before his death in 1924, potential successors had begun to
alized and private landholdings eliminated. After seizing scuffle for precedence in the struggle to assume his position
power in 1917, however, the Bolsheviks were too preoccupied as party leader, the most influential position in the state.
with survival to give much attention to the future nature of The main candidates were Leon Trotsky and a rising young
Soviet society. War communism—involving the government figure from the state of Georgia, Joseph Djugashvili, better
seizure of major industries, utilities, and sources of raw mate- known by his revolutionary name, Stalin (1879–1953). Lenin
rials and the requisition of grain from private farmers—was, had misgivings about all the candidates hoping to succeed
by Lenin’s own admission, just a makeshift policy to permit him and suggested that a collective leadership would best
the regime to mobilize resources for the civil war. represent the interests of the party and the revolution. After
his death in 1924, however, factional struggle among the
The New Economic Policy In 1920, it was time to adopt leading figures in the party intensified. Although in some
a more coherent approach. The realities were sobering. respects it was a pure power struggle, it did have policy
Lenin’s conviction that social revolutions would break out ramifications as party factions argued about the NEP and its
all over Europe at the end of the Great War had proven impact on the future of the Russian Revolution.
invalid, as widespread social unrest in many countries At first, the various factions were relatively evenly bal-
gradually gave way to the emergence of stable govern- anced, but Stalin proved adept at using his position as gen-
ments and functioning economies. For the time being, he eral secretary of the party to outmaneuver his rivals. By
realized, the new Russia would have to survive on its own. portraying himself as a centrist opposed to the extreme
Soviet Russia, however, was not an advanced capitalist positions of his “leftist” (too radical in pursuit of revolu-
society in the Marxist image, blessed with modern technol- tionary goals) or “rightist” (too prone to adopt moderate
ogy and an impoverished but politically aware underclass positions contrary to Marxist principles) rivals, he gradu-
imbued with the desire to advance to socialism. It was poor ally concentrated power in his own hands.
and primarily agrarian, and its small but growing industrial In the meantime, the relatively moderate policies of the
sector had been ravaged by years of war. Under the cir- NEP continued to operate as the party and the state vocally
cumstances, Lenin called for caution. He won his party’s encouraged the Soviet people, in a very un-Marxist man-
approval for a moderate program of social and economic ner, to enrich themselves. Capital investment and techno-
development known as the New Economic Policy, or logical assistance from Western capitalist countries were
NEP. The program was based on a combination of capital- actively welcomed. Soviet policy-makers were particularly
ist and socialist techniques designed to increase production interested in persuading the U.S. carmaker Henry Ford to
through the use of profit incentives while at the same time build an enormous factory in the USSR to produce trac-
promoting the concept of socialist ownership and main- tors. With mechanized farm equipment, they concluded,
taining firm party control over the political system and it would be easier to persuade conservative Russian peas-
the overall direction of the economy. The “commanding ants of the benefits of socialism. An observer at the time
heights” of the Soviet economy (heavy industry, banking, might reasonably have concluded that the Marxist vision
utilities, and foreign trade) remained in the hands of the of a world characterized by class struggle had become a
state, while private industry and commerce were allowed dead letter.

Stalin Takes Over Stalin had previously joined with shortage and claimed the lives of an estimated four mil-
the moderate members of the party to defend the lion Ukrainians. Memories of the Holodomor (Famine) of
NEP against Trotsky, whose “left opposition” wanted a 1932–1933 haunted Ukrainians for decades and provoked
more rapid advance toward socialism. Trotsky, who had many of them to welcome the German invasion of the
become one of Stalin’s chief critics, was expelled from USSR in 1941 (see Chapter 6).
the party in 1927. Then, in 1928, Stalin reversed course:
he now claimed that the NEP had achieved its purpose The Legacy of Stalinism By the late 1930s, as the last
and called for a rapid advance to socialist forms of own- of the great purge trials came to an end, the Russian
ership. Beginning in 1929, a series of new programs Revolution had been in existence for more than two
changed the face of Soviet society. Private capitalism decades. It had achieved some successes. Stalin’s policy
in manufacturing and trade was virtually abolished, of forced industrialization had led to rapid growth in the
and state control over the economy was extended. The industrial sector, surpassing in many respects what had
first of a series of five-year plans was launched to pro- been achieved in the capitalist years prior to World War I.
mote rapid “socialist industrialization,” and in a massive Between 1918 and 1937, steel production increased
effort to strengthen the state’s hold over the agricul- from 4 to 18 million tons per year, and hard coal out-
tural economy, all private farmers were herded onto put went from 36 to 128 million tons. New industrial
collective farms. cities sprang up overnight in the Urals and Siberia. The
The bitter campaign to collectivize the countryside Russian people in general were probably better clothed,
aroused the antagonism of many peasants and led to a better fed, and better educated than they had ever been
decline in food production, and in some areas to mass before. But the cost in human lives had been enormous.
starvation. It also further divided the Communist Party Millions had died by bullet or starvation. Thousands,
and led to a massive purge of party members at all levels perhaps millions of others, languished in Stalin’s con-
who opposed Stalin’s effort to achieve rapid economic centration camps. The remainder of the population
growth and the socialization of Russian society. A series lived in a society now officially described as socialist,
of brutal purge trials eliminated thousands of “Old under the watchful eye of a man who had risen almost
Bolsheviks” (people who had joined the party before to the rank of a deity, the “great leader” of the Soviet
the 1917 Revolution) and resulted in the conviction and Union, Joseph Stalin. For millions of Soviet citizens, the
death of many of Stalin’s chief rivals. Trotsky, driven wartime slogan of “peace, land, and bread” must have
into exile, was dispatched by Stalin’s assassin in 1940. Of seemed a distant memory.
the delegates who attended the National Congress of the The impact of Stalin on Soviet society in one decade
CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union) in 1934, had been enormous. If Lenin had brought the party
fully 70 percent had been executed by the time of the to power and nursed it through the difficult years of
National Congress in 1939. A key component of Stalin’s the civil war, it was Stalin, above all, who had mapped
strategy to build socialism was to extract the maximum out the path to economic modernization and socialist
amount of grain from the Soviet republic of Ukraine. transformation. To many foreign critics of the regime,
Blessed with a fertile soil that had historically earned the Stalinist terror and the autocratic system were an
it the label of the “bread basket” of Europe, Ukraine inevitable consequence of the concept of the vanguard
(the name can roughly be translated as “frontier”) was party and the centralized state built by Lenin. Others
populated by Slavic peoples who—although related to traced Stalinism back to Marx. It was he, after all, who
their Great Russian neighbors—cherished their cultural had formulated the idea of the dictatorship of the prole-
uniqueness and had often resisted the harsh reality of tariat, which now provided ideological justification for
Russian rule. To win their allegiance, Soviet planners the Stalinist autocracy. Still others found the ultimate
in Moscow initially encouraged them to develop their cause in Russian political culture, which, they claimed,
own cultural traditions under the rule of Moscow, in had been characterized by autocracy since the emer-
accordance with Soviet nationality policy. gence of Russian society from Mongol control in the
With the decision to advance rapidly toward socialism fifteenth century.
in 1928, however, Stalin reversed course and decided to Was Stalinism an inevitable outcome of Marxist-
crush all resistance in Ukraine to Soviet rule or state grain Leninist doctrine and practice? Or, as the last Soviet
requisitions. “Nationalist” elements among the local party leader Mikhail Gorbachev later claimed (see Chapter 9),
leadership, along with “kulaks” (prosperous peasants who were Stalin’s crimes “alien to the nature of socialism”
resisted grain seizures) were arrested and sometimes exe- and a departure from the course charted by Lenin before
cuted, while forcible grain requisitions led to a vast food his death? Certainly, Lenin had not envisaged a party
dominated by a figure who became even larger than artist proclaimed to be art was art. Duchamp’s liberating
the organization itself and who, in the 1930s, almost concept served to open the floodgates of the art world,
destroyed the party. On the other hand, recent evidence obliging the entire twentieth century to swim in this free-
shows that Lenin was capable of brutally suppressing flowing, exuberant, exploratory, and often frightening
perceived enemies of the revolution in a way that is remi- torrent.
niscent in manner, if not in scope, of Stalin’s actions. In a
1922 letter to a colleague, he declared that after the NEP Probing the Subconscious While Dadaism flourished in
had served its purpose, “we shall return to the terror, and Germany during the Weimar era, a school of Surrealism
to economic terror.”8 was established in Paris to liberate the total human
It is also true that the state created by Lenin provided experience from the restraints of the rational world. By
the conditions for a single-minded and ruthless leader like using the subconscious—a realm popularized in Freudian
Stalin to rise to absolute power. The great danger that nei- psychiatry—Surrealists hoped to resurrect the whole
ther Marx nor Lenin had foreseen had come to pass: the personality and reveal a submerged and illusive reality.
party itself, the vanguard organization leading the way Normally unrelated objects and people were juxtaposed
into the utopian future, had become corrupted. Lenin had in dreamlike and frequently violent paintings that were
sown the seeds; Stalin reaped the harvest. intended to shock the viewer into approaching reality
from a totally fresh perspective. Most famous of the
Surrealists was the Spaniard Salvador Dalí (1904–1989),
4-6The Search for a New who subverted the sense of reality in his painting by
Reality in the Arts using near-photographic detail in presenting a fantastic
and irrational world.
QQ Focus Question: How did the cultural and

intellectual trends of the post-World War I
Yet another modernist movement born on the eve of
World War I was Abstract, or Nonobjective, p ainting. As
one of its founders, Swiss artist Paul Klee (1879–1940),
era reflect the political and socioeconomic
conditions experienced at the time? observed, “the more fearful this world becomes, . . . the
more art becomes abstract.”9 Two of the movement’s
principal founders, Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) and
The mass destruction brought by World War I precipi-
Piet Mondrian (1872–1944), were followers of Theosophy,
tated a general disillusionment with Western civilization
a religion that promised the triumph of the spirit in a new
on the part of artists and writers throughout Europe.
millennium. Since they viewed matter as an obstacle to
Avant-garde art, which had sought to discover alternative
salvation, the art of the new age would totally abandon all
techniques to portray reality, now gained broader accep-
reference to the material world. Only abstraction, in the
tance as Europeans began to abandon classical traditions
form of colorful forms and geometric shapes floating in
in an attempt to come to grips with the anxieties of the
space, could express the bliss and spiritual beauty of this
new age.
terrestrial paradise (see Image 4.6).
4-6a New Schools of Artistic Expression A Musical Revolution Musicians joined the search for
A number of the artistic styles that gained popularity dur- new revolutionary means of expression. Austrian com-
ing the 1920s originated during the war among alienated poser Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) rejected the tradi-
intellectuals, who congregated in cafés to decry the insan- tional tonal system based on the harmonic triad that had
ity of the age and exchange ideas on how to create a new dominated Western music since the Renaissance. To free
and better world. Among such groups were the Dadaists, the Western ear from traditional harmonic progression,
artists based in neutral Switzerland who sought to destroy Schoenberg substituted a radically new “atonal” system
the past with a vengeance, proclaiming their right to com- in which each piece established its own individual set of
plete freedom of expression in art. relationships and structure. In 1923, he devised a twelve-
A flagrant example of Dada’s revolutionary approach tone system in which he placed the twelve pitches of the
to art was the decision by French artist Marcel Duchamp chromatic scale found on the piano in a set sequence for a
(1887–1968) to enter a porcelain urinal in a 1917 art musical composition. The ordering of these twelve tones
exhibit in New York City. By signing it and giving it a title, was to be repeated throughout the piece, for all instrumen-
Duchamp proclaimed that he had transformed the urinal tal parts, constituting its melody and harmony. Although
into a work of art. Duchamp’s Ready-Mades (as such art such atonal music seems even today incomprehensible
would henceforth be labeled) declared that whatever the to the uninitiated, Schoenberg, perhaps more than any
4-6 The Search for a New Reality in the Arts ■ 101

Corbusier (1877–1965) advocated
razing much of the old city of Paris,
to be replaced by modern towers of
glass. In his plan, which called for
neat apartment complexes sepa-
rated by immaculate areas of grass,
© 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris/ Kandinsky, Wassily (1866-1944)/Solomon
there was no room for people, pets,
or nature. Fortunately, the plan was
rejected by municipal authorities.
R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA/Giraudon/The Bridgeman Art Library

4-6b Culture for the Masses
During the postwar era, writers
followed artists and architects in
rejecting traditional forms in order
to explore the subconscious. In his
novel Ulysses, published in 1922,
Irish author James Joyce (1882–1941)
invented the “stream of conscious-
ness” technique to portray the lives
of ordinary people through the use
of inner monologue. Joyce’s tech-
nique exerted a powerful influence
on literature for the remainder of
the century. Meanwhile, some
IMAGE 4.6 Black Lines No. 189, 1913 (oil on canvas), Wassily Kandinsky. American writers, such as Ernest
Abstract painting was a renunciation of the material world and a glorification
of the spiritual realm. Deeming it no longer necessary to represent objects
Hemingway (1899–1961), Theodore
and people, artists chose to express their emotions solely through color and Dreiser (1871–1945), and Sinclair
abstract form. In this painting by Kandinsky, we rejoice in the spring-like Lewis (1885–1951), reflected the ris-
swirling splashes of color of the artist’s abstract world. ing influence of mass journalism in
a new style designed to “tell it like
Q How did abstract art help the viewer to probe the subconscious? Do you
think it serves the same purpose today? it is.” Such writers sought to report
the “whole truth” in an effort to
attain the authenticity of modern
other modern composer, influenced the development of photography.
twentieth-century music. For much of the Western world, however, the best way
to find (or escape) reality was through mass entertainment.
Modernism in Architecture Other fields of artistic cre- The motion picture had been invented at the end of the
ativity, including sculpture, ballet, and architecture, also nineteenth century, but it wasn’t until the 1920s that
reflected these new directions. In Germany, a group of “movies” became solid fixtures in the realm of popular
imaginative architects called the Bauhaus School created entertainment. The 1930s represented the heyday of the
what is widely known as the “international school,” which Hollywood studio system in the United States, which in
soon became the dominant school of modern architec- the single year of 1937 turned out nearly 600 feature films.
ture. Led by the famous German architect Ludwig Mies Supplementing the movies were cheap paperbacks and
van der Rohe (1881–1969), the internationalists promoted radio, which brought sports, soap operas, and popular music
a new functional and unadorned style (Mies was widely to the mass of the population. The radio was a great social
known for observing that “less is more”) characterized by leveler, speaking to all classes with the same voice. Such new
high-rise towers of steel and glass that were reproduced technological wonders offered diversion even to the poor
endlessly all around the world during the second half of while helping to define the twentieth century as the era of
the century. the common people. During the 1920s and 1930s, radio and
For many postwar architects, the past was the enemy the movies brought new forms of mass culture to millions
of the future. In 1925, the famous French architect Le of people in Europe and North America.
making connections
World War I shattered the image of Europe as a modern having preserved national honor. As the British histo-
civilization based on the sturdy pillars of economic pros- rian John Keegan has noted, for European statesmen in
perity, social harmony, and the rule of law. It also dem- the early twentieth century, “the fear of not meeting a
onstrated that European leaders had overestimated the challenge was greater than the fear of war.” In any case,
prevalence of the Enlightenment belief in rational think- by 1914 the major European states had come to believe
ing, while ignoring the emotive power of raw nationalism that their alliances were important for their survival and
and nativism. Urged on by new propaganda techniques uti- that their security depended on supporting their allies,
lized by their own governments, entire populations were even when they took foolish risks.
manipulated into marching off blindly into a meaningless To make matters worse, the very industrial and tech-
slaughter. nological innovations that had brought the prospect of
Who was responsible for the carnage? To the victori- increased material prosperity for millions had also led to
ous Allied leaders at the time, it was their defeated for- the manufacture of new weapons of mass destruction
mer adversaries, on whom they imposed harsh terms at that would make war a more terrible prospect for those
the Paris Peace Conference at the end of the war. The involved, whether military or civilian. If war did come, it
losers, on the other hand, were convinced that they had would be highly destructive.
been unfairly punished for simply seeking to occupy their The victorious world leaders who gathered at
rightful place in the concert of nations. As the Chinese Versailles hoped to forge a peace settlement that would
proverb has it, “the winner is king, the loser is rebel.” say good-bye to all that. But as it turned out, the tur-
Eventually, however, many observers began to moil wrought by World War I seemed to open the door
conclude that the real culprit was the prewar interna- to an even greater sense of insecurity. Revolutions in
tional system itself. The system of nation-states that Russia and the Middle East dismembered old empires
began to emerge in Europe during the second half of and created new states that themselves soon gave rise to
the nineteenth century had led not to cooperation, as unexpected problems. Expectations that Europe and the
many liberals had hoped, but to heightened competi- world would return to “normalcy” (i.e., the relatively
tion. Persuaded that national survival was based on the stable balance of power that had prevailed through
twin achievements of industrial prowess and imperial- much of the nineteenth century) were soon dashed by
ist might, European leaders began to view international the failure to achieve a lasting peace, by sudden eco-
politics as a zero-sum game, in which the losers would be nomic collapse, and by the rise of authoritarian govern-
consigned to the realm of victims in a social Darwinist ments that not only restricted individual freedoms but
universe. Governments that exercised restraint in order sought even greater control over the lives of their sub-
to avoid war wound up being publicly criticized for jects, manipulating and guiding their people to achieve
their weakness; those that went to the brink of war to the goals of their totalitarian regimes. In the next chap-
maintain their national interests were often praised for ter, we will examine these events in greater detail.
QQWhat were the underlying causes that led to the QQHow did Lenin and the Bolsheviks manage to seize
outbreak of World War I? and hold power despite their small numbers?
QQWhat nation, if any, was the most responsible for QQHow was World War I the first global war?
causing World War I? Why?

CHAPTER Timeline
1915 1920 1925 1930
Europe
Assassination of Archduke Paris Peace Conference Treaty of Locarno Great Depression begins
Francis Ferdinand (1919) (1925) (1929)
(1914)
Battle of Germany enters League
Verdun of Nations
(1916) (1926)
Russia
Bolshevik Revolution Lenin's New Economic Policy Stalin establishes
(1917) (1921) dictatorship in Russia
(1928–1929)
Civil war in Russia

(1918–1920)
United States
United States enters the war Dawes Plan The New Deal
(1917) (1924) (1930s)
CHAPTER NOTES
1. Cited in Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August (New 5. Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919: Six Months That
York, 1962), p. 146. Changed the World (New York, 2001), p. 103.
2. Arnold Toynbee, Surviving the Future (New York, 1971), 6. Dmitri Volkogonov, Lenin: A New Biography (New York,
pp. 106–107. 1994), p. 22.
3. Immanuel Geiss, July 1914: The Outbreak of the First 7. Quoted in Robert Paxton, Europe in the Twentieth
World War: Selected Documents (Scribner, 1968), No. 135, Century, 2nd ed. (San Diego, 1985), p. 237.
cited in Niall Ferguson, “The Jihad of 1914” in the New 8. Volkogonov, Lenin, p. 3.
York Review of Books, February 13, 2003, p. 21. 9. Quoted in Nikos Stangos, Concepts of Modern Art: From
4. Harold Nicolson, Peacemaking, 1919 (Boston and New Fauvism to Postmodernism, 3rd ed. (London, 1994), p. 44.
York, 1933), pp. 31–32.
Chapter
Nationalism, Revolution, and
Dictatorship: Asia, the Middle
5 East, and Latin America
1919 –1939
Chapter Outline and
The Tours Congress, Ho Chi Minh (1890–1969) from ‘L’Humanite’, December 1920 (b/w photo),
French Photographer, (20th century)/Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France/Archives Charmet/
Focus Questions
5-1 T
he Spread of Nationalism in Asia
and the Middle East
QQWhat were the various stages in the rise of
nationalist movements in Asia and the Middle
East? How did their experience compare with
that of nationalist movements in nineteenth
century Europe?
5-2 Revolution in China
QQWhat challenges did China encounter
The Bridgeman Art Library

between the two world wars, and what
solutions did the Nationalists and the
Communists propose to resolve them?
5-3 Japan Between the Wars
QQHow did Japan address the challenge IMAGE 5.1 Nguyen the Patriot at Tours
of nation-building in the first decade of
the twentieth century, and why did democratic
institutions not take hold more effectively? ON CHRISTMAS DAY IN 1920, a young Asian man in an
ill-fitting rented suit stood up nervously to address
5-4 N
ationalism and Dictatorship in the several hundred delegates of the French Socialist
Latin America Party (FSP) who had gathered in the historic French
QQWhat problems did the nations of Latin America city of Tours. The speaker introduced himself as
face in the interwar years? To what degree were Nguyen Ai Quoc, or “Nguyen the Patriot,” and he
they a consequence of foreign influence? was a Vietnamese subject in the French colony of
Indochina.
The delegates had assembled to decide whether the
FSP, a political party of Marxist persuasion that had
become a member of the Second International (see
Chapter 1) would drop its moderate objectives in order
to follow the path of violent revolution recommended
by the new Bolshevik regime in Soviet Russia. Among
those voting in favor of the proposal was Nguyen Ai
Quoc, who had decided that only the path of Karl
Connections to Today Marx and Lenin could lead to national independence
for his compatriots. In future years, operating under
Do the nations of Asia, the Middle East, and Latin the pseudonym of Ho Chi Minh, he would become a
America face today some of the same challenges founding member of the Vietnamese Communist Party
that affected their counterparts in the first decade and the public face of a revolutionary movement that
of the twentieth century. If so, what are they? would successfully challenge the global power of the
United States during the Cold War.
105
The meeting in Tours was held at a time when Western civilization were widespread, especially among
resistance to Western imperial rule was on the rise in the intellectual elite. These doubts were quick to reach the
Asia, and the decision that Nguyen Ai Quoc faced of attention of perceptive observers elsewhere and contributed
whether to opt for violent revolution or gradual change to a rising tide of unrest against Western political domina-
was one that would be encountered by colonial peo- tion throughout the colonial and semicolonial world. That
ples throughout the world. As Europeans devastated
unrest took a variety of forms but was most notably dis-
their own civilization on the battlefields of Europe,
played in increasing worker activism, rural protest, and, for
the subject peoples in their vast colonial empires
were quick to recognize the opportunity to shake free many, a new awareness of national and ethnic identity.
of foreign domination. In those areas, movements for
national independence began to take shape. Some
were inspired by the nationalist and liberal movements 5-1a Stirrings of Nationhood
of the West, while others looked to the new Marxist Prior to the colonial takeover, most societies outside
model provided by the victory of the Communists
Europe lacked a clear sense of common purpose or mod-
in Soviet Russia, who soon worked to spread their
revolutionary vision to African and Asian societies. In
ern nationhood. Many were deeply divided by ethnic,
the Middle East, World War I ended the rule of the linguistic, and religious differences, while others were
Ottoman Empire and led to the creation of new states, united primarily on the basis of religious beliefs, commu-
many of which were placed under Western domination. nity loyalties, or devotion to hereditary leaders. Although
The nations of Latin America were no longer under some individuals identified themselves as members of a
direct colonial rule and thus, for the most part, did particular ethnic or linguistic group, many others viewed
not face the same degree of challenge as did their themselves as subjects of a king, members of a caste, or
counterparts elsewhere. Nevertheless, the economies adherence to a particular village community, tribal affili-
of many Latin American countries were virtually con- ation, or lineage group. That lack of sharp focus on their
trolled by foreign interests. A similar situation pre- communal identity was obviously a disadvantage as they
vailed in China and Japan, two countries which had
responded to the challenge from imperialist nations.
managed with some difficulty to retain a degree of
political independence despite severe pressure from
The creation of colonies with defined borders and a
the West. But the political flux and economic disrup- powerful central government weakened traditional ties
tion that characterized much of the world during and and reoriented individuals’ sense of political identity. The
after World War I had affected Latin America, China, introduction of Western ideas of citizenship and represen-
and Japan as well, leading many in these regions to tative government engendered a new sense of participa-
heed the siren call of fascist dictatorship or social rev- tion in the affairs of government. At the same time, the
olution. For all the peoples of Asia, the Middle East, appearance of a new and foreign elite class based not on
and Latin America, the end of the Great War had not hereditary privilege or religious sanction but on alleged
created a world safe for democracy, as Woodrow Wilson racial or cultural superiority aroused a shared sense of
had hoped, but an age of great peril and uncertainty. resentment among subject peoples, who felt a common
commitment to the creation of an independent society. By
the first quarter of the twentieth century, political move-
ments dedicated to the overthrow of colonial rule had
arisen throughout much of the non-Western world.
5-1The Spread of Nationalism The first nationalist movements in Asia and the Middle
in Asia and the Middle East East, then, were a product of colonialism and, in a sense, a
reaction to it. But a sense of being part of a broader com-
QQ Focus Questions: What were the various

stages in the rise of nationalist movements
munity defined by nationality does not emerge full-blown
in a society. It begins among a few members of the edu-
cated elite (most commonly among articulate profession-
in Asia and the Middle East? How did their
als such as lawyers, teachers, journalists, and doctors) and
experience compare with that of nationalist
spreads gradually to the mass of the population. Only then
movements in nineteenth century Europe?
has a true sense of nationhood been created.
The process of creating modern nations began to take
Although the West had emerged from World War I rela- shape at the beginning of the twentieth century and was
tively intact, its political and social foundations and its the product of the convergence of several factors. The most
self-confidence had been severely undermined by the expe- vocal sources of anticolonialist sentiment were found in a
rience. Within Europe, doubts about the future viability of new class of westernized intellectuals in the urban centers
106 ■ CHAPTER 5 Nationalism, Revolution, and Dictatorship: Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America 1919 –1939
created by colonial rule. In many cases, this new urban Calling themselves Thakin (a polite term in the Burmese
middle class, composed of merchants, petty functionar- language meaning “lord” or “master,” thereby emphasizing
ies, clerks, students, and professionals, had been educated their demand for the right to rule themselves), the students
in Western-style schools and spoke European languages. began by protesting against British arrogance and lack of
A few had spent time in the West. In any case, they were respect for local religious traditions. Eventually, however,
the first generation of Asians and Africans to possess more they began to focus specifically on the issue of national
than a rudimentary understanding of the institutions and independence.
values of the modern West. A similar movement arose in the Dutch East Indies,
The results were paradoxical. On the one hand, this where the first quasi-political organization dedicated to the
new class admired Western culture and sometimes har- creation of a modern Indonesia, the Sarekat Islam (Islamic
bored a deep sense of contempt for traditional ways, Association), began as a self-help society among Muslim
many of which had not only failed to fend off the impe- merchants to fight against domination of the local economy
rial conquest but also appeared to be inadequate to meet by Chinese interests. Eventually, activist elements began to
the needs of changing times. On the other hand, many realize that the source of the problem was not the Chinese
strongly resented the gap between ideal and reality, theory merchants, most of whom were Buddhists, but the colonial
and practice, in colonial policy. Although Western political presence, and in the 1920s, Sarekat Islam was transformed
thought exalted democracy, equality, and individual free- into a new organization—the Nationalist Party of Indonesia
dom, these values were generally not applied in the colo- (PNI)—that focused on the issue of national independence.
nies, and colonial subjects usually had access to only the Like the Thakins in Burma, this party would eventually lead
most menial positions in the colonial bureaucracy. the country to independence after World War II.
Equally important, the economic prosperity of the West
was only imperfectly reflected in the colonies. Normally, Independence or Modernization? The Nationalist Quandary
middle-class colonial subjects did not suffer in the same Building a new nation, however, requires more than a shared
manner as impoverished peasants or menial workers in coal sense of grievances against the foreign invader. Many other
mines or on sugar or rubber plantations, but they, too, had questions need to be answered. By what means was inde-
complaints. They usually qualified only for menial jobs in pendence to be achieved? Should independence or mod-
the government or business. Even when employed, their ernization be the first priority? What kind of political and
salaries were normally lower than those of Europeans in economic system should be adopted once colonial rule had
similar occupations. The superiority of the Europeans was been overthrown? What national or cultural concept should
expressed in a variety of ways, including “whites only” clubs be adopted as the symbol of the new nation, and which insti-
and the use of the familiar form of the language (normally tutions and values should be preserved from the past?
used by adults to children) when addressing members of Questions such as these triggered lively and sometimes
the local population. acrimonious debates among patriotic elements throughout
Out of this mixture of hopes and resentments emerged the colonial world. If national independence was the desired
the first stirrings of modern nationalism in Asia and Africa. end, how could it best be achieved? Could the Westerners
During the first quarter of the twentieth century, in colo- be persuaded to leave without resort to violent measures,
nial and semicolonial societies across the entire arc of Asia or would force be required? If the Western presence was
from the Suez Canal to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, potentially beneficial by introducing much-needed reforms
indigenous peoples began to organize political parties and in traditional societies, then a gradualist approach made
movements seeking reforms or the end of foreign rule and sense. On the other hand, if the colonial regime was an
the restoration of independence. impediment to social and political change, then the first
priority, in the minds of many, was to bring it to an end.
5-1b Modern Nationalism Another problem was how to adopt useful Western
At first, many of the leaders of these movements did not ideas and institutions while preserving the essential values
focus clearly on the idea of nationhood but were motivated that defined the indigenous culture. One of the reasons
primarily to defend the economic interests or religious for retaining traditional values was to provide ideologi-
beliefs of the local population. In Burma, for example, the cal symbols that the common people could understand.
first expression of modern nationalism came from students If the desired end was national independence, then the
at the University of Rangoon, who formed an informal new political parties obviously needed to enlist the mass
organization to protest against official persecution of the of the population in the common struggle. But how could
Buddhist religion and British failure to observe local customs peasants, plantation workers, fishermen, and shepherds be
in Buddhist temples, such as not removing their footwear. made to understand complicated and unfamiliar concepts
5-1 The Spread of Nationalism in Asia and the Middle East ■ 107
like democracy, industrialization, and nationhood? The British benevolence was futile. In 1885, a small group
problem was often one of communication, for most urban of Indians met in Bombay to form the Indian National
intellectuals had little in common with the teeming popu- Congress (INC). They hoped to speak for all India, but
lation in the countryside. As the Indonesian intellectual most were high-caste English-trained Hindus. Like their
Sutan Sjahrir lamented, many westernized intellectuals reformist predecessors, members of the INC did not
had more in common with their colonial rulers than with demand immediate independence and accepted the need
the local population in the rural villages. In a letter to his for reforms to end traditional abuses like child marriage and
wife written in 1935, Sjahrir declared that indigenous cul- sati (see Chapter 2). At the same time, they called for an
ture no longer had relevance for those who sought to make Indian share in the governing process and more spending
their way in the new world: on economic development and less on military campaigns
along the frontier.
Here [in Indonesia] there has been no spiritual or
The British responded with a few concessions, such as
cultural life, and no intellectual progress for centuries.
accepting the principle of elective Indian participation on
There are the much-praised Eastern art forms but what
government councils, but in general, change was glacially
are these except bare rudiments from a feudal culture
that cannot possibly provide a dynamic fulcrum for
slow. As impatient members of the INC became disillu-
people of the twentieth century? . . . Our spiritual needs
sioned, radical leaders such as Balwantrao Tilak (1856–1920)
are needs of the twentieth century; our problems and
openly criticized the British while defending traditional cus-
our views are of the twentieth century . . . .1 toms like child marriage to solicit support from conserva-
tive elements within the local population. Tilak’s activities
split the INC between moderates and radicals, and he and
5-1c Gandhi and the Indian National Congress his followers formed the New Party, which called for the
Nowhere in the colonial world were these issues debated use of terrorism and violence to achieve national indepen-
more vigorously than in India (see Map 5.1). Before the dence. Tilak was eventually convicted of sedition.
Sepoy Uprising, Indian consciousness had focused primar- The INC also had difficulty reconciling religious differ-
ily on the question of religious identity. But in the latter ences within its ranks. The stated goal of the INC was to
half of the nineteenth century, a stronger sense of national seek self-determination for all Indians regardless of class
consciousness began to arise, provoked by the conserva- or religious affiliation, but many of its leaders were Hindu
tive policies and racial arrogance of the British colonial and inevitably reflected Hindu concerns. By the first
authorities. decade of the twentieth century, Muslims began to call
The first Indians to focus on nationhood were almost for the creation of a separate Muslim League to represent
invariably upper class and educated. Many of them were the interests of the millions of Muslims in Indian society.
from urban areas such as Bombay (now Mumbai), Madras
(Chennai), and Calcutta (Kolkata). Some were trained in law India’s “Great Soul,” Mohandas Gandhi In 1915, the
and were members of the civil service. At first, many tended return of a young Hindu lawyer from South Africa trans-
to prefer reform to revolution and believed that India needed formed the movement and galvanized India’s struggle for
modernization before it could handle the problems of inde- independence and identity. Mohandas Gandhi was born
pendence. An exponent of this view was Gopal Gokhale in 1869 in Gujarat, in western India, the son of a govern-
(1866–1915), a moderate nationalist ment minister. In the late-nineteenth
who hoped that he could convince the AFGHANISTAN CHINA century, he studied in London and
KASHMIR
British to bring about needed reforms AND became a lawyer. In 1893, he went
JAMMU
in Indian society. Gokhale and other Lahore
TIBET
to South Africa to work in a law firm
Amritsar
like-minded reformists did have some R.
serving Indian émigrés working as
us Delhi
effect. In the 1880s, the government laborers there. He soon became
Ind
Ganges R Tis
.
ta R.
launched a series of reforms introduc- Calcutta

aware of the racial prejudice and
BURMA
ing a measure of self-government for exploitation experienced by Indians
Bombay
the first time. All too often, however, Bay of
living in the territory and tried to
such efforts were sabotaged by local Arabian Goa Bengal organize them to protest their living
Sea Madras
British officials. Pondicherry
conditions.
0 375 750 Kilometers CEYLON
The Indian National Congress The (CROWN COLONY) Nonviolent Resistance On his return
0 250 500 Miles
slow pace of reform convinced many to India, Gandhi immediately became
Indian nationalists that relying on MAP 5.1 British India Between the Wars active in the independence movement.
MOVIES & HISTORY
Gandhi (1982)
To many of his contemporaries, Mohandas Gandhi—the
Mahatma, or “great soul”—was the conscience of India.
Son of a senior Indian official from the state of Gujarat,
he trained as a lawyer at University College in London.
Gandhi first dealt with racial discrimination when he
Columbia Pictures/Everett Collection

sought to provide legal assistance to Indian laborers liv-
ing under the apartheid regime in South Africa. On his
return to India in 1915, he rapidly emerged as a fierce
critic of British colonial rule over his country. His mes-
sage of satyagraha—embodying the idea of a steadfast
but nonviolent resistance to the injustice and inhumanity
inherent in the colonial enterprise—inspired millions of
his compatriots in their long struggle for national inde- Jawaharlal Nehru (Roshan Seth), Mahatma Gandhi
pendence. It also earned the admiration and praise of (Ben Kingsley), and Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Alyque
sympathetic observers around the world. His death by Padamsee) confer before the partition of India into
Hindu and Muslim states.
assassination at the hands of a Hindu fanatic in 1948
shocked the world.
Time, however, has somewhat dimmed his message. It was at least partly in an effort to revive and perpetu-
Gandhi’s vision of a future India was symbolized by ate the message of the Mahatma that British filmmaker
the spinning wheel—he rejected the industrial age and Richard Attenborough directed the film Gandhi. Epic in
material pursuits in favor of the simple pleasures of the its length and scope, the film seeks to present a faithful
traditional Indian village. Since achieving independence, rendition of the life of its subject, from his introduction to
however, India has followed the path of national wealth and apartheid in South Africa at the turn of the century to his
power laid out by Gandhi’s friend and colleague Jawaharlal tragic death after World War II. Actor Ben Kingsley, son
Nehru. Gandhi’s appeal for religious tolerance and mutual of an Indian father and an English mother, plays the title
respect at home rapidly gave way to a bloody conflict role with intensity and conviction. The film was widely
between Hindus and Muslims that still persists today. On praised and earned eight Academy Awards, including one
the global stage, his vision of world peace and brotherly for Kingsley as Best Actor.
love has been similarly ignored, first during the Cold War
and more recently by the “clash of civilizations” between Q Why do you think Gandhi became such a widely
Western countries and the forces of militant Islam. admired—if controversial—figure in his lifetime?
Using his experience in South Africa, he set up a move- Gandhi, now increasingly known as India’s “Great
ment based on nonviolent resistance (the Indian term was Soul” (Mahatma), organized mass protests to achieve his
satyagraha, “hold fast to the truth”) to try to force the British aims, but in 1919, they got out of hand and led to British
to improve the lot of the poor and grant independence to reprisals. British troops killed hundreds of unarmed
India. Gandhi was particularly concerned about the plight protesters in the enclosed square of the city of Amritsar in
of the millions of “untouchables” (the lowest social class in northwestern India. When the protests began to spread,
traditional India), whom he called harijans, or “children of Gandhi was horrified at the violence and briefly retreated
God.” When the British attempted to suppress dissent, he from active politics. Nevertheless, he was arrested for his
called on his followers to refuse to obey British regulations. role in the protests and spent several years in prison.
He began to manufacture his own clothes (dressing in a sim- Gandhi combined his anticolonial activities with an
ple dhoti made of coarse homespun cotton) and adopted the appeal to the spiritual instincts of all Indians (see Movies
spinning wheel as a symbol of Indian resistance to imports & History, Gandhi, above). Though born and raised a Hindu,
of British textiles. he possessed a universalist approach to the idea of God that
transcended individual religion, although it was shaped by 5-1d Revolt in the Middle East
the historical themes of Hindu religious belief. At a speech In the Middle East, as in Europe, World War I hastened the
given in London in September 1931, he expressed his view collapse of old empires. The Ottoman Empire, which had
of the nature of God as “an indefinable mysterious power dominated the eastern Mediterranean since the seizure of
that pervades everything . . . , an unseen power which makes Constantinople in 1453, had been growing steadily weaker
itself felt and yet defies all proof.” since the end of the eighteenth century, troubled by rising
In 1921, the British passed the Government of India governmental corruption, a failure to take advantage of
Act to expand the role of Indians in the governing pro- technological advances (such as advanced firearms) intro-
cess and transform the heretofore advisory Legislative duced from Europe, a decline in the effectiveness of the sul-
Council into a bicameral parliament, two-thirds of whose tans, and the loss of considerable territory in the Balkans
members would be elected. Similar bodies were created and southwestern Russia. In North Africa, Ottoman
at the provincial level. In a stroke, 5 million Indians were authority, tenuous at best, had disintegrated in the nine-
enfranchised. But such reforms were no longer enough teenth century, enabling the French to seize Algeria and
for many members of the INC, who wanted to follow Tunisia and the British to establish a protectorate over the
the new INC leader, Motilal Nehru, in pushing aggres- Nile River valley.
sively for full independence. The British exacerbated the
situation by increasing the salt tax and prohibiting the
Indian people from manufacturing or harvesting their Twilight of the Ottoman Empire Reformist elements in
own salt. In 1930, Gandhi, now released from prison, Istanbul (as Constantinople was officially renamed in
resumed his policy of civil disobedience by openly join- 1930), to be sure, had tried to resist the decline. The first
ing several dozen supporters in a 240-mile walk to the efforts had taken place in the eighteenth century, when
sea, where he picked up a lump of salt and urged Indians westernizing forces, concerned at the shrinkage of the
to ignore the law. Gandhi and many other members of empire, had tried to modernize the army. One ener-
the INC were arrested. getic sultan, Selim III (r. 1789–1807), tried to establish a
“new order” that would streamline both the civilian and
military bureaucracies, but conservative elements in the
New Leaders for New Challenges In the 1930s, a new
emperor’s private guard, alarmed at the potential loss of
figure entered the movement in the person of Jawaharlal
their power, revolted and brought the experiment to an
Nehru (1889–1964), son of the INC leader Motilal Nehru.
end. Further efforts during the first half of the nineteenth
Educated in the law in Great Britain and a brahmin (mem-
century were somewhat more successful and resulted in a
ber of the highest social class) by birth, Nehru personi-
series of bureaucratic, military, and educational reforms.
fied the new Anglo-Indian politician: secular, rational,
New roads were built, the power of local landlords was
upper class, and intellectual. In fact, he appeared to be
reduced, and an Imperial Rescript issued in 1856 granted
everything that Gandhi was not. With his emergence,
equal rights to all subjects of the empire, whatever their
the independence movement embarked on dual paths:
religious preference. In the 1870s, a new generation of
religious and secular, Indian and Western, traditional
reformers seized power in Istanbul and pushed through a
and modern (see Comparative Illustration, “Masters and
constitution aimed at forming a legislative assembly that
Disciples,” p. 111). The dichotomous character of the INC
would represent all the peoples in the state. But the sul-
leadership may well have strengthened the movement
tan they placed on the throne, Abdulhamid (r. 1876–1909),
by bringing together the two primary impulses behind
suspended the new charter and attempted to rule by tradi-
the desire for independence: elite nationalism and the
tional authoritarian means.
primal force of Indian traditionalism. But it portended
trouble for the nation’s new leadership in defining India’s
future path in the contemporary world. In the meantime, The “Young Turks” By the end of the nineteenth cen-
Muslim discontent with Hindu dominance over the INC tury, the defunct 1876 constitution had become a symbol
was increasing. In 1940, the Muslim League called for the of change for reformist elements, now grouped together
creation of a separate state based on Islamic principles under the common name Young Turks. In 1908, Young
in the northwest, to be known as Pakistan (“Land of the Turk elements forced the sultan to restore the constitution,
Pure”). As communal strife between Hindus and Muslims and he was removed from power the following year.
increased, many Indians came to realize with sorrow (and But the Young Turks had appeared at a moment of
some British colonialists with satisfaction) that British extreme fragility for the empire. Internal rebellions, com-
rule was all that stood between peace and civil war. bined with Austrian annexations of Ottoman territories
Masters and Disciples

favored by his colleagues) as leader of the Indian National
Q How do these four leaders compare in terms of Congress, the movement adopted a more secular posture.
their roles in furthering political change in their In China, Chiang Kai-shek (Image 5.2b, standing) took Sun
respective countries? Yat-sen’s Nationalist Party in a more conservative direction
after Sun’s death in 1925.
Politics & When the founders of nationalist

Government
movements passed leadership over to their
Sun Yat-Sen (1866-1925) and Chiang Kai-Shek (1887-1975) (b/w photo), Chinese Photographer/Private Collection/
successors, the result was often a change in the strategy
and tactics of the organizations. In India, when Jawaharlal
Nehru (Image 5.2a, on the left) replaced Mahatma Gandhi
(wearing a simple Indian dhoti rather than the Western dress
Archives Charmet/Bridgeman Images

AP Images/Max Desfor
IMAGE 5.2a Nehru and Gandhi IMAGE 5.2b Sun Yat-Sen and Chiang Kai-Shek
in the Balkans, undermined support for the new gov- declared Arabia independent from Ottoman rule, while
ernment and provoked the army to step in. With most British troops, advancing from Egypt, seized Palestine. In
minorities from the old empire now removed from October 1918, having suffered more than 300,000 casualties
Turkish authority, many ethnic Turks began to embrace during the war, the Ottoman Empire negotiated an armi-
a new concept of a Turkish state based on all residents of stice with the Allied Powers.
Turkish nationality. During the next two years, Allied diplomats wrestled with
The final blow to the old empire came during World how to deal with the remnants of the defeated Ottoman
War I, when the Ottoman government allied with Germany Empire. In 1916, the British and the French had reached a
in the hope of driving the British from Egypt and restoring secret agreement to divide up the non-Turkish areas of
Ottoman rule over the Nile valley. In response, the British the empire between themselves. This did not sit well with
declared an official protectorate over Egypt and, aided by Woodrow Wilson, who opposed the outright annexation of
the efforts of T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), sought colonial territories by the victorious Allies. Ultimately, the
to undermine Ottoman rule in the Arabian peninsula by latter agreed to establish these territories as mandates under
encouraging Arab nationalists there (see Chapter 4). In 1916, the new League of Nations. Mesopotamia and Palestine
the local governor of Mecca, encouraged by the British, were assigned to the British, while Syria was given to the
French (see Map 5.2). The Arabian Turkish citizens were given family
peninsula was dealt with separately, French mandates names in the European style.
and eventually received its inde- British mandates Atatürk also took steps to mod-
pendence as the kingdom of Saudi ernize the economy, overseeing the
Ca
Constantinople
sp
Arabia in 1932 (see “The Rise of Arab establishment of a light industrial
ia
nS
Nationalism,” p. 114). TURKEY sector producing textiles, glass,
ea
Other aspects of the Treaty of paper, and cement and instituting a
Sèvres, signed in 1920, were even Kirkuk five-year plan on the Soviet model to
SYRIA
more controversial. Western por- LEBANON Beirut PERSIA provide for state direction over the
Mediterran Baghdad
ean Sea Damascus
tions of the Anatolian peninsula PALESTINE economy. Atatürk was no admirer
IRAQ
were to be occupied by the Greeks Jerusalem TRANS- of Soviet communism, however,
Cairo JORDAN KUWAIT
in preparation for a future plebi- EGYPT and the Turkish economy can be
scite to determine the future of the 0 250 500 750 Kilometers SAUDI better described as a form of state
area. Armenia—where the local 0 250 500 Miles
ARABIA capitalism. He also encouraged the
Christian population had been bru- modernization of the agricultural
MAP 5.2 The Middle East in 1923
tally mistreated by the Turks—was sector through the establishment
to receive its independence. A proposal for an independent of training institutions and model farms, but such reforms
Kurdistan (the Kurds were a non-Arab Muslim people liv- had relatively little effect on the nation’s predominantly
ing in mountainous areas throughout the region) was left conservative rural population.
unresolved. Perhaps the most significant aspect of Atatürk’s reform
program was his attempt to limit the power of the Islamic
Mustafa Kemal and the Moderniza tion of Turkey The religion and transform Turkey into a secular state. The
impending collapse of the Ottoman Empire energized caliphate (according to which the Ottoman sultan was rec-
key elements in Turkey under the leadership of war hero ognized as the temporal leader of the global Islamic com-
Colonel Mustafa Kemal (1881–1938), who had commanded munity) was formally abolished in 1924, and the Shari’a
Turkish forces in their heroic defense of the Dardanelles (Islamic law) was replaced by a revised version of the Swiss
against a British invasion during World War I. Now he law code (see Opposing Viewpoints, “Islam in the Modern
resigned from the army and convoked a national congress World: Two Views,” p. 113). The fez (the brimless cap worn
that called for the creation of an elected government and by Turkish Muslims) was abolished as a form of headdress,
the preservation of the remaining territories of the old and women were discouraged from wearing the traditional
empire in a new republic of Turkey. Establishing the new Islamic veil, a practice that symbolized female inferiority
capital at Ankara, Kemal’s forces drove the Greeks from with respect to their male counterparts and dated back to
the Anatolian peninsula and seized Kurdish lands to the the early years of the faith during the life of the Prophet
east, thus bringing an end to the dream of an indepen- Muhammad. Women received the right to vote in 1934 and
dent Kurdistan. The Allies agreed to sign a new Treaty of were legally guaranteed equal rights with men in all aspects
Lausanne, incorporating these changes. Armenian leaders, of marriage and inheritance. Education and the profes-
still bitter at their mistreatment at the hands of the Turks, sions were now open to both men and women, and some
decided to join the Soviet Union. In 1923, the last of the women even began to take part in politics. All citizens were
Ottoman sultans fled the country, which was now declared given the right to convert to another religion at will.
a Turkish republic. The Ottoman Empire had finally come The legacy of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was enormous.
to an end. Although not all of his reforms were widely accepted
During the next few years, President Mustafa Kemal in practice, especially by devout Muslims, most of the
(now popularly known as Atatürk, or “Father Turk”) changes that he introduced were retained after his death in
attempted to transform Turkey into a modern secular 1938. In virtually every respect, the Turkish republic was
republic. The trappings of a democratic system were put the product of his determined efforts to create a modern
in place, centered on the elected Grand National Assembly, nation, a Turkish version of the “revolution from above”
but the president was relatively intolerant of opposition in Meiji Japan.
and harshly suppressed critics of his rule. Turkish nation-
alism was emphasized, and the Turkish language, now Modernization in Iran In the meantime, a similar process
written in the Roman alphabet, was shorn of many of its was under way in Persia. Under the Qajar dynasty (1794–
Arabic elements. Popular education was emphasized, old 1925), the country had not been very successful in resisting
aristocratic titles like pasha and bey were abolished, and all Russian advances in the Caucasus or a growing European
Opposing Viewpoints
Islam in the Modern World: Two Views

maintaining our position in Africa? And do you see what has
Q Why did Mustafa Kemal believe that the caliphate come out of it? Do you know?”
no longer met the needs of the Turkish people? Those who favor the idea of placing the means at the
Why did Mohammed Iqbal believe that a separate disposal of the Caliph to brave the whole world and the
state for Muslims in India would be required? power to administer the affairs of the whole of Islam
How did he attempt to persuade non-Muslims that must not appeal to the population of Anatolia alone but
this would be to their benefit as well? to the great Muslim agglomerations which are eight or
ten times as rich in men.
New Turkey, the people of New Turkey, have no reason
Politics & As part of his plan to transform Turkey into a
Government to think of anything else but their own existence and their
modern society, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk sought
own welfare. She has nothing more to give away to others.
to free his country from what he considered to be outdated
practices imposed by traditional beliefs. The first selection is Mohammed Iqbal, Speech to the All-India Muslim
from a speech in which he proposed bringing an end to the League (1930)
caliphate, which had been in the hands of Ottoman sultans
It cannot be denied that Islam, regarded as an ethical ideal
since the formation of the empire. But not all Muslims wished
plus a certain kind of polity . . . has been the chief forma-
to move in the direction of a more secular society. Mohammed
tive factor in the life history of the Muslims of India. It
Iqbal, a well-known Muslim poet in colonial India, was a
has furnished those basic emotions and loyalties which
prominent advocate of the creation of a separate state for
gradually unify scattered individuals and groups and finally
Muslims in South Asia. The second selection is from an
transform them into a well-defined people. Indeed it is no
address he presented to the All-India Muslim League in
exaggeration to say that India is perhaps the only country
December 1930, explaining the rationale for his proposal.
in the world where Islam, as a people-building force, has
Atatürk, Speech to the Assembly (October 1924) worked at its best. In India, as elsewhere, the structure of
Islam as a society is almost entirely due to the working of
The sovereign entitled Caliph was to maintain justice among
Islam as a culture inspired by a specific ethical ideal. . . .
the three hundred million Muslims on the terrestrial globe,
Communalism in its higher aspect, then, is indispens-
to safeguard the rights of these peoples, to prevent any event
able to the formation of a harmonious whole in a country
that could encroach upon order and security, and confront
like India. The units of Indian society are not territorial
every attack which the Muslims would be called upon to
as in European countries. India is a continent of human
encounter from the side of other nations. It was to be part
groups belonging to different religions. Their behavior is
of his attributes to preserve by all means the welfare and
not at all determined by a common race consciousness.
spiritual development of Islam. . . .
Even the Hindus do not form a homogeneous group. The
If the Caliph and Caliphate, as they maintained, were
principle of European democracy cannot be applied to
to be invested with a dignity embracing the whole of
India without recognizing the fact of communal groups.
Islam, ought they not to have realized in all justice that
The Muslim demand for the creation of a Muslim India
a crushing burden would be imposed on Turkey, on her
within India is, therefore, perfectly justified. . . .
existence; her entire resources and all her forces would be
I therefore demand the formation of a consolidated
placed at the disposal of the Caliph? . . .
Muslim State in the best interests of India and Islam. For
For centuries our nation was guided under the influence
India it means security and peace resulting from an internal
of these erroneous ideas. But what has been the result of
balance of power; for Islam an opportunity to rid itself of
it? Everywhere they have lost millions of men. “Do you
the stamp that Arabian imperialism was forced to give it, to
know,” I asked, “how many sons of Anatolia have perished
mobilize its law, its education, its culture, and to bring them
in the scorching deserts of the Yemen? Do you know the
into closer contact with its own original spirit and with the
losses we have suffered in holding Syria and Egypt and in
spirit of modern times.
Sources: From Atatürk’s Speech to the Assembly, pp. 432–433. A speech delivered by Ghazi Mustafa Kemal, President of the Turkish Republic, October
1924; Mohammed Iqbal, Speech to the All-India Muslim League, 1930.
presence farther south. To secure themselves from foreign Unlike Atatürk, Reza Khan did not attempt to destroy
influence, the Qajars moved the capital from Tabriz to the power of Islamic beliefs, but he did encourage the
Tehran, in a mountainous area just south of the Caspian establishment of a Western-style educational system and
Sea. During the mid-nineteenth century, one moderniz- forbade women to wear the veil in public. He granted suf-
ing shah attempted to introduce political and economic frage to women and encouraged them to get an education.
reforms but faced resistance from tribal and religious To strengthen the sense of nationalism and reduce the
forces. The majority of Persians were Shi’ites, one of the power of Islam, he restored the country’s ancient name,
two main branches of Islam (as opposed to Sunni Muslims, Iran, in 1935 and attempted to popularize the symbols and
who predominated in most of the Muslim world). Both beliefs of pre-Islamic times. Like his Qajar predecessors,
Sunnis and Shi’ites adhered to the fundamental principles however, Reza Khan was hindered by strong foreign influ-
of Islam, including the “Five Pillars of Islam”: belief in ence. When the Soviet Union and Great Britain decided
Allah and Muhammad as his prophet; prayer five times to send troops into the country during World War II, he
a day and public prayer on Friday at midday to worship resigned in protest and died three years later.
Allah; observation of the holy month of Ramadan, includ-
ing fasting from dawn to sunset; making a pilgrimage, if Nation Building in Iraq One consequence of the col-
possible, to Mecca at least once in one’s lifetime; and giv- lapse of the Ottoman Empire was the emergence of a
ing alms (zakat) to the poor and unfortunate. The Shi’ites, new political entity along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers,
however, had broken with the mainstream Sunni form of once the heartland of ancient empires. Lacking defensible
Islam over leadership issues not long after the death of borders and sharply divided along ethnic and religious
Muhammad and adopted a more strict interpretation of lines—a Shi’ite majority in rural areas was balanced by a
the Muslim faith. vocal Sunni minority in the cities and a largely Kurdish
Eventually, the growing foreign presence led to the rise population in the northern mountains—the region had
of an indigenous nationalist movement. Its efforts were been under Ottoman rule since the seventeenth century.
largely directed against Russian advances in the northwest With the advent of World War I, the lowland area from
and growing European influence in the small modern Baghdad southward to the Persian Gulf was occupied by
industrial sector, the profits from which left the country British forces, who hoped to protect oil-producing regions
or disappeared into the hands of the dynasty’s ruling elite. in neighboring Iran from a German takeover.
Supported actively by Shi’ite religious leaders, opposition In 1920, the country was placed under British control
to the regime rose steadily among both peasants and mer- as the mandate of Iraq under the League of Nations.
chants in the cities, and in 1906, popular pressures forced the Civil unrest and growing anti-Western sentiment rap-
reigning shah to grant a constitution on the Western model. idly dispelled any possible plans for the emergence of an
As in the Ottoman Empire and Qing China, however, independent government, and in 1921, after the suppres-
the modernizers had moved before their power base was sion of resistance forces, the British turned titular con-
secure. With the support of the Russians and the British, trol of the country to a monarchy under the authority of
the shah was able to retain control, and the two foreign King Faisal, a resistance leader during World War I and a
powers began to divide the country into separate spheres descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. Faisal relied for
of influence. One reason for the growing foreign presence support primarily on the politically more sophisticated
in Persia was the discovery of oil reserves in the southern urban Sunni population, although they represented less
part of the country in 1908. Within a few years, oil exports than a quarter of the population. The discovery of oil
increased rapidly, with the bulk of the profits going into near Kirkuk in 1927 increased the value of the area to the
the pockets of British investors. British, who had made the shift from coal to oil for their
In 1921, a Persian army officer by the name of Reza warships during World War I and now needed a secure
Khan (1878–1944) led a mutiny that seized power in access to the rich oil fields of the Middle East. In 1932,
Tehran. The new ruler had originally intended to establish the country received its formal independence, although
a republic, but resistance from traditional forces impeded British advisers continued to retain a strong influence over
his efforts, and in 1925, the new Pahlavi dynasty, with Reza the fragile government.
Khan as shah, replaced the now defunct Qajar dynasty.
During the next few years, Reza Khan attempted to follow The Rise of Arab Nationalism As we have seen, the Arab
the example of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in Turkey, intro- uprising during World War I helped bring about the demise
ducing a number of reforms to strengthen the central gov- of the Ottoman Empire. Actually, unrest against Ottoman
ernment, modernize the civilian and military bureaucracy, rule had existed in the Arabian peninsula since the eigh-
and establish a modern economic infrastructure. teenth century, when the Wahhabi revolt attempted to
expel the outside influences and cleanse Islam of cor- Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East—in Palestine,
rupt practices that had developed in past centuries. The which was then under Ottoman rule.
revolt was eventually suppressed, but the influence of Over the next decade, Jewish immigration into Palestine
the Wahhabi movement persisted, revitalized in part by increased with WZO support. By the outbreak of World
resistance to the centralizing and modernizing efforts of War I, about 85,000 Jews lived in Palestine, representing
reformist elements in the nineteenth century. about 15 percent of the total population. In 1917, respond-
World War I offered an opportunity for the Arabs to ing to appeals from the British chemist Chaim Weizmann,
throw off the shackles of Ottoman rule—but what would British Foreign Secretary Lord Arthur Balfour issued a
replace them? The Arabs were a loose collection of peo- declaration saying Palestine was to be a national home for
ples who often did not see eye to eye on what constituted the Jews. The Balfour Declaration, which was later con-
their community. Disagreement over what it means to be firmed by the League of Nations, was ambiguous on the
an Arab has plagued generations of political leaders who legal status of the territory and promised that the deci-
have sought unsuccessfully to knit together the disparate sion would not undermine the rights of the non-Jewish
peoples of the region into a single Arab nation. peoples currently living in the area. But Arab nationalists
When the Arab leaders in Mecca declared their inde- were incensed. How could a national home for the Jewish
pendence from Ottoman rule in 1916, they had hoped for people, a minority, be established in a territory where the
British support, but they were sorely disappointed when majority of the population was Muslim an Arab? (See
the British and French assumed control of much of the Opposing Viewpoints, “The Arab and the Jewish Case for
area as mandates of the League of Nations. To add salt Palestine,” p. 371.)
to the wound, the French created a new state of Lebanon After World War I, more Jewish settlers began to arrive
along the coastal regions of their mandate of Syria so that in Palestine in response to the promises made in the Balfour
the Christian peoples there could be under a Christian Declaration (see Image 5.3). As tensions between the new
administration. arrivals and existing Muslim residents began to escalate,
In the early 1920s, a leader of the Wahhabi movement, the British tried to restrict Jewish immigration into the
Ibn Saud (1880–1953), united Arab tribes in the northern territory while Palestinian and other Arab voices rejected
part of the Arabian peninsula and drove out the remnants the concept of a separate state. In a bid to relieve Arab
of Ottoman rule. Ibn Saud was a descendant of the family grievances, Great Britain created the separate emirate of
that had led the Wahhabi revolt in the eighteenth century. Trans-Jordan out of the eastern portion of Palestine. After
Devout and gifted, he won broad support among Arab World War II, it would become the independent kingdom
tribal peoples and established the kingdom of Saudi Arabia of Jordan. The stage was set for the conflicts that would
throughout much of the peninsula in 1932. take place in the region after World War II.
At first, his new kingdom, consisting essentially of
the vast wastes of central Arabia, was desperately poor. The British in Egypt Great Britain had maintained a loose
Its financial resources were limited to the income from protectorate over Egypt since the middle of the nine-
Muslim pilgrims visiting the holy sites in Mecca and teenth century, although the area remained nominally
Medina. But during the 1930s, American companies began under Ottoman rule. London formalized its protector-
to explore for oil, and in 1938, Standard Oil made a success- ate in 1914 to protect the Suez Canal and the Nile River
ful strike at Dahran, on the Persian Gulf. Soon an Arabian- valley from possible seizure by the Central Powers. After
American oil conglomerate, popularly called Aramco, was the war, however, nationalist elements became restive and
established, and the isolated kingdom was suddenly inun- formed the Wafd Party, a secular organization dedicated to
dated by Western oilmen and untold wealth. the creation of an independent Egypt based on the princi-
ples of representative government. The Wafd received the
The Issue of Palestine The land of Palestine—once the support of many middle-class Egyptians who, like Kemal
home of many peoples including the Jews but for centu- Atatürk in Turkey, hoped to meld Islamic practices with
ries thereafter inhabited primarily by Muslim Arabs and a the secular tradition of the modern West. Encouraged
few thousand Christians—became a separate mandate and by the emergence of a more moderate government,
immediately became a thorny problem for the British. In Egyptian women began to seek increased freedoms, and
1897, the Austrian-born journalist Theodor Herzl (1860– a vocal feminist movement was even formed in Cairo
1904) had convened an international conference in Basel, in the 1920s. This modernist form of Islam did not have
Switzerland, which led to the creation of the World Zionist broad appeal outside the cosmopolitan centers, however,
Organization (WZO). Its aim was to create a homeland and in 1928 the Muslim cleric Hasan al-Bana organized the
for the Jewish people—long dispersed widely throughout Muslim Brotherhood, which demanded strict adherence
IMAGE 5.3 European Jewish Refugees.
After the 1917 Balfour Declaration
promised a Jewish homeland in
Palestine, increasing numbers of
European Jews emigrated there.
Their goal was to build a new life
in a Jewish land. Like the refugees
aboard this ship, they celebrated as
they reached their new homeland.
The sign reads, “Keep the gates
open, we are not the last”—a
reaction to British efforts to slow
the pace of Jewish immigration
in response to protests by Muslim
residents of Palestine.
Q How did the Balfour

Declaration deal with the
question of the legal status

of the land of Palestine?
Has the issue been resolved
today?
to the traditional teachings of the Prophet, as set forth in of the oppressed masses from the critical issues of class
the Qur’an. The Brotherhood rejected Western ways and struggle and, in his phrase, the exploitation of one person
sought to create a new Egypt based firmly on the precepts by another. Instead, Marx stressed the importance of an
of the Shari’a. By the 1930s, the organization had as many “internationalist” outlook based on class consciousness and
as a million members. the eventual creation of a classless society with no artificial
divisions based on culture, nation, or religion.
5-1e Nationalism and Revolution Lenin and the East The situation began to change after
Before the Russian Revolution, to most observers in Asia, the Russian Revolution in 1917. The rise to power of
“westernization” meant the capitalist democratic civili- Lenin’s Bolsheviks demonstrated that a revolutionary party
zation of western Europe and the United States, not the espousing Marxist principles could overturn a corrupt,
doctrine of social revolution developed by Karl Marx. Until outdated system and launch a new experiment dedicated
1917, Marxism was generally regarded as a utopian idea to ending human inequality and achieving a paradise on
rather than a concrete system of government. Moreover, earth. In 1920, Lenin proposed a new revolutionary strat-
Orthodox Marxism appeared to have little relevance to egy designed to relate Marxist doctrine and practice to non-
conditions in Asia. Marxist doctrine, after all, declared that Western societies. His reasons were not entirely altruistic.
a communist society could arise only from the ashes of Soviet Russia, surrounded by capitalist powers, desperately
an advanced capitalism that had already passed through needed allies in its struggle to survive in a hostile world.
the stage of industrial revolution. From the perspective To Lenin, the anticolonial movements emerging in North
of Marxist historical analysis, most societies in Asia were Africa, Asia, and the Middle East after World War I were
still at the feudal stage of development; they lacked the natural—if temporary—allies of the beleaguered new
economic conditions and political awareness to achieve a regime in Moscow. Lenin was convinced that only the abil-
socialist revolution that would bring the working class to ity of the imperialist powers to find markets, raw materials,
power. Finally, the Marxist view of nationalism and religion and sources of capital investment in the non-Western world
had little appeal to many patriotic intellectuals in the non- kept capitalism alive. If the tentacles of capitalist influence
Western world. Marx believed that nationhood and reli- in the rest if the world could be severed, imperialism itself
gion were essentially false ideas that diverted the attention would ultimately weaken and collapse.
Establishing such an alliance was not easy, however.
Most nationalist leaders in colonial countries belonged
5-2 Revolution in China
to the urban middle class, and many had no interest in
promoting the idea of a violent revolution to create a
totally egalitarian society. In addition, many still adhered
QQ Focus Question: What challenges did China
encounter between the two world wars, and
what solutions did the Nationalists and the
to traditional religious beliefs and were opposed to the
Communists propose to resolve them?
atheistic principles of classical Marxism. To provide
restive colonized peoples with access to the Bolshevik
experiment, Lenin called for the creation of an organiza- Overall, revolutionary Marxism had its greatest impact in
tion to train agents who would then be dispatched across China, where a group of young radicals, including several
the world to carry the Marxist message beyond the bor- faculty and staff members from the prestigious Beijing
ders of industrialized Europe. The primary instrument University, founded the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
of this effort was the Communist International, or in 1921. The rise of the CCP was a consequence of the
Comintern for short. Formed in 1919 at Lenin’s prod- failed revolution of 1911. When Sun Yat-sen’s forces were
ding, the Comintern was a worldwide organization of too weak to consolidate their power, General Yuan Shikai
Communist parties dedicated to the advancement of stepped in to fill the vacuum. In China, Sun Yat-sen and
world revolution. At its headquarters in Moscow, agents his colleagues had accepted Yuan as president of the new
from around the world were trained in the precepts of Chinese republic in 1911 because they lacked the military
world communism and then sent back to their own coun- force to compete with his control over the army. Moreover,
tries to form Marxist parties and promote the cause of many feared, perhaps rightly, that if the revolt lapsed into
social revolution. By the end of the 1920s, almost every chaos, the Western powers would intervene and the last
colonial or semicolonial society in Asia had a party based shreds of Chinese sovereignty would be lost. But some had
on Marxist principles. The Soviets had less success in the misgivings about Yuan’s intentions. As one remarked in a
Middle East, where Marxist ideology appealed mainly to letter to a friend, “We don’t know whether he will be a
minorities such as Jews and Armenians in the cities, or in George Washington or a Napoleon.”
sub-Saharan Africa, where Soviet strategists in any case As it turned out, he was neither. Showing little com-
felt that conditions were not sufficiently advanced for the prehension of the new ideas sweeping into China from
creation of Communist organizations. the West, Yuan ruled in a traditional manner, reviving
Of course, the new doctrine’s appeal was not the same Confucian rituals and institutions and eventually trying
in all non-Western societies. In Confucian societies such to found a new imperial dynasty. Yuan’s dictatorial incli-
as China and Vietnam, where traditional belief systems nations led to clashes with Sun’s party, now renamed the
had been badly discredited by their failure to counter the Guomindang, or Nationalist Party. When Yuan dissolved
Western challenge, communism had an immediate impact the new parliament, the Nationalists launched a rebellion.
and rapidly became a major factor in the anticolonial When it failed, Sun Yat-sen fled to Japan.
movement (see Historical Voices, “The Path of Liberation,” Yuan was strong enough to brush off the challenge from
p. 118). In Buddhist and Muslim societies, where traditional the revolutionary forces but not to turn back the clock of
religion remained strong and actually became a cohesive history. He died in 1916 (apparently of natural causes) and
factor within the resistance movement, communism had was succeeded by one of his military subordinates. For the
less success and was forced to adapt to local conditions to next several years, China slipped into anarchy as the power
survive. To maximize their appeal and minimize poten- of the central government disintegrated and military war-
tial conflict with traditional ideas, some Communist lords seized power in the provinces.
parties sought to adjust Marxist doctrine to indigenous
values and institutions. In the Middle East, for example,
the Ba’ath Party in Syria adopted a hybrid socialism com- 5-2aMr. Science and Mr. Democracy:
bining Marxism with Arab nationalism. In Africa, radical The New Culture Movement
intellectuals talked vaguely of a uniquely “African road Although the failure of the 1911 revolution was a clear sign
to socialism.” In French Indochina, the Vietnamese rev- that China was not yet ready for dramatic change, discon-
olutionary Nguyen Ai Quoc (see the chapter opening tent with existing conditions continued to rise in various
vignette, p. 105) sought to clothe the radical objectives of sectors of Chinese society. The most vocal protests came
his party behind the screen of a national liberation move- from radical elements who opposed Yuan Shikai’s con-
ment that was allegedly designed to promote Vietnamese servative agenda but were now convinced that political
independence. change could not take place until the Chinese people were
5-2 Revolution in China ■ 117

HISTORICAL VOICES
The Path of Liberation

comrades at that moment—had shown their sympathy
Q Why did Ho Chi Minh believe that the Third toward me, toward the struggle of the oppressed peoples.
International was the key to the liberation of the But I understood neither what was a party, a trade union,
colonial peoples? What were the essential elements nor what was Socialism nor Communism.
of Lenin’s strategy for bringing that about? Heated discussions were then taking place in the
branches of the Socialist Party, about the question
IN 1919, the Vietnamese revolutionary Ho whether the Socialist Party should remain in the Second
Politics &
Government Chi Minh (1890–1969) was living in exile in International, should a Second-and-a-Half International
France, where he first became acquainted with the new be founded, or should the Socialist Party join Lenin’s
revolutionary experiment in Bolshevik Russia. Later he Third International? I attended the meetings regularly,
became a leader of the Vietnamese Communist movement. twice or three times a week, and attentively listened to the
In the following passage, written in 1960, he reminisces discussion. First, I could not understand thoroughly. Why
about his reasons for becoming a Communist. The Second were the discussions so heated? Either with the Second,
International mentioned in the text was an organization Second-and-a-Half, or Third International, the revolution
created in 1889 by moderate socialists who pursued their could be waged. What was the use of arguing then? As for
goal by parliamentary means. Lenin created the Third the First International, what had become of it?
International, or Comintern, in 1919 to promote violent What I wanted most to know—and this precisely was
revolution. Having rallied to Lenin’s strategy at the Congress not debated in the meetings—was: which International
of Tours in 1920, Ho Chi Minh went to Moscow in 1923 to sides with the peoples of colonial countries?
receive training at Comintern headquarters. I raised this question—the most important in my
opinion—in a meeting. Some comrades answered: It is
Ho Chi Minh, “The Path Which Led Me to Leninism” the Third, not the Second International. And a comrade
After World War I, I made my living in Paris, now as gave me Lenin’s “Thesis on the national and colonial
a retoucher at a photographer’s, now as a painter of questions,” published by l’Humanité, to read.
“Chinese antiquities” (made in France!). I would distrib- There were political terms difficult to understand
ute leaflets denouncing the crimes committed by the in this thesis. But by dint of reading it again and again,
French colonialists in Vietnam. finally I could grasp the main part of it. What emotion,
At that time, I supported the October Revolution [in enthusiasm, clear sightedness, and confidence it instilled
Russia] only instinctively, not yet grasping all its historic in me! I was overjoyed to tears. Though sitting alone in
importance. I loved and admired Lenin because he was a my room, I shouted aloud as if addressing large crowds:
great patriot who liberated his compatriots; until then, I “Dear martyrs, compatriots! This is what we need, this is
had read none of his books. the path to our liberation!”
The reason for my joining the French Socialist Party After that, I had entire confidence in Lenin, in the
was that these “ladies and gentlemen”—as I called my Third International.
Source: From Vietnam: History, Documents, and Opinions on a Major World Crisis, Marvin Gentleman, ed. (New York: Fawcett Publications, 1965),
pp. 30–32.
more familiar with trends in the outside world. Braving they presented the Chinese people with a heady mix of
the displeasure of Yuan Shikai and his successors, pro- new ideas, from the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche and
gressive intellectuals at Beijing University launched the Bertrand Russell to the educational views of the American
New Culture Movement, aimed at abolishing the rem- John Dewey and the feminist plays of Henrik Ibsen. As such
nants of the old system and introducing Western val- ideas flooded into China, they stirred up a new generation
ues and institutions into China. Using the classrooms of of educated Chinese youth, who chanted “Down with
China’s most prestigious university as well as the pages of Confucius and sons” and talked of a new era dominated
newly established progressive magazines and newspapers, by “Mr. Sai” (Mr. Science) and “Mr. De” (Mr. Democracy).
No one was a greater defender of free thought and speech Guangdong Province in South China. From Canton, Sun
than the chancellor of Beijing University, Cai Yuanpei: sought international assistance to carry out his national
revolution. The other was the Chinese Communist Party.
So far as theoretical ideas are concerned, I follow the Following Lenin’s strategy, the CCP sought to link up with
principles of “freedom of thought” and an attitude the more experienced Nationalists. Sun Yat-sen needed the
of broad tolerance in accordance with the practice expertise and the diplomatic support that the Soviet Union
of universities the world over. . . . Regardless of what could provide because his anti-imperialist rhetoric had
school of thought a person may adhere to, so long as alienated many Western powers. In 1923, the two parties
that person’s ideas are justified and conform to reason formed an alliance to oppose the warlords and drive the
and have not been passed by through the process of imperialist powers out of China.
natural selection, although there may be controversy,
For three years, with the assistance of a Comintern
such ideas have a right to be presented.2
mission in Canton, the two parties submerged their
The problem was that appeals for American-style mutual suspicions and mobilized and trained a revolu-
democracy and women’s liberation had little relevance to tionary army to march north and seize control of China.
Chinese peasants, most of whom were still illiterate and The so-called Northern Expedition began in the summer
concerned above all with survival. Consequently, the New of 1926 (see Map 5.3). By the following spring, revolution-
Culture Movement did not win widespread support out- ary forces were in control of all Chinese territory south
side the urban areas. It certainly earned the distrust of con- of the Yangtze River, including the major river ports of
servative military officers, one of whom threatened to lob Wuhan and Shanghai. But tensions between the two par-
artillery shells into Beijing University to destroy the poison- ties now surfaced. Sun Yat-sen had died of cancer in 1925
ous new ideas and their advocates. and was succeeded as head of the Nationalist Party by
Discontent among intellectuals, however, was soon his military subordinate, Chiang Kai-shek (1887–1975)
joined by the rising chorus of public protest against Japan’s (see Comparative Illustration, “Masters and Disciples,”
efforts to expand its influence on the mainland. During p. 111). Chiang feigned support for the alliance with the
the first decade of the twentieth century, Japan had taken Communists but actually planned to destroy them. In
advantage of the Qing’s decline to extend its domination April 1927, he struck against the Communists and their
over Manchuria and Korea (see Chapter 3). In 1915, the supporters in Shanghai, killing thousands. The CCP
Japanese government insisted that Yuan Shikai accept a responded by encouraging revolts in central China and
series of twenty-one demands that would have given Japan Canton, but the uprisings were defeated and their leaders
a virtual protectorate over the Chinese government and were killed or forced into hiding.
economy. Yuan was able to fend off the most far-reaching
Japanese demands by arousing popular outrage in China,
but at the Paris Peace Conference four years later, Japan 5-2b The Nanjing Republic
received Germany’s sphere of influence in Shandong In 1928, Chiang Kai-shek founded a new Republic of China
Province as a reward for its support of the Allied cause in at Nanjing, and over the next three years, he managed to
World War I. On hearing that the Chinese government had reunify China by a combination of military operations
accepted the decision, on May 4, 1919, patriotic students, and inducements (referred to his colleagues sardonically
supported by other sectors of the urban population, dem- as “silver bullets”) to various northern warlords to join his
onstrated in Beijing and other major cities of the coun- movement. One of his key targets was the warlord Zhang
try. Although this “May Fourth Movement,” as it came Zuolin, who controlled Manchuria under the tutelage of
to be called, did not lead to the restoration of Shandong Japan. When Zhang allegedly agreed to throw in his lot
to China, it did alert a substantial part of the politically with the Nationalists, the Japanese had him assassinated
literate population to the threat to national survival and by placing a bomb under his train as he was returning
the incompetence of the warlord government. A sense of to Manchuria in 1928. The Japanese hoped that Zhang
Chinese national identity, long suppressed under Manchu Zuolin’s son and successor, Zhang Xueliang, would be
rule, was on the rise in the young republic. more cooperative, but they had miscalculated. Promised
By 1920, central authority had almost ceased to exist a major role in Chiang Kai-shek’s government, Zhang
in China. Two competing political forces now began to Xueliang began instead to integrate Manchuria politically
emerge from the chaos. One was Sun Yat-sen’s Nationalist and economically into the Nanjing republic.
Party. Driven from the political arena seven years earlier Chiang Kai-shek saw the Japanese as a serious threat
by Yuan Shikai, the party now reestablished itself on the to Chinese national aspirations but considered them less
mainland by making an alliance with the warlord ruler of dangerous than the Communists (he once remarked to
wrote a notorious report to the party lead-
ership suggesting that the CCP support
0 500 1,000 Miles peasant demands for a land revolution. But
his superiors refused, fearing that such radi-
MONGOLIA MANCHURIA
cal policies would destroy the alliance with
Beijing the Nationalists (see Historical Voices, “A
Sea of Call for Revolt,” p. 121).
R.
lo Japan
w
Yel After the spring of 1927, the CCP-

(East Sea) Nationalist alliance ceased to exist. Chiang
JAPAN
Yan’an
Xian
Kai-shek attempted to root the Communists
out of their urban base in Shanghai. He
Nanjing
. Wuhan succeeded in 1931, when most party lead-
e
R
g tz Shanghai
Ya
n ers, under pressure from Chiang’s secret
HUNAN JIANGXI police, were forced to flee Shanghai for
Mao’s rural redoubt in the rugged hills of
Pacific Jiangxi Province. Three years later, using
Canton TAIWAN Ocean their superior military strength, Chiang’s
GUANGDONG
troops surrounded the Communist base,
inducing Mao’s young People’s Liberation
South Northern Expedition, 1926–1928 Army (PLA) to abandon its guerrilla lair
China and embark on what the Chinese term the
Long March, 1934–1935
Sea
Long March, an arduous journey of thou-
sands of miles on foot through mountains,
MAP 5.3 The Northern Expedition and the Long March. This map shows the routes marshes, and deserts to the small provincial
taken by the combined Nationalist-Communist forces during the Northern
town of Yan’an 200 miles north of the
Expedition of 1926–1928. The blue arrow indicates the route taken by
Communist units during the Long March led by Mao Zedong. modern-day city of Xian in the dusty hills
of North China (see Image 5.4). Of the
Q Where did Mao establish his new headquarters after the Long March? Why?
90,000 who embarked on the journey in
October 1934, only 10,000 arrived in Yan’an
a year later. Contemporary observers must
an American reporter that “the Japanese are a disease of have thought that the Communist threat to the Nanjing
the skin, but the Communists are a disease of the heart”). regime had been averted forever.
After the Shanghai massacre of April 1927, most of the Meanwhile, Chiang Kai-shek was trying to build a new
Communist leaders went into hiding in the city, where nation. When the Nanjing republic was established in 1928,
they attempted to revive the movement in its traditional Chiang publicly declared his commitment to Sun Yat-sen’s
base among the urban working class. Shanghai was a Three People’s Principles. In a program announced in
rich recruiting ground for the party. A city of million- 1918, Sun had written about the all-important second stage
aires, paupers, prostitutes, gamblers, and adventurers, of “political tutelage”:
it had led one pious Christian missionary to comment, As a schoolboy must have good teachers and helpful
“If God lets Shanghai endure, He owes an apology to friends, so the Chinese people, being for the first
Sodom and Gomorrah.”3 Some party members, however, time under republican rule, must have a farsighted
followed the young Communist organizer Mao Zedong revolutionary government for their training. This calls
(1893–1976) into a base camp in the hilly areas south of for the period of political tutelage, which is a necessary
the Yangtze River. transitional stage from monarchy to republicanism.
Unlike most other CCP leaders, Mao was convinced Without this, disorder will be unavoidable.4
that the Chinese revolution must be based on the impov-
erished peasants in the countryside, not on workers in In keeping with Sun’s program, Chiang announced a
the big cities. The son of a prosperous farmer, Mao had period of political indoctrination to prepare the Chinese
helped organize a peasant movement in South China people for a final stage of constitutional government. In
during the early 1920s and then served as an agitator in the meantime, the Nationalists would use their dictatorial
rural villages in his home province of Hunan during the power to carry out a land reform program and modernize
Northern Expedition in the fall of 1926. At that time, he the urban industrial sector.
HISTORICAL VOICES
A Call for Revolt

is free to choose, but events will force you to make the
Q Why did Mao Zedong believe that rural peasants choice quickly.
could help bring about a social revolution in China? The main targets of attack by the peasants are the
How does his vision compare with the reality of the local tyrants, the evil gentry and the lawless landlords, but
Bolshevik Revolution in Russia? in passing they also hit out against patriarchal ideas and
institutions, against the corrupt officials in the cities and
against bad practices and customs in the rural areas. . . .
In his retu
Politics & In the fall of 1926, Nationalist and
Government As a result, the privileges which the feudal landlords
Communist forces moved north from Canton
enjoyed for thousands of years are being shattered to
on their Northern Expedition in an effort to defeat the
pieces. . . . With the collapse of the power of the land-
warlords. The young Communist Mao Zedong accompanied
lords, the peasant associations have now become the sole
revolutionary troops into his home province of Hunan, where
organs of authority, and the popular slogan “All power to
he submitted a report to the CCP Central Committee calling
the peasant associations” has become a reality.
for a massive peasant revolt against the ruling order. The
The peasants’ revolt disturbed the gentry’s sweet
report shows his confidence that peasants could play an
dreams. When the news from the countryside reached the
active role in the Chinese revolution despite the skepticism
cities, it caused immediate uproar among the gentry. . . .
of many of his colleagues.
From the middle social strata upwards to the Kuomintang
Mao Zedong, “The Peasant Movement in Hunan” [Nationalist] right-wingers, there was not a single person
who did not sum up the whole business in the phrase, “It’s
During my recent visit to Hunan I made a firsthand
terrible!” . . . Even quite progressive people said, “Though
investigation of conditions. . . . In a very short time, . . .
terrible, it is inevitable in a revolution.” In short, nobody
several hundred million peasants will rise like a mighty
could altogether deny the word “terrible.” But . . . the
storm, . . . a force so swift and violent that no power,
fact is that the great peasant masses have risen to fulfill
however great, will be able to hold it back. They will
their historic mission. . . . What the peasants are doing is
smash all the trammels that bind them and rush forward
absolutely right; what they are doing is fine! “It’s fine!” is
along the road to liberation. They will sweep all the
the theory of the peasants and of all other revolutionar-
imperialists, warlords, corrupt officials, local tyrants,
ies. Every revolutionary comrade should know that the
and evil gentry into their graves. Every revolutionary
national revolution requires a great change in the coun-
party and every revolutionary comrade will be put to the
tryside. The Revolution of 1911 did not bring about this
test, to be accepted or rejected as they decide. There are
change, hence its failure. This change is now taking place,
three alternatives. To march at their head and lead them?
and it is an important factor for the completion of the
To trail behind them, gesticulating and criticizing? Or
revolution. Every revolutionary comrade must support it,
to stand in their way and oppose them? Every Chinese
or he will be taking the stand of counterrevolution.
Source: From Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung (London: Lawrence and Wishart, Ltd., 1954), vol. 1, pp. 21–23.
But it would take more than paper plans to create a constituency of the Nanjing government. But this new
new China. Years of neglect and civil war had severely westernized elite, preoccupied with bourgeois values
frayed the political, economic, and social fabric of the of individual advancement and material accumulation,
nation. There were faint signs of an impending industrial had few links with the peasants in the countryside or the
revolution in the major urban centers, but most of the rickshaw drivers “running in this world of suffering,” in
people in the countryside, drained by warlord exactions the poignant words of a Chinese poet. In an expressive
and civil strife, were still grindingly poor and overwhelm- phrase, some critics dismissed Chiang Kai-shek and his
ingly illiterate. A westernized middle class had begun chief followers as “banana Chinese”—yellow on the out-
to emerge in the cities and formed much of the natural side, white on the inside.
IMAGE 5.4 Mao Zedong on the
Long March. In 1934, the
Communist leader Mao Zedong
led his bedraggled forces on
the famous Long March from
southern China to a new location
at Yan’an, in the hills just south
of the Gobi Desert. The epic
journey has ever since been
celebrated as a symbol of the
willingness of party members
to sacrifice for the revolutionary
cause. In this photograph, Mao
sits astride a white horse as he
accompanies his followers on
the march. Reportedly, he was
the only participant allowed to
ride a horse en route to Yan’an.
Rene Burri/Magnum Photos
Q How did Mao Zedong’s

strategy for social
revolution in China differ
from orthodox Marxist
teachings?
The Best of East and West Chiang was aware of the diffi- vast majority of his constituents, many of whom had felt
culty of introducing exotic foreign ideas into a society still few benefits from nearly a century of dynastic decline
culturally conservative. While building a modern indus- and imperialist interference.
trial sector and rejecting what he considered the excessive
individualism and material greed of Western capitalism,
5-2c “Down with Confucius and Sons”:
Chiang sought to propagate traditional Confucian values
of hard work, obedience, and moral integrity through the Economic, Social, and Cultural Change
officially promoted New Life Movement, sponsored by in Republican China
his Wellesley-educated wife, Mei-ling Soong. In effect, he The transformation of the old order that had begun at the
had revived the old debate over “East for Essence, West for end of the Qing era continued during the early Chinese
Practical Use” in a new context (see Chapter 3). republic. However, for many of the reasons already men-
Unfortunately for Chiang, the effort to meld Eastern tioned, success was disappointingly slow.
and Western values would be no easy task, because
Confucian ideas—at least in their institutional form—had Industrial and Agricultural Development The centerpiece
been widely discredited among the Chinese urban elite of an advanced economy is a modern manufacturing and
by the failure of the traditional system to solve the coun- commercial sector. Here, the results were disappointing,
try’s festering problems. Moreover, with only a tenuous for the Nanjing government had little success in promoting
hold over the provinces, a growing Japanese threat in the industrial development, which grew at an average annual
north, and a world suffering from the Great Depression, rate of only 1 percent or so during the first decade of its
Chiang was facing strong headwinds both inside China existence. Although mechanization had gradually begun to
and abroad. To make matters worse, he lacked the politi- replace manual labor in some traditional industries like tex-
cal acumen and the popular appeal of his mentor, Sun Yat- tile manufacturing, three-quarters of all industrial goods
sen. Fearing Communist influence and distrusting many were still manually produced in the mid-1930s. In addition,
of his warlord rivals, Chiang repressed all forms of oppo- traditional Chinese exports, such as silk and tea, were hard-
sition and censored free expression, thereby alienating hit by the Great Depression. In the countryside, as well,
many intellectuals and political moderates. Because the success was fleeting. A land reform program was enacted in
urban middle class and the landed gentry were his natural 1930, but it was sabotaged by wealthy landowners—among
political constituency, he shunned programs that would Chiang’s most loyal supporters—and had little impact in
lead to a redistribution of wealth, thus disappointing the reducing rural poverty. Farmers were often victimized by
the endemic conflict in the countryside, as well as by high boil it for them if he wanted to be considered a good son.
taxes imposed by local warlords. Where similar conditions I have only just realized that I have been living all these
in Meiji Japan had led to the flight of rural migrants to join years in a place where for four thousand years they have
the growing labor market in the cities, there was no such been eating human flesh.5
option in early Republican China. Such criticisms did yield some beneficial results. During
Many historians believe that some of the new govern- the early republic, the tyranny of the old family system
ment’s problems can be ascribed to its own missteps. Much began to decline, at least in urban areas, under the impact
of the national wealth was in the hands of senior officials of economic changes and the urgings of the New Culture
and close subordinates of the ruling elite. High military intellectuals. Women, long consigned to an inferior place
expenses—a product of Chiang’s obsession with eradicat- in the Confucian world order, began to escape their clois-
ing the CCP—consumed half of the budget as a result, few tered existence and seek education and employment along-
funds were available for social and economic development. side their male contemporaries. Free choice in marriage
Meanwhile, Chiang and his ruling circle appeared oblivi- and a more relaxed attitude toward sex became common-
ous to the need to take decisive steps to alleviate conditions place among affluent families in the cities, where the teen-
in the countryside. On the other hand, as some observers age children of westernized elites adopted the clothing,
point out, it is only fair to note that the Nanjing Republic social habits, and musical tastes of their contemporaries
was fated to make its effort to install the foundations of a in Europe and the United States (see Historical Voices, “An
modern industrial economy in a historically inhospitable Arranged Marriage,” p. 124).
climate marked by high global tariffs and vanishing invest- But as a rule, the new consciousness of individualism
ment funds. Under the best of circumstances, the Nanking and women’s rights that marked the early republican era
government was faced with an enormous challenge in in the major cities did not penetrate to the textile factories,
dealing with China’s deep-seated economic and social where more than 1 million women worked in conditions
problems. The deadly combination of internal disintegra- resembling slave labor, or to the villages, where traditional
tion and foreign pressure now began to coincide with the attitudes and customs still held sway. Arranged marriages
virtual collapse of the global economic order during the continued to be the rule rather than the exception, and con-
Great Depression and the rise of militant political forces cubinage remained common. According to a survey taken in
in Tokyo determined to extend Japanese influence and the 1930s, well over two-thirds of the marriages, even among
power in an unstable Asia. These forces and the turmoil urban couples, had been arranged by their parents; in one
they unleashed will be examined below. rural area, only three of 170 villagers interviewed had heard
of the idea of “modern marriage.” Even the tradition of
Social Changes The transformation of the old order binding the feet of female children continued despite efforts
that had commenced at the end of the Qing era con- by the Nationalist government to eradicate the practice.
tinued into the period of the early Chinese republic. By
1915, the assault on the old system and values by educated A New Culture Nowhere was the struggle between tradi-
youth was intense. The main focus of the attack was the tional and modern more visible than in the field of culture.
Confucian concept of the family—in particular, filial piety Beginning with the New Culture era during the early years
and the subordination of women. Young people called for of the first Chinese republic, radical reformists criticized
the right to choose their own mates and their own careers. traditional culture as the symbol and instrument of feu-
Women began to demand rights and opportunities equal dal oppression that must be entirely eradicated to create a
to those enjoyed by men. new China that could stand on its feet with dignity in the
More broadly, progressives called for an end to the con- modern world.
cept of duty to the community and praised the Western For many reformers, that new culture must be based
individualist ethos. The prime spokesman for such views on that of the modern West. During the 1920s and 1930s,
was the popular writer Lu Xun, whose short stories criti- Western literature and art became popular in China, espe-
cized the Confucian concept of family as a “man-eating” cially among the urban middle class. Traditional culture
system that degraded humanity. In a famous short story continued to prevail among more conservative elements
titled “Diary of a Madman,” the protagonist remarks: of the population, and some intellectuals argued for the
creation of a new art that would synthesize the best of
I remember when I was four or five years old, sitting in Chinese and foreign culture. But the most creative artists
the cool of the hall, my brother told me that if a man’s were interested in imitating foreign trends, whereas tradi-
parents were ill, he should cut off a piece of his flesh and tionalists were more concerned with preservation.

HISTORICAL VOICES
An Arranged Marriage
But then, one day his dreams were shattered, cruelly
Q Why does Chueh-hsin comply with the wishes of and bitterly shattered. The evening he returned home
his father in the matter of his marriage? Why were carrying his diploma, the plaudits of his teachers and
arranged marriages so prevalent in traditional China? friends still ringing in his ears, his father called him into
his room and said:
UNDER WESTERN INFLUENCE, Chinese social
“Now that you’ve graduated, I want to arrange your
Family &
Society customs changed dramatically for many
marriage. Your grandfather is looking forward to having
urban elites in the interwar years. A vocal women’s movement
a great-grandson, and I, too, would like to be able to hold
campaigned aggressively for universal suffrage and an end
a grandson in my arms. You’re old enough to be mar-
to sexual discrimination. Some progressives called for free
ried; I won’t feel easy until I fulfill my obligation to find
choice in marriage and divorce and even for free love. By the
you a wife. Although I didn’t accumulate much money
1930s, the government had taken some steps to free women
in my years away from home as an official, still I’ve put
from patriarchal marriage constraints, but life was generally
by enough for us to get along on. My health isn’t what it
unaffected in the villages, where traditional patterns held
used to be; I’m thinking of spending my time at home
sway. This often created severe tensions between older and
and having you help me run the household affairs. All
younger generations, as this passage from a novel by popular
the more reason you’ll be needing a wife. I’ve already
twentieth-century writer Ba Jin (BAH JIN) shows.
arranged a match with the Li family. The thirteenth of
next month is a good day. We’ll announce the engage-
Ba Jin, Family ment then. You can be married within the year. . . .”
Brought up with loving care, after studying with a private Chueh-hsin did not utter a word of protest, nor did
tutor for a number of years, Chueh-hsin entered middle such a thought ever occur to him. He merely nodded to
school. . . . [H]e graduated four years later at the top of indicate his compliance with his father’s wishes. But after
his class. He was very interested in physics and chemistry he returned to his own room, and shut the door, he threw
and hoped to study abroad, in Germany. His mind was himself down on his bed, covered his head with the quilt
full of beautiful dreams. At that time he was the envy of and wept. He wept for his broken dreams.
his classmates. He was deeply in love with Mei, but now his father
In his fourth year at middle school, he lost his mother. had chosen another, a girl he had never seen, and said
His father later married again, this time to a younger that he must marry within the year. . . .
woman who had been his mother’s cousin. Chueh-hsin He cried his disappointment and bitterness. But the
was aware of his loss, for he knew full well that nothing door was closed and Chueh-hsin’s head was beneath the
could replace the love of a mother. But her death left no bedding. No one knew. He did not fight back, he never
irreparable wound in his heart; he was able to console thought of resisting. He only bemoaned his fate. But he
himself with rosy dreams of his future. Moreover, he had accepted it. He complied with his father’s will without a
someone who understood him and could comfort him— trace of resentment. But in his heart he wept for himself,
his pretty cousin Mei, “mei” for “plum blossom.” wept for the girl he adored—Mei, his “plum blossom.”
Source: Excerpt from “Family” by Ba Jin. Copyright © 1964 Foreign Languages Press, 24 Baiwanzhuang Rd., Beijing 10037, P.R. China.
Literature in particular was influenced by foreign (Mao Dun’s Midnight, for example, described the changing
ideas as Western genres like the novel and the short story mores of Shanghai’s urban elites) or the disintegration of
attracted a growing audience. Although most Chinese nov- the traditional Confucian family. Most of China’s modern
els written after World War I dealt with Chinese subjects, authors displayed a clear contempt for the past which, they
they reflected the Western tendency toward social realism felt, had been responsible for bringing the country to its
and often dealt with the new westernized middle class current state of decrepitude.
5-3 Japan Between the Wars and the establishment of a new system bearing a strong
resemblance to what would later be called fascism in
QQ Focus Question: How did Japan address the

challenge of nation-building in the first decade of
Europe (see Chapter 6).
This cultural conflict between old and new, indigenous
and foreign, was reflected in literature. The restoration
the twentieth century, and why did democratic
of Japanese self-confidence after the victories over China
institutions not take hold more effectively?
and Russia launched an age of cultural creativity in the
early-twentieth century. Fascination with Western litera-
By the beginning of the twentieth century, Japan had made ture gave birth to a striking new genre called the “I novel.”
steady progress toward the creation of an advanced soci- Defying traditional Japanese reticence, some authors rev-
ety on the Western model. Economic and social reforms eled in self-exposure with confessions of their innermost
launched during the Meiji era led to increasing prosper- thoughts. Others found release in the “proletarian litera-
ity and the development of a modern industrial and com- ture” movement of the early 1920s. Inspired by Soviet lit-
mercial sector. Although the political system still retained erary examples, these authors wanted literature to serve
many authoritarian characteristics, optimists had reason to socialist goals and improve the lives of the working class.
hope that Japan was on the road to becoming a full-fledged Finally, some Japanese writers blended Western psychol-
democracy. ogy with Japanese sensibility in exquisite novels reeking
of nostalgia for the old Japan. One well-known example
is Junichiro Tanizaki’s Some Prefer Nettles (1929), which
5-3a Experiment in Democracy
delicately juxtaposes the positive aspects of traditional and
During the first quarter of the twentieth century, the modern Japan. By the early 1930s, however, military cen-
Japanese political system appeared to evolve significantly sorship increasingly inhibited literary expression.
toward the Western democratic model. Political parties
expanded their popular following and became increas-
ingly competitive, while individual pressure groups such 5-3b A Zaibatsu Economy
as labor unions began to appear in Japanese society, along Japan also continued to make impressive progress in eco-
with an independent press and a bill of rights. The influ- nomic development. Spurred by rising domestic demand
ence of the old ruling oligarchy, the genro, had not yet as well as a continued high rate of government invest-
been significantly challenged, however, nor had that of its ment in the economy, the production of raw materials
ideological foundation, which focused on national wealth tripled between 1900 and 1930, and industrial production
and power. increased more than twelvefold. Much of the increase
The fragile flower of democratic institutions was able went into the export market, and Western manufacturers
to survive throughout the 1920s, often called the era of began to complain about the rising competition for mar-
Taisho democracy, from the reign title of the emperor. kets from the Japanese.
During that period, the military budget was reduced, and As often happens, rapid industrialization was accompa-
a suffrage bill enacted in 1925 granted the vote to all adult nied by some hardship and rising social tensions. A charac-
Japanese males. Women remained disenfranchised, but teristic of the Meiji model was the concentration of various
women’s associations became increasingly visible during manufacturing processes within a single enterprise, the
the 1920s, and women were active in the labor movement zaibatsu, or financial clique. Some of these firms were
and in campaigns for various social reforms. existing merchant companies that had the capital and the
But the era was also marked by growing social turmoil, foresight to move into new areas of opportunity. Others
and two opposing forces within the system were gearing up were formed by enterprising samurai, who used their sta-
to challenge the prevailing wisdom. On the left, a Marxist tus and experience in management to good account in a
labor movement, which reflected the tensions within new environment. Whatever their origins, these firms
the working class and the increasing radicalism among gradually developed, often with official encouragement,
the rural poor, began to take shape in the early 1920s in into large conglomerates that controlled a major segment
response to growing economic difficulties. Government of the Japanese industrial sector. According to one source,
suppression of labor disturbances led to further radical- by 1937 the four largest zaibatsu (Mitsui, Mitsubishi,
ization. On the right, ultranationalist groups called for a Sumitomo, and Yasuda) controlled 21 percent of the bank-
rejection of Western models of development and a more ing industry, 26 percent of mining, 35 percent of shipbuild-
militant approach to realizing national objectives. In 1919, ing, 38 percent of commercial shipping, and more than 60
radical nationalist Kita Ikki called for a military takeover percent of paper manufacturing and insurance.
5-3 Japan Between the Wars ■ 125

This concentration of power and wealth in the hands of treaty recognizing the territorial integrity of China and
a few major industrial combines resulted in the emergence the Open Door. The other participants induced Japan to
of a form of dual economy: on the one hand, a modern accept these provisions by accepting its special position in
industry characterized by up-to-date methods and massive Manchuria.
government subsidies, and on the other, a traditional man- During the remainder of the 1920s, Japanese govern-
ufacturing sector characterized by conservative methods ments attempted to play by the rules laid down at the
and small-scale production techniques. Washington Conference. Known as Shidehara diplomacy,
Concentration of wealth also led to growing economic after the foreign minister (and later prime minister) who
inequalities. As we have seen, economic growth had been attempted to carry it out, this policy sought to use dip-
achieved at the expense of the peasants, many of whom lomatic and economic means to realize Japanese interests
fled to the cities to escape rural poverty. That labor surplus in Asia. But this approach came under severe pressure as
benefited the industrial sector, but the urban proletariat Japanese industrialists began to move into new areas of
was still poorly paid and ill-housed. Rampant inflation in opportunity, such as heavy industry, chemicals, mining,
the price of rice led to food riots shortly after World War I. and the manufacturing of appliances and automobiles.
A rapid increase in population (the total population of Because such industries desperately needed resources not
the Japanese islands increased from an estimated 43 million found in abundance locally, the Japanese government came
in 1900 to 73 million in 1940) led to food shortages and under increasing pressure to find new sources abroad.
the threat of rising unemployment. Intense competition
and the global recession in the early 1920s led to a greater The Rise of Militant Nationalism In the early 1930s, with
concentration of industry and a perceptible rise in urban the onset of the Great Depression and growing tensions
radicalism. In the meantime, those left on the farm contin- in the international arena, nationalist forces rose to domi-
ued to suffer. As late as the beginning of World War II, an nance in the Japanese government. These elements, a mix-
estimated half of all Japanese farmers were tenants. ture of military officers and ultranationalist politicians,
were convinced that the diplomacy of the 1920s had failed
5-3c Shidehara Diplomacy and advocated a more aggressive approach to protecting
A final problem for Japanese leaders in the post-Meiji era national interests in a brutal and competitive world. By the
was the familiar capitalist dilemma of finding sources of early 1930s, democratic parties and institutions were in full
raw materials and foreign markets for the nation’s manu- retreat as radical nationalist elements, many of them with
factured goods. Until World War I, Japan had dealt with connections to the military, sought to take control of the
the problem by seizing territories such as Taiwan, Korea, reins of government. We shall discuss the factors involved
and southern Manchuria and transforming them into colo- and the impact of these developments on the international
nies or protectorates of the growing Japanese empire. That scene in the next chapter.
policy had succeeded brilliantly, but it had also begun to
arouse the concern and, in some cases, the hostility of the
Western nations. China was also becoming apprehensive;
Historians
Debate
Taisho Democracy:
5-3d
as we have seen, Japanese demands for Shandong Province An Aberration?
at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 aroused massive pro- The dramatic shift in Japanese political culture that
tests in major Chinese cities. occurred in the early 1930s has caused some historians to
The United States was especially concerned about question the breadth and depth of the trend toward demo-
Japanese aggressiveness. Although the United States had cratic practices in the 1920s. Was Taisho democracy merely
been less active than some European states in pursuing a premature attempt at comparative liberalization in a soci-
colonies in the Pacific, it had a strong interest in keeping ety that was still dominated by the Meiji vision of empire
the area open for U.S. commercial activities. Anxiety in and kokutai? Or was it a natural course of events that was
Washington about Tokyo’s twenty-one demands on China disrupted by the Great Depression, which brought about
in 1915 led to a new agreement with Japan in 1917, which the rise of militant nationalism and caused the inexorable
essentially repeated the compromise provisions of the emergence of democracy in Japan to stall?
agreement reached nine years earlier. Clearly, there is no simple answer to these questions. A
In 1922, the United States convened a major conference process of democratization was taking place in Japan dur-
of nations with interests in the Pacific in Washington, D.C. ing the first decades of the twentieth century, but without
to discuss problems of regional security. The Washington shaking the essential core of the Meiji concept of the state.
Conference led to agreements on several issues, but its When the “liberal” approach of the 1920 failed to solve
major accomplishment was the conclusion of a nine-power the problems of the day, political forces deeply imbedded
in Japanese society expressed growing concerns about role in the local economies. The United States had already
the government’s current policies in Asia and continued begun to intervene in Latin American politics in the early
to believe in Japanese uniqueness. With the shallow roots years of the twentieth century during its construction of
of the democracy movement exposed, the shift toward a the Panama Canal, which dramatically reduced the time
more aggressive approach became virtually inevitable. and distance needed for ships to pass between the Atlantic
Still, the course of Japanese history after World War II and Pacific Oceans.
(see Chapter 9) suggests that the emergence of multiparty
democracy in the 1920s was not an aberration, but a natu- The Role of the Yankee Dollar By the late 1920s, the
ral consequence of evolutionary trends in Japanese society. United States had replaced Great Britain as the foremost
The seeds of democracy nurtured during the Taisho era source of foreign investment in Latin America. Unlike the
were nipped in the bud by the cataclysmic effects of the British, however, U.S. investors put their funds directly into
Great Depression – a tragedy that occurred simultaneously production enterprises, causing large segments of the area’s
in a number of other countries at the time. In the more con- export industry to fall into American hands. A number
ducive climate after World War II, however, a democratic of Central American states, for example, were popularly
system suitably adjusted to Japanese soil reached full flower. labeled “banana republics” because of the power and influ-
ence of the U.S.-owned United Fruit Company. American
5-4Nationalism and firms also dominated the copper mining industry in Chile
and Peru and the oil industry in Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia.
Dictatorship in Latin America Increasing economic power served to reinforce the
traditionally high level of U.S. political influence in Latin
QQ Focus Questions: What problems did the
nations of Latin America face in the interwar
America, especially in Central America, a region that
many Americans considered vital to U.S. national secu-
years? To what degree were they a consequence rity. American troops occupied parts of both Nicaragua
of foreign influence? and Honduras to put down unrest or protect U.S. interests
there. The growing U.S. presence in the region aroused
hostility among Latin Americans, who resented their
Because most of Latin America had won its independence
dependent relationship on the United States, which they
from European control during the nineteenth century,
viewed as an aggressive imperialist power. Some charged
nationalism and political change took different forms in
that Washington worked, sometimes through U.S. mili-
this area in the years following World War I than they
tary intervention, to keep ruthless dictators, such as Juan
did in Asia and the Middle East. But the region was by no
Vicente Gómez of Venezuela and Fulgencio Batista of
means isolated from the trends occurring throughout the
Cuba, in power to preserve U.S. economic influence. In a
rest of the world. National sentiment in opposition to for-
bid to improve relations with Latin American countries,
eign political and economic influence—and especially U.S.
in 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt promulgated the
influence—was sometimes intense. And when the Great
Good Neighbor policy, which rejected the use of U.S.
Depression struck in the late 1920s, the political equation
military force in the region. To underscore his sincerity,
in Latin America was affected in profound ways.
Roosevelt ordered the withdrawal of U.S. marines from
the island nation of Haiti in 1936. For the first time in
5-4a A Changing Economy thirty years, there were no U.S. occupation troops in Latin
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the economy America.
of Latin America was based largely on the export of food- Because so many Latin American nations depended for
stuffs and raw materials. Some countries relied on the their livelihood on the export of raw materials and food
export earnings of only one or two products. Argentina, for products, the Great Depression of the 1930s was a disas-
example, depended heavily on the sale of beef and wheat; ter for the region. In 1930, the value of Latin American
Chile, on nitrates and copper; Brazil and the Caribbean exports fell to only half the amount that had been exported
nations, on sugar; and the Central American states, on in each of the previous five years. Spurred by the decline
bananas. Such exports brought large profits to a few, but for in foreign revenues, Latin American governments began
the majority of the population, the returns were meager. to encourage the development of new industries to
During World War I, exports of some products, such reduce dependence on imports. In some cases—the steel
as Chilean nitrates (used to produce explosives), increased industry in Chile and Brazil, the oil industry in Argentina
dramatically. In general, however, the war led to a decline in and Mexico—government investment made up for the
European investment in Latin America and a rise in the U.S. absence of local sources of capital.
5-4 Nationalism and Dictatorship in Latin America ■ 127
5-4b The Effects of Dependency in Mexico—three countries that together possessed more
During the late-nineteenth century, most governments in than half of the land and wealth of Latin America (see
Latin America had been dominated by landed or military Map 5.4).
elites, who governed by the blatant use of military force.
This trend continued during the 1930s as domestic instabil- Argentina By no means were all of Latin America’s prob-
ity caused by the effects of the Great Depression led to the lems the product of foreign influence. Some were self-
creation of military dictatorships throughout the region, imposed. In Argentina, autocratic rule by an elite minority
especially in Argentina and Brazil and, to a lesser degree, had disastrous effects. The government of Argentina, con-
trolled by landowners who had benefited from the export
of beef and wheat, was slow to
MEXICO
recognize the need to establish
0 500 1,000 1,500 Kilometers
BRITISH HONDURAS a local industrial base. In 1916,
0 500 1,000 Miles
HONDURAS b ean Sea Hipólito Irigoyen (1852–1933),
C a r ib head of the Radical Party, was
NICARAGUA BRITISH
GUIANA elected president on a program to
COSTA Caracas DUTCH improve conditions for the mid-
RICA VENEZUELA GUIANA North dle and lower classes. Little was
PANAMA Bogotá
FRENCH
EL SALVADOR
Atlantic achieved, however, as the party
COLOMBIA GUIANA
Ocean became increasingly corrupt and
GUATEMALA
identified with the interests of
Quito
the large landowners. In 1930, the
ECUADOR army overthrew Irigoyen’s gov-
ernment, but its effort to return to
the past and suppress the growing
PERU influence of labor unions failed,
Lima
BRAZIL
and in 1946, General Juan Peron—
claiming the support of the
La Paz descamisados (“shirtless ones”)—
BOLIVIA seized sole power (see Chapter 8).
PARAGUAY
South Rio de
Brazil Brazil followed a simi-
CHILE Janeiro
Pacific Asunción lar path. In 1889, the army over-
Ocean threw the Brazilian monarchy,
installed by Portugal decades
ARGENTINA
URUGUAY
before, and established a republic.
Santiago
Buenos
But it was dominated by landed
Aires Montevideo
South elites, many of whom had grown
wealthy through their ownership
Atlantic of coffee plantations. By 1900,
Ocean three-quarters of the world’s cof-
fee was grown in Brazil. As in
Argentina, the ruling oligarchy
ignored the importance of estab-
Falkland
Islands (U.K.) lishing an urban industrial base.
When the Great Depression rav-
South Georgia aged profits from coffee exports,
Island (U.K.)
a wealthy rancher, Getúlio Vargas
MAP 5.4 Latin America in the First Half of the Twentieth Century. Shown here are the boundaries
(1883–1954), seized power and
dividing the countries of Latin America after the independence movements of the nineteenth served as president from 1930 to
century. 1945. At first, Vargas sought to
appease the workers by institut-
Q Which areas remained under European rule?
ing an eight-hour workday and a
minimum wage, but influenced by the apparent success of manufacturing sector, and most of the important export
fascist regimes in Europe, he ruled by increasingly auto- industries, was in the hands of foreign owners.
cratic means and relied on a police force that used torture The first rumblings of discontent appeared among
to silence his opponents. His industrial policy was success- members of the intellectual elite, who in the early years of
ful, however, and by the end of World War II, Brazil had the century began to agitate for political reforms to intro-
become Latin America’s major industrial power. In 1945, duce representative government. They also favored the
the army, concerned that Vargas was turning increasingly adoption of measures to improve the lot of the urban and
to leftist elements for support, forced him to resign. rural poor. In the meantime, violent protests erupted in
the countryside. In the poverty-stricken state of Chiapas,
Mexico In the early years of the twentieth century, the rebel leader Emiliano Zapata (1879–1919) aroused
Mexico was in a state of turbulence. Under the rule of the landless peasants, who began seizing the haciendas of
longtime dictator Porfirio Díaz (see Chapter 1), the real wealthy landowners (see Image 5.5). Eventually, Zapata
wages of the working class had declined. Moreover, 95 per- (later made famous to U.S. audiences by the 1952 film Viva
cent of the rural population owned no land, and about a Zapata, starring Marlon Brando) was able to set up a local
thousand families ruled almost all of Mexico. Much of the revolutionary regime under his own leadership. In the
state of Chihuahua, farther to the north, the bandit leader
Pancho Villa (1878–1923) terrorized the local power struc-
ture and on occasion even crossed the border to launch
raids on small towns in the United States.
The growing specter of rural revolt caused great con-
cern among the Mexican power elite, and in 1910 Díaz
was forced to resign in favor of the reformist politician
Francisco Madero (1873–1913). The latter sought to carry
out a program of political reform, but he was unable to
keep pace with the rapid change taking place throughout
the country. In 1913, Madero was deposed and assassinated
by one of Díaz’s military subordinates.
For the next several years, Zapata and Pancho Villa con-
tinued to be important political forces in Mexico, publicly
advocating measures to redress the economic grievances
of the poor. But neither had a broad grasp of the chal-
lenges facing the country, and power eventually gravi-
tated to a more moderate group of reformists around the
Constitutionalist Party. The latter were intent on breaking
the power of the great landed families and powerful U.S.
corporations, but without engaging in radical land reform
or the nationalization of property. After a bloody conflict
that cost the lives of thousands, the moderates were able
to consolidate power, and in 1917 the party promulgated
a new constitution that established a strong presidency,
initiated land reform policies, established limits on foreign
Snark/Art Resource, NY
investment, and set an agenda for social welfare programs.

The United States had resisted many of these measures but
eventually saw the wisdom of recognizing a government
that had successfully avoided the hazards of a vast social
revolution, such as had occurred in Russia.
IMAGE 5.5 Emiliano Zapata. Deep-seated poverty in the southern In 1920, the Constitutionalist Party leader Alvaro
state of Chiapas led one of its own, the young militant Emiliano Obregón assumed the presidency and began to carry out
Zapata, to organize his followers to launch a revolt against
a reform program. But real change did not take place until
wealthy landowners in southern Mexico. After his demands for
widespread land reform were rejected, Zapata joined forces with the presidency of General Lázaro Cárdenas (1895–1970) in
the northern rebel leader Pancho Villa and was killed in a battle 1934. Cárdenas won wide popularity among the peasants
with government troops in 1923. by ordering the redistribution of 44 million acres of land
5-4 Nationalism and Dictatorship in Latin America ■ 129

controlled by landed elites. He also seized control of the
oil industry, which had hitherto been dominated by major
U.S. oil companies. Alluding to the Good Neighbor policy,
President Roosevelt refused to intervene, and eventually
Mexico agreed to compensate the U.S. oil companies for
their lost property. It then set up PEMEX, a governmental
organization, to run the oil industry. By now, the revolution
was democratic in name only, as the ruling political party,
known as the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), con-
trolled the levers of power throughout society. Every six
years, for more than half a century, PRI presidential candi-
dates automatically succeeded each other in office.
5-4c Latin American Culture

The first half of the twentieth century witnessed a dramatic
increase in literary activity in Latin America, a result in part
of its ambivalent relationship with Europe and the United
States. Many authors, while experimenting with imported
modernist styles, felt compelled to proclaim their region’s
Archivart/Alamy Stock Photo

unique identity through the adoption of Latin American
themes and social issues. In The Underdogs (1915), for
example, Mariano Azuela (1873–1952) presented a sympa-
thetic but not uncritical portrait of the Mexican Revolution
as his country entered an era of unsettling change.
In their determination to express Latin America’s distinc-
IMAGE 5.6 Frida Kahlo: Self-Portrait with Bonito. Frida Kahlo
tive characteristics, some writers focused on the promise of
(1907–1954) was one of the most noted Latin American
the region’s vast virgin lands and the diversity of its peoples. painters of the twentieth century. Born in 1907 of a German
In Don Segundo Sombra, published in 1926, Ricardo Guiraldes father and a Mexican mother, she originally planned on a
(1886–1927) celebrated the life of the ideal gaucho (cowboy), career in medicine, but turned to art when she married the
defining Argentina’s hope and strength through the enlight- noted Mexican painter Diego Rivera. By the late 1930s, her
distinctive paintings, which combined folk art with elements of
ened management of its fertile earth. Likewise, in Dona
Surrealism and radical politics (both she and her husband were
Barbara, Rómulo Gallegos (1884–1969) wrote in a similar members of the Communist Party of Mexico), began to achieve
vein about his native Venezuela. Other authors pursued the broader popularity. Many of her best-known paintings are self-
theme of solitude and detachment, a product of the region’s portraits, and are often used today to explore issues of gender,
physical separation from the rest of the world. identity, and postcolonialism.
Latin American artists followed their literary counter-
parts in joining the Modernist movement in Europe, yet
Q Can you think of any other artists whose paintings have
taken on strong political connotations?
they too were eager to promote the emergence of a new
regional and national essence. In Mexico, where the gov-
ernment provided financial support for painting murals a political message in favor of realizing the social goals
on public buildings, the artist Diego Rivera (1886–1957) of the Mexican Revolution. His wife, Frida Kahlo (1907–
began to produce a monumental style of mural art that 1954), incorporated Surrealist whimsy in her own paint-
served two purposes: to illustrate the national past by por- ings, many of which were portraits of herself and her
traying Aztec legends and folk customs and to popularize family (see Image 5.6).
making connections
The turmoil brought about by World War I not only resulted The nations of Latin America faced their own eco-
in the destruction of several of the major Western empires nomic problems because of their dependence on exports.
and a redrawing of the map of Europe but also opened Increasing U.S. investments in Latin America contributed
the door to political and social upheavals elsewhere in to growing hostility against the powerful neighbor to the
the world. In the Middle East, the decline and fall of the north. The Great Depression forced the region to begin
Ottoman Empire led to the creation of the secular republic developing new industries, but it also led to the rise of
of Turkey and several other new states carved out of the authoritarian governments, some of them modeled after
carcass of the old empire. the fascist regimes of Italy and Germany.
Other parts of Asia also witnessed the rise of move- By demolishing the remnants of their old civilization
ments for national independence. In India, Gandhi and on the battlefields of World War I, Europeans had inadver-
his campaign of civil disobedience played a crucial role in tently encouraged the subject peoples of their vast colonial
his country’s bid to be free of British rule. China waged empires to begin their own movements for national inde-
its own dramatic struggle to establish a modern nation as pendence. The process was by no means completed in the
two dynamic political organizations—the Nationalists and two decades following the Treaty of Versailles, but the bonds
the Communists—competed for legitimacy as the rightful of imperial rule had been severely strained. Once Europeans
heirs of the old order. Japan continued to follow its own began to weaken themselves in the even more destructive
path to modernization, which, although successful from conflict of World War II, the hopes of colonial peoples for
an economic point of view, took a menacing turn during national independence and freedom could at last be realized.
the 1930s. It is to that devastating world conflict that we now turn.
QQHow did the societies discussed in this chapter deal QQDuring the early twentieth century, did conditions
with the political, economic, and social challenges for women change for the better or for the worse in the
that they faced after World War I, and how did these countries discussed in this chapter? Why?
challenges differ from one region to another? QQCommunist parties were established in many Asian
QQIn what ways did Japan’s political system and social societies in the years immediately following the Bolshevik
structure in the interwar years combine modern and Revolution. How successful were these parties in winning
traditional elements? How successful was the attempt popular support and achieving their goals?
to create a modern political system while retaining
indigenous traditions of civil obedience and loyalty to
the emperor?

CHAPTER Timeline
1920 1925 1930 1935 1940
Middle East
Reza Khan seizes power in Iran Iraq receives independence
(1921) (1932)
Balfour Declaration Atatürk establishes Republic of Turkey Ibn Saud establishes Saudi Arabia
on Palestine (1923) (1932)
(1917)
Asia
Formation of Chinese Communist Party Creation of Nanjing republic
(1921) (1928)
Northern Expedition in China Long March

(1926–1928) (1934–1935)
Formation of the Era of Shidehara Gandhi’s march to the sea

Comintern diplomacy in Japan (1930)
(1919) (1924–1927)
Assassination
of Zhang Zuolin
(1928)
Latin America
Vargas comes to Good Neighbor policy
power in Brazil (1933)
(1930)
New constitution Military seizes power

in Mexico in Argentina
(1917) (1930)
Chapter Notes
1. Taken from Sutan Sjahrir and Charles Wolf, Jr., Out 4. Ibid.
of Exile (New York: The John Day Company, Inc.,
5. Lu Xun, “Diary of a Madman,” in Selected Works of
1949), pp. 76–78.
Lu Hsun (Beijing, 1957), vol. 1, p. 20.
2. Ts’ai Yuan-p’ei, “Ta Lin Ch’in-nan Han,” in Ts’ai Yuan-
p’ei Hsiensheng Ch’uan-chi [Collected Works of Mr. Ts’ai
Yuan-p’ei] (Taipei, 1968), pp. 1057–1058.
3. Quoted in Nicholas Rowland Clifford, Spoilt Children of
Empire: Westerners in Shanghai and the Chinese Revolution
of the 1920s (Hanover, N.H., 1991), p. 16.
Chapter
The Crisis Deepens: The
6 Outbreak of World War II
Chapter Outline and

Focus Questions
6-1 The Rise of Dictatorial Regimes
QQWhat are the main characteristics of
totalitarian states, and in what key respects do
they differ from democratic societies?
6-2 The Path to War in Europe
QQWhy did other European nations not react
more strongly to Germany’s aggressive actions
during the mid-1930s? Do you think they should
have taken further steps to contain the Nazi
regime?
6-3 The Path to War in Asia
Doris C. Baker
QQWhat was Japan’s justification for its ambitious
moves in East Asia during the 1930s? Do you
find Tokyo’s arguments convincing? IMAGE 6.1 Adolf Hitler, founder of the Third Reich
6-4 The World at War
QQWhat were the most important battles fought in
the European and Pacific Fronts, and why do you ON JANUARY 30, 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg
think each was crucial in affecting the course of appointed the rising young politician Adolf Hitler as
the war? the new chancellor of Germany. Hitler’s rise to power
had begun in 1921, when he had founded a new
6-5 The Peace Settlement in Europe political organization called the National Socialist
QQHow would you compare the peace settlement after German Workers’ Party—or Nazis, for short—in the
southern German city of Munich. The new organiza-
World War II with the Treaty of Versailles in 1919?
tion was slow to take root in other parts of the coun-
Do you think the settlement signed at Potsdam was try, but Hitler was an accomplished public speaker,
better or worse than its predecessor? and as Germany entered a state of crisis during the
Great Depression, his message of strong leader-
ship, national revival, and territorial expansion soon
gained growing popular support. By the early 1930s,
the German people had increasingly lost faith in the
seemingly inept policies of political leaders in the
Connections to Today Weimar republic and began to drift in two opposite
directions—toward Hitler’s Nazi Party, which prom-
What lessons can be drawn from the rise of ised to cleanse the country of its internal and external
dictatorial regimes in Europe during the interwar enemies, or toward the powerful German Communist
period, and how can such developments be Party (GCP), which called for violent revolution to cre-
prevented from arising today? ate a socialist state on the pattern of the Bolshevik
regime in Russia.
133
For influential conservative forces in the country, Dictatorships, of course, were hardly a new phenom-
there seemed to be little choice: while nervous about enon as a means of governing human societies, but the
the intentions of the Nazis, they were petrified at the type of political system that emerged after World War I did
prospect of a communist takeover, so they began to exhibit some ominous new characteristics. The modern
pressure President von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as totalitarian state, whether of the right (as in Germany) or
the new chancellor of Germany. It was a fateful deci-
of the left (as in the Soviet Union), transcended the ideal
sion. Within months, Hitler had installed himself as the
of passive obedience expected in a traditional dictatorship
dictator of a new Third Reich and embarked on a path
to rid the country of traitors and make Germany once or authoritarian monarchy. It required the active loyalty and
again the dominant force in Europe. The ensuing con- commitment of all its citizens to the regime and its goals.
flict not only repeated the horrors of the previous “war Individual freedom was to be subordinated to the collective
to end all wars” but resulted in an even more decisive will of the masses, represented by a single leader and a single
defeat of German forces on the battlefield. When World party. Modern technology also gave totalitarian states the
War II came to an end in 1945, there could be no ability to use unprecedented police powers and communi-
further cries of a “stab in the back.” Germany, and its cation techniques to impose their wishes on their subjects.
capital city of Berlin, lay in ruins. What explains the emergence of this frightening new
form of government at a time when the Enlightenment
and the Industrial Revolution had offered such bright hopes
for the improvement of the human condition? According
to the philosopher Hannah Arendt, in her renowned study,
6-1The Rise of Dictatorial The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), the totalitarian state
Regimes was a direct product of the modern age. At a time when
traditional sources of identity, such as religion and the
QQ Focus Question: What are the main

characteristics of totalitarian states, and in
local community, were in decline, alienated intellectuals
found fertile ground for their radical ideas among rootless
peoples deprived of their communal instincts and their tra-
what key respects do they differ from
democratic societies? ditional faiths by the corrosive effects of the Industrial Age.
The Great Depression, which threw millions into poverty
On February 3, 1933, only four days after he had been and sowed doubts about the viability of both democratic
appointed chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) institutions and the capitalist system, made many observ-
met secretly with Germany’s leading generals. He revealed to ers even more vulnerable to prescriptions calling for a new
them his desire to remove the “cancer of democracy,” create a politics and the remaking of the human condition.
new authoritarian leadership, and forge a new domestic unity.
His foreign policy objectives were equally striking. Since 6-1a The Birth of Fascism
Germany’s living space was too small for its people, Hitler In the early 1920s, in the wake of economic turmoil, politi-
said, Germany must rearm and prepare for “the conquest of cal disorder, and the general insecurity and fear stemming
new living space in the east and its ruthless Germanization.” from World War I, Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) burst
The rise of Adolf Hitler to supreme power in Germany upon the Italian scene with the first fascist movement in
was not an isolated incident, but part of a pattern that had Europe. Mussolini began his political career as a socialist
spread throughout Europe and other parts of the world in but was expelled from the Socialist Party after supporting
the wake of the Great Depression. The apparent triumph Italy’s entry into World War I, a position contrary to the
of liberal democracy in 1919 had proven to be extremely socialist principle of ardent neutrality in imperialist wars.
short-lived. Italy had installed a fascist regime in the 1920s, In 1919, he established a new political group, the Fascio
and the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin was itself a repres- di Combattimento, or League of Combat. It received little
sive dictatorial state. A host of other European states, and attention in the parliamentary elections of 1919, but sub-
Latin American countries as well, adopted authoritarian sequently when worker strikes and a general climate of
systems, while a militarist regime in Japan moved that class violence broke out, alarmed conservatives turned to
country down the path to war. By 1939, only two major the Fascists, who formed armed squads to attack social-
states in Europe, France and Great Britain, remained dem- ist offices and newspapers. On October 29, 1922, after
ocratic. Even in the United States, the democratic system Mussolini and the Fascists threatened to march on Rome
was under threat, as many Americans began to lose faith in if they were not given power, King Victor Emmanuel III
the capitalist system and express an interest in fascism or its (r. 1900–1946) capitulated and made Mussolini prime min-
reverse image, communism. ister of Italy.
134 ■ CHAPTER 6 The Crisis Deepens: The Outbreak of World War II
By 1926, Mussolini had established the institutional official persecution. Their rights were restricted, and they
framework for his Fascist dictatorship. Press laws gave the were physically separated from Christians in separate urban
government the right to suspend any publication that fos- sectors known as ghettos. By the nineteenth century, however,
tered disrespect for the Catholic Church, the monarchy, or as a result of the ideals of the Enlightenment and the French
the state. The prime minister was made “head of govern- Revolution, Jews were increasingly granted legal equality
ment” with the power to legislate by decree. A police law in many European countries. Many Jews left the ghettos to
empowered the police to arrest and confine anybody for which they had been restricted and became assimilated into
both nonpolitical and political crimes without due process the surrounding Christian population. Some entered what
of law. In 1926, all anti-Fascist parties were outlawed. By had previously been the closed world of politics and the pro-
the end of 1926, Mussolini ruled Italy as Il Duce, the leader. fessions. Others became successful as bankers, scientists, jour-
Mussolini’s regime attempted to mold Italians into a nalists, and stage performers. Nowhere in Europe did Jews
single-minded community by developing Fascist organi- play a more active role in society than in Germany.
zations at all levels of society. By 1939, about two-thirds Often, however, their achievements provoked envy and
of the population between the ages of eight and eighteen distrust. During the last two decades of the nineteenth cen-
had been enrolled in some kind of Fascist youth group. tury, German politicians began to use the criticism of Jews
Activities for these groups included Saturday afternoon as a means to win the votes of traditional lower-middle-
marching drills and calisthenics, seaside and mountain class groups who felt threatened by changing times. Such
summer camps, and youth contests. Beginning in the parties also played on the rising sentiment of racism in
1930s, all young men were given some kind of premilitary German society. Spurred on by the widespread popularity
exercises to develop discipline and provide training for war. of social Darwinism, some rabid German nationalists pro-
The Fascists also sought to reinforce traditional social moted the concept of the Volk (nation, people, or race) as an
attitudes, as is evident in their policies toward women. The underlying idea in German history since the medieval era.
Fascists portrayed the family as the pillar of the state and Portraying the German people as the successors of the pure
women as the foundation of the family. “Woman into the “Aryan” race, which they claimed was the true and original
home” became the Fascist slogan. The role of women was creator of Western culture, nationalist groups called for
to serve as homemakers and baby producers, “their natural Germany to take the lead in a desperate struggle to save
and fundamental mission in life,” according to Mussolini, European civilization from the destructive assaults of such
who viewed population growth as an indicator of national allegedly lower races as Jews, blacks, Slavs, and Asians.
strength. The Fascist attitude toward women also reflected
a practical consideration: working women would com- Hitler’s Rise to Power, 1921–1933 At the end of World
pete with males for jobs in the depression economy of the War I, Hitler joined the obscure German Workers’ Party
1930s. Eliminating women from the market reduced male and transformed it into a new organization called the
unemployment. National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP), or
Nazis for short. Hitler worked assiduously to develop the
6-1b Hitler and Nazi Germany party into a mass political movement with flags, party
As Mussolini began to lay the foundations of his Fascist badges, uniforms, its own newspaper, and its own police
state in Italy, a young admirer was harboring similar force or party militia known as the SA—the Sturmabteilung,
dreams in Germany. Born on April 20, 1889, Adolf Hitler or Storm Troops. The SA added an element of force and ter-
was the son of an Austrian customs official. He did poorly ror to the growing Nazi movement. Hitler’s own oratorical
in secondary school and eventually made his way to Vienna skills as well as his populist message were largely respon-
to become an artist, where he gradually developed an avid sible for attracting an increasing number of followers.
interest in German nationalism. After World War I, during In November 1923, Hitler staged an armed uprising against
which he served as a soldier on the Western Front, Hitler the state government in Munich, but the so-called Beer Hall
moved to the south German state of Bavaria and became Putsch was quickly crushed, and Hitler was sentenced to
actively involved in politics. By then, he had become con- prison. During his brief stay in jail, he wrote Mein Kampf (My
vinced that the German defeat had been caused by the Struggle), an autobiographical account of his movement and
Jews, for whom he now developed a fervent hatred. its underlying ideology. Virulent German nationalism, anti-
Semitism, and anticommunism were linked together by a
The Roots of Anti-Semitism Anti-Semitism was not new social Darwinian theory of struggle that stressed the right
to European civilization. Since the Middle Ages, Jews had of superior nations to Lebensraum (“living space”) through
been portrayed throughout the continent as the murderers expansion and the right of superior individuals to secure
of Christ and were often subjected to mob violence and authoritarian leadership over the masses.
6-1 The Rise of Dictatorial Regimes ■ 135
After Hitler’s release from prison, the Nazi Party rap-
idly expanded to other parts of Germany, increasing from MOVIES & HISTORY
27,000 members in 1925 to 178,000 by the end of 1929.
By 1932, the Nazi Party had 800,000 members and had Triumph of the Will (1934)
become the largest party in the Reichstag, the German par- The documentary entitled Triumph of the Will is per-
liament. No doubt, Germany’s economic difficulties were haps the most famous film produced in Germany during
a crucial factor in the Nazis’ rise to power. Unemployment the years of the Nazi regime. Directed by the German
had risen dramatically, from 4.35 million in 1931 to 6 mil- actress and film maker Leni Riefenstahl, it was pro-
lion by the winter of 1932. The economic and psychologi- duced at the request of Adolf Hitler himself, who hoped
cal impact of the Great Depression made extremist parties that German viewers would be influenced in favor of his
such as the Nazis and the Communists more attractive. new regime, which had taken power a year previously.
Hitler’s appeal to national pride, national honor, and tradi- The focus in the documentary is on a rally held in
tional militarism struck chords of emotion in his listeners, 1934 by the Nazi Party in the city of Nuremberg. The
and the raw energy projected by his Nazi Party contrasted event itself was designed to be both a spectacular mass
sharply with the apparent ineptitude emanating from its meeting for the participants, and also a powerful propa-
democratic rivals. As the conservative elites of Germany ganda device aimed at conveying to viewers the rising
gradually came to see Hitler as the man who could save power of National Socialism. The film opens with short
Germany from a Communist takeover, President Paul von introductory titles declaring that the rise to power of
Hindenburg agreed to allow Hitler to become chancellor Adolf Hitler as the new chancellor marked the rebirth of
on January 30, 1933, and form a new government. the German nation. The remainder is devoted to a series
Within two months, Hitler had convinced Hindenburg to of scenes from party rallies, speeches by party leaders,
issue a decree suspending all basic rights for the full duration and parades through the city streets with thousands of
of the emergency—declared after a mysterious fire destroyed spectators cheering, and it closes with a speech by the
the Reichstag building in downtown Berlin—thus enabling chancellor himself, who appears in almost messianic
the Nazis to arrest and imprison anyone without redress. terms as the savior of the country. To view the film today
When the Reichstag empowered the government to dispense is to gain some insight into the power of Nazi propa-
with constitutional forms for four years while it issued laws ganda in arousing mass support for the regime, and pop-
that dealt with the country’s problems, Hitler became a dic- ular adulation for the great leader—Adolf Hitler himself.
tator appointed by the parliamentary body itself. The final
step came on August 2, 1934, when Hindenburg died. The
office of Reich president was abolished, and Hitler became
Q What movies were produced in the United States
that might have been effective as propaganda
sole ruler of Germany. Public officials and soldiers were all devices in favor of a particular cause?
required to take a personal oath of loyalty to Hitler as the
“Führer (leader) of the German Reich and people.”
Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

The Nazi State, 1933–1939 Having smashed the Weimar
Republic, Hitler now turned to his larger objective, the cre-
ation of a totalitarian state that would dominate Europe
and possibly the world for generations to come. Mass dem-
onstrations and spectacles were employed to integrate the
German nation into a collective fellowship and to mobilize it
as an instrument for Hitler’s policies (see Movies & History,
Triumph of the Will ). In the economic sphere, the Nazis pur-
sued the use of public works projects and “pump-priming”
grants to private construction firms to foster employment
and end the depression. But there is little doubt that rearma-
ment contributed far more to solving the unemployment
problem. Unemployment, which had stood at 6 million in steady recovery from its disastrous position during the heart
1932, dropped to 2.6 million in 1934 and fell below 500,000 of the Great Depression.
in 1937. Although Hitler himself had little interest in either For its enemies, the Nazi totalitarian state had its instru-
economics or administration, economic factors were oper- ments of terror and repression. Especially important was the
ating in his favor, and the German economy began to show SS (Schutzstaffel, or “protection echelon”). Originally created
as Hitler’s personal bodyguard, the SS, under the direction new racial laws at the annual party rally in Nuremberg.
of Heinrich Himmler (1900–1945), came to control all of the These laws excluded Jews from German citizenship and
regular and secret police forces. Other institutions, including forbade marriages and extramarital relations between
the Catholic and Protestant churches, primary and second- Jews and German citizens. A more violent phase of anti-
ary schools, and universities, were also brought under the Jewish activity was initiated on November 9–10, 1938, the
control of the state. Criticism from opposition elements infamous Kristallnacht, or night of shattered glass. The
in the press was deflected by dismissive comments from assassination of a German diplomat in Paris became the
regime sources about the “lugenpresse” (the lying press). excuse for a Nazi-led destructive rampage against the Jews;
Nazi professional organizations and leagues were formed synagogues were burned, 7,000 Jewish businesses were
for civil servants, teachers, women, farmers, doctors, and destroyed, and at least 100 Jews were killed. Moreover,
lawyers; youth organizations—the Hitler Jugend (Hitler 20,000 Jewish males were rounded up and sent to concen-
Youth) and its female counterpart, the Bund Deutscher Mädel tration camps. Jews were now barred from all public build-
(League of German Maidens)—were given special attention. ings and prohibited from owning, managing, or working
The Nazi attitude toward women was largely determined in any retail store. Hitler would soon turn to more grue-
by ideological considerations. To the Nazis, men and women some measures.
were designed by nature to play different roles in society. Men
were warriors and political leaders, while women were des- 6-1c The Spread of Authoritarianism in Europe
tined to be wives and mothers. Certain professions, includ- Nowhere had the map of Europe been more drastically
ing university teaching, medicine, and law, were considered altered by World War I than in eastern Europe. The new
inappropriate for women. Instead, women were encouraged states of Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia
to pursue professional occupations that had direct practical adopted parliamentary systems, and the preexisting king-
application, such as social work and nursing (see Image 6.2). doms of Romania and Bulgaria gained new parliamentary
A key goal of the Nazi regime was to resolve “the constitutions in 1920. Greece became a republic in 1924.
Jewish question.” In September 1935, the Nazis announced Hungary’s government was parliamentary in form but
controlled by its landed aristocrats. Thus,
at the beginning of the 1920s, the future of
Women of the National Socialist Women’s League, NS-Frauenschaft/DON TROIANI COLLECTION/
political democracy seemed promising. Yet

almost everywhere in eastern Europe, par-
liamentary governments soon gave way to
authoritarian regimes.
Several factors helped create this situ-
ation. Eastern European states had little
tradition of liberalism or parliamentary
politics and no substantial middle class to
support them. Then, too, these states were
predominantly rural and agrarian. Many
of the peasants were largely illiterate, and
Private Collection/Bridgeman Images
much of the land was still dominated by

large landowners who feared the growth
of agrarian peasant parties with their
schemes for land redistribution. Ethnic
conflicts also threatened to tear these
countries apart. Fearful of land reform,
Communist-led agrarian upheaval, and
IMAGE 6.2 Women Serving the Nazi Cause. The National Socialist Women’s League ethnic conflict, powerful landowners, the
was the female equivalent of the Nazi Party in Germany. Established in 1931, its churches, and even some members of
responsibilities were to encourage German women to play their assigned roles in
the small middle class looked to authori-
Hitler’s Germany and—after the outbreak of war in 1939—to provide assistance
to the regime on the home front. In public, members were expected to dress tarian governments to maintain the old
in white, and they were encouraged to engage regularly in athletic activities. In system. Only Czechoslovakia, with its
1938, the League had a membership of over 2 million women. substantial middle class, liberal tradition,
and strong industrial base, maintained its
Q How would you compare the role of German women in the Third Reich with
that of women in the United States during World War II? political democracy.
6-1 The Rise of Dictatorial Regimes ■ 137
In Spain, democracy also failed to survive. Fearful of Appeals from Tokyo to Washington for a U.S. effort to restrain
the rising influence of left-wing elements in the govern- Chiang Kai-shek were rebuffed. Militant nationalists in Tokyo,
ment, in July 1936 Spanish military forces led by General outraged at Japan’s loss of influence in Manchuria, began to
Francisco Franco (1892–1975) launched a brutal and bloody argue that the Shidehara policy of peaceful cooperation with
civil war that lasted three years. Foreign intervention com- other nations in maintaining the existing international eco-
plicated the situation. Franco’s forces were aided by arms, nomic order had been a failure.
money, and men from Italy and Germany, while the govern-
ment was assisted by 40,000 foreign volunteers as well as The Mukden Incident In September 1931, acting on the
trucks, planes, tanks, and military advisers from the Soviet pretext that Chinese troops had attacked a Japanese rail-
Union. After Franco’s forces captured Madrid on March 28, way near the northern Chinese city of Mukden, Japanese
1939, the Spanish Civil War finally came to an end. General military units stationed in the area seized control through-
Franco soon established a dictatorship that favored large out Manchuria. Although Japanese military authorities
landowners, businessmen, and the Catholic clergy. To con- in Manchuria announced that China had provoked the
cerned observers in Western Europe and the United States, action, the “Mukden incident,” as it was called, had actu-
Franco’s victory was an ominous sign for the future. ally been carried out by Japanese saboteurs to create a pre-
text for intervention. Eventually, worldwide protests against
6-1d The Rise of Militarism in Japan the Japanese action led the League of Nations to send an
The rise of militant forces in Japan resulted not from a sei- investigative commission to Manchuria. When the commis-
zure of power by a new political party but from the grow- sion issued a report condemning the seizure, Japan angrily
ing influence of nationalist elements at the top of the withdrew from the League. Over the next several years, the
political hierarchy. During the 1920s, a multiparty system Japanese consolidated their hold on Manchuria, renaming
based on democratic practices appeared to be emerging. it Manchukuo and placing it under the titular authority of
Two relatively moderate political parties, the Minseito and former Chinese emperor and now Japanese puppet, Pu Yi.
the Seiyukai, dominated the Diet and took turns providing Although no one knew it at the time, the Mukden incident
executive leadership in the cabinet. Radical elements existed would later be singled out by some observers as the opening
at each end of the political spectrum, but neither militant shot of World War II. The failure of the League of Nations
nationalists nor violent revolutionaries appeared to present to take decisive action sent a strong signal to Japan and other
a threat to the stability of the system (see Chapter 5). potentially aggressive states that they might pursue their
In fact, the pluralistic political system in Japan was prob- objectives without the risk of united opposition by the major
ably weaker than it seemed at the time. Both of the major world powers. Despite its agonizing efforts to build a system
parties were deeply dependent on campaign contributions of peace and stability that would prevent future wars, the
from powerful corporations (the zaibatsu), and conserva- League had failed to resolve the challenges of the postwar era.
tive forces connected to the military or the old landed aris-
tocracy were still highly influential behind the scenes. As in Democracy In Crisis Civilian officials in Tokyo had been
the Weimar Republic in Germany during the same period, horrified by the unilateral actions undertaken by ultrana-
the actual power base of moderate political forces was tional Japanese military elements in Manchuria, but were
weak, and politicians unwittingly undermined the fragility cowed into silence. Despite doubts about the wisdom of
of the system by engaging in bitter attacks on each other. the Mukden incident, the cabinet was too divided to dis-
Political tensions in Japan increased in 1928 when Chiang avow it, and military officers in Manchuria increasingly
Kai-shek’s forces seized Shanghai and several provinces acted on their own initiative.
in central China. In the next few years, Chiang engaged in During the early 1930s, civilian cabinets were also strug-
negotiations with the remaining warlords north of the gling to cope with the economic challenges presented by the
Yangtze River and made clear his intention to integrate the Great Depression. Already suffering from the decline of its
region, including the three provinces in Manchuria, into business interests on the mainland, Japan began to feel the
the new Nanjing republic. This plan represented a direct impact of the global economic downturn after 1929 when
threat to military strategists in Japan, who viewed resource- the United States and major European nations raised their
rich Manchuria as the key to their country’s expansion onto tariffs against Japanese imports in a desperate effort to pro-
the Chinese mainland. When Zhang Xueliang, son and suc- tect local businesses and jobs. The value of Japanese exports
cessor of the Japanese puppet Zhang Zuolin (see Chapter 5), dropped by 50 percent from 1929 to 1931, and wages dropped
resisted Japanese threats and decided to integrate Manchuria nearly as much. Hardest hit were the farmers as the prices of
into the Nanjing republic, the Japanese were shocked. “You rice and other staple food crops plummeted. By abandoning
forget,” Zhang told one Japanese official, “that I am Chinese.”1 the gold standard, Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi was able
to lower the price of Japanese goods on the world market, limited Germany’s army to 100,000 troops with no air force
and exports climbed back to earlier levels. But the political and only a small navy, were still in effect.
parties were no longer able to stem the growing influence of Posing as a man of peace in his public speeches, Hitler
militant nationalist elements. began to insist that Germany wished only to revise the
In May 1932, Inukai Tsuyoshi was assassinated by right- unfair provisions of Versailles by peaceful means and to
wing extremists. He was succeeded by another moderate, take its rightful place among the European states. On
Admiral Saito Makoto, but ultranationalist patriotic societ- March 9, 1935, he announced the creation of a new air
ies began to terrorize opponents, assassinating businessmen force and, one week later, the introduction of a military
and public figures identified with the policy of conciliation draft that would expand Germany’s army (the Wehrmacht)
toward the outside world. Some, like the publicist Kita Ikki, from 100,000 to 550,000 troops. France, Great Britain, and
were convinced that the parliamentary system had been Italy condemned Germany’s unilateral repudiation of the
corrupted by materialism and Western values and should Versailles Treaty but failed to take concrete action.
be replaced by a system that would return to traditional On March 7, 1936, buoyed by his conviction that the
Japanese values and imperial authority. His message “Asia Western democracies had no intention of using force to
for the Asians” had not won widespread support during the maintain the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler sent German troops
relatively prosperous 1920s but increased in popularity after into the demilitarized Rhineland. Under the provisions of the
the Great Depression, which convinced many Japanese that treaty, the French had the right to use force against any viola-
capitalism was unsuitable for Japan. tion of the demilitarized Rhineland. But Paris would not act
During the mid-1930s, the influence of the military and without British support, and the British government viewed
extreme nationalists over the government steadily increased. the occupation of German territory by German troops as a
Minorities and left-wing elements were persecuted, and mod- reasonable action by a dissatisfied power. The London Times,
erates were intimidated into silence. Terrorists put on trial for reflecting the war-weariness that had gripped much of the
their part in assassination attempts portrayed themselves as European public since the end of the Great War, noted that
selfless patriots and received light sentences. Japan continued the Germans were only “going into their own back garden.”
to hold national elections, and moderate candidates contin- Meanwhile, Hitler began to reach out for new allies. In
ued to receive substantial popular support, but the cabinets October 1935, Mussolini committed Fascist Italy to impe-
were dominated by the military or by civilian advocates of rial expansion by invading its old African nemesis Ethiopia.
Japanese expansionism. In February 1936, junior officers in Angered by French and British opposition to the move,
the army led a coup in the capital city of Tokyo, briefly occu- Mussolini welcomed Hitler’s support and began to draw
pying the Diet building and other key government installa- closer to the German dictator he had once called a buffoon.
tions and assassinating several members of the cabinet. The The joint intervention of Germany and Italy on behalf of
ringleaders were quickly tried and convicted of treason, but General Franco in the Spanish Civil War in 1936 not only
widespread sympathy for the defendants further strength- drew the two nations closer together, but also created a
ened the influence of the military in the halls of power. potential new ally in Madrid. In October 1936, Mussolini
and Hitler concluded an agreement that recognized their
common political and economic interests. One month later,
6-2 The Path to War in Europe Germany and Japan concluded the Anti-Comintern Pact and
agreed to maintain a common front against communism.
QQ Focus Questions: Why did other European

nations not react more strongly to Germany’s 6-2a Stalin Seeks a United Front
aggressive actions during the mid-1930s? Do From behind the walls of the Kremlin in Moscow, Joseph
you think they should have taken further steps Stalin undoubtedly observed the effects of the Great
to contain the Nazi regime? Depression with a measure of satisfaction. During the early
1920s, once it became clear that the capitalist states in Europe
When Hitler became chancellor on January 30, 1933, had managed to survive without socialist revolutions, Stalin
Germany’s situation in Europe appeared weak. The Versailles decided to improve relations with the outside world as a
Treaty had created a demilitarized zone on Germany’s means of obtaining capital and technological assistance in
western border that would allow the French to move into promoting economic growth in the Soviet Union. But he
the heavily industrialized parts of Germany in the event of was undoubtedly aware of his mentor Lenin’s prediction
war. To Germany’s east, smaller states such as Poland and that after a brief period of stability in Europe, a new crisis
Czechoslovakia had signed defensive treaties with Germany’s brought on by overproduction and intense competition was
old rival France. The provisions of the Versailles Treaty, that likely to occur in the capitalist world. That, Lenin added,
6-2 The Path to War in Europe ■ 139
would mark the beginning of the next wave of revolution. Europe (Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia). Soviet
In the meantime, he declared, “We will give the capitalists negotiations with Great Britain, where influential mem-
the shovels with which to bury themselves.” bers of the Conservative Party were wary of entering
To Stalin, the onset of the Great Depression was a an embrace with Moscow, achieved little result. The Soviet
signal that the next era of turbulence in the capitalist Union, rebuffed by London and disappointed by Paris, feared
world was at hand, and during the early 1930s, Soviet that it might be forced to face Hitler alone.
foreign policy returned to the themes of class struggle and
social revolution. When the influence of the Nazi Party
reached significant levels in the early 1930s, Stalin viewed 6-2b Decision at Munich
it as a pathological form of capitalism and ordered the By the end of 1936, the Treaty of Versailles had been vir-
Communist Party in Germany not to support the fragile tually scrapped, and Germany had erased much of the
Weimar Republic. As for the relatively moderate Socialist stigma of defeat. Hitler, whose foreign policy successes
Party of Germany, its leaders were derided in Moscow as had earned him much internal public acclaim, was con-
“red fascists.” Hitler would quickly fall, Stalin reasoned, vinced that neither the demoralized French nor the British
leading to a Communist takeover. could effectively oppose his plans and decided in 1938 to
By 1935, however, Stalin had become uneasily aware annex Austria, where pro-German sentiment was strong.
that Hitler was not only securely in power in Berlin but By threatening the country with invasion, Hitler coerced
also represented a potentially serious threat to the Soviet the Austrian chancellor into putting Austrian Nazis in
Union. That summer, at a meeting of the Communist charge of the government. The new government promptly
International held in Moscow, Soviet officials announced a invited German troops to enter Austria and assist in main-
shift in policy. The Soviet Union would now seek to form taining law and order. One day later, on March 13, 1938,
united fronts with capitalist democratic nations in Europe Austria formally became a part of Germany.
against the common danger of Nazism and fascism. The annexation of Austria—achieved without severe
Communist parties in capitalist countries and in colonial objections from other European nations—put Germany
areas were instructed to cooperate with “peace-loving in position for Hitler’s next objective—the destruction of
democratic forces” in forming coalition governments Czechoslovakia. Although the democratic government in
called Popular Fronts. Prague was quite prepared to defend itself and was sup-
In most capitalist countries, ported by pacts with France and
Stalin’s move was greeted with sus- Copenhagen the Soviet Union, Hitler believed
picion, but in France, a coalition DENMARK LITHUANIA
that the country’s allies would not
DANZIG
of leftist parties—Communists, come to its aid to defend it against a
Elb
Socialists, and Radicals—fearful that eR
.
GERMANY German attack.
rightists intended to seize power, Berlin His gamble succeeded. On
accepted Moscow’s offer and formed Od
Warsaw September 15, 1938, Hitler
a Popular Front government in June GERMANY er
R POLAND demanded the cession to Germany
1936. The new government suc- of the Sudetenland (an area in
.
Prague
ceeded in launching a program for Nuremberg (CZECH.) western Czechoslovakia that
Da
workers, which included the right of Munich nu SLOVAKIA was inhabited largely by ethnic
be
collective bargaining, a forty-hour Vienna Germans) and expressed his will-
R.
workweek, two-week paid vaca- Budapest
(AUSTRIA) ingness to risk “world war” if he
tions, and minimum wages. But HUNGARY was refused. Instead of objecting,
such policies failed to bring an end to Po ROMANIA the British, French, Germans, and
R YUGOSLAVIA Belgrade
the depression, and although it sur- Italians—at a hastily arranged con-
vived until 1938, the Front was for Annexed Sudetenland, ference held in Munich—reached
all intents and purposes dead before October 1938 an agreement that essentially met
then, as conservative forces began Occupied Bohemia and Moravia, all of Hitler’s demands. German
to organize against the perceived March 1939 troops were allowed to occupy the
threat of communism in France. Poland and Hungary Sudetenland as the Czechs, aban-
Still, France agreed to sign a defen- doned by their Western allies as
Annexed Czech territory,
sive treaty with Moscow as well 1938 and 1939 well as by the Soviet Union, stood
as similar agreements with three by helplessly (see Map 6.1). The
non-Communist states in eastern MAP 6.1 Central Europe in 1939 Munich Conference was the high
Opposing Viewpoints
The Munich Conference

We are in the presence of a disaster of the first magni-
Q What were the opposing views of Churchill and tude which has befallen Great Britain and France. Do not
Chamberlain on how to respond to Hitler’s demands let us blind ourselves to that. . . .
at Munich? Do these arguments have any wider And do not suppose that this is the end. This is only
relevance for other world crises? the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip,
the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered
to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral
Politics & At the Munich Conference , the leaders of
Government
health and martial vigor, we arise again and take our
France and Great Britain capitulated to
stand for freedom as in the olden time.
Hitler’s demands on Czechoslovakia. When British Prime
Minister Neville Chamberlain defended his actions at Munich Neville Chamberlain, Speech to the House of Commons,
as necessary for peace, another British statesman, Winston October 6, 1938
Churchill, characterized the settlement at Munich as “a
That is my answer to those who say that we should have
disaster of the first magnitude.” After World War II, political
told Germany weeks ago that, if her army crossed the
figures in western Europe and the United States would cite
border of Czechoslovakia, we should be at war with her.
the example of appeasement at Munich to encourage vigorous
We had no treaty obligations and no legal obligations to
resistance to expansionism by the Soviet Union.
Czechoslovakia. . . . When we were convinced, as we
Winston Churchill, Speech to the House of Commons, became convinced, that nothing any longer would keep the
October 5, 1938 Sudetenland within the Czechoslovakian State, we urged
the Czech Government as strongly as we could to agree
I will begin by saying what everybody would like to ignore
to the cession of territory, and to agree promptly. . . . It
or forget but which must nevertheless be stated, namely,
was a hard decision for anyone who loved his country to
that we have sustained a total and unmitigated defeat, and
take, but to accuse us of having by that advice betrayed the
that France has suffered even more than we have. . . . The
Czechoslovakian State is simply preposterous. What we
utmost my right honorable Friend the Prime Minister . . .
did was save her from annihilation and give her a chance
has been able to gain for Czechoslovakia and in the matters
of new life as a new State, which involves the loss of ter-
which were in dispute has been that the German dictator,
ritory and fortifications, but may perhaps enable her to
instead of snatching his victuals from the table, has been
enjoy in the future and develop a national existence under
content to have them served to him course by course. . . .
a neutrality and security comparable to that which we see
And I will say this, that I believe the Czechs, left to them-
in Switzerland today. Therefore, I think the Government
selves and told they were going to get no help from the
deserves the approval of this House for their conduct of
Western Powers, would have been able to make better
affairs in this recent crisis, which has saved Czechoslovakia
terms than they have got. . . .
from destruction and Europe from Armageddon.
Sources: Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons (London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1938), vol. 339, pp. 361–369; Neville Chamberlain, In Search
of Peace (New York: Putnam, 1939), pp. 215, 217.
point of Western appeasement of Hitler. British Prime by no means been satisfied at Munich. In March 1939, Hitler
Minister Neville Chamberlain returned to England from suddenly occupied the Czech lands (Bohemia and Moravia),
Munich boasting that the agreement meant “peace in our and with his encouragement, the Slovaks, a Slavic people
time.” Hitler had promised Chamberlain that he had made closely related to the Czechs who had always resented the
his last demand (see Opposing Viewpoints, “The Munich condescending attitude of their neighbors, announced their
Conference,” above). departure from Czechoslovakia and set up the German
In fact, Munich confirmed Hitler’s perception that the puppet state of Slovakia. On the evening of March 15, 1939,
Western democracies were weak and would not fight. He Hitler triumphantly declared in Prague that he would be
was increasingly convinced of his own infallibility and had known as the greatest German of them all.
6-2 The Path to War in Europe ■ 141
The Western states were now increasingly alarmed by the The United States refused to recognize the Japanese take-
Nazi threat. Hitler’s naked aggression in central Europe had over of Manchuria, which Secretary of State Henry L.
made it clear that his promises were utterly worthless. When Stimson declared an act of “international outlawry,” but
he began to demand the return to Germany of Danzig (a it was unwilling to threaten the use of force. Instead, the
primarily German city that had been made a free city by the Americans sought to avoid confrontation in the hope of
Treaty of Versailles to serve as a seaport for Poland), Britain encouraging moderate forces in Japanese society. As one
recognized the danger and offered to protect Poland in the senior U.S. diplomat with long experience in Asia warned in
event of war. Both France and Britain realized that they a memorandum to the president:
needed Soviet help to contain Nazi aggression and began
Utter defeat of Japan would be no blessing to the Far
political and military negotiations with Stalin. Their distrust
East or to the world. It would merely create a new set
of Soviet communism, however, made an alliance unlikely.
of stresses, and substitute for Japan the USSR—as the
Meanwhile, Hitler pressed on in the belief that Britain
successor to Imperial Russia—as a contestant (and at
and France would not go to war over Poland. To preclude least an equally unscrupulous and dangerous one) for
an alliance between the western European states and the the mastery of the East. Nobody except perhaps Russia
Soviet Union, which would create the danger of a two-front would gain from our victory in such a war.2
war, Hitler, ever the opportunist, approached Stalin, who
had given up hope of any alliance with Britain and France. For the moment, the prime victim of Japanese aggres-
The announcement on August 23, 1939, of the Nazi-Soviet sion was China. At the outset, Chiang Kai-shek attempted to
Nonaggression Pact shocked the world. The treaty with avoid a confrontation with Japan so that he could deal with
the Soviet Union gave Hitler the freedom he sought, and what he considered the greater threat from the Communists.
on September 1, German forces invaded Poland. A secret When clashes between Chinese and Japanese troops broke
protocol divided up the nation of Poland between the two out on Chinese soil, he sought to appease the Japanese by
signatories. Two days later, Britain and France declared granting them the authority to administer areas in north
war on Germany. Europe was again at war. China. But, as the Japanese moved steadily southward,
popular protests in Chinese cities against Japanese aggres-
sion intensified. In December 1936, Chiang was briefly kid-
6-3 The Path to War in Asia napped by military forces commanded by General Zhang
QQ Focus Questions: What was Japan’s

justification for its ambitious moves in East
Xueliang, who compelled him to end his military efforts
against the Communists in Yan’an and form a new united
front against the Japanese. After Chinese and Japanese forces
Asia during the 1930s? Do you find Tokyo’s clashed at Marco Polo Bridge, south of Beijing, in July 1937,
arguments convincing? China refused to apologize, and hostilities spread.
Events in Asia were running parallel to those in Europe.

In the years immediately following the Japanese seizure of 6-3a A Monroe Doctrine for Asia
Manchuria in the fall of 1931, Japanese military forces began Japan had not planned to declare war on China, but neither
to expand gradually into north side would compromise, and the 1937 incident eventually
China (see Map 6.2). Using the tac- turned into a major conflict. The
MANCHURIA Japanese advanced up the Yangtze
tics of military intimidation and dip- Beijing
lomatic bullying rather than all-out valley and seized the Chinese capi-
attack, Japanese military authorities (1931–1938) tal of Nanjing, raping and killing
began to carve out a new “sphere of thousands of innocent civilians in
influence” south of the Great Wall. (1938–1939) the process. The full enormity of
Not everyone in Tokyo agreed Hankou Nanjing Shanghai the horrendous slaughter, which
with this aggressive policy—the continued for several weeks, only
Chungking
young Emperor Hirohito, who emerged many years after the end
had succeeded to the throne in of the war. The “Nanjing inci-
1926, was initially nervous about dent” aroused a deep-seated anger
possible international repercus- against Japan among the Chinese
sions—but right-wing terrorists people that continues to affect
assassinated some of its key critics relations between the two coun-
and intimidated others into silence. MAP 6.2 Japanese Advances into China, 1931–1939 tries to this day.
But Chiang Kai-shek refused to capitulate and moved But when Germany surprised Tokyo by signing the non-
his government upriver to Hankou. When the Japanese aggression pact with the Soviets in August 1939, Japanese
seized that city, he retreated further upriver to Chungking, strategists—who hadn’t been informed of the move in
in remote Sichuan Province. Japanese strategists had advance—were compelled to reevaluate their long-term
hoped to force Chiang to join a Japanese-dominated objectives. Japan was not strong enough to defeat the
New Order in East Asia, comprising Japan, Manchuria, and Soviet Union alone, as a small but bitter border conflict
China. Now they established a puppet regime in Nanjing along the Siberian frontier near Manchukuo had amply
that would cooperate with Japan in driving Western influ- demonstrated. So the Japanese began to shift their gaze
ence out of East Asia (see Image 6.3). Tokyo hoped even- southward to the vast resources of Southeast Asia—the
tually to seize resource-rich Soviet Siberia and to create a oil of the Dutch East Indies, the rubber and tin of Malaya,
new Monroe Doctrine for Asia, under which Japan would and the rice of Burma and Indochina.
guide its Asian neighbors on the path to development and A move southward, of course, would risk war with the
prosperity. After all, who better to instruct Asian societ- European colonial powers and the United States, all of
ies on modernization than the one Asian country that whom had colonial territories in the area. Japan’s attack
had already achieved it? (See Historical Voices, “Japan’s on China in the summer of 1937 had already aroused
Justification for Expansion,” p. 144.) strong criticism abroad, particularly in Washington, where
President Franklin D. Roosevelt threatened in a public
speech to “quarantine” the aggressors after Japanese mili-
6-3b Tokyo’s “Southern Strategy” tary units bombed a U.S. naval ship operating in China.
During the late 1930s, Japan began to cooperate with Fear of involvement in foreign wars was still strong in the
Nazi Germany on a plan to launch a joint attack on the United States, however, and a public outcry forced the
Soviet Union and divide up its resources between them. president to draw back. But when in the summer of 1940
IMAGE 6.3 A Japanese Victory in China. After consolidating its authority over Manchuria, Japan began to expand
into northern China. Direct hostilities between Japanese and Chinese forces began in 1937. This photograph
shows victorious Japanese forces in January 1938 riding under the arched Chungshan Gate in Nanjing after
they had conquered the Chinese capital city. By 1939, Japan had conquered most of eastern China.
Q What reasons did the Japanese government give for seeking to control China?
6-3 The Path to War in Asia ■ 143

HISTORICAL VOICES
Japan’s Justification for Expansion

the Powers have suppressed the circulation of Japanese
Q What arguments did Hashimoto Kingoro make in materials and merchandise abroad, we are looking for
favor of Japanese territorial expansion? What was his some place overseas where Japanese capital, Japanese
reaction to the condemnation of Japan by Western skills and Japanese labor can have free play, free from the
nations? oppression of the white race.
We would be satisfied with just this much. What
ADVOCATES OF JAPANESE EXPANSION justified
moral right do the world powers who have themselves
Politics &
Government their proposals by claiming both economic
closed to us the two doors of emigration and advance
necessity and moral imperatives. Note the familiar
into world markets have to criticize Japan’s attempt to
combination of motives in this passage written by an
rush out of the third and last door?. . .
extremist military leader in the late 1930s.
At the time of the Manchurian incident, the entire
world joined in criticism of Japan. They said that Japan was
Hashimoto Kingoro on the Need for Emigration an untrustworthy nation. . . . But the military action taken
and Expansion by Japan was not in the least a selfish one. Moreover, we
We have already said that there are only three ways left do not recall ever having taken so much as an inch of ter-
to Japan to escape from the pressure of surplus popula- ritory belonging to another nation. The result of this inci-
tion, . . namely emigration, advance into world markets, dent was the establishment of the splendid new nation of
and expansion of territory. The first door, emigration, Manchuria. The Powers are still discussing whether or not
has been barred to us by the anti-Japanese immigration to recognize this new nation, but regardless of whether or
policies of other countries. The second door, advance not other nations recognize her, the Manchurian Empire
into world markets, is being pushed shut by tariff barriers has already been established, and now, seven years after
and the abrogation of commercial treaties. What should its creation, the empire is further consolidating its founda-
Japan do when two of the three doors have been closed tions with the aid of its friend, Japan.
against her? And if it is still protested that our actions in Manchuria
It is quite natural that Japan should rush upon the last were excessively violent, we may wish to ask the white
remaining door. race just which country it was that sent warships and
It may sound dangerous when we speak of territo- troops to India, South Africa, and Australia and slaugh-
rial expansion, but the territorial expansion of which tered innocent natives, bound their hands and feet with
we speak does not in any sense of the word involve the iron chains, lashed their backs with iron whips, pro-
occupation of the possessions of other countries, the claimed these territories as their own, and still continues
planting of the Japanese flag thereon, and the declara- to hold them to this very day.
tion of their annexation to Japan. It is just that since
Source: From Sources of Japanese Tradition by William Theodore de Bary. Copyright © 1958 by Columbia University Press.
Japan announced its next move—demanding the right to If they were cut off, Japan would have to find them else-
occupy airfields and exploit economic resources in French where. The Japanese were thus caught in a vise. To obtain
Indochina—FDR had had enough, and the White House guaranteed access to the natural resources needed to fuel
warned the Japanese that it would impose economic sanc- the Japanese military machine, Japan must risk being cut
tions unless Japan withdrew from the area and returned off from its current source of the raw materials that would
to its borders of 1931 (see Historical Voices, “The Four be needed in the event of a conflict. After much debate,
Freedoms,” p. 145). the Japanese decided to launch a surprise attack on U.S.
Not surprisingly, Tokyo viewed the U.S. threat of retali- and European colonies in Southeast Asia in the hope of a
ation as an obstacle to its long-term objectives. Japan badly quick victory that would cement Japanese dominance in
needed liquid fuel and scrap iron from the United States. the region.
HISTORICAL VOICES
The Four Freedoms

will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its
Q To what degree do you feel that President inhabitants—everywhere in the world.
Roosevelt’s speech reflects the goals which The fourth is freedom from fear—which, translated
the United States seeks to project around the into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of arma-
world today? ments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion
that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of
As war spread in Europe and Asia physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in
Politics &
Government during the late 1930s, U.S. President Franklin the world.
Roosevelt grew increasingly concerned that the United States That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a defi-
would inevitably become involved in the conflict. But his nite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time
efforts to prepare for such an eventuality were thwarted by and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis
the reluctance of the American people to enter more “foreign of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators
wars.” He thus resorted to carefully crafted statements that seek to create with the crash of a bomb.
set forth U.S. concerns over the course of events elsewhere To that new order we oppose the greater conception—
in the world. In a speech to Congress on January 6, 1941, he the moral order. A good society is able to face schemes
expressed what he considered to be the core U.S. objectives of world domination and foreign revolutions alike with-
as the world entered a period of crisis, although he was out fear.
careful not to commit the country to immediate action. In Since the beginning of our American history, we
later years, the address became widely known as the “Four have been engaged in change—in a perpetual peaceful
Freedoms” speech. revolution—a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly
adjusting itself to changing conditions—without the
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Address to Congress, concentration camp or the quick-lime in the ditch. The
January 6, 1941 world order which we seek is the cooperation of free
In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society.
look forward to a world founded upon four essential This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and
human freedoms. heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women;
The first is freedom of speech and expression— and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God.
everywhere in the world. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights every-
The second is freedom of every person to worship where. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain
God in his own way—everywhere in the world. those rights or keep them. Our strength is our unity
The third is freedom from want—which, translated of purpose.
into world terms, means economic understandings which To that high concept there can be no end save victory.
Source: From Congressional Record, 1941, Vol. 87, Pt. I. As cited in World Civilizations, W.W. Norton Publishing, 1997, All Rights Reserved.
6-4 The World at War hundreds of tanks, supported by airplanes, broke quickly
through Polish lines and encircled the bewildered Polish
QQ Focus Question: What were the most

important battles fought in the European and
troops, whose courageous cavalry units were no match
for the mechanized forces of their adversary. Conventional
infantry units then moved in to hold the newly conquered
Pacific Fronts, and why do you think each was
territory. Within four weeks, Poland had surrendered. On
crucial in affecting the course of the war?
September 28, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union officially
divided Poland between them. To Hitler’s surprise, France
On September 1, 1939, German forces suddenly attacked and Britain declared war on Germany but took no action dur-
Poland. Using the tactics of blitzkrieg, or “lightning war,” ing a period of watchful waiting (dubbed the “phony war”).
6-4a The War in Europe suffered critical losses and was probably only saved by
Although France had joined with Great Britain in declar- Hitler’s sudden change in strategy. In September, in retal-
ing war on Germany after the latter’s attack on Poland, iation for a British air attack on Berlin, Hitler ordered a
the French were ill prepared for the challenge. The politi- shift from military targets to massive bombing of cities to
cal class was badly divided over both domestic and foreign break British morale. The British rebuilt their air strength
policy (many conservatives, reflecting the slogan “better quickly and were soon inflicting major losses on Luftwaffe
Hitler than Blum,” openly preferred Nazi Germany over bombers. By the end of September, Germany had lost the
the left-leaning Socialists), and the country’s military lead- Battle of Britain, and the invasion of the British Isles had
ers had failed to appreciate the effectiveness of the new to be abandoned.
mechanized warfare. France therefore took little action The successful outcome of the Battle of Britain pro-
when Germany launched a blitzkrieg against Denmark vided an enormous boost to British morale in a time of
and Norway on April 9, 1940. One month later, however, great peril. But behind the scenes, another development
the Germans went further, attacking the Netherlands, was unfolding that would eventually deal a more griev-
Belgium, and France. German tank divisions broke through ous blow to German prospects for victory. One of the
the weak French defensive positions in the Ardennes for- most important weapons in the Allied arsenal was the
est and raced across northern France, splitting the Allied ability to break the codes produced by the German code
armies and trapping French troops and the entire British machine, known as Enigma. The product of code break-
expeditionary army on the beaches of Dunkirk. ers from several countries, the Ultra project, as it eventu-
The rapidity of the German advance was stunning, not ally was called, had been initiated a decade earlier but
only to their opponents, but even to the German war plan- only began to provide consistent access to German plans
ners themselves. In numerical terms, the troops and weap- and actions by the summer of 1940. Eventually, it became
ons available to the French and the British significantly an important, if not crucial, factor in several major Allied
outnumbered those of the invaders, but the will to fight, victories in World War II.
and a grasp of the strategic realities on the battlefield, were Thwarted in the west by the failure of Operation
all on the side of the Germans. A strong whiff of defeat- Sealion, Nazi leaders now pursued a new strategy,
ism could be plainly sensed among the defenders. Only which called for Italian troops to capture Egypt and
by heroic efforts, and the German military commanders’ the Suez Canal, thereby closing the Mediterranean to
crucial failure to exploit their advantage, did the British British ships and shutting off Britain’s supply of oil.
succeed in a gigantic evacuation of 330,000 Allied (mostly This strategy failed, however, when the British routed
British) troops from the European continent. The French the Italian army. Although Hitler responded by sending
capitulated on June 22. German armies occupied about German troops to the North African theater of war, his
three-fifths of France while the French hero of World primary concern lay elsewhere; he had already reached
War I, Marshal Philippe Petain (1856–1951), established a the decision to fulfill his longtime obsession with the
puppet regime (known as Vichy France) over the remain- acquisition of territory in the east. In Mein Kampf, Hitler
der. Germany was now in control of western and central had declared that future German expansion must lie in
Europe (see Map 6.3). Britain had still not been defeated, the vast plains of southern Russia.
but it was reeling, and a new wartime cabinet under Prime
Minister Winston Churchill debated whether to seek a The Russian Campaign Hitler was now convinced that
negotiated peace settlement. Churchill, who doubted that Britain was remaining in the war only because it antici-
Hitler could be trusted, was opposed. pated Soviet support. If the Soviet Union were smashed,
Britain’s last hope would be eliminated. Moreover, the
The Battle of Britain Encouraged by his stunning vic- German general staff was convinced that the Soviet
tories on the European Continent, Hitler turned his Union, whose military leadership had been decimated by
attention to the invasion of Great Britain, an operation Stalin’s purge trials, could be defeated quickly and deci-
known as Sealion. An amphibious invasion of Britain sively. The invasion of the Soviet Union was scheduled
could succeed only if Germany gained control of the for spring 1941 but was delayed because of problems in
air. In early August 1940, the Luftwaffe (the German air the Balkans. Mussolini’s disastrous invasion of Greece in
force) launched a major offensive against British air and October 1940 had exposed Italian forces to attack from
naval bases, harbors, communication centers, and war British air bases in that country. To secure their Balkan
industries. The British fought back doggedly, supported flank, German troops were diverted to the area from the
by an effective radar system that gave them early warn- eastern front, where they seized both Yugoslavia and
ing of German attacks. Nevertheless, the British air force Greece in April 1941. Berlin had already obtained the

Arctic Ocean World War II: Europe and Africa
0 300 600 Miles
German-Italian Axis, 1939
Murmansk
Axis satellites and allies, 1941
Axis conquests, 1939–1942
SWEDEN Allied powers and areas

N o r t h Sea under Allied control
FINLAND
Neutral nations
NORWAY
Axis offensives, 1939–1942
Leningrad
ESTONIA Farthest Axis advance, 1941–1942
a
Allied offensives, 1942–1945
Se
LATVIA
GREAT DENMARK ltic LITHUANIA
BRITAIN
Ba Soviet annexations, 1939–1940
EAST PRUSSIA
IRELAND NETHERLANDS Berlin Warsaw Kursk
London BELGIUM Rh R.
SOVIET UNION
Volga
ine
Dunkirk R.
NORMANDY GERMANY SLOVAKIA
Paris Stalingrad
UKRAINE
Atlantic SWITZERLAND HUNGARY
ROMANIA
Po R. Dan
Ocean VICHY ube
FRANCE YUGOSLAVIA Yalta
Ca
R.
Eb r ITALY B lack Sea
sp
o Rome BULGARIA
Corsica
ia
R.
PORTUGAL
n
ALBANIA T
Sardinia U
R K
ds
Sea
SPAIN n
I sla E Y
aric
Bale GREECE Tig
Sicily
Gibraltar Tunis
ri s
Algiers Eup
Crete Tehran
Med a
hr
Cyprus SYRIA es
iterra
R.
t
IRAN
Casablanca
TUNISIA nean LEBANON IRAQ
Sea
MOROCCO PALESTINE
El
ALGERIA Alamein Alexandria TRANSJORDAN R.
Suez
Canal
EGYPT KUWAIT
SPANISH LIBYA
SAHARA Nile
R.
MAP 6.3 World War II in Europe and North Africa. With its fast and effective military, Germany quickly
overwhelmed much of western Europe. But Hitler had both overestimated his own country’s capabilities and
underestimated the determination of his foes. By late 1942, his invasion of the Soviet Union was failing, and
the United States had become a major factor in the war. The Allies successfully invaded Italy in 1943 and
France in 1944.
Q Which countries were neutral, and how did geography help make their neutrality an option?
political cooperation of Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania. A key reason for their initial success was the surprise factor:
Now reassured that his position in eastern Europe was Stalin had been alerted by various sources that an attack
secure, Hitler ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union on was imminent, but had dismissed the warnings as British
June 22, 1941, in the belief that the Soviets could still be propaganda. By November, one German army group
decisively defeated before winter set in. It was a fateful had swept through Ukraine, and a second was besieging
miscalculation. Leningrad; a third approached within 25 miles of Moscow,
The massive attack stretched out along an 1,800-mile the Russian capital. An early winter and unexpected
front. German troops, supported by powerful armored Soviet resistance, however, brought a halt to the German
units, advanced rapidly, capturing 2 million Soviet soldiers. advance. For the first time in the war, German armies had

been stopped. A counterattack in December 1941 by Soviet Another 7 million were supplying forced labor in their own
army units newly supplied with U.S. weapons came as an countries on farms, in industries, and even in military camps.
ominous ending to the year for the Germans. Alarmed
by the rapidity of the German advances in Europe, the The Holocaust No aspect of the Nazi New Order was
Roosevelt administration had begun to provide military more tragic than the deliberate attempt to exterminate the
assistance (known as Lend-Lease) to the Soviet Union via Jewish people of Europe. Until 1939, Nazi policy focused on
shipments sent around northern Scandinavia to the Soviet promoting the “emigration” of German Jews from Germany,
port of Murmansk. “We knew we were in trouble,” one while much of the violence against the Jewish population
German war veteran remarked to me many years later, had been privately initiated by Nazis supporters. Once the
“when we became aware that many Russian soldiers were war began in September 1939, the so-called Jewish problem
armed with American rifles.” took on new dimensions. Eventually, Nazi leaders settled on
what was called the Final Solution to the Jewish problem—
the annihilation of the Jewish people. Reinhard Heydrich
6-4b The New Order in Europe (1904–1942), head of the SS’s Security Service, was given
By the fall of 1941, the Nazi empire stretched across conti- administrative responsibility to carry it out. After the defeat
nental Europe from the English Channel in the west to the of Poland, Heydrich ordered his special strike forces—the
outskirts of Moscow in the east. The conquered territories Einsatzgruppen—to round up all Polish Jews and concentrate
were organized in two different ways. Some areas, such them in ghettos established in a number of Polish cities.
as western Poland, were annexed and transformed into After the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the
German provinces. Most of occupied Europe, however, Einsatzgruppen were transformed into mobile killing units.
was administered indirectly by German officials with the These death squads followed the regular army’s advance
assistance of collaborationist regimes. into the Soviet Union. Their job was to round up Jews in
Racial considerations played an important role in how the villages and execute and bury them in mass graves,
conquered peoples were treated. German civil adminis- often giant pits dug by the victims themselves before they
trations were established in Norway, Denmark, and the were shot. Even this approach to solving the Jewish prob-
Netherlands because the Nazis considered their peoples lem was soon perceived as inadequate. Instead, the Nazis
to be Aryan, or racially akin to the Germans, and hence opted for the systematic annihilation of the European
worthy of more lenient treatment. Latin peoples, such as Jewish population in specially built death camps. Jews from
the occupied French, were given military administrations. occupied countries were rounded up, packed like cattle
But all the occupied territories were exploited for material into freight trains, and shipped to Poland, where six exter-
goods and manpower for Germany’s labor needs. mination centers were built for this purpose. The largest
Because the conquered lands in the east contained the and most famous was Auschwitz-Birkenau. Zyklon B (the
living space for German expansion and were populated in commercial name for hydrogen cyanide) was selected as
Nazi eyes by racially inferior Slavic peoples, Nazi admin- the most effective gas for quickly killing large numbers
istration there was considerably more ruthless. One mil- of people in gas chambers designed to look like shower
lion Poles were uprooted and dumped in southern Poland. rooms to facilitate the cooperation of the victims.
Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Germans (descendants By the spring of 1942, the death camps were in opera-
of peoples who had migrated years earlier from Germany tion. Although initial priority was given to the elimina-
to different parts of southern and eastern Europe) were tion of the ghettos in Poland, Jews were soon also being
encouraged to colonize designated areas in Poland. Hitler’s shipped from France, Belgium, and the Netherlands and
grand vision called for a colossal project of social engineer- eventually from Greece and Hungary. Despite desperate
ing after the war, in which Poles, Ukrainians, and Russians military needs, the Final Solution had priority in using rail-
would become slave labor while German peasants settled road cars to transport Jews to the death camps.
on the abandoned lands and Germanized them. By the end of the war, the Germans had killed between 5
Labor shortages in Germany led to the brutal mobi- and 6 million Jews, more than 3 million of them in the death
lization of foreign labor. After the invasion of the Soviet camps (see Image 6.4). Virtually 90 percent of the Jewish
Union, the 4 million Russian prisoners of war captured populations of Poland, the Baltic countries, and Germany
by the Germans, along with more than 2 million workers were exterminated. Overall, the Holocaust was responsible
conscripted in France and the Low Countries, became a for the death of nearly two of every three European Jews.
major source of manpower. By the summer of 1944, 7 mil- The Nazi terror was not directed solely at the Jews, but
lion foreign workers had been shipped to Germany, where was also responsible for the death by shooting, starvation,
they constituted 20 percent of Germany’s labor force. or overwork of at least another 9 to 10 million people.
also representing a safe haven from public criticism and pos-
sible arrest. After the outbreak of the war, living conditions
began to deteriorate, but by then it was increasingly risky
to voice discontent and risk imprisonment, or worse. While
many true believers supported the regime to the bitter end,
most Germans probably learned to keep their head down
and bear privation conditions without complaint.
6-4c War Spreads in Asia

On December 7, 1941, Japanese carrier-based aircraft attacked
the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands.
The same day, other units launched assaults on the Philippines
and began advancing toward the British colony of Malaya.
Shortly thereafter, Japanese forces seized the British island
AP Images
of Singapore, invaded the Dutch East Indies, and occupied

a number of islands in the Pacific Ocean. In some cases, as
IMAGE 6.4 The Holocaust: An Image from Buchenwald. When Allied on the Bataan peninsula and the island of Corregidor in the
troops began to occupy Nazi concentration camps in Germany, Philippines, resistance was fierce, but by the spring of 1942,
Austria, and Poland at the end of World War II, they were stunned almost all of Southeast Asia and much of the western Pacific
by the horrific scenes of inhumanity that they observed there:
had fallen into Japanese hands. Placing the entire region under
ovens still filled with the charred remains of prisoners, piles of
bodies rotting in uncovered graves, and emaciated survivors who Japanese tutelage, Japan announced its intention to liberate
greeted the troops with vacant eyes and frequently died within Southeast Asia from Western rule. For the moment, however,
hours or days of their liberation. Some of the most poignant Tokyo needed the resources of the region for its war machine
images were deceptively simple, though frightening in their and placed its recent conquests on a wartime footing.
connotations—piles of shoes, eyeglasses, and even children’s toys,
Japanese leaders had hoped that their strike at American
all left by the victims of the Nazi terror. Shown here are thousands
of wedding rings found in a cave near the camp at Buchenwald. bases would destroy the U.S. Pacific Fleet and persuade
the Roosevelt administration to accept Japanese domina-
Q What were the sources of Nazi hostility to Jewish
peoples, and how did they justify their Jewish policy
tion of the Pacific. The American people, in the eyes of
to the German people? Japanese leaders, had been made soft by material indul-
gence. But the Japanese had miscalculated. Although the
Because the Nazis considered the Gypsies (descendants administration’s failure to anticipate the scope and direc-
of migrants who had left southern Asia centuries previ- tion of the Japanese attack aroused legitimate criticism in
ously and had never assimilated into the European popula- the United States, the attack on Pearl Harbor galvanized
tion), like the Jews, an alien race, they were systematically American opinion and won broad support for Roosevelt’s
rounded up for extermination. Civic leaders in many Slavic war policy. Doubts about the wisdom of engaging in for-
countries were also arrested and executed. The Nazis also eign wars quickly evaporated. The United States now
singled out homosexuals for persecution, and thousands joined with European nations and the embattled peoples
lost their lives in concentration camps. of Nationalist China in a combined effort to defeat Japan’s
How did the German people react to the gradual trans- plan to achieve hegemony in the Pacific.
formation of their country from a struggling democracy
into a totalitarian state? Studies on the subject undertaken U.S. Strategy in the Pacific On December 11, 1941, four
after the end of World War II present mixed explanations. days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Germany
For the majority of Germans who were not directly affected committed a major error by declaring war on the United
by state-organized repressive policies, the Nazi regime was States. Confronted with the reality of a two-front war,
often viewed, at least initially, quite favorably. As the unem- President Roosevelt decided that because of the overwhelm-
ployment rate declined, life in the Third Reich gradually ing superiority of the Wehrmacht in Europe, the war effort
improved for the majority of the population, and many in that theater should receive priority over the conflict with
people undoubtedly took pride in their leader’s outspoken Japan in the Pacific. Accordingly, U.S. war strategists drafted
defense of German culture and the nation’s rightful place in plans to make maximum use of their new ally in China. An
the world. At the same time, membership in the Nazi Party experienced U.S. military commander, Lieutenant General
or its affiliated organizations provided many benefits, while Joseph Stilwell, was appointed as Roosevelt’s special adviser
to Chiang Kai-shek. His chief assignment was to train destroyed all four of the attacking Japanese aircraft carriers
Chinese Nationalist forces in preparation for an Allied near Midway Island and established U.S. naval superiority
advance through mainland China toward the Japanese in the central Pacific, even though almost all of the U.S.
islands. By the fall of 1942, U.S. and British forces were begin- planes were shot down in the encounter. The ability of
ning to gather in India for offensive operations into South U.S. intelligence operatives to break the Japanese military
China through Burma, while U.S. cargo planes continued code by using an offshoot of the Ultra project, code-named
to fly “over the hump” through the Himalaya Mountains to “Magic,” played a significant role in the victory. Farther
supply the Chinese government in Chungking with desper- to the south, U.S. troops under the command of General
ately needed war supplies. Douglas MacArthur launched their own campaign (dubbed
In the meantime, the tide of battle began to turn in “island hopping”) by invading the Japanese-held island of
the Pacific. In the Battle of the Coral Sea in early May New Guinea, at the eastern end of the Dutch East Indies.
1942, U.S. naval forces stopped the Japanese advance in the After a series of bitter engagements in the Solomon Islands
Dutch East Indies and temporarily relieved Australia of the from August to November 1942, Japanese fortunes in the
threat of invasion. A month later, American carrier planes area began to fade (see Map 6.4).
ALASKA Anchorage
CANADA
SOVIET UNION
n ds
Kamchatka la
n Is
Aleutia
Sakhalin s
nd
I sla ATTU
ile
MONGOLIA MANCHUKUO K ur
(MANCHURIA) P a c i fi c
KOREA JAPAN
CHINA Tokyo Ocean
Hiroshima
Nanjing Nagasaki
s
nd
Chungking I sla
BURMA u ku OKINAWA Bonin Islands MIDWAY
Ry IWO JIMA
INDIA Hong
Kong
HAWAIIAN
Pearl ISLANDS
FRENCH Mariana Islands Harbor
INDOCHINA PHILIPPINE Saipan
THAILAND TINIAN
ISLANDS
Guam
Caroline Islands
MALAYA Marshall Islands World War II: Asia and the Pacific
Allied powers and areas
Singapore BORNEO under Allied control
D
Japanese Empire, 1937

U
C Solomon
T
H Islands Japanese conquests, 1937–1944

EA IE S GUADALCANAL
ST IND Japanese satellite areas, 1941
Indian
Farthest Japanese advance
Ocean Coral
Allied offensives, 1942–1945
Sea
Japanese offensives, 1942–1945
AUSTRALIA
Main bombing routes
0 500 1,000 1,500 Kilometers
Naval battles
0 500 1,000 Miles
MAP 6.4 World War II in Asia and the Pacific. In 1937, Japan invaded northern China, beginning its effort to create the
“Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.” Further expansion led the United States to end iron and oil sales to Japan.
Deciding that war with the United States was inevitable, Japan engineered a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
Q Why was control of the islands in the western Pacific of great importance both to the Japanese and to the Allies?

6-4d The New Order in Asia for local customs. In the Dutch East Indies, for example,
Once their military takeover was completed, Japanese pol- Indonesians were required to bow in the direction of Tokyo
icy in the occupied areas of Asia became essentially defen- and recognize the divinity of the Japanese emperor, prac-
sive, as Japan hoped to use its new possessions to meet its tices that were repugnant to Muslims. In Burma, Buddhist
burgeoning needs for raw materials, such as tin, oil, and pagodas were sometimes used as military latrines. A gen-
rubber, as well as an outlet for Japanese manufactured eration later, many male Vietnamese still expressed anger
goods. To provide an organizational structure for a new at the memory of being severely punished by Japanese offi-
Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, a Ministry for Great cials for urinating in public.
East Asia, staffed by civilians, was established in Tokyo in Like German soldiers in occupied Europe, Japanese
October 1942 to handle relations between Japan and the military forces often had little respect for their subject
conquered territories. peoples and viewed the Geneva Convention governing
the treatment of prisoners of war as little more than a
fabrication of the Western countries to tie the hands
Asia for the Asians? The Japanese conquest of Southeast of their adversaries. In their conquest of northern and
Asia had been accomplished under the slogan “Asia for the central China, the Japanese freely used poison gas and
Asians,” and many Japanese sincerely believed that their biological weapons, leading to the deaths of thousands
government was liberating the peoples of southern Asia of Chinese citizens. The Japanese occupation of the one-
from European colonial rule. Japanese officials in the occu- time Chinese capital of Nanjing, described earlier, was
pied territories made contact with nationalist elements especially brutal.
and promised that independent governments would be Japanese soldiers were also savage in their treatment of
established under Japanese tutelage. Such governments Koreans. Almost 800,000 Koreans were sent overseas, most
were eventually set up in Burma, the Dutch East Indies, of them as forced laborers, to Japan. Tens of thousands
Vietnam, the Philippines, and even India. of Korean women were forced to be “comfort women”
In fact, however, real power rested with the Japanese (prostitutes) for Japanese troops. The Japanese also made
military authorities in each territory, and the local Japanese extensive use of both prisoners of war and local peoples on
military command was directly subordinated to the Army construction projects for their war effort. In building the
General Staff in Tokyo. The economic resources of the Burma-Thailand railway in 1943, for example, the Japanese
colonies were exploited for the benefit of the Japanese war used 61,000 Australian, British, and Dutch prisoners of
machine, while local peoples were recruited to serve in war and almost 300,000 workers from Burma, Malaya,
local military units or conscripted to work on public works Thailand, and the Dutch East Indies. An inadequate diet
projects. In some cases, the people living in the occupied and appalling work conditions in an unhealthy climate led
areas were subjected to severe hardships. In Indochina, for to the deaths of 12,000 Allied prisoners of war and 90,000
example, forced requisitions of rice by the local Japanese local workers by the time the railway was completed. The
authorities for shipment abroad created a food short- conditions were later graphically portrayed in the award-
age that caused the starvation of more than a million winning movie, The Bridge on the River Kwai.
Vietnamese in 1944 and 1945. Such Japanese behavior created a dilemma for many
The Japanese planned to implant a new moral and social nationalists in occupied areas, who had no desire to see
order as well as a new political and economic order in the the return of the colonial powers. Some turned against
occupied areas. Occupation policy stressed traditional val- the Japanese, while others lapsed into inactivity. Some
ues such as obedience, community spirit, filial piety, and Indonesian patriots tried to have it both ways, feigning sup-
discipline that reflected the prevailing political and cultural port for Japan while attempting to sabotage the Japanese
bias in Japan, while supposedly Western values such as administration. The Communist leader Ho Chi Minh
materialism, liberalism, and individualism were strongly established contacts with U.S. military officials in South
discouraged. China and agreed to provide information on Japanese
At first, many Asian nationalists took Japanese prom- troop movements in Indochina and to rescue downed
ises at face value and agreed to cooperate with their new American fliers in the area in return for the provision of
masters. In Burma, an independent government was estab- U.S. training and military equipment for use by his own
lished in 1943 and subsequently declared war on the Allies. followers. In Malaya, where Japanese treatment of eth-
But as the exploitative nature of Japanese occupation poli- nic Chinese residents was especially harsh, many joined a
cies became increasingly clear, sentiment turned against guerrilla movement against the occupying forces. By the
the new order. Japanese officials sometimes unwittingly end of the war, little support remained in the region for
provoked resentment by their arrogance and contempt the erstwhile “liberators.”

6-4eThe Turning Point of the War, decided that Stalingrad, a major industrial center on the
1942–1943 Volga, should be taken as well. Accordingly, German forces
advancing in the southern Soviet Union were divided. After
The entry of the United States into the war created
three months of bitter fighting, German troops occupied
a coalition, called the Grand Alliance, that ultimately
the city of Stalingrad, but Soviet troops in the area, using a
defeated the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan).
strategy of encirclement, now counterattacked. Besieged
Nevertheless, the three major Allies—Britain, the United
from all sides, the Germans were forced to surrender
States, and the Soviet Union—had to overcome mutual
on February 2, 1943. The entire German Sixth Army of
distrust before they could operate as an effective alliance.
300,000 men was lost, with the survivors sent off to prison
President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill had
camps. Soviet casualties were estimated at nearly one mil-
already agreed on a set of war aims—calling for the self-
lion, more than the United States lost in the entire war. By
determination of all peoples—in a meeting held off the
spring, long before Allied troops landed on the European
coast of Newfoundland in August 1941. But this accord,
continent, even Hitler knew that the Germans would not
known as the Atlantic Charter, had not been cleared
defeat the Soviet Union. The Wehrmacht was now in full
with Moscow. In a bid to allay Stalin’s suspicion of U.S.
retreat all across the Eastern Front.
intentions, President Roosevelt declared that the defeat
of Germany should be the first priority of the alliance.
The United States, through its Lend-Lease program, Arsenal of Democracy Although the Battle of Stalingrad
also sent large amounts of military aid, including $50 was probably the most important single battle in the
billion worth of trucks, planes, and other arms, to the war, an equally significant development was taking place
Soviet Union. In 1943, the Allies agreed to fight until the across the Atlantic, where the growing industrial might of
unconditional surrender of the Axis Powers. Although the United States was gradually being transformed from
some critics feared that the declaration would make the peaceful to wartime uses. By 1943, the United States had
enemy more determined to resist, it also had the effect of become the arsenal of the Allied Powers, producing the
making it more difficult for Hitler to divide his foes. military equipment they all needed. At the height of war
Victory, however, was only in the distant future for the production in 1943, the nation was constructing six ships
Allied leaders at the beginning of 1942. As Japanese forces a day and $6 billion worth of war-related goods a month.
advanced into Southeast Asia and the Pacific after crip- The output of American factories was dispatched not only
pling the American naval fleet at Pearl Harbor, Axis forces to the U.S. forces overseas, but to Great Britain, the Soviet
continued the war in Europe against Britain and the Soviet Union, and other Allies as well.
Union. Reinforcements in North Africa enabled the Afrika Much of the industrial labor was done by American
Korps under General Erwin Rommel to break through the women, who, despite some public opposition, willingly
British defenses in Egypt and advance toward Alexandria, took jobs in factories to replace husbands and brothers
a vital seaport in the Nile River delta. In the spring of 1942, who had gone off to war. Long after the return of peace,
a renewed German offensive in the Soviet Union led to the the face of the fictional “Rosie the Riveter,” a poster show-
capture of the entire Crimean peninsula, causing Hitler to ing a young woman in overalls flexing her arm muscle at
boast that in two years, German divisions would be on the the viewer, was one of the most famous images of the war
border of India. effort (see Image 6.5). Women also joined the armed forces
as WAACs (Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps) or served in
other civilian occupations once reserved for their fathers
The Battle of Stalingrad By that fall, however, the war
and brothers. In addition, more than one million African
had begun to turn against the Germans. In North Africa,
Americans migrated from the rural South to seek employ-
British forces stopped Rommel’s troops at El Alamein in
ment in the industrial cities of the North and West. For
the summer of 1942 and then forced them back across the
many Americans, the attack on Pearl Harbor aroused a
desert. In November, U.S. forces landed in French North
powerful sense of patriotism that they had never experi-
Africa and forced the German and Italian troops to surren-
enced previously in their lifetimes. As the unemployment
der in May 1943. Allied war strategists drew up plans for an
rate dropped steadily, the U.S. recovery from the Great
invasion of Italy, on the “soft underbelly” of Europe. But
Depression appeared complete—admittedly at a high cost.
the true turning point of the war undoubtedly occurred
on the Eastern Front, where the German armed forces suf-
fered 80 percent of their casualties during the entire war. 6-4f The Last Years of the War
After capturing the Crimea, Hitler’s generals wanted him By the beginning of 1943, the tide of battle had begun to
to concentrate on the Caucasus and its oil fields, but Hitler turn against the Axis. On July 10, the Allies crossed the

the Nazi industrial capacity and killing thousands of civil-
ians in the process.
Operation Overlord Since the autumn of 1943, under con-

siderable pressure from Stalin, the Allies had been planning
a cross-channel invasion of France (known as Operation
Overlord) from Great Britain. Under the direction of U.S.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969), five assault
divisions landed on the Normandy beaches on June 6,
1944, in history’s greatest naval invasion. An initially inde-
cisive German response, due in part to effective Allied dis-
National Archives/Donaldson Collection/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
information activities, enabled the Allied forces to establish

a beachhead, although casualties were heavy. Within three
months, they had landed 2 million men and a half-million
vehicles that pushed inland and broke through the German
defensive lines. Among them were French troops loyal to
the French military commander Charles de Gaulle. After
the puppet Vichy government was established in the sum-
mer of 1940, Colonel de Gaulle had fled the country and
founded a Free French movement dedicated to cooperat-
ing with the Allies to overturn Nazi domination of the
European continent.
After the breakout, Allied troops moved inland, lib-
erating Paris by the end of August. By March 1945, they
had crossed the Rhine and advanced into Germany. The
IMAGE 6.5 Rosie the Riveter. One of the most memorable posters Allied advance northward through Belgium encountered
from the wartime era was the graphic art image of “Rosie the greater resistance, as German troops launched a desper-
Riveter” with the accompanying caption: “We Can Do It!” The ate counterattack known as the Battle of the Bulge. The
poster, which was widely reproduced all over the country at
operation introduced a new generation of “King Tiger”
the time, helped to enlist American women to sign up for jobs
in factories producing equipment for the war effort. In recent tanks more powerful than anything the Allied forces could
years, a state park honoring the poster has been established in array against them. The Allies weathered the German
the city of Richmond, California, where thousands of women attack, however, and in late April, they finally linked up
signed up for jobs in 56 separate industries, including the all- with Soviet units at the Elbe River.
important shipping industry. Such posters were highly effective
in encouraging popular support for the war effort in the United
States, while the jobs themselves helped to train women to find Advance in the East The Soviets had come a long way
employment after the war’s end.
since the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943. In the summer of
1943, Hitler had gambled on taking the offensive by mak-
ing use of the first generation of “King Tiger” tanks. At
Mediterranean and carried the war to Italy. After taking the Battle of Kursk ( July 5–12), the greatest engagement
Sicily, Allied troops began the invasion of mainland Italy in of World War II, involving competing forces numbering
September. Following the ouster and arrest of Mussolini, more than 3.5 million men, the Soviets soundly defeated
a new Italian government offered to surrender to Allied the German forces. Soviet forces, now supplied with their
forces. But the Germans, in a daring raid, liberated own “T-34” heavy tanks, began a relentless advance west-
Mussolini and set him up as the head of a puppet German ward. The Soviets reoccupied Ukraine by the end of 1943;
state in northern Italy while German troops established lifted the siege of Leningrad, where more than one mil-
new defensive lines in the hills south of Rome. Rome lion people, the vast majority of them civilians, had died;
finally fell on June 4, 1944. By that time, the Italian war had and moved into the Baltic states by the beginning of 1944.
assumed a secondary role as the Allies opened their long- Advancing along a northern front, Soviet troops occu-
awaited second front in western Europe. In preparation for pied Warsaw in January 1945 and entered Berlin in April.
a widely anticipated Allied invasion of western Europe, Meanwhile, Soviet troops along a southern front swept
intensive bombing raids levelled German cities, damaging through Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria.

In January 1945, Hitler moved into a bunker 55 feet The creation of a new United Nations to replace the
under Berlin to direct the final stages of the war. He com- now discredited League of Nations was a major U.S. con-
mitted suicide on April 30, two days after Mussolini was cern at Yalta. Roosevelt hoped to ensure the participation
shot by partisan Italian forces. On May 7, German com- of the Big Three powers in a postwar international orga-
manders surrendered. The war in Europe was over. nization before difficult issues divided them into hostile
camps. After a number of compromises, both Churchill
and Stalin accepted Roosevelt’s plans for the United
6-5The Peace Settlement Nations organization and set the first meeting for San
Francisco in April 1945.
in Europe The issues of Germany and eastern Europe were treated
QQ Focus Questions: How would you compare

the peace settlement after World War II with
less decisively and with considerable acrimony. The Big
Three reaffirmed that Germany must surrender uncondi-
tionally and created four occupation zones. German repara-
the Treaty of Versailles in 1919? Do you think tions were set at $20 billion. A compromise was also worked
the settlement signed at Potsdam was better or out in regard to Poland. Stalin agreed to free elections in
worse than its predecessor? the future to determine a new government. But the issue
of free elections in eastern Europe would ultimately cause
In November 1943, Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill, the lead- a serious rift between the Soviets and the Americans and
ers of the Grand Alliance, met at Tehran (the capital of Iran) also become a source of political controversy in the United
to decide the future course of the war. Their major strategic States. The Allied leaders agreed on an ambiguous state-
decision involved approval for an American-British invasion ment that interim governments “broadly representative of
of the European continent through France, which Stalin all democratic elements in the population” would be formed
had long demanded; it was scheduled for the spring of 1944. in advance of the scheduling of free elections “responsive to
The acceptance of this plan had important consequences. the will of the people.”3 It would soon be clear that Moscow
It meant that Soviet and British-American forces would and Washington interpreted the provisions in different
meet in defeated Germany along a north-south dividing line ways, a reality that would eventually lead to harsh criticism
and that eastern Europe would most likely be liberated by of Yalta from Roosevelt’s opponents in the United States.
Soviet forces. The Allies also agreed to a partition of postwar For his part, FDR was determined to avoid the poisonous
Germany until denazification could take place. Roosevelt feelings left by the Treaty of Versailles after World War I and
privately assured Stalin that Soviet borders in Europe would hoped to win Stalin’s confidence as a means of maintaining
be moved westward to compensate for the loss of territo- the Grand Alliance at the close of the war.
ries belonging to the old Russian Empire after World War I.
Poland would receive lands in eastern Germany to make up 6-5b Confrontation at Potsdam
for territory lost in the east to the Soviet Union.
After Yalta, Western relations with the Soviets began
to deteriorate rapidly. The Grand Alliance had been
6-5a The Yalta Agreement one of necessity in which ideological incompatibility
In February 1945, the three Allied leaders met once again at had been subordinated to the pragmatic concerns of
Yalta, on the Crimean peninsula of the Soviet Union. Since the war. The Allied Powers’ only common aim was the
the defeat of Germany was by now a foregone conclusion, defeat of Nazism. Once this aim had been all but accom-
much of the attention focused on the war in the Pacific. At plished, the many differences among the Big Three
Tehran, Roosevelt had sought Soviet military help against came to the surface.
Japan, and Stalin had assured him that Soviet forces would The Potsdam Conference of July 1945, held in a royal
be in a position to enter the Pacific war three months after palace just outside Berlin, was the last Allied conference
the close of the conflict in Europe. At Yalta, FDR reopened of World War II, and it began under a cloud of mis-
the subject. Development of the atomic bomb was not yet trust. Roosevelt had died of a cerebral hemorrhage on
assured, and U.S. military planners feared the possibility April 12 and had been succeeded as chief of state by his
of heavy casualties in amphibious assaults on the Japanese vice president Harry Truman, while Winston Churchill
home islands. Roosevelt therefore agreed to Stalin’s price had been replaced by the new Labour Party prime
for military assistance against Japan: possession of Sakhalin minister, Clement Attlee. After his arrival at Potsdam,
and the Kurile Islands, as well as two warm-water ports Truman received word that the atomic bomb had been
and railroad rights in Manchuria. successfully tested. Some historians have argued that

this knowledge stiffened Truman’s resolve against the throughout the region, but Stalin was determined to main-
Soviets. In any case, there was a new coldness in the rela- tain a string of friendly regimes on its western border and
tions between the Soviets and the Americans. The Allied felt that only firm control over the levers of power would
leaders disagreed on the status of postwar Germany. guarantee that result. In his view, free elections might
Stalin sought absolute security for the USSR, which—in result in governments hostile to the Soviet Union. For
his view—could only be achieved if Germany was suf- U.S. officials, the dilemma was clear: as Soviet occupation
ficiently punished to negate any possibility that it might forces in Eastern Europe had already begun to install pli-
seek revenge in the future. But Truman, along with ant regimes in their wake, only an invasion by Western
many of his advisers, was determined to avoid a puni- armies could undo developments there, and in the imme-
tive peace in the hopes of avoiding a repeat of the bitter diate aftermath of the world’s most destructive conflict,
experience after World War I. few people favored such a policy. But the stage was set for
They also sparred on the future of the newly liberated a new confrontation, this time between the two major vic-
states of eastern Europe. Truman demanded free elections tors of World War II (see Map 6.5).
From EA S T
Finland, G ER M A N Y
FINLAND 1940–1956
French EA S T
Sector G ER MA N Y
NORWAY Helsinki EA S T
SWEDEN W ES T
Oslo Stockholm Soviet
Leningrad British Sector Sector
ESTONIA
Baltic To USSR,
1940 B ER LI N B ER LI N
Sea
LATVIA U.S. Sector
To USSR,
DENMARK Copenhagen Incorporated into
1940
USSR, 1945 LITHUANIA Potsdam
Gdansk To USSR,
(Danzig) 1940
U.S. Zone
Bremen Soviet WHITE SOVIET

Zone Incorporated into National boundaries in 1949
NETHERLANDS Berlin Poland, 1945 Warsaw RUSSIA UNION
Amsterdam British Zone EAST Allied sector boundaries
de POLAND Brest
O
GERMANY r 1947
BELGIUM 1949
R. From Poland,
1940–1947
Allied occupation of Germany and
Brussels French Austria, 1945–1955
Zone
WEST Prague
U.S.
GERMANY Zone CZECH From Czechoslovakia, UKRAINE Territory lost by Germany
OSLOV 1940–1947
LUXEMBOURG Munich AKIA From Romania,
Soviet 1948 1940–1947 Territory gained by Soviet Union
U.S. Zone Vienna
AUSTRIA Budapest
Bern French Zone British
“Iron Curtain” after 1955
Zone Zone
SWITZERLAND HUNGARY BESSARABIA 1945 Year Communist control of
1949
government was gained
P o R.
Milan Danu ROMANIA
be 1947
Belgrade Bucharest CRIMEA
YUGOSLAVIA R.
ITALY 1945
BULGARIA
Black Sea
Corsica 1946
Rome Sofia
(Fr.) Tirana
Istanbul
ALBANIA
1944
Sardinia
(It.) TURKE Y
GREECE 0 300 600 900 Kilometers
Mediterranean Sea Athens 0 300 600 Miles
MAP 6.5 Territorial Changes in Europe After World War II. In the last months of World War II, the Red Army occupied much of
Eastern Europe. Stalin sought pro-Soviet satellite states in the region as a buffer against future invasions from Western Europe,
whereas Britain and the United States wanted democratically elected governments. Soviet military control of the territory settled
the question.
Q Which country gained the greatest territory at the expense of Germany?
6-5 The Peace Settlement in Europe ■ 155

The Bombing of Civilians in World War II

produced by the atomic bomb. Image 6.6b shows a street
Q What was the rationale for bombing in Clydebank, near Glasgow in Scotland, the day after the
civilian populations? Did such city was bombed by the Germans in March 1941. Only
bombing achieve its goal? seven of the city’s 12,000 houses were left undamaged;
35,000 of the 47,000 inhabitants became
homeless overnight.
Family & THE MOST DEVASTATING BOMBING of
Society civilians in World War II came near the
end of the war when the United States dropped
atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki. Image 6.6a is a panoramic view of
Hiroshima that shows the incredible devastation

British Library/HIP/Art Resource, NY
6-5c The War in the Pacific Ends B-29s to fly over the city was thrown into the air over the
During the spring and early summer of 1945, the war target and suffered a broken arm.
in Asia continued, although with a significant change
in approach. Allied war planners had initially hoped to Entering the Nuclear Age As Allied forces drew inexora-
focus their main effort on an advance through China bly closer to the main Japanese islands in the summer of
with the aid of Chinese Nationalist forces trained and 1945, President Harry Truman was faced with an excruci-
equipped by the United States. But Roosevelt became atingly difficult decision. Should he use atomic weapons
disappointed with Chiang Kai-shek’s failure to take the (at the time, only two bombs were available, and their
offensive against Japanese forces in China and eventually effectiveness had not been demonstrated) to bring the
approved a new strategy to strike toward the Japanese war to an end without the necessity of an Allied inva-
home islands directly across the Pacific. This “island- sion of the Japanese homeland? The deployment of such
hopping” approach took an increasing toll on enemy a weapon could result in thousands of civilian casualties
resources, especially at sea and in the air. Meanwhile, and thereby subject the United States to harsh criticism
new U.S. long-range B-29 bombers unleashed a wave of around the world. On the other hand, invasion of the
destruction on all major cities in the Japanese homeland. island of Okinawa in April had resulted in thousands of
One massive firebombing raid on Tokyo in March 1945 casualties on both sides, suggesting that an Allied attack
killed more than 80,000 Japanese and caused such an on the Japanese home islands could have even bloodier
enormous updraft that a U.S. aviator in one of the last consequences.

After an intense debate within the administration, battlefield situation, knowledge of the powerful nature of
Truman ultimately approved the use of America’s new the new weapon was not widely understood, and most
superweapon. The first bomb was dropped on the city of people in the Allied countries probably did not see it as
Hiroshima on August 6. Truman then called on Japan to qualitatively much different from many other horrific
surrender or expect a “rain of ruin from the air.” When the weapons that had been utilized in the course of the battle.
Japanese did not respond, a second bomb was dropped on Some of those responsible for developing the weapon,
Nagasaki three days later. The destruction in Hiroshima however, were horrified by the civilian casualties in Japan,
was incredible. Of 76,000 buildings near the center of the and feared that it could set a precedent to be followed in
explosion, 70,000 were flattened, and 140,000 of the city’s future wars.
400,000 inhabitants died by the end of 1945. By the end As time went on, many people began to question
of 1950, another 50,000 had perished from the effects of Truman’s decision to drop the bombs. Critics argued that
radiation (see Comparative Illustration, “The Bombing of the decision not only led to thousands of civilian casual-
Civilians in World War II,” p. 156). The dropping of the ties, but also introduced a frightening new weapon that
first atomic bomb introduced the world to the nuclear age. could eventually threaten the survival of the human race.
The nuclear attack on Japan, combined with the news Some suspected that Truman’s real purpose in ordering
that Soviet forces had launched an attack on Japanese-held the nuclear strikes was to intimidate the Soviet Union. In
areas in Manchuria, did have its intended effect, however. Japan, the issue enabled post-war officials to portray their
Japan surrendered unconditionally on August 14. World country as a victim, thus relieving them of the respon-
War II was finally over. sibility before unleashing the conflict in the first place.
Defenders of the decision countered that the human costs
Historians The Debate over the Bomb In the of invading the Japanese home islands would have been
Debate
years following the end of the war, infinitely higher had the bombs not been dropped and
Truman’s decision to approve the use of nuclear weapons that the Soviet Union would have had ample time to con-
to compel Japan to surrender aroused considerable contro- solidate its control over Manchuria and command a larger
versy. At the time, the decision to drop the bomb was role in the postwar occupation of Japan. With the dispute
broadly popular in the United States, since it clearly has- mired in hypothetical outcomes, contrasting statistics, and
tened the end of the war and reduced the number of U.S. an unbridgeable gap between morality and realpolitik,
casualties in the Pacific theater. Although this was the first there is no apparent solution to the debate, which remains
time that a nuclear weapon had been deployed in a unresolved today.
making connections
World War II was the most devastating total war in human German dictator might have backed down in his demands
history. Germany, Italy, and Japan had been utterly defeated. on Czechoslovakia. The scenario is persuasive, because
Tens of millions of people—soldiers and civilians—had there is no doubt that the Fuhrer was testing the waters
been killed in only six years. Although accurate figures to see how far he could go with his expansionistic strategy.
are impossible to come by, Soviet losses alone during the But was it realistic? When facing the prospect of conflict,
war have been estimated as high as 50 million.4 In Asia and statesmen and ordinary citizens alike are inevitably condi-
Europe, countless cities had been reduced to rubble, and tioned by their own historical experience. And for the gen-
millions of people faced starvation as once fertile lands eration facing the threat of a new global conflict in 1938,
stood neglected or wasted. Untold millions of people had the primary lesson was that provided by the assassination
become refugees. at Sarajevo in 1914—the crucial importance of avoiding a
Could the catastrophe of World War II have been rush to war based on an issue of limited importance, and
avoided? For many years after the end of the conflict, poli- that might have catastrophic consequences. In 1938, the
ticians and pundits in the United States frequently evoked memory of the Great War was still strong in the minds of
the “lessons of Munich” as a guide for U.S. foreign policy many Europeans, and there was little stomach in the popu-
during the Cold War. If only the Western democracies had lar imagination for a repeat performance. It would take
stood up to Hitler’s demands at Munich, they argue, the another two years, and the grim prospect of a powerful

Germany on the verge of dominating the entire continent, because they occupied the moral high ground in the con-
for reality to set in. flict, and that conclusion is certainly not to be dismissed.
What were the underlying causes of the war? One key But other more prosaic factors probably played a more
factor seems to stand out here: Germany and Japan were important role in determining the outcome. The ability
two rising capitalist powers who had come late to the of Allied intelligence agencies to break the German and
scramble for colonies and strongly resented the Versailles Japanese code systems, enabling Allied leaders to antici-
Treaty, which had divided the world in a manner favorable pate the moves of their adversary on several occasions,
to their rivals. Each was determined to overturn the provi- was certainly a significant advantage. Equally important,
sions of Versailles at the earliest opportunity. It is probably Axis leaders made a number of crucial strategic misjudg-
significant, as well, that both countries cultivated a politics ments, some of which have been noted in this chapter.
that emphasized imagined and real military traditions. It is Hitler’s confidence in his own strategic genius, in par-
no surprise that under the impact of the Great Depression, ticular, led him badly astray on crucial occasions. In the
the effects of which were severe in both countries, frag- last analysis, however, the tendency of both German and
ile democratic institutions were soon overwhelmed by Japanese leaders to underestimate the enormous capacity
militant forces determined to enhance national wealth of the United States and the Soviet Union to harness their
and power. industrial and human resources in the war effort was per-
Why then did the Axis Powers lose the war? It is tempt- haps their greatest mistake. They would pay dearly for
ing to answer that the Allied countries were victorious their complacency.
QQWhat was the relationship between World War I and military victories, and what were the results of
World War II, and how did the ways in which the wars their efforts?
were fought differ? QQHow did the attempt to arrive at a peace settlement
QQHow do you account for the early successes of the after World War II lead to the beginnings of a new
Germans from 1939 to 1941? conflict known as the Cold War?
QQHow did the Nazis and the Japanese attempt to
establish new orders in Europe and Asia after their
CHAPTER Timeline
1925 1930 1935 1940 1945
Europe
Mussolini creates Fascist Hitler comes to power Fall of Battle of Yalta
dictatorship in Italy in Germany France Stalingrad Conference
(1926) (1933) (1940) (1943) (1945)
The Holocaust
(1940–1945)
Japan
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor
(1941)
Japan seizes Manchuria

(1931)
Atomic bomb
dropped on
Hiroshima
(1945)
Sino-Japanese War begins
(1937)

Chapter Notes
1. Cited in Jonathon Fenby, Chiang Kai-shek: China’s 3. Cited in Ruhl Bartlett, The Record of American Diplomacy
Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost (New York, 2003), (New York, 1952), p. 665.
p. 180. 4. Cited in B. Schwarz, “A Job for Rewrite: Stalin’s War,”
2. John Van Antwerp MacMurray, quoted in Arthur New York Times, February 2, 2004.
Waldron, How the Peace Was Lost: The 1935 Memorandum:
“Developments Affecting American Policy in the Far East”
(Stanford, Calif., 1992), p. 5.

Part II
reflections
IN WORLD WAR II, the European nations for the second chauvinist in tone, leading to bitter disputes between
time in a generation engaged in a collective orgy of self- and within individual communities and countries. How
flagellation. And, as had occurred on the first occasion, then could a system of stable nation-states, each based
the blood-letting rapidly spread beyond the borders of on a single national community, ever emerge from such
the European continent to the rest of the world. By a bewildering amalgam of cultures and peoples? The
1945, it appeared that the nations at the heart of tradi- peace treaties signed after the Great War replaced one
tional Western civilization would no longer serve as the set of territorial boundaries with another, but hardly
main arbiters of world affairs. Instead, two new super- resolved the underlying problem—the unending com-
powers from outside the heartland of Europe— the petition for resources and living space within the con-
United States and the Soviet Union—took their place. fines of a crowded continent. World War II was the
With the decline of the Old World, a new era of global
tragic result.
relationships was about to begin.
THE TRANSFORMATION OF WARFARE Another fac-
The Two Faces Of Nationalism In the chapters tor that contributed to the violence of the early twentieth
above, we have singled out some of the factors that con- century was the Industrial Revolution. The new tech-
tributed to the astounding spectacle of self-destruction nology that resulted from the development of advanced
that engaged the European powers in two bloody interne- industrial economies transformed the nature of war
cine conflicts within a period of less than a quarter of a itself. New weapons of mass destruction created the
century. One key factor was the rise of nationalism. The potential for a new kind of warfare that reached beyond
spirit of nationalism had originally been praised by many the battlefield into the very heartland of the enemy’s
Europeans as a positive development in the struggle to territory, while the concept of nationalism transformed
create peaceful and unified nation-states throughout war from the sport of kings to a matter of national honor
the European continent. The concept of the nation- and commitment. This trend was amply demonstrated
state appeared to represent Enlightenment ideals in in the two world wars of the twentieth century. Each
the sense that it was a product of antagonisms that had been unleashed
would provide peoples by economic competition and growing national con-
everywhere with the sciousness. Each
opportunity of being resulted in a
governed by those who level of destruc-
shared their cultural, tion that severely
linguistic, or ethnic damaged the
identity. material founda-
Yet, as its pro- tions and eroded
ponents were soon to discover, nationalism was also the popular spirit
potentially divisive in its political ramifications. Most of the partici-
European countries consisted of a patchwork of vari- pants, the victors as well as the vanquished.
ous ethnic, linguistic, and religious communities, a In the end, then, industrial prowess and the driving
product of centuries of migrations, wars, and dynas- force of nationalism, the very factors that had created
tic alliances. Many of these diverse groups lived side the conditions for European global dominance, con-
by side in the same countries, and even in the same tained the seeds for its decline. These seeds germi-
villages, while stubbornly preserving their distinct nated during the 1930s, when the Great Depression
character. It is hardly surprising, then, that as ethnic, sharpened international competition and mutual antag-
cultural and linguistic awareness increased during the onisms, and then sprouted in the ensuing conflict,
last half of the century, nationalism became a divisive which embraced the entire globe. By the time World
force throughout the European continent, loud and War II came to an end, the once-powerful countries of
160 ■ PART II Reflections

Europe were exhausted, leaving the door ajar not only engage in a policy of massive borrowing and social regi-
for the emergence of the United States and the Soviet mentation to achieve their objectives—helped to bring
Union to global dominance but also for the collapse of a final close to the Great Depression, but at enormous
the European colonial empires. cost. As the war came to a close in 1945, the world
CAPITALISM IN TRANSITION A second major event faced the future with a high degree of trepidation.
that played a significant role in sharpening the con- IMPERIALISM AND ITS DISCONTENTS If the domi-
flicts among the various capitalist societies in Europe nant motif of the early decades of the twentieth century
was the economic crisis that came to be known as the in Europe had been the intense rivalry among the lead-
Great Depression. Sudden economic downturns were ing states over primacy in global affairs, the primary
by no means a rare occurrence in capitalist societies, challenge in the rest of the world was undoubtedly that
but the collapse in the early 1930s was by far the most of dealing with the ramifications of that struggle. By
serious, and its repercussions not only threatened the 1900, a handful of European powers, eventually joined
survival of the capitalist system itself, but also to derail by Japan and the United States, had achieved political
the progress that had been made in building demo- mastery over virtually the entire remainder of the world.
cratic societies throughout the continent of Europe. It soon became clear to perceptive observers in colo-
Political leaders throughout the Western world nial territories that Western intervention posed an exis-
adopted different strategies to deal with the situa- tential threat to the survival of traditional civilizations
tion. Many relied on a tra- all over the world. Many realized that the old world
ditional approach, raising was being destroyed, and could not be resurrected. The
tariff barriers and adopt- first generation of nationalist leaders who emerged in
ing a tight money policy the first decades of the twentieth century thus had to
in a bid to put the local accept the inevitability of coming to terms with the new
economy back on a firm world that had been so forcibly imposed upon them.
footing. Germany and While vociferously criticizing the exploitative policies
the Soviet Union turned practiced by the colonial regimes, they nevertheless
to command economies, began to draw up programs of action that were broadly
relying on the regimenta- based on key tenets of modern Western society: the for-
tion of their populations mation of new nations, with defined borders and based
and strict control over the on the will of the local population; the creation of
allocation of resources modern economies closely linked with the global trade
in order to realize goals network; the adoption of new social mores that prized
established by the state. individual rights over old social hierarchies; embrace
In the United States, President Roosevelt introduced of the new over reverence for the past; and material
the New Deal, an ambitious strategy that relied on prosperity over the quest for heavenly salvation. As the
deficit spending—mainly on social programs—to old saying has it, they were compelled to accept a new
inject money into the economy and thereby to revive attitude: “if you can’t lick ’em, join ’em.”
commercial demand. The crisis in European civilization that broke out in
By the end of the decade, there were signs that a the 1930s, however, raised questions about the validity
gradual recovery from the Great Depression was under- of the Western capitalist model in colonial areas. Some
way. By then, however, the damage had been done, as turned to social revolution, with a weather eye out on
a political crisis brought on by the rise of revanchist the progress of the Soviet experiment; others sought
regimes like Germany and Japan led to the outbreak of ways to synthesize useful elements of traditional civili-
a second global conflict in less than a quarter of a cen- zation with the new Western model. At first, of course,
tury. World War II—which forced competing nations to the issue was moot, since the imperialist powers
Part II Reflections ■ 161

showed no inclination to grant freedom to their subject Europe and the United States realized in retrospect that
peoples. But the outbreak of World War II added a new the failure of Western democracies to undertake defen-
sense of urgency to the situation, since the looming sive measures to counter the threat of Nazi Germany
threat to Western colonial empires by the Axis powers had been a drastic mistake, and they applied that les-
raised in the minds of many colonial peoples the entic- son, for the most part successfully, during the Cold War.
ing prospect of a restoration of independence at the And when the victorious Allies gathered at Potsdam
close of the conflict. in the summer of 1945, they opted to welcome their
LESSONS FROM AN AGE OF CRISIS Can we draw former adversaries Germany and Japan back into the
any lessons from the dramatic events discussed above family of nations, a decision that turned out reasonably
that might help us to evaluate conditions in the world well for all concerned, as we shall see below. There are,
today? When looking back on the historical era covered then, lessons to be learned from history, but they must
in Part II of this book, one salient feature stands out: be drawn with due respect for changing conditions and
when making crucial decisions on issues of war and cultural differences. As we shall see, for example, the
peace, statesmen tended to turn to the recent past for decision by U.S. policymakers to apply the “lessons of
solutions to their dilemmas. Sometimes that decision Munich” in Southeast Asia during the Cold War had
worked out well, but sometimes it did not. The over- serious limitations (see Chapter 7).
confidence bred of a century of peace, for example, Do the momentous developments that led to the rise
lulled policymakers in 1914 to underestimate the risks of Nazi Germany and other dictatorial regimes in the
of a destructive war. Four years later, the decision to 1920s and 1930s have relevance today? Although con-
levy a harsh peace on Germany in 1918 created the ditions in the contemporary world are quite different
conditions for a bitter Germany to seek revenge two from what they were during the Great Depression, there
decades later. are some similarities that can serve us as warning signs
This does not mean that seeking to learn lessons of potential troubles to come. We shall have more to say
from the past is a fruitless exercise. Postwar leaders in about this issue in later sections of this book.
162 ■ Part II Reflections

Pa r t I I I
Across the Ideological Divide

7 East and West in the Grip of the 9 Brave New World: The Rise and Fall
Cold War of Communism in the Soviet Union and
Eastern Europe
8 The United States, Canada, and Latin
America 10 Postwar Europe: On the Path to Unity?
AP Images
Nixon lectures Soviet Communist Party chief Nikita Khrushchev on the technology of the U.S. kitchen
Chapter
East and West in the Grip
7 of the Cold War
Chapter Outline and

Focus Questions
The Yalta Conference, February 1945 (photo)/English Photographer, (20th century)/

7-1 The Collapse of the Grand Alliance
QQWhy were the United States and the Soviet
PETER NEWARK’S PICTURES/Private Collection/Bridgeman Images

Union suspicious of each other after World
War II, and what events that took place
between 1945 and 1949 heightened the
tensions between the two nations?
7-2 Cold War in Asia
QQHow and why did Mao Zedong and the
Communists come to power in China, and
what were the Cold War implications of
their triumph?
7-3 From Confrontation to Coexistence
QQWhat events led to the era of coexistence
in the 1960s, and to what degree did each side IMAGE 7.1 The victorious Allied leaders at Yalta
contribute to the reduction in international
tensions?
7-4 An Era of Equivalence OUR MEETING HERE IN THE CRIMEA has reaffirmed
QQWhy did the Cold War briefly flare up again in the our common determination to maintain and
1980s, and why did it come to a definitive end at the strengthen in the peace to come that unity of
end of the decade? purpose and of action which has made victory
possible and certain for the United Nations in
this war. We believe that this is a sacred obliga-
tion which our Governments owe to our peoples
and to all the peoples of the world.1
With these ringing words, drafted at the Yalta
Conference in February 1945, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt, Marshal Joseph Stalin, and Prime Minister
Winston Churchill affirmed their common hope that
their Grand Alliance, which had brought them victory
in World War II, could be sustained in the postwar
era. Only through the continuing and growing coop-
Connections to Today eration and understanding among the three victorious
allies, the statement asserted, could a secure and
What relevance does the Cold War have on
lasting peace be realized that, in the words of the
our world today, and do you feel that a new period Atlantic Charter, would “afford assurance that all the
of intense ideological competition is likely to men in all the lands may live out their lives in free-
occur in our own time? dom from fear and want.”
164
For himself, Roosevelt hoped that the decisions in exile—headquartered in London during the war and
reached at Yalta would provide the basis for a stable consisting primarily of representatives of the landed aris-
peace in the postwar era and fulfill the promises tocracy who harbored a deep distrust of the Soviets—and
made in his “Four Freedoms” speech in 1941. Allied instead installed a government composed of Communists
occupation forces—American, British, and French who had spent the war in Moscow. Roosevelt complained
in the west and Soviet in the east—were to bring
to Stalin but, preoccupied with other problems, eventu-
about the end of Axis administration and organize
ally agreed to a compromise whereby two members of
free elections that would lead to democratic govern-
ments throughout Europe. To foster an attitude of the exile government in London were included in the new
mutual trust and end the suspicions that had marked Communist-dominated regime. A week later, Roosevelt
relations between the capitalist world and the Soviet was dead of a cerebral hemorrhage, leaving the challenge
Union prior to World War II, Roosevelt tried to reas- to a new U.S. president, Harry Truman (1884–1972), who
sure Stalin that Moscow’s legitimate territorial aspira- lacked experience in foreign affairs.
tions and genuine security needs would be adequately
met in a durable peace settlement. 7-1a The Iron Curtain Descends
It was not to be. Within months after the German
surrender, the mutual trust among the victorious Similar developments took place elsewhere in Eastern
allies—if it had ever existed—rapidly disintegrated, Europe as all of the states occupied by Soviet troops
and the dream of a stable peace was replaced by the became part of Moscow’s sphere of influence. Coalitions
specter of a nuclear holocaust. In time, the long era of all political parties (except fascist or right-wing parties)
of intense competition between the United States were formed to run the government, but within a year or
and the Soviet Union would come to be known as two, the Communist Party in each coalition had assumed
the Cold War. As the ideological conflict between the lion’s share of power. Key posts in each government,
Moscow and Washington intensified, the continent of such as Minister of Interior or National Defense, were
Europe was divided into two armed camps, and the staffed by Communists. Members of parties who appeared
two superpowers, glaring at each other across a deep
hostile to communist rule were declared “fascist” and
ideological divide, held the survival of the entire world
in their hands. placed under arrest.
The next step was the creation of one-party Communist
governments. The timetables for these takeovers varied
from country to country, but between 1945 and 1947,
Communist governments became firmly entrenched in
7-1The Collapse of the Grand East Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, and Hungary.
In Czechoslovakia, with its strong tradition of democratic
Alliance institutions, the Communists did not achieve their goals
until 1948. In the elections of 1946, the Communist Party
QQ Focus Question: Why were the United States
and the Soviet Union suspicious of each other
became the largest party but was forced to share control
of the government with non-Communist rivals. When it
after World War II, and what events that took appeared that the latter might win new elections early in
place between 1945 and 1949 heightened the 1948, the Communists seized control of the government
tensions between the two nations? on February 25. All other parties were dissolved, and the
Communist leader Klement Gottwald (1896–1953) became
The problems started in Europe. At the end of the war, the new president of Czechoslovakia.
Soviet military forces occupied all of Eastern Europe and Yugoslavia was a notable exception to the pattern
the Balkans (except for Greece, Albania, and Yugoslavia), of growing Soviet dominance in Eastern Europe. The
while U.S. and other Allied forces completed their occu- Communist Party there had led the resistance to the Nazis
pation of the western part of the European continent. during the war and easily took over power when the war
Roosevelt had hoped that free elections administered by ended. Josip Broz, known as Tito (1892–1980), the leader
“democratic and peace-loving forces” would lead to the of the Communist resistance movement, appeared to
creation of democratic governments responsive to the be a loyal Stalinist. After the war, however, he moved to
aspirations of the local population. But it soon became establish an independent Communist state in Yugoslavia.
clear that Moscow and Washington interpreted that phrase Stalin had hoped to take control of Yugoslavia, just as he
in the Yalta agreement differently. When Soviet occupa- had done in other Eastern European countries. But Tito
tion authorities began forming a new Polish government refused to capitulate to Stalin’s demands and gained the
in Warsaw, Stalin refused to accept the Polish government support of the people (and some sympathy in the West)
7-1 The Collapse of the Grand Alliance ■ 165
by portraying the struggle as one of ea 0 300 Kilometers prime minister declared that an
Baltic S
Yugoslav national freedom. In 1948, Stalin “Iron Curtain” had “descended
0 150 Miles
had Yugoslavia formally expelled from GER. S OV IE T
across the Continent,” dividing
POLAND
the Soviet bloc, and from that point, the DEM.
REP. U N IO N Germany and Europe itself into
country embarked on a neutralist policy CZ two hostile camps. The speech
E CH
in the Cold War (see Map 7.1). In 1958, WEST
GER.
OSLOVAKIA achieved wide publicity in the
the Yugoslav party congress asserted that AUSTRIA HUNGARY United States and hardened
Yugoslav Communists did not see them- ROMANIA public opinion against recent
Dan
selves as deviating from communism, YU
GO
ube Soviet moves around the world.
only from Stalinism. They considered IT
SL
AV
R. Stalin responded by branding
A IA
their more decentralized economic and LY BULGARIA Churchill’s speech a “call to
Corsica
political system, in which workers could ALBANIA war with the Soviet Union.”
manage themselves and local communes Sardinia GREECE But he need not have worried.
could exercise some political power, closer Although the changing public
to the Marxist-Leninist ideal. Neutral nations attitude among the American
To Stalin (who had once boasted, people placed increasing pres-
“I will shake my little finger, and there MAP 7.1 Eastern Europe in 1948 sure on Washington to devise an
will be no more Tito”), the creation of pliant pro-Soviet effective strategy to counter Soviet advances abroad, the
regimes throughout Eastern Europe to serve as a buffer American people were in no mood for another war.
zone against the capitalist West may simply have repre- The first threat of a U.S.-Soviet confrontation took place
sented his interpretation of the Yalta peace agreement and in the Middle East. During World War II, British and Soviet
a reward for sacrifices suffered during the war. In any case, troops had been stationed in Iran to prevent Axis occupa-
he viewed the idea of “free elections” as a bourgeois affec- tion of the rich oil fields in that country. Both nations had
tation and shared Lenin’s conviction that power-sharing promised to withdraw their forces after the war, but at the
arrangements between Communist and capitalist parties end of 1945, there were ominous signs that Moscow might
were a temporary phenomenon that could only lead to attempt to use its troops as a bargaining chip to annex
full Communist rule. Recent evidence suggests that Stalin Iran’s northern territories—known as Azerbaijan—to the
did not decide to tighten Communist control over the new Soviet Union. When the government of Iran, with strong
Eastern European governments until U.S. actions—notably U.S. support, threatened to take the issue to the United
the promulgation of the Marshall Plan (see “The Marshall Nations, the Soviets backed down and removed their
Plan,” p. 167)—threatened to undermine Soviet author- forces from that country in the spring of 1946.
ity in the region. If the Soviet leader had any intention A civil war in Greece created another potential arena
of promoting future Communist revolutions in Western for confrontation between the superpowers and an oppor-
Europe—and there is ample indication that he did—such tunity for the Truman administration to take a stand.
developments would have to await the appearance of a Communist-led guerrilla forces supported by Tito, who
new capitalist crisis a decade or more into the future. As hoped to create a Balkan federation under Yugoslav domi-
Stalin undoubtedly recalled, Lenin had always maintained nation, had taken up arms against the pro-Western govern-
that revolutions come in waves, and he was content to wait ment in Athens. Great Britain had initially assumed primary
for the next one to come along. responsibility for promoting postwar reconstruction in the
eastern Mediterranean, but in 1947, postwar economic
problems caused the British to withdraw from the active role
7-1b The Truman Doctrine and the Beginnings they had been playing in both Greece and Turkey. President
of Containment Truman, alarmed by British weakness and the possibility of
In the United States, the Soviet takeover of Eastern Soviet expansion into the eastern Mediterranean, responded
Europe represented an ominous development that threat- with the Truman Doctrine, which said in essence that the
ened Roosevelt’s vision of a durable peace. Public suspi- United States would provide financial aid to countries that
cion of Soviet intentions grew rapidly, especially among claimed they were threatened by Communist expansion
the millions of Americans who still had relatives liv- (see Historical Voices, “The Truman Doctrine,” p. 167). If
ing in Eastern Europe. Winston Churchill was quick to the Soviets were not stopped in Greece, Truman declared,
put such fears into words. In a highly publicized speech then the United States would have to face the spread of
given to an American audience at Westminster College communism throughout the free world. As Dean Acheson,
in Fulton, Missouri, in March 1946, the former British the American secretary of state, explained, “Like apples in
166 ■ CHAPTER 7 East and West in the Grip of the Cold War
HISTORICAL VOICES
The Truman Doctrine

At the present moment in world history nearly every
Q How did President Truman defend his request nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The
for aid to Greece and Turkey? What role did this choice is too often not a free one.
decision play in intensifying the Cold War? One way of life is based upon the will of the majority,
and is distinguished by free institutions, representative
By 1947 , the battle lines in the Cold War had government, free elections, guarantees of individual lib-
Politics &
Government been clearly drawn. This excerpt is taken erty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from
from a speech by President Harry Truman to the U.S. political oppression.
Congress in which he justified his request for aid to Greece The second way of life is based upon the will of a
and Turkey. Truman expressed the urgent need to contain minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies
the expansion of communism. Compare this statement with upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio,
that of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev presented on p. 230. fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms.
I believe that it must be the policy of the United States
Truman’s Speech to Congress, March 12, 1947 to support free peoples who are resisting attempted sub-
The peoples of a number of countries of the world jugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.
have recently had totalitarian regimes forced upon them I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out
against their will. The Government of the United States their own destinies in their own way.
has made frequent protests against coercion and intimi- I believe that our help should be primarily through
dation, in violation of the Yalta agreement, in Poland, economic and financial aid which is essential to economic
Rumania, and Bulgaria. I must also state that in a number stability and orderly political processes. . . . I therefore ask
of other countries there have been similar developments. the Congress for assistance to Greece and Turkey in the
amount of $400,000,000.
Source: U.S. Congress, Congressional Record, 80th Congress, 1st Session (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1947), Vol. 93, p. 1981.
a barrel infected by disease, the corruption of Greece would Churchill that Greece would remain under Western influ-
infect Iran and all the East . . . likewise Africa . . . Italy . . . ence after the close of the war, and he was apparently
France. . . . Not since Rome and Carthage has there been unhappy that Tito was promoting the conflict, not only
such a polarization of power on this earth.”2 It was the first because he suspected that the latter was attempting to cre-
expression of what would later be described as the “domino ate his own sphere of influence in the Balkans, but also
theory” as a factor in U.S. foreign policy. because it risked provoking a direct confrontation between
The somewhat apocalyptic tone of Acheson’s state- the Soviet Union and the United States in an area that was
ment was intentional. Not only were the American people clearly within the American sphere of influence. “The
in no mood for foreign adventures, but members of the rebellion in Greece,” Stalin declared, “must be crushed.”3
U.S. Congress—in Republican hands for the first time in
over a decade—were in an isolationist frame of mind. Only The Marshall Plan The White House, however, was
the prospect of a dire threat from abroad, the president’s unaware of Stalin’s cautious stance in Moscow, and saw
advisers concluded, could persuade the nation to take the Soviet dictator’s hand behind the unrest in Greece. The
action. The tactic worked, and Congress voted to provide proclamation of the Truman Doctrine was soon followed
the aid Truman requested. in June 1947 by the European Recovery Program, better
As it turned out, however, the U.S. suspicion that known as the Marshall Plan. Intended to rebuild prosper-
Moscow was actively supporting the insurgent movement ity and stability throughout the European continent, this
in Greece was inaccurate. In a private discussion held program included $13 billion for the economic recovery of
in 1944, Stalin had conceded to British leader Winston war-torn Europe. Underlying the program was the belief

that an economic revival would insu- and was soon in charge of the politi-
late the peoples of Europe from the cal reconstruction of the Soviet zone
appeal of international communism, FRENCH in eastern Germany.
as well as stimulate economic growth ZO
ZONE
ZO
in the United States, which would The Berlin Blockade Although the
SOVIET
benefit from European purchases of BRITISH
ZONE
ZONE foreign ministers of the four occu-
U.S. goods. pying powers (the United States,
From the Soviet perspective, the U.S. ZONE the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and
Marshall Plan was nothing less than France) kept meeting in an attempt
capitalist imperialism, a thinly veiled to arrive at a final peace treaty with
attempt to buy the support of the EAST GERMANY Germany, they grew further and fur-
smaller European countries, which in ther apart. In response, the British,
return would be expected to submit to MAP 7.2 Berlin Divided French, and Americans gradually
economic exploitation by the United began to merge their zones economi-
States. The White House indicated that the Marshall Plan cally and by February 1948 were making plans for the forma-
was open to the Soviet Union and its Eastern European sat- tion of a national German government. The Soviet Union
ellite states, but the latter refused to participate. The Soviets, responded with a blockade of West Berlin that prevented all
however, were in no position to compete financially with traffic from entering the city’s three western zones through
the United States and could do little to counter the Marshall Soviet-controlled territory in East Germany (see Map 7.2).
Plan except to tighten their control in Eastern Europe. The Soviets hoped to prevent the creation of a separate
West German state, which threatened Stalin’s plan to create
a reunified Germany that could eventually be placed under
7-1c Europe Divided Soviet control (see Map 7.3).
By 1947, the split in Europe between East and West had The Western powers faced a dilemma. Direct military
become a fact of life. At the end of World War II, the confrontation with Moscow seemed dangerous, and no
Truman administration had favored a quick end to its one wished to risk World War III. Therefore, an attempt
commitments in Europe, but fears of Soviet aims caused to break through the blockade with tanks and trucks was
the United States to play an increasingly important role ruled out. The solution was the Berlin Airlift: supplies for
in European affairs. In an article in Foreign Affairs in July the city’s inhabitants were brought in by plane. At its peak,
1947, George Kennan, a well-known U.S. diplomat with the airlift flew 13,000 tons of supplies daily into Berlin. The
much knowledge of Soviet affairs, advocated a policy of Soviets, who also wanted to avoid war, did not interfere and
containment against further aggressive Soviet moves. finally lifted the blockade in May 1949 (see Image 7.2). But
Kennan favored what he termed the “adroit and vigilant the blockade had severely increased tensions between the
application of counter-force at a series of constantly shift- United States and the Soviet Union and confirmed the sep-
ing geographical and political points, corresponding to the aration of Germany into two states. The Federal Republic
shifts and maneuvers of Soviet policy.” In his view, such a of Germany (FRG) was formally created from the three
strategy would insulate free nations in other parts of the Western zones in September 1949, and a month later, the
world from falling into the hands of the Soviet Union with- separate German Democratic Republic (GDR) was estab-
out running the risk of a direct conflict with Moscow. After lished in East Germany. Berlin remained a divided city and
the Soviet blockade of Berlin in 1948 (see below), contain- the source of much contention between East and West.
ment of the Soviet Union became formal U.S. policy.
In the negotiations that took place at the end of the war, Nato and the Warsaw Pact The search for security in
the fate of Germany had become a source of heated conten- the new world of the Cold War also led to the forma-
tion between East and West. Aside from denazification and tion of military alliances. The North Atlantic Treaty
the partitioning of Germany (and Berlin) into four occupied Organization (NATO) was formed in April 1949 when
zones, the Allied Powers had agreed on little with regard to Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, France, Britain,
the conquered nation. The Soviet Union, hardest hit by the Italy, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, and Iceland signed a
war, took reparations from Germany in the form of booty. treaty with the United States and Canada (see Map 7.3). All
By the summer of 1946, nearly six hundred factories in the the powers agreed to provide mutual assistance if any one
East German zone had been shipped to the Soviet Union. of them was attacked. A few years later, West Germany,
At the same time, the German Communist Party was rees- Greece, and Turkey joined the alliance. Meanwhile, the
tablished under the control of Walter Ulbricht (1893–1973) U.S. engaged in an arms buildup aimed at preventing the
Keystone/Getty Images
IMAGE 7.2 A City Divided. In 1948, U.S. planes airlifted supplies into Berlin to break the blockade that Soviet
troops had imposed to isolate the city. Shown here is a section of the city later to be known as “Checkpoint
Charlie” (one of the crossing points between the Western and Soviet zones of Berlin) just as Soviet roadblocks
are about to be removed. The banner at the entrance to the Soviet sector reads, ironically, “The sector of
freedom greets the fighters for freedom and right of the Western sectors.”
Q Why did the divided city of Berlin eventually become one of the major flash points of the Cold War?
further expansion of communism anywhere in the world. aroused justifiable fears of Communist expansionist objec-
Truman administration officials were determined to avoid tives in the West. During the next decade, however,
a repeat of the disaster at Munich in 1938. revisionist historians—influenced in part by their opposition
The Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites soon to U.S. policies in Southeast Asia—began to argue that the
followed suit. In 1949, they formed the Council for Mutual fault lay primarily in Washington, where Truman and his
Economic Assistance (COMECON) for economic coopera- anti-Communist advisers abandoned the precepts of Yalta
tion. Then, in 1955, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East and sought to encircle the Soviet Union with a tier of pliant
Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union U.S. client states. More recently, many historians have
organized a formal military alliance, the Warsaw Pact. Once adopted a more nuanced view, noting that both the United
again, Europe was tragically divided into hostile alliance States and the Soviet Union took some unwise steps that
systems. contributed to rising tensions at the end of World War II.
The root of the problem was that both nations were
Historians Who Started the Cold War? There has working within a framework conditioned by the past. The
Debate
been considerable historical debate over rivalry between the two superpowers ultimately stemmed
who bears responsibility for starting the Cold War. In the from their different historical perspectives and their irrec-
1950s, most scholars in the West assumed that the bulk of oncilable political ambitions. As we have seen, intense
the blame must fall on the shoulders of Stalin, whose deter- competition for political and military supremacy had
mination to impose Soviet rule on Eastern Europe snuffed long been a regular feature of Western civilization. The
out hopes for freedom and self-determination there and success of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 produced an
Arctic Ocean
SWEDEN FINLAND
NORWAY
a
0 300 600 Miles
North
Se
ltic
Sea DENMARK
Ba
S OV IET U N IO N
(1956)
IRELAND NETH. FED.
GREAT GER. POLAND
R REP. OF R.
BRITAIN BELG. DEM.
hin
GER. REP.
Volga
R. (1953) C
e
ZE
CH O
SLOVAKIA (1968)
AUSTRIA HUNGARY
Atlantic FRANCE SWITZ. (1956)
ROMANIA
D an
Ocean ITALY
Y
UG
OS
ube
Ca
LA R.
Ebr VIA B lack S ea
sp
o BULGARIA
Corsica
ia
R.
n
PORTUGAL ALBANIA
Sardinia
Sea
ds
n GREECE TURKEY
SPAIN I sla
ric
Balea
M ed iterra Sicily
Tig
ne
ris
an Euph
ra
Crete te
Sea Cyprus s R.
R.
United States/NATO Soviet Union/Warsaw Pact
Missile bases: NATO Missile bases: Warsaw Pact NATO member
Troops: U.S. Troops: Soviet Non-NATO ally
Nuclear bombers: U.S. Nuclear bombers: Soviet Warsaw Pact member
Naval port: U.S. Naval port: Soviet

Unrest/revolt in
Fleet: U.S. Fleet: Soviet Eastern Europe (date)
Nuclear missile submarines: U.S. Nuclear missile submarines: Soviet
MAP 7.3 The New European Alliance Systems During the Cold War. This map shows postwar Europe as it was
divided during the Cold War into two contending power blocs, the NATO alliance and the Warsaw Pact. Major
military and naval bases are indicated by symbols on the map.
Q Where on the map was the so-called Iron Curtain?
alternative to the prevailing economic system in Europe, need to secure its western border, the Soviet Union was
while the Great Depression raised serious questions about not prepared to give up the advantages it had gained in
the viability of capitalism in satisfying human needs. The Eastern Europe from Germany’s defeat. But neither were
United States and the Soviet Union were not only the heirs Western leaders prepared to accept without protest the
of that European tradition of power politics; they also rep- establishment of a system of Soviet satellites that not only
resented two contrasting models for the new world that threatened the security of Western Europe but also deeply
had inevitably emerged after the war. It should come as no offended Western sensibilities because of its blatant disre-
surprise, then, that two such competitive systems would gard of their concept of human rights, as inherited from
not simply struggle to protect their own spheres of influ- the European Enlightenment.
ence, but also seek to extend their hegemony and their way Does this mean that both sides bear equal responsi-
of life to the rest of the world. Because of its paramount bility for starting the Cold War? A number of revisionist
historians have claimed that the U.S. doctrine of contain- that Moscow would be granted “preeminent interests” in
ment was an unnecessarily provocative action that aroused Manchuria (interests reminiscent of those possessed by
Stalin’s suspicions and drove him into a position of hostility Imperial Russia prior to its defeat by Japan in 1904–1905)
toward the West. This charge lacks credibility. Although it and the establishment of a Soviet naval base at Port Arthur.
is understandable that the Soviets were concerned that the In return, Stalin promised to sign a treaty of alliance with
United States might use its monopoly of nuclear weapons the Republic of China, thus implicitly committing the
to attempt to intimidate them (Stalin himself was quoted Soviet Union not to provide the Chinese Communists
as saying that the atomic bomb was “a good weapon for with support in a possible future civil war. Although many
threatening people with weak nerves”), information now observers would later question Stalin’s sincerity in mak-
available from the Soviet archives and other sources makes ing such a commitment to the vocally anti-Communist
it increasingly clear, not only that Stalin was determined Chiang Kai-shek, in Moscow the decision probably had
from the outset to create a system of pliant states along his a logic of its own. Stalin had no particular liking for the
western border after the war, but also that his suspicions independent-minded Mao Zedong (he once derisively
of the West were deeply rooted in his Marxist-Leninist labeled the Chinese leader a “radish Communist”—red on
worldview and long predated Washington’s enunciation the outside and white on the inside—and did not anticipate
of the doctrine of containment. As his foreign minister, a Communist victory in the eventuality of a civil war in
Vyacheslav Molotov, once remarked, Soviet policy was China. Only an agreement with Chiang Kai-shek—in his
inherently aggressive and would be triggered whenever mind—could provide the Soviet Union with a strategically
the opportunity offered. Although Stalin apparently had vital economic and political presence in North China.
no master plan to advance Soviet power into Western In the course of events, these agreements soon became
Europe, he was probably prepared to make every effort a dead letter, and the region was sucked into the vortex
to do so once the next revolutionary wave arrived. Under of the Cold War by the end of the decade. The root of
such conditions, it is hardly surprising that Western leaders the problem lay not in the agreement at Yalta (as some
felt fully justified in reacting to this possibility by strength- later charged), but in the underlying weakness of Chiang
ening their own lines of defense. Kai-shek’s regime, a weakness which threatened to cre-
Still, a case can be made that in deciding to respond ate a political vacuum in East Asia that both Moscow and
to the Soviet challenge in a primarily military manner, Washington would be tempted to fill.
Western leaders overreacted to the situation and virtu-
ally guaranteed that the Cold War would be transformed 7-2a The Chinese Civil War
into an arms race that could conceivably result in a new As World War II came to an end in the Pacific, relations
and uniquely destructive war. George Kennan, the origi- between the government of Chiang Kai-shek in China
nal architect of the doctrine of containment, had initially and its powerful U.S. ally had become frayed. Although
proposed a primarily political approach and eventually dis- Roosevelt had hoped that China would be the keystone of
avowed the means by which the containment strategy was his plan for peace and stability in Asia after the war, he
carried out. Other U.S. officials, concerned at the possibil- eventually became disillusioned with the corruption of
ity of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe now virtually Chiang’s government and the Chinese leader’s unwilling-
bereft of U.S. combat troops, believed that a strong mili- ness to risk his forces against the Japanese (Chiang hoped
tary buildup was absolutely necessary. to save them for use against the Communists after the war
in the Pacific ended), and China became a backwater as
the war came to a close. Nevertheless, U.S. military and
7-2 Cold War in Asia economic aid to China had been substantial, and at the
war’s end, the Truman administration still hoped that it
QQ Focus Question: How and why did Mao
Zedong and the Communists come to power
could rely on Chiang to maintain stability and support U.S.
postwar goals in the region.
in China, and what were the Cold War While Chiang Kai-shek wrestled with Japanese aggres-
implications of their triumph? sion and problems of postwar reconstruction, the
Communists were building up their liberated base in north
The Cold War was somewhat slower to make its appear- China. A wary alliance with Chiang in December 1936 had
ance in Asia. At Yalta, Stalin formally agreed to enter the relieved them from the threat of immediate attack from the
Pacific war against Japan three months after the close of south, although Chiang was chronically suspicious of the
the conflict with Germany. As a reward for Soviet partici- Communists and stationed troops near Xian to prevent them
pation in the struggle against Japan, Roosevelt promised from infiltrating areas under his control. For their part, Mao
7-2 Cold War in Asia ■ 171
hoped to use the volatile conditions in China at the close of President Truman sent General George C. Marshall to
the war as a springboard to victory. China in a last-ditch effort to bring about a peaceful settle-
Chiang had good reason to fear for the future. During ment. Talks between the protagonists were held, but anti-
the war, the Communists patiently penetrated Japanese Communist elements in Nanjing resisted U.S. pressure to
lines and built up their strength in north China. Smaller join a coalition government with the Chinese Communist
numbers of Communist units had remained south of the Party, while Communist leaders refused Chiang’s demand
Yangzi River and represented a further irritant. To enlarge to integrate PLA units into Chiang’s army under the lat-
their political base, the CCP had carried out what it termed ter’s leadership. Faced with the failure to forge a peace deal
a “mass line” policy designed to win broad popular sup- between the contending forces, Marshall left China empty-
port by reducing land rents and confiscating the lands of handed. The United States continued to provide limited
wealthy landlords. Promise the people what they want, military support to Chiang’s regime but refused to commit
Mao reasoned, and they will support you. By the end of U.S. power to guarantee its survival. The administration’s
World War II, according to Communist estimates 20 to 30 hands-off policy deeply angered many Republican mem-
million Chinese were living under their administration, bers of Congress, who charged that the White House was
and their People’s Liberation Army (PLA) included nearly “soft on communism” and called for increased military
one million troops. assistance to the Nationalist government.
As the war came to an end, world attention began to With morale dropping in Chinese cities, Chiang’s
focus on the prospects for renewed civil strife in China. troops began to defect to the Communists. Sometimes
Members of a U.S. liaison team stationed in Yan’an dur- whole divisions, officers as well as ordinary soldiers,
ing the last months of the war were impressed by the changed sides (one Western observer joked that he knew
performance of the Communists, and in their reports to that Chiang was lost when he observed one of his generals
Washington some recommended that the United States loading his gold and his concubines on an evacuation flight
should support the CCP or at least remain neutral in a from a Manchurian airport). By 1948, the PLA was advanc-
possible conflict between Communists and Nationalists ing south out of Manchuria and had encircled Beijing.
for control of China. The Truman administration, though Communist troops took the old imperial capital, crossed
skeptical of Chiang’s ability to forge a strong and prosper- the Yangzi the following spring, and occupied the com-
ous country, was increasingly concerned about the spread mercial hub of Shanghai (see Map 7.4). During the next
of communism in Europe and tried to find a peaceful solu- few months, Chiang’s government and 2 million of his fol-
tion through the formation of a coalition government of lowers fled to Taiwan, which the Japanese had returned to
all parties in China. Chinese control after World War II. In January 1949, CCP
Chairman Mao Zedong announced the establishment of
The Communist Triumph The prospects for success were the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from the entrance
not good. By 1946, full-scale war between the Communists gate to the Imperial City in Beijing.
and the Nationalist government, now reinstalled in With the Communist victory in China, Asia became a
Nanjing, had resumed. Initially, most of the fighting took major theater of the Cold War and an integral element
place in Manchuria, where newly arrived Communist units in American politics. In a White Paper (an official govern-
began to surround Nationalist forces occupying the major ment statement) issued by the State Department in the
cities. Now Chiang Kai-shek’s errors came home to roost. fall of 1949, the Truman administration placed most of
In the countryside, millions of peasants, attracted to the the blame for the debacle on Chiang Kai-shek’s regime.
Communists by promises of land and social justice, flocked “The unfortunate but inescapable fact,” the authors of the
to serve in the PLA. In the cities, middle-class Chinese, nor- White Paper argued, “is that the ominous result of the civil
mally hostile to communism, were alienated by Chiang’s war in China was beyond the control of the government
brutal suppression of all dissent and his government’s of the United States.” The Communist victory, it added,
inability to slow the ruinous rate of inflation or solve the was “the product of internal Chinese forces, forces which
economic problems that it caused. By the end of 1947, this country tried to influence but could not. A decision
almost all of Manchuria was under Communist control. was arrived at within China, if only a decision by default.”4
The Truman administration reacted to the spread Republicans in Congress quickly sought to seize
of Communist power in China with acute discomfort. political advantage, arguing that Roosevelt had initially
Washington had no desire to see a Communist govern- betrayed Chiang Kai-shek at Yalta by granting privileges in
ment on the mainland, but it had little confidence in Manchuria to the Soviet Union. Later, the Truman admin-
Chiang Kai-shek’s ability to realize Roosevelt’s dream of a istration failed to take firm action when Soviet occupa-
strong, united, and prosperous China. In December 1945, tion troops in Manchuria had hindered the dispatch of
Could the Truman administration
have done anything to reverse the
0 500 1,000 Miles result? Although it is always difficult
MANCHURIA to resolve counterfactual questions,
MONGOLIA
(1947) the White House was facing an excru-
(1945) Sea of
Beijing ciating dilemma. Although the military
Japan
R.
forces available to the Nationalist gov-
ow
l (East Sea)
Yel ernment substantially surpassed those
KOREA
Yan’an
JAPAN available to the Communists, the gov-
(1948) ernment had been seriously weakened
Pa c i fic by a decade of total war with Japan. For
Nanjing
R. O c e a n a variety of reasons—some of his own
tz
e
ng Shanghai
Ya making—Chiang himself had failed
CHINA (1949) to mobilize sufficient popular support
for a government which, in the minds
of many Chinese, had used the war to
TAIWAN enrich itself at the expense of its con-
stituents. Meanwhile, the Communists
had taken full advantage of the situa-
South tion to win the allegiance of millions
China Route of PLA advance
Sea of Chinese through their own program
of land reform and national renewal.
In these uncertain conditions, a major
MAP 7.4 The Chinese Civil War. After the close of the Pacific war in 1945, the commitment of U.S. military support—
Nationalist government and the Chinese Communists fought a bitter civil war that
ended with a Communist victory in 1949. The path of the Communist advance is
including the likelihood of American
shown on the map. combat troops—would have been a
difficult sell to a war-weary populace
Q Where did Chiang Kai-shek’s government retreat to after its defeat?
already nervous about Communist
advances in Europe.
Nationalist forces to the area and then provided the PLA Stung by the harsh criticism for its actions, the White
with weapons to use against their rivals. Broadening the House was belatedly forced to respond to its critics. During
focus of their criticism, some members of Congress began the spring of 1950, under pressure from Congress and
to charge that a few U.S. diplomats stationed in China were public opinion to define U.S. interests in Asia, the Truman
naïve about the threat posed by the CCP, or were even administration adopted a new national security policy that
guilty of having sympathy for the Communist cause. A few declared that the United States would take whatever steps
even questioned the loyalty of General Marshall himself. were necessary to stem the further expansion of commu-
nism in the region. Included in its assessment was the need
Who Lost China? Were such criticisms justified? Was to decide what to do about the island of Taiwan—now
the Truman administration negligent in limiting its assis- occupied by the government-in-exile of Chiang Kai-shek.
tance to Chiang Kai-shek’s government in its moment of Containment had come to East Asia.
extreme peril? One charge, that support from Moscow
was a significant factor in the outcome, has been largely
discredited in recent years, as sources in Moscow and 7-2b Red Star Rising: The New China
Beijing have confirmed that in actuality the Soviet Union In their new capital at Beijing, China’s Communist lead-
gave relatively little assistance to the CCP in its postwar ers undoubtedly hoped that their accession to power in
struggle against the Nanjing regime. In fact, Stalin—likely 1949 would bring about a respite in conflict sufficient to
concerned at the prospect of a military confrontation with permit their new government to concentrate on domestic
the United States—initially advised Mao against undertak- goals (see Chapter 12). But their desire for peace was tem-
ing the effort. Although Communist forces undoubtedly pered by their determination to erase a century of humili-
received some assistance from Soviet occupation troops in ation at the hands of imperialist powers and to restore
Manchuria, their victory, as the White Paper contended, the traditional outer frontiers of the Chinese empire. In
ultimately stemmed largely from conditions inside China. addition to recovering territories that had previously been

Friends and Enemies

toast during negotiations aimed at finding a solution to the
Q What were Mao Zedong’s objectives at the time he Chinese civil war. In Image 7.3b, Mao shakes hands with
exchanged greetings with his two fellow leaders? Joseph Stalin during the former’s visit to Moscow in early
1950. Mao and Stalin, however, did not get along, as Mao
reportedly complained to colleagues that obtaining
Interaction Handshakes between world leaders are
& Exchange
assistance from Stalin was “like taking meat from a tiger’s
not always what they seem. Often, they
mouth.”
disguise feelings of deep mutual animosity that have been
papered over temporarily in pursuit of short-term goals. In
(colour litho)/Russian School, (20th century)/INDIVISION CHARMET/Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris,

Image 7.3a, Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek exchange a
Poster depicting Joseph Stalin (1879-1953) and Mao Tse-tung (1893-1976) shaking hands, c.1950
Jack Wilkes/Getty Images
France/Bridgeman Images
governed by the Manchu dynasty, such as Manchuria, administration for the first time in more than a century.
Taiwan, Xinjiang, and Tibet, Chinese leaders also hoped But in Korea and Taiwan, China’s efforts to re-create the
to restore Chinese influence in former tributary areas such old imperial buffer zone threatened to provoke new con-
as Korea and Vietnam. flicts with foreign powers.
It soon became clear that the regime’s domestic and The disagreement over Taiwan was a consequence of
foreign policy objectives were not always compatible. the Cold War. As the civil war in China came to an end,
Negotiations between Mao Zedong and Stalin held in the Truman administration appeared determined to avoid
Moscow in early 1950 were tense (see Comparative entanglement in China’s internal affairs and indicated that
Illustration, “Friends and Enemies,” above), but led to the it would not seek to prevent a Communist takeover of the
signing of a mutual security treaty and Soviet recogni- island, now occupied by Chiang Kai-shek’s Republic of
tion of Chinese sovereignty over Manchuria and Xinjiang China. But as tensions between the United States and the
(the desolate lands north of Tibet known as Chinese new Chinese government escalated during the winter of
Turkestan because many of the peoples in the area were 1949–1950, influential figures in the United States began to
of Turkish origin), although the Soviets retained a mea- argue that Taiwan was crucial to U.S. defense strategy in
sure of economic influence in both areas. Chinese troops the Pacific. Their efforts were soon to be bolstered by an
occupied Tibet in 1950 and brought it under Chinese unexpected event.
7-2c The Korean War majority of whom were from the United
R.
Cease-fire line en
The outbreak of hostilities in Korea also um States—could trigger Chinese interven-
T
helped bring the Cold War to East Asia. tion, but MacArthur assured him that
CHINA
As we saw in Chapter 3, Korea, long a Yal
u R. China would not respond. MacArthur’s
Chinese tributary, became part of the intelligence sources were mistaken,
NORTH
Japanese empire in 1908 and remained KOREA
Sea of because in November, Chinese “volun-
Korea Japan
so until 1945. Japanese rule had been Bay Pyongyang
(East Sea) teer” forces intervened on the side of
deeply unpopular in Korea, and its Panmunjom 38th Parallel
North Korea and drove the UN troops
removal from Japanese control had been Seoul southward in disarray. In a moment of
Inchon
one of the stated objectives of the Allies temporary panic, Truman mused in
in World War II. Accordingly, on the Yellow SOUTH
his diary about the necessity of using
atomic weapons to avoid a disastrous
it
Sea KOREA
eve of the Japanese surrender in August
ra
defeat. Fortunately, a static defense line
St
Pusan
1945, the Soviet Union and the United Kwangju
States agreed to divide the country into JAPAN was eventually established near the
orea original dividing line at the 38th paral-
two separate occupation zones at the 0 100 200 Miles
K
38th parallel (see Map 7.5). They origi- lel, although the war continued.
nally planned to hold national elections MAP 7.5 The Korean Peninsula To many U.S. officials, the Chinese
after the restoration of peace to reunify intervention in Korea—along with
Korea under an independent government. But as U.S.-Soviet the buildup of PLA units on the mainland across from
relations deteriorated, two separate governments emerged Taiwan—was clear evidence that Beijing intended to pro-
in Korea, a Communist-led Democratic People’s Republic mote communism throughout Asia. Immediately after the
of Korea, or DPRK in the north and the anti-Communist invasion, President Truman dispatched the U.S. Seventh
Republic of Korea (ROK) in the south. Fleet to the Taiwan Strait to prevent a possible Chinese
Tensions between the two governments ran high invasion of Taiwan. Were White House concerns about
along the dividing line, and Kim Il-sung (1912–1994), the China’s intentions justified? The available evidence is not
Communist leader in the north, asked Moscow to support conclusive, but in all likelihood China’s decision to enter
his plan to use military force to unify the peninsula under the war was motivated primarily by the fear that hostile
his control. Stalin, however, was still unwilling to confront U.S. forces might be stationed on the Chinese frontier
the United States: “If you should get kicked in the teeth,” and perhaps even launch an attack across the border.
he replied, “I shall not lift a finger. You have to ask Mao for MacArthur intensified such fears by calling publicly for air
all the help.” Mao Zedong, convinced that a new revolu-
5 attacks (for which he was publicly rebuked, and later dis-
tionary wave was on the horizon, gave his blessing to the missed from his position, by President Truman), possibly
invasion, despite the misgivings of some of his advisers. including nuclear weapons, on Manchurian cities in prepa-
Kim Il-sung, convinced that the United States lacked the ration for an attack on Communist China.
stomach for a new war on the Asian mainland, was not The consequences were particularly costly for China.
deterred by Stalin’s refusal of assistance, and on June 25, Not only did the outbreak of war in Korea harden Western
1950, North Korean troops took advantage of border skir- attitudes against the new Chinese regime and lead to the
mishes to launch an invasion of the south. The Truman country’s isolation from contacts with the major capitalist
administration, by now increasingly concerned about powers. It also strengthened the U.S. commitment to the
Communist intentions in Asia, immediately ordered U.S. Nationalist government in Taiwan as the only legal repre-
naval and air forces to support South Korea, and the United sentative of the Chinese people, and led the Truman admin-
Nations Security Council (with the Soviet delegate absent istration to support its retention of the China seat on the
to protest the failure of the UN to assign China’s seat to the UN Executive Council. As a result, the PRC was cut off from
new government in Beijing) passed a resolution calling on all forms of Western economic and technological assistance
member nations to jointly resist the invasion in line with and was forced to rely almost entirely on the USSR. For
the security provisions in the United Nations Charter. By once, Mao Zedong had committed a serious blunder.
September, UN forces under the command of U.S. General
Douglas MacArthur marched northward across the 38th 7-2d Conflict in Indochina
parallel with the aim of unifying Korea under a single non- A cease-fire agreement brought the hostilities in Korea to an
Communist government. end in July 1953, and China quickly signaled its intention to live
President Truman worried that by approaching the in peaceful coexistence with other independent countries in
Chinese border at the Yalu River, the UN troops—the the region. But Beijing’s gesture of conciliation was undercut
by its growing role in a bitter conflict 0 200 400 Kilometers
treaty, Vietnam was temporarily divided
on China’s southern flank—in French into a northern Communist half (known
0 100 200 Miles
Indochina. The struggle there had begun CHINA as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
shortly after Japan’s surrender at the end or DRV) and a non-Communist south-
of World War II, when the Indochinese Dien Bien DEMOCRATIC ern half based in Saigon [eventually to
Communist Party led by Ho Chi Minh Phu REPUBLIC OF be known as the Republic of Vietnam (or
VIETNAM
(1890–1969)—the new pseudonym of RVN)] (see Map 7.6). Elections through-
Hanoi
Nguyen Ai Quoc—at the head of a LAOS out the country were to be held in two
multiparty nationalist alliance called the years to create a unified government.
Vietminh Front, seized power in north- Neighboring Cambodia and Laos were
ern and central Vietnam. After abortive Vientiane Demilitarized both declared independent under neu-
negotiations between Ho’s government Zone tral governments. French forces, which
Huê
and the French over a proposed “free had suffered a major defeat at the hands
THAILAND
state” of Vietnam under French tutelage, of Vietminh troops at the Battle of Dien
war broke out in December 1946. French Bien Phu in the spring of 1954, were with-
forces occupied the cities and the densely drawn from all three countries. As part of
populated lowlands, while the Vietminh CAMBODIA the agreement, almost one million refu-
took refuge in the mountains. The ICP REPUBLIC gees, many of them Catholics who feared
Phnom Penh
was renamed the Vietnamese Workers’ OF VIETNAM persecution by the atheist regime about to
Party (VWP) to allay suspicions about its Saigon
take power in Hanoi, fled North Vietnam
ties with Moscow. to seek refuge in the South. A smaller
For three years, the Vietminh—under number went in the opposite direction to
firm Communist leadership—waged join the fatherly figure known colloqui-
a “people’s war” of national liberation ally to his supporters as “Uncle Ho.”
from colonial rule, with their guerrilla MAP 7.6 Indochina after 1954 China had played an active role in
forces (no longer supported and supplied bringing about the agreement and clearly
by the United States) gradually increasing in size and effective- hoped that a settlement would place a friendly government
ness. At the time, however, the conflict in Indochina attracted on its southern flank—while also leading to a reduction of
relatively little attention from world leaders. The Truman tensions in the area. But subsequent efforts to improve rela-
administration was uneasy about Ho’s long-standing creden- tions between China and the United States foundered on the
tials as a Soviet agent, but was equally reluctant to anger anti- issue of Taiwan. In the fall of 1954, the United States signed
colonialist elements in the region by intervening on behalf a mutual security treaty with the Republic of China guaran-
of the French. Moscow had even less interest in the issue. teeing U.S. military support in case of an invasion of Taiwan.
Stalin—still hoping to see the French Communist Party come When Beijing demanded U.S. withdrawal from Taiwan as
to power in Paris—ignored Ho’s request for recognition of the price for improved relations, diplomatic talks between
his movement as the legitimate representative of the national the two countries collapsed.
interests of the Vietnamese people.
But what had begun as an anticolonial struggle by the
Vietminh Front against the French became entangled in the From Confrontation
7-3
Cold War after the CCP came to power in China. In early
1950, Beijing began to provide military assistance to the to Coexistence
Vietminh to burnish its revolutionary credentials and pro-
tect its own borders from hostile occupation. The Truman
administration, increasingly concerned that a revolutionary
QQ Focus Question: What events led to the era of
coexistence in the 1960s, and to what degree
“red tide” was sweeping through the region, decided to pro- did each side contribute to the reduction in
vide financial and technical assistance to the French, while international tensions?
pressuring them to prepare for an eventual transition to inde-
pendent non-Communist governments in Vietnam, Laos, The 1950s opened with the world teetering on the edge of a
and Cambodia. With casualties mounting and the French nuclear holocaust. The Soviet Union had detonated its first
public tired of fighting the seemingly endless “dirty war” in nuclear device in 1949, and the two blocs—capitalist and
Indochina, the French agreed to a peace settlement with the socialist—viewed each other across an ideological divide
Vietminh at the Geneva Conference in 1954. According to the that grew increasingly bitter with each passing year. In the
GREENLAND
ICELAND SOVIET UNION

CANADA See
Map 7.1
MONGOLIA
UNITED N. KOREA
TURKEY
STATES AZORES SYRIA IRAN S. KOREA JAPAN
ISRAEL IRAQ AFGHANISTAN
CHINA OKINAWA
HAWAIIAN LIBYA PAKISTAN
ISLANDS PUERTO EGYPT TAIWAN
CUBA RICO OMAN
YEMEN VIETNAM
GUATEMALA HONDURAS THAILAND PHILIPPINES
EL SALVADOR ETHIOPIA
NICARAGUA CANAL ZONE SOCOTRA
PANAMA Atlantic SOMALIA
SRI
LANKA
SINGAPORE
Indi an
Pa c i fic ANGOLA DIEGO
(Cuban) GARCIA
Ocean
Ocean
O c e an AUSTRALIA
United States/Allies Chinese Soviet Union/Allies
Missile bases
Troops
0 1,500 3,000 4,500 Kilometers
Nuclear bombers
0 1,500 3,000 Miles
Naval port
Fleet
Nuclear missile submarine
MAP 7.7 The Global Cold War. This map shows the location of the major military bases and missile sites
maintained by the contending power blocs at the height of the Cold War.
Q Which continents were the most heavily armed, and why?
United States, fear of Communism had reached a fever pitch Malenkov (1902–1988), hoped to improve relations with
among the American public, as a “red scare,” promoted by the Western powers so that he could reduce defense expen-
Senator Joseph McCarthy, a fiery Republican from the state ditures and shift government spending to growing con-
of Wisconsin, unleashed a frenzied search for Communist sumer needs. During his campaign to replace Malenkov
sympathizers in all ranks of American society. Dozens of sus- two years later, Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971) appealed
pected Communists—many of them from Hollywood or in to powerful pressure groups in the party Politburo (the
the arts, where left-wing views had been common during the governing body of the Communist Party of the Soviet
1930s—were called to testify before the House Un-American Union) by calling for higher defense expenditures, but once
Affairs Committee, and a number of witnesses were subse- in power, he resumed his predecessor’s efforts to reduce
quently dismissed from their jobs. Yet as the decade drew to tensions with the West and improve the living standards of
a close, a measure of sanity had crept into the Cold War, and the Soviet people.
the leaders of the major world powers began to seek ways to In an adroit public relations touch, Khrushchev
coexist in an increasingly unstable world (see Map 7.7). publicized Moscow’s appeal for a new policy of
peaceful coexistence with the West (see Opposing
Viewpoints, “Peaceful Coexistence or People’s War?”
7-3aKhrushchev and the Era of Peaceful p. 178). In 1955, he surprisingly agreed to negotiate an
Coexistence end to the postwar occupation of Austria by the victori-
The first clear sign of an easing of tension occurred ous Allies and allow the creation of a neutral country
after Stalin’s death in early 1953. His successor, Georgy with strong cultural and e conomic ties with the West.
7-3 From Confrontation to Coexistence ■ 177

Opposing Viewpoints
Peaceful Coexistence or People’s War?

would continue the “cold war” is moving towards his
Q Why did Nikita Khrushchev feel that the conflict own destruction.…
between the socialist and capitalist camps that It is not at all because capitalism is still strong that the
Lenin had predicted was no longer necessary? How socialist countries speak out against war, and for peace-
did Lin Biao respond? ful coexistence. No, we have no need of war at all. If the
people do not want it, even such a noble and progressive
system as socialism cannot be imposed by force of arms.
Interaction The Soviet Leader Vladimir Lenin had
& Exchange The socialist countries therefore, while carrying through
contended that war between the socialist
a consistently peace-loving policy, concentrate their
and imperialist camps was inevitable because the
efforts on peaceful construction; they fire the hearts of
imperialists would never give up without a fight. Joseph
men by the force of their example in building socialism,
Stalin agreed, and told colleagues shortly after World
and thus lead them to follow in their footsteps. The ques-
War II that a new war would break out in fifteen to twenty
tion of when this or that country will take the path to
years. But Stalin’s successor, Nikita Khrushchev, feared
socialism is decided by its own people. This, for us, is the
that a new world conflict could result in a nuclear
holy of holies.
holocaust and contended that the two sides must learn to
coexist, although peaceful competition would inevitably Lin Biao, “Long Live the Victory of People’s War”
continue. In this speech given in Beijing in 1959,
Many countries and peoples in Asia, Africa, and Latin
Khrushchev attempted to persuade the Chinese to accept
America are now being subjected to aggression and
his views. But Chinese leaders argued that the “imperialist
enslavement on a serious scale by the imperialists headed
nature” of the United States would never change, and
by the United States and their lackeys.… As in China, the
predicted that “people’s wars” in the Third World would
peasant question is extremely important in these regions.
bring down the structure of imperialism. That argument
The peasants constitute the main force of the national-
was presented in a 1966 article by Marshall Lin Biao (LIN
democratic revolution against the imperialists and their
BYOW), at that time one of Mao Zedong’s (Mao Tse-tung in
lackeys. In committing aggression against these countries,
Wade-Giles transliteration) closest allies.
the imperialists usually begin by seizing the big cities and
the main lines of communication. But they are unable
Nikita Khrushchev, Speech to the Chinese, 1959 to bring the vast countryside completely under their
Comrades! Socialism brings to the people peace—that control.… The countryside, and the countryside alone,
greatest blessing. The greater the strength of the camp can provide the revolutionary basis from which the revo-
of socialism grows, the greater will be its possibilities for lutionaries can go forward to final victory. Precisely for
successfully defending the cause of peace on this earth. this reason, Mao Tse-tung’s theory of establishing revolu-
The forces of socialism are already so great that real pos- tionary base areas in the rural districts and encircling the
sibilities are being created for excluding war as a means of cities from the countryside is attracting more and more
solving international disputes.… attention among the people in these regions.
When I spoke with President Eisenhower—and I have Taking the entire globe, if North America and
just returned from the United States of America—I got Western Europe can be called “the cities of the world,”
the impression that the President of the U.S.A.—and not then Asia, Africa, and Latin America constitute “the
a few people support him—understands the need to relax rural areas of the world.” Since World War II, the prole-
international tension.… tarian revolutionary movement has for various reasons
There is only one way of preserving peace—that is been temporarily held back in the North American and
the road of peaceful coexistence of states with different West European capitalist countries, while the people’s
social systems. The question stands thus: either peaceful revolutionary movement in Asia, Africa, and Latin
coexistence or war with its catastrophic consequences. America has been growing vigorously. In a sense, the
Now, with the present relation of forces between social- contemporary world revolution also presents a picture
ism and capitalism being in favor of socialism, he who of the encirclement of cities by the rural areas. In the
final analysis, the whole cause of world revolution communism is marching to victory. Comrade Mao Tse-
hinges on the revolutionary struggles of the Asian, tung’s theory of people’s war is not only a product of
African, and Latin American peoples, who make up the the Chinese revolution, but has also the characteristic of
overwhelming majority of the world’s population. The our epoch. The new experience gained in the people’s
socialist countries should regard it as their international- revolutionary struggles in various countries since World
ist duty to support the people’s revolutionary struggles War II has provided continuous evidence that Mao Tse-
in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.… tung’s thought is a common asset of the revolutionary
Ours is the epoch in which world capitalism people of the whole world.
and imperialism are heading for their doom and
Sources: From G. F. Hudson et al., eds., The Sino-Soviet Dispute (New York: Frederick Praeger, 1961), pp. 61–63, cited in Peking Review, No. 40, 1959.
From Nationalism and Communism, Norman Graebner, ed. Copyright © 1977 by D. C. Heath and Company.
He also called for a reduction in defense expenditures access routes to the East Germans. Unwilling to accept an
and reduced the size of the Soviet armed forces. ultimatum that would have abandoned West Berlin to the
Communists, President Eisenhower and the West stood
Unrest in Eastern Europe At first, Khrushchev’s overtures firm, and Khrushchev eventually backed down.
were sabotaged by events in Eastern Europe, where popu-
lar unrest suddenly erupted in several of Moscow’s client The Spirit of Camp David Despite such periodic crises in
states. In 1953, worker strikes broke out in East Germany, East-West relations, there were tantalizing signs that an era
and were only quelled by Soviet tanks. In 1956, more of true peaceful coexistence between the two power blocs
broadly based protests erupted over a variety of issues in could be achieved. As tensions eased in Eastern Europe in
Poland, forcing the resignation of the then current hard- the late 1950s, the United States and the Soviet Union initi-
line Communist leader and his replacement by a more ated a cultural exchange program to enable the peoples of
moderate figure. Finally, in October a full-scale popular the two blocs to become acquainted with each other’s way
revolt led to the overthrow of the Stalinist leadership in of life. While Leningrad’s Kirov Ballet appeared at the-
Hungary. Although reluctant to intervene, Khrushchev aters in the United States, Benny Goodman’s jazz band and
ultimately changed his mind and ordered Soviet occupa- Leonard Bernstein’s popular film West Side Story played in
tion troops in the country to suppress the uprising (for Moscow. During the course of one such exhibit, U.S. Vice
a more detailed analysis of these events, see Chapter 9). President Richard M. Nixon sparred with Khrushchev over
Although the Eisenhower administration reluctantly opted the relative merits of capitalist and communist society
not to intervene, despite the frenzied appeals from protest- and culture (see the Part III opening image on p. 163). As
ers, the incident in Hungary fueled Cold War tensions on a culmination of the current era of good feeling, Nikita
both sides of the Iron Curtain. Khrushchev visited the United States and had a brief but
friendly encounter with President Eisenhower at Camp
The Berlin Crisis A new dispute over the divided city of David, the presidential retreat in northern Maryland.
Berlin added to the tension. The Soviets had launched their Khrushchev’s visit to Hollywood, where he joked with
first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in August several U.S. movie stars, enabled him to replace the thug-
1957, arousing U.S. fears—fueled by a partisan political gish face of Joe Stalin with a softer image. Predictions of
debate—of a “missile gap” between the United States and improved future relations led reporters to laud “the spirit
the Soviet Union. Khrushchev attempted to take advan- of Camp David.”
tage of the U.S. frenzy over missiles to solve the problem
of West Berlin, which had remained an island of prosper- Rivalry in the Third World Yet Khrushchev could rarely
ity inside the relatively poverty-stricken GDR. Many East avoid the temptation to gain an advantage over the United
Germans sought to escape to West Germany by fleeing States in the competition for influence throughout the
through West Berlin—a serious blot on the credibility of world, and this resulted in an unstable relationship that
the GDR and a potential source of instability in East-West undercut any potential effort to achieve a lasting accom-
relations. In November 1958, Khrushchev announced modation between the two superpowers. West Berlin
that unless the West removed its forces from West Berlin was an area of persistent tension (a boil on the foot of
within six months, he would turn over control of the the United States, Khrushchev derisively termed it), and
movies & HIstory
Bridge of Spies (2015)
Directed by the noted film-maker Steven Spielberg,
Bridge of Spies is a historical drama that provides a
dramatic account of the shooting down of a U.S. recon-
naissance plane over the Soviet Union in 1960 and the
tangled events that led to the release of its pilot two years
later. The film begins when Soviet KBG agent Rudolf Abel
Sportsphoto/Alamy Stock Photo

(Mark Rylance) is caught obtaining secret information and
put on trial for treason. His court-appointed lawyer James
B. Donovan (Tom Hanks) argues that, as a Soviet citizen
he is not subject to U.S. law and thus should not be given
the death penalty; in the end, he receives a sentence of
30 years in prison.
Eventually, the issue becomes tangled up with nego-
of prisoners is arranged, and he is present as Powers is
tiations for the release of Francis Gary Powers, the U.S.
exchanged for Abel at the Gleineke Bridge, which links
Air Force pilot who ended up in Soviet captivity after his
the city of Berlin with its famous suburb, Potsdam.
reconnaissance plane was shot down over the USSR.
Through tense negotiations, in the course of which
Donovan confers with officials in East Berlin, a swap
Q How did the shooting down of the U.S. spy plane
affect U.S.-Soviet relations?
in January 1961, just as newly elected president John F. the new president at an informal summit meeting, held in
Kennedy (1917–1963) took office, Moscow threatened Vienna in April, by declaring that Moscow would provide
once again to turn over responsibility for the access routes active support to national liberation movements through-
to Berlin from West Germany to the GDR. out the world. That October, a minor disagreement sud-
Moscow also took every opportunity to promote its denly escalated into a brief military standoff—complete
interests in the Third World, as the countries of Asia, with U.S. and Soviet tanks facing each other at oppo-
Africa, and Latin America were then popularly called. site sides of Checkpoint Charlie—in the heart of Berlin.
Unlike Stalin, Khrushchev viewed the dismantling of Increasingly, Washington was also becoming concerned
colonial regimes in the area as a potential advantage for about Soviet meddling in such sensitive trouble spots as
the Soviet Union and sought especially to exploit anti- Southeast Asia, Central Africa, and the Caribbean.
American sentiment in Latin America. When neutral-
ist leaders like Nehru in India, Tito in Yugoslavia, and
Sukarno in Indonesia founded the Nonaligned Movement 7-3bThe Cuban Missile Crisis and the Move
in 1955 as a means of providing an alternative to the two Toward Détente
major power blocs, Khrushchev openly sought alliances The Cold War confrontation between the United States and
with strategically important neutralist countries like India, the Soviet Union reached frightening levels during the so-
Indonesia, Cuba, and Egypt at a time when Washington’s called Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1959, a left-wing revolutionary
ability to influence events at the United Nations had begun named Fidel Castro (b. 1926) overthrew the Cuban dictator
to wane. Fulgencio Batista and established a Soviet-supported totali-
In January 1961, just as Kennedy prepared to assume tarian regime less than 100 miles off the coast of Florida. As
the presidency, relations between Moscow and Washington tensions increased between the new government in Havana
suddenly took a turn for the worse, when the shooting and the United States, the Eisenhower administration broke
down of a U.S. reconnaissance plane over Soviet territory relations with Cuba and drafted plans to overthrow Castro,
provoked a war of words between the two capitals and pro- who reacted by drawing closer to Moscow.
vided the Soviet leader with a pretense to cancel a planned Soon after taking office in early 1961, Kennedy approved
summit meeting with President Eisenhower (see Movies & a plan drafted under his predecessor to support an invasion
History, Bridge of Spies, above). Khrushchev then unnerved of Cuba by anti-Castro exiles. But the attempt to land in
the Bay of Pigs in southern Cuba was an utter failure. At In Havana, the spurned Cuban leader Fidel Castro was
Castro’s request, the Soviet Union then decided to place livid that Moscow had backed down in its confrontation
nuclear missiles in Cuba. But the Kennedy administration with Washington.
was not prepared to allow nuclear weapons within striking
distance of the American mainland, although the United 7-3c The Sino-Soviet Dispute
States had placed nuclear weapons in Turkey within easy Nikita Khrushchev had launched his slogan of peaceful
range of the Soviet Union, a fact that Khrushchev was coexistence as a means of improving relations with the
quick to point out. In October 1962, when U.S. intelli- capitalist powers; ironically, one important result of his
gence discovered the presence of such missiles, as well as campaign was to undermine Moscow’s ties with its close
that a Soviet fleet carrying more missiles was heading to ally China. During Stalin’s lifetime, Beijing had accepted
Cuba, Kennedy considered several options and ultimately the Soviet Union as the official leader of the social-
decided to dispatch U.S. warships into the Atlantic to pre- ist camp. After Stalin’s death, however, relations began
vent the fleet from reaching its destination. to deteriorate. Part of the reason may have been Mao
This approach to the problem was risky but had the Zedong’s contention that he, as the most experienced
benefit of delaying confrontation and giving the two sides Marxist leader in the world, should now be acknowl-
time to find a peaceful solution. After a tense standoff dur- edged as the most authoritative voice within the social-
ing which the two countries came frighteningly close to a ist community. But another determining factor was that
direct nuclear confrontation (the Soviet missiles already in just as Soviet policies were moving toward moderation,
Cuba, it turned out, were operational), Khrushchev finally China’s were becoming more radical.
sent a conciliatory letter to Kennedy agreeing to turn back Several other issues were involved, including territorial
the fleet if Kennedy pledged not to invade Cuba. In a secret disputes along the Sino-Soviet border and China’s unhap-
concession not revealed until many years later, the presi- piness with limited Soviet economic assistance. But the
dent also promised to dismantle U.S. missiles in Turkey. To key sources of disagreement involved ideology and the
the world, however (and to an angry Castro), it appeared Cold War. Chinese leaders were convinced that the suc-
that Kennedy had bested Khrushchev. “We were eyeball cesses of the Soviet space program confirmed that the
to eyeball,” noted U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk, “and socialists were now technologically superior to the capital-
they blinked.” ists (the East Wind, trumpeted the Chinese official press,
The outbreak of the Cuban Missile Crisis was a pro- had now triumphed over the West Wind), and they urged
found shock to millions of Americans. During the late Khrushchev to go on the offensive to promote world revo-
1950s, fear of Communism had ceased to be a major source lution. More specifically, Beijing wanted Soviet assistance
of concern among the general populace, partly because of in retaking Taiwan from Chiang Kai-shek. But Khrushchev
the sudden fall of Senator Joseph McCarthy at Senate hear- was trying to improve relations with the West and rejected
ings, and his death of illness shortly after. Tensions had Chinese demands for support against Taiwan.
escalated after the U-2 incident and the disastrous summit By the end of the 1950s, the Soviet Union had begun to
meeting in Vienna. Still, many Americans were becoming remove its advisers from China, and in 1961, the dispute
accustomed to living without the constant fear of war. broke into the open. Increasingly isolated, China began
For those living within the range of the Soviet missiles in to voice its hostility to what Mao described as the “urban
Cuba, the dispute was a frightening prospect. industrialized countries” (which included the Soviet Union)
The realization that the world might have been anni- and portrayed itself as the leader of the “rural underde-
hilated in a matter of days had a profound effect on both veloped countries” of Asia, Africa, and Latin America in
sides. Khrushchev himself was shaken by the willingness a global struggle against imperialist oppression. In effect,
of many of his colleagues in the Kremlin to risk total war China had applied Mao’s famous concept of people’s war
rather than to cave in to the demands of Moscow’s chief in an international framework (see Opposing Viewpoints,
class enemy in Washington. A communication hotline “Peaceful Coexistence or People’s War?” p. 178).
between Moscow and Washington was installed in 1963
to expedite rapid communication between the two super-
powers in time of crisis. In the same year, the two pow- 7-3d The Second Indochina War
ers agreed to ban nuclear tests in the atmosphere, a step In the meantime, a new source of Cold War friction was
that served to lessen the tensions between the two nations. opening up in Southeast Asia with the renewal of conflict
Khrushchev, however, paid a heavy price for his decision in Indochina. The Eisenhower administration had opposed
to resolve the missile crisis, since many of his rivals in the peace settlement at Geneva in 1954, which divided
the Kremlin began to quietly question his leadership. Vietnam temporarily into two separate regroupment

zones, specifically because the provision for future national military units infiltrating from North Vietnam, were on
elections opened up the possibility of placing the entire the verge of seizing control of the entire country. Fearing
country under Communist rule. But President Eisenhower that a Communist victory in South Vietnam could lead
had been unwilling to introduce U.S. military forces to con- to the collapse of fragile regimes elsewhere in Southeast
tinue the conflict without the full support of the British Asia—a constant theme in U.S. containment strategy
and the French, who preferred to seek a negotiated settle- popularly known as the “domino theory”—President
ment. In the end, Washington promised not to break the Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973)—who had occupied the
provisions of the agreement but refused to commit itself White House on the assassination of John Kennedy in late
to the results. November 1963—decided to launch bombing raids on the
During the next several months, the United States began north and dispatch U.S. combat troops to South Vietnam
to provide aid to a new government in South Vietnam. to prevent a total defeat for the anti-Communist govern-
Under the leadership of the anti-Communist politician ment in Saigon (see Opposing Viewpoints, “Confrontation
Ngo Dinh Diem (1901–1963), the Saigon regime began to in Southeast Asia,” p. 183, and Comparative Illustration,
root out dissidents while refusing to hold the national elec- “War in the Rice Paddies,” p. 184).
tions called for by the Geneva Accords. Born in a devoutly Hanoi responded to the U.S. escalation by infiltrating
Catholic family, Diem hoped to build a solid base of sup- more of its own regular force troops into the south, and
port from his minority co-religionists, whose numbers had by 1968, the war was a virtual stalemate. Opposition to the
been dramatically increased by the thousands of refugees war in the United States was growing in intensity, espe-
who fled the North at the close of the Franco-Vietminh cially among young people, and threatened to unleash an
war. It was widely anticipated, even in Washington, that internal revolt within Lyndon Johnson’s own Democratic
the Communists would win such elections. In 1959, Ho Party. The Communists were not strong enough to over-
Chi Minh, despairing of the peaceful unification of the throw the Saigon regime, whose weakness was shielded
country under Communist rule, reluctantly agreed with by the presence of half a million U.S. troops, but President
headstrong colleagues to resume the strategy of revo- Johnson was reluctant to engage in all-out war on North
lutionary war in the south. Late in the following year, a Vietnam for fear of provoking a global nuclear conflict.
broad political organization that was designed to win When the Communist-led Tet Offensive (named after the
the support of a wide spectrum of the population was Vietnamese New Year’s holiday Tet, when the first major
founded in an isolated part of South Vietnam. Known as attacks took place) shook the fragile stability of the Saigon
the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, or NLF, regime and aroused heightened antiwar protests in the
it was under the firm leadership of Communist leaders in United States, the White House agreed to negotiate, and
North Vietnam. peace talks began in Paris.
By 1963, South Vietnam was on the verge of collapse.
Diem’s autocratic methods and his inattention to severe The Conflict in Southeast Asia and The Cold War Chinese
economic inequality had alienated much of the popu- and Soviet leaders had observed the gradual escalation of
lation, and NLF armed forces, popularly known as the the conflict in Southeast Asia with mixed feelings. The for-
Viet Cong (Vietnamese Communists), had taken advan- mer were undoubtedly pleased to have a firm Communist
tage of his missteps to expand their influence throughout ally, one that had in key respects followed the path of Mao
rural areas in much of the country. Diem also faced opposi- Zedong—just beyond their southern frontier. But the
tion from members of the majority Buddhist community Chinese, like their Soviet rivals, were also concerned that
in the South Vietnam, many of whom felt that he favored bloodshed in South Vietnam might enmesh them in an
his fellow-Catholics because they were more solidly sup- open confrontation with the United States. In the longer
portive of his anti-Communist regime. term, Beijing feared that a powerful and ambitious DRV
By the fall of 1963, opposition to Diem had spilled out might eventually seek to extend its influence throughout
into the streets of Saigon, and in early November several mainland Southeast Asia, an area that China viewed as its
dissident South Vietnamese military officers, with the own backyard.
tacit approval of the White House, overthrew Diem’s Both Moscow and Beijing therefore tiptoed deli-
regime, killing him and his brother in the process. But cately through the minefield of the Indochina conflict.
internal factionalism (over the two years following the As the war escalated in 1964 and 1965, Soviet leaders
overthrow of the Diem regime, several coup attempts assured Washington that they had no interest in seeing
took place) kept the new military leadership from rein- the conflict in Indochina escalate into a Great Power con-
vigorating the struggle against the insurgent forces, and frontation. For its part, Beijing assured Washington pri-
by early 1965, the Viet Cong, their ranks now swelled by vately that China would not directly enter the conflict
Opposing Viewpoints
Confrontation in Southeast Asia

In the present extremely grave situation, the South
Q How did the NLF justify its claim to represent Vietnam National Liberation Front considers it necessary
the legitimate aspirations of the people of to proclaim anew its firm and unswerving determination
South Vietnam? What was President Johnson’s to resist the U.S. imperialists and fight for the salvation
counterargument? of our country. . . . [It] will continue to rely chiefly on its
own forces and potentialities, but it is prepared to accept
any assistance, moral and material, including arms and
Politics &In December 1960 , the National Liberation
Government other military equipment, from all the socialist countries,
Front of South Vietnam (NLF) was born.
from nationalist countries, from international organiza-
Composed of political and social leaders opposed to the
tions, and from the peace-loving peoples of the world.
anti-Communist government, it operated under the direction
of the Communist regime in North Vietnam and served as Lyndon B. Johnson, “Peace Without Conquest”
the formal representative of revolutionary forces in the south
The world as it is in Asia is not a serene or peaceful place.
throughout the remainder of the Vietnam War. When, in the
The first reality is that North Viet-Nam has attacked
spring of 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson began to
the independent nation of South Viet-Nam. Its object is
dispatch U.S. combat troops to Vietnam to prevent a
total conquest.
Communist victory there, the NLF issued the declaration
Of course, some of the people of South Viet-Nam
presented below. The second selection is from a speech that
are participating in attack on their own government. But
Johnson gave at Johns Hopkins University in April 1965 in
trained men and supplies, orders and arms, flow in a con-
response to the NLF.
stant stream from north to south.
Statement of the National Liberation Front of South This support is the heartbeat of the war.
Vietnam (1965) And it is a war of unparalleled brutality. Simple farm-
ers are the targets of assassination and kidnapping.
American imperialist aggression against South Vietnam
Women and children are strangled in the night because
and interference in its internal affairs have now contin-
their men are loyal to their government. And helpless vil-
ued for more than ten years. More American troops and
lages are ravaged by sneak attacks. Large-scale raids are
supplies, including missile units, Marines, B-57 strategic
conducted on towns, and terror strikes in the heart of
bombers, and mercenaries from South Korea, Taiwan,
cities. . . .
the Philippines, Australia, Malaysia, etc., have been
Why are these realities our concern? Why are we in
brought to South Vietnam. . . .
South Viet-Nam?
The Saigon puppet regime, paid servant of the United
We are there because we have a promise to keep. Since
States, is guilty of the most heinous crimes. These despi-
1954 every American President has offered support to
cable traitors, these boot-lickers of American imperial-
the people of South Viet-Nam. We have helped to build,
ism, have brought the enemy into our country. They have
and we have helped to defend. Thus, over many years,
brought to South Vietnam armed forces of the United
we have made a national pledge to help South Viet-Nam
States and its satellites to kill our compatriots, occupy and
defend its independence.
ravage our sacred soil and enslave our people.
Our objective is the independence of South Viet-
The Vietnamese, the peoples of all Indo-China and
Nam, and its freedom from attack. We want nothing for
Southeast Asia, supporters of peace and justice in every
ourselves—only that the people of South Viet-Nam be
part of the world, have raised their voice in angry pro-
allowed to guide their own country in their own way.
test against this criminal unprovoked aggression of the
We will do everything necessary to reach that objec-
United States imperialists.
tive. And we will do only what is absolutely necessary.
Sources: “Statement of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam,” New Times (March 27, 1965), pp. 36–40. Source for Johnson’s speech: Public
Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965. Volume I, entry 172, pp. 394–399. Washington D.C.: Government Printing
Office, 1966.

War in the Rice Paddies

to prevent a Communist victory in that beleaguered country.
Q How do you think helicopters were used to assist The Communist government in North Vietnam responded in
U.S. operations in South Vietnam? Why didn’t their kind, sending its own regular forces down the Ho Chi
use result in a U.S. victory? Minh Trail to confront U.S. troops on the battlefield. In
Image 7.4b, North Vietnamese troops storm the U.S.
Marine base at Khe Sanh (KAY SARN), near the
Politics & The first stage of the Vietnam War
Government
demilitarized zone, in 1968, the most violent year of the
consisted primarily of low-level conflicts, as
war. Although U.S. military commanders believed that
Viet Cong insurgents relied on guerrilla tactics to bring
helicopters would be a key factor in defeating the insurgent
down the U.S.-supported government in Saigon. In 1965,
forces in Vietnam, this was one instance when technological
however, President Lyndon Johnson ordered U.S. combat
superiority did not produce a victory on the battlefield.
troops into South Vietnam (Image 7.4a) in a desperate bid
Three Lions/Getty Images

AP Images
unless U.S. forces threatened its southern border. Beijing hint that they might decide to launch a preemptive strike
also pleased Washington by refusing to cooperate fully to destroy Chinese nuclear facilities in Xinjiang. Sensing
with Moscow in shipping Soviet goods to North Vietnam an opportunity to split the onetime allies, Nixon sent
through Chinese territory. his emissary Henry Kissinger on a secret trip to China.
Responding to the latter’s assurances that the United States
The Road to Peace Richard Nixon (1913–1994) came into was determined to withdraw from Indochina and hoped
the White House in January 1969 on a pledge to bring an to improve relations with the mainland regime, Chinese
honorable end to the Vietnam War. With U.S. public opin- leaders invited President Nixon to visit China in early 1972.
ion sharply divided on the issue, he began to withdraw U.S. Nixon accepted the invitation and the two sides agreed to
troops while continuing to hold peace talks in Paris. But set aside their differences over Taiwan in order to pursue a
the centerpiece of his strategy was to improve relations better mutual relationship.
with China and thus undercut Beijing’s limited support for Incensed at the apparent betrayal by their close allies,
the North Vietnamese war effort. During the 1960s, rela- Hanoi continued to adopt an offensive strategy on the bat-
tions between Moscow and Beijing had reached a point of tlefield in South Vietnam, although casualties suffered by
extreme tension, and thousands of troops were stationed North Vietnamese troops and their Viet Cong allies contin-
on both sides of their long common frontier. To intimi- ued to escalate. Finally, in January 1973 North Vietnamese
date their Communist rivals, Soviet sources dropped the leaders decided to accept a temporary settlement of the war.
Later that month a peace treaty was signed in Paris calling established between the two countries under an arrange-
for the removal of all U.S. forces from South Vietnam. In ment whereby the United States renounced its mutual
return, the Communists agreed to seek a political settle- security treaty with the Republic of China in return for a
ment of their differences with the Saigon regime. But pledge from China to seek reunification with Taiwan by
negotiations between North and South over the political peaceful means. By the end of the 1970s, China and the
settlement soon broke down, and in early 1975, having United States had established diplomatic relations, while
become convinced that Washington would not intervene, forging a “strategic relationship” in which each would
the Communists resumed the offensive. President Gerald cooperate with the other against the common threat of
Ford, who had risen to the office when Richard Nixon had Soviet “hegemonism” (China’s term for Soviet policy) in
resigned the presidency the previous summer, provided lim- Asia.
ited military support to the Saigon regime, but as the end
neared, he declared publicly that Vietnam was “a war that
was over.” At the end of April, under a massive assault by 7-4 An Era of Equivalence
North Vietnamese military forces, the South Vietnamese
government surrendered. A year later, the country was uni-
fied under Communist rule.
QQ Focus Question: Why did the Cold War briefly
flare up again in the 1980s, and why did it come
Why had the United States lost the Vietnam War? to a definitive end at the end of the decade?
Debate over U.S. strategy in Vietnam had gone on through-
out the war, and continued to break out long after the con- When the Johnson administration sent U.S. combat troops
flict was over. Many Americans believed that by not taking to South Vietnam in 1965 in an effort to prevent the expan-
the war directly to North Vietnam, the White House had sion of communism in Southeast Asia, Washington’s pri-
forced the U.S. armed forces to fight “with one hand tied mary concern was with Beijing, not with Moscow. After the
behind their backs.” But others were convinced that the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet Union—in the eyes of U.S.
United States should not have gotten involved in a strug- officials—had become an essentially conservative power,
gle for national liberation in the first place. Few could be more concerned with protecting its vast empire than with
found who defended a policy that had caused heavy casu- expanding its borders. In fact, U.S. policymakers periodi-
alties, divided America, and achieved no positive result. cally sought Soviet assistance in achieving a peaceful settle-
Many years later, Dean Rusk, secretary of state during ment of the Vietnam War. As long as Khrushchev was in
both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, defended power, they found a receptive ear in Moscow. Khrushchev
U.S. strategy in Vietnam, but admitted that he and his col- did not want to risk a confrontation with the United States
leagues had probably underestimated the determination in Southeast Asia.
of the enemy, while overestimating the patience of the Such was not quite the case with his successor. When
American people. A deeper dive into the evidence suggests Khrushchev was replaced in October 1964 by a new leader-
a third factor: U.S. policymakers from both parties had con- ship headed by party chief Leonid Brezhnev (1906–1982)
sistently overestimated the capacity of their client state in and Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin (1904–1980), Soviet
Saigon to defend itself against a highly disciplined adver- attitudes about the Cold War became more ambivalent.
sary. Although countless South Vietnamese citizens fought On the one hand, the new Soviet leadership had no desire
bravely for years in an effort to prevent a Communist take- to provoke an open military conflict with the United States.
over, their leaders in Saigon patently lacked the determi- On the other, Moscow was eager to seize advantage of its
nation and vision to bring their sacrifices to fruition. In adversary’s discomfort in Southeast Asia and to protect its
seeking to apply the “lessons of Munich” to a region of the own interests within the socialist camp. Where possible, it
world that few Americans understood or were even aware even hoped to expand Soviet influence in the world.
of, U.S. policymakers were attempting to build a bridge too Still, in broad terms Brezhnev and Kosygin generally
far. It was a cruel lesson in the dangers of national hubris. continued to pursue the Khrushchev line of peaceful coex-
The Communist victory in Vietnam was a severe humil- istence with the West and adopted a cautious posture in for-
iation for the United States, and it caused untold harm to eign affairs. By the early 1970s, a new age in Soviet-American
the social fabric of the country, but in the end its strategic relations had emerged, often referred to as détente, a
impact was surprisingly limited because of the new rela- French term meaning a reduction of tensions between the
tionship with China. Chinese leaders did not seek to take two sides. One symbol of the new relationship was the
advantage of disarray in U.S. Asian policy, and during the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, often called SALT I (for
decade after the fall of Saigon, Sino-American relations Strategic Arms Limitation Talks), signed in 1972, in which
continued to improve. In 1979, formal diplomatic ties were the two nations agreed to limit their missile systems.
7-4 An Era of Equivalence ■ 185

Washington’s objective in pursuing the treaty was of the Persian Gulf. To deter such a possibility, the White
to make it unlikely that either superpower could win a House promulgated the so-called Carter Doctrine, which
nuclear exchange by launching a preemptive strike against declared that the United States would use its military
the other. U.S. officials believed that a policy of “equiva- power, if necessary, to safeguard Western access to the oil
lence,” in which there was a roughly equal power balance reserves in the Middle East. As it turned out, U.S. con-
between the two sides, was the best way to avoid a nuclear cerns were probably exaggerated, for sources in Moscow
confrontation. Détente was pursued in other ways as well. later disclosed that the Soviet advance into Afghanistan
When President Nixon took office in 1969, he sought to had little to do with a strategic drive toward the Persian
increase trade and cultural contacts with the Soviet Union. Gulf; rather, it was an effort to increase Soviet influence
His purpose was to set up a series of “linkages” in U.S.- in a sensitive region increasingly beset with Islamic fer-
Soviet relations that would persuade Moscow of the eco- vor. Soviet officials feared that the wave of Islamic activ-
nomic and social benefits of maintaining good relations ism could spread to the Muslim populations in the Soviet
with the West. republics in central Asia. Now they were emboldened to
The Helsinki Accords of 1975 were a symbol of that act, because they were confident that the United States
new relationship. Signed by the United States, Canada, and was too distracted by the so-called Vietnam syndrome
all European nations on both sides of the Iron Curtain, (the public fear of U.S. involvement in another Vietnam-
these accords recognized all borders in Central and Eastern type conflict) to respond.
Europe established since the end of World War II, thereby Other factors also contributed to the growing suspi-
formally acknowledging for the first time the Soviet sphere cion of the Soviet Union in the United States. During the
of influence. The Helsinki Accords also committed the sig- era of détente, Washington officials had assumed that
natory powers to recognize and protect the human rights Moscow accepted the U.S. doctrine of equivalence—the
of their citizens, a clear effort by the Western states to idea that both sides possessed sufficient strength to destroy
improve the performance of the Soviet Union and its allies the other in the event of a surprise attack. By the end of
in that area. the 1970s, however, some U.S. defense analysts began to
charge that the Soviets were seeking strategic superiority
7-4a An End to Détente? in nuclear weapons and argued for a substantial increase
in U.S. defense spending. Such charges, combined with
Protection of human rights became one of the major for-
evidence of Soviet efforts in Africa and the Middle East
eign policy goals of the next U.S. president, Jimmy Carter
and reports of the persecution of Jews and dissidents in
(b. 1924). Ironically, just at the point when U.S. involve-
the Soviet Union, helped undermine public support for
ment in Vietnam came to an end and relations with China
détente in the United States. These changing attitudes
began to improve, the mood in U.S.-Soviet relations began
were reflected in the failure of the Carter administration
to sour.
to obtain congressional approval of a new arms limita-
Renewed Tensions in the Third World There were sev- tion agreement (SALT II) signed with the Soviet Union
eral reasons. Some Americans had become increasingly in 1979.
concerned about aggressive new tendencies in Soviet for-
eign policy, notably in Africa, where Soviet influence was 7-4b Countering the Evil Empire
on the rise. Moscow sought influence in Somalia, across The early years of the administration of President Ronald
the Red Sea in South Yemen, and in neighboring Ethiopia, Reagan (1911–2004) witnessed a return to the harsh rhet-
where a Marxist regime took control of the government. oric, if not all of the harsh practices, of the Cold War.
Soviet involvement was also on the increase in south- President Reagan’s anti-Communist credentials were
ern Africa, where an insurgent movement supported by well known. In a speech given shortly after his elec-
Cuban troops came to power in Angola, once a colony tion in 1980, he referred to the Soviet Union as an “evil
of Portugal. empire” and frequently voiced his suspicion of its motives
Then, in 1979, U.S. concerns about Soviet expan- in foreign affairs. Taking issue with the strategy of con-
sionism shifted to the Middle East, where Soviet troops tainment that had guided U.S. foreign policy for three
were sent across the border into Afghanistan to protect decades, he was determined to apply heavy pressure on
a newly installed Marxist regime that was facing rising Moscow in a bid to force a roll back of its gains around
internal resistance from fundamentalist Muslim guerrilla the world. To counter perceived Soviet advantages in stra-
groups. Some U.S. observers suspected that Moscow’s tegic weaponry, the White House also began a military
motive in deciding to advance into hitherto neutral buildup that stimulated a renewed arms race. In 1982,
Afghanistan was to extend Soviet power into the oil fields the Reagan administration introduced the nuclear-tipped
cruise missile, whose ability to fly at low altitudes made Gorbachev’s desperate effort to rescue the Soviet Union
it difficult to detect by enemy radar. Reagan also became from collapse was too little and too late. In 1991, the Soviet
an ardent exponent of the Strategic Defense Initiative Union, so long an apparently permanent fixture on the
(SDI), nicknamed Star Wars. Its purposes were to create global scene, suddenly disintegrated. In its place arose
a space shield that could destroy incoming missiles, and several new nations from the ashes of the Soviet Empire.
to force Moscow into an arms race that it could not hope Meanwhile, the string of Soviet satellites in Eastern Europe
to win. President Reagan’s assumptions about Moscow’s broke loose from Moscow’s grip and declared their inde-
economic vulnerability were correct: with the price of oil pendence from Communist rule. The era of the Cold War
dropping worldwide, Soviet revenues were down sharply, was over. We shall describe these dramatic events in more
making it not only more difficult for them to pay for food detail in Chapter 9.
imports, but also to finance their subsidies to failing econ- The end of the Cold War lulled many observers into
omies in Eastern Europe. At first, Soviet leaders reacted the seductive vision of a new world order that would be
to the bellicose remarks coming out of Washington by characterized by peaceful cooperation and increasing
making preparations for war, only to cancel them later in prosperity. President George H.W. Bush, Reagan’s vice
the decade when the White House assured the Kremlin of
its peaceful intentions.
The Reagan administration also adopted a more activ-
ist stance in the Third World. By providing military sup-
port to the devoutly Islamic anti-Soviet insurgents in
Afghanistan, the White House helped maintain a Vietnam-
like war in Afghanistan that would embed the Soviet
Union in its own quagmire. In Central America, where
the revolutionary Sandinista regime in Nicaragua was
supporting a guerrilla insurgency in nearby El Salvador,
the Reagan administration began to provide material aid
to the government in El Salvador while simultaneously
applying pressure on the Sandinistas by giving support to
an anti-Communist guerrilla movement (the Contras) in
Nicaragua itself. The administration’s Central American
policy caused considerable controversy in Congress, how-
ever, with Democratic critics charging that growing U.S.
involvement there could lead to a repeat of the nation’s
bitter experience in Vietnam.
7-4c Toward a New World Order

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1931) was elected CPSU
general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet
David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images

Union in Moscow. During Brezhnev’s last years and the
brief tenures of his two successors (see Chapter 9), the
Soviet Union had entered an era of serious economic
decline, and the dynamic new party chief was well
aware that drastic changes would be needed to rekindle
the dreams that had inspired the Bolshevik Revolution.
During the next few years, he launched a program of
IMAGE 7.5 Reagan and Gorbachev in Reykjavik. With the election
restructuring (perestroika) to revitalize the Soviet system. of Mikhail Gorbachev as party general secretary in 1985,
As part of that program, he set out to improve relations Moscow and Washington began to explore the means to reduce
with the United States and the rest of the capitalist world. tensions between the two great powers. In October of 1986,
When he met with President Reagan in Reykjavik, the Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan held a summit
meeting in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, to explore issues
capital of Iceland, in 1985, the two leaders agreed to set
of concern to both sides. Although no agreements resulted from
aside their ideological differences, but Gorbachev was the meeting, the atmospherics from the meeting resulted in a
unsuccessful in his effort to persuade Reagan to abandon new era of good feeling, and soon led to meaningful agreements
the Star Wars project (see Image 7.5). on arms control and a reduction of tensions in the Cold War.
7-4 An Era of Equivalence ■ 187

president and successor in the White House, predicted Elsewhere, bloody ethnic and religious disputes broke out
that a New World Order, characterized by peace and pros- in Africa and the Middle East. Then, on September 11,
perity, was in the wings. Sadly, such hopes have not been 2001, the world entered a dangerous new era when terror-
realized. A bitter civil war in the Balkans in the mid-1990s ists attacked the nerve centers of U.S. power in New York
graphically demonstrated that old fault lines of national City and Washington, D.C., inaugurating a new round of
and ethnic hostility still divided the post-Cold War world. tension between the West and the forces of militant Islam.
making connections
At the end of World War II, the two new superpowers, the a mutual confrontation to change the balance of forces.
United States and the Soviet Union, began to compete for Neither side had to win, just not to lose.
global hegemony. Joined by their allies, they faced each How then should we evaluate the effectiveness of U.S.
other across an ideological divide characterized by high and Soviet foreign policy goals and achievements during
levels of hostility and suspicion. This division began in the Cold War? The Truman administration latched on to
Europe but soon spread to the rest of the world as nations George F. Kennan’s doctrine of containment as the most
everywhere were pressured to line up on one side of the effective means of countering the Soviet threat within
ideological ledger, or on the other. For the most part, the months of the end of the resumption of peace. Successive
competition between the two blocs took place in the politi- U.S. administrations then continued to follow that strategy
cal arena, but sometimes—as in Berlin—the risk of a direct for the next thirty years, and it bore fruit when the Soviet
confrontation between Moscow and Washington reached regime ultimately collapsed in 1991. Containment did not
crisis proportions. In a few instances as well—notably in always succeed as planned, however, notably in Southeast
Korea and Vietnam—the Cold War became too hot to Asia when several presidents miscalculated by seeking to
handle and exploded onto the battlefield. To many con- apply the lessons of Munich in South Vietnam. Hardened
temporary observers, a nuclear confrontation appeared Cold War warriors might still claim that defeat in Vietnam
almost inevitable. had at least bought sufficient time for other nations in the
As time went on, however, there were tantalizing region to develop the capacity to stave off the threat of
signs of a thaw in the Cold War. In 1979, China and the social revolution. Even if that is true, the costs were sub-
United States brought an end to their own mutual animos- stantial, not only in lives and resources, but in the lasting
ity and decided to establish mutual diplomatic relations, damage that it posed to America’s global reputation and to
a consequence of Beijing’s decision to focus on domestic its social fabric as well (see Chapter 8).
reform and stop supporting wars of national liberation. A On the other hand, the balance sheet on Moscow’s
little over a decade later, the Soviet Union itself collapsed, strategy during the Cold War leaves much to be desired.
bringing to a close almost half a century of bitter rivalry Lenin’s prediction that a social revolution in Europe was
between the world’s two superpowers. The Cold War had inevitable has not yet been validated by the passage of
ended without the horrifying vision of a mushroom cloud. time. More important, perhaps, Moscow’s gamble that the
Why had forty years of intense competition between Soviet Union could outperform the capitalist democracies
two power blocs ended, not with a bang, but with a whim- in meeting the needs of its citizens proved way off the
per in Moscow? Surely, one key factor is the fact that the mark. In the end, it was not military superiority but politi-
senior leadership on both sides developed a healthy respect cal, economic, and cultural factors that brought about the
for the enormous destructive power of nuclear weapons triumph of Western civilization over the Marxist vision of
and came to realize (sometimes in defiance of their allies a classless utopia.
or their chief advisers) that the competition should be Then did the United States win the Cold War, as some
carried out, as much as possible, in the realm of politics voices in Washington triumphantly proclaimed when the
rather than on the battlefield. Another reason is that each Soviet Union was collapsing into dust? Perhaps it would
side came to envision victory not as a matter of occupying be more correct to say that over time the democratic capi-
the territory of the enemy, but of transforming its institu- talist system as practiced by the United States and many
tions and its value system from within. Both sides accepted of its allies proved to be more productive, more resilient,
the reality of the Iron Curtain and tacitly agreed to avoid and more broadly appealing than did its Marxist rival.
Whatever the case, the world could now shift its focus disorder) would it be? These issues will be addressed in the
to other problems of mutual concern. There would now chapters that follow.
inevitably be a new world order. But what sort of order (or
QQHow have historians answered the question of Do you agree? How might the Cold War have been
whether the United States or the Soviet Union bears avoided?
the primary responsibility for the Cold War, and what QQWhat disagreements brought about an end to the
evidence can be presented on each side of the issue? Sino-Soviet alliance in 1961? Which factors appear to have
QQThis chapter has described the outbreak of the been most important?
Cold War as virtually inevitable given the ambitions of QQHow did the wars in Korea and Vietnam relate to the
the two superpowers and their ideological differences. Cold War and affect its course?
Chapter Timeline
1945 1955 1965 1975 1985 1990
Europe
Yalta Marshall NATO Warsaw Pact SALT pact signed Meeting at Collapse
Conference Plan formed created (1972) Reykjavik of the
(1945) (1947) (1949) (1955) (1985) USSR
(1991)
Tito expelled
from Soviet bloc
(1948)
The Americas
Death of Cuban Missile Crisis
FDR (1945) (1962)
Asia
Geneva Conference Soviet invasion
ends conflict in Indochina of Afghanistan
(1954) (1979)
U.S. sends combat United States and

troops to Vietnam China normalize
(1965) relations (1979)
Civil war Korean War Sino-Soviet dispute Communists seize power

in China (1950–1953) breaks into open in South Vietnam
(1946–1949) (1961) (1975)
Nixon visits China

(1972)
Chapter Notes
1. Department of State Bulletin, February 11, 1945, p. 213. 4. From United States Relations with China (Washington,
2. Quoted in Joseph M. Jones, The Fifteen Weeks, February D.C., Department of State, 1949) pp. iii–xvi.
21–June 5, 1947, 2nd ed. (New York, 1964), pp. 140–141. 5. Cited in the New York Review of Books, June 9, 2011,
3. Quoted in Misha Glenny, The Balkans: Nationalism, War, p. 71.
and the Great Powers (New York, 1999), pp. 543–544.

Chapter
The United States, Canada,
8 and Latin America
Chapter Outline and

Focus Questions
8-1 The United States Since 1945
QQWhat are the issues that have most consistently
Everett Collection Historical/Alamy Stock Photo

shaped the nature of U.S. politics since the end
of World War II?
8-2 The Changing Face of American Society
QQIn what major ways has American society
evolved over the decades since 1945? Have these
changes been for the good or the bad?
8-3 The World of Culture
QQHow have cultural developments reflected IMAGE 8.1 President Lyndon Johnson, champion of the Great Society
the changes taking place in other sectors of programs, speaking at a ceremony in 1967 commemorating the birth
U.S. society? of the 200-millionth U.S. citizen.
8-4 Canada: In the Shadow of Goliath

QQTo what degree has the recent history of Canada
resembled or contrasted with that of its close ON MAY 22, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson gave
neighbor the United States? a policy speech before an audience of students at
the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He used
8-5 D
emocracy, Dictatorship, and Development the occasion to propose a new domestic strategy—to
in Latin America Since 1945 be known as the “Great Society”—to bring about
QQIn what ways have the nations of Latin American major economic and social reforms in the United
sought to rid themselves of the dependency States. The aim of these reforms, he said, would be
relationship with Europe and the United States to use the national wealth “to enrich and elevate
which had developed in the late nineteenth century? our national life and to advance the quality of our
American civilization.”1
In his State of the Union address the following
January, President Johnson unveiled some of the
details of his plan. They included increased funding
for education, urban renewal, crime fighting, disease
prevention, a new Medicare program, and a war on
poverty. Finally, he called for an extension of voting
rights to guarantee the franchise to all citizens.
Connections to Today During the next few years, the U.S. Congress
enacted many of the programs proposed by the
If it is true that the history of American politics Johnson administration, and the Great Society
tends to shift back and forth on the issue of became a familiar part of the American landscape.
government intervention into society and the A few years, later, however, it came under attack,
economy, what do you think the trend is today? as a more conservative electorate turned away from
expensive welfare programs and endorsed a more
190
modest approach to meeting the social needs of grew at an average rate of 3 percent a year, the most pro-
the American people. An era of active government longed advance in American history.
intervention to bring about changes in the fabric of Also contributing to the economic recovery was the
American society had come to an end. decision by Western leaders to avoid the vicious trade
wars that had taken place in the 1930s. The first stage
took place in 1947, when twenty-three nations accepted
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT); its
8-1The United States goal was to lower tariffs and quotas in order to promote
Since 1945 free trade on a global basis. To stimulate growth in poorer
nations, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was estab-
QQ Focus Question: What are the issues that have

most consistently shaped the nature of U.S.
lished to stabilize the global financial system by supervis-
ing exchange rates and providing financial and technical
assistance to nations encountering economic difficulties.
politics since the end of World War II? The World Bank was created to provide grants and loans
to assist developing countries in building up their infra-
For a generation after World War II, the legacy of Franklin structure so that they could compete more effectively in
Roosevelt’s New Deal continued to determine the param- the global marketplace. As the world economy gradually
eters of American domestic politics. The New Deal gave recovered and demand for U.S. manufactures increased
rise to a distinct pattern that signified a basic transforma- (especially in Europe, where the Marshall Plan had stipu-
tion in American society. This pattern included a dramatic lated that European aid recipients purchase goods from
increase in the role and power of the federal government; U.S. manufacturers), the United States assumed the role
the rise of organized labor as a significant force in the of workshop of the world, providing jobs for millions of
economy and politics; a commitment to the welfare state, American servicemen returning home from the European
albeit a restricted one (Americans did not have access to and Pacific theaters.
universal healthcare as citizens of most other industrial- Riding the wave of popular approval for Roosevelt’s
ized societies did); a grudging acceptance of the need to progressive program, the Democratic Party controlled the
resolve problems of minority groups; and a willingness to White House until 1952, when the Republican candidate
experiment with deficit spending as a means of stimulating and war hero Dwight D. Eisenhower won election to the
the economy. presidency. Ike, as he was popularly known, was by instinct
a fiscal and “small government” conservative, but he tacitly
accepted the fundamental premises of the New Deal and
An Era of Prosperity and Social
8-1a even extended them by embarking on the construction of
Commitment a massive interstate highway system. Although the project
One reason for the success of New Deal policies in the post- was justified on the grounds of national defense, it served
war era was the general economic recovery that took place as a massive jobs program and stimulated the economy
in the years following the resumption of peace. A shortage while improving the nation’s infrastructure.
of consumer goods during the war had left Americans with The Eisenhower years, however, were clouded by
both surplus income and the desire to purchase these goods a growing sense of insecurity about the world beyond
after the war. Then, too, the growing power of organized the borders of the United States (see Chapter 7). The
labor enabled more and more workers to obtain the wage Communist victory in China, the public reaction to which
increases that fueled the growth of the domestic market. had played an important role in Eisenhower’s election
Increased government expenditures—based on the theory to the presidency, aroused fears that Communists had
of English economist John Maynard Keynes that govern- infiltrated the United States. A demagogic senator from
ment spending could stimulate a lagging economy to reach Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, helped intensify a massive
higher levels of productivity—along with higher tax rates “Red scare” with unsubstantiated allegations that there
on the wealthy, also indirectly subsidized the American were hundreds of Communists in high government posi-
private enterprise system. Outlays on defense, especially tions. Congressional hearings on the matter were held
after the Korean War began in 1950, provided money for by the House Un-American Activities Committee, and
scientific research in universities and markets for weapons dozens of government officials and public figures were
industries. After 1955, tax dollars built a massive system of accused of radical sympathies or past membership in the
interstate highways, and tax deductions for mortgages sub- Communist Party. A number of film actors and produc-
sidized homeowners. Between 1945 and 1973, real wages ers were placed on a blacklist that prevented them from
8-1 The United States Since 1945 ■ 191

finding employment in Hollywood. One U.S. senator even in a landmark decision entitled “Brown versus the Board
accused General George C. Marshall of treason for his of Education,” the Supreme Court in 1954 unanimously
efforts to bring about a truce in the civil war in China.2 struck down the practice of maintaining racially segregated
In the end, McCarthy overplayed his hand when he public schools. According to the then recently appointed
attacked alleged “Communist conspirators” in the U.S. Chief Justice Earl Warren, “Separate educational facilities
Army, and he was censured by Congress in 1954. Soon are inherently unequal.” Support from the U.S. foreign
afterward, his anti-Communist crusade came to an end. policy establishment was a key factor in promoting the
The pervasive fear of communism and the possibility of a decision, since the treatment of racial minorities was often
nuclear war, however, remained strong. For those millions cited abroad by critics of the United States to point to the
of Americans living in major metropolitan areas, the wail- falsity of its claim to be a free society in comparison with
ing of a siren in the night always conjured up latent fears of the Soviet Union.
a surprise nuclear attack from the Soviet Union. The 1950s But it would take more than a single judicial decision to
were not as tranquil as they have often been portrayed in change the hearts and minds of many Americans. White
more recent times. politicians in Southern states refused to eliminate exist-
ing segregation laws, basing their defiance on the issue of
Toward the Great Society By the late 1950s, economic state’s rights. Some African American leaders were also
growth had begun to decline because of the Eisenhower uneasy that the decision could undermine the progress that
administration’s tight money policies, and the Democrats had been achieved in establishing prestigious black educa-
returned to power in 1960 with the election of John F. tional institutions across the South. President Eisenhower
Kennedy as president. At age forty-three, Kennedy became himself privately expressed his concern that a judicial deci-
the youngest elected president in the history of the United sion that ran counter to deeply held popular beliefs could
States and the first born in the twentieth century. The new result in an uptick in racial violence across the country.
administration focused its attention primarily on foreign Eisenhower’s concerns were soon vindicated. Resistance
affairs, but it also adopted policies that inaugurated an to integrated schools was fierce in southern states, and on
extended period of increased economic growth, the result— those few occasions when blacks had registered to attend
in part—of lower taxes and a business-friendly atmosphere. white schools, violence had erupted. The issue came to a
But the bright promise of a new era of peace, progress, and head in December 1955, when the black seamstress Rosa
prosperity was suddenly shattered on November 22, 1963, Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a
when Kennedy was assassinated under mysterious circum- bus in Montgomery, Alabama. When she was evicted from
stances by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas. the bus and put in prison, Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–
Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, who won a 1968), a young Baptist minister of a local black church,
new term as president in a landslide in 1964, used his stun- spoke eloquently at the pulpit on behalf of racial equality,
ning mandate to pursue the growth of the welfare state, while supporting a boycott of segregated buses that lasted
first begun in the New Deal. Johnson’s Great Society pro- over a year. In November 1956, the practice was declared
grams included healthcare for the elderly, a “war on pov- unconstitutional.
erty” to be fought with food stamps and a “job corps,” a By the early 1960s, a number of groups, including
new Department of Housing and Urban Development to King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC),
deal with the problems of the cities, and federal assistance were organizing demonstrations and sit-ins across the
for education. South to end racial segregation. In August 1963, King led the
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. This march
Focus on Civil Rights The nation had made little prog- and King’s impassioned plea for racial equality had an
ress on improving civil rights for African Americans in electrifying effect on the American people (see Image 8.2).
the years following World War II. The practice of legally President Kennedy, newly aware of the seriousness of
segregating blacks from whites (known as Jim Crow laws) the racial problem in the United States, resolved to act,
was rampant in the South. Blacks in the southern states and the White House initiated legislation to extend civil
attended separate schools, ate at separate restaurants, lived rights, but the president died before the bill was enacted
in separate communities, and even used separate toilet into law.
facilities. That practice, known by the term “separate but On June 21, 1964, three young civil rights workers dis-
equal” had been declared legal by the Supreme Court in a appeared while investigating the torching of an African
decision reached in 1895. American church in Mississippi. A few weeks later, their bod-
By the early 1950s, resistance to racial segregation ies were discovered in a partially constructed dam nearby.
was growing in the African American community, and Although Kennedy’s successor Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ)
192 ■ CHAPTER 8 The United States, Canada, and Latin America

IMAGE 8.2 “I Have a Dream.” On August
28, 1963 the Reverend Martin Luther
King, Jr. spoke before massive crowds
Martin Luther King (1929-1968 black) American priest activist for Civil Right Movement black Americans making
a speech outside Memorial Lincoln in Washington during a meeting of 200000 black and white people against
in front of the Lincoln Memorial in
Washington, D.C. His speech, an
appeal to the American people to grant
equal rights to their fellow citizens of
African heritage, electrified the nation
and provided an enormous boost to the
cause of racial equality in the United
States. It would later be recalled as
the “I have a dream” speech.
Q Why do you think Martin Luther

King selected the Lincoln
Memorial as the site of his
impassioned address?
segregation on May 17, 1957/RUE DES ARCHIVES
had been a senator from the southern state of Texas and A Nation Divided Unfortunately, the passage of legisla-
had once supported segregation laws, he now recognized tion designed to bring LBJ’s vision of The Great Society to
the need for action, and decided to take advantage of the reality coincided with the escalation of the Vietnam War
uproar caused by the incident to promote the cause of (see Chapter 7). Johnson did not want the war to define
civil rights legislation. In 1964, Congress enacted the Civil his presidency, yet he was determined to avoid a U.S.
Rights Act, which ended segregation and discrimination defeat in Southeast Asia, fearing that it would expose the
in the workplace and in all public accommodations. The Democratic Party once again to the charge by Republicans
Voting Rights Act, passed the following year, eliminated of being “soft on Communism,” such as had occurred after
racial obstacles to voting in southern states (see Historical the defeat of Republican China over a decade previously.
Voices, “From Dream to Reality,” p. 194). By now, the country was increasingly divided over the
Outside the South, African Americans had had voting war in Vietnam, especially when more and more young
rights for many years, but local patterns of segregation Americans—many of them draftees—were being sent into
resulted in considerably higher unemployment rates for combat (see Image 8.3).
blacks than for whites, and also left them segregated in The antiwar protests arose out of a free speech movement
huge urban ghettos. Some black leaders, like Malcolm X that began in 1964 at the University of California at Berkeley
of the Black Muslims, grew impatient with Martin Luther as a protest against the impersonality and authoritarianism
King’s appeals for non-violent protest and began to call for of the large university. As the Vietnam war progressed and
militant action. In the summer of 1965, race riots erupted U.S. casualties mounted, protests escalated. Teach-ins, sit-
in the Watts district of Los Angeles and led to thirty-four ins, and the occupation of university buildings alternated
deaths and the destruction of more than one thousand with more radical demonstrations that increasingly led to
buildings. After the assassination of Martin Luther King violence. Those who supported the protests contended that
by a white supremacist in 1968, more than 100 cities expe- the antiwar movement helped weaken the willingness of
rienced rioting, including Washington, D.C., the nation’s many Americans to continue to support the war. But the
capital. The combination of riots and provocative com- combination of antiwar demonstrations and ghetto riots
ments by radical black leaders led to a “white backlash” in the cities also provoked many Americans to embrace
and a decline in support for civil rights issues among the “law and order,” an appeal used effectively by Richard M.
white population. Nixon (1913–1994), the Republican presidential candidate,

HISTORICAL VOICES
From Dream to Reality

wholly in writing, and (ii) a certified copy of the test
Q What forms of discrimination had been common and of the answers given by the individual; is fur-
practice before the passage of The Civil Rights nished to him within twenty-five days of the submis-
Act of 1964? sion of his request made within the period of time
during which records and papers are required to be
retained and preserved pursuant to Title III of the
Politics & Pursuant to a speech by President John
Government Civil Rights Act of 1960 . . .
F. Kennedy in June 1963, the White House
had proposed civil rights legislation to guarantee voting
DISCRIMINATION BECAUSE OF RACE, COLOR,
rights and protection from discrimination for all Americans,
RELIGION, SEX, OR NATIONAL ORIGIN
regardless of race, color, sex, or creed. Before Kennedy’s
assassination in November, the bill had stalled in Congress,
SEC 703. (a) It shall be an unlawful employment practice
but Kennedy’s successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, was
for an employer –
able to push the bill through Congress the following year. (1) t o fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed many forms with respect to his compensation, terms, condi-
of racial discrimination, as can be seen in the document tions, or privileges of employment, because of such
below, but the problem has not yet been resolved, as individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national
opponents continue to seek various means to prevent origins; or
American citizens from exercising their right to vote. (2) to limit, segregate, or classify his employees in any
way which would deprive or tend to deprive any
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 individual of employment opportunities or otherwise
Title I – VOTING RIGHTS adversely affect his status as an employee, because of
(2) No person acting under color of law shall – such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national
(A) in determining whether any individual is quali- origin . . . It shall be an unlawful employment practice
fied under State law or laws to vote in any Federal for a labor organization –
election, apply any standard, practice, or procedure (1) t o exclude or to expel from its membership or
different from the standards, practices, or procedures otherwise to discriminate against, any individual
applied under such law or laws to other individuals because of his race, color, religion, sex, or
within the same county, parish, or similar political national origins;
sub-division who have been found by State officials (2) to limit, segregate or classify its membership, or
to be qualified to vote; to clarify or fail or refuse to refer for employment
(B) deny the right of any individual to vote in any any individual, in any way which would deprive
Federal election because of an error or omission on or tend to deprive any individual of employment
any record or paper relating to any application, regis- opportunities, or would limit such employment
tration, or other act requisite to voting, if such error opportunities or otherwise adversely affect his
or omission is not material in determining whether status as an employee or as an applicant for
such individual is qualified under State law to vote in employment, because of such individual’s race,
such elections; or color, religion, sex, or national origin; or
(C) employ any literacy test as a qualification for (3) to cause or attempt to cause an employer to
voting in any Federal election unless (i) such test is discriminate against any individual in violation
administered to each individual and is conducted of this section . . .
Source: Our Documents: 100 Milestone Documents from the National Archives (Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 236–237.

Coolidge that “the business of govern-
ment is business.” The ideal of equality
was fine, but it wasn’t the responsibility
of the government to enforce it. In fact,
growing economic inequality had been
grudgingly accepted so long as opportu-
nities for the general public to improve
their economic situation were ade-
quate. But when the Great Depression
struck with a force that induced despair
on millions of Americans, the tide had
changed dramatically, and millions of
Americans embraced the motives and
the policies of the openly intervention-
William J. Duiker
ist New Deal. By the 1960s, however,

most Americans enjoying a new era of
unprecedented prosperity, and the pen-
IMAGE 8.3 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Often lost in the passions that surrounded dulum was about to swing once again in
the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War were the countless individual tragedies the other direction.
suffered by loved ones who lost a family member in the conflict. In 1982, construction
began on a 300-foot wall on the grounds of the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
The wall was designed by the American architect Maya Lin and was dedicated to all
Nixon and Watergate Nixon owed his
the men and women who had fought in the war. The names of more than 58,000 men election, at least in part, to the disar-
and women who died in the conflict are inscribed on large slabs of black marble at the ray within the Democratic Party over
site. The reflections of visitors appear on the surface of the wall and represent a means the war in Vietnam, where more than
of linking the present and the past together in memory of the experience. An average 500,000 U.S. troops were now stationed,
of three million people visit the site each year.
and the new president did not seek to
reverse the liberal programs—many of
during the election campaign of 1968. By then, the pas- them popular with the public—enacted by his predeces-
sions of the nation had been consumed by the conflict in sors. He even signed the National Environmental Policy
Southeast Asia, and in early 1968, Johnson announced that Act, which established a national policy for the protection
he would not seek re-election. With Nixon’s election over of the environment. Nixon also reduced U.S. involvement
the Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey in 1968, a in Vietnam by gradually withdrawing American troops
shift to the right in American politics had begun. and appealing to the “silent majority” of Americans for
patience in bringing the conflict to an end. He also broke
with his strong anti-Communist past when he visited
8-1b America Shifts to the Right China in 1972 and opened the door to the eventual diplo-
There has always been an element of tension between matic recognition of that Communist state.
the concepts of liberty and equality in American society, But on racial issues, Nixon clearly embarked on a new
between the desire for individual freedom and the right of course, dubbed the “southern strategy” by one of his senior
every citizen to an equal opportunity to “life, liberty, and advisers. This strategy was dictated in part by the hope for
the pursuit of happiness” (in the words of the Declaration political gain. By signaling to voters in the southern states
of Independence). The fact that many early immigrants to that the Republican Party was sympathetic to the view
the United States had fled their original homes to escape that individual states should have the right to decide issues
tyrannical governments ensured that their objective on related to civil rights on their own, the White House hoped
reaching their new home was to secure the freedom to to pry such voters from their historical alignment with the
pursue their own destiny. But the concept of equality was Democrats that dated back to the Civil War. The Republican
somewhat harder to grasp, since for many Americans the strategy also gained some support among Democrats in
essence of Christian teachings was not to question one’s northern cities, where court-mandated busing to achieve
station in this life, but to seek salvation in the life to come. racial integration in schools had produced a white backlash.
For much of its early history, the American republic But Nixon was paranoid about conspiracies and, despite
had been based on the concept of rugged individualism— a landslide victory over the anti-war Democratic candidate
epitomized by the famous remark by President Calvin George McGovern in the presidential election in 1972,
he began to use illegal methods of gaining political intel- a weak president. His overwhelming loss to Ronald Reagan
ligence about his political opponents. One of the presi- in the election of 1980 brought forward the chief exponent
dent’s advisers explained that their intention was to “use of conservative Republican policies and a new political order.
the available federal machinery to screw our political
enemies.” Nixon’s zeal led to the infamous Watergate Dismantling the Welfare State The conservative trend
scandal—the attempted bugging of Democratic National accelerated in the 1980s. The election of Ronald Reagan
Headquarters located at the Watergate complex in down- changed the trajectory of American policy on several fronts.
town Washington, D.C. Although Nixon repeatedly lied Reversing decades of the expanding welfare state, Reagan
to the American public about his involvement in the cut spending on food stamps, school lunch programs, and
affair, secret tapes of his own conversations in the White job programs. At the same time, his administration fos-
House revealed the truth. With a number of Republicans tered the largest peacetime military buildup in American
in Congress willing to support the initiation of impeach- history. Total federal spending rose from $631 billion in
ment proceedings, on August 9, 1974, Nixon resigned from 1981 to more than $1 trillion by 1986. But instead of rais-
office, an act that saved him from almost certain impeach- ing taxes to pay for the new expenditures, which far out-
ment and conviction. weighed the budget cuts in social areas, Reagan convinced
Congress to support supply-side economics. Massive tax
The First Oil Crisis After Watergate and the end of the cuts were designed to stimulate rapid economic growth
Vietnam War in 1975, American domestic politics began and thus produce new revenues in the future.
to focus on economic issues. Gerald R. Ford (1913–2006) The American public, weary of high levels of govern-
became president when Nixon resigned, only to lose in ment spending on social issues that never seemed to pro-
the 1976 election to the Democratic former governor of duce results, found President Reagan’s approach appealing
Georgia, Jimmy Carter, who campaigned as an outsider— and reelected him by overwhelming margins to a second
and a southerner—against the Washington establishment. term in 1984. The country experienced an economic upturn
Both Ford and Carter faced growing economic problems. that lasted until the end of the decade, but the adminis-
The period from 1973 to the mid-1980s was one of eco- tration’s spending policies also resulted in record govern-
nomic stagnation, a condition which came to be known ment deficits, which loomed as an obstacle to long-term
as stagflation—a combination of high inflation and high growth. In 1980, the total government debt was around
unemployment. In 1984, median family income was 6 per- $930 billion; by 1988, the total debt had almost tripled,
cent below that of 1973. reaching $2.6 trillion. The inability of George H. W. Bush
The economic downturn stemmed at least in part from (b. 1924), Reagan’s vice president and successor, to deal with
a dramatic rise in oil prices. Oil had been a cheap and abun- a brief economic downturn contributed to the election of a
dant source of energy in the 1950s, but by the late 1970s, Democrat, Bill Clinton (b. 1946), in November 1992.
half of the oil used in the United States came from the
Middle East. An oil embargo imposed by the Organization 8-1c Seizing the Political Center
of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cartel as a reac- The new president was a southerner who claimed to be
tion to the Arab-Israeli War in 1973 and OPEC’s subsequent a “new Democrat”—one who favored fiscal responsibil-
raising of prices led to a quadrupling of the cost of oil. By ity and a more conservative social agenda—a clear indica-
the end of the 1970s, oil prices had increased twentyfold, tion that the rightward drift in American politics had not
encouraging inflationary tendencies throughout the entire been reversed but only modified by his victory. During
economy. Although the Carter administration proposed a his first term in office, Clinton reduced the budget defi-
plan for reducing oil consumption at home while spurring cit and signed a bill turning many welfare programs back
domestic production, neither Congress nor the American to the states while pushing measures to strengthen edu-
people could be persuaded to follow what they regarded as cation and provide job opportunities for those Americans
unnecessarily drastic measures. removed from the welfare rolls. By seizing the center of
By 1980, the Carter administration was facing two dev- the American political agenda, Clinton was able to win
astating problems. High inflation and a noticeable decline reelection in 1996, although the Republican Party now
in average weekly earnings were causing a perceptible drop held a majority in both houses of Congress.
in American living standards. At the same time, a crisis President Clinton’s political fortunes were helped con-
abroad had erupted when fifty-three Americans were taken siderably by a lengthy economic revival. Thanks to down-
hostage by the Iranian government of Ayatollah Khomeini sizing and dramatic technological advances, major U.S.
(see Chapter 15). Carter’s inability to gain the release of the corporations began to recover the competitive edge they
American hostages led to the perception at home that he was had lost to Japanese and European firms in previous years.

At the same time, a steady reduction in the annual govern- The Politics of Terrorism On September 11, 2001, Muslim
ment budget deficit strengthened public confidence in the terrorists hijacked four commercial jet planes shortly after
performance of the national economy. Although wage they took off from Boston, Newark, and Washington, D.C.
increases were modest (partly due to a decline in union Two of the planes were flown directly into the twin towers
membership among American workers), inflation was of the World Trade Center in New York City, causing both
securely in check, and public confidence in the future was buildings to collapse; a third slammed into the Pentagon,
on the rise. Reflecting that confidence in American com- near Washington, D.C; and the fourth crashed in a field
petitiveness, the administration signed the North American in central Pennsylvania. About 3000 people were killed,
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which reduced mutual tar- including everyone aboard the four airliners (see Image
iffs with Canada and Mexico. It also joined the new World 16.1 “Terrorist Attack on The World Trade Center in New
Trade Organization (WTO), which replaced GATT. York City,” p. 396). The hijackings were carried out by a
President Clinton’s shift toward the center was moti- terrorist organization known as al-Qaeda, which had been
vated in part by confidence that technological develop- suspected of bombing two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998
ments were about to play a major role in turning the United and attacking a U.S. naval ship, the U.S.S. Cole, two years
States into a post-industrial nation. Fears by working-class later. Its leader, Osama bin Laden (1957–2011), was a native
Americans that jobs in the manufacturing sector would be of Saudi Arabia who was allegedly angry at the growing
lost as factory owners fled to lower-salary countries like U.S. presence in the Middle East. President Bush vowed to
China and Mexico were dismissed by the White House, wage an offensive war on terrorism, and in October 2001,
which argued that the job losses would be more than com- with United Nations support, U.S. forces attacked al-Qaeda
pensated for in the new technological economy. bases in Afghanistan (see Chapter 15).
Many of the country’s social problems, however, The Bush administration had less success in gaining
remained unresolved. Although crime rates were down, UN approval for an attack on the brutal regime of Saddam
drug use, smoking, and alcoholism among young people Hussein in Iraq, which the White House accused of amass-
remained high, and the specter of rising medical costs ing weapons of mass destruction and providing support to
loomed as a generation of baby boomers (so called because terrorist groups in the region. Nevertheless, in March 2003,
they were born during the two decades after World War II U.S. forces invaded Iraq and quickly overthrew the Hussein
when there was a dramatic spike in the number of births) regime. Initially, the invasion had broad popular support in
neared retirement age. Americans remained bitterly divided the United States, but as insurgent activities continued to
over such issues as abortion and affirmative action programs inflict casualties on U.S. and Allied occupation forces—not
to rectify past discrimination on the basis of gender, race, or to speak of the deaths of thousands of Iraqi civilians—the
sexual orientation. war became more controversial. The failure to locate the
President Clinton contributed to the national sense of suspected weapons of mass destruction raised questions
unease by becoming the focus of a series of alleged finan- about the motives behind the administration’s decision to
cial and sexual scandals that aroused concerns among invade Iraq. Some Americans called for an immediate pull-
many Americans that the moral fiber of the country had out of U.S. troops.
been severely undermined. Accused of lying under oath in The Bush administration was also dogged by an eco-
a judicial hearing, he was impeached by the Republican- nomic downturn and a number of other domestic prob-
led majority in Congress. Although the effort to remove lems, including the outsourcing of American jobs to Asian
Clinton from office failed, his administration was tar- countries (especially to China, which joined the WTO in
nished, and in 2000, Republican candidate George W. 2001) and the failure to control illegal immigration from
Bush (b. 1946), the son of Clinton’s predecessor, narrowly Mexico. But it benefited from the public perception that
defeated Clinton’s vice president, Albert Gore, in the race the Republican Party was more effective at protecting
for the presidency. The election was decided at least partly the American people from the threat of terrorism than
on economic issues. Taking advantage of the failure of the its Democratic rival. Evangelical Christians—one of the
Democrats to address the economic concerns of many nation’s most vocal communities—were also drawn to
working-class Americans, the Republicans wooed them the Republican Party for its emphasis on traditional moral
with “values” issues, such as abortion, crime, the role of values and the sanctity of the family and its opposition
religion in society, the prevalence of homosexuality, and to abortion. Riding the wave of such concerns, President
the right to own a firearm. Still, after entering the White Bush defeated the Democratic candidate John F. Kerry in
House, President Bush followed his predecessor’s play- the presidential election of 2004.
book and sought to occupy the center of the political spec- After the election, the Bush administration sought to
trum while heeding the concerns of his conservative base. rein in the rising cost of domestic spending by presenting

new proposals to reform Social Security and the Medicare During Obama’s second term, the national economy
program. But the public was leery of cuts to popular entitle- continued gradually to improve, although the annual
ment programs, and the plans were quickly dropped. In the growth rate hovered around only three percent. Social
meantime, the war in Iraq continued to distract the White programs provided some protection for the most disadvan-
House from other pressing issues, including a dramatic rise taged in American society, but most Americans did not feel
in the price of oil and an exploding national budget deficit. much better off than they had been at the start of his first
In midterm elections held in the fall of 2006, the Democratic term in office. Meanwhile, rising imports and the outsourc-
Party seized control of both houses of Congress for the first ing of factories to countries with low labor costs like China
time in twelve years. and Mexico led to a steady loss of jobs for many working-
class Americans, especially for those in blue collar occupa-
A Historic Milestone The presidential campaign of 2008 tions. Much of the job loss was concentrated in rural areas
was historic in terms of the major candidates for high office. and in rust-belt cities in the Northeast and the Midwest.
The nominee of the Democratic Party, Illinois senator In the meantime, fundamental disagreements between
Barack Obama (b. 1961), was an African American of mixed the two major parties over a variety of issues, including
parentage. Senator John McCain, the Republican candidate, the role of government, the social safety net, immigration,
selected Alaska’s female governor Sarah Palin as his run- abortion, and LGBTQ rights, became increasingly wide.
ning mate. The Republican Party ran strongly on issues of Much of the opposition to President Obama’s agenda was
national security, but a sudden financial crisis, brought on by led by the so-called Tea Party, a loosely organized grass-
a serious downturn in the housing market and an ensuing roots movement that became an important force within
credit crunch, put the public focus squarely on the national the opposition Republican Party. Throughout the last years
economy. When the votes were counted, Barack Obama of the Obama presidency, this partisan divide threatened
had won a decisive victory over his Republican rival, while the ability of the political system to deal with the multiple
Democratic majorities increased in both houses of Congress. challenges facing the nation.
Barack Obama had run on a platform of economic change
and social renewal, but his immediate challenge was to reverse
the sudden downturn and put the U.S. economy back on a 8-1d Making America Great Again?
path of steady growth. In the face of Republican opposition, As the 2016 presidential election approached, the
his administration enacted into law a stimulus program to put Democrats nominated Hillary Rodham Clinton, the for-
millions of newly unemployed Americans back to work. But mer first lady who had gone on to represent the state of
the new president was unwilling to abandon his ambitious New York in the U.S. Senate and later served as President
social agenda and also pushed through the Patient Protection Obama’s first secretary of state. Clinton was the first
and Affordable Care Act (ACA)—popularly known as woman to serve as the presidential nominee of a major
Obamacare—that provided access to inexpensive healthcare political party in U.S. history. The nomination process to
to most U.S. citizens. But many Americans were wary of gov- select her Republican challenger was crowded, but the
ernment interference in their lives (one common complaint eventual victor was Donald J. Trump, a well-known entre-
about the legislation was that is mandated participation even preneur and TV promoter who based his campaign on a
for those who were uninterested in joining), and the ACA slogan to “Make America Great Again.” In the election
failed to achieve broad popular support around the country. held in early November, Trump won a surprising victory
Other legislative proposals, including additional stimulus in the Electoral College, although he had received about
projects and immigration reform, stalled in Congress after three million fewer votes than his Democratic rival.
Republicans made big gains in the 2010 midterm elections. What were the reasons behind his stunning rise to the
The presidential election of 2012 was fought primarily presidency? As a candidate, Trump had deliberately run as
on the state of the nation’s economy, which had shown an outsider to traditional American politics, promising to
only modest improvement under Obama’s stewardship. “drain the swamp” that, in the minds of many of his fol-
Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate, ran on a platform lowers, had long characterized the corrupt and ineffective
of low taxes and a sharp reduction in entitlement spending. government in Washington. He had also shrewdly identi-
But the reelection of President Obama—who called for a fied a number of key issues that animated the concerns
balanced approach combining tax increases for wealthy of a wide spectrum of voters, especially in the American
Americans and modest cuts in social spending—suggested heartland: resentment against government interference in
that, although many Americans remained distrustful of the private lives of American citizens; opposition to immi-
government, liberal programs like Social Security and gration (especially from across the border with Mexico and
Medicare were still widely popular. from the strife-torn Middle East); and rising public concern

at the loss of jobs as countless American factories were relo- generation grew up with higher expectations about their
cated overseas. This visceral public anger was focused pri- future material prospects than their parents had. The
marily on a number of key states in the Northeast and the members of this new consumer society focused much of
Midwest, states that could become the key to electoral vic- their attention on achieving a middle-class lifestyle, com-
tory or defeat. While the Trump campaign focused on such plete with a home in the suburbs, two automobiles, and
key battlegrounds, his Democratic opponent appeared to ample time for leisure activities. The growing predilection
take the support of angry white voters in the Midwest for for buying on the installment plan was an important fac-
granted and ran a lackluster campaign that failed to ignite tor in protecting the national economy from the cycle of
the enthusiasm of voters, many of whom, confident of “boom and bust” that had characterized the prewar period,
her inevitable victory, probably stayed at home on election but also increased the level of personal debt.
day. The election of Donald J. Trump to the presidency sig- With the introduction of credit cards, the personal debt
naled a major change in the direction of American politics. of the average American skyrocketed, while the savings
Because this raises so many issues related to the present rate plummeted to its lowest level in decades. By the end of
and future course of our democracy, we shall explore the the 1990s, adjustable rate mortgages had become increas-
implications of that change later in this book. ingly popular. Inappropriate mortgages were a major fac-
tor in the financial crisis that struck the national economy
in the fall of 2008, as were risky banking practices. The fact
8-2The Changing Face is that millions of Americans, with the encouragement of
their political leaders, had become enticed by easy credit
of American Society terms and were spending beyond their means. When hous-
ing prices stopped rising, the number of home foreclosures
QQ Focus Question: In what major ways has
American society evolved over the decades
increased dramatically, triggering a massive financial cri-
sis; the ensuing leap in unemployment led to more fore-
since 1945? Have these changes been for the closures, and the nation faced its most serious economic
good or the bad? recession in decades.
American social mores were also changing. Casual
attitudes toward premarital sex (a product in part of the
Major changes have taken place in American society since
introduction of the birth control pill) and the use of drugs
the end of World War II. New technologies such as tele-
(a practice that increased dramatically during the Vietnam
vision, jet planes, and the computer have dramatically
War) marked the emergence of a youth movement in the
altered the pace and nature of American life. Increased
1960s that questioned all authority and fostered rebellion
prosperity has led to the growth of the middle class, the
against older generations.
expansion of higher education, and a stunning increase
In a parallel development, American attitudes toward
in consumer demand for the products of a mass society.
religion also entered a state of flux. Once a nation marked
The building of a nationwide system of superhighways,
by a high level of religiosity (many of the early settlers,
combined with low fuel prices during much of the period,
after all, had fled their original homes in Europe in search
and steady improvements in the quality and operability
of freedom to worship in their own way), after World War
of automobiles, has produced a highly mobile society in
II more and more Americans had begun to adopt a more
which the average American family moves at least once
secular life-style; some abandoned formal ties to any estab-
every five years, sometimes from one end of the continent
lished Church. Paradoxically, millions of others—many of
to the other.
them concentrated in rural areas in the Midwest and the
One consequence of this change has been a movement
South—sought to find greater meaning and purpose in life
from rural areas and central cities into the suburbs. There
by seeking a more personal relationship with Christ. To
has also been an exodus of Americans from the Northeast
members of the growing Evangelical movement, a more
and Midwest to the “sunbelt” areas of the West and the
Christian lifestyle was seen as a necessary antidote for
South, where new industries have resulted in rapid eco-
avoiding the scourges of crime, drugs, and social alienation
nomic growth.
increasingly prevalent in American society as a whole.
Despite the growth of religiosity in some sectors of
8-2a A Consumer Society, a Permissive Society American society, the new social mores were evident
These changes in the physical surroundings of the coun- in the breakdown of the traditional nuclear family.
try have been matched by equally important shifts in the Divorce rates increased from ten percent in 1960 to over
social fabric. Boosted by rising incomes, the baby boom 22 percent twenty years later, so that in the 1980s,
8-2 The Changing Face of American Society ■ 199

one of every two first marriages was likely to end in physical and emotional needs. Although the Obama admin-
divorce. Attitudes toward extramarital sex were also istration pushed through an ambitious healthcare plan to
changing, and the stigma attached to children born help resolve the problem, many people continue to distrust
out of wedlock eroded dramatically. At the same time, the government to come to their assistance in times of
Americans in general were also becoming more receptive need. As a result, the ladder of upward mobility that once
to abortion and LGBTQ rights. In the 2012 elections, sev- defined American society has been taken away, and many
eral states approved referendums allowing same-sex mar- of the poorest Americans are locked in a poverty trap. To
riage, and in June 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court struck some, it seems now that there are now two Americas, with
down restrictive provisions contained in the Defense of vastly divergent lifestyles and sharply contrasting views on
Marriage Act, while declaring that the power to define many of the key issues facing the country as a whole.
marriage resided in the individual states.
From an economic perspective, one disquieting aspect
of this portrait of a changing America is the growing gap 8-2b The Melting Pot in Action
that exists between wealthy Americans and everyone else. One of the signature objectives of the Great Society
Beginning with the Reagan administration, which adopted Program was to improve living conditions for African
the strategy of supply-side economics in a bid to generate Americans and to hasten their integration into the broader
more rapid economic growth, income tax rates on upper- community. Fair housing laws were designed to break up
income Americans began falling steadily, while the average black ghettos and to encourage the emergence of mixed
American was little better off financially than he was in neighborhoods that reflected the broader statistical break-
the early 1960s. According to one statistical measure, since down of the country as a whole. Affirmative action legisla-
1980 the annual income of the top 0.01% of the country tion was passed that required school systems to integrate
has gone up an average of over 400 percent, while that of black students into better-funded white schools, and to
the bottom fifty percent has increased by less than five per- require all institutions of higher learning that accepted
cent. As a result, the ability of the average American to federal moneys to work toward achieving a better racial
buy a sufficient amount of consumer goods to keep the balance in their own student populations. But progress on
factories humming has become increasingly threatened. civil rights was not achieved without significant resistance:
Like their counterparts in mid-nineteenth century Europe, parents resisted the busing of their students to distant
U.S. corporations have increasingly been driven to seek out schools in order to achieve racial parity; predominantly
foreign markets that can absorb the cornucopia of goods white neighborhoods in the inner cities began to suffer
produced in their factories. from “white flight,” as families whose forebears had immi-
The combination of a slowing economy and wage stag- grated from Europe generations before began to abandon
nation that has prevailed in recent decades has had a mea- their homes to avoid the prospect of living in a racially
surable effect on the state of America as a whole. Only the mixed neighborhood. White students filed lawsuits to
more affluent sectors of society continue to harbor high complain that their application to attend a university had
expectations for their future lifestyle, are able to attend been rejected to make way for a lesser-qualified African
prestigious colleges, and to obtain high-paying jobs after American candidate.
graduation. Most other Americans face narrower hori- Over the years, some of these concerns have moder-
zons. As higher education has become more expensive— ated, in great part because the pace of racial integration
a consequence in part of declining government subsidies has slowed down. Truly mixed neighborhoods are still
devoted to public education—fewer young Americans are the exception in much of the country, while affirmative
able to afford the expense of completing a college degree. action has not fundamentally changed the fact that most
Lacking the technical skills needed to obtain high-paying students still attend a school composed primarily of chil-
jobs in big cities, they are more likely to remain at home— dren of their own racial identity. The percentage of people
often in small towns and rural areas—and to accept less of color attending institutions of higher education is still
lucrative forms of employment. Even if they are more well below that of their white counterparts. Today, much
religious, they are also more likely to come from broken of the attention has shifted to other issues, such as the
homes, suffer from serious diseases at a younger age, and practice of voter suppression in predominantly black com-
to turn to drugs or pain-killers to deal with their afflictions. munities, high unemployment levels among young African
In 2017, more than 150,000 Americans died from alcohol, Americans, police brutality against blacks, and lagging sal-
drug abuse, or suicide—what are now commonly referred ary levels for blacks in comparison to the remainder of the
to as deaths of despair. With healthcare costs rising steadily, population. For some of these problems, there appears to
many Americans cannot afford medical treatment for their be no legislative solution.

One of the primary factors that has helped shape provided video reports of refugees from violence-torn
American society in the postwar era has been the increasing countries in Central America streaming northward toward
pace of new arrivals from abroad. Whereas legal immigra- the border to seek entrance into the United States. In one
tion was traditionally based on the percentage of individu- month alone, February 2019, over 70,000 migrants crossed
als from a particular country already living in the United the border to seek asylum into the United States (for a dis-
States, an Immigration Act enacted in 1965 did away with cussion of this issue in a global context, see Chapter 16).
such restrictions, thus bringing about a dramatic increase in
immigration levels from non-European countries around the
world. Although the majority came from Latin America, sub- 8-2c The Struggle for Sexual Equality
stantial numbers arrived from China, Vietnam, and the coun- Many of the changes taking place in American life reflect
tries of southern Asia. Whereas about 300,000 immigrants the fact that the role of women has been in a state of transi-
had legally arrived on American shores each year in the 1960s, tion. Women first began to realize the benefits of the efforts
the annual total increased to over a million forty years later. of suffragists like Emily Cady Stanton, Lucretia Watt, and
Today, illegal immigration—primarily from Mexico but Susan B. Anthony in the years immediately following World
also to a lesser extent from countries in Central America— War I, when Congress finally enacted the Nineteenth
has become a controversial issue in American politics. Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. During the 1920s,
Since many undocumented immigrants gravitate to low- women’s rights activists failed in their effort to achieve a
paying jobs that are not attractive to most Americans, this follow-up success with the enactment of an Equal Rights
influx has usually been tacitly accepted by the public as a Amendment, but in other ways American women began to
necessary evil. In recent years, however, undocumented experience a new sense of freedom, a reality expressed in
immigration has increased dramatically, and critics have the popular image of a young woman on a magazine cover
begun to point to the financial burden that the new arriv- complete with a cigarette in her hand and a dress that ended
als place on the nation’s educational and medical systems. above her knees. That image of the “liberated woman” sur-
Advocates for generous immigrant policies counter that vived into the Great Depression, and was eagerly promoted
recent arrivals are not a burden, but have become an in Hollywood, as the popular films of the 1930s portrayed
increasingly indispensable element in the U.S. economy, women as lawyers, aviators, and journalists, all competing
comprising one-quarter of all farmworkers and 14 percent on equal terms with their male counterparts.
of all those employed in construction jobs. Following World War II, however, the mood changed,
Regardless of the outcome of this debate, as more as millions of soldiers returning home from the war
immigrants attain citizenship, they exert a growing influ- sought to resume the jobs that they had abandoned
ence on U.S. politics. The number of Hispanics living in while serving their country abroad. With bitter memo-
the United States has increased to 50 million, surpassing ries of rampant joblessness during the Great Depression,
African Americans as the largest minority group in the many women gave up their wartime jobs in offices and
country. More than 16 percent of the total population is factories and returned to their traditional role as home-
Hispanic; of these, almost 30 million are eligible to vote, makers, sparking the “baby boom” of the late 1940s and
and their political preferences have proved to be a deci- 1950s. American business interests were only too happy to
sive factor in some recent elections. Moreover, although oblige, taking advantage of the popular new medium of
some recent arrivals gravitate toward areas where there television to promote all the new appliances produced in
is already a large Hispanic population—such as in coun- American factories that the happy housewife required to
ties located along the border with Mexico—their social relieve her of the drudgery that had plagued the lives of
integration into the broader community is steadily taking their mothers and grandmothers. To underline the point,
place as second- or third-generation Hispanics are increas- popular new television series like I Love Lucy and Ozzie and
ingly marrying outside their own ethnic group. Harriett portrayed American womanhood happily nestled
Still, immigration is one of the more contentious issues in the bosom of her family, complete with two (or three)
in American politics and, as we have seen above, in 2016 it children, a harried husband who was always rushing off to
was highlighted as a key issue by the Republican candidate work, and two shiny cars in the family garage.
Donald Trump in his campaign for the presidency. One of Unfortunately for the purveyors of that image, many
his most-discussed campaign promises was to build a con- women eventually became restive with their restrictive role
crete wall along the southern border with Mexico to cut as wives and mothers and began to re-enter the workforce
back on illegal immigration into the United States. After the at an increasing rate. Unlike the situation before the war,
election, the issue aroused intense debate in Congress and many of the new job-seekers were married. In 1900, for
among the American people, as television news programs example, married women made up about 15 percent of the

HISTORICAL VOICES
Escaping the Doll’s House

kept their new washing machines and dryers running all
Q Do you agree that American women had fallen into a
day. They changed the sheets on the beds twice a week,
“housewife trap” in the years following World War II?
instead of once, took the rug-hooking class in adult
Are Betty Friedan’s arguments relevant to all American
education, and pitied their poor frustrated mothers, who
women, or just to women like her?
had dreamed of having a career. Their only dream was to
be perfect wives and mothers; their highest ambition to
In the famous play A Doll’s House by the
have five children and a beautiful house, their only fight
Family &
Society
Norwegian writer Henrik Ibsen, the fictional to get and keep their husbands. They had no thought for
housewife Nora Helmer declares her independence from the the unfeminine problems of the world outside the home;
drudgery of her life as a housewife, leaves her tradition- they wanted the men to make the major decisions. They
minded husband, and seeks to take control of her own life. gloried in their role as women, and wrote proudly on the
Almost a century later, the author Betty Friedan pled for census blank: “Occupation: housewife . . .”
American women to follow Nora’s lead in her 1963 The public image, in the magazines and television
bestseller The Feminine Mystique. The author, however, commercials, is designed to sell washing machines, cake
replaces the domineering husband in Ibsen’s play with that mixes, deodorants, detergents, rejuvenating face creams,
of a repressive social trope which seeks to bind American hair tints. But the power of that image, on which com-
womanhood with the shackles of the vision of the happy panies spend millions of dollars for television time and
housewife. Although The Feminine Mystique was criticized ad space, comes from this: American women no longer
by some as being irrelevant to the everyday lives of most know who they are. They are sorely in need of a new
American working women, it awakened many readers to the image to help them find their identity. As the motiva-
reality of their situation and encouraged them to embark on tional researchers keep telling the advertisers, American
a new path of sexual freedom. women are so unsure of who they should be that they
look to this glossy public image to decide every detail of
Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique their lives . . .
“In the fifteen years after World War II, this mystique The feminine mystique has succeeded in burying mil-
of feminine fulfillment became the cherished and self- lions of American women alive. There is no way for these
perpetuating core of contemporary American culture. women to break out of their comfortable concentration
Millions of women lived their lives in the image of those camps except by finally putting forth an effort—that
pretty pictures of the American suburban housewife, human effort which reaches beyond biology, beyond the
kissing their husbands goodbye in front of the picture narrow walls of home, to help shape the future. Only by
window, depositing their stationwagonsful of children such a personal commitment to the future can American
at school, and smiling as they ran the new electric waxer women break out of the housewife trap and truly find
over the spotless kitchen floor. They baked their own fulfillment as wives and mothers—by fulfilling their own
bread, sewed their own and their children’s clothes, unique possibilities as separate human beings.”
Source: Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (New York: Dell Publishers, 1963), pp.14, 64–65, and 325.
female labor force. By 1970, their number had increased to grew increasingly unhappy as she struggled to fulfill the
62 percent of working women. traditional role of housewife and mother. In 1963, she pub-
American women were still not receiving equal treat- lished The Feminine Mystique, a book in which she argued
ment in the workplace, however, and by the late 1960s, that women were systematically being denied equality
some began to assert their rights and speak as feminists with men. The Feminine Mystique became a bestseller and
(see Image 8.4). One of the leading advocates of women’s transformed Friedan into a prominent spokeswoman for
rights in the United States was Betty Friedan (1921–2006). women’s rights in the United States (see Historical Voices,
A journalist and the mother of three children, Friedan “Escaping the Doll’s House,” above).
As women have become more actively involved in the
economy, their role in education has increased dramatically
as well. Beginning in the 1980s, women’s studies programs
began to proliferate on college campuses throughout the
United States. In recent years, considerably more than half
of all students enrolled in institutions of higher learning
have been women. The consequences are evident through-
out society as a whole, as women are beginning to occupy
senior positions in the legal profession, medicine, politics,
journalism, and business. According to recent studies, in
nearly 20 percent of U.S. households, the wife is the pri-
mary breadwinner.
Although women have steadily made gains in terms of
achieving true equality in legal rights and economic oppor-
tunity in American society, much remains to be done. Efforts
during the 1970s to revive the Equal Rights Amendment
resulted in passage in both houses of Congress, but the
issue has languished in the states. Movements to achieve
equal pay for equal work have likewise had only modest
success. In recent years, issues of sexism and of sexual
assault have received heavy attention in the media. As the
result of several cases involving charges against prominent
individuals, the Me Too movement was formed to bring
attention to the problem and bring perpetrators to justice.
Passions unleashed by the campaign became embroiled
in national politics and contributed to the election of an
AP Images/ES
unprecedented number of women to Congress in 2018.

In recent years, much of the energy in the women’s
liberation movement has focused on maintaining the right
IMAGE 8.4 The Women’s Liberation Movement. In the late to legalized abortion. In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court’s
1960s, as women began once again to assert their rights, a
decision in Roe v. Wade established the legal right to abor-
revived women’s liberation movement emerged. Feminists in
the movement maintained that women themselves must alter tion throughout the United States. That ruling, however,
the conditions of their lives. During this women’s liberation has come under attack from those who believe strongly
rally, some women climbed the statue of Admiral Farragut in that abortion is an act of murder against an unborn child,
Washington, D.C., to exhibit their signs. and the issue has remained an important and controversial
factor in political campaigns.
Betty Friedan’s book hit the newsstands at a highly The steady progress in the struggle for women’s equal-
appropriate time, as many American women had begun ity has encouraged other groups to seek to imitate that suc-
to demand greater opportunities to engage in occupa- cess. LGBTQ rights activists have long faced an uphill battle
tions in competition with their male counterparts. The to achieve equal rights. As public attitudes have gradually
movement quickly became entangled with the youth pro- evolved on the issue, same-sex marriage has increasingly
test movement against bourgeois culture and the Vietnam been accepted in most parts of the country. LGBTQ rights
War, while provoking strong criticism from advocates of achieved a major success when the Supreme Court ruled in
traditional cultural norms throughout the country. The Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) that state bans on same-sex mar-
critical response did not halt the momentum unleashed by riage were unconstitutional. The struggle to achieve full
the feminist movement, however, and women by the mil- civil rights for transgender individuals is ongoing.
lions began to leave their own private doll’s house to seek
a life beyond the home. In many respects, the decision
was based on economic necessity as well as on a choice of 8-2d The Environment
life styles, as working families around the country found Historically, the American people have had an ambivalent
it increasingly difficult to finance their multiple needs on attitude toward the environment. While paying lip ser-
a single budget. vice to the image of “America the Beautiful,” in general
Americans have seen nature as an arena open to exploita- meantime, new technology has made it possible for energy
tion for economic purposes. President Theodore Roosevelt companies to exploit shale oil deposits found in many parts
was perhaps the first prominent American politician to of the United States. The rapid development of such tech-
allude to the importance of conserving wilderness areas nology has increased oil stocks in the United States and dra-
from economic exploitation. Known as the “conservation matically reduced the costs of liquid energy. Since liquid
president,” Roosevelt doubled the number of sites in the energy and coal-fired plants are the chief sources of carbon
National Park System available for the common enjoy- dioxide pollution in the United States, this has complicated
ment of the American people. For the remainder of the the task of environmentalists to encourage the use of other,
first half of the twentieth century, however, the nation was less polluting forms of energy.
preoccupied above all with serious problems at home and Climate change, however, does not fluctuate according
abroad and gave little heed to the dangers of environmen- to the vicissitudes of American politics, and the evidence
tal damage. continues to accumulate that global warming is not simply
The challenge of preserving the environment first a theory, as some have maintained, but a looming reality
began to engage public opinion in the United States dur- with the capacity to do enormous damage, not only to
ing the 1950s, when rising pollution levels in major cities the United States, but to the entire planet. While the most
such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and Pittsburgh, combined visible danger appears in a general rise in sea level, which
with the popularity of Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, could inundate coastal regions along the eastern and Gulf
aroused concerns over the impact that unfettered industri- coasts of the United States, the potential for more frequent
alization was having on the quality of life and health of the and more extreme weather events and the threat of wide-
American people. During the next several decades, federal, spread drought conditions would threaten all parts of the
state, and local governments began to issue regulations country (see Image 8.5).
directed at reducing smog in urban areas and improving Although the vast majority of climatologists are in
the quality of rivers and streams throughout the country substantial agreement that the statistical rise in global
(see Historical Voices, “An Early Warning,” p. 205).
In general, most Americans reacted favorably to such
regulations, but by the 1980s, the environmental movement
had engendered a backlash as some people complained
that excessively radical measures could threaten the pace
of economic growth and cause a loss of jobs. Around the
same time, warnings began to appear from environmen-
talists about the growing dangers of global warming, a
phenomenon resulting from the increasing levels of green-
house gases spewing into the atmosphere from automobiles
and factory chimneys around the world (see Chapter 16).
In 2006, the documentary film An Inconvenient Truth
appeared in movie theaters across the country. Produced
William J. Duiker
by Albert Gore, Clinton’s vice president and an unsuccess-
ful candidate for the presidency in 2000, it sought to arouse
public awareness of the severity of the current climate crisis.
In the presidential elections held two years later, Barack
Obama made environmental issues a centerpiece of his IMAGE 8.5 Rising Seas: An Unavoidable By-product of Global
Warming. Coastal flooding will be one of the major consequences
campaign, but as the effects of the financial crisis of 2008
of global warming, as melting ice caps and thermal expansion
rippled through the economy, his administration felt com- of the world’s oceans will cause a significant rise in sea levels
pelled to put economic concerns at the front of the agenda. in coming years. Human action is often partly responsible for
Some steps to stave off further environmental damage exacerbating the problem, as more and more Americans build
have been taken: government subsidies and tax breaks vacation homes along the nation’s most vulnerable seashores.
Shown here, vacation homes built right at the ocean’s edge on
have assisted start-up companies producing wind and solar
the Outer Banks of North Carolina weaken vital sand dunes and
energy, and have helped such firms to reduce costs and suffer the consequences during Hurricane Sandy, which swept
make their products competitive on the market. A carbon up the east coast of the United States in 2012.
tax to reduce gasoline consumption and punish notorious
polluters, however, has been unpopular with the public Q What do you think is the best way to prevent massive
property damage caused by the frequent hurricanes that
and has not been promoted on a national basis. In the strike the coast of the United States?

HISTORICAL VOICES
An Early Warning
very nature of its life . . . Chemicals sprayed on crop-
Q What types of dangerous chemicals do you think are lands or forests or gardens lie long in soil, entering into
present in the food we eat today? How should the living organisms, passing from one to another in a chain
nation seek to shield Americans from such dangers? of poisoning and death. Or they pass mysteriously by
underground streams until they emerge and, through
The writer Rachel Carson (1907–1964) the alchemy of air and sunlight, combine into new forms
Earth &
Environment was one of America’s first environmentalists. that kill vegetation, sicken cattle, and work unknown
At a time when the danger of global warming was not even harm on those who drink from impure wells.
on the horizon, she sounded an early alarm about the One of the most sinister features of DDT and related
unforeseen environmental consequences of one particular chemicals is the way they are passed on from one organ-
form of human behavior. In her best-selling book entitled ism to another through all the links of the food chain.
Silent Spring, published in 1962, she alerted her fellow For example, fields of alfalfa are dusted with DDT; meal
Americans to the serious environmental and human is later prepared from the alfalfa and fed to hens; the hens
consequences stemming from the rampant use of chemical lay eggs which contain DDT. Or the hay, containing resi-
pesticides, which were widely used at the time to protect dues of 7 to 8 parts per million, may be fed to cows. The
crops from insect damage. Such products, she warned, not DDT will turn up in the milk in the amount of about
only polluted the air, the soil, and the rivers, they also 3 parts per million, but in butter made from this milk the
killed off much of the nation’s wildlife, including such concentration may run to 65 parts per million. Through
iconic birds as the American Eagle. Even more dangerous, such a process of transfer, what started out as a very
she wrote, poisons from such products could even be small amount of DDT may end as a heavy concentration.
found as carcinogens in food, and thus could be deadly for Farmers nowadays find it difficult to obtain uncontami-
humans. The most lethal of these chemicals was DDT, a nated fodder for their milk cows . . .
highly effective pesticide which—in large part due to her The poison may also be passed on from mother
warnings—was finally banned from use in 1972 by the to offspring. Insecticide residues have been recovered
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Tragically, Rachel from human milk in samples tested by Food and Drug
Carson died of cancer two years later. Fortunately, many of Administration scientists. This means that the breast-fed
her warnings were heeded, and much of the bird life has human infant is receiving small but regular additions to
returned to our skies. Today, many environmentalists the load of toxic chemicals building up in his body. It is by
continue to follow her lead as they battle powerful no means his first exposure, however: there is good reason
chemical companies over the use of genetically modified to believe this begins while he is still in the womb . . .
organisms (GMOs), widely used in the food industry. It would be unrealistic to suppose that all chemical
carcinogens can or will be eliminated from the modern
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (1962) world. But a very large proportion are by no means
The most alarming of all man’s assaults upon the envi- necessities of life. By their elimination the total load of
ronment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and carcinogens would be enormously lightened, and the
sea with dangerous and even lethal materials. This pollu- threat that one in every four will develop cancer would
tion is for the most part irrecoverable; the chain of evil it at least be greatly mitigated. The most determined effort
initiates not only in the world that must support life but should be made to eliminate those carcinogens that now
in living tissues is for the most part irreversible. In this contaminate our food, our water supplies, and our atmo-
now universal contamination of the environment, chem- sphere, because these provide the most dangerous type
icals are the sinister and little-recognized partners of of contact—minute exposures, repeated over and over
radiation in changing the very nature of the world—the throughout the years . . .
Source: Silent Spring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962. Fortieth Anniversary Edition), pp. 6, 22–23, 242.

temperatures is at least partly due to human activity, the and commercial transactions. Major online business corpo-
debate over the issue in the United States has become rations like Amazon are revolutionizing the way Americans
embroiled in national and local politics, and a minority of purchase goods by marketing them on the Internet, rather
Americans remain convinced that the issue is actually a than through stores and supermarkets. The United States
scam promoted by people with ulterior motives. Such skep- was initially at the forefront of this process, but in recent
ticism is encouraged by politicians and other individuals and years, innovation has become a global phenomenon, and
groups who have their own interests at heart. If that contin- U.S. hegemony in the development of computers is being
ues to be the case, the sense of national urgency that many challenged, particularly in Europe and with the rise of its
feel is necessary to cope with the problem will be hard to new economic rival China.
generate, and nature itself will have to provide the answer. Science is also being harnessed to serve other social
purposes, including the development of biologically engi-
8-2e Science and Technology neered food products, the formulation of new medicines
After World War II, the United States emerged as the leading to fight age-old diseases, and the development of alterna-
nation in promoting the development of science and tech- tive fuels to replace oil and the internal combustion engine.
nology. Taking advantage of wartime advances in aircraft, Recent interest has focused on the invention of new auto-
weaponry, and electronics, the federal government took the mobile engines that—like the hybrid models now entering
lead in supporting large-scale projects composed of teams the market—rely on some combination of electrical power
of scientists working in ever-larger laboratories, many of and liquid energy. To encourage this process, the Obama
them located on university campuses. By 1965 almost 75 administration set higher energy consumption standards
percent of all scientific research funds came from the gov- for vehicles produced in the United States in future years.
ernment. Much of this expense was funded by or for the The transition from automobiles propelled by internal
national defense establishment. One of every four scientists combustion to vehicles powered entirely by electricity is
and engineers trained in the decades after World War II apparently years away.
was engaged in the creation of new weapons systems. The current technological revolution has undoubtedly
There was no more stunning example of how the new helped to maintain the healthy growth and functioning
scientific establishment operated than the space race of of American society, and it has certainly been a key factor
the 1960s. In 1957, the Soviet Union announced that it had in enabling the United States to remain at the forefront
sent the first space satellite, Sputnik I, into orbit around the among the most advanced nations in the world today. But,
Earth. In response, the United States launched a gigantic as was the case with the Industrial Revolution two centu-
project to land a manned spacecraft on the moon within ries ago, success has had mixed blessings. In many sectors
a decade. Massive government funding financed the scien- of the economy, the new technology is useful precisely
tific research and technological advances that attained this because it is cost-effective and replaces human labor. The
goal in 1969. result can be good for management, since it reduces labor
The postwar alliance of science and technology led to costs and enables them to market their products in an
an accelerated rate of technological change that became a increasingly competitive global marketplace. But it can
fact of life throughout Western society. The emergence of be bad for the employee who has lost his job or suffered a
the computer, in particular, has revolutionized American reduced paycheck, and also for the economy as a whole,
business practices and transformed the way individuals since it cuts consumer demand and forces U.S. corpora-
go about their lives and communicate with each other. tions to look abroad for markets for their goods.
Although early computers, which required thousands of
vacuum tubes to function, were quite large, the develop-
ment of the transistor and the silicon chip enabled manu- 8-3 The World of Culture
facturers to reduce the size of their products dramatically.
In 1975, entrepreneur Bill Gates formed Microsoft, promis-
ing to put “a computer on every desk.” Steve Jobs followed
with his competitor Apple a year later.
QQ Focus Question: How have cultural
developments reflected the changes taking
place in other sectors of U.S. society?
Bill Gates knew what he was talking about. By the 1990s,
the personal computer had become a fixture in businesses,
schools, and homes around the country. The Internet— The changing character of American society is vividly
the world’s largest computer network—provides millions reflected in the world of culture, where the postwar era
of people around the world with quick access to immense brought forth a new popular culture increasingly oriented
quantities of information as well as rapid communication toward the interests of young people.
8-3a Art and Architecture 8-3b New Concepts in Music
After World War II, the American art world began to Musical composers also experimented with radically new
experiment with a variety of styles to express real- concepts. One innovator was John Cage (1912–1992), who
ity in new ways. One group of young artists, known as defined music as the “organization of sound” and included
Abstract Expressionists, painted large nonrepresenta- all types of noise in his music. Any unconventional sound
tional canvases in an effort to express a spiritual essence was welcomed: electronic buzzers and whines, tape
beyond the material world. Among the first was Jackson recordings played at altered speeds, or percussion from
Pollock (1912–1956), who developed the technique of any household item. His most discussed work, called 4'33",
dripping and flinging paint onto a canvas laid on the floor. was four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence—the
Pollock’s large paintings of swirling colors express the “music” being the sounds the audience heard in the hall
energy of primal forces as well as the vast landscapes of during the “performance,” such as coughing, the rustling
his native Wyoming. of programs, the hum of air conditioning, and the shuf-
Other artists, concerned that art was being over- fling of feet.
whelmed by popular culture, sought to make painting In the 1960s, minimalism took hold in the United States.
more accessible to the public by portraying aspects of Largely influenced by Indian music, minimalist composers
everyday life on canvases. The most famous practitioner such as Philip Glass (b. 1937) focus on the subtle nuances
of Pop Art, as it was called, was Andy Warhol (1930– in the continuous repetitions of a melodic or rhythmic pat-
1987), whose works featured repetitious images of daily tern. Since the 1960s, there has also been much experimen-
items such as soup cans, or even faces of such well-known tal electronic and computer music. Despite the excitement
figures as the Mona Lisa and Marilyn Monroe. Another of such musical exploration, however, much of it is consid-
influential figure was Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008), ered too cerebral and alien, even by the educated public.
whose “collages” juxtaposed disparate images and every- One of the most accomplished and accessible contem-
day objects—photographs, clothing, letters, even cigarette porary American composers, John Adams (b. 1947), has
butts—to reflect the energy and disorder of the world labeled much of twentieth-century experimental compo-
around us. sition as the “fussy, difficult music of transition.” His music
By the early 1970s, Postmodernism became the new blends Modernist elements with classical traditions using
vehicle of revolt. Convinced that art should serve society much minimalist repetition interspersed with dynamic
by addressing social inequities relating to race, gender, or rhythms. Critics have applauded his operas Nixon in China
sexual orientation, some artists began to experiment with (1987) and Doctor Atomic (2005), which dramatizes the
a new technique called conceptual art. Using innovative anxious countdown to the detonation of the first atomic
techniques such as photography, video, and even “instal- bomb in New Mexico in 1945.
lations” (machine- or human-made objects, sometimes as
large as a room), such artists produced shocking works
with the intent of motivating the viewer to political action. 8-3c New Trends in Literature
A powerful example was the untitled installation by Robert Fictional writing in the 1960s reflected growing concerns
Gober (b. 1954): in its center, a stereotypical statue of the about the materialism and superficiality of American
Virgin Mary stands over an open drain while a steel pipe culture and often took the form of exuberant and comic
pierces her body. Such a violent violation of the Madonna verbal fantasies. As the pain of the Vietnam War and the
can be viewed by Christians as depicting the resilience ensuing social and political turmoil intensified, authors
of faith in a world of doubt. For non-Christians, Gober’s turned to satire, using black humor and cruelty in the
work represents the indomitable spirit of humanity, which hope of shocking the American public into a recognition
remains intact despite a century of adversity. of its social ills. Many of these novels—such as Thomas
In architecture as well, the postwar era has been marked Pynchon’s V. (1963), Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 (1961), and
by experimentation and diversity. Tiring of the repetition John Barth’s Sot-Weed Factor (1960)—were wildly imagina-
and impersonality of the international style, innovative tive, highly entertaining, and very different from the writ-
American architects have created their own Postmodern ing of the first half of the century, which had detailed the
skyline, with pyramidal and cupola-topped skyscrapers of “real” daily lives of small-town or big-city America.
blue-green glass and brick, while others have returned to In the 1970s and 1980s, American fiction relinquished
the past by incorporating traditional materials, shapes, and the extravagant verbal displays of the 1960s, returning to a
decorative elements into their buildings. Modernist rectan- more sober exposition of social problems, this time related
gular malls have tacked on Greek columns and entryways to race, gender, and sexual orientation. Much of the best
shaped like ancient Egyptian pyramids. fiction explored the moral dimensions of contemporary
8-3 The World of Culture ■ 207
life from Jewish, African American, feminist, or LGBTQ has escalated, many sports have come to receive the bulk
perspectives. Bernard Malamud (1914–1986), Saul Bellow of their yearly revenue from broadcasting contracts.
(1915–2005), and Philip Roth (1933–2018) presented the Today, sports have become a major force in American
Jewish American experience, while Ralph Ellison (1914– society, and individual sports teams—whether amateur or
1994), James Baldwin (1924–1987), and Toni Morrison professional—attract the fervent allegiance of millions of
(1931–2019) dramatized the African American struggle. devoted supporters.
Some outstanding women’s fiction was written by
foreign-born writers from Asia and Latin America, who
examined the problems of immigrants, such as cultural
identity and assimilation into the American mainstream. 8-4Canada: In the Shadow
of Goliath
8-3d Popular Culture
Since World War II, the United States has been the most
influential force in shaping popular culture in the West and,
QQ Focus Question: To what degree has the
recent history of Canada resembled or
contrasted with that of its close neighbor the
to a lesser degree, throughout the world. Motion pictures United States?
were the primary vehicle for the diffusion of American
popular culture in the years immediately following World
War II and continued to dominate both European and In many respects, Canada has paralleled the path of the
American markets in the next decades. Although devel- United States in the postwar years. For twenty-five years
oped in the 1930s, television did not become readily avail- after World War II, Canada realized extraordinary eco-
able until the late 1940s. By 1954, there were 32 million nomic prosperity as it set out on a new path of industrial
sets in the United States as television became the center- development. Canada had always had a strong export
piece of middle-class life. In the 1960s, as television spread economy based on its abundant natural resources. Now
around the world, American networks unloaded their it also developed electronic, aircraft, nuclear, and chemi-
products on Europe and developing countries at extraordi- cal engineering industries on a large scale. Some of the
narily low prices. Only the establishment of quota systems Canadian growth, however, was financed by capital from
prevented American television from completely inundat- the United States, which resulted in U.S. ownership of
ing these countries. many Canadian businesses. While many Canadians wel-
The United States has also dominated popular music comed the economic benefits, others feared U.S. economic
since the end of World War II. Jazz, blues, rhythm and blues, domination of Canada and its resources.
rock, rap, and hip-hop have been the most popular music Canada’s close relationship with the United States
forms in the Western world—and much of the non-Western has been a notable feature of its postwar history. On the
world—during this time. Artists like the late Elvis Presley other hand, fear of economic domination was joined with
and Madonna, and all the way up to Beyoncé and Jay Z have worry about playing a subordinate role politically and
become global superstars in the entertainment world. All militarily to its neighboring superpower. Canada agreed
of these music forms originated in the United States and to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949 and
are rooted in African American musical innovations. These sent military contingents to fight in Korea the following
forms later spread to the rest of the world, inspiring local year. But to avoid subordination to the United States or
artists, who then transformed the music in their own way. any other great power, Canada has more consistently and
In the postwar years, sports became a major product actively supported the United Nations and has tended to
of both popular culture and the leisure industry in the prefer political to military action as a solution to inter-
United States. The emergence of professional football and national problems. Nevertheless, such concerns have not
basketball leagues, as well as the increasing popularity of kept Canada from maintaining a special relationship with
their college equivalents, helped to transform sports into its southern neighbor. The North American Air Defense
something akin to a national obsession. Sports became a Command (NORAD), formed in 1957, was based on close
cheap form of entertainment for consumers, as fans did cooperation between the air forces of the two countries
not have to leave their homes to enjoy athletic competi- for the defense of North America against aerial attack.
tions. In fact, some sports organizations initially resisted As another example of their close cooperation, in 1972,
television, fearing that it would hurt ticket sales. The tre- Canada and the United States signed the Great Lakes
mendous revenues possible from television contracts over- Water Quality Agreement to regulate water quality of the
came this hesitation, however. As sports television revenue lakes that border both countries.

In general, Canadian politics follows the American pat- government sought to pursue a policy of limited govern-
tern, with Liberals and Conservatives alternating periods ment and lower tax rates, but such moves resulted in a
in office. After 1945, the Liberal Party dominated Canadian dramatic increase in the national debt, and in 2015, the
politics until 1957, when John Diefenbaker (1895–1979) Liberals were returned to power under Justin Trudeau
achieved a Conservative victory. But a major recession (b. 1970), the son of the famous politician Pierre Trudeau.
returned the Liberals to power, and they created Canada’s The new prime minister, exhibiting the same form of youth-
welfare state by enacting a national social security system ful vigor as his namesake, promised to restore a sense of pub-
(the Canada Pension Plan) and a national health insurance lic morality, to help the poor, and to pursue policies aimed at
program. improving conditions of the indigenous population, many
The most prominent Liberal government, however, was of whom continue to live in impoverished conditions.
that of Pierre Trudeau (1919–2000), who was elected in
1968. Although French Canadian in background, Trudeau
was dedicated to Canada’s federal union. In 1968, his gov- 8-4a Society and Culture:
ernment passed the Official Languages Act, creating a The Canadian Difference
bilingual federal civil service and encouraging the growth Canada’s many similarities and differences with the United
of French culture and language in Canada. In the end, States provide the observer with an instructive means of
Trudeau’s efforts to impose the will of the federal govern- comparing the distinctive approaches that the two coun-
ment on the powerful provincial governments alienated tries have adopted in building modern nations. In both
voters and led the Liberals to defeat. cases, when European migrants first began to arrive in
For Canada, the vigor of the U.S. economy in the 1980s North America, it had already been occupied for millen-
and 1990s was a mixed blessing, for the American behe- nia by indigenous peoples. Both initially mistreated the
moth was all too often inclined to make use of its power native peoples in various ways, exploiting them, some-
to have its way with its neighbors. Economic recession had times butchering them, or confining them in isolated parts
brought the Conservative Party to power in Canada in of the country. Eventually, the Canadian government, like
1984, but its decision to privatize many of Canada’s state- the United States, embarked on a program to resettle the
run corporations and sign a free trade agreement with the indigenous peoples into reserves, and today most of them
United States led to a defeat in national elections in 1993. live in separate Nations, each with its own ethnicity, lan-
The Liberals took over with the charge of stimulating the guage, and culture.
nation’s sluggish economy. As was the case in the United States, the early arrivals
The new Liberal government was soon faced with from Europe came from a number of separate European
a festering crisis over the French-speaking province of countries, but the vast majority of them came from France
Quebec, where prominent politicians sought to bring or the British Isles. Historically, those claiming French
about the region’s secession from the Canadian confed- extraction tended to settle in the province of Quebec, and
eration (see Map 8.1). In 1976, the Parti Québécois won have determinedly retained their linguistic and cultural
Quebec’s provincial elections and called for a referendum uniqueness by resisting assimilation into the larger English-
that would enable the provincial government to negoti- speaking population. This reality has complicated the chal-
ate Quebec’s independence from the rest of Canada. But lenge for Canada to create a single nation with a unified
voters in Quebec rejected the plan in language and culture, as we have seen
1995, and debate over Quebec’s sta- above, although in recent years the
tus continued to divide Canada as the Atlantic issue seems to have declined in impor-
Ocean
decade came to a close. Provincial tance. Meanwhile, English-speaking
elections held in April 2003 deliv- Hudson Canadians living in the western prov-
Bay
ered a stunning defeat to the Parti inces of the country developed their
Québécois, and the issue declined as QUEBEC own frontier culture similar in some
a factor in Canadian politics. respects to that in parts of the west-
CANADA Quebec
In the new century, the game of City ern United States. Many of them
musical chairs continued. The ruling continue to resent Canadian politi-
Liberal Party became plagued by scan- cians from the more urbanized east-
dals, and in 2006, national elections 0 750 1,500 Kilometers ern provinces, who are suspected of
brought the Conservatives, under 0 500 1,000 Miles seeking to dominate national politics
new prime minister Stephen Harper while exploiting the remainder of the
(b. 1959), to power in Ottawa. The new MAP 8.1 Quebec country for its natural resources.
8-4 Canada: In the Shadow of Goliath ■ 209

In general, Canada has exhibited Caribbean Sea buying the manufactured goods of
less of the anti-immigrant senti- Caracas GUYANA
industrialized countries. As a result
ment that has sometimes prevailed VENEZUELA
SURINAME of the Great Depression, however,
FRENCH GUIANA
in the United States, a reality that Bogotá export markets virtually vanished,
COLOMBIA
may reflect the fact that Canada has and the revenues available to buy
not been exposed to massive immi- Quito manufactured goods declined. In
ECUADOR
gration—some of it illegal—over response, many Latin American
its southern border. With its wide- PERU countries encouraged the develop-
BRAZIL
open spaces, the country seems Lima ment of new industries to produce
to welcome refugees, although its BOLIVIA Brasilia goods that were formerly imported.
La Paz
immigration policy has focused on Due to a shortage of capital in the
Pacific
accepting applicants who possess PARAGUAY private sector, governments often
Ocean Asunción
educational or job skills that are invested in the new industries,
considered important for promot- Atlantic thereby leading, for example, to
CHILE Ocean
ing economic development. The Buenos URUGUAY
Aires
government-run steel industries
Santiago
Canadian government is also com- Montevideo in Chile and Brazil and petroleum
ARGENTINA
mitted to redistributing sufficient industries in Argentina and Mexico
national resources to poorer regions 0 750 1,500 Kilometers (see Map 8.2).
of the country to assist them in pro- 0 500 1,000 Miles
viding the necessary services to the Falkland
8-5a An Era of Dependency

Islands (Br.)
local population. South Georgia
Island (Br.)
Whatever the reasons, Canada In the 1960s, however, most Latin
has earned a world-wide reputa- MAP 8.2 South America American countries were still
tion for moderation and public dependent upon the United States,
concern for the welfare of its citizens that sometimes Europe, and Japan for the advanced technology needed for
contrasts with the more laissez-faire policies prevalent modern industries. To make matters worse, widespread
in the United States. The Canadian healthcare system poverty in some countries in Central America and in the
is broadly respected for its affordability and its fairness, Andes limited the size of domestic markets, and many
while social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage were unable to find markets abroad for their products.
have been managed without the acrimony that has often These failures resulted in takeovers by military regimes
prevailed in the United States. As a result, while Canada that sought to curb the demands of the new industrial mid-
is by no means the perfect society, it has earned its reputa- dle class and the working class that had increased in size and
tion as an example of a democracy that works. power as a result of industrialization. In the 1960s, repressive
military regimes in Chile, Brazil, and Argentina abolished
political parties and turned to export-import economies
Democracy, Dictatorship,
8-5 financed by foreigners, while encouraging multinational
corporations to invest in local economies. Because these
and Development in Latin companies were primarily interested in taking advantage
America Since 1945 of Latin America’s raw materials and its abundant supply of
cheap labor, their presence often offered little benefit to the
QQ Focus Question: In what ways have the nations

of Latin American sought to rid themselves of
local economy and contributed to the region’s dependence
on the industrially developed nations.
In the 1970s, Latin American regimes grew even more
the dependency relationship with Europe and
the United States which had developed in the reliant on borrowing from abroad, especially from banks
late nineteenth century? in Europe and the United States. Between 1970 and 1982,
debt to foreigners increased from $27 billion to $315.3
billion. By 1982, a number of governments announced
The Great Depression of the 1930s caused political insta- that they could no longer pay interest on their debts to
bility in many Latin American countries (see Chapter 5), foreign banks, and their economies began to crumble.
but it also helped transform Latin America from a tradi- Wages fell, and unemployment skyrocketed. Governments
tional to a modern economy. Since the nineteenth cen- were forced to undertake fundamental reforms to qualify
tury, Latin Americans had exported raw materials while for additional loans, reducing the size of the state sector

and improving agricultural production in order to stem leftist movements or even to social revolution. The most
the flow of people from the countryside to the cities and prominent example was Cuba, where in the late 1950s Fidel
strengthen the domestic market for Latin American prod- Castro established a regime based loosely on the Soviet
ucts. In many cases, these reforms were launched by demo- model. Eventually, other revolutionary movements flour-
cratic governments that began to replace the discredited ished or even came to power in Chile, Uruguay, and parts
military regimes during the 1980s. of Central America as well (see “8-5d The Leftist Variant”).
In the 1990s, the opening of markets to free trade and
other consequences of the globalization process began The Role of the Catholic Church The Catholic Church has
to have a growing impact on Latin American economies. historically played a significant role in the process of social
As some countries faced the danger of bankruptcy, belt- and political change. A powerful force in Latin America for
tightening measures undertaken to reassure foreign inves- centuries, the church often applied its prestige on the side
tors provoked social protests and threatened to undermine of the landed elites, helping them maintain their grip on
the precarious political stability in the region. power. Eventually, however, the church adopted a middle
An era of growing political and economic stability that stance in Latin American society, advocating a moderate
began in the early years of the new century enabled many capitalist system that would respect workers’ rights, insti-
Latin American states to strengthen democratic institu- tute land reform, and provide for the poor. Some Catholics,
tions and build viable economies. While the tradition that however, took a more radical path to change by advocating
Latin America was the home of the “strong man” was not a theology of liberation. Influenced by Marxist ideas, advo-
entirely overcome, a number of countries managed to cates of liberation theology believed that Christians must
inaugurate a new era marked by elected governments and fight to free the oppressed, using violence if necessary.
non-violent transitions of power. Some South American Some Catholic clergy recommended armed rebellions
states—including Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and Paraguay— and even teamed up with Marxist guerrillas in rural areas.
even elected female presidents. The underlying reasons for Other radical priests worked in factories alongside workers
this visible strengthening of democratic institutions and or carried on social work among the poor in the slums.
practices varied, but strict adherence to term limits, strong In recent years, the Catholic Church in Latin America
watchdog organizations, and an independent judicial sys- has encountered a new challenge in the growth of evan-
tem all contributed to the trend. gelical Protestant sects. Whereas an estimated 90 percent
For the most part, as well, Latin American societies con- of the population of the region were traditionally Roman
tinued to adhere to the tradition of functioning capitalist Catholics, today the percentage has declined to under 70
economies. After the world began to recover from the finan- percent. Protestant churches have made significant inroads
cial crisis of 2008 (see above), many benefitted from rising throughout much of South America and now own the alle-
global prices for their natural resources or agricultural goods. giance of almost 20 percent of the population of the con-
The emergence of China as an economic powerhouse, in tinent (see Comparative Illustration, “Shifting Patterns of
particular, was a significant factor in stimulating economic Religious Belief in Latin America,” p. 212). There appear to
growth in the region, as its purchases boosted the price of be several reasons for this shift in allegiance. In some coun-
such goods in the global marketplace; Chinese financial tries like Brazil, one factor advanced for the rising popular-
investments in local projects like copper mines, fisheries, and ity of these sects is the Vatican’s stand on issues such as
port facilities also helped Latin American nations improve divorce and abortion. In a recent survey, the vast major-
their infrastructure base. On the other hand, China’s grow- ity of Brazilian Catholics supported the right to abortion
ing involvement in regional trade patterns had a serious in cases of rape or danger to the mother and believed in
downside, since its cheap labor costs undercut efforts by the use of birth control to limit population growth and
Latin American countries to export their manufactured achieve smaller families. Many others are concerned over
goods, thus locking them into the disadvantageous posi- the refusal of the Catholic Church to allow female priests,
tion as suppliers of basic commodities to advanced indus- or to permit male clergy to engage in marriage.
trial economies elsewhere. As economic growth in China
has declined significantly in recent years (see Chapter 10), The Behemoth to the North Throughout the postwar
the effects have been felt in several Latin American coun- era, the United States has cast a large shadow over Latin
tries and placed a strain on their political stability and their America. In 1948, the nations of the region formed the
capacity to serve the needs of their populations. Organization of American States (OAS), which was
Not all political parties in Latin America opted to adopt intended to eliminate unilateral action by one state in the
the capitalist model. In some countries, resentment at eco- internal or external affairs of another state, while encour-
nomic and social inequities led to the emergence of strong aging regional cooperation to maintain peace. It did not
8-5 Democracy, Dictatorship, and Development in Latin America Since 1945 ■ 211
Shifting Patterns of Religious Belief in Latin America

Q How might a spokesperson for the Roman Catholic
faith defend the Church against the charge that
it does not adequately respond to the needs of its
parishioners?
Religion & In recent years, the historical allegiance

Philosophy of peoples of Latin America to Roman
Catholicism has been tested by a variety of factors.
Some have left the Church out of disagreement with
its teachings; others because they felt it had failed to
William J. Duiker
address adequately some of the social problems that
IMAGE 8.6b
afflict the region. A growing number have joined recently

introduced Evangelical faiths because they allegedly offer
a greater opportunity for the individual to participate in a
truly Christian lifestyle. Many of these new churches are
located in small towns, where they compete with the
established Catholic Church, such as the one shown in
Image 8.6a from a small town in Mexico. But megachurches
William J. Duiker
have also been established in some large cities to address

the needs of the faithful, as is the case with the massive
church shown in Image 8.6b, recently opened in the city
IMAGE 8.6a of San Salvador, in Brazil.
end U.S. interference in Latin American affairs, however. was elected president in 1970. When Allende’s government
The United States returned to a policy of unilateral action began to nationalize foreign-owned corporations, General
when it believed that Soviet agents were attempting to use Augusto Pinochet (1916–2006), with covert U.S. support,
local Communists or radical reformers to establish gov- launched a coup d’état, which resulted in the deaths of
ernments hostile to U.S. interests. In the 1960s, President Allende and thousands of his followers. But Pinochet’s fla-
Kennedy’s Alliance for Progress encouraged social reform grant abuse of power led to unrest and eventually, in 1989,
and economic development by providing private and pub- to a return of civilian rule.
lic funds to elected governments whose reform programs Since the 1990s, the United States has played an active role
were acceptable to the United States. But when Marxist-led in persuading Latin American governments to open their
insurrections began to spread throughout the region, the economies to the international marketplace. Though global-
United States responded by providing massive military aid ization has had some success in promoting prosperity in the
to anti-Communist regimes to forestall the possibility of a region, it has also led to economic dislocation and hardship
Soviet bastion in the Western Hemisphere. in some countries, provoking familiar cries of “Yanqui impe-
The foremost example of U.S. interference occurred rialismo” from protest groups and the election in recent years
in Chile, where the Marxist Salvador Allende (1908–1973) of leftist governments in several countries in the region.
8-5bNationalism and the Military: The using the occasion to kill more than 6,000 leftists in what
Examples of Argentina and Brazil was called the “Dirty War.” With economic problems still
unsolved, the regime tried to divert popular attention by
The military became the power brokers of twentieth-
invading the Falkland Islands in April 1982. Great Britain,
century Latin America. Especially in the 1960s and 1970s,
which had controlled the islands since the nineteenth cen-
military leaders portrayed themselves as the guardians of
tury, decisively defeated the Argentine forces. The loss
national honor and orderly progress. In the mid-1970s,
discredited the military and opened the door once again
only Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, and Costa Rica main-
to civilian rule. In 1983, Raúl Alfonsín (1927–2009) was
tained democratic governments.
elected president and sought to reestablish democratic
A decade later, pluralistic systems had been installed
processes.
virtually everywhere except in Cuba, Paraguay, and some
In 1989, however, Alfonsín was defeated in the presi-
of the Central American states. The establishment of dem-
dential elections by the Peronist candidate, Carlos Saúl
ocratic institutions, however, has not managed to solve all
Menem (b. 1930). Initially, the charismatic Menem won
the chronic problems that have plagued the states of Latin
broad popularity for his ability to control the army, but
America. Official corruption continues in many countries,
when he sought to rein in rampant inflation by curbing
and the gap between rich and poor is growing, most nota-
government spending, rising unemployment and an eco-
bly in Brazil and in Venezuela, though leftist regimes in
nomic recession cut into his public acclaim. Plagued with
both countries have adopted policies designed to redistrib-
low growth, rising emigration (a growing number of
ute the wealth.
descendants of European settlers were returning to live
in Europe), and shrinking markets abroad, the govern-
Argentina Until World War II, a landed oligarchy, comment defaulted on its debt to the International Monetary
posed of wheat and cattle interests and backed by conser- Fund (IMF) in 2001, initiating an era of political chaos. In
vative elements in the military, had dominated Argentine May 2003 with the economy in paralysis, Néstor Kirchner
politics. But in 1943, some leading military officers grew (1950–2010) assumed the presidency and sought to revive
restive and seized power on their own. When labor unrest public confidence. The new president took decisive steps
broke out, the demagogic army colonel Juan Perón (1895– to end the crisis, adopting measures to stimulate economic
1974) publicly supported the workers and with their sup- growth and promote exports. By 2005, the debt to the IMF
port was elected president in 1946. had been fully paid off. Kirchner also encouraged measures
Perón pursued a policy of increased industrialization to to bring the military officers who had carried out the Dirty
please his chief supporters—the urban middle class and the War of the 1970s to justice.
descamisados, or “shirtless ones,” of the working class. At Néstor Kirchner’s success in stabilizing the Argentine
the same time, he sought to free Argentina from foreign economy, which resulted in a 9 percent increase in the
investors. The government bought the railways; took over gross domestic product, was undoubtedly a factor in the
the banking, insurance, shipping, and communications presidential campaign in 2007, when his wife Cristina
industries; and assumed regulation of imports and exports. Fernández de Kirchner (b. 1953) was elected to succeed
But Perón’s regime was also authoritarian. His wife, Eva him in office. A populist by nature like her husband, the
Perón (1919–1952), organized women’s groups to support new president aligned herself with other leftist leaders
the government while Perón created fascist gangs, modeled in the region and sought popularity by financing public
after Hitler’s Storm Troops, that used violence to intimidate projects through deficit spending, but growing income
his opponents. But growing corruption in the Perón gov- inequality, rising inflation—always a threat to prosperity
ernment and the alienation of more and more people by in Argentina—and an energy crisis tarnished the perfor-
the regime’s excesses encouraged the military to overthrow mance of the first female president in the country’s history.
him in September 1955. Perón went into exile in Spain. In 2015, faced with charges of corruption, she was suc-
It had been easy for the military to seize power, but they ceeded in office by the mayor of Buenos Aires, Mauricio
found it harder to rule, especially now that Argentina had Macri (b. 1959), who proceeded to govern at the head of a
a party of Peronistas clamoring for the return of the exiled coalition of center-right parties.
leader. In the 1960s and 1970s, military and civilian gov-
ernments (the latter closely watched by the military) alter- Brazil After Getúlio Vargas was forced to resign from
nated in power. When both failed to provide economic the presidency in 1945 (see Chapter 5), a second Brazilian
stability, military leaders decided to allow Juan Perón to republic came into being. In 1949, Vargas was reelected
return. Reelected president in September 1973, Perón died to the presidency. But he was unable to solve Brazil’s eco-
one year later. In 1976, the military installed a new regime, nomic problems, especially its soaring inflation, and in
1954, after the armed forces called on him to resign, Vargas On taking office in 2003, however, Lula immediately
committed suicide. Subsequent democratically elected cautioned his supporters that the party’s ambitious plans
presidents had no better success in controlling inflation could not be realized until urgent financial reforms had
while trying to push rapid industrialization. In the spring been enacted. That remark effectively summed up the
of 1964, the military decided to intervene and took over challenge that the new administration faced: how to satisfy
the government. the pent-up demands of its traditional constituency—the
The armed forces remained in direct control of the millions of Brazilians still living in poverty—while dealing
country for twenty years, setting a new economic course effectively with the realities of exercising power.
by cutting back somewhat on state control of the economy During the next few years, the Brazilian economy
and emphasizing market forces. The new policies seemed experienced dramatic growth in several areas: millions
to work, and during the late 1960s, Brazil experienced an of acres of virgin lands were brought under cultivation
“economic miracle” as it moved into self-sustaining eco- in the interior, enabling the country to become a major
nomic growth, generally the hallmark of a modern econ- exporter of agricultural products, including wheat, cotton,
omy. Promoters also pointed to the country’s success in and soybeans. In late 2007, the government announced the
turning a racially diverse population into a relatively col- discovery of significant underwater oil reserves off the
orblind society. southeastern coast of the country. Such successes led to
Rapid economic growth carried with it some potential growing prosperity for many Brazilian citizens, who took
drawbacks. The economic exploitation of the Amazon advantage of low interest rates to increase their purchases
River basin opened the region to farming but in the view of automobiles, homes, and consumer goods. Ambitious
of some critics threatened the ecological balance not only social programs began to reduce the gap between wealth
of Brazil but of the Earth itself. Ordinary Brazilians hardly and poverty—always one of the most visible characteris-
benefited as the gulf between rich and poor, always wide, tics of Brazilian society—and it looked as if the country
grew even wider. At the same time, rapid development led was finally going to overcome the sardonic description fre-
to an annual inflation rate of 100 percent, and an enor- quently applied to it over the years: “Brazil is the country
mous foreign debt added to the problems. Overwhelmed, of the future—and always will be.” When Lula left office in
the generals resigned from power and opened the door for 2010 after two terms as president, the country was poised
a return to democracy in 1985. to become a hemispheric superpower and had recently
In 1990, national elections brought a new president announced plans to organize a defensive alliance of Latin
into office—Fernando Collor de Mello (b. 1949). The new American countries similar to NATO.
administration promised to reduce inflation with a dras- Lula’s protégée and chief of staff, the onetime radical
tic reform program based on squeezing money out of the activist Dilma Rousseff (b. 1947), was elected to succeed
economy by stringent controls on wages and prices, drastic him as president in 2010 on the promise of building a new
reductions in public spending, and cuts in the number of “Brazil without Misery.” She embraced the antipoverty
government employees. But Collor de Mello’s efforts— programs of her predecessor, attempting to clean up the
reminiscent of Menem’s in Argentina—were undermined slums—known as favelas—that surround every major city,
by reports of official corruption, and he resigned at the end and announced an affirmative action program to increase
of 1992 after being impeached. In new elections two years the percentage of citizens of color in public universities.
later, Fernando Cardoso (b. 1931) was elected president by But the country’s recent history of rapid growth was under-
an overwhelming majority of the popular vote. Cardoso, mined by the global recession, and Rousseff ’s plans to con-
a member of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party, intro- tinue the successes of the Lula years gave way to the reality
duced measures to privatize state-run industries and to of a severe recession. In 2016 she was removed from office
reform social security and the pension system. He rode on the charge of seeking to conceal a budget deficit, and was
a wave of economic prosperity to reelection in 1998. But replaced by an interim president. By then the reputation of
economic problems, combined with allegations of official the BWP had been tarnished by the rampant corruption
corruption and rising factionalism within the ruling party, and violence that plagued the country (the once-popular
undermined his popularity, leading to the victory of the Lula was himself imprisoned for money-laundering), and
Brazil Workers’ Party (BWP) in 2002. in national elections held in the fall of 2018, victory went
The new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (b. 1945), to a once-obscure politician named Jair Bolsanaro. The
a former lathe operator, was enormously popular among new president disdained the social programs that had been
the country’s working masses and had come to power on adopted by his predecessors and was openly dismissive of
a promise to introduce antipoverty programs and reverse women, the LGBTQ community, and Brazilians of color.
his predecessor’s policy of privatizing major industries. Still, Bolsanaro’s promise to crack down on widespread

crime corruption appealed to a nation weary of leaders around the country that Fox found himself under consid-
who failed to live up to their promises. erable pressure to deal with generations of neglect in solv-
ing the problems of Mexico.
8-5c The Mexican Way The conservative lawyer Felipe Calderón (b. 1962) took
During the 1950s and early 1960s, Mexico’s ruling party, over from Fox in December 2006 in a presidential election
the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), focused on disputed by his rival, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. With
industrial development. Steady economic growth com- PRI support, Calderón sought to rule from the center,
bined with low inflation and real gains in wages for more while adopting measures to alleviate poverty and bring
and more people made those years appear to be a golden about fiscal reform. But his efforts were undermined by
age in Mexico’s economic development. But massive stu- the economic slowdown in the United States.
dent protests in 1968, which turned violent and resulted In elections in 2012, the PRI returned to power. The new
in hundreds of casualties, were a clear sign of discontent president, Enrique Peña Nieto (b. 1966), was a charismatic fig-
beneath the surface. The protests persuaded PRI leaders to ure who reminded some observers of John F. Kennedy, but he
introduce political reforms. The government eased rules faced enormous challenges. Forty percent of Mexicans lived
for the registration of political parties and allowed greater in poverty, and one in ten earned less than the equivalent of
freedom of debate in the press and universities. But eco- one U.S. dollar a day. At the same time, crime rates were soar-
nomic problems continued to trouble Mexico. ing, despite the government’s efforts to crack down on the
In the late 1970s, vast new reserves of oil were discovered country’s powerful drug cartels. Nieto attempted to weaken
in Mexico. As sales of oil abroad rose dramatically, the gov- the drug lords by making use of the Mexican army, but had
ernment became increasingly dependent on oil revenues. little success, and his rival Manuel Obrador finally assumed
When world oil prices dropped in the mid-1980s, Mexico the presidency on a promise to focus on economic develop-
was no longer able to make the payments on its foreign debt, ment to reduce the problem. Obrador’s challenge was height-
which had reached $80 billion in 1982. The government was ened by uneasy relations with the United States and the steady
forced to adopt new economic policies, including the sale of flow of refugees from Central American heading toward the
publicly owned companies to private parties. border with the United States.
During the 1990s, Mexican leaders continued the eco-
nomic liberalization policies of the previous decade, and 8-5d The Leftist Variant
in 1994 President Carlos Salinas (b. 1948) negotiated the Most of the countries in Latin America have followed
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the path laid out by the three examples described above.
the United States and Canada. But although NAFTA Military dictatorships have been replaced by elected gov-
was highly controversial in the United States because of ernments that, at least on paper, follow standard demo-
the fear that U.S. firms would move factories to Mexico, cratic principles. In many cases, though, the influence of
where labor costs are cheaper and environmental stan- traditional ruling elites remains strong, leading to signifi-
dards less stringent, many Mexicans felt that NAFTA was cant levels of popular discontent. In some countries, this
more beneficial to the U.S. economy than to its southern has resulted in the emergence of governments dominated
neighbor. An indication of Mexico’s continuing economic by leftist parties influenced by the ideas of Karl Marx. The
problems was the rising popular unrest in southern parts foremost examples are Cuba and Venezuela.
of the country. Unhappy farmers, many of them native
Amerindians, increasingly protested the endemic poverty The Cuban Revolution An authoritarian regime, headed
and widespread neglect of the needs of the indigenous by Fulgencio Batista (1901–1973) and closely tied economi-
peoples, who comprise about 10 percent of Mexico’s total cally to U.S. investors, had ruled Cuba since 1934. In the
population of 100 million people. early 1950s, a guerrilla movement—led by Fidel Castro
In 2000, a national election suddenly swept the ruling (b. 1926) assisted by Ernesto “Ché” Guevara (1928–1967),
PRI from power. The new president, Vicente Fox (b. 1942), an Argentinian who believed that revolutionary upheaval
came to office with high expectations and promised to was necessary for change to occur—emerged in the Sierra
address the country’s many problems, including political Maestra. As the rebels gradually gained support, Batista
corruption, widespread poverty, environmental concerns, responded with such brutality that he alienated his own sup-
and a growing population. But he was hampered both by porters. The dictator fled in December 1958, and Castro’s
the PRI, which still controlled many state legislatures and revolutionaries seized Havana on January 1, 1959.
held a plurality in Congress, and by the protest movement As the new regime moved to nationalize key elements
in rural areas in the south. Although the movement has of the Cuban economy, relations between Cuba and the
since faded, it aroused such a groundswell of support from United States quickly deteriorated. When the Soviet Union
began to provide military and economic aid to Cuba, limited market reforms and to allow the circulation of U.S.
President Eisenhower directed the Central Intelligence dollars. But most Cubans remain locked in poverty, and the
Agency (CIA) to “organize the training of Cuban exiles, system of political repression remained intact. The ageing
mainly in Guatemala, against a possible future day when symbol of the regime, Fidel Castro stayed in power until
they might return to their homeland.”3 In October 1960, illness forced him to resign the presidency in 2008. The
the United States declared a trade embargo of Cuba, driv- accession to the presidency of his more pragmatic younger
ing Castro closer to the Soviet Union. brother, Raúl Castro (b. 1931), opened the door to negotia-
On January 3, 1961, the United States broke diplo- tions with the United States, and in 2014 President Obama
matic relations with Cuba. The new U.S. president, John announced that the United States would begin normalizing
F. Kennedy, approved a plan originally drafted by the pre- their relationship by lifting the travel ban, opening Cuba
vious administration to launch an invasion to overthrow to financial investment, and establishing a U.S. embassy in
Castro’s government, but the landing of 1,400 CIA-assisted Havana. But with serious ideological differences between
Cubans in Cuba at the Bay of Pigs on April 17, 1961, turned the two countries still in place, the relationship remains cool.
into a total military disaster. This fiasco encouraged the
Soviets to make an even greater commitment to Cuban Venezuela: The New Cuba? With the discovery of oil in
independence by attempting to place nuclear missiles in the small town of Cabímas in the early 1920s, Venezuela
the country, an act that led to a showdown with the United took its first step toward becoming a major exporter of oil
States (see Chapter 7). and one of the wealthiest countries in Latin America. At
The missile crisis persuaded Castro that the Soviet first, profits from “black rain” accrued mainly to the nation’s
Union was unreliable. If revolutionary Cuba was to be elite families, but in 1976 the oil industry was nationalized,
secure and no longer encircled by hostile states tied to U.S. and Venezuela entered an era of national prosperity. But
interests, it would have to instigate social revolution in when the price of oil on world markets dropped sharply
the rest of Latin America. He believed that once guerrilla in the 1980s, the country’s economic honeymoon came to
wars were launched, peasants would flock to the move- an end, and in 1989 President Carlos Andrés Pérez (1922–
ment and overthrow the old regimes. Guevara attempted 2010) launched an austerity program that cut deeply into
to launch a guerrilla war in Bolivia but was caught and the living standards of much of the population.
killed by the Bolivian army in the fall of 1967. The Cuban After popular demonstrations led to an army crack-
strategy had failed. down in 1992, restive military forces launched an abortive
In Cuba, however, Castro’s social-
ist revolution proceeded, with mixed
results. The regime provided free
medical services for all citizens, and a
new law code expanded the rights of
women. Illiteracy was wiped out by
creating new schools and establishing
teacher-training institutes that tripled
the number of teachers within ten
years. Eschewing the path of rapid
industrialization, Castro encouraged
agricultural diversification. But the
Cuban economy continued to rely
on the production and sale of sugar.
William J. Duiker
Economic problems forced the Castro

regime to depend on Soviet subsidies
and the purchase of Cuban sugar by
Soviet bloc countries (see Image 8.7). IMAGE 8.7 Havana: A Museum for Classic Automobiles. After seizing power in 1959,
The disintegration of the Soviet the regime of Fidel Castro forbade the sale of automobiles in revolutionary Cuba,
Union was a major blow to Cuba, as and even severely restricted imports from Soviet bloc nations. As a result, almost
the new government in Moscow no the only vehicles on the streets of Havana were vintage U.S. cars from the 1940s
and 1950s, whose owners kept them running with rubber bands and bailing wire.
longer had a reason to continue to sub- In 2011, the regime suddenly reversed course and authorized the sale and purchase
sidize the onetime Soviet ally. During of vehicles. Cuban owners welcomed the decision, which opened up a lucrative
the 1990s, Castro began to introduce market for antique automobiles among buyers in the United States and Europe.

coup to seize power. Five years later, one of the leading (b. 1936) and Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) are among
members of the plot—a paratroop commander named the most respected literary names of the last half century.
Hugo Chávez (1954–2013)—was elected president in These authors often use dazzling language and daring nar-
national elections. Taking advantage of rising oil prices, rative experimentation to make their point. Gabriel García
Chávez launched an ambitious spending program to Márquez from Colombia is a master of this style. In One
improve living conditions for the poor. Although such mea- Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), he explores the transforma-
sures earned his regime broad national support, Chávez’s tion of a small town under the impact of political violence,
efforts to silence critics and strengthen presidential pow- industrialization, and the arrival of a U.S. banana com-
ers—including a program to organize his supporters into pany. Especially noteworthy is his use of magical realism;
“Bolivarian circles” (in honor of the nineteenth-century the outrageous events that assail the town are related in a
Venezuelan liberator Simón Bolívar) at the local level— matter-of-fact voice, thus transforming the fantastic into the
displayed his all-too-evident dictatorial tendencies. commonplace.
A longtime admirer of Fidel Castro, Chávez strengthened Unlike novelists in the United States and Western
relations with Cuba and encouraged revolutionary move- Europe, who tend to focus their attention on the interior
ments throughout Latin America. After 2006, he acquired landscape within the modern personality in an indus-
new allies with the election of leftist governments in Bolivia trial society, fiction writers in Latin America, like their
and Ecuador. As an outspoken opponent of “Yanqui imperi- counterparts in Africa and much of Asia, have sought to
alismo,” he proposed resistance to U.S. proposals for a hemi- project an underlying political message. In his epic The
spheric free trade zone, charging that such an organization War of the End of the World, the Peruvian Mario Vargas
would operate only for the benefit of the United States. Llosa condemns the fanaticism and the inhumanity of
Until his death from cancer in 2013, by using his country’s war. In his novel The Feast of the Goat (2001), he expresses
oil wealth as a means of promoting his political objectives, his moral outrage at the cruel dictatorship of Fulgencio
Chávez had replaced Fidel Castro as Washington’s most dan- Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. Others, like Vargas
gerous adversary in Latin America. After Chávez’s death, his Llosa’s countryman, José Maria Arguedas (1911–1969),
vice president Nicolás Maduro (b. 1962) was elected presi- have championed the cause of the Amerindians and
dent and vowed to continue his predecessor’s policies. lauded the diversity that marks the ethnic mix through-
But Maduro had the misfortune to inherit leadership in out the continent. Some have run for high political office
Caracas at a time when global oil prices had begun to drop as a means of remedying social problems. Some have
precipitately. As the country’s revenues from oil exports been women, reflecting the rising demand for sexual
plunged, Maduro refused to cut back on social programs, equality in a society traditionally marked by male domi-
or on oil subsidies to like-minded countries like Cuba, and nation. The memorable phrase of the Chilean poet
the Venezuelan economy suffered the consequences. As Gabriela Mistral (1889–1957)—“I have chewed stones
internal criticism of the regime escalated, Maduro cracked with woman’s gums”—encapsulates the plight of Latin
down on his political opponents, rigged elections, and American women.
blamed the United States for the country’s difficulties. In A powerful example of Postmodern art in Latin
early 2019, an opposition leader, the head of the National America is found in the haunting work of the Colombian
Assembly Juan Guaidó, claimed to be the only legitimate sculptor Doris Salcedo (b. 1958). Her art evokes disturbing
leader of the country. His claim was supported by the images of her country’s endless civil war and violent drug
United States and many of Venezuela’s neighbors, who trade. Salcedo often presents everyday wooden furniture,
were faced with high levels of refugees fleeing across their to which she has applied a thin layer of cement and frag-
borders. Russia—always happy to dally with enemies of ments of personal mementos from the owner’s past life: a
the United States—has rushed to the support of the belea- remnant of lace curtain, a lock of hair, or a handkerchief.
guered Maduro, and the situation was at a standoff at the Frozen in time, these everyday souvenirs evoke the pain of
time of this writing. those who were dragged from their homes in the middle
of the night and senselessly murdered. Salcedo’s work can
8-5e Trends in Latin American Culture be experienced as an impassioned plea to stop the killing
Postwar literature in Latin America has been vibrant. Writers of innocent civilians or as the fossilized artifact from some
such as Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986), Carlos Fuentes future archaeologist’s dig, showing traces of our brief and
(1928–2012), and Nobel Prize winners Mario Vargas Llosa absurd sojourn on Earth.
MAKING CONNECTIONS
During the second half of the twentieth century, the United some warning signs that bear watching: an increasing gap
States emerged as the preeminent power in the world, in the distribution of wealth that could ultimately threaten
dominant in its economic and technological achievements the steady growth in consumer spending; an educational
as well as in its military hardware. Although the Soviet system that all too often fails to produce graduates with
Union was a serious competitor in the arms race engen- either a strong commitment to civic responsibility or the
dered by the Cold War, its economic achievements paled in skills needed to master the challenges of a technology-
comparison with those of the U.S. behemoth. driven economy; and an increasingly dysfunctional politi-
The engine that drove this juggernaut is a phenomenon cal system that increasingly undermines the ability of the
that we know as democratic capitalism. And the mecha- government to provide services to a nation of more than
nism that enables the engine of democratic capitalism to 300 million people. By these measurements, the American
function effectively is a symbiotic relationship between the system of government is in trouble.
concepts of Liberty and Equality. Too much emphasis on Over the course of modern history, the fortunes of
Equality and the freedom to create is stifled, to the detri- Canada and the nations of Latin America have been
ment of all. But Liberty without restraint allows inequities tied, in many respects, to those of the United States.
in the system to proliferate, thus preventing the benefits Still, they have all displayed their own distinctive charac-
of the system from permeating all the functioning parts teristics. The Canadian political system bears consider-
of the mechanism. able resemblance to that of the United States, including
The worldwide dominance of the United States was a the character of its two major political parties, but the
product of a combination of factors, including the bounty presence of a significant French-speaking minority con-
of nature and the good fortune to be protected from dis- centrated in one particular province of the country has
ruptive forces by miles and miles of shining sea. Still, the complicated efforts to create a nation embodying a single
historical capacity of the American system of government set of cultural symbols. For their part, the countries of
to forge an equitable balance between the forces of Liberty Latin America differ substantially from their northern
and Equality has been one of the nation’s foremost keys neighbors in terms of both economic performance and
to success. As we have seen above, that balance is often an political culture—undoubtedly a consequence of their
uneasy one, as the American political culture has displayed Hispanic heritage. Still, in the last two decades several
a tendency to swing like a pendulum from one side to the nations in the region have shown signs of emerging from
other, while never dwelling for long at either extreme. The the shadow of the United States to becoming economic
sweet spot tends to appear when the pendulum swing is powerhouses in their own right. Foremost among these is
passing through the middle, at a point where Liberty and Brazil, which—despite its current discontents—continues
Equality operate in tandem to the mutual benefit of the to show the potential to become the next global eco-
population as a whole. nomic superpower. At the same time, democratic institu-
The steady growth of the U.S. economy, while showing tions are steadily taking root throughout the continent.
periodic signs of slowing in its maturity, has continued well Is Latin America finally reaching a position to take charge
into the new millennium. But recently there have been of its own destiny?
Reflection Questions
QQDo you agree that the U.S. system of government QQWhat role has popular culture played in the United
performs most effectively in bringing benefits to the States since 1945, and to what extent does it reflect the
general population when the balance between the goals changes that have taken place in American society?
of Liberty and Equality are relatively evenly matched? QQWhat do you believe are the most important issues
Why or why not? that the countries of the Western Hemisphere face today?
Are they meeting those challenges effectively, or not?

CHAPTER TIMELINE
1945 1955 1965 1975 1985 1995 2005 2015
United States
Eisenhower era Assassination of Watergate Presidency of Presidency of Terrorist Barack Obama Donald Trump
(1953–1961) John F. Kennedy scandal Ronald Reagan Bill Clinton attack on elected as elected U.S.
(1963) (1972) (1981–1989) (1993–2001) the United first African president
States (2001) American (2016)
Death U.S. president
of Jackson Pollock (2008)
(1956) Era of
“magical realism”
Martin Luther King Jr. Tea Party movement

and the civil rights movement formed
(1955–1968) (2008-present)
Emergence of women’s
liberation movement
(1960s)
Latin America
Rule of Juan Perón Castro takes power in Chávez Lula da Silva becomes U.S. and Cuba
in Argentina Cuba (1959) elected president of Brazil (2003) establish
(1946–1955) president diplomatic
of Venezuela relations
(1997) (2015)
CHAPTER NOTES
1. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon my college simply because he had served as a mem-
B. Johnson, Bk. 1, 1963–64 (Washington, D.C., 1965), ber of a committee that drafted the United Nations
p. 704. Charter.
2. To cite a personal example, one of my professors of 3. Dwight D. Eisenhower, The White House Years: Waging
Political Science was dismissed from his position at Peace, 1956–1961 (Garden City, 1965), p. 533.

Chapter
Brave New World: The Rise
and Fall of Communism in
9 the Soviet Union and
Eastern Europe
Chapter Outline and
Focus Questions
9-1 The Postwar Soviet Union
QQWhat, in your view, were the most important
reasons why the Soviet Union failed to achieve
Karl Marx’s dream of creating a society cleansed
of the evils of class struggle and the exploitation
of man by man?
9-2 Ferment in Eastern Europe
QQWhy was Soviet strategy to retain its dominance
over its client states in Eastern Europe successful
for so long?
William J. Duiker
9-3 Culture and Society in the Soviet Bloc
QQHow did the culture and society of the states in
Eastern Europe differ from those in the Western
European countries? IMAGE 9.1 How to Shop in Moscow
9-4 The Disintegration of the Soviet Empire
QQWhat were the key components of perestroika as
espoused by Mikhail Gorbachev during the 1980s? ACCORDING TO KARL MARX, capitalism is a system that
Why did the strategy fail? involves the exploitation of man by man; under social-
ism, it is the other way around. That wry joke, an
9-5 The New Russia: From Empire to Nation ironic twist on the familiar Marxist saying of the pre-
QQWhy do you think relations between Russia and the vious century, was typical of popular humor in post-
United States have deteriorated in the thirty years World War II Moscow, where the dreams of a future
Communist utopia had faded in the grim reality of life
since the collapse of the Soviet Union? Could the
in the Soviet Union.
rupture have been avoided? During the 1950s, the annual rate of economic
growth in the Soviet Union exceeded 6 percent,
and there were widespread predictions, even in the
United States, that the Soviet Union would eventually
surpass the United States as the world’s preeminent
economic power. But Soviet leaders had made a
calculated decision to emphasize military spending
at the expense of other sectors of the economy, and
Connections to Today as growth rates dropped dramatically in the 1980s,
Do you share the view that the world is now the standard of living for Soviet citizens continued to
stagnate. Nothing was more symbolic of the difficul-
entering a new phase of the Cold War, with the
ties of life in the Soviet Union than the common sight
United States faced off against its traditional rivals, of endless lines of citizens waiting patiently for an
Russia and China? opportunity to shop for vital necessities in all Soviet
220
cities (see Image 9.1). For much of the population An Industrial Powerhouse The pace of economic recov-
in the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satel- ery in the postwar Soviet Union was impressive. By 1947,
lites, the “brave new world” prophesied by Karl Marx Russian industrial production had attained 1939 levels;
remained but a figment of his fertile imagination. three years later, it had surpassed those levels by 40 per-
cent. New power plants, canals, and giant factories were
built, and new industrial enterprises and oil fields were
established in Siberia and Soviet Central Asia. A new five-
year plan, announced in 1946, reached its goals in less than
9-1 The Postwar Soviet Union five years. Returning to his prewar forced-draft system,
QQ Focus Question: What, in your view, were the

most important reasons why the Soviet Union
Stalin had created an industrial powerhouse.
Although Stalin’s economic recovery policy was success-
ful in promoting growth in heavy industry, primarily for the
failed to achieve Karl Marx’s dream of creating benefit of the military, consumer goods remained scarce,
a society cleansed of the evils of class struggle as long-suffering Soviet citizens were still being asked to
and the exploitation of man by man? sacrifice for a better tomorrow. The development of ther-
monuclear weapons, MiG fighter jets, and the first space
At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union was one satellite (Sputnik) in the 1950s may have elevated the Soviet
of the world’s two superpowers, and its leader, Joseph state’s reputation as a world power abroad, but domesti-
Stalin, was at the height of his power. As a result of the cally, the Soviet people were shortchanged. Heavy industry
war, Stalin and his Soviet colleagues were now in control grew at a rate three times that of personal consumption.
of a vast empire that included Eastern Europe, much of Moreover, the housing shortage was acute, with living con-
the Balkans, and territory gained from Japan in East Asia ditions especially difficult in the overcrowded cities.
(see Map 9.1). When World War II ended, Stalin had been in power for
more than fifteen years. During that time, he had removed
all opposition to his rule and emerged as the undisputed
9-1a From Stalin to Khrushchev master of the Soviet Union. Constantly increasing repres-
World War II had devastated the Soviet Union. Twenty sion became the hallmark of the regime. In 1946, gov-
million citizens lost their lives, and cities such as Kiev, ernment decrees subordinated all forms of literary and
Kharkov, and Leningrad suffered enormous physical scientific expression to the political needs of the state.
destruction. As the lands that had been occupied by the Along with the anti-intellectual campaign came political
German forces were liberated, the Soviet government terror. By the late 1940s, an estimated 9 million people
turned its attention to restoring the nation’s economic were in Siberian concentration camps.
structures. Nevertheless, in 1945, agricultural production Increasingly distrustful of competitors, Stalin exercised
was only 60 percent and steel output only 50 percent of sole authority and pitted his subordinates against one
prewar levels. The Soviet people faced incredibly difficult another. One of these subordinates, Lavrenti Beria, head
conditions: they worked longer hours than before the war, of the secret police, controlled a force of several hundred
ate less, and were ill-housed and poorly clothed. thousand agents, leaving Stalin’s colleagues completely
In the immediate postwar years, the Soviet Union cowed. As Stalin remarked mockingly on one occasion,
removed goods and materials from occupied Germany “When I die, the imperialists will strangle all of you like a
and extorted valuable raw materials from its satellite litter of kittens.”1
states in Eastern Europe. More important, however, Stalin’s morbid suspicions even extended to some of his
to create a new industrial base, Stalin returned to the closest colleagues. In 1948, Andrei Zhdanov, his presumed
method he had used in the 1930s—the extraction of successor and head of the Leningrad party organization,
development capital from Soviet labor. Working hard for died under mysterious circumstances. The doctors who
little pay and for precious few consumer goods, Soviet had attended Zhdanov were charged with causing his death
citizens were expected to produce goods for export with (hence, the label “the doctors’ plot”), but most historians
little in return for themselves. The incoming capital from believe it was done on Stalin’s order. Within weeks, the
abroad could then be used to purchase machinery and Leningrad party organization was purged of several top
Western technology. The loss of millions of men in the leaders, many of whom were charged with traitorous con-
war meant that much of this tremendous workload fell nections with Western intelligence agencies. In succeeding
upon Soviet women, who performed almost 40 percent years, Stalin directed his suspicion at other members of the
of the heavy manual labor. inner circle, including Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov.
9-1 The Postwar Soviet Union ■ 221

SWEDEN
0 500 750 1,500 Kilometers
FINLAND 0 500 1,000 Miles
Helsinki
Stockholm Leningrad
Tallinn
ESTONIA
a
Se Riga UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
LATVIA
c
lti Moscow
DENMARK
Ba LITHUANIA
U.S.S.R Vilnius
Minsk
Berlin BELARUS
Warsaw
EAST
GERMANY POLAND
on
D
Prague Kiev R.
Dn
WEST CZECHOSLOVAKIA UKRAINE iep
er
R.
GER. KAZAKHSTAN
Vienna
Budapest Vo
AUSTRIA MOLDOVA lga
HUNGARY R.
Chisinau
Zagreb
ROMANIA Odessa
Ca
Belgrade
Sarajevo Bucharest
spi
ITALY YUGOSLAVIA Danube R.
an
Black Sea
Rome Skopje Sofia GEORGIA TURKMENISTAN
BULGARIA Tbilisi
Tirana AZERBAIJAN
ALBANIA Ankara
ARMENIA Baku
Yerevan
Sea
GREECE TURKEY
Athens
Tigr
Sicily i s IRAN
Eup
Tunis
R.
ra
h
te Tehran
MAP 9.1 The Soviet Union. After World War II, the boundaries of Eastern Europe were redrawn as a result of
Allied agreements reached at the Tehran and Yalta Conferences. This map shows the new boundaries that
were established throughout the region, placing Soviet power in the center of Europe.
Q How had the boundaries changed from the prewar era?
Known as “Old Stone Butt” in the West for his stubborn relations with the Western powers. For Moscow’s Eastern
defense of Soviet security interests, Molotov had been European allies, he advocated a so-called New Course in
a loyal lieutenant since the early years of Stalin’s rise to their mutual relations and an end to Stalinist methods of
power. Now Stalin distrusted Molotov and had his Jewish rule. Inside the Soviet Union, he hoped to reduce defense
wife sent to a Siberian concentration camp. To colleagues, expenditures and assign a higher priority to improving the
Stalin privately accused his own foreign minister of being standard of living. Such goals were laudable and probably
“a hireling of American imperialism.” had the support of the majority of the Russian people, but
they were not necessarily appealing to key pressure groups
The Rise and Fall of Nikita Khrushchev Stalin died— within the Soviet Union—the army, the Communist Party,
presumably of natural causes—in 1953 and, after some the managerial elite, and the security services (now known
bitter infighting within the party leadership (resulting in as the Committee for State Security, or KGB). Malenkov,
the arrest and secret execution of the feared Beria) he was whose hold on power was always tenuous because of
succeeded by Georgy Malenkov, a veteran administrator the maneuverings of his rivals in the Kremlin, was soon
and ambitious member of the Politburo. Malenkov came removed from his position as prime minister, and power
to power with a clear agenda. In foreign affairs, he hoped shifted to his chief competitor, the new party general sec-
to promote an easing of Cold War tensions and improve retary, Nikita Khrushchev.
222 ■ CHAPTER 9 Brave New World: The Rise and Fall of Communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
During his struggle for power with Malenkov, freedom of expression for writers, artists, and composers,
Khrushchev had outmaneuvered his rival by calling arguing that “readers should be given the chance to make
for heightened defense expenditures and a continuing their own judgments” regarding the acceptability of con-
emphasis on heavy industry. Once in power, however, troversial literature and that “police measures shouldn’t
Khrushchev showed the political dexterity displayed by be used.”2 At Khrushchev’s order, thousands of prisoners
many an American politician and reversed his priorities. were released from concentration camps.
He now resumed his predecessor’s efforts to reduce ten- Khrushchev’s personality, however, did not endear him
sions with the West and boost the standard of living of to higher Soviet officials, who frowned at his tendency to
the Russian people. He moved vigorously to improve the crack jokes and play the clown. Nor were the higher mem-
performance of the Soviet economy and revitalize Soviet bers of the party bureaucracy pleased when Khrushchev
society. By nature, Khrushchev was a man of enormous tried to curb their privileges. Foreign policy failures further
energy as well as an innovator. In an attempt to loosen damaged Khrushchev’s reputation among his colleagues.
the stranglehold of the central bureaucracy over the Relations with China deteriorated badly under his lead-
national economy, he abolished dozens of government ership. His plan to install missiles in Cuba was the final
ministries and split up the party and government appara- straw (see Chapter 7). While he was away on vacation in
tus. Khrushchev also attempted to rejuvenate the stagnant 1964, a special meeting of the Soviet Politburo voted him
agricultural sector, long the Achilles heel of the Soviet out of office (allegedly because of “deteriorating health”)
economy. He attempted to spur production by increasing and forced him into retirement. Although a group of lead-
profit incentives and opened “virgin lands” in the Soviet ers succeeded him, real power came into the hands of
republic of Kazakhstan to bring thousands of acres of new Leonid Brezhnev (1906–1982), the “trusted” supporter of
land under cultivation. Khrushchev who had engineered his downfall.
Like any innovator, however, Khrushchev had to over-
come the inherently conservative instincts of the Soviet
bureaucracy, as well as of the mass of the Soviet popu- 9-1b The Brezhnev Years, 1964–1982
lation. His plan to remove the “dead hand” of the state, The ouster of Nikita Khrushchev in October 1964 vividly
however laudable in intent, alienated much of the Soviet demonstrated the challenges that would be encountered
official class, and his effort to split the party angered by any Soviet leader sufficiently bold to try to reform the
those who saw it as the central force in the Soviet sys- Soviet system. In democratic countries, pressure on the
tem. Khrushchev’s agricultural schemes inspired similar government comes from various sources within society
opposition. Although the Kazakhstan wheat lands would at large—the business community and labor unions, inter-
eventually demonstrate their importance, progress was est groups, and the general public. In the Soviet Union,
slow, and his effort to persuade the Russian people to eat pressure on government and party leaders originated
more corn (an idea he had apparently picked up during a from sources essentially operating inside the governing
visit to the United States) led to the mocking nickname system—from the government bureaucracy, the party

“Cornman.” Disappointing agricultural production, com- apparatus (known in Russian as apparatchiks), the KGB,
bined with high military spending, hurt the Soviet econ- and the armed forces.
omy. The industrial growth rate, which had soared in the Leonid Brezhnev, the new party chief, was undoubtedly
early 1950s, declined dramatically from 13 percent in 1953 aware of these realities of Soviet politics, and his long ten-
to 7.5 percent in 1964. ure in power was marked, above all, by the desire to avoid
Khrushchev was probably best known for his policy changes that might provoke instability, either at home
of de-Stalinization. Khrushchev had risen in the party or abroad. Brezhnev was himself a product of the Soviet
hierarchy as a Stalin protégé, but he had been deeply dis- system. He had entered the ranks of the party leadership
turbed by his mentor’s excesses and, once in a position of under Stalin, and although he was not a particularly avid
authority, moved to excise the Stalinist legacy from Soviet believer in party ideology—indeed, his years in power gave
society. The campaign began at the Twentieth Congress of rise to innumerable stories about his addiction to “bourgeois
the Communist Party in February 1956, when Khrushchev pleasures,” including expensive country houses in the elite
gave a long speech criticizing some of Stalin’s major short- Moscow suburb of Zhukovka and fast cars (many of them
comings. The speech apparently had not been intended for gifts from foreign leaders)—he was no partisan of reform.
public distribution, but it was quickly leaked to the Western Still, Brezhnev sought stability in the domestic arena.
press and created a sensation throughout the world (see He and his prime minister, Alexei Kosygin (1904–1980),
Historical Voices, “Khrushchev Denounces Stalin,” p. 224). undertook what might be described as a program of
During the next few years, Khrushchev encouraged more “de-Khrushchevization,” returning the responsibility for

HISTORICAL VOICES
Khrushchev Denounces Stalin

Stalin showed in a whole series of cases his intoler-
Q What were Stalin’s major crimes, according to ance, his brutality, and his abuse of power. . . . He often
Khrushchev? To what degree were these problems chose the path of repression and annihilation, not only
resolved under later Soviet leaders? against actual enemies, but also against individuals who
had not committed any crimes against the Party and the
Three years after Stalin’s death, the new Soviet government. . . .
Politics &
Government Soviet premier, Nikita Khrushchev, addressed Many Party, Soviet, and economic activists who were
the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party and branded in 1937–38 as “enemies” were actually never ene-
denounced the former Soviet dictator for his crimes. This mies, spies, wreckers, and so on, but were always honest
denunciation, which caused consternation in Communist communists; they were only so stigmatized, and often, no
parties around the world, was the beginning of a policy of longer able to bear barbaric tortures, they charged them-
de-Stalinization in the Soviet Union. selves (at the order of the investigative judges-falsifiers)
with all kinds of grave and unlikely crimes.
Khrushchev Addresses the Twentieth Party Congress, This was the result of the abuse of power by
February 1956 Stalin, who began to use mass terror against the Party
Comrades, . . . quite a lot has been said about the cult of cadres. . . . Stalin put the Party and the NKVD [the Soviet
the individual and about its harmful consequences. . . . police agency] up to the use of mass terror when the
The cult of the person of Stalin . . . became at a certain exploiting classes had been liquidated in our country and
specific stage the source of a whole series of exceedingly when there were no serious reasons for the use of extraor-
serious and grave perversions of Party principles, of Party dinary mass terror. The terror was directed . . . against the
democracy, of revolutionary legality. honest workers of the Party and the Soviet state. . . .
Stalin absolutely did not tolerate collegiality in leader- Stalin was a very distrustful man, sickly, suspicious. . . .
ship and in work and . . . practiced brutal violence, not Everywhere and in everything he saw “enemies,” “two-
only toward everything which opposed him, but also facers,” and “spies.” Possessing unlimited power, he
toward that which seemed to his capricious and despotic indulged in great willfulness and choked a person morally
character, contrary to his concepts. and physically. A situation was created where one could
Stalin abandoned the method of ideological struggle not express one’s own will. When Stalin said that one or
for that of administrative violence, mass repressions another would be arrested, it was necessary to accept on
and terror. . . . Arbitrary behavior by one person faith that he was an “enemy of the people.” What proofs
encouraged and permitted arbitrariness in others. Mass were offered? The confession of the arrested. . . . How is
arrests and deportations of many thousands of people, it possible that a person confesses to crimes that he had
execution without trial and without normal investiga- not committed? Only in one way—because of application
tion created conditions of insecurity, fear, and even of physical methods of pressuring him, tortures, bring-
desperation. ing him to a state of unconsciousness, deprivation of his
judgment, taking away of his human dignity.
Source: Congressional Record, 84th Congress, 2nd session, vol. 102, pt. 7 ( June 4, 1956), pp. 9389–9402.
long-term planning to the central ministries and reuniting the regime launched a series of reforms designed to give
the Communist Party apparatus. Despite some cautious factory managers (themselves employees of the state)
attempts to stimulate the stagnant farm sector by increas- more responsibility for setting prices, wages, and produc-
ing capital investment in agriculture and raising food prices tion quotas. These “Kosygin reforms” had little effect,
to increase rural income and provide additional incentives however, because they were stubbornly resisted by the
to collective farmers, there was no effort to revise the basic bureaucracy and were eventually adopted by relatively few
structure of the collective system. In the industrial sector, enterprises within the vast state-owned industrial sector.
A Controlled Society Brezhnev also initiated a signifi- in 1980, Soviet newspapers advised citizens to keep their
cant retreat from Khrushchev’s policy of de-Stalinization. children indoors to protect them from being polluted with
Criticism of the “Great Leader” had angered conserva- “bourgeois” ideas passed on by foreign visitors. For those
tives both within the party hierarchy and among the Soviet citizens who craved access to the real world behind
public at large, many of whom still revered Stalin as a the shiny platitudes of government propaganda, the only
hero of the Soviet system and a defender of the Russian resource was the samizdat—unauthorized publications
people against Nazi Germany. Many influential figures written by dissident elements and passed on illegally from
in the Kremlin feared that de-Stalinization could lead hand to hand behind the backs of the authorities.
to internal instability and a decline in public trust in the For citizens of Western democracies, such a political
legitimacy of party leadership—the hallowed “dictator- atmosphere would seem highly oppressive, but for the peo-
ship of the proletariat.” Early in Brezhnev’s reign, Stalin’s ple in the Soviet republics, an emphasis on law and order
reputation began to revive. Although his alleged “short- was an accepted aspect of everyday life inherited from the
comings” were not totally ignored, he was now described tsarist period. Conformism was the rule in virtually every
in the official press as “an outstanding party leader” who corner of Soviet society, from the educational system
had been primarily responsible for the successes achieved (characterized at all levels by rote memorization and politi-
by the Soviet Union. cal indoctrination) to child rearing (it was forbidden, for
The regime also adopted a more restrictive policy example, to be left-handed) and even to yearly vacations
toward free expression and dissidence in Soviet society. (most workers took their vacations at resorts run by their
Critics of the Soviet system, such as the physicist Andrei employer, where the daily schedule of activities was highly
Sakharov, were harassed and arrested or, like the famous regimented). Young Americans studying in the Soviet
writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn—who had written about Union reported that friends there were often shocked to
the horrors of Soviet concentration camps—forced to hear U.S. citizens criticizing their own president and to
leave the country (see Historical Voices, “One Day in the learn that they did not routinely carry identity cards.
Life of Ivan Denisovich,” p. 226) . There was also a quali-
fied return to the anti-Semitic policies and attitudes that A Stagnant Economy Soviet leaders also failed to achieve
had marked the Stalin era. Such indications of renewed their objective of revitalizing the national economy.
repression aroused concern in the West and were instru- Whereas growth rates during the early Khrushchev era
mental in the inclusion of a statement on human rights had been impressive (prompting Khrushchev during a
in the 1975 Helsinki Accords, which guaranteed the sanc- reception at the Kremlin in 1956 to chortle to an American
tity of international frontiers throughout the continent of guest, “We will bury you,” referring to the Western coun-
Europe (see Chapter 7). Performance in the area of human tries), under Brezhnev industrial growth declined to an
rights continued to be spotty, however, and the repressive annual rate of less than 4 percent in the early 1970s and
character of Soviet society was not significantly altered. less than 3 percent in the period 1975–1980. Successes in
There were, of course, no rival voices to compete the agricultural sector were equally meager. Grain produc-
with the party and the government in defining national tion rose from less than 90 million tons in the early 1950s
interests. A new state constitution, promulgated in 1977, to nearly 200 million tons in the 1970s but then stagnated
enshrined the Communist Party as “the leading and guid- at that level (though it should be noted that Soviet statistics
ing force” in the Soviet Union, while Soviet citizens were were notoriously unreliable).
“obliged to safeguard the interests of the Soviet state, One of the primary problems with the Soviet economy
and to enhance its power and prestige.”3 The media were was the absence of incentives. Salary structures offered lit-
controlled by the state and presented only what the state tle reward for hard labor and extraordinary achievement.
wanted people to hear. The two major newspapers, Pravda Pay differentials operated within a much narrower range
(“Truth”) and Izvestiya (“News”), were the agents of the than in most Western societies, and there was little dan-
party and the government, respectively. Cynics joked that ger of being dismissed. According to the Soviet constitu-
there was no news in Pravda and no truth in Izvestiya. tion, every Soviet citizen was guaranteed an opportunity
Airplane accidents in the Soviet Union were rarely publi- to work.
cized out of concern that they would raise questions about There were, of course, some exceptions to this gen-
the quality of the Soviet airline industry. The government eral rule. Athletic achievement was highly prized, and a
made strenuous efforts to prevent the Soviet people from gymnast of Olympic stature would receive great rewards
being exposed to harmful foreign ideas, especially modern in the form of prestige and lifestyle. Senior officials did
art, literature, and contemporary Western rock music. not receive high salaries but were provided with count-
When the Summer Olympic Games were held in Moscow less “perquisites,” such as access to foreign goods, official

HISTORICAL VOICES
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

face, which was used to every kind of unpleasantness.
Q What was the author’s purpose in writing this Realizing that he would have the wind in his face all the
literary work? How did it contribute to Khrushchev’s way to the power station, he decided to make use of his
destalinization program? bit of rag. To meet the contingency of a headwind he,
like many other prisoners, had got himself a cloth with a
ON NOVEMBER 20, 1962, a Soviet magazine long tape on each end. The prisoners admitted that these
Art &
Ideas published a work by Alexander Solzhenitsyn helped a bit. Shukhov covered his face up to the eyes,
that unleashed a literary and political furor. The short novel brought the tapes around below his ears, and fastened the
related one day in the life of its chief character, Ivan ends together at the back of his neck. Then he covered
Denisovich, at a Siberian concentration camp, to which he his nape with the flap of his hat and raised his coat collar.
had been sentenced at the end of World War II for The next thing was to pull the front flap of the hat down
supposedly spying for the Germans while a Soviet soldier. into his brow. Thus in front only his eyes remained unpro-
This excerpt narrates the daily journey from the prison camp tected. He fixed his coat tightly at the waist with the rope.
to a work project through the subzero cold of Siberia. Many Now everything was in order except for his hands, which
Soviets identified with Ivan as a symbol of the suffering they were already stiff with cold (his mittens were worthless).
had endured under Stalin. He rubbed them, he clapped them together, for he knew
that in a moment he’d have to put them behind his back
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life and keep them there for the entire march.
of Ivan Denisovich The chief of the escort guard recited the “morning
There were escort guards all over the place. They flung a prayer,” which every prisoner was heartily sick of:
semicircle around the column on its way to the power sta- “Attention, prisoners. Marching orders must be strictly
tion, their machine guns sticking out and pointing right obeyed. Keep to your ranks. No hurrying, keep a steady
at your face. And there were guards with gray dogs. One pace. No talking. Keep your eyes fixed ahead and
dog bared its fangs as if laughing at the prisoners. The your hands behind your backs. A step to right or left is
escorts all wore short sheepskins, except for half a dozen considered an attempt to escape and the escort has orders
whose coats trailed the ground. The long sheepskins to shoot without warning. Leading guards, on the double.”
were interchangeable: they were worn by anyone whose
turn had come to man the watchtowers. The two guards in the lead of the escort must have set
And once again as they brought the squads together out along the road. The column heaved forward, shoul-
the escort recounted the entire power-station column ders swaying, and the escorts, some twenty paces to the
by fives. . . . right and left of the column, each man at a distance of
Out beyond the camp boundary the intense cold, ten paces from the next, machine guns held at the ready,
accompanied by a headwind, stung even Shukhov’s set off too.
Source: Alexander Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (tr. by Ralph Parker), translation copyright 1963 by E.P. Dutton and Victor
Gollancz, Ltd. Copyright renewed in 1991 by Penguin USA and Victor Gollancz Ltd.
automobiles with chauffeurs, and entry into prestigious rudeness of Soviet clerks and waiters toward their custom-
institutions of higher learning for their children. For the ers became legendary.
elite, it was blat (influence) that most often differentiated The problem of incentives existed at the managerial
them from the rest of the population. The average citizen, level as well, where the practice of centralized planning
however, had little material incentive to produce beyond discouraged initiative and innovation. Factory managers,
the minimum acceptable level. It is hardly surprising that for example, were assigned monthly and annual quotas
overall per capita productivity was only about half that by the Gosplan (the “state plan,” drawn up by the cen-
realized in most capitalist countries. At the same time, the tral planning commission). Because state-owned factories
faced little or no competition, factory managers did not Soviet planners hoped that nuclear energy would even-
care whether their products were competitive in terms of tually take up the slack, but the highly publicized melt-
price and quality, as long as the quota was attained. One down of a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in 1986 vividly
of the key complaints of Soviet citizens was the low qual- demonstrated that Soviet technology was encountering
ity of most locally made consumer goods. Knowledgeable difficulties in that area as well. Finally, there were serious
consumers quickly discovered that products manufac- underlying structural problems in agriculture. Climatic
tured at the end of the month were often of lower quality difficulties (frequent flooding, drought, and a short
(because factory workers had to rush to meet their quotas growing season) and a lack of fertile soil (except in the
at the end of the production cycle) and tried to avoid pur- renowned “black earth” regions of Ukraine) combined
chasing them. with a chronic shortage of mechanized farm equipment
Often consumer goods were simply unavailable. and a lack of incentives to prevent the growth of an
Whenever Soviet citizens saw a queue forming in front of advanced agricultural economy.
a store, they automatically got in line, often without even
knowing what the line was for, because they never knew An Aging Leadership Such problems would be intimi-
when an item might be available again (see Image 9.1). dating for any government; they were particularly so for
When they reached the head of the line, most would pur- the elderly party leaders surrounding Leonid Brezhnev,
chase several of the same item to swap with their friends many of whom were cautious to a fault. Although some
and neighbors. This “queue psychology,” of course, was a undoubtedly recognized the need for reform and innova-
time-consuming process and inevitably served to reduce tion, they were paralyzed by fear of instability and change.
the per capita rate of productivity. The problem worsened during the late 1970s, when
Soviet citizens often tried to overcome the shortcom- Brezhnev’s health began to deteriorate.
ings of the system by operating “on the left” (the black Brezhnev died in November 1982 and was succeeded
market). Private economic activities, of course, were ille- by Yuri Andropov (1914–1984), a party veteran and head
gal in the socialized Soviet system, but many workers took of the Soviet secret services. During his brief tenure as
to “moonlighting” to augment their meager salaries. An party chief, Andropov was a vocal advocate of reform,
employee in a state-run appliance store, for example, would but most of his initiatives were limited to the familiar nos-
promise to repair a customer’s television set on his own trums of punishment for wrongdoers and moral exhorta-
time in return for a payment “under the table.” Otherwise, tions to Soviet citizens to work harder. At the same time,
the repairs might require several weeks. Knowledgeable material incentives were still officially discouraged and
observers estimated that as much as one-third of the entire generally ineffective. Andropov had been ailing when he
Soviet economy operated outside the legal system. was selected to succeed Brezhnev as party chief, and when
Another major obstacle to economic growth was inad- he died after only a few months in office, little had been
equate technology. Except in the area of national defense, done to change the system. He was succeeded by a medi-
the overall level of Soviet technology was not comparable ocre party stalwart, the elderly Konstantin Chernenko
to that of the West or the advanced industrial societies of (1911–1985). With the Soviet system in crisis, Moscow
East Asia. Part of the problem, of course, stemmed from seemed stuck in a time warp. As one concerned observer
the issues already described. With no competition, factory told an American journalist, “I had a sense of foreboding,
managers had little incentive to improve the quality of like before a storm. That there was something brewing in
their products. But another reason was the high priority people and there would be a time when they would say,
assigned to defense. The military sector regularly received ‘That’s it. We can’t go on living like this. We can’t. We
the most resources from the government and attracted the need to redo everything.’”4
cream of the country’s scientific talent.
There were still other reasons for the gradual slow-
down in the Soviet economy. Coal mining was highly 9-2 Ferment in Eastern Europe
inefficient, and only about one-third of the coal extracted
actually reached its final destination. Although Soviet oil
reserves were estimated to be the largest in the world,
QQ Focus Question: Why was the Soviet strategy
to retain its dominance over its client states in
for the most part they were located in inaccessible areas Eastern Europe successful for so long?
of Siberia where extraction facilities and transportation
were inadequate. U.S. intelligence reports predicted that The key to security along the Soviet Union’s western fron-
a leveling off of oil and gas production could cause severe tier was the string of satellite states that had been created
problems for the future growth of the Soviet economy. in Eastern Europe after World War II. Once Communist
9-2 Ferment in Eastern Europe ■ 227

power had been assured in Warsaw, Prague, Sofia, reform, external loyalty.” Poland agreed to remain in the
Budapest, Bucharest, and East Berlin, a series of “little Warsaw Pact and to maintain the sanctity of party rule. In
Stalins” put into power by Moscow instituted Soviet-type return, Warsaw was authorized to adopt domestic reforms,
five-year plans that emphasized heavy industry rather such as easing restrictions on religious practice and ending
than consumer goods, the collectivization of agriculture, the policy of forced collectivization in rural areas.
and the nationalization of industry. They also appropri-
ated the political tactics that Stalin had perfected in the
Soviet Union, eliminating all non-Communist parties 9-2b The Hungarian Uprising
and establishing the standard institutions of r epression— The developments in Poland sent shock waves through-
the secret police and military forces. Dissidents were out the region. In neighboring Czechoslovakia, dissident
tracked down and thrown into prison, while “national groups watched the events in Warsaw with fascination
Communists” who resisted total subservience to the but—undoubtedly rendered cautious by the failure of
nation were charged with treason in mass show trials Western countries to come to their aid in previous crises—
and executed. took no action. The impact was strongest in Hungary,
Despite such repressive efforts, however, Soviet-style where the methods of the local “little Stalin,” Mátyás
policies aroused growing discontent in several Eastern Rákosi, were so brutal that he had been summoned to
European societies. Hungary, Poland, and Romania Moscow for a lecture and later was forced to resign from
harbored bitter memories of past Russian domination office. In late October 1956, student-led popular riots
and suspected that Stalin, under the guise of proletar- broke out in the capital of Budapest and soon spread to
ian internationalism, was seeking to revive the empire towns and villages throughout the country.
of the Romanovs. For the vast majority of peoples in Rakosi’s successor, Imre Nagy (1896–1958), was a
Eastern Europe, the imposition of “people’s democra- “national Communist” like Gomulka, and he initially
cies” (a euphemism invented by Moscow to refer to a attempted to satisfy popular demands without arousing
society in the early stage of socialist transition) resulted the anger of Moscow. Unlike his counterpart in Poland,
in economic hardship and severe threats to the most basic however, Nagy was unable to contain the zeal of leading
political liberties. members of the protest movement, who sought major
political reforms and the withdrawal of Hungary from
the Warsaw Pact. On November 1, Nagy announced plans
9-2a Unrest in Poland for a multi-party government and promised free elections,
The first signs of unrest appeared in 1953, when popular which, given the mood of the country, would probably
riots broke out against Communist rule in East Berlin. have brought an end to Communist rule.
The riots eventually subsided, but the virus soon began to When protesters then raided the headquarters of the
spread to neighboring countries. In Poland, public demon- Hungarian Communist Party, Khrushchev finally decided
strations against an increase in food prices in 1956 escalated that firm action was required (see Image 9.2). Soviet troops,
into widespread protests against the regime’s economic which had just been withdrawn at Nagy’s request, returned
policies, restrictions on the freedom of Catholics to prac- to Budapest and installed a new government under the
tice their religion, and the continued presence of Soviet more pliant party leader János Kádár (1912–1989). While
troops (as called for by the Warsaw Pact) on Polish soil. In a Kádár rescinded many of Nagy’s measures, Nagy sought
desperate effort to defuse the unrest, in October the Polish refuge in the Yugoslav Embassy. A few weeks later, he left
party leader stepped down and was replaced by Wladyslaw the embassy under the promise of safety but was quickly
Gomulka (1905–1982), a popular figure who had previ- arrested, convicted of treason, and executed. An estimated
ously been demoted for his “nationalist” tendencies. 200,000 Hungarian citizens crossed the border and sought
When Gomulka took steps to ease the crisis, the new asylum in neutral Austria.
Soviet party chief, Nikita Khrushchev, flew to Warsaw to The dramatic events in Poland and Hungary graphi-
warn his Polish colleague against adopting policies that cally demonstrated the vulnerability of the Soviet satellite
could undermine the “dictatorship of the proletariat” (the system in Eastern Europe, and many observers through-
Marxist phrase for the political dominance of the party) out the world anticipated an attempt by the United States
and even weaken security links with the Soviet Union. to intervene on behalf of the freedom fighters in Hungary.
After a brief confrontation, during which both sides threat- After all, the Eisenhower administration had promised that
ened to use military force to punctuate their demands, it would “roll back” communism, and radio broadcasts by
Gomulka and Khrushchev reached a compromise accord- the U.S.-sponsored Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe
ing to which Poland would adopt a policy labeled “internal had encouraged the peoples of Eastern Europe to rise up
by Stalin himself. By the late 1960s, how-
ever, Novotný’s policies had led to wide-
spread popular alienation, and in early
1968, with the support of intellectuals
and reformist party members, Alexander
Dubček (1921–1992) was elected first
secretary of the Communist Party. He
immediately attempted to create what was
popularly called “socialism with a human
face,” relaxing restrictions on freedom of
speech and the press and the right to travel
abroad. Reforms were announced for the
economic sector, and party control over all
aspects of society was reduced. A period of
AP Images/ARPAD HAZAFI
euphoria erupted that came to be known

as the “Prague Spring.”
It proved to be short-lived. Encouraged
by Dubček’s actions, some Czechs called
for more far-reaching reforms, including
IMAGE 9.2 How the Mighty Have Fallen. In the fall of 1956, Hungarian freedom neutrality and withdrawal from the Soviet
fighters rose up against Communist domination of their country in the short- bloc. To forestall the spread of this “spring
lived Hungarian Revolution. Their actions threatened Soviet hegemony in fever,” the Soviet Red Army, supported
Eastern Europe, however, and in late October, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev
by troops from other Warsaw Pact states,
dispatched troops to quell the uprising. In the meantime, the Hungarian people
had demonstrated their discontent by toppling a gigantic statue of Joseph invaded Czechoslovakia in August 1968
Stalin in the capital of Budapest. Statues of the Soviet dictator had been and crushed the reform movement. Gustáv
erected in all the Soviet satellites after World War II. (“W.C.” identifies a public Husák (1913–1991), a committed Stalinist,
toilet in European countries.) replaced Dubček and restored the old
order, while Moscow justified its action by
against Soviet domination. In reality, Washington was well issuing what became known as the Brezhnev Doctrine
aware that U.S. intervention could lead to nuclear war and (see Historical Voices, “The Brezhnev Doctrine,” p. 230).
limited itself to protests against Soviet brutality in crush-
ing the uprising.
9-2d The Persistence of Stalinism
The year of discontent was not without its conse-
quences, however. Soviet leaders now recognized that in East Germany
Moscow could maintain control over its satellites in Eastern Elsewhere in Eastern Europe, Stalinist policies continued
Europe only by granting them the leeway to adopt domes- to hold sway. The ruling Communist government in East
tic policies appropriate to local conditions. Khrushchev Germany, led by Walter Ulbricht (1893–1973), consoli-
had already embarked on this path when, during a visit to dated its position in the early 1950s and became a faithful
Belgrade in 1955, he assured Tito that there were “different Soviet satellite. Industry was nationalized and agriculture
roads to socialism.” Eastern European Communist lead- collectivized. After the 1953 workers’ revolt was crushed
ers now took Khrushchev at his word and adopted reform by Soviet tanks, a steady flight of East Germans to West
programs to make socialism more palatable to their sub- Germany ensued, primarily through the city of Berlin.
ject populations. Even János Kádár, derisively labeled the According to one estimate, some 3 million people, or
“butcher of Budapest,” managed to preserve many of Imre almost 20 percent of the total population of the German
Nagy’s reforms to allow a measure of capitalist incentive Democratic Republic, had fled to West Germany by
and freedom of expression in Hungary. 1961. This exodus of mostly skilled laborers (soon only
party chief Ulbricht would be left, remarked one Soviet
observer sardonically) created economic problems and in
9-2c The Prague Spring 1961 led the East German government to erect the infa-
Czechoslovakia did not share in the thaw of the mous Berlin Wall separating West from East Berlin, as
mid-1950s and remained under the rule of Antonín well as even more fearsome barriers along the entire bor-
Novotný (1904–1975), who had been placed in power der with West Germany.

HISTORICAL VOICES
The Brezhnev Doctrine

The development of events in your country evokes
Q How did Leonid Brezhnev justify the Soviet invasion in us deep anxiety. It is our firm conviction that the
of Czechoslovakia in 1968? Do you find his offensive of the reactionary forces, backed by imperial-
arguments persuasive? ists, against your Party and the foundations of the social
system in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, threatens
In the summer of 1968, when the to push your country off the road of socialism and that
Politics &
Government new Communist Party leaders in consequently it jeopardizes the interests of the entire
Czechoslovakia were seriously considering proposals socialist system. . . .
for reforming the totalitarian system there, the Warsaw We neither had nor have any intention of interfer-
Pact nations met under the leadership of Soviet party ing in such affairs as are strictly the internal business
chief Leonid Brezhnev to assess the threat to the of your Party and your state, nor of violating the prin-
socialist camp. Soon afterward, military forces of ciples of respect, independence, and equality in the
several Soviet bloc nations entered Czechoslovakia and relations among the Communist Parties and socialist
imposed a new government subservient to Moscow. The countries. . . .
move was justified by the spirit of “proletarian At the same time we cannot agree to have hostile
internationalism” and was widely viewed as a warning forces push your country from the road of social-
to China and other socialist states not to stray too far ism and create a threat of severing Czechoslovakia
from Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy, as interpreted by the from the socialist community. . . . This is the com-
Soviet Union. The principle came to be known as the mon cause of our countries, which have joined in the
Brezhnev Doctrine. Warsaw Treaty to ensure independence, peace, and
security in Europe, and to set up an insurmountable
A Letter to Czechoslovakia barrier against aggression and revenge. . . . We shall
To the Central Committee of the Communist Party of never agree to have imperialism, using peaceful or
Czechoslovakia nonpeaceful methods, making a gap from the inside
Warsaw, July 15, 1968 or from the outside in the socialist system, and chang-
Dear comrades! ing in imperialism’s favor the correlation of forces in
On behalf of the Central Committees of the Europe. . . .
Communist and Workers’ Parties of Bulgaria, That is why we believe that a decisive rebuff of the
Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, Poland, anti-Communist forces, and decisive efforts for the pres-
and the Soviet Union, we address ourselves to you with ervation of the socialist system in Czechoslovakia are not
this letter, prompted by a feeling of sincere friend- only your task but ours as well. . . .
ship based on the principles of Marxism-Leninism and We express the conviction that the Communist Party
proletarian internationalism and by the concern of of Czechoslovakia, conscious of its responsibility, will
our common affairs for strengthening the positions of take the necessary steps to block the path of reaction.
socialism and the security of the socialist community In this struggle you can count on the solidarity and
of nations. all-round assistance of the fraternal socialist countries.
Source: Moscow News, Supplement to No. 30(917), 1968, pp. 3–6.
After walling off the West, East Germany succeeded in secret police, became a hallmark of Honecker’s virtual dicta-
developing the strongest economy among the Soviet Union’s torship. The Stasi had more than 100,000 employees, and its
Eastern European satellites. In 1971, Walter Ulbricht was files on suspected subversives reportedly took up 125 miles
succeeded by Erich Honecker (1912–1994), a party hard-liner of shelf space.5 Aided by this enormous police bureaucracy,
who was deeply committed to the ideological battle against Honecker ruled unchallenged for the next eighteen years
détente. Propaganda increased, and the use of the Stasi, the (see Movies & History, The Lives of Others, p. 231).
MOVIES & HISTORY
The Lives of Others (2006)
Directed by Florian Henckel
von Donnersmarck, The Lives
of Others is a German film
(Das Leben der Anderen) that
re-creates the depressing debili-
tation of East German society
under its Communist regime, and
Allstar Picture Library/Alamy Stock Photo

especially the Stasi, the secret
police. Georg Dreyman (Sebastian
Koch) is a successful playwright
in the German Democratic
Republic (East Germany).
Although he is a dedicated
socialist who has not offended
the authorities, they try to deter-
mine whether he is completely Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) examines his Stasi files.
loyal by wiretapping his apart-
ment, where he lives with his
girlfriend, Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck), stifling atmosphere of East Germany under Communist
an actress in some of Dreyman’s plays. Captain Gerd rule. The Stasi had about 90,000 employees but also
Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) of the Stasi takes charge of the recruited a network of hundreds of thousands of inform-
spying operation. The epitome of the perfect function- ers who submitted secret reports on their friends, family,
ary, he is a cold, calculating, dedicated professional bosses, and coworkers. Some volunteered the informa-
who is convinced he is building a better society and is tion, but as the film makes clear, others were bribed
only too eager to fight the “enemies of socialism.” or blackmailed into collaborating with the authorities.
But as he listens to the everyday details of As the movie demonstrates, the Stasi were experts at
Dreyman’s life, Wiesler begins to develop a conscience wiretapping dwellings and compiling detailed written
and becomes sympathetic to the writer. After a close reports about what they heard, including conversations,
friend of Dreyman’s commits suicide, Dreyman turns arguments, jokes, and even sexual activities. Ironically,
against the Communist regime and writes an article Ulrich Mühe, who plays Captain Wiesler in the film,
on the alarming number of suicides in East German was an East German who himself had been spied on by
society that is published anonymously in Der Spiegel, the Stasi.
a West German magazine. Lieutenant Colonel Grubitz The film was praised by East Germans for
(Ulrich Tukur), Wiesler’s boss, suspects that Dreyman accurately depicting the drab environment of their
is the author. His girlfriend is brought in for question- country and the role of the Stasi in fostering a society
ing and provides some damning information about riddled by secrecy, fear, and the abuse of power. The
Dreyman’s involvement. Horrified by what she has dangers of governments that monitor their citizens are
done, she commits suicide, but Wiesler, who is now apparent and quite relevant in an age of legislation
determined to save Dreyman, fudges his reports and infringing on personal privacy in an attempt to fight
protects him from arrest. Grubitz suspects what Wiesler terrorism. The police state is revealed for what it is,
has done and demotes him. The film ends after the fall a soulless and hollow world with no redeeming fea-
of the Berlin Wall when the new German government tures or values.
opens the Stasi files. When Dreyman reads his file, he
realizes that Wiesler saved his life and writes a book Q How does the film capture the drab environment
dedicated to him. of East Germany? Why do you think East Germans
The Lives of Others which won an Academy Award chose to forget the Stasi past?
for Best Foreign Language Film, brilliantly depicts the

9-3 Culture and Society literary and scientific expression dependent on the state.
All Soviet culture was expected to follow the party line.
in the Soviet Bloc Historians, philosophers, and social scientists all grew
accustomed to quoting Marx, Lenin, and, above all,
QQ Focus Question: “How did the culture
and society of the states in Eastern Europe
Stalin as their chief authorities. Artworks were required
to conform to the communist ideal of “socialist real-
ism,” according to which all forms of artistic creativ-
differ from those in the Western European
countries?” ity were expected to reflect the successes of the Soviet
system. The public was quick to catch on to the ruse.
When architects in Warsaw tried to follow Stalin’s
In his occasional musings about the future Communist aesthetic preferences when they designed a grandiose
utopia, Karl Marx had predicted that a classless society skyscraper (known officially as the Palace of Culture)
would emerge to replace the exploitative and hierarchi- that reflected the hubris of the early Soviet period, local
cal systems of feudalism and capitalism. Workers would residents joked that the best view of the city could be
engage in productive activities and share equally in the seen from atop the palace, because one could not see
fruits of their labor. In their free time, they would produce the building from there.
a new, advanced culture, proletarian in character and egali- Novels and plays, too, were supposed to portray
tarian in content. Communist heroes and their efforts to create a better
society. No criticism of existing social conditions was
9-3a Cultural Expression permitted. Even distinguished composers such as Dmitri
The reality in the post-World War II Soviet Union and in Shostakovich (1906–1975) were compelled to heed
Eastern Europe was somewhat different. Beginning in Stalin’s criticisms, including his view that contemporary
1946, a series of government decrees made all forms of Western music was nothing but a “mishmash.” Some
areas of intellectual activity were
virtually abolished; the science
of genetics disappeared, and few
movies were made during Stalin’s
final years (see Image 9.3).
Stalin’s death brought a mod-
est respite from cultural repres-
sion. Writers and artists banned
during Stalin’s years were again
allowed to publish. The writer
Ilya Ehrenburg (1891–1967) set
the tone with his novel, signifi-
cantly titled The Thaw. Still, Soviet
authorities, including Khrushchev,
were reluctant to allow cultural
freedom to move far beyond offi-
cial Soviet ideology.
These restrictions, however,
did not prevent the emergence of
William J. Duiker
some significant Soviet literature,

although authors paid a heavy
price if they alienated the Soviet
IMAGE 9.3 Stalinist Heroic: An Example of Socialist Realism. Under Stalin and his authorities. Boris Pasternak (1890–
successors, art was assigned the task of indoctrinating the Soviet population in 1960), who began his literary career
the public virtues, such as hard work, loyalty to the state, and patriotism. Grandiose as a poet, won the Nobel Prize
statuary erected to commemorate the heroic efforts of the Red Army during World
War II appeared in every Soviet city. Here is an example in Minsk, today the capital
in 1958 for his celebrated novel
of Belarus. The flag reads “Forward under the banner of Lenin to the victory Doctor Zhivago, published in Italy in
of Communism.” 1957. But the Soviet government
condemned Pasternak’s anti-Soviet tendencies, banned the the construction of gymnasiums and training camps and
novel from the Soviet Union, and would not allow him to portrayed athletes as superheroes.
accept the prize. The author had alienated the authorities
by describing a society scarred by the excesses of Bolshevik
revolutionary zeal. 9-3b Social Changes in Eastern Europe
Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) caused an even The imposition of Marxist systems in Eastern Europe had
greater furor than Pasternak. Solzhenitsyn had spent far-reaching social consequences. Most Eastern European
eight years in forced-labor camps for criticizing Stalin, and countries made the change from peasant societies to mod-
his One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, which won him ern industrialized economies. In Bulgaria, for example,
the Nobel Prize in 1970, was an account of life in those 80 percent of the labor force was engaged in agriculture in
camps (see Historical Voices, “One Day in the Life of 1950, but only 20 percent was still working there in 1980.
Ivan Denisovich,” p. 226). Later, Solzhenitsyn wrote The Although the Soviet Union and its Eastern European sat-
Gulag Archipelago, a detailed indictment of the whole sys- ellites never achieved the high standards of living of the
tem of Soviet oppression. Soviet authorities denounced West, they did experience some improvement. In 1960,
Solzhenitsyn’s efforts to inform the world of Soviet crimes the average real income of Polish peasants was four times
against humanity and arrested and expelled him from higher than before World War II. Consumer goods also
the Soviet Union after he published The Gulag Archipelago became more widespread. In East Germany, only 17 per-
abroad in 1973. cent of families had television sets in 1960, but 75 percent
Although restrictive policies continued into the late had acquired them by 1972.
1980s, some Soviet authors learned how to minimize bat- True to their creed, Communist leaders in Eastern
tles with the censors by writing under the guise of humor Europe took steps to divest traditional elites of their eco-
or fantasy. Two of the most accomplished and popular nomic power base and replaced them with their own sup-
Soviet novelists of the period, Yury Trifonov (1925–1981) porters. One route to this reversal of roles was through
and Fazil Iskander (1929–2016), focused on the daily strug- education.
gle of Soviet citizens to live with dignity. Trifonov depicted In some countries, the desire to provide equal educational
the everyday life of ordinary Russians with grim realism, opportunities led to laws that mandated quota systems based
while Iskander used humor to poke fun at the incompe- on class. In East Germany, for example, 50 percent of the
tence of the Soviet regime. students in secondary schools had to be children of work-
The situation was similar in the Eastern European ers and peasants. The sons of manual workers constituted
satellites, although cultural freedom varied consider- 53 percent of university students in Yugoslavia in 1964 and
ably from country to country. In Poland, intellectuals 40 percent in East Germany, compared to only 15 percent in
had access to Western publications as well as greater Italy and 5.3 percent in West Germany. Social mobility also
freedom to travel to the West. Hungarian and Yugoslav increased. In Poland in 1961, half of the white-collar work-
Communists, too, tolerated a certain level of intel- ers came from blue-collar families. A significant number of
lectual activity that was not liked but not prohibited. judges, professors, and industrial managers stemmed from
Elsewhere, intellectuals were forced to conform to the working-class backgrounds.
regime’s demands. Education became crucial in preparing for new jobs in
The socialist camp did participate in modern popular the Communist system and led to higher enrollments in
culture. By the early 1970s, there were 28 million televi- both secondary schools and universities. In Czechoslovakia,
sion sets in the Soviet Union, although state authorities for example, the number of students in secondary schools
controlled the content of the programs that the Soviet tripled between 1945 and 1970, and the number of univer-
people watched. Tourism, too, made inroads into the sity students quadrupled between the 1930s and the 1960s.
Communist world as state-run industries provided vaca- The type of education that students received also changed.
tion time and governments facilitated the establishment In Hungary before World War II, 40 percent of students
of resorts for workers on the Black Sea and Adriatic studied law, 9 percent engineering and technology, and
coasts. 5 percent agriculture. In 1970, the figures were 35 percent
Spectator sports became a large industry, although in engineering and technology, 9 percent in agriculture,
they were highly politicized as the result of Cold War divi- and only 4 percent in law.
sions. Victory in international athletic events was viewed But as so often happens in programs aimed at cre-
as proof of the superiority of the socialist system over its ating a new society through social engineering, reality
capitalist rival. Accordingly, the state provided money for eventually intruded. As the new managers of society,
9-3 Culture and Society in the Soviet Bloc ■ 233

regardless of class background, realized the importance respects conditions in the socialist camp were an improve-
of higher education, they used their power to gain spe- ment over those before World War II, many problems and
cial privileges for their children. By 1971, fully 60 percent inequities were as intransigent as ever.
of the children of white-collar workers attended a uni-
versity, and even though blue-collar families constituted
60 percent of the population, only 36 percent of their 9-4The Disintegration of
children attended institutions of higher learning. Even the Soviet Empire
East Germany dropped its requirement that 50 percent
of secondary students had to be the offspring of workers
and peasants.
This shift in educational preferences demonstrates yet
QQ Focus Questions: What were the key
components of perestroika as espoused by
Mikhail Gorbachev during the 1980s? Why did
another aspect of the social structure in the Communist
the strategy fail?
world: the emergence of a new privileged class, made up
of members of the Communist Party, state officials, high-
ranking officers in the military and secret police, and a few On the death of Konstantin Chernenko in 1985, party lead-
special professional groups. The new elite not only pos- ers selected the talented and vigorously youthful Soviet
sessed political power but also received special privileges, official Mikhail Gorbachev to succeed him. The new Soviet
including the right to purchase high-quality goods in spe- leader had shown early signs of promise. Born into a peas-
cial stores, paid vacations at special resorts, access to good ant family in 1931, Gorbachev combined farmwork with
housing and superior medical services, and advantages in school and received the Order of the Red Banner for his
education and jobs for their children. agricultural efforts. This award and his good school record
enabled him to study law at the University of Moscow.
9-3c Women in the Soviet Bloc After receiving his law degree in 1955, he returned to his
native southern Russia, where he eventually became first
The system also failed to measure up in its treatment of
secretary of the Communist Party in the city of Stavropol
women. Long after the Bolshevik Revolution had called
and then first secretary of the regional party committee.
for true equality of the sexes, men continued to domi-
In 1978, Gorbachev was made a member of the party’s
nate the leadership positions of the Communist parties
Central Committee in Moscow. Two years later, he became
in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Women did
a full member of the ruling Politburo and secretary of the
have greater opportunities in the workforce and even in
Central Committee.
the professions, however. In the Soviet Union, women
During the early 1980s, Gorbachev began to realize
comprised 51 percent of the labor force in 1980; by the
the immensity of Soviet problems and the crucial need to
mid-1980s, they constituted 50 percent of the engineers,
transform the system. During a visit to Canada in 1983,
80 percent of the doctors, and 75 percent of the teachers
he discovered to his astonishment that Canadian farmers
and teachers’ aides. But many of these were low-paying
worked hard on their own initiative. “We’ll never have this
jobs; most female doctors, for example, worked in pri-
for fifty years,” he reportedly remarked.6 On his return to
mary care and were paid less than skilled machinists.
Moscow, he established a series of committees to evalu-
The chief administrators in hospitals and schools were
ate the situation and recommend measures to improve
still men.
the system.
Moreover, although women were part of the work-
force, they were still expected to fulfill their traditional
roles in the home. Most women worked what came to be 9-4a The Gorbachev Era
known as the “double shift.” After spending eight hours With his election as party general secretary in 1985,
in their jobs, they came home to do the housework and Gorbachev seemed intent on taking earlier reforms to
take care of the children. They might spend another two their logical conclusions. The cornerstone of his reform
hours a day in long lines at a number of stores waiting to program was perestroika, or “restructuring.” At first, it
buy food and clothes. Because of the scarcity of housing, meant only a reordering of economic policy, as Gorbachev
they had to use kitchens that were shared by a number called for the beginning of a market economy with lim-
of families. ited free enterprise and some private property. For the first
Nearly three-quarters of a century after the Bolshevik time, Soviet farmers were permitted to sell some of their
Revolution, then, the Marxist dream of an advanced, egali- produce on the open market (see Comparative Illustration,
tarian society was as far away as ever. Although in some “Sideline Industries,” p. 235).
Sideline Industries: Creeping Capitalism in a Socialist Paradise

her dumplings to passersby in Shandong Province. As
Q Why did Chinese citizens adopt capitalist reforms her smile suggests, the Chinese took up the challenge of
in the countryside more enthusiastically than their entrepreneurship with much greater success and enthusiasm
Soviet counterparts? than their Soviet counterparts did.
Politics & IN THE LATE 1980s, Communist leaders in

Government both the Soviet Union and China began to
encourage their citizens to engage in private commercial
activities as a means of reviving moribund economies.
In Image 9.4a, a Soviet farmworker displays fruits and
vegetables on a street corner in Odessa, a seaport on
the Black Sea. In Image 9.4b, a Chinese woman sells
William J. Duiker
William J. Duiker
Initial economic reforms were difficult to implement, encouraged to openly discuss the strengths and weak-
however. Radicals criticized Gorbachev for his caution nesses of the Soviet Union. This policy could be seen in
and demanded decisive measures; conservatives feared Pravda, the official newspaper of the Communist Party,
that rapid changes would be too painful. In his attempt to where disasters such as the nuclear accident at Chernobyl
achieve compromise, Gorbachev often pursued partial lib- in 1986 and collisions of ships in the Black Sea received
eralization, which satisfied neither faction and also failed increasing coverage, although some Soviet officials con-
to work, producing only more discontent. tinued to deny the reports from Chernobyl as “imperial-
Gorbachev soon perceived that in the Soviet system, ist propaganda.” Soon this type of reporting was extended
the economic sphere was intimately tied to the social and to include reports of official corruption, sloppy factory
political spheres. Any efforts to reform the economy with- work, and protests against government policy. The arts
out political or social reform would be doomed to failure. also benefited from the new policy as previously banned
One of the most important instruments of perestroika was works were now allowed to circulate and motion pictures
glasnost, or “openness.” Soviet citizens and officials were began to depict negative aspects of Soviet life. Music based
9-4 The Disintegration of the Soviet Empire ■ 235

on Western styles, such as jazz and rock, began to be per- bowed to the inevitable and permitted free national elec-
formed openly. Religious activities, previously banned by tions to take place, resulting in the election of Wałe˛sa as
Soviet authorities, were once again tolerated. president of Poland in December 1990. Moscow—inspired
Political reforms were equally revolutionary. In June by Gorbachev’s policy of encouraging “new thinking”
1987, the principle of two-candidate elections was intro- to improve relations with the Western powers—took no
duced; previously, voters had been presented with only action to reverse the verdict in Warsaw.
one candidate. Most dissidents, including Andrei Sakharov, In Hungary, as in Poland, the process of transition had
who had spent years in internal exile, were released. At the begun many years earlier. After crushing the Hungarian
Communist Party conference in 1988, Gorbachev called revolution of 1956, the Communist government of János
for the creation of a new Soviet parliament, the Congress Kádár had tried to assuage popular opinion by enacting
of People’s Deputies, whose members were to be chosen a series of far-reaching economic reforms (labeled “com-
in competitive elections. It convened in 1989, the first such munism with a capitalist face-lift”), but as the 1980s pro-
meeting since 1918. As an elected member of the Congress, gressed, the economy sagged, and in 1989, the regime
Sakharov called for an end to the Communist monopoly permitted the formation of opposition political parties,
of power, and on December 11, 1989, the day he died, he leading eventually to the formation of a non-Communist
urged the creation of a new, non-Communist party. Early in coalition government in elections held in March 1990.
1990, Gorbachev legalized the formation of other political The transition in Czechoslovakia was more abrupt.
parties and struck out Article 6 of the Soviet constitution, After Soviet troops crushed the Prague Spring in 1968, hard-
which guaranteed the “leading role” of the Communist line Communists under Gustáv Husák followed a policy of
Party. Hitherto, the position of first secretary of the party massive repression to maintain their power. In 1977, dissi-
was the most important post in the Soviet Union, but as dent intellectuals, inspired in part by the Helsinki Accords,
the Communist Party became less closely associated with formed an organization called Charter 77 as a vehicle for
the state, the powers of this office diminished. Gorbachev protest against violations of human rights. Regardless of
attempted to consolidate his power by creating a new state the repressive atmosphere, dissident activities continued to
presidency, and in March 1990, he became the Soviet Union’s grow during the 1980s, and when massive demonstrations
first president. But by now his stature within the country broke out in several major cities in 1989, Husák’s govern-
had diminished, and reformist elements who had vocifer- ment, lacking any real popular support, collapsed. At the
ously welcomed his policies were increasingly skeptical of end of December, in what was termed the “velvet revolu-
success. “Russia,” one erstwhile optimist lamented to me at tion,” Husak was replaced by Václav Havel (1936–2011),
the time, “is not ready for democracy.” a dissident playwright who had been a leading figure in
Charter 77 (see Historical Voices, “Vaclav Havel: A Call for
9-4b Eastern Europe: From Soviet Satellites a New Politics,” p. 237).
Similar outbreaks took place in Moscow’s southern
to Sovereign Nations satellites. In Bulgaria, popular demonstrations led to the
The progressive decline of the Soviet Union had a percep- removal of the country’s long-time Communist Party
tible impact on its neighbors to the west. As before, Poland chief Todor Zhivkov, followed by the installation of a
was at the forefront. For several years, Party leaders had multi-party government. Only in Romania was the transi-
kept food prices as low as possible in order to avoid the tion marked by violence. When protests by the members
outbreak of another round of unrest (“stuff their mouths of the country’s ethnic Hungarian minority erupted in
with sausage,” the current Party general secretary had mid-December, they were countered with force, but army
advised). But in the late 1970s, food prices began to rise, units mutinied and the unrest quickly spread to the rest
sparking popular protests and the emergence of an inde- of the country. Two weeks later, Romania’s long-time dic-
pendent labor union called Solidarity. Led by the union tator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife were captured and
leader Lech Wałe˛sa (b. 1943), Solidarity rode the wave of summarily executed.
national spirit heightened by the visit of Polish-born Pope
John Paul II in June 1979 and rapidly became an influen- The Fall of the Berln Wall But the most dramatic events
tial force for change. Sensing a threat to its monopoly took place in East Germany, where a persistent economic
on power, the regime outlawed the union and declared slump and the ongoing oppressiveness of the regime of
martial law in 1981, but the movement continued to gain Erich Honecker led to a flight of refugees to neighboring
popular support. Gorbachev was worried at the turn of countries. The exodus was dubbed by wits as the “Trabi
events, but when he made it clear that Moscow would not trail,” in reference to the ubiquitous if flimsy Trabant auto-
bail out the regime, Communist leaders in Warsaw then mobiles that had been manufactured for years in the GDR.
HISTORICAL VOICES
Vaclav Havel: A Call for a New Politics

soil, rivers and forests bequeathed to us by our ancestors,
Q Do you believe that Václav Havel’s criticisms of and we have today the most contaminated environment
Czech society under Communist rule have relevance in Europe. . . .
to many advanced industrial nations in the But all this is still not the main problem. The worst
world today? thing is that we live in a contaminated moral environ-
ment. We fell morally ill because we became used to
saying something different from what we thought. We
Politics & With the collapse of the communist
Government learned not to believe in anything, to ignore one another,
regimes in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s,
to care only about ourselves. Concepts such as love,
a new generation of leaders began to call for a new political
friendship, compassion, humility or forgiveness lost their
culture to replace the distorted values that had predominated
depth and dimension, and for many of us they repre-
under the “people’s democracies.” Some pointed to the need
sented only psychological peculiarities, or they resembled
for a new perspective, especially a moral one, to face the
gone-astray greetings from ancient times, a little ridicu-
challenges of a new era. The excerpt below is taken from a
lous in the era of computers and spaceships. Only a few
speech by Václav Havel, a playwright and a long-time critic of
of us were able to cry out loudly that the powers that
the Communist regime who was elected the new president of
be should not be all-powerful and that the special farms,
Czechoslovakia at the end of 1989.
which produced ecologically pure and top-quality food
Address to the People of Czechoslovakia, just for them, should send their produce to schools, chil-
January 1, 1990 dren’s homes and hospitals if our agriculture was unable
to offer them to all.
For forty years you heard from my predecessors on this
The previous regime—armed with its arrogant and
day different variations on the same theme: how our
intolerant ideology—reduced man to a force of produc-
country was flourishing, how many million tons of steel
tion, and nature to a tool of production. In this it attacked
we produced, how happy we all were, how we trusted
both their very substance and their mutual relationship. It
our government, and what bright perspectives were
reduced gifted and autonomous people, skillfully work-
unfolding in front of us.
ing in their own country, to the nuts and bolts of some
I assume you did not propose me for this office so that
monstrously huge, noisy and stinking machine, whose
I, too, would lie to you.
real meaning was not clear to anyone. . . .
Our country is not flourishing. The enormous creative
When I talk about the contaminated moral atmo-
and spiritual potential of our nations is not being used
sphere, I am . . . talking about all of us. We had all
sensibly. Entire branches of industry are producing goods
become used to the totalitarian system and accepted it
that are of no interest to anyone, while we are lacking the
as an unchangeable fact and thus helped to perpetuate it.
things we need. A state which calls itself a workers’ state
In other words, we are all—though naturally to differing
humiliates and exploits workers. Our obsolete economy
extents—responsible for the operation of the totalitarian
is wasting the little energy we have available. A country
machinery. None of us is just its victim. We are all also its
that once could be proud of the educational level of its
co-creators. . . .
citizens spends so little on education that it ranks today
If we realize this, hope will return to our hearts.
as seventy-second in the world. We have polluted the
Source: http://old.hrad.cz/president/Havel/speeches/1990/0101_uk.html
Mass demonstrations against the regime took place in crisis, and inadvertently opened the entire border with the
the summer and fall of 1989.7 Although the regime was West. The Berlin Wall, the most tangible symbol of the
reluctant to capitulate to popular pressure, one lower-level Cold War, became the site of a massive celebration, and
official appeared confused about how to respond to the most of it was dismantled by joyful Germans from both
9-4 The Disintegration of the Soviet Empire ■ 237

during the 1930s now burst into
flames. As Party officials in Moscow
appeared paralyzed by events in
Eastern Europe, nationalist move-
ments emerged in all fifteen repub-
lics of the Soviet Union. Many of
them called for the establishment
of sovereign republics and indepen-
dence from Russian-based rule cen-
tered in Moscow. The Soviet army,
Agencja Fotograficzna Caro/Alamy Stock Photo
in disarray since the intervention in

Afghanistan, appeared powerless to
control the situation.
Gorbachev had made it clear that
he supported self-determination,
but he was opposed to secession,
an act which he believed would
be detrimental to the survival of
IMAGE 9.5 The Fall of the Berlin Wall. As communist regimes in Eastern Europe began the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, in
to crumble during the summer and fall of 1989, popular protests broke out in East December 1989, the Communist
Berlin to demand the destruction of the Berlin Wall. In early November, when local Party of Lithuania took the first
communist officials in the eastern zone appeared uncertain over how to deal with the
crisis, crowds of Berliners on both sides of the barrier took measures into their own
step and declared itself independent
hands. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, one of the most repugnant symbols of the Cold of the Communist Party of the
War had been relegated into history. Soviet Union.
The final collapse of the Soviet
sides of the border (see Image 9.5). In March 1990, free Union was not long in coming. On March 11, 1990,
elections led to the formation of a non-Communist gov- Lithuania announced its independence from Soviet
ernment that began to negotiate political and economic rule. When authorities in Moscow claimed that the
reunification with West Germany (for events in Eastern declaration was null and void, the Lithuanians ignored
Europe since 1989, see Chapter 10). the decision.
For the next several months, Gorbachev struggled
to cope with the problems unleashed by his reforms,
9-4c End of Empire while seeking to appease conservative forces from the
The events in Eastern Europe were being watched closely army, the Party, and the KGB, who complained about
in Moscow. One of Gorbachev’s most serious problems the growing disorder within the country. On August
stemmed from the nature of the Soviet Union. The 19, 1991, a group of discontented rightists arrested
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a truly multi- Gorbachev and attempted to seize the reins of power.
ethnic country, containing ninety-two nationalities and Gorbachev’s refusal to work with the conspirators, and
112 recognized languages. Previously, the iron hand of the resistance of thousands of Russians in Moscow who
the Communist Party, centered in Moscow, had kept a had grown accustomed to their new liberties, caused the
lid on the centuries-old ethnic tensions that had periodi- coup to disintegrate. Still, despite renewed pleas from
cally erupted throughout the history of this region. As Gorbachev, all fifteen republics soon opted for complete
Gorbachev released this iron grip, tensions resurfaced as independence (see Map 9.2). Ukraine voted for indepen-
ethnic groups took advantage of the new openness to dence on December 1, 1991. Similar actions got under
protest what they perceived to be ethnically motivated way in the various Soviet republics in Central Asia, as
slights. Long quiescent Muslim peoples in the Soviet well as in the Caucasus, where Georgia and Armenia had
republics in Central Asia suddenly became conscious long chafed under Russian rule. A week later, the leaders
of the social unrest taking place in nearby Afghanistan of Russia and Belarus announced that the Soviet Union
and throughout the Middle East. In the Baltic republics, had “ceased to exist” and would be replaced by a “com-
memories of the brief era of independence that had monwealth of independent states.” On Christmas day,
been snuffed out by the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939 revived. Gorbachev resigned and turned over his responsibilities
And in Ukraine, simmering anger at Stalin’s crackdown as commander-in-chief to Boris Yeltsin (1931–2007), the
ESTONIA
LATVIA
0 500 750 1,500 Kilometers
LITHUANIA
RUSSIA 0 500 1,000 Miles
BELARUS
POLAND
CZECH REP. UKRAINE

SLOVAKIA KAZAKHSTAN
Crimea
HUNGARY MOLDOVA
CROATIA Chechnya
BOSNIA/
ROMANIA
HERZE- SERBIA C
as
GOVINA
MONTE- KOSOVO BULGARIA
Black Sea
pi
GEORGIA
an
NEGRO MACEDONIA UZBEKISTAN
AZERBAIJAN KYRGYZSTAN
ALBANIA ARMENIA
Sea
GREECE TURKEY TURKMENISTAN TAJIKISTAN
SYRIA PAKISTAN
Mediterranean IRAQ IRAN AFGHANISTAN
Sea
MAP 9.2 Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, the fifteen
constituent Soviet republics declared their independence. This map shows the states that emerged from the former
Soviet Union in the 1990s and also from the former Yugoslavia, which disintegrated more slowly in the 1990s and
2000s. The breakaway region of Chechnya is indicated on the map.
Q What new nations have appeared in the territory of the old Soviet Union since the end of the Cold War?
president of the new Russian Republic. By the end of Yeltsin fought back. After winning a vote of confidence on
1991, one of the largest empires in world history had April 25, 1993, Yeltsin pushed ahead with plans for a new
come to an end, and fifteen new nations had embarked Russian constitution that would abolish the Congress of
on an uncertain future. People’s Deputies, create a two-chamber parliament, and
establish a strong presidency. A hard-line parliamentary
minority resisted and in early October took the offen-
9-5The New Russia: From sive, urging supporters to take over government offices
and the central television station. Yeltsin responded by
Empire to Nation ordering military forces to storm the parliament building
and arrest hard-line opponents. Yeltsin used his victory
QQ Focus Questions: Why do you think relations
between Russia and the United States have
to consolidate his power in parliamentary elections held
in December.
deteriorated in the thirty years since the During the mid-1990s, Yeltsin was able to maintain
collapse of the Soviet Union? Could the a precarious grip on power while seeking to implement
rupture have been avoided? reforms that would set Russia on a firm course toward
a pluralistic political system and a market economy. But
In Russia, by far the largest of the former Soviet republics, the new post-Communist Russia remained as fragile
a new power struggle soon ensued. Yeltsin, a one-time as ever. Burgeoning economic inequality and rampant
engineer who had been dismissed from the Politburo corruption aroused widespread criticism and shook the
in 1987 for insubordination, was committed to intro- confidence of the Russian people in the superiority of
ducing a free market economy as quickly as possible. the capitalist system over the one that existed under
In December 1991, the Congress of People’s Deputies Communist rule. A nagging war in the Caucasus—
granted him temporary power to rule by decree. But for- where the Muslim population of Chechnya sought
mer Communist Party members and their allies in the national independence from Russia—drained the gov-
Congress were opposed to many of Yeltsin’s economic ernment’s budget and exposed the decrepit state of the
reforms and tried to place new limits on his powers. once vaunted Red Army. In presidential elections held
9-5 The New Russia: From Empire to Nation ■ 239

in 1996, Yeltsin was reelected, but the rising popularity of the KGB. Putin vowed to bring an end to the rampant
of a revived Communist Party and the growing strength corruption and inexperience that permeated Russian
of nationalist elements, combined with Yeltsin’s precari- political culture and to strengthen the role of the central
ous health, raised serious questions about the future of government in managing the affairs of state. During the
the country. succeeding months, the parliament approved his proposal
What had happened to derail Yeltsin’s plan to trans- to centralize power in the hands of the federal govern-
form Soviet society? According to some of his critics, he ment in Moscow; in early 2001, he presented a new plan
had tried to achieve too much too fast. Between 1991 to regulate political parties, which now numbered more
and 1995, state firms that had previously provided about than fifty. Parties at both extremes of the political spec-
80 percent of all industrial production and employment trum, from those urging Western-style liberal policies to
had been privatized, and the prices of goods (previ- Gennadi Zyuganov’s revived Communist Party, opposed
ously subject to government regulation) were allowed to the legislation—without success.
respond to market forces. Only agriculture—where the Putin also vowed to bring the breakaway state of
decision to privatize collective farms had little impact in Chechnya back under Russian authority and to adopt a
rural areas—was left substantially untouched. The imme- more assertive role in international affairs. Growing public
diate results were disastrous: industrial output dropped anger at Western plans to expand the NATO alliance into
by more than one-third, and unemployment levels and Eastern Europe and at the aggressive actions by NATO
prices rose dramatically. Lacking the strong labor unions countries against Serbia in the Balkans (see Chapter 10)
and the institutional safeguards that had been installed gave the new president an opportunity to take measures to
over a period of decades in modern Western countries, restore Russia’s position as an influential force in the world.
many Russian workers and soldiers were not paid for To undercut U.S. dominance on the global scene, Moscow
months on end, and many social services came to an improved relations with neighboring China and simultane-
abrupt halt. In rural areas, farmers who in the past had ously sought to cooperate with European nations on issues
transitioned directly from the communal ownership of of common concern. To assuage national pride, Putin
the traditional village to the collective farms of the Soviet entered negotiations with such former republics of the
Union had not been encouraged to develop a culture of old Soviet Union as Belarus and Ukraine to tighten mutual
entrepreneurship that had sparked the growth of yeo- political and economic cooperation.
man farmers in most Western countries. At the end of In addition, Putin steadily pursued measures to
the twentieth century, forty percent of the Russian popu- strengthen the power of the state over the political sys-
lation was living below the poverty line, as defined by the tem. When critics complained that he was returning to the
United Nations. worst habits of the Soviet era, Putin responded forcefully,
With the harsh official and ideological constraints of noting that while Russia was moving steadily to create
the Soviet system suddenly removed, corruption—labeled conditions for building a democratic society, his govern-
by one observer “criminal gang capitalism”—became ram- ment reserved the right to move forward based on its own
pant, and the government often appeared inept in coping internal circumstances. “Russia,” he said, “can and will
with the complexities of a market economy. Few Russians independently determine for itself the time frame and
appeared to grasp the realities of modern capitalism and the conditions of its movement along that path.”8 Putin’s
understandably reacted to the inevitable pains that accom- determination to play an active role in that process was
panied the transition from the old system by heaping all clearly demonstrated during the national elections in 2008.
the blame on the new one. The fact is that Yeltsin had Prohibited by the constitution from serving a third term as
attempted to change the structure of the Soviet system president, he handpicked a successor—his close ally and
without due regard for the necessity of changing the men- United Russia Party member Dmitri Medvedev (b. 1965)—
tality of the people as well. The result was a high level of and agreed to serve as prime minister in the new govern-
disenchantment. A new joke circulated among the Russian ment. Four years later, he was reelected to the presidency
people: “We know now that everything they told us about amid widespread claims of fraud and voter intimidation.
communism was false. And everything they told us about He wasted no time in seeking to strengthen his control
capitalism was true.” over the levers of power by silencing internal critics such
as the feminist punk-rock group Pussy Riot. Political rivals
have been intimidated, or even assassinated. To those who
9-5a The Putin Era criticize his tendency to trample on human rights, he is
At the end of 1999, Yeltsin suddenly resigned and was openly contemptuous, declaring that Russia has no inten-
replaced by Vladimir Putin (b. 1952), a former member tion of following the Western model (see Image 9.6).
Angela Merkel And President Vladimir Putin Pose For The Press In Novo Ograyovo/
UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP/Bridgeman Images
IMAGE 9.6 Russia’s New Tsar: Vladimir Putin. Vladimir Putin, shown here in 2008 with German
Chancellor Angela Merkel, is a one-time KGB agent who was serving in East Berlin at the close
of the Cold War. Under his firm rule, Putin has energetically sought to revive the state of Russia
to its former prestige under the Romanov Dynasty while rejecting the principles of Western-style
liberal democracy as inappropriate for his fellow countrymen.
9-5b Russia Under the New Tsar Europe almost to the breaking point. When the financial
Throughout the first decade of the new century, rela- crisis struck the global marketplace in the fall of 2008 (see
tions between Russia and Western nations steadily dete- Chapter 8), Moscow reacted with unrestrained pleasure.
riorated. Western officials grew increasingly concerned Flush with foreign currency reserves from its profitable
that, under Putin, Russia was reverting to its autocratic oil exports, Russian officials openly called for the emer-
past. They were also critical of Moscow’s efforts to intim- gence of a new multipolar world no longer dominated
idate the new states along its perimeter, states that had by the United States and its European allies. In a bid to
once been under the firm tutelage of the Soviet Union, fill the vacuum, Moscow sought to use its oil wealth as
but which now wished to move out from under Russian a political weapon and extended a hand of friendship to
domination. For its part, Moscow was irritated at U.S. a number of Washington’s most prominent adversaries,
and European plans to integrate Eastern European coun- including Iran and Venezuela. Concerned voices in the
tries into the Western alliance. It was especially incensed West expressed alarm at a potential revival of the ten-
when the United States and some European govern- sions of the Cold War.
ments supported the breakaway region of Kosovo in its
bid to achieve independence from Russia’s traditional ally Ukraine: A Nation in Search of Its Identity In February
Serbia. When dissident elements in Abkhazia and South 2014, the relationship between Russia and Western coun-
Ossetia—two restive regions in the newly independent tries finally reached the breaking point, when Russian
state of Georgia—appealed to Moscow for support troops suddenly invaded the Crimea, a peninsula which
against alleged government efforts to engage in ethnic was by international agreement an integral part of
cleansing, Russian military forces entered Georgian ter- Ukrainian territory, and placed it under Russian rule. The
ritory in support of the rebel forces and extended diplo- Crimean dispute was rooted in the uneasy historical rela-
matic recognition to both regions. Although a cease-fire tionship between the Russian and Ukrainian peoples, and
agreement was eventually reached, the incident strained heightened by the fact that the current state of Ukraine
Moscow’s relations with the United States and Western is split ethnically and culturally between an eastern half

(where the majority of the population is composed of experience with unbridled capitalism and democracy dur-
ethnic Russians who feel a strong emotional tie to their ing the Yeltsin era has tarnished for many the shiny image
mother country) and a western half (consisting primarily of Western democracy that briefly prevailed at the end of
of Ukrainians who identify more closely with European the Soviet era, and most Russians today appear to prefer
culture through their ethnic, cultural, and linguistic ties a strong government over a weak and divided one. In a
to the countries of Eastern Europe). Many Ukrainians recent survey, over fifty percent of respondents expressed
have historically considered themselves a separate people a preference for “order” (in Russian, pryadok) over a con-
from Russians, and have been sensitive to patronizing cern for human rights. Almost one-quarter of Russian
attitudes occasionally expressed by the latter (many of citizens in the poll would actually approve a return of the
whom have allegedly treated them as country bumpkins Soviet Union.
lacking in the cultural sophistication of their Russian Vladimir Putin, of course, believes in that assessment.
neighbors). In his mind and that of his supporters, what the Russian
Under Soviet rule, Crimea was originally governed people need today is a “national idea,” a symbol that will
as a separate territory because of its strategic impor- rally public support for the motherland. Putin thinks that
tance on the Black Sea. The majority of the population he has found the answer in the promotion of nationalism,
were ethnic Russians, mainly because of the presence that brand of patriotism that is built on a combination of
there of important military facilities. But in 1954 the pride and resentment: pride in past glories and resentment
peninsula was transferred to the Ukrainian Republic against the country’s many historic foreign enemies. In a
(see Map 9.2) for reasons of geographical contiguity. cynical ploy that ill befits his own past career as a KGB
When Ukraine received its independence after the dis- official, he touts the traditions of the Russian Orthodox
solution of the USSR, Crimea was then included within Church (ROC)—once ground under heel by Stalin and
its boundaries. his apparatchiks in the Soviet secret police—as Russia’s
Many Ukrainians were understandably delighted at the answer to the morally corrupt societies in Western Europe
opportunity to seek independence from Russia, and even- and North America. Putin has patronized Church leaders
tually pro-Western leaders in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev as fellow crusaders seeking to revive pride in the nation’s
sought to undertake steps to join the European Union, and past, while Patriarch Kiril, the current leader of the ROC,
even a closer relationship with NATO (see Chapter 10). has praised Putin as “God’s miracle” to the Russian people.
Moscow strongly opposed the proposal, however, and its Today, the glories of tsarist Russia, as well as the more
opposition was supported by pro-Russian elements in the recent achievements of the Soviet era, are emphasized
eastern Ukraine, who managed to bring about the election in schools, in the official media, in the churches, and in
of the pro-Moscow politician Viktor Yanukovich to the pres- the arts (see Image 9.7). And, as Russia’s adversarial rela-
idency of the country in 2010. Yanukovich immediately set tionship with the West intensifies, Putin has gone on
out to marginalize pro-European politicians and strengthen the attack, pressuring ex-Soviet republics to refrain from
ties with Moscow, whereupon in February 2014 he was improving relations with the West, using state-controlled
ousted from office after popular protests and forced to Russian cyber experts to interfere in the electoral processes
seek refuge in Moscow. It was then that Putin and his allies of several Western countries, increasing Russian military
launched the invasion of Crimea and incorporated it back capacity, and spreading Moscow’s influence abroad by
under Russian rule. The UN General Assembly then stepped intervening in tense international crises in far-off Latin
into the dispute by declaring the unilateral annexation null America and the Middle East.
and void, while Western nations levied stiff trade sanctions Like many fellow autocrats past and present, Putin
on Russia to punish Moscow for its transgression. With the is willing to use history as his handmaiden. Ferocious
situation currently in a standoff, Ukraine—a nation of over Russian figures like the sixteenth century tsar Ivan the
fifty million people occupying the second largest amount of Terrible—whose name, translated into English, con-
territory on the European continent—still seeks to create its veys a sense of the brutality of his rule—are softened
own version of national identity. into strong leaders taking necessary measures to protect
Mother Russia from its enemies; meanwhile, more recent
Russia Today: Between East and West Today, Putin’s events that portray the Soviet Union in a less than favor-
Russia is pulling steadily away from the West. In the long able light are airbrushed out of existence or ignored: the
debate between Westernizers and traditionalist elements famine in Ukraine in the 1930s; the Nazi-Soviet Pact of
convinced of the uniqueness of Russia over the future 1939 which teamed-up the USSR with Nazi Germany;
direction of the country, the latter are currently winning and the concentration camps that once held millions of
out. Disillusionment over the country’s brief and bitter Soviet prisoners.
incidence of alcoholism, sexual
promiscuity, and criminal activi-
ties—and it is partly for that reason
that many of Putin’s compatriots
express sympathy with his attempt
to restore a sense of pride and dis-
cipline in Russian society. He was
not alone in his feelings when in
the spring of 2005 he expressed the
view that the breakup of the Soviet
Union was a national tragedy.
Russian Literature Today: A Search

for Meaning As is so often the
case, the mirror into the heart of
William J. Duiker
a civilization is frequently found in

the writings of its serious authors.
And in fact, the disarray that has
IMAGE 9.7 Saint Basil’s: Symbol of Imperial Greatness. Under Soviet rule, religion was afflicted Russian society since the
severely discouraged, as the Communist regime sought to neutralize potential sources abrupt collapse of the Soviet Union
of opposition to its rule. St Basil’s Church in Moscow, once a beacon of faith in Holy has been amply reflected in its lit-
Russia, was turned into a museum. But the Russian Orthodox faith, long the official erary scene. Three of the country’s
religion of Russia under the tsars, has made a comeback in recent years, and St. Basil’s
most celebrated writers have pre-
is now presented as a symbol of the glories of traditional Russian civilization. President
Vladimir Putin has wrapped himself in its mantle by appointing a monk of the church as sented different perspectives in the
his spiritual adviser. Located in the heart of Red Square in Moscow, St. Basil’s is the most Russian people’s existential search
visible symbol of the Orthodox faith in Russia. for meaning.
Svetlana Alexievich (b. 1948)
was awarded the Nobel Prize in
Dream and Reality Dreams in Moscow of a possible 2015 for her five-volume set of oral histories portray-
revival of the powerful Soviet empire, however, are probing the tumultuous lives of respondents from her native
ably misplaced. In the first place, Russia—almost totally Belarus. Early volumes chronicled the laments of Soviet
dependent on petroleum and other natural resources for women who anguished over the loss of loved ones in
its wealth—would be among the first to suffer in the event World War II or later in Afghanistan. In succeeding tomes,
of another serious economic downturn. In the second she interviewed survivors from the nuclear disaster at
place, the country is suffering from a multitude of serious Chernobyl, many of whom had suffered personally or had
structural problems, including widespread corruption, lost loved ones in the experience. In the final volume, she
bureaucratic incompetence, a technology gap, and wide- recorded the views of older interviewees who, although
spread inflation. having suffered through the devastation of World War II
Indeed, pride in the recent achievements of the and the brutal years under Joseph Stalin, now appear over-
Russian nation is muted these days. Not only have the whelmed by the societal upheavals that have taken place
boundaries of the old Soviet empire shrunk by one- since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Many of them
third, but the living standards of the Russian people have sought refuge in the past, which to them in retrospect
declined as well. According to recent statistics, mortality seemed a simpler time, when people weren’t consumed
rates have risen by an estimated 40 percent in the last by the contemporary rush for creature comforts but stood
three decades, and the national population is predicted together to face a common challenge.
to decline by almost 50 million in the next half-century. For some authors like Vladimir Sorokin (b. 1955),
Since the early 1980s, marriage rates have fallen by more relief from the literary constraints of the Soviet era has
than 30 percent, and the rate of divorce has increased by led them to revel in hyper-grotesque fiction. Having once
a similar measure. faced official criticism for his novels about the limitations
There is a widespread sense of unease in Russia today of life under Communism, after 1991 he turned the focus
about the decline of the social order—especially the of his anger to the excesses of the Putin era. In his novel
disintegration of the traditional family and the rising The Day of the Oprichnik (2006), he has used the themes

of violence and the grotesque to describe a dysfunctional Yellow Arrow (1993), he portrays the Russian people in a
Russia in the year 2028, when oprichniks (the secret police train car full of listless passengers heading heedlessly to
of the sixteenth century tsar Ivan the Terrible) once again an unknown destination. Still programmed in their Soviet-
control society and practice their murderous ways. era straightjackets, the characters appear incapable of
Finally, a popular younger writer, Victor Pelevin individual choice or willpower. The novel concludes when
(b. 1962), has adopted a satirical style to turn his scorn on Andrei, the protagonist, chooses freedom over passivity
the rampant corruption of Russian society today. In The and exits the train into an unknown future.
making connections
The Soviet Union had emerged from World War II as one their resources into military hardware. By the 1980s,
of the world’s two superpowers. Its armies had played behind the powerful shield of the Red Army, the system
an instrumental role in the final defeat of the powerful had become an empty shell.
German war machine and had installed pliant Communist The perceptive Mikhail Gorbachev recognized the cru-
regimes throughout Eastern Europe. During the next cial importance of instituting radical reforms and hoped that
four decades, the Soviet Union appeared to be secure in by doing so he could save the socialist system, thus enabling
its power. Its military and economic performance during it to compete on more equal terms with the dynamic econ-
the first postwar decade was sufficiently impressive to cre- omies in the West. By then, however, it was too late. Restive
ate an atmosphere of incipient panic in Washington. By minorities that had long resented the suppression of their
the mid-1980s, however, fears that the Soviet Union would national or cultural identities under Moscow’s heavy hand
surpass the United States as an economic power had long now saw their opportunity to break away from the Soviet
since dissipated, and the Soviet system appeared to be system. Even the Russian people were no longer confident
mired in a state of near paralysis. Economic growth had that the bright vision of a Marxist utopia could be trans-
slowed to a snail’s pace, corruption had reached epidemic formed into reality.
levels, and leadership had passed to a generation of elderly The dissolution of the Soviet Union and its satellite sys-
party bureaucrats who appeared incapable of addressing tem in Eastern Europe brought a dramatic end to the Cold
the burgeoning problems that affected Soviet society. War. At the dawn of the 1990s, a generation of global rivalry
Historians What had happened to tarnish the between two ideological systems had come to a close, and
Debate
dream that had inspired Lenin and his world leaders turned their attention to the construction
fellow Bolsheviks to believe they could create a Marxist of what U.S. President George H. W. Bush called the New
paradise? Some historians argue that the ambitious World Order. In the eyes of many outside observers, the
defense policies adopted by the Reagan administration end of the Soviet dream opened the door to a new vision:
forced Moscow into an arms race it could not afford and the entrance of a new Russia and its one-time satellites into
thus ultimately led to a collapse of the Soviet economy. the democratic family of nations.
Others suggest that Soviet problems were more deeply Over the next two decades, Western leaders operated
rooted and would have led to the disintegration of the under the assumption that an eastward expansion of the
Soviet Union even without outside stimulation. Both of European Union, and even an expanded NATO, was a vir-
these explanations have some validity, but the latter con- tual inevitability. Time, however, has not been favorable
tention is surely closer to the mark. For years, if not to those expectations, and today the world appears to be
decades, leaders in the Kremlin had disguised or ignored embarked on a new version of the ideological Cold War
the massive inefficiencies of the Soviet system. It seems that marked the last half of the twentieth century. In ret-
clear in retrospect that the Soviet command economy rospect, it was probably unrealistic to expect that in a few
proved better at managing the early stages of the short years, Russia could jettison a long tradition of tsar-
Industrial Revolution than at moving on to the next ist autocracy and join the Western family of nations based
stage of an advanced technological society. Lacking on a set of principles that had taken the latter centuries to
incentives, the Soviet people had virtually ceased to achieve. We shall take up these issues in Chapter 10, and in
work hard, while their leaders in Moscow plowed all of the reflections at the end of Part III.
QQHow would you evaluate the strategy of containment QQDo you believe that the fall of the Soviet Union and
followed by the United States and its allies during the its European satellites demonstrates that any form of
Cold War. Do you view it as a success, or not? socialist government is unworkable in the world today?
QQWhat reasons have been advanced to explain why the Is capitalism the only effective form of political and
Soviet system collapsed in 1991? Which do you think are economic organization, or are there alternatives?
the most persuasive?
CHAPTER TIMELINE
1945 1955 1965 1975 1985 1995 2005 2015 2025
Soviet Union
and Russia Death of Stalin and Brezhnev era Dissolution of Russian
emergence of Khrushchev (1964–1982) the Soviet Union occupation
(1953–1955) (1991) of the Crimea
(2014)
Gorbachev Yeltsin era
years (1991–1999)
(1985–1991)
Vladimir Putin Reelection Reelection of
to power in of Putin Putin (2018)
Moscow (2012)
(1999)
Eastern
Europe “Prague Spring”
(1968)
Hungarian Revolutions in
uprising Eastern Europe
(1956) (1989–1990)
Communist governments
established in Eastern Europe
(1945–1948)
CHAPTER NOTES
1. Vladislav Zubok and Constantine Pleshakov, Inside 5. Cited in Victor Sebestyen, Revolution 1989: The Fall of
the Kremlin’s Cold War: From Stalin to Khrushchev the Soviet Empire (New York, 2009), p. 121.
(Cambridge, England, 1996), p. 166. 6. Smith, The New Russians, p. 74.
2. Nikita Khrushchev, Khrushchev Remembers, trans. Strobe 7. Many years later, surviving Trabant automobiles
Talbott (Boston, 1970), p. 77. became popular as a collector’s item in parts of eastern
3. Excerpts from “The Soviet Constitution of 1977,” Germany, perhaps in recollection of a simpler time.
Novosti Press Agency Publishing House. Moscow 1985. 8. C. J. Chivers, “Russia Will Pursue Democracy, but in Its
4. Quoted in Hedrick Smith, The New Russians (New Own Way, Putin Says,” New York Times, April 26, 2005.
York, 1990), p. 30.

Chapter
Postwar Europe: On the Path
10 to Unity?
Chapter Outline and

Focus Questions
10-1 Western Europe: Recovery and Renewal
QQWhat were the key reasons why European
nations were able to recover so quickly from
World War II and enter a period of peace
and prosperity?
10-2 T
he Modern Welfare State: Three
European Models
QQHow does the European idea of a welfare state
William Vandivert/Getty Images

compare with the capitalist system as it is applied
in the United States today?
10-3 E
astern Europe After the Fall of the
Iron Curtain
QQTo what degree have Eastern European nations
adopted the Western European model since IMAGE 10.1 Berlin 1945
the end of the Cold War? Has their response
been successful?
10-4 Western Europe: The Search for Unity
QQWhat are the challenges currently facing the Does a steady level of immigration from foreign
European Union as it attempts to create a strong countries result in an advantage or a disadvantage
and united Europe that can play an important role for most countries of the world today?
in the world today?
10-5 Aspects of Society in Postwar Europe
QQWhat major social, cultural, and intellectual AT THE END OF WORLD WAR II, European civilization was
developments have occurred in Europe since in ruins. Almost 40 million people had been killed
in six years. Massive air raids and artillery bombard-
1945, and how have they changed the character
ments had reduced many of the great cities of Europe
of European society?
to rubble. An American general described the German
10-6 Aspects of Culture in Postwar Europe capital of Berlin: “Wherever we looked, we saw
desolation. It was like a city of the dead. Suffering
QQHow do recent cultural developments in Europe and shock were visible in every face. Dead bodies still
reflect the broader changes that are taking place remained in canals and lakes and were being dug out
in European society? from under bomb debris.” Berlin was not alone in
its devastation. Dozens of other cities around Europe
had been equally damaged by Allied bombing raids
during the war, as air attacks were used for the first
time as a deliberate means of intimidating the enemy.
246
Millions of Europeans now faced starvation as grain military power had now expanded into the very center of
harvests were only half of what they had been in Europe. Above all, they needed to restore their confidence
1939. Countless others had been uprooted by the in the continuing vitality and future promise of European
war; now they became “displaced persons,” trying to civilization—a civilization whose image had been badly
find food and then their way home. The fruits of the tarnished by two bitter internal conflicts in the space of a
Industrial Revolution, when mixed with the heady
quarter century.
brew of virulent nationalism and the struggle for
In confronting the challenge, the Europeans possessed
empire, were bitter indeed.
In the decades after 1945, Europe not only one significant trump card: the support and assistance of
recovered from the devastating effects of World War the United States. The United States had entered World
II but also experienced an economic resurgence War II as a major industrial power, but its global influence
that seemed nothing less than miraculous. At the had been limited by the effects of the Great Depression
same time, the historical animosities that had fueled and a self-imposed policy of isolation that had removed
two catastrophic world wars were replaced by a it from active involvement in world affairs. But after the
determination to bring about a new united Europe, United States helped bring the conflict to a close, the nation
based on mutual cooperation and equal opportunity bestrode the world like a colossus. Its military power
for all. was enormous, its political influence was unparalleled,
The process is by no means complete, however. As
and its economic potential, fueled by the effort to build
the Cold War came to an end in the early 1990s, ethnic
a war machine to defeat the Axis Powers, seemed unlim-
and religious violence broke out in parts of Eastern
Europe, undercutting ambitious plans to integrate the ited. When on June 5, 1947, Secretary of State George C.
nations once isolated behind the Iron Curtain into a Marshall told the graduating class at Harvard University
broader regional community. In the meantime, Europe’s that the United States was prepared to assist the nations
economic problems mounted, as generous welfare of Europe in the task of recovery from “hunger, poverty,
programs, combined with slower growth, resulted in desperation, and chaos,” he offered a beacon of hope to a
growing budget deficits. In 2008, the global financial region badly in need of reasons for optimism.
meltdown rocked the region and pushed several
European nations to the edge of national bankruptcy.
As a wide-ranging civil crisis in the Middle East led to 10-1a The Triumph of Democracy
a flood of migrants seeking entrance into the continent in Postwar Europe
of Europe, popular resistance to the new arrivals led to With the economic aid of the Marshall Plan, the coun-
the emergence of new political parties whose message tries of Western Europe (see Map 10.1) recovered rapidly
contains a potential threat to the tradition of democratic
from the devastation of World War II. Between 1947 and
pluralism that has flourished in the region for the last
1950, European countries received $13 billion to be used
several decades. Today, the continent of Europe faces its
most serious challenges since the end of World War II. for new equipment and raw materials. By the late 1970s,
industrial production had surpassed all previous records,
and Western Europe experienced virtually full employ-
ment. Social welfare programs included affordable health
care; housing; family allowances to provide a minimum
Western Europe:
10-1 level of material care for children; increases in sickness,
accident, unemployment, and old-age benefits; and edu-
Recovery and Renewal cational opportunities. Despite economic recessions in
the mid-1970s and early 1980s, caused in part by dramatic
QQ Focus Question: What were the key reasons
why European nations were able to recover so
increases in the price of oil, the economies of Western
Europe had never been so prosperous, leading some
quickly from World War II and enter a period observers to label the period a “golden age” of political
of peace and prosperity? and economic achievement. Western Europeans were full
participants in the technological advances of the age and
In the immediate postwar era, the challenge was clear and seemed quite capable of standing up to competition from
intimidating. The peoples of Europe needed to rebuild the other global economic powerhouses, Japan and the
their national economies and reestablish and strengthen United States.
their democratic institutions. They also needed to find the In the meantime, confidence in the democratic institu-
means to cooperate in the face of a potential new threat tions that had been unable to confront the threat of fas-
from the east in the form of the Soviet Union, whose cism at the end of the 1930s began to revive. Although local
10-1 Western Europe: Recovery and Renewal ■ 247

From EAST
Finland, GERMANY
FINLAND 1940–1956
French EAST
Sector GERMANY
NORWAY Helsinki EAST
SWEDEN WEST
Oslo Stockholm Soviet
Leningrad British Sector Sector
ESTONIA
Baltic To USSR,
1940 B ER LI N BER LI N
Sea
LATVIA U.S. Sector
To USSR,
DENMARK Copenhagen
1940
Incorporated into
USSR, 1945 LITHUANIA Potsdam
Gdansk To USSR,
(Danzig) 1940
U.S. Zone
Bremen Soviet WHITE SOVIET

Zone National boundaries in 1949
NETHERLANDS
Incorporated into
Berlin Poland, 1945 Warsaw RUSSIA UNION
Amsterdam British Zone EAST de POLAND Allied sector boundaries
O
r Brest
BELGIUM GERMANY R. 1947 From Poland, Allied occupation of Germany and
1949 1940–1947
Austria, 1945–1955
WEST
Brussels French Prague
Zone U.S.
GERMANY Zone CZECH From Czechoslovakia, UKRAINE Territory lost by Germany
OSLOV
LUXEMBOURG Munich AKIA 1940–1947
From Romania,
Soviet 1948 1940–1947 Territory gained by Soviet Union
U.S. Zone Vienna
AUSTRIA Budapest
“Iron Curtain” after 1955
Bern French Zone British
SWITZERLAND Zone Zone
HUNGARY BESSARABIA 1945 Year Communist control of
1949
government was gained
P o R.
Milan Danu ROMANIA
be 1947
Belgrade Bucharest CRIMEA
YUGOSLAVIA R.
ITALY 1945
BULGARIA
Black Sea
Corsica 1946
Rome Sofia
(Fr.) Tirana
Istanbul
ALBANIA
1944
Sardinia
(It.) TU RK EY
GREECE 0 300 600 900 Kilometers
Mediterranean Sea Athens 0 300 600 Miles
MAP 10.1 Territorial Changes in Europe After World War II. In the last months of World War II, the Red Army
occupied much of Eastern Europe. Stalin sought pro-Soviet satellite states in the region as a buffer against
future invasions from Western Europe, whereas Britain and the United States wanted democratically elected
governments. Soviet military control of the territory settled the question.
Q Which country gained the greatest territory at the expense of Germany?
Communist parties received wide support in national elec- a new variety of communism, called Eurocommunism,
tions held in France and Italy immediately after the war, emerged briefly when Communist parties tried to work
their fortunes waned as economic conditions started to within the democratic system as mass movements com-
improve. Even Spain and Portugal, which retained their pre- mitted to better government. But by the 1980s, internal
war dictatorial regimes well after the end of World War II, political developments in Western Europe and events
established democratic systems in the late 1970s. Moderate within the Communist world had combined to undermine
political parties, especially the Christian Democrats in the Eurocommunist experiment.
Italy and Germany, played a particularly important role in
Europe’s economic restoration. Overall, the influence of
Communist parties declined, although reformist mass par- 10-1b The Integration of Europe
ties only slightly left of center, such as the Labour Party in Since the time of Charlemagne and the formation of the
Britain and the Social Democrats in West Germany and Holy Roman Empire, princes and prelates have dreamed
France, continued to share power. During the mid-1970s, of creating a single European realm united in faith and
248 ■ CHAPTER 10 Postwar Europe: On the Path to Unity?
common purpose against enemies within and without. 10-2a France
But the reality of squabbling dynasties, ethnic rivalries, The history of France for nearly a quarter century after the
and bitter religious disputes always seemed to get in the war was dominated by one man, Charles de Gaulle (1890–
way. By the nineteenth century, the rise of nationalism 1970), who possessed an unshakable faith in his own his-
and imperialism threatened the very life of the idea and toric mission to restore the greatness of the French nation.
culminated in the self-destructive wars of the early twen- During the war, de Gaulle, then a colonel in the French
tieth century. army, had assumed leadership of the French government
It was because of the enormity of the damage inflicted and forces in exile in London, known as the “Free French,”
on European society by the two world wars that leading as well as the anti-Nazi resistance groups in France itself,
political figures in the post-war era began to draw up plans and he played an important role in ensuring the establish-
for a future united Europe. The desire to play a greater role ment of a French provisional government after the war.
in a world dominated by two superpowers was undoubt- But immediately following the war, the creation of the
edly another factor. In the early 1950s, the first steps were Fourth Republic, with a return to a multiparty parlia-
taken with the formation of the Common Market, commentary system that de Gaulle considered inefficient, led
posed of six nations (France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, him to withdraw temporarily from politics. Eventually, he
the Netherlands, and Luxembourg) within the Western formed the French Popular Movement, a political organi-
alliance. After further steps toward regional integration, zation based on conservative principles that blamed the
the European Union (EU) was finally created in 1994. The multiparty system for France’s chronic political instability
EU did not replace the sovereign powers of its individual and called for a stronger presidency, a goal—and role—that
members, but it sought to create a common market with de Gaulle finally achieved in 1958.
no internal borders and freedom of movement from one
end of the organization to the other. Expectations of Grandeur At the time of De Gaulle’s
From the beginning, however, the inherent tension election as president, the fragile political stability of
over jurisdiction between the Union and its component the Fourth Republic was shaken by a crisis in Algeria,
parts has been a nagging problem, and in recent years, France’s large North African colony. The French army,
has threatened to tear asunder the bonds that unite the having suffered a humiliating defeat in Indochina in
nations within the EU, and to disrupt the political consen- 1954, was determined to resist demands for indepen-
sus within the member nations as well. A more detailed dence by Algeria’s Muslim majority. Independence was
analysis of these issues will appear later in this chapter, also opposed by the large French community living in
and in Chapter 16. Algeria, whose appeals were supported by many senior
French military leaders. But a strong antiwar movement
among French intellectuals and church leaders led to bit-
10-2The Modern Welfare ter divisions in France that opened the door to the pos-
State: Three European sibility of civil war. The panic-stricken leaders of the
Fourth Republic offered to let de Gaulle take over the
Models government and revise the constitution.
In 1958, de Gaulle drafted a new constitution for the
QQ Focus Question: How does the European idea
of a welfare state compare with the capitalist
Fifth Republic that greatly enhanced the power of the
French president, who now had the right to choose
the prime minister, dissolve parliament, and supervise
system as it is applied in the United States today?
both defense and foreign policy. As the new president,
The European welfare state that began to take shape in de Gaulle sought to return France to a position of power
the years following World War II represented a distinct and influence. Believing that an independent role in the
effort to combine the social benefits provided by the Cold War might enhance France’s stature, he pulled
reformist brand of social democracy (see Chapter 1) with France out of the NATO high command. He sought to
the dynamic qualities of modern capitalism. The results increase French prestige in the Third World by consent-
varied from country to country, and not all political par- ing to Algerian independence despite strenuous opposi-
ties approved of the social democratic model. Eventually, tion from the army and offered French colonies in Africa
though, virtually all the nations in Western Europe adopted membership in a new French community of nations
some elements of the system, which differed sharply from under French tutelage. France invested heavily in the
the mostly laissez-faire capitalist model practiced in the nuclear arms race and exploded its first nuclear bomb
United States. in 1960.
10-2 The Modern Welfare State: Three European Models ■ 249
Although the cost of the nuclear program increased
the defense budget, de Gaulle did not neglect the French
economy. Economic decision-making was centralized, a
reflection of the overall concentration of power under-
taken by the Gaullist government. Between 1958 and
1968, the French gross national product (GNP) grew by
5.5 percent annually, faster than the rate of growth in
the United States. By the end of the Gaullist era, France
was a major industrial producer and exporter, par-
ticularly in such areas as automobiles and armaments.
Nevertheless, problems remained. The expansion of
traditional industries, such as coal and railroads, which
had been nationalized, led to large government defi-
cits. The cost of living increased faster than in the rest
of Europe.
Shift to the Left Public dissatisfaction with the govern-
Peter Turnley/Getty Images

ment’s inability to deal with these problems soon led
to more violent action. In May 1968, student protests,
provoked by France’s anachronistic educational system
as well as the ongoing war in Vietnam, were followed by
a general strike by the labor unions (see “10-5a An Age
of Affluence,” p. 263). During the spring and summer of IMAGE 10.2 François Mitterrand and Margaret Thatcher. François
1968, the whiff of tear gas and the sound of police sirens Mitterrand was the first member of the Socialist Party to serve
as President of France after World War II. He was soon forced
were daily occurrences on the streets of Paris. Although
to move to the center to deal with the problems that he had
de Gaulle managed to restore order, the events of 1968 inherited. Here he is shown with Great Britain’s first female
seriously undermined popular respect for the aloof and prime minister, Margaret Thatcher in a photograph taken in
imperious president. Tired and discouraged, de Gaulle 1986. Thatcher dominated British politics in the 1980s and
resigned from office in April 1969 and died within a year. served in the post longer than any man in modern times.
Yet “le grand Charles,” as he was sometimes dubbed deri-
sively by his critics, did make a significant contribution to
French governmental institutions by bringing an end to the A Season of Discontent But the Socialist government’s
fractious politics of the prewar era. De Gaulle’s successors efforts to reverse the country’s economic decline failed, and
would enjoy the benefits of a more centralized political when the rate of inflation began to rise, the government
system that enabled the chief executive to enact major froze wages and adopted an austerity program in govern-
changes in French society. ment spending. By the time he retired in 1995, Mitterrand
During the 1970s, the French economic situation had become a centrist, in fact if not in name. In 1995 the
continued to decline, bringing about a political shift to conservative mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac (1932–2019),
the left. In 1981, the veteran Socialist leader, François was elected president. By this time, a new element had
Mitterrand (1916–1996), was elected president (see entered the equation, as public resentment against foreign-
Image 10.2). To resolve France’s economic difficulties, born residents had become a growing political reality in
he froze prices and wages in the hope of reducing the France. In 2008 there were nearly 5 million immigrants
huge budget deficit and high inflation. Mitterrand also in the country, nearly 7.5 percent of the total population
introduced a number of programs to aid workers: an of 65 million. Many of the recent arrivals were Muslims
increased minimum wage, expanded social benefits, a from North Africa, and thus were identified in the public
mandatory fifth week of paid vacation for salaried work- mind with terrorist actions committed by militant groups
ers, a thirty-nine-hour workweek, and higher taxes on based in the Middle East. Spurred by such concerns, many
the rich. Their success in enacting these measures con- French voters gave their support to Jean-Marie Le Pen’s
vinced the Socialists that they could enact more radical National Front, which openly advocated restrictions on all
reforms. Consequently, the government nationalized new immigration and limited the assimilation of immi-
the steel industry, major banks, the space and electronics grants already living in France. In 2002, Le Pen came in
industries, and important insurance firms. second in the race for the French presidency.

In the fall of 2005, youth riots broke out in the crowded decided not to run for reelection in 2017. In the wide-open
suburbs of Paris. Many of the participants were young race to succeed him, it became clear that the traditional
Muslims protesting their dismal living conditions and alignment of political parties had been shaken by recent
the lack of employment opportunities for foreign-born events, and two new parties figured prominently in the
residents in France (see Image 10.5). After the riots sub- outcome. The traditional parties—the Conservatives and
sided, government officials promised to adopt measures to the Socialists—had been badly discredited for their failure
respond to the complaints, but tensions persisted between to resolve the nation’s discontents, leading to the birth of a
the growing Muslim community and the remainder of the new political paradigm.
French population over such issues as the threat of terror- On the right, Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front (now
ism and the right of female Muslims to wear a head scarf renamed the Rassemblement National) had become an
in public schools. increasingly powerful force, with his daughter Marina
In May 2007, another Conservative, Nicolas Sarkozy as its candidate. Meanwhile, a young banker, Emmanuel
(b. 1955), was elected president of France. As minister of Macron (b. 1977), formed a new centrist political party
the interior under the previous administration, Sarkozy known as La Republique en Marche (“the Republic on the
had been critical of the urban protests and promised to Move” in English). The Conservative Party—which had
crack down on social unrest. Once installed as president, previously accepted the European consensus on economic
however, he tried to defuse the issue by promising to adopt globalism and neo-liberal social policies—broke with
a Marshall Plan for troubled areas of the country. But the tradition and nominated François Fillon, who based his
government’s options were limited by the realities of an campaign on a revival of French traditional values, even
economy struggling with both rising inflation and anemic though he himself had become the subject of a personal
growth (see “10-5b Rethinking the Welfare State,” p. 264). scandal. Much of Fillon’s support came from Catholics or
As Europe sought to deal with the effects of the global from individuals who were concerned at the secular char-
financial meltdown, in May 2012 Sarkozy was defeated in acter of French society, the decline of the traditional fam-
his bid to win a second term in office, to be replaced by the ily, and the increasing emphasis on individual rights over
Socialist François Hollande (b. 1954). The new president that of the community as a whole. Some of his supporters
took office in a country facing a sluggish economy and an had unsuccessfully attempted to oppose recently adopted
unemployment rate of nearly 20 percent. legislation proposed by the Socialists that extended legal
As president, Hollande hoped to re-enact elements rights for the LGBTQ community and authorized same-
of his party’s socialist program by raising taxes on the sex marriage.
wealthy, regulating banks, and bringing an end to the eco- In the end, Macron’s youthful vigor, his public com-
nomic crisis caused by the global recession of 2008, which mitment to break the political paralysis in Paris, and his
had left European banks exposed to the debts of many of pro-European message appealed to many French voters
the EU’s weaker nations. But when Hollande also tacked (as well as to many observers abroad), who elected him as
to the right by calling for the closure of failing factories the youngest president in the history of France. Macron
and loosening labor regulations to permit corporations to entered office with high ambitions to remove many of the
lay off workers, his approval rating dropped dramatically. various regulations and traditions that, in his view, kept
Hollande’s handling of two bloody terrorist attacks in Paris French society in a straight-jacket and undercut its eco-
in 2015 temporarily boosted his standing among the pub- nomic competitiveness in the world market. Accordingly,
lic, but he was unable to relieve rising public concern over he moved quickly to overhaul the rigid labor code and
the nation’s steadily declining standard of living, increasing strengthen the rights of employers to hire and fire work-
income inequality (one percent of the French population ers, while reducing the ability of the nation’s powerful
controlled over twenty percent of the national wealth), labor unions to prevent necessary changes to improve effi-
and a stubbornly high unemployment rate. Widespread ciency. Finally, to stimulate lagging investment, he cut state
anger over the increasing number of immigrants in the taxes on wealthy citizens.
country added to his woes. Much of the discontent was As he soon discovered, such measures, even though
centered in what the French call “la France profonde”— seen as necessary steps to improve the health of the
loosely translated into English as “the rural heartland of French economy, always take time to reap benefits, while
France”—where the job losses, the stagnating incomes, the pain struck the working class immediately, and when
and the hollowing-out of local communities were particu- the government announced an increase in fuel taxes to
larly noticeable. cut carbon emissions and thus meet environmental goals
Overwhelmed by the nation’s mounting difficulties required by the EU, discontented workers donned emer-
and the steady decline in his personal popularity, Hollande gency yellow vests (gilets jaunes) and took to the streets

to protest the increase in fuel prices at the pump. They in the name of Germany.” Unlike their behavior after
were soon joined by thousands of other demonstrators World War I, most Germans accepted the country’s “bur-
bearing similar complaints. Macron reluctantly caved in den of guilt,” and embarked on a quest to replace the
on the price increase, while promising to adopt measures prewar German lust for power and lebensraum with a dedi-
to improve conditions for the poor. Like so many of his cation to the principles of peace and democracy. A history
predecessors, Macron had encountered one of the central of Germany that was used frequently as a text for classes at
dilemmas of French politics. the secondary level presented such ideas ably to a younger
generation. It praised the concept of democracy as some-
thing that could not function as an ideal, but only if citi-
10-2b Germany: Across the Cold War Divide zens were “thoroughly imbued with democratic attitudes”
The unification of the three Western zones into the that are put in practice every day. “We owe it to ourselves,”
Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, or West Germany) the author declared, “to examine our consciences sincerely
became a reality in 1949. Konrad Adenauer (1876–1967), and to face the naked truth, instead of minimizing it or
the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), glossing over it.” That, the author declared, was the way
served as chancellor from 1949 to 1963 and became to regain respect in the world.1
the “founding hero” of the FRG. Adenauer, who had
opposed Hitler’s regime, sought to revive respect for Willy Brandt and Ostpolitik After the Adenauer era
Germany by cooperating with the United States and the ended in the mid-1960s, the Social Democrats became the
other Western European nations. He was especially desir- leading party. By forming a ruling coalition with the small
ous of reconciliation with France—Germany’s longtime Free Democratic Party, they remained in power until
rival. As Cold War tensions increased, concerns about 1982. The first Social Democratic chancellor was Willy
German rearmament subsided, and the FRG became a Brandt (1913–1992). Brandt was especially successful
member of NATO in 1955. with his “opening toward the east” (known as Ostpolitik),
for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1972. On
The Economic Miracle Adenauer and his successors did March 19, 1971, Brandt met with Walter Ulbricht, the
not have the luxury of building upon the rich democratic leader of East Germany, and worked out the details of
traditions possessed by many of their counterparts in a treaty that was signed in 1972. This agreement did not
Western Europe. Germany’s only experiment with lib- establish full diplomatic relations with East Germany but
eral democracy had been the fragile and much maligned did call for “good neighborly” relations. As a result, it
Weimar Republic, which had so easily succumbed to led to greater cultural, personal, and economic contacts
Nazi tyranny in the 1930s. But they were able to reap between West and East Germany. Despite this success,
the benefits of an era of economic expansion and pros- the discovery of an East German spy among Brandt’s
perity that Weimar leaders would have envied. In fact, advisers caused his resignation in 1974.
the Adenauer era witnessed a resurrection of the West His successor, Helmut Schmidt (1918–2015), was more
German economy that was so remarkable it was regarded of a technocrat than a reform-minded socialist and con-
as an “economic miracle.” Although West Germany had centrated on the economic problems brought about
only 75 percent of the population and 52 percent of the largely by high oil prices between 1973 and 1975. Schmidt
territory of prewar Germany, by 1955 West Germany’s was successful in eliminating a deficit of 10 billion marks
GNP soon exceeded that of prewar Germany. Real wages in three years. In 1982, when the coalition of Schmidt’s
doubled between 1950 and 1965, even though working Social Democrats with the Free Democrats fell apart over
hours were cut by 20 percent. Unemployment fell from 8 the reduction of social welfare expenditures, the Free
percent in 1950 to 0.4 percent in 1965. To maintain its eco- Democrats joined with the Christian Democratic Union
nomic expansion, West Germany imported hundreds of of Helmut Kohl (1930–2017) to form a new government.
thousands of “guest” workers, primarily from Italy, Spain,
Greece, Turkey, and Yugoslavia. Germany United: The Party’s Over With the end of
The Federal Republic had established its capital at the Cold War, West Germany faced a new challenge.
Bonn, a sleepy market town on the Rhine River, to erase Chancellor Helmut Kohl had benefited greatly from an
memories of the Nazi era, when the capital was at Berlin. economic boom in the mid-1980s. Gradually, however,
It also began to make payments to Israel and to Holocaust discontent with the Christian Democrats increased, and
survivors and their relatives to make some restitution by 1988, their political prospects seemed diminished.
for, in the words of German president Richard von But unexpectedly, the 1989 revolution in East Germany
Weizsacker, “the unspeakable sorrow that occurred led in 1990 to the reunification of the two Germanies

(see Chapter 9), making the new Germany, with its 79 mil- asylum, 123,000 of them from former Yugoslavia alone.
lion people, the leading power in Europe. Reunification, Attacks against foreigners by right-wing extremists—many
accomplished during Kohl’s administration, brought rich of them espousing neo-Nazi beliefs—killed seventeen peo-
political dividends to the Christian Democrats. In the first ple in 1992 and became an all too frequent occurrence in
all-German federal election, Kohl’s Christian Democrats German life.
won 44 percent of the vote, and their coalition partners, East Germans were also haunted by another mem-
the Free Democrats, received 11 percent. ory from their recent past. The opening of the files of
But the euphoria over reunification soon dissipated the secret police (the Stasi) showed that millions of East
as the realization set in that the revitalization of the old Germans had spied on their neighbors and colleagues, and
German Democratic Republic (GDR) would take far even their spouses and parents, during the Communist era
more money than was originally thought, and Kohl’s (see Movies & History, The Lives of Others, p. 231). A few
government was soon forced to face the politically unde- senior Stasi officials were put on trial for their past actions,
sirable task of raising taxes substantially. Moreover, the but many Germans preferred simply to close the door on
virtual collapse of the economy in eastern Germany an unhappy period in their lives.
led to extremely high levels of unemployment and As the old century came to a close, Germans strug-
severe discontent. Even today, unemployment in east- gled to cope with the challenge of building a new, united
ern Germany is double that in the old West Germany, nation. To reduce the debt incurred because of economic
while wages average only about 80 percent of those in reconstruction in the east, the government threatened
the west (see Image 10.3). to cut back on many of the social benefits Germans had
Increasing unemployment in turn led to growing long been accustomed to receiving. This in turn increased
resentment against foreigners. For years, foreigners seek- resentments that had already appeared between eastern
ing asylum or employment found a haven in Germany and western Germany. Residents of the old East Germany
because of its extremely liberal immigration laws. In 1992, still often express regrets about reunification, which is
more than 440,000 immigrants came to Germany seeking commonly referred to there by the more neutral term
“Die Wende,” meaning the “turn”
or “change.”2
In 1998, voters took out their
frustrations at the ballot box.
Helmut Kohl’s conservative coali-
tion was defeated in national elec-
tions, and a new prime minister,
Social Democrat Gerhard Schröder
(b. 1944), came into office. Schröder
had no better luck than his prede-
cessor at reviving the economy,
however. In 2003, with nearly 5 mil-
lion workers unemployed, the gov-
ernment announced plans to scale
back welfare benefits that had long
been a familiar part of life for the
German people. In 2005, national
elections brought the Christian
Democrats back into power under
William J. Duiker
the leadership of Germany’s first

woman chancellor, Angela Merkel
(b. 1954). Having lived much of
IMAGE 10.3 An Abandoned Factory in East Germany. This abandoned factory on the her life under communism in East
banks of the Elbe River in eastern Germany stands as a bleak symbol of the economy Germany, Merkel supported mea-
that the FRG inherited when it embarked on the assimilation of the territories of the sures to curb government spend-
old GDR. Much of the industrial sector in East Germany was inefficient and rapidly
collapsed once it came into competition with its counterparts in the West. Derelict
ing while relying increasingly on
factories like this one litter the landscape and symbolize the failure of Marxism the capitalist marketplace. On the
in Germany. other hand, she pursued social

measures like health care reform while seeking to play a may be overdrawn (see Historical Voices, “Manifesto for
leading role in the affairs of the European Union. There, Germany,” p. 255).
she soon encountered new challenges when Greece and Today, Angela Merkel—who for long has served as
other fellow members of the European Union (see “10-4b a stabilizing fixture in Europe—has begun to lose sup-
The European Union,” p. 261) were unable to pay their port among her constituents, and she has acknowledged
debts and turned to wealthy nations in northern Europe such sentiments by announcing that she will not seek re-
to stave off the threat of bankruptcy. Many Germans election as the head of her Christian Democratic Party.
resented having to bail out their neighbors, and Merkel As she prepares to leave the stage, the German political
shared that view. Still, she led the EU in efforts to resolve scene is showing distinct signs of a break-up of the famil-
the continuing financial problems faced by Greece and iar party designations that have endured since the end of
other members from southern Europe like Italy, Spain, World War II.
and Portugal. Elected as chancellor three times, she
became the longest-serving head of state in the EU (see
Image 9.6, p. 241). 10-2c Great Britain
But when a brutal civil war broke out in Syria in 2015, The end of World War II left Britain with massive eco-
Merkel risked her popularity by taking the lead in encour- nomic problems. In elections held immediately after the
aging fellow European countries to accept the thousands war, the Labour Party overwhelmingly defeated Winston
of refugees from Syria that were arriving in Europe by Churchill’s Conservative Party. The Labour Party had
land and by sea. As a result, she came under heavy criti- promised far-reaching reforms, particularly in the area of
cism from some fellow Germans for having accepted social welfare—an appealing platform in a country with
many of these migrants as part of the European conti- a tremendous shortage of consumer goods and housing.
nent’s effort to try to ease the humanitarian crisis in the Clement Atlee (1883–1967), the new prime minister, was
Middle East. Anti-immigration sentiment came primar- a pragmatic reformer rather than the leftist revolutionary
ily, but not exclusively, from Germans living in the for- that Churchill had warned against during the election cam-
mer eastern zone, where high levels of unemployment paign. His Labour government proceeded to enact reforms
proved stubbornly difficult to eradicate. Part of the rea- that created a modern welfare state.
son for the job losses was that the German government The establishment of the British welfare state began
had committed itself to relieving the country from its with the nationalization of the Bank of England, the
reliance on coal for meeting its electricity requirements. coal and steel industries, public transportation, and
The eastern sections of Germany had traditionally been public utilities such as electricity and gas. In the area of
reliant on the mining of soft coal deposits for their liveli- social welfare, in 1946 the new government enacted the
hood, while many of the factories that operated under National Insurance Act and the National Health Service
Communist rule had been shuttered because of ineffi- Act. The insurance act established a comprehensive social
ciency (see Image 10.3). security program and nationalized medical insurance,
In Germany, as in neighboring France, the rise of anti- thereby enabling the state to subsidize the unemployed,
immigration sentiment has led to the realignment of the sick, and the aged. The health act created a system of
politics and the emergence of a new political party called socialized medicine that forced doctors and dentists to
Alternative for Germany (AfD). This new organization work with state hospitals, although private practices could
has managed to win popular support away from both be maintained. This measure was especially costly for the
Merkel’s party and the Social Democrats. At the other state, but within a few years, 90 percent of the medical
end of the political spectrum, many young Germans have profession was participating.
become disenchanted with the two major political parties
and have gravitated over to the Green Party, a relatively Imperial Sunset The cost of building a welfare state at
recent political organization founded on environmen- home forced the British to reduce expenses abroad. This
tal issues. Although the country has long been identi- meant dismantling the British Empire and reducing mili-
fied with the movement to clean up the environment, tary aid to such countries as Greece and Turkey, a deci-
it is still highly dependent on coal, and suffers severely sion that inspired the enunciation of the Truman Doctrine
from automobile pollution. Some observers compare in Washington (see Chapter 7). Economic necessity, and
the emergence of the AfD as a force in German politics not just pressure from colonial nationalist movements,
with the situation in the 1930s, when anti-foreign sen- brought an end to the British Empire.
timent played a significant role in the rise of the Nazi Continuing economic problems brought the Conser
movement, but early signs suggest that the comparison vatives back into power from 1951 to 1964. Although they

HISTORICAL VOICES
Manifesto for Germany

the constitutional state, and irresponsible political actions
Q Do the principles established in this manifesto which clash with sound economic principles. Similarly,
conform in major respects with the liberal consensus we are no longer willing to accept the enforcement of the
established in most Western countries since the end so-called Euro rescue package, which has rekindled long-
of World War II. If not, how might they differ? forgotten prejudices and hostilities between the peoples
of Europe. Therefore, we have decided to offer Germany
and all its citizens a true political alternative, which covers
Politics & The massive influx of refugees from the
Government all aspects of life.
Middle East in recent years has tested the
As free citizens we believe in direct democracy, the
capacity of all the countries in Europe to absorb immigrants
separation of powers, the rule of law, social market
from foreign lands. Although the majority of the population
economics, subsidiarity, federalism, family values, and
of the European Continent has been receptive to the new
German cultural heritage, as democracy and freedom are
arrivals, the sense of public unease at rising levels of
vested in our common cultural values and historical tradi-
refugees from Muslim countries is palpable, and each
tion. The recollect of the revolutions of 1848 and 1989
incident of Islamic terrorism seems to heighten the sense
drive our civil protest and the determination to complete
of concern. Alternative for Germany is only one of several
our national unity in freedom, and create a Europe of
new political parties that have emerged in response to the
sovereign and democratic nation states, united in peace,
situation. In the preamble to the manifesto that is presented
self-determination and good-neighborliness.
here, the drafters emphasize their commitment to liberal
We commit ourselves with all our energy to restoring
democratic principles, but also refer to their insistence that
these principles, and fundamentally reform our country
their country should remain a “German nation.”
in the spirt of freedom and democracy. We maintain an
Alternative for Germany, Manifesto Preamble open mind toward other nations and cultures, but wish to
be and remain German at heart. Therefore, we shall con-
1. Courage to stand up for Germany. tinuously strive to uphold human dignity, support families
2. We are not subjects but free citizens. with children, retain our Western Christian culture, and
3. We are liberals and conservatives. maintain our language and traditions in a peaceful demo-
4. We are free citizens of our nation. cratic, and sovereign nation state for the German people.
5. We are staunch supporters of democracy. We will have reached our goal when government and
We have come together as citizens with different back- all its institutions once again become servants to all citi-
grounds, experience, qualifications and political careers. zens in our country, which all members of government
In spite of our differences, we believe in a common swear in the official oath to the constitution:
vision, and that the time to stand up and act has arrived.
We share a firm conviction that citizens have the right to “I swear that I will dedicate my efforts to the well-being of the
true political alternatives, not only those presented by the German people, promote their welfare, protect them from harm,
political class. uphold and defend the German Constitution and the laws
of the Federation, perform my duties conscientiously and do
No longer can we remain idle and observe the
justice to all.”
breaches of justice and the rule of law, the destruction of
Source: “The Political Programme of the Alternative for Germany,” p. 6. Approved at the Federal Party Congress held in Stuttgart, Germany, on
April 30–May 1, 2016.
favored private enterprise, the Conservatives accepted the war, it had done so at a slower rate than other European
new system and even extended it, undertaking an ambi- countries. This slow recovery masked a long-term eco-
tious construction program to improve British housing. nomic decline caused by a variety of factors, includ-
Although the British economy had recovered from the ing trade union demands for wages that rose faster than
productivity and the unwillingness of factory owners to
invest in modern industrial machinery and to adopt new movies & HIstory
methods. Underlying the immediate problems, however,
was a deeper issue. As a result of World War II, Britain The Iron Lady (2011)
had lost much of its prewar revenue from abroad but was Directed by
left with a burden of debt from its many international Phyllida Lloyd, the
commitments. film The Iron Lady
Between 1964 and 1979, Conservatives and Labour is a joint British-
EVERETT COLLECTION, INC.

alternated in power. Both parties faced seemingly French docudrama
intractable problems. Although separatist movements that was pro-
in Scotland and Wales were overcome, a dispute duced in 2011.
between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland The character of
was marked by violence as the rebel Irish Republican Margaret Thatcher
Army (IRA) staged a series of dramatic terrorist acts in was played by the renowned American actress Meryl
response to the suspension of Northern Ireland’s parlia- Streep (and, in her youth, by Alexandra Roach).
ment in 1972 and the establishment of direct rule by A controversial figure in British politics, Thatcher
London. The problem of Northern Ireland remained was born the daughter of a grocer in the town of
unresolved. Nor was either party able to deal with Grantham. As a student, she fought against class and
Britain’s ailing economy. Great Britain’s years in the sun, gender prejudice to earn a degree at Oxford. After
it appeared, were long past. joining the Conservative Party, she won election to
Parliament and was eventually named Secretary of
“Thatcherism”: The Conservatives in Ascendance In Education under Prime Minister Edward Heath. In
1979, after five years of Labour government and wors- 1979 she became the first female prime minister of
ening economic problems, the Conservatives returned the United Kingdom. Over a twelve-year period, she
to power under Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013), the first overcame prejudice from many of her male colleagues
woman prime minister in British history (see Movies & to put her indelible stamp on British politics, promot-
History, The Iron Lady). Thatcher pledged to lower taxes, ing a tight money policy, reform of the labor unions,
reduce the government bureaucracy, limit social welfare, and the privatization of state-owned industries. Tough-
restrict union power, and end inflation. The “Iron Lady,” minded in foreign affairs as in the domestic arena,
as she was called, did break the power of the labor unions. she opposed European integration and the unification
Although she did not eliminate the basic components of of Germany, and dispatched British military forces
the social welfare system, she used austerity measures to to oppose an invasion of the British-held Falkland
control inflation. “Thatcherism,” as her economic policy Islands by Argentina.
was termed, improved the British economic situation, but It was never easy. Her effort to dismantle the British
at a price. The south of England, for example, prospered, welfare state resulted in a rise in the unemployment
but the old industrial areas of the Midlands and north rate and a number of workers’ strikes. At the end of
declined and were beset by high unemployment, poverty, her reign as prime minister, she was forced to resign as
and sporadic violence. Cutbacks in funding for education prime minister by Conservative colleagues and suffered
seriously undermined the quality of British schools, long from ill health in her declining years.
regarded as among the world’s finest. As a film, The Iron Lady earned mixed reviews
In foreign policy, Thatcher took a hard-line approach from critics, and unfortunately—considering that her
against communism. She oversaw a large military buildup historical significance depends almost entirely on her
aimed at replacing older technology and reestablishing role as a woman in the public arena—spends more
Britain as a world policeman. In 1982, when Argentina time on her marriage to Denis Thatcher (1915–2003)
attempted to take control of the Falkland Islands (one than on her long career in politics, but Meryl Streep
of Britain’s few remaining colonial outposts, known to deservedly won an Oscar for her stellar performance of
Argentines as the Malvinas) 300 miles off its coast, the this unusual woman.
British successfully rebuffed the Argentines, although at
considerable economic cost and the loss of 255 lives. The
Falklands War, however, did generate popular support for
Q What do you think a film about Margaret Thatcher
should focus on?
Thatcher, as many in Britain reveled in memories of the
nation’s glorious imperial past.

The Era of Tony Blair While Thatcher dominated politics measures, however, exacted a heavy price, as the British
in the 1980s, the Labour Party, beset by divisions between economy went into recession.
its moderate and radical wings, offered little effective Still, the Cameron government passed a number of
opposition. But in 1990, Labour’s fortunes revived when significant legislative measures, reducing social welfare
the Conservative government attempted to replace local benefits, eliminating the amount of available housing for
property taxes with a flat-rate tax payable by every adult those on public assistance, and privatizing parts of the
to his or her local authority. Although Thatcher con- country’s National Health Service. But Cameron defied
tended that this would make local government more Conservative sentiment by passing a Marriage Act in 2013,
responsive to popular needs, many argued that this was which authorized marriage by same-sex couples. Riding
nothing more than a poll tax that would enable the rich on his early legislative successes, he earned a second
to pay the same rate as the poor. After anti-tax riots broke term in 2015, on the promise of calling a popular refer-
out, Thatcher’s once legendary popularity plummeted to endum on the UK’s membership in the European Union.
an all-time low. At the end of November, a revolt within Cameron had encountered strong resistance from within
her own party caused Thatcher to resign as prime min- his own party regarding the trade and immigration policies
ister. Her replacement was John Major (b. 1943), whose enforced by the EU, and he then gambled that a referen-
Conservative Party won a narrow victory in the general dum would strengthen his hands in negotiating the terms
elections held in April 1992. of Britain’s membership in the EU. But on July 23, 2016,
The new prime minister sought to continue his prede- British voters surprised everyone by opting to leave the
cessor’s policies—privatizing the nation’s railroad system EU in a measure known as the British Referendum Act—
in 1994—but his lackluster leadership failed to capture but more commonly dubbed Brexit (a combination of the
the imagination of many Britons, and in new elections in words “Britain” and “Exit”).
May 1997, the Labour Party won a landslide victory. The The votes in favor of or opposed to leaving the EU
new prime minister, Tony Blair (b. 1953), was a moderate were not distributed equally across the British Isles.
whose youth and energy immediately instilled a new vigor Support for exit was particularly strong in the Midlands,
into the political scene. Adopting centrist policies remi- a region in central England that had suffered heavily as
niscent of those followed by President Bill Clinton in the British industry declined during the latter half of the
United States (Blair entitled his program the “Third Way,” twentieth century. In southern England and around the
a position somewhere between the free market practices in sprawling suburbs of London—where a younger and eth-
the United States and the paternalistic welfare systems on nically diverse population benefitted from the country’s
the European continent), his party dominated the political membership in the EU—a more cosmopolitan attitude
arena into the new century. prevailed. Voters in Scotland, where support for a poten-
Riding on a wave of economic prosperity, the Labour tial separation from the United Kingdom was relatively
government passed legislation to introduce a minimum strong, also tended to view the European Union as a use-
wage and address child poverty. But a continued deterio- ful balance against an allegedly oppressive government
ration of public services—notably in the areas of edu- in London.
cation, transportation, and health care—steadily eroded The uneasiness of the British people with regard to the
Blair’s popular appeal. His decision to support the U.S.- growing size of the local immigrant population did not
led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was also not popular with the originate with the refugee crisis in the Middle East, but
British public. The failure of the opposition Conservative dated back to the 1950s, when a gradual influx of refugees
Party to field a popular candidate kept him in power took place from Britain’s ex-colonies, primarily from South
for nearly a decade, but in 2007 he stepped down from Asia, as those nations became independent after World
office and was replaced by his fellow Labour Party leader, War II. In recent years, however, the flow increased dra-
Gordon Brown (b. 1951). matically as migrants already on the continent of Europe
took advantage of Britain’s membership in the EU to seek
A Partnership in Peril In 2010, in the wake of climbing residence there.
unemployment and a global financial crisis, the Labour The vote in favor of leaving the EU (which passed
Party’s thirteen-year rule ended when the Conservative by a very narrow margin) thus created a significant
Party candidate David Cameron (b. 1966) became prime amount of turmoil in the UK and led to the resignation
minister on the basis of a coalition with the Liberal of its instigator, Prime Minister David Cameron. His
Democrats. Cameron promised to reduce the government replacement, the country’s second female prime minis-
debt by cutting government waste and social services and ter Theresa May (b. 1956), was faced with tough choices,
overhauling the health care system. Cameron’s austerity and only a brief period of time to carry it out. The trade

relationship with individual members of the EU had to therapy” austerity measures produced much suffering.
be renegotiated, as well as laws relating to the movement Unemployment, for example, climbed to over 13 per-
of people into and out of the UK. Her own constituents cent in Poland in 1992.
in the Conservative Party were badly split, not only over Nevertheless, within a few years many of these states
whether to leave the European Union, but how to carry had begun to make a successful transition to both free
it out. Some members of Parliament wanted a “hard markets and political democracy. In Poland, Aleksander
Brexit” (by which all ties with the EU would be severed), Kwasniewski (b. 1954), although a former Communist,
while others preferred a compromise (a “soft Brexit”), was elected president in November 1995 and pushed
whereby Great Britain would retain some trade ties with Poland toward an increasingly prosperous free market
the Union. Still others, fearing disaster if the split were economy. His success brought about his reelection in
carried through, hoped for a second referendum to give October 2000. In Czechoslovakia, the shift to non-Com-
the British public another opportunity to reconsider the munist rule was complicated by old problems, especially
fate of their nation. ethnic issues. Although Czechs and Slovaks spoke closely
Faced with these stark choices, Prime Minister related languages, they had different historical experi-
May attempted to come up with an equitable agree- ences, leading to sensitivity on the part of the Slovaks
ment that would satisfy a majority of the members in over living in a state dominated by the more sophisticated
Parliament, as well as the British populace itself, on the Czechs. In the end, the two sides accepted a peaceful divi-
terms of the separation. But Jeremy Corbyn, the cur- sion of the country. On January 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia
rent leader of the Labour Party, was reluctant to take split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia (see Map 10.2).
a firm stand on the issue one way or the other, lead- Václav Havel was elected the first president of the new
ing some members of his own party, exasperated with Czech Republic.
his failure to stake out a position, to form their own
grouping. As a new Conservative prime minister, the
10-3a Tragedy in the Balkans:
hard-line Brexit-supporter Boris Johnson (b. 1964), took
office in the summer of 2019, the ultimate fate of Brexit The Disintegration of Yugoslavia
remained unclear. But the most difficult transition to the post-Cold War
era in Eastern Europe occurred in Yugoslavia. From its
beginning in 1919, Yugoslavia had been an artificial cre-
10-3Eastern Europe After ation composed of uneasy neighbors with a long history
of mutual animosity. After World War II, the dictatorial
the Fall of the Iron Curtain Marshal Tito had managed to hold its six republics and
two autonomous provinces together. But after his death
QQ Focus Question: To what degree have Eastern
European nations adopted the Western
in 1980, no strong leader emerged, and his responsibili-
ties passed to a collective state presidency dominated by
European model since the end of the Cold the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. At the end of
War? Has their response been successful? the 1980s, Yugoslavia was caught up in the reform move-
ments sweeping through Eastern Europe. The League
The collapse of the Communist governments in Eastern of Communists collapsed, and new parties quickly
Europe during the revolutions of 1989 brought a wave of emerged.
euphoria to Europe. New governments quickly emerged The Yugoslav political scene was complicated by
throughout the region and worked diligently to scrap the the development of separatist movements. In 1990, the
remnants of the old system and introduce the democratic republics of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and
procedures and market systems they believed would revi- Macedonia began to lobby for a new federal structure of
talize their scarred lands (see Chapter 9). But this process Yugoslavia that would fulfill their separatist desires. But
proved to be neither simple nor easy. Slobodan Miloševic´ (1941–2006), Tito’s successor who
In the first place, most Eastern European coun- had become the leader of the Serbian Communist Party
tries had little or no experience with democratic sys- in 1987 and had managed to stay in power by empha-
tems. Then, too, ethnic divisions, which had troubled sizing his commitment to Serbian nationalism, asserted
these areas before World War II and had been forcibly that these republics could be independent only if new
submerged under Communist rule, reemerged with border arrangements were made to accommodate the
a vengeance. Finally, the rapid conversion to market Serb minorities in the republics who did not want to
economies also proved painful. The adoption of “shock live outside the boundaries of Serbia. Serbs constituted

0 250 500 750 Kilometers Arctic
Ocean 1967: France, West Germany, Belgium,
0 250 500 Miles Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy
Norwegian 1973: Great Britain, Ireland, Denmark

Sea
1981: Greece
SWEDEN
1986: Spain, Portugal
FINLAND
NORWAY Helsinki 1995: Austria, Finland, Sweden
Stockholm
Oslo Tallinn 2004: Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary,
ESTONIA
ea
North Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland,
Riga
cS
Sea Slovakia, Slovenia, and Cyprus
LATVIA
lt i
Ba
Copenhagen
LITHUANIA 2007: Bulgaria, Romania
DENMARK Vilnius Moscow
Dublin UNITED Minsk
NETHERLANDS 2013: Croatia
IRELAND KINGDOM Amsterdam Berlin BELARUS R U S S I A
R Warsaw
London BELGIUM hin e GERMANY POLAND
Do
Brussels Prague Kiev n R.
Paris R. CZECH REPUBLIC Dn
Sei SLOVAKIA UKRAINE iepe
ne R. LIECHTENSTEIN Vienna Bratislava KAZAKHSTAN
r R
Atlantic LUXEMBOURG Bern AUSTRIA Budapest MOLDOVA Vo
lga
.
Ljubljana HUNGARY Chisinau
Ocean FRANCE
SWITZERLAND
SLOVENIA Zagreb D ROMANIA
R.
Po R . CROATIA an ub e R
Sarajevo .. Bucharest
BOSNIA Belgrade
SERBIA
Ca
Eb ITALY Sofia Black Sea
MONTENEGRO Kosovo GEORGIA
sp
ro Rome BULGARIA
R. Skopje
ian
Tirana MACEDONIA Tbilisi
PORTUGAL ARMENIA Baku
Madrid ALBANIA
Se
Ankara Yerevan
a
SPAIN GREECE AZERBAIJAN
Lisbon TURKEY
Mediterrane Athens
an
Se IRAN
a
SYRIA IRAQ
CYPRUS
MAP 10.2 The European Union, 2013. Beginning in 1957 as the European Economic Community, also known
as the Common Market, the union of European states seeking to integrate their economies has gradually
grown from six members to twenty-eight in 2013. The European Union has achieved two major goals—the
creation of a single internal market and a common currency—although it has been less successful at working
toward common political and foreign policy goals.
Q What additional nations do you think will eventually join the European Union? Why?
about 12 percent of Croatia’s population and 32 percent Serbian forces had acquired 70 percent of Bosnian territory.
of Bosnia’s. The Serbian policy of ethnic cleansing—killing or forcibly
After negotiations among the six republics failed, removing Bosnian Muslims from their lands—revived
Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence in memories of Nazi atrocities in World War II. Nevertheless,
June 1991. Milošević’s government sent the Yugoslavian despite worldwide outrage, European governments failed
army, which it controlled, into Slovenia, without much to take a decisive and forceful stand against these Serbian
success. In September 1991, it began a full assault against activities, and by the spring of 1993, the Muslim popula-
Croatia. Increasingly, the Yugoslavian army was becom- tion of Bosnia was in desperate straits. As the fighting
ing the Serbian army, while Serbian irregular forces played spread, European nations and the United States began to
a growing role in military operations. Before a cease-fire intervene to stop the bloodshed, and in the fall of 1995, a
was arranged, the Serbian forces had captured one-third fragile cease-fire agreement was reached at a conference
of Croatia’s territory in brutal and destructive fighting held in Dayton, Ohio. An international peacekeeping force
(see Image 10.4). was stationed in the area to maintain tranquility and moni-
The recognition of Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia- tor the accords.
Herzegovina as independent nations by many European Peace in Bosnia, however, did not bring peace to
states and the United States early in 1992 did not stop the Yugoslavia. A new war erupted in 1999 over Kosovo,
Serbs from turning their guns on Bosnia. By mid-1993, which had been made an autonomous province within
10-3 Eastern Europe After the Fall of the Iron Curtain ■ 259
IMAGE 10.4 Incident at Vukovar.
In the fall of 1991, Serbian
forces crossed the Danube
River and put the Croatian city
of Vukovar under siege. After
three months of bitter fighting,
Serbian troops entered the city
and evacuated the Croatian
members of the local population
to concentration camps. Several
thousand residents were killed
in the fighting. After the end of
the war, the city gradually began
to recover, but many parts of the
city have not yet been rebuilt,
and houses pockmarked with
bullet holes are still a common
sight in much of the town center.
A cemetery containing the graves
of war casualties, as shown here,
now sits on the outskirts of the
town. Vukovar today is one of
Yvonne V. Duiker
the more graphic symbols of the

horrors of the recent Balkan wars.
Yugoslavia by Tito in 1974. Kosovo’s inhabitants were

mainly ethnic Albanians. But many Serbs considered
10-4Western Europe:
it sacred territory because in the fourteenth century The Search for Unity
Serbian forces had been defeated there by the Ottoman
Turks in an epic battle.
In 1989, Yugoslav President Miloševic´ stripped
Kosovo of its autonomous status and outlawed any offi-
QQ Focus Question: What are the challenges
currently facing the European Union as
it attempts to create a strong and united
cial use of the Albanian language. In 1993, some groups Europe that can play an important role in the
of ethnic Albanians founded the Kosovo Liberation world today?
Army (KLA) and began a campaign against Serbian rule
in Kosovo. When Serb forces began to massacre eth-
nic Albanians in an effort to crush the KLA, the United As we have seen, the divisions created by the Cold War led
States and its NATO allies sought to arrange a settle- the nations of Western Europe to form the North Atlantic
ment. When Miloševic´ refused to sign the agreement, Treaty Organization in 1949. But military cooperation was
the United States and its NATO allies began a bombing not the only kind of unity fostered in Europe after 1945. The
campaign that forced the Yugoslavian government into destructiveness of two world wars caused many thoughtful
compliance. In the elections of 2000, Miloševic´ himself Europeans to consider the need for additional forms of inte-
was ousted from power and was later put on trial by an gration. National feeling was still too powerful, however,
international tribunal for war crimes against humanity for European nations to give up their political sovereignty.
for his ethnic cleansing policies. The truncated coun- Consequently, the quest for unity initially focused primarily
try of Yugoslavia briefly changed its name to Serbia and on the economic arena rather than the political one.
Montenegro, but that union came to an end in 2006 as
Montenegro and Serbia became independent states. 10-4a The Curtain Rises: The Creation
Kosovo received its independence in 2007, against the of the Common Market
vigorous opposition of Serbia and its traditional ally In 1951, France, West Germany, the Benelux countries
Russia. Today the region is slowly returning to peace- (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg), and Italy
time conditions, although historical animosities lie just formed the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).
beneath the surface. Its purpose was to create a common market for coal and

steel products among the six nations by eliminating tar- Great Britain) abandoned their national currencies in favor
iffs and other trade barriers. The success of the ECSC of the euro. The move hastened the transition of the EU
encouraged its members to proceed further, and in 1957, into a single economic entity capable of competing in world
they created the European Atomic Energy Community markets with the United States and major Asian nations.
(EURATOM) to further European research on the peace-
ful uses of nuclear energy.
In the same year, the same six nations signed the 10-4c Plans for Expansion: A Bridge Too Far?
Rome Treaty, which created the European Economic In the meantime, plans got under way to extend the EU into
Community (EEC), also known as the Common Market. Eastern Europe, where several nations were just emerg-
The EEC eliminated mutual customs barriers and created ing from decades of domination by the Soviet Union. In
a large free-trade area protected from the rest of the world the lingering euphoria over the collapse of the Cold War
by a common external tariff. By promoting free trade, the divide, in December 2002, the EU voted to add ten new
EEC also encouraged cooperation and standardization in members—Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary,
many aspects of the six nations’ economies. All the mem- Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
ber nations benefited economically. They joined the organization in 2004. Bulgaria and Romania
Europeans moved toward further integration of joined in 2007, and the addition of Croatia in 2013 increased
their economies after 1970. The European Economic the size of the EU to twenty-eight members (see Map 10.2).
Community expanded in 1973 when Great Britain, Ireland, Now, however, the momentum has begun to shift as
and Denmark gained membership in what its members the consequences of EU expansion and membership have
now began to call the European Community (EC). By 1986, become clear to all sides. In recent years the EU has cre-
three more members—Spain, Portugal, and Greece—had ated a looser grouping called an “Eastern Partnership”
been added. The economic integration of the members with six potential members—Georgia, Ukraine, Armenia,
of the EC led to cooperative efforts in international and Azerbaijan, Moldova, and Belarus. With political condi-
political affairs as well. The foreign ministers of the twelve tions in the area currently unstable as a result of Russia’s
members consulted frequently and provided a common opposition to the plan, there is no current intention to
front in negotiations on important issues. risk a direct confrontation with Moscow on the issue. For
political leaders in Eastern European countries, the coun-
tervailing pressures from East and West make important
10-4b The European Union decisions difficult to achieve. For example, Aleksander
By 1992, the EC included nearly 350 million people and Vukic, the current president of Serbia, hopes to join the
constituted the world’s largest single trading bloc, transact- European Union to reap the economic benefits it will pro-
ing almost one-quarter of the world’s commerce. In the vide, but is reluctant to anger Russia. For his part, Putin
early 1990s, EC members drafted the Treaty on European has cited the deep historical friendship that has long char-
Union (known as the Maastricht Treaty, after the city in the acterized the relationship between the two countries, and
Netherlands where the agreement was reached), seeking has dangled an offer to provide cheap natural gas as a lure
to create a true economic and monetary union of all mem- to persuade the Serbs to reject membership in the EU.
bers of the organization (see Historical Voices, “Toward a The fact is, not all observers are convinced that
United Europe,” p. 262). The treaty would not take effect, European integration is a good thing. Some Eastern
however, until all members agreed. On January 1, 1994, the Europeans have begun to fear that their countries will
European Community became the European Union (EU). be dominated by capital investment from their prosper-
One of its first goals was to introduce a common cur- ous neighbors, while many Western Europeans have
rency, called the euro. But problems soon arose. Voters in expressed concerns at the influx of low-wage workers
many countries opposed the austerity measures that their from newer members. The recent refugee crisis in the
governments would be compelled to take to reduce grow- Middle East has caused great consternation in several
ing budget deficits. Germans in particular feared that replac- Eastern European countries, where concern over pro-
ing the rock-solid mark with a common European currency tecting their ethnic and national identity is always at the
could lead to economic disaster. Yet the logic of the new forefront. The decision by Great Britain to resign from
union appeared inescapable if European nations were to the EU has undoubtedly caught the attention of sev-
improve their capacity to compete with the United States eral countries on the European continent, although the
and the powerful industrializing nations of the Pacific Rim. fallout in the UK from the referendum itself may cause
On January 1, 2002, twelve members of the European Eastern European leaders to have second thoughts about
Union (including all of the major European states except going through the same process themselves. All in all, a
10-4 Western Europe: The Search for Unity ■ 261

HISTORICAL VOICES
Toward a United Europe

Article B
Q What are the key provisions of the Treaty of
The Union shall set itself the following objectives:
Maastricht? How do they appear to infringe on ●● to promote economic and social progress which is
traditional standards of national sovereignty?
balanced and sustainable, in particular through the
creation of an area without internal frontiers, through
Politics & In December 1991, the nations of Europe took the strengthening of economic and social cohesion and
Government a significant step on the road to unity when through the establishment of economic and monetary
they drafted the Treaty of Maastricht, which created the union, ultimately including a single currency in accor-
structure for a new European Union. The new organization, dance with the provisions of this Treaty;
which represented a significant step beyond the forms of ●● to assert its identity on the international scene, in
economic cooperation that had previously existed, envisaged particular through the implementation of a common
integration in the fields of foreign and security policies and foreign and security policy including the eventual
cooperation in the areas of justice and domestic affairs. In framing of a common defence policy, which might in
the years since the treaty was established, the European time lead to a common defence;
Union has successfully created a common currency—the ●● to strengthen the protection of the rights and inter-
euro—but resolving many of the other obstacles to unity has ests of the nationals of its Member States through the
proved to be a severe challenge. Some of the key provisions introduction of a citizenship of the Union;
of the treaty are presented here. ●● to develop close cooperation on justice and home
affairs. . . .
The Treaty of Maastricht
Article A Article F
By this Treaty, the High Contracting Parties establish 1. The Union shall respect the national identities of its
among themselves a European Union, hereinafter called Member States, whose systems of government are
“the Union.” founded on the principles of democracy.
This Treaty marks a new stage in the process of creat- 2. The Union shall respect fundamental rights, as
ing an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, guaranteed by the European Convention for the
in which decisions are taken as closely as possible to the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental
citizen. Freedoms signed in Rome on 4 November 1950 and
The Union shall be founded on the European as they result from the constitutional traditions com-
Communities, supplemented by the policies and forms mon to the Member States, as general principles of
of cooperation established by this Treaty. Its task shall Community law.
be to organize, in a manner demonstrating consistency 3. The Union shall provide itself with the means necessary
and solidarity, relations between the Member States and to attain its objectives and carry through its policies.
between their peoples.
Source: http://europa.eu.int/en/record/mt/titlel.html.
true sense of a unified Europe is still lacking among the concerns. Although the Turkish government has sought
population throughout the region, and the rising anti- to assuage European criticisms of its record in the area
foreign sentiment across the continent and anger at gov- of human rights (notably in the treatment of its Kurdish
ernment belt-tightening are warning signs that advocates minority), many Europeans remain uneasy about the
of further integration will ignore at their peril. prospect of admitting an Islamic nation of more than
The application of Turkey to join the EU, which has 70 million people into an organization of predominantly
been pending for many years, has only added to these Christian nations already facing serious concerns over

their growing Muslim minorities. With Turkish politics
becoming more authoritarian under President Recep
10-5Aspects of Society
Erdogan, Turkey’s admission is no longer under serious in Postwar Europe
consideration within the EU. In turn, many Turks now
scorn the proposal to join a weakened Europe and seek to
redirect their efforts to serving as a bridge to the Middle
East (see Chapter 15).
QQ Focus Question: What major social, cultural,
and intellectual developments have occurred in
Europe since 1945, and how have they changed
Plans for a transition to a more unified structure for the character of European society?
Europe have also encountered resistance. In 2005, voters
in several EU countries rejected the draft of a new consti- Socially, intellectually, and culturally, Western Europe
tution that would have strengthened the political and eco- changed significantly during the second half of the twenti-
nomic integration of the nations within the EU. Shaken eth century. Although many trends represented a continu-
by popular resistance to their proposals to strengthen the ation of prewar developments, in other cases the changes
central apparatus of the EU, European leaders lowered were quite dramatic, leading some observers in the 1980s
their expectations. A new treaty, signed by all members to begin speaking of the gradual emergence of a postmod-
in Lisbon in December 2007 and ratified by all members ern age. Recent developments, however, have led some
three years later, provided the organization with a perma- observers to fear that the postwar vision of a united, peace-
nent president who will serve for a thirty-month term and ful, and prosperous Europe may be fading.
have the primary duty of representing the EU abroad. How
effective the new executive will be remains to be seen, as
resistance to the organization’s determination to enforce 10-5a An Age of Affluence
common requirements relating to economic and immigra- Nothing changed in the postwar years as much as the mate-
tion issues is growing among many member states. rial lives of Europe’s inhabitants. In the decades after World
War II, products such as automobiles, computers, televi-
What Role for Nato? Meanwhile, the NATO alliance con- sions, jet planes, contraceptive devices, and advanced surgi-
tinues to serve as a powerful force for European unity. Yet cal techniques all dramatically and quickly altered the pace
it too faces new challenges as Moscow’s former satellites in and nature of human life. Called variously a technocratic
Eastern Europe have clamored for membership in the hope society, an affluent society, or the consumer society, postwar
that it would spur economic growth and reduce the threat Europe was characterized by changing social values and
from a revival of Russian expansionism. In 1999, the Czech new attitudes toward the meaning of the human experience.
Republic, Hungary, and Poland joined the alliance, and the The structure of European society was also altered
Baltic states—once part of the Soviet Union—followed suit in major respects after 1945. Especially noticeable were
several years later. Some observers have expressed concern, changes in the composition of the middle class. Traditional
however, that an expanded NATO will not only reduce the occupations such as merchants and the professions (law,
cohesiveness of the organization but also provoke Russia medicine, and the universities) were greatly augmented
into a new posture of hostility to the outside world. Western by a new group of managers and technicians, as large
plans to construct U.S. missile defense sites in several Eastern companies and government agencies employed increasing
European countries have encountered violent hostility in numbers of white-collar supervisory and administrative
Moscow, while the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008 personnel. In most cases, success depended on specialized
inspired alarm in many Eastern European capitals over its knowledge acquired from some form of higher education.
implications for Russian expansionism in the future. Since their jobs usually depended on their skills, these indi-
Russia’s dispute with Ukraine and its subsequent inva- viduals took steps to ensure that their children would be
sion of Crimea have similarly forced NATO countries similarly educated.
to rethink possible plans to expand membership deep Changes occurred in other areas as well. Especially
into regions that Moscow views as its own backyard. noticeable was the dramatic shift from the countryside to
Few Western observers believe that a direct confronta- the cities. The number of people in agriculture declined
tion with Russia over Ukraine is in anyone’s best interest. by 50 percent. Yet the industrial working class did not
And although some Eastern European nations—notably expand. In West Germany, industrial workers made up
Poland and the small Baltic states—are eager to place 48 percent of the labor force throughout the 1950s and
their country’s defenses under the umbrella of NATO, 1960s. Thereafter, the number of industrial workers began
Western governments approach the issue today with a to dwindle as the number of white-collar service employ-
high degree of caution. ees increased. At the same time, a substantial increase in
10-5 Aspects of Society in Postwar Europe ■ 263

their real wages enabled the working classes to aspire to to look more like a mirage. What had happened to derail
the consumption patterns of the middle class. Buying Europe’s steady progress toward a peaceful and prosperous
on the installment plan, introduced in the 1930s, became future? One factor was certainly the increased competition
widespread in the 1950s and gave workers a chance to coming from inexpensive consumer goods imported from
imitate the middle class by buying such products as televi- developing countries seeking to find their own road to the
sions, washing machines, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, good life. Another warning sign was the gradual appear-
and stereos. But the most visible symbol of mass consum- ance of a demographic crunch. By the end of the twentieth
erism was the automobile. Before World War II, cars were century, birth rates had fallen well below replacement lev-
reserved mostly for the upper classes. In 1948, there were 5 els in several nations of the EU. While there were undoubt-
million cars in all of Europe, but by 1957, the number had edly several reasons for this uncomfortable development, a
tripled. By the mid-1960s, there were almost 45 million. couple of reasons stand out. As European women began to
Rising incomes, combined with shorter working hours, enter the workforce, they were forced to delay or forego the
created an even greater market for mass leisure activities. experience of raising children. At the same time, families
Between 1900 and 1980, the workweek was reduced from increasingly relied on two wage earners in order to support
sixty hours to about forty hours (or even less in some coun- a middle-class lifestyle. As time went on, the number of
tries), and the number of paid holidays increased. All aspects active workers available to support each retiree thus began
of popular culture—music, sports, media—became com- steadily to decline. Today people of working age in Europe
mercialized and offered opportunities for leisure activities, outnumber retired persons by only three to one; by mid-
including concerts, sporting events, and television viewing. century, the ratio is predicted to decline to about two to
Another very visible symbol of mass leisure was the one (by comparison, the current ratio in the United States
growth of tourism. Before World War II, most people is about five to one). In some cases, as in Italy, the total
who traveled for pleasure were from the upper and middle population is actually declining. To counter such worrying
classes. After the war, the combination of more vacation trends, several European governments reluctantly began
time, increased prosperity, and the flexibility provided to raise the retirement age or to reduce the size of pensions
by package tours with their lower rates and low-budget for retirees. Buffeted by these changes, the middle class is
rooms enabled millions to expand their travel possibilities. shrinking throughout Europe as the wages have stagnated
By the mid-1960s, some 100 million tourists were crossing and social benefits have shrunk. In the meantime, by com-
European borders each year. In recent years, the number parison the wealthy have prospered, although to a lesser
has increased dramatically. degree than has occurred in the United States. The survival
What had brought about the dramatic change that of the European welfare state rests in the balance.
had taken place in Western Europe during a period once One byproduct of this statistical trend was an increase
described by the French demographer Jean Fourastié as the in the inflow of immigrant labor from Eastern Europe and
“thirty glorious years” following the end of World War II? North Africa. Most of the new arrivals entered employ-
Several factors were at work: a long era of peace under the ment in menial jobs that were by then scorned by many
protection of the U.S. military umbrella; the emergence of Western Europeans. Linguistic and cultural differences
stable governments dedicated to moderate economic poli- were also barriers preventing the assimilation of these
cies and a peaceful transition of power; a steady increase in new residents into the broader society. Today, with the cre-
economic growth resulting initially from investment funds ation of “open frontiers” under the Treaty of Maastricht,
provided by the Marshall Plan; lower tariffs engineered the flow of immigrants into the European Union has
and enforced by international agreement; and a system of increased dramatically, thus arousing the concerns of
social benefits supported by all major political parties that many European citizens that the cultural character of their
provided consumer confidence and a market for goods individual nations is at risk.
produced in factories throughout the region. While there One measure that some European governments have
were pockets of poverty and periodic outbreaks of social adopted to counter the trend toward lower birth rates has
discontent—notably during the era of youth rebellion in been to provide financial incentives to encourage families
the late 1960s—they could easily be described as growth to have more children. Some European politicians see
pains rather than endemic weaknesses in the system. other benefits in such a policy: in Hungary, for example,
the current government has introduced such incentives in
the hope of strengthening the local culture by reducing the
10-5b Rethinking the Welfare State need for immigrants from the Middle East. So far, how-
Beginning in the early years of the new century, however, ever, that technique has had limited effect, since with aver-
the promise created by the “thirty glorious years” began age incomes declining in most countries on the continent,

many women need to work to help augment the family rates in coming years are almost uniformly projected to
income. Europe is in a demographic trap, and there is no drop. But as European governments have been compelled
easy way out. to consider reducing some of the vaunted social benefits
that their citizens now view as a birthright, such measures
have run into strong popular resistance, and have led, in
10-5c Beware of Greeks Seeking Gifts many cases, to a change in governments.
As if the challenges discussed above were not sufficient, The situation is equally perilous in Eastern Europe,
the EU was sideswiped by a new crisis in the fall of 2008, where nations with fragile democracies and weak econo-
as the shockwaves of the global financial meltdown began mies are faced with problems of slow growth, low pro-
to ripple through the continent. Most affected was Greece, ductivity, and high unemployment. Nations like Bulgaria,
where the beleaguered government in Athens announced Hungary, and Romania have lost the limited economic
that it could no longer pay its bills. security provided by their past membership in the Soviet
The fragility of the Greek government’s finances bloc and must fend for themselves in a global market
stemmed from a number of deep-seated factors: high gov- dominated by economic powerhouses like China, India,
ernment expenditures (an unusually high percentage of and Brazil. To remain competitive in global trade, several
the population was on the government payroll, many in have chosen to reject the euro and thus maintain their
sinecure positions); low revenues (resulting partly from own national currencies. Still, prospects for matching the
chronic tax evasion); and, finally, a weak export market economic prosperity of their western neighbors are rela-
(due in part to the fact that the national currency was tively bleak.
unrealistically based on the stronger euro). Under heavy
pressure from the leaders of other EU countries (notably
Germany) to adopt stringent austerity measures in order 10-5d Democracy Under Stress
to qualify for bank loans, the Greek government sought An important consequence of the declining economic
to comply, but its efforts led to popular unrest and an eco- prospects for the countries composing the European
nomic free fall. Union is the potential effect that the trend can have on
The EU’s difficulties in dealing with financial problems the stability of the political culture. As we have seen, the
in Greece were compounded by the fact that a number popular consensus supporting moderate parties on the
of other European countries—most notably those in the Right and on the Left—Conservatives and Democratic
southern tier of the continent like Italy, Spain, Portugal, Socialists—has dramatically eroded in recent years, as
and Cyprus—were facing serious economic problems new movements have emerged with platforms based
of their own. In fact, many EU member countries had on opposition to immigration, dislike of the unifying
ignored the provisions of the Treaty of Maastricht requir- requirements of the European Union, and a correspond-
ing them to limit their national debt, and now faced the ing focus on the importance of national identity. Many
possibility of a financial meltdown that, in size and scope, of these parties are populist in tone and practice—that
could transcend that just experienced by the government is, they emphasize what they term “the will of the peo-
of Greece. In the past, the easiest solution to resolve such ple” (i.e., their own followers) in contrast to the allegedly
a crisis was to devalue the local currency, thus increasing faceless bureaucrats at EU headquarters in Brussels. In
exports while making imports more expensive. With most Western European countries like France, Germany, and
EU nations now using the euro, that option was removed. Great Britain, such forces have already become influen-
The spreading crisis was a vivid reminder to European tial on the political scene, but their proponents do not
leaders of the dangers inherent in trying to apply a one- yet occupy positions of power. In other countries like
size-fits-all system to nations with highly divergent cul- Italy and Greece, where the number of immigrants arriv-
tures and economic profiles. As the region scrambled to ing has reached unmanageable proportions, they have
defuse the spreading financial epidemic, the end result can- formed governments and are actively seeking to carry
not yet be foreseen. through on their promises. Curiously, openly leftist par-
At the root of the current economic malaise is an incon- ties with a commitment to carry out social revolution
trovertible fact: under current conditions, Europe—even have not yet won popular favor, but the ingredients for
more than the United States—is on a path toward bank- such a development are already present.
ruptcy. The slowdown in the European economy in the Not surprisingly, the shift away from a commitment
past two decades, combined with the changing social fab- to pluralist democracy is even more starkly evident in
ric, has already begun to erode the region’s long-standing Eastern Europe, where democratic traditions are not
commitment to the concept of the welfare state. Growth deeply rooted, allowing populist governments to attack

their critics in the press, limit academic freedoms, and pack between the two groups. A key challenge in easing such
the judicial system with like-minded judges. In Hungary, fears is the reality that many Muslim residents in Europe
the Fidesz party led by the current president Viktor Orban are compelled by economic necessity to live in Muslim-
has openly declared its opposition to immigration and majority ghettos in the suburbs of major cities like Berlin,
has based its popularity on a naked appeal to Hungarian Paris, and London. Sometimes popular anger can erupt
nationalism. In Poland, the Law and Justice Party seeks into violence for seemingly minor reasons and thus
to limit cultural pluralism while protecting the country’s inflame feelings on both sides (see Image 10.5). European
predominantly Catholic heritage. Curiously, Poland would governments have periodically sought to find solutions to
seem to be protected from such trends, since it has one of the problem, but cultural and religious suspicions inher-
the more dynamic economies in Eastern Europe and has ently run deep on both sides, and every act of terrorism
benefitted financially from its membership in the EU. Real makes a solution more difficult to find.
wages have also risen substantially, although the benefits Fortunately, not all the trends in Europe today are on
have been felt primarily by the middle class in the large cit- the negative side of the ledger. The flood of immigrants
ies. In Poland, as in other parts of the world today, cultural from the Middle East and North Africa has dropped
issues sometimes trump economic ones. dramatically since 2015, when over one million asylum
seekers crossed the frontier into European territory.
Playing the Terrorism Card One of the obvious reasons Agreements worked out with Turkey and Libya to cut the
for the high level of public resistance to immigration flow are a prime reason for the decline in arrivals. And,
from the Middle East and North Africa is the threat and despite the visible evidence that resistance to EU policies
frequency of terrorist acts committed by Muslim extrem- is high in some areas, public opinion surveys suggest that
ists on the European continent. Many Europeans—as the majority of Europeans still believe that membership
elsewhere—tend to equate Islam with terrorism and in the organization is beneficial to their country, and
instinctively fear the Muslims that they observe in cities to themselves. As Great Britain lurches uncontrollably
and towns around the continent. The terrorists them- toward some form of Brexit, the prospects of a future
selves are aware of this instinctive reaction and deliber- outside the community of Europe no longer looks so
ately take advantage of it in order to incite hostile feelings enticing to observers elsewhere.
10-5e Social Changes: A Transvaluation

of Values?
At the end of World War II, Europe in many respects was
still a very traditional society. Most people still lived out
their existence within a short distance from their child-
hood homes. Family was still a key feature in their social
lives, and the church was a major factor in determining
their religious beliefs. Physically, as well, most Europeans
turpin jean michel/Getty Images
still lived the manner their parents had, and their grand-
parents before them. Higher education was still largely
the preserve of the wealthier classes—in 1950, only 3 or
4 percent of young people were enrolled in a university.
Few Europeans had cars or television sets, their indoor
heating facilities were meager, and their toilet facilities
IMAGE 10.5 Days of Anger. In the late fall of 2005, violent
were still out of doors. In rural areas, they often relieved
youth riots suddenly erupted in the primarily Muslim suburbs
of more than 300 cities and towns across France, leaving themselves in the family stable.
a trail of shattered shop windows and burned automobiles Within a generation, daily life in Western Europe had
in their wake. While not all the protesters were Muslims— changed dramatically. By the late 1950s and the 1960s,
some were students unhappy at crowded schools and limited automobiles—often the smaller and cheaper varieties like
employment opportunities—the outbreak served to highlight
the Volkswagen Beetle, the Morris Minor, and the Fiat—
the growing difficulties of assimilating the country’s five
million Muslims—many of whom are faced with limited became a familiar sight on increasingly crowded streets
employment opportunities and institutionalized racism—into and highways. Television sets, telephones, indoor plumb-
French society. ing, and central heating became more commonplace in

middle-class homes. Church attendance began to decline, seeped into the culture at large. Divorce rates increased
and more Europeans began to leave the small towns to dramatically, while premarital and extramarital sexual
settle in the big cities. experiences also rose substantially. Although the stu-
To cope with economic challenges, European govern- dent revolutionaries had lost the battle in the streets of
ments also began to foster greater equality of opportunity Paris, their ideas had begun to prevail in the wider world
in higher education by eliminating fees, and universities of European society.
experienced an influx of students from the middle and Although some remnants of the anti-bourgeois cul-
lower classes. Enrollments grew dramatically. In France, ture of the 1960s still exist today, they are no longer rep-
4.5 percent of young people went to a university in 1950; resentative of the social attitudes of most Europeans. As
by 1965, the figure had increased to 14.5 percent. Overall, economic growth slowed, job opportunities declined,
enrollments in European universities more than tripled and the fear of being too bourgeois began to be replaced
between 1940 and 1960. by fear of not making it into the ranks of the bourgeoi-
With growth, however, came problems. Overcrowded sie. In areas outside the major cities, there is today a
classrooms, unapproachable professors, and authoritarian palpable unease at what has been lost with the steady
administrators aroused student resentment. Education decline of the traditional way of life. As the focus on
was often limited to the Liberal Arts or the professions, the individual has replaced the traditional focus on the
and did not prepare many students adequately for their family and the community, a sense of social and moral
future employment in the economic world. This dis- emptiness prevails, along with distrust of external forces
content led to an outburst of student revolts in the late exemplified by the so-called “faceless bureaucrats” who
1960s. In the spring of 1968, student unrest erupted in now make all the important decisions from their offices
Paris, where rampaging youths burned automobiles in in Brussels.
the streets, occupied buildings, and demanded structural For Europeans living in small towns and villages,
changes, not only in education but in other allegedly there is often a visual component to this emotional
outdated social institutions as well. When urban work- sense of loss of an imagined way of life—the shut-
ers, angry at their stagnating salaries, joined the protests, tering of the local bakery and butcher shop, as local
the government instituted a hefty wage hike. When the residents now do their shopping in the large “centres
workers grudgingly returned to their jobs, the govern- commerciales” on the outskirts of town. To many older
ment sent the gendarmes into the streets to suppress the residents, the town square is no longer a comfortable
remaining student protesters. Eventually, they too resent- haven for discussing daily topics with neighbors, but
fully returned to their classes, leaving the streets littered seems to be filled with foreign women dressed in hijabs
with burned-out autos. (a traditional form of female dress among Muslims).
In part, the student protests were an extension of the Political parties running on a platform of returning to
disruptions in American universities in the mid-1960s, the presumed “good life,” as harbored in memories of
which were often sparked by student opposition to the the past, have undoubtedly benefitted from this sense
Vietnam War. In a broader sense, however, young proof melancholy nostalgia as the world changes rapidly
testers also criticized other aspects of Western society, around them. The more the current technological revo-
such as its relentless focus on material possessions, and lution guarantees that the idealized past can never be
many expressed concern about becoming cogs in the reconstituted, the more appealing it looks in retrospect,
large and impersonal bureaucratic jungles of the mod- and many politicians are more than willing to play on
ern world. But other factors were important as well. such emotions.
One source of resentment was the lingering influence
of traditional social values in European society, where
a rigid code of manners and morals dating from the 10-5f Expanding Roles for Women
previous century still reigned supreme. A graffito that I The changing role of women in European society has
observed sprayed on the wall of a building in Paris in the obviously been a major contributing factor in this process.
summer of 1968 put it well: “Culture is the inversion of Although some women pursued professional careers and
life.” Throughout Western Europe, young people began other respected vocations in the 1920s and 1930s, the place
to flout the social codes of the past, engaging publicly in for most women was still in the home. Half a century
casual sex and experimenting with hallucinatory drugs. later, there were almost as many women as men in the
Although such behavior was more prevalent in the European workplace, many of them employed in profes-
large cities than in rural areas, the new permissiveness sions hitherto reserved for men.

But the increased number of women in the work- 10-5g The Environment
force has not changed some old patterns. Working-class By the 1970s, serious ecological problems had become
women in particular still earn salaries lower than those all too apparent in the crowded countries of Western
paid to men for equal work. Women still tend to enter Europe. Air pollution, produced by nitrogen oxide and
traditionally female jobs. Many European women also sulfur dioxide emissions from road vehicles, power
still face the double burden of earning income on the one plants, and industrial factories, was causing respiratory
hand and raising a family and maintaining the household illnesses and having corrosive effects on buildings and
on the other. historical monuments such as the Louvre in Paris and
The participation of women in World Wars I and II the Parthenon in Athens. Many rivers, lakes, and seas had
helped them to achieve one of the major aims of the become so polluted that they posed serious health risks.
nineteenth-century feminist movement—the right to Dying forests (such as the famous Black Forest in south-
vote. After World War I, governments in many coun- ern Germany) and disappearing wildlife alarmed more
tries—Sweden, Great Britain, Germany, Poland, Hungary, and more people.
Austria, and Czechoslovakia—acknowledged the contri- Although the environmental movement first began
butions of women to the war effort by granting them to gain broad public attention in the United States, the
suffrage. Women in France and Italy finally gained the problem was more serious in Europe, with its higher
right to vote in 1945. population density and high levels of industrial pro-
After World War II, however, European women duction in such countries as Great Britain and West
tended to fall back into the traditional roles expected Germany. The problem was compounded by the lack
of them, and little was heard of feminist concerns. But of antipollution controls in the industrial sectors of
with the student upheavals of the late 1960s came a the Soviet satellite states to the east. Air pollution from
renewed interest in feminism, or the women’s liberation factories in nearby Czechoslovakia, for example, often
movement, as it was now called. Inspired by the writings made the air in the Austrian capital of Vienna danger-
of the French author Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986), ous to breathe.
whose feminist tract entitled The Second Sex, pointed Growing ecological awareness gave rise to Green
out that women were second-class citizens living in movements and Green parties throughout Europe
a male-dominated world, women in Europe began to in the 1970s. Most started at the local level and then
demand true equality with men (see Historical Voices, gradually extended their activities to the national level,
“The Voice of the Women’s Liberation Movement,” where they became formally organized as political par-
p. 269). Realizing that women must take responsibility ties. As in the United States, however, the movement
for transforming the fundamental conditions of their has been hindered by concerns that strict environmental
lives, feminists formed “consciousness-raising” groups regulations could sap economic growth and exacerbate
to further awareness of women’s issues and to cam- unemployment. National rivalries and disagreements
paign for the legalization of both contraception and over how to deal with rising levels of pollution along
abortion. A French law passed in 1968 legalized the sale international waterways such as the Rhine River have
of contraceptive devices. In 1979, abortion became legal also impeded cooperation. Nevertheless, public alarm
in France. Even in countries where the Catholic Church over the potential effects of global warming has focused
remained strongly opposed to contraception and legal- attention on the global character of environmental
ized abortion, legislation allowing them passed in the issues, and since the 1980s, the members of the EU
1970s and 1980s. have been among the foremost supporters of efforts to
As a result of such efforts, the presence of women in establish tougher standards to control environmental
the workforce in Europe has been steadily on the rise. pollution on a worldwide basis. Today wind farms are a
Women have also entered new employment areas. Greater familiar sight on the horizons of Europe, as the region
access to universities and professional schools has enabled seeks to wean itself from reliance on coal resources to
women to take jobs in law, medicine, government, busi- fuel its electricity grids. Europeans have also taken the
ness, and education. Still, economic inequality often lead in promoting public transportation as a means of
prevails; women are paid lower wages than men for com- reducing automobile congestion in major cities. One
parable work and receive fewer promotions to positions in of the most visible examples was the decision by the
management. The most visible sign of women’s progress municipal government in Paris to establish a public bicy-
was the election in 1995 of Angela Merkel to the position cle program for use by residents and visitors to reduce
of chancellor of Germany. She has remained in that posi- carbon dioxide emissions in the city (see Comparative
tion for more than two decades. Illustration, “Cleaning up the Environment,” p. 270).
HISTORICAL VOICES
The Voice of the Women’s Liberation Movement

addition to all this, they enjoy a traditional prestige that the
Q What did Simone de Beauvoir mean by the “second education of children tends in every way to support, for the
sex”? By “the Other”? What is the difference present enshrines the past—and in the past all history has
between being a “thing” and having an “authentic been made by men. At the present time, when women are
existence”? According to de Beauvoir, how do beginning to take part in the affairs of the world, it is still a
women fall prey to the former? world that belongs to men—they have no doubt of it at all
and women have scarcely any. To decline to be the Other, to
refuse to be a party to a deal—this would be for women to
Art & Simone de Beauvoir was an important figure
Ideas renounce all the advantages conferred upon them by their
in the emergence of the postwar women’s
alliance with the superior caste. Man-the-sovereign will
liberation movement in Europe. Like Betty Friedan, her
provide woman-the-liege with material protection and will
counterpart in the United States, she played a key role in
undertake the moral justification of her existence; thus, she
arousing the determination of women to demand an equal
can evade at once both economic risk and the metaphysical
place with men in the home and the workplace. But where
risk of a liberty in which ends and aims must be contrived
Friedan had painted American women as slaves to their
without assistance. Indeed, along with the ethical urge of
homes and their possessions, Simone de Beauvoir lamented
each individual to affirm his subjective existence, there is also
their dependence on men, and on the male tendency to view
the temptation to forgo liberty and become a thing. This
women as “the Other.”
is an inauspicious road, for he who takes it—passive, lost,
Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex ruined—becomes henceforth the creature of another’s will,
Now, woman has always been man’s dependent, if not his frustrated in his transcendence and deprived of every value.
slave; the two sexes have never shared the world in equality. But it is an easy road; on it one avoids the strain involved in
And even today woman is heavily handicapped, though her undertaking an authentic existence. When man makes of
situation is beginning to change. Almost nowhere is her legal woman the Other, he may, then, expect her to manifest deep-
status the same as man’s, and frequently it is much to her seated tendencies toward complicity. Thus, woman may fail
disadvantage. Even when her rights are legally recognized in to lay claim to the status of subject because she lacks definite
the abstract, long-standing custom prevents their full expres- resources, because she feels the necessary bond that ties her
sion in the mores. In the economic sphere men and women to man regardless of reciprocity, and because she is often
can almost be said to make up two castes; other things being very well pleased with her role as the Other.
equal, the former hold the better jobs, get higher wages, and Now, what peculiarly signalizes the situation of woman
have more opportunity for success than their new competi- is that she—a free and autonomous being like all human
tors. In industry and politics men have a great many more creatures—nevertheless finds herself living in a world
positions and they monopolize the most important posts. In where men compel her to assume the status of the Other.
Source: From The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, trans. H. M. Parshley. Copyright 1952 and renewed 1980 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
10-6Aspects of Culture popular culture directed toward the mass of the population.
Nevertheless, even though most Europeans, like Americans,
in Postwar Europe prefer popular literature, rock music, and the movies, what
is sometimes called high culture (such as serious fiction and
QQ Focus Question: How do recent cultural

developments in Europe reflect the broader
nonfiction, art, and classical music) continues to be produced
and to exert significant influence on the broader society.
changes that are taking place in European society?
Since the end of World War II, Europe has tended to fol- 10-6a Postwar Literature
low the pattern of the United States in that a once domi- The most influential literary fashion in the immediate post-
nant “elite” culture has gradually given way to a more war period was Existentialism. The French intellectual
10-6 Aspects of Culture in Postwar Europe ■ 269
Cleaning Up the Environment

wind farm located on the flat plains extending eastward to
Q Do you support programs such as the ones the Hungarian border. A brisk wind, known to locals as the
described here to cut down on carbon dioxide levels fohn, sweeps down from the Alps and heads toward the
in the environment in the United States? flatlands of Eastern Europe. European cities are also
combating carbon dioxide emissions by encouraging the use
of bicycles. In Paris, a public bicycle program called the
Earth & Lacking the ample reserves of liquid energy
Environment Velib, short for “free bike,” was inaugurated in 2007 with
possessed by other industrial powerhouses
10,000 bikes and 700 rental stations. Today the program
like Russia and the United States, the nations of the
has increased to over 17,000 bikes and approximately
European Union have attempted to reduce their dependence
1,200 rental stations, as seen in Image 10.6b, where
on foreign sources of oil and natural gas by developing
visitors and citizens can rent a bicycle by the hour.
alternative energy supplies. Image 10.6a shows an Austrian
William J. Duiker
William J. Duiker
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) was perhaps most closely iden- dying that regardless of the absurdity of life, humans still
tified with the Existential movement, whose fundamental have the opportunity to embrace the joyful dimensions of
premise was the absence of a god in the universe, thereby experience—in his case, the warmth and splendor of the
denying that humans had any preordained destiny. Humans Algerian skies. Neither a political activist nor an ideologue,
were thus deprived of any absolute purpose or meaning, Camus broke with Sartre and other French leftists after the
set adrift in an absurd world. Often reduced to despair and disclosure of the Stalinist atrocities in the Soviet gulags.
depression, the protagonists of Sartre’s literary works were The existentialist world view found expression in the
left with only one reason for hope—themselves and their Paris of the 1950s in the “theater of the absurd.” One of
ability to voluntarily reach out and become involved in its foremost proponents was the Irish dramatist Samuel
their community. In the early 1950s, Sartre became a devout Beckett (1906–1990), who lived in France. In his trail blaz-
Marxist, hitching his philosophy of freedom to one of politi- ing play Waiting for Godot (1952), two nondescript men
cal engagement in the Communist ideal. eagerly await the appearance of someone who never
Sartre’s contemporary, Albert Camus (1913–1960), arrives. While they wait, they pass the time exchang-
reached similar conclusions on the meaning of life. In his ing hopes and fears, with humor, courage, and touch-
seminal novel, The Stranger (1942), the protagonist, having ing friendship. This waiting represents the existential
stumbled through a lethargic existence, realizes just before meaning of life, which is found in the daily activities and

fellowship of the here and now, despite the absence of Portuguese novelist José Saramago (1922–2010) focused
any absolute salvation for the human condition. on global issues, such as the erosion of individual cul-
tures stemming from the tyranny of globalization, which,
Postmodernism Beginning in the 1960s, many Europeans in his view, had not only led to the exploitation of poor
became disenchanted with political systems of any kind and countries but had also robbed the world’s cultures of their
began to question the validity of reason, history, progress, uniqueness. Like Grass, Saramago believed strongly in the
and universal truths. The negation of prewar ideologies, now Western humanist tradition and viewed authors as soci-
applied to all branches of learning, fused into a new doctrine ety’s moral guardians and political mobilizers.
of skepticism called deconstruction, which described a world As always, France has produced a number of interest-
in which human beings have lost their status as free agents ing writers. Jean-Marie Le Clézio (b. 1940), born in France
dealing with universal verities and are reduced to empty ves- but having resided abroad for much of his life, has made
sels programmed by language and culture. good use of his cosmopolitan experience in his novels by
The philosophical skepticism reflected in this new addressing ecological concerns and the effects of globaliza-
approach quickly manifested itself in European literature tion on traditional culture. The Romanian-born German
as authors grappled with new ways to present reality in an writer Herta Muller (b. 1953) won the Nobel Prize in 2009
uncertain and nonsensical world. Whereas the Modernists for her novels depicting the hardships and injustice of life
at the beginning of the twentieth century had celebrated under a totalitarian regime.
the power of art to benefit humankind, placing their faith
in the written word, much of the new “Postmodern” lit-
erature reflected the lack of belief in anything, especially 10-6b Music and the Arts
the written word. Since the end of World War II, serious music has witnessed
Following in the footsteps of the Modernists, French a wide diversity of experimental movements, each searching
authors in the 1960s experimented so radically with lit- for new tonal and rhythmic structures. Striving to go beyond
erary forms and language that they pushed fiction well Arnold Schoenberg’s atonality, European composers like the
beyond its traditional limits of rational understanding. In French Pierre Boulez (1925–2016) and the German Karlheinz
the “new novel,” for example, authors like Alain Robbe- Stockhausen (1928–2007) set out to free their music from
Grillet (1922–2008) and Nathalie Sarraute (1900–1999) the traditional constraints of meter, form, and dynamics.
delved deeply into stream-of-consciousness writing, liter- They devised a new procedure called serialism, which is a
ally abandoning the reader in the disorienting obsessions mathematical ordering of musical components that, once
of the protagonist’s unconscious mind. set in motion, essentially writes itself automatically. More
Some authors, however, preferred to retrieve literary recently, the young British composer Thomas Adès (b. 1971)
forms and values that Modernists had rejected, choosing to has earned critical acclaim for his musical compositions,
tell a “good” chronological story that entertained as well as which display radiant harmonies and pulsating energy.
delivered a moral message. Graham Greene (1904–1991) was In the visual arts, experimentalism, such as the recently
one of Britain’s more prolific, popular, and critically acclaimed popular installation art, is also widely practiced in Europe
authors of the century. He succeeded in combining psycho- today, but some painters continue to use the traditional
logical and moral depth with enthralling stories, often dealing canvas to explore political and social issues relevant to their
with political conflicts set in exotic locales. A longtime critic times. Some, like the Anglo-Irish painter Francis Bacon
of the United States, Greene forecast the American defeat in (1909–1992), sought to portray the horrors of World War
Vietnam in his 1955 novel The Quiet American. II. In a 1946 canvas entitled Painting, Bacon portrayed the
Several other European authors also combined a grip- silent scream of a trapped man crouching beneath Neville
ping tale and a fresh exciting narrative with seriousness of Chamberlain’s famous umbrella, symbol of the appease-
intent. In 1959, The Tin Drum by Günter Grass (1927–2015) ment of Adolf Hitler. In the background, a bloody carcass
blasted German consciousness out of the complacency on a crucifix vividly represents the butchery of war. Also
that had been induced by the country’s postwar economic of note is the German Anselm Kiefer (b. 1945), whose
miracle. The novel reexamined Germany’s infatuation large canvases contrast Germany’s past accomplishments
with Hitler and warned German readers of the ever- with the calamity of the Holocaust (see Image 10.7). In
present danger of repeating the evils of the past. The Book, he offers a desolate postapocalyptic landscape
In recent years, some European authors have aban- dominated by a large book made of lead. The book rep-
doned the preoccupation with the elusiveness of knowl- resents regeneration, as humankind’s intellectual achieve-
edge and meaning and have sought to re-engage with ments and indomitable spirit triumph over the ravages of
the real world and its problems. In The Cave (2001), the the twentieth century.
10-6 Aspects of Culture in Postwar Europe ■ 271

IMAGE 10.7 The Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. The “Memorial
to the Murdered Jews of Europe” was built in the years 2003
and 2004 in the heart of the Nazi capital of Berlin, only a few
blocks from the Brandenburg Gate. The memorial, designed by
architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Burro Happold, consists
of a series of over 2,700 concrete slabs arranged in a grid
pattern and measuring up to 4.7 meters in height. Although
many have speculated about the underlying symbolism of the
design, the builders insist that it has no special significance.
Still, visitors offer a variety of interpretations, with many
remarking that the experience produces a sense of uneasiness,
uncertainty, or entrapment, sentiments that certainly can
conjure up recollections of the Holocaust itself. A “Place of
Information” located under the memorial contains the names of
over 3 million Jews who died at the hands of the Hitler regime
before and during World War II.
Q What kind of memorial do you think would be most

appropriate to foster a better understanding of a tragedy
such as the Holocaust?
William J. Duiker
making connections
During the immediate postwar era, Western Europe of recognition on the part of EU officials and the general
emerged from the ashes of World War II and achieved a population alike that the inherent capacity to build stable
level of political stability and economic prosperity unprec- and resilient democratic capitalist societies differs signifi-
edented in its long history. By the 1970s, European leaders cantly from one country to another, based on their own
were beginning to turn their attention to bringing about historical experience.
further political and economic unity among the nations The decision to expand the European Union into
in the region. With the signing of the Maastricht Treaty Eastern Europe has opened up new issues to confront,
in 1994, a schedule had been established to put the dream as many of the one-time Soviet satellites do not share the
into effect, and many advocates of European unity were economic prosperity or the democratic traditions of their
optimistic that the long era of division and mutual animos- neighbors to the west. The EU has sought to establish
ity could be put to an end. rigid regulations that apply uniformly throughout the
But with the new century, the pains of transition have continent, but it is probably unrealistic to expect east-
become more apparent, as it has become clear that long- ern nations to live up to the lofty expectations of more
standing structural and cultural differences stand in the advanced industrial societies who entered their own sci-
way of regional unification. The structural problem is entific, intellectual, and industrial revolutions several
related to the question of how to maintain a high level hundred years ago. In the meantime, the continent is
of prosperity and productivity in a time of rapid techno- undergoing an economic crisis, as growing budget defi-
logical change, social dislocation, and heightened levels of cits bring into question the defining feature of the EU—
competition from abroad. The cultural challenge is prob- the concept of the welfare state. A truly united Europe
ably even more difficult, since it requires a greater degree still remains a long way off.
Reflection Questions
QQWhat were the major successes and failures of the QQWhat are the major challenges facing the nations of
Western European democracies between 1945 and 2016? Europe today? Why?
QQWhat directions did Eastern European nations take
after they became free from Soviet control? Why did they
react as they did?
Chapter Timeline
1945 1955 1965 1975 1985 1995 2005 2015 2025
Europe
De Gaulle’s rule in France Expansion of Reunification François
(1958–1969) European Economic Community of Germany Hollande
(1973) (1990) elected in
France (2012)
Student protests Era of Margaret Tony Blair elected Populist parties

in France Thatcher in prime minister of gain momentum
(1968) Great Britain Great Britain throughout Europe
(1979–1990) (1997) (2014-present)
Muslim riots
in Paris
(2005)
Treaty of Rome Emergence of Introduction Global

creates Common Green movement of the euro recession
Market (1970s) (2002) strikes Europe
(1957) (2008)
Chapter Notes
1. Hannah Vogt, The Burden of Guilt tr. Herbert Strauss, 2. Cited in Michael Slackman, “For Some Germans, Unity Is
(Oxford, 1964) pp. 283–286. Still Work in Progress,” New York Times, October 1, 2010.

Part I I I
reflections
AS WORLD WAR II came to an end , most survivors of Crisis—brought the world briefly to the brink of nuclear
that bloody struggle felt that they could afford to face holocaust.
the future with at least a measure of cautious opti- Europe again became divided into hostile camps as
mism. With the death of Adolf Hitler in his bunker in the Cold War rivalry between the United States and
Berlin, there were reasons to hope that the bitter rivalry the Soviet Union forced the European nations to ally
that had marked relations among the Western powers with one or the other of the superpowers. The creation
would finally be put to an end and that the wartime of two mutually antagonistic military alliances—NATO
alliance of the United States, Great Britain, and the in 1949 and the Warsaw Pact in 1955—confirmed
Soviet Union could be maintained into the postwar era. the new division of Europe, while a divided Germany,
In the meantime, the peoples of Asia and Africa could and within it a divided Berlin, remained the Cold War’s
envision the possibility that the colonial system would most visible symbols. Repeated crises over the status
soon come to an end, ushering in a new era of political of Berlin only intensified the fears on both sides of the
stability and economic development on a global scale. ideological divide.
Three quarters of a century later, it is clear that these On the eastern side of the Iron Curtain, there were
hopes have been only partly realized. In the decades few reasons for optimism. Soviet domination, both polit-
following the war, the capitalist nations in the West man- ical and economic, had snuffed out the first stirrings
aged to recover from the extended economic depression of democracy in that region and seemed so complete
that had contributed to the start of World War II and that many doubted it could ever be undone. Although
advanced to a level of economic prosperity never before popular uprisings in Poland and Hungary in 1956
seen in world history. The bloody conflicts that had and in Czechoslovakia in
erupted among European nations during the first half 1968 were vivid remind-
of the twentieth century came to an end, and Germany ers that Marx’s vision of a
and Japan—the primary instigators of World War II— utopian society remained
developed pluralist systems of government and were only a dream, communism
fully integrated into the world appeared, at least for the
community. At the same time being, too powerful to
time, the era of imperialism be dislodged. The Helsinki
gradually came to a close, Accords, signed in 1975, was a tacit admission by the
enabling newly independent West that the Iron Curtain had apparently taken on a
nations in Africa and Asia to near-permanent status.
seek to regain control over The confrontation between Washington and Moscow
their own destinies. soon had repercussions throughout the world, for
although the Cold War had begun in Europe, it soon
THE IRON CURTAIN DESCENDS The postwar spread to Asia as the Communist Party rose to power
prospects for a stable, peaceful world and an end to in China. By the mid-1950s, the bitter ideological
balance-of-power politics, however, were soon dashed rivalry between the two camps had taken on such a
by the emergence of the grueling and sometimes tense global character that events in such disparate areas
ideological struggle between the socialist and capital- as Southeast Asia, Central America, and the Middle
ist blocs, a competition headed by the only remain- East could send shock waves through world capitals
ing great powers, the Soviet Union and the United everywhere. To most knowledgeable observers, the Cold
States. Although the two superpowers were able to War between the socialist and the capitalist blocs had
avoid a nuclear confrontation, the postwar world was become a permanent condition that was likely to affect
divided into two heavily armed camps in a balance of the destiny of the human experiment for decades, if not
terror that on at least one occasion—the Cuban Missile generations, to come.
274 ■ Part III Reflections

AND THE WALL CAME TUMBLING DOWN their own version of wealth and power. At a time when
Nevertheless, to the world’s astonishment, the Soviet people in many Western countries are currently ques-
Union and its system of satellites abruptly collapsed in tioning the effectiveness of their own democratic insti-
the late 1980s, leading to the end of the multinational tutions, the autocratic model offered by Putin and his
Soviet Empire and the emergence of a string of truly cohorts is not to be easily dismissed.
independent states in Eastern Europe. The Communist
Party in China managed to remain in power, but only by AFFLUENCE AND ITS DISCONTENTS In the
abandoning the key tenets of its longtime leader Mao advanced Western nations, the combination of domes-
Zedong and adopting major components of the capital- tic tranquility and rapid economic growth brought an
ist system (see Chapter 12). unprecedented level of prosperity to millions of people
The sudden end of the Cold War spurred hopes for who were now able to enjoy the “good life” that had
the emergence of a new era marked by rising global once been restricted to a small minority of the popula-
prosperity and peaceful cooperation among nations. tion. In the United States, the ability to “buy on the
But it soon became clear that such optimistic expecta- installment plan” or use a credit card made it possible
tions were unjustified. The end of the tense ideological for average Americans, for the first time, to spend well
struggle did not lead to a new era of peace, but instead beyond their means. Soon other countries began to fol-
unleashed long-dormant ethnic and religious forces low the American example, thereby laying the ground-
in various parts of the world, producing a new round work for a global network of material consumption.
of civil conflicts and a rising level of terrorist activity Meanwhile, steady improvements in the realm of civil
reminiscent of the latter part of the nineteenth century. rights and gender equality accompanied the advance-
Clearly, the Cold War had not irrevocably changed the ments in economic welfare. In most Western countries,
trajectory of modern history. legislation protecting the legal rights of ethnic minorities
At the same time, the expectation that Russia, was enacted into law, while women began to enjoy new
which had for so long viewed its western neighbors opportunities in employment and social equality. Still,
with an uneasy mixture of envy, suspicion, and fear, there was much left to be done, because by no means
would finally be ushered into the family of prosperous did all peoples in the advanced countries in the capital-
and democratic nations was also dashed, as the fragile ist world share in the affluence of the last half of the
sprouts of democracy in Moscow were ripped out by an twentieth century. Many lacked access to the cornucopia
ambitious and devious new tsar in the Kremlin. Russia of goods produced by the capitalist machine. This was
once again turned its back on the West and turned its especially the case for mem-
attention to the task of rebuilding its old empire. bers of minority groups and
Is the current tension between Russia and the people who made a living by
Western nations an indication that a new ideological manual labor. Although politi-
Cold War is in the offing? Strictly speaking, it seems an cal leaders sometimes tried to
unlikely prospect, since the current regime in Moscow extend the benefits of prosper-
does not appear to be turning its lonely eyes to either ity to their disadvantaged con-
Vladimir Lenin or Karl Marx. Nevertheless, Vladimir stituents, they had only limited success, and virtually all
Putin and his acolytes are eagerly promoting their the advanced capitalist nations still had areas of poverty
own model to other countries undergoing the difficult as the twentieth century came to an end.
transition to technologically advanced industrialized The global financial crisis that began in the fall
societies. Based on the twin pillars of political autoc- of 2008, and the slow recovery that followed it, has
racy and a naked appeal to national pride, the current only widened the gap between rich and poor. Wages
system in place in Russia today serves as a seductive for middle-income and poorer workers have stag-
lure to political forces everywhere that seek to pursue nated over the past few years, and unemployment
Part III Reflections ■ 275

has sometimes reached dangerous proportions. Even life has any meaning and purpose beyond the sheer
those currently living on a comfortable income worry accumulation of things. While the spread of scientific
that their prospects for retirement security may be knowledge has eroded religious belief in some sectors
threatened by the growing deficits run up in many of of society, it has caused others to question the value of
the countries throughout the Western world. science and to retreat into the certainties of faith.
In the past, periods of economic prosperity in At the same time, increasing social mobility has
advanced capitalist countries have often been followed undermined the traditional basic structural units of
by difficult times, and the ebb and flow of politics human society—the family and the community. The
in such societies has often reflected the tendency to individual feels increasingly cast off into the sea of
undertake periodic corrections to maintain a balance life with no moorings.
between liberty and equality. Laissez-faire policies Modernity, as postwar
in good times are followed by an era of government society in the advanced
intervention to encourage the market to correct seri- countries is now commonly
ous inequities. While such a system is not perfect, it described, appears to offer
does serve over the long run to maintain a rough bal- no answer to the search for
ance in the economy and in society as a whole. Today, meaning in life beyond an
however, some of the drags on broad-based prosperity unconfirmed and compla-
and economic growth (such as labor-saving technology, cent belief in the Enlightenment doctrine of progress.
a demographic crunch, and the perils of a free trade Many turn to religion to fill the gap.
system) have made it more difficult for political lead- Looming over the current scene is a relative new
ers to maintain a balance. Without such a correction, challenge—the specter of dramatic climate change.
the welfare state, many observers fear, may soon by a Although the problem has not caught public atten-
thing of the past. tion until recent years, there is a growing awareness
Economic inequities are not the only challenge fac- that environmental degradation and global warm-
ing Western capitalist nations today. Equally important, ing present a serious threat to peoples and societ-
economic affluence has given rise to its own set of prob- ies around the world, and many governments are
lems. The single-minded focus on the accumulation of beginning to seek remedies to address the situation.
material possessions, an intrinsic characteristic of the Recognition, however, is by no means universal, nor
capitalist ethos, has helped to promote high levels of is everyone agreed on the urgency of the issue. We
productivity in offices and factories, but at the same shall examine these issues, and how they will affect
time it has produced a spiritual malaise among indi- the peoples of the world in the new millennium, in
vidual members of society, who increasingly ask whether Part V of this book.
276 ■ Part III Reflections

Pa r t I V
Third World Rising

11 Toward the Pacific Century? Japan and the 14 Emerging Africa
Little Tigers
15 Ferment in the Middle East
12 The East Is Red: China Under Communism
13 Nationalism Triumphant: The Emergence
of Independent States in South and
Southeast Asia
Vittoriano Rastelli/Getty Images
Beijing, China skyline

Chapter
Toward the Pacific Century?
11 Japan and the Little Tigers
Chapter Outline and

Focus Questions
11-1 Japan: Asian Giant
QQHow did the Allied occupation after World
War II change Japan’s political, economic,
and cultural institutions, and what remained
unchanged?
11-2 Taiwan: The Other China
QQWhy do you think the Republic of China has
fared better on the island of Taiwan than it
did when it controlled the mainland?
Keystone/Getty Images
11-3 Korea: A Peninsula Divided
QQWhat factors have contributed to the
economic success achieved by South Korea
in the years following the end of World
War II? IMAGE 11.1 General Douglas MacArthur and Emperor Hirohito,
September 1945
11-4 Singapore and Hong Kong: The Littlest Tigers
QQWhat factors do you think most contributed to the
emergence of the tiny state of Singapore as a major THEY WERE AN UNLIKELY PAIR. The tall, lean American
factor in Asian affairs? Douglas MacArthur looked every bit the famous
warrior-general that he was as he towered over the
11-5 O
n the Margins of Asia: Postwar Australia diminutive and seemingly self-effacing Emperor
and New Zealand Hirohito standing by his side. But the meeting
QQHow has the geographical location of Australia and between the U.S. general and the emperor of Japan
New Zealand affected their history and culture? Do on September 27, 1945, memorialized in the
you think they should be considered a part of the photograph, was a significant event in the history
of post-World War II Asia. The discussions between
region of Southeast Asia?
MacArthur, recently appointed proconsul of the U.S.
occupation regime in Japan, and Emperor Hirohito,
the divine ruler of imperial Japan, signaled to the
world that the United States’ policy toward its
defeated adversary would be relatively benign, rather
Connections to Today than punitive as the Allied demand for the “uncon-
ditional surrender” of Japan had suggested. The
Do you believe that nations in other parts of the new relationship between conqueror and conquered,
world can imitate the progress made by Japan which would soon blossom into a full-fledged alliance,
and the Little Tigers in future years, or were they opened the door to a series of dramatic changes in
uniquely qualified by culture or circumstance to postwar East Asia.
surmount their challenges? Four decades later, Japan had emerged as the sec-
ond greatest industrial power in the world, democratic
278
in form and content and a source of stability through- advisers, some recent studies have contended that he sup-
out the region. Praise of the so-called Japanese mir- ported it, although perhaps with misgivings.
acle became a growth industry in academic circles in
the United States, and Japan’s achievement spawned
11-1a The Occupation Era
a number of Asian imitators. Known as the “Little
Tigers,” the four industrializing societies of Taiwan, Under MacArthur’s firm tutelage, Japanese society was
Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea achieved remodeled along Western lines. The centerpiece of occu-
considerable success by following the path originally pation policy was the promulgation of a new constitution
charted by Japan. Along with Japan, they became to replace the Meiji Constitution of 1889. The new charter,
economic powerhouses and ranked among the world’s which was drafted by U.S. planners and imposed on the
top seventeen trading nations. Other nations in Asia Japanese despite their objections to some of its provisions,
and elsewhere took note and began to adopt the was designed to transform Japan into a peaceful and plu-
Japanese formula. For the first time, nations outside
ralistic society that would no longer be capable of waging
the ranks of the Western democracies had carried
offensive war. The constitution specifically renounced war
through their own economic miracle. It is no won-
der that the rapid rise of Japan into the ranks of the as a national policy, and Japan unilaterally agreed to main-
world’s most advanced and prosperous democracies tain armed forces only sufficient for self-defense. Perhaps
caught the attention of observers, who relentlessly most important, the constitution established a parliamen-
heralded the coming of the “Pacific Century.” tary form of government based on a bicameral legisla-
ture, an independent judiciary, and a universal franchise;
it also reduced the power of the emperor and guaranteed
human rights.
But more than a written constitution was needed to
11-1 Japan: Asian Giant demilitarize Japan and set it on a new course. Like the Meiji
leaders in the late nineteenth century, occupation adminis-
QQ Focus Question: How did the Allied
occupation after World War II change Japan’s
trators wished to transform Japanese social institutions and
hoped that their policies would be accepted by the Japanese
people as readily as those of the Meiji period had been. The
political, economic, and cultural institutions,
and what remained unchanged? Meiji reforms, however, had been crafted to reflect Japanese
traditions and had set Japan on a path quite different from
For five years after the war in the Pacific, Japan was gov- that of the modern West. Some Japanese observers believed
erned by an Allied administration under the command that a fundamental reversal of trends begun with the Meiji
of U.S. General Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964). The Restoration would be needed before Japan would be ready
occupation regime, which consisted of the Far Eastern to adopt the Western capitalist, democratic model.
Commission in Washington, D.C., and the four-power To undercut the mystique of the state represented by
Allied Council in Tokyo, was dominated by the United the Meiji concept of kokutai (which had embodied the idea
States, although the country was technically administered of the uniqueness of Japan and the supreme authority of
by a new Japanese government. As commander of the the emperor), Allied officials also sought to remodel the
occupation administration, MacArthur was responsible educational system along American lines so that it would
for demilitarizing Japanese society, destroying the Japanese turn out independent individuals rather than automa-
war machine, trying Japanese civilian and military officials tons subject to manipulation by the central government.
charged with war crimes, and laying the foundations of Wartime textbooks were cleansed of their propagandistic
postwar Japanese society. content or completely scrapped, and the 1890 imperial
During the war, senior U.S. officials had discussed rescript on education emphasizing the concept of loyalty
whether to insist on the abdication of Emperor Hirohito to the state was repealed. Cultural items as familiar to
(r. 1926–1989) as the symbol of Japanese imperial expan- Americans as Coca Cola, chewing gum, and baseball were
sion. During the summer of 1945, the United States strongly encouraged.
rejected a Japanese request to guarantee that the position One of the sturdy pillars of Japanese militarism
of the emperor would be retained in any future peace had been the giant business cartels, known as zaibatsu.
settlement and reiterated its demand for unconditional Allied policy was designed to break up the zaibatsu into
surrender. After the war, however, the United States agreed smaller units in the belief that corporate concentration,
to the retention of the emperor after he agreed publicly to in Japan as in the United States, not only hindered com-
renounce his divinity. Although many historians have sug- petition but was inherently undemocratic and conducive
gested that Hirohito opposed the war policy of his senior to political authoritarianism. Occupation planners also
11-1 Japan: Asian Giant ■ 279
intended to promote the formation of independent labor Although it was linked closely to the United States
unions, lessen the power of the state over the economy, and through the new security treaty and the new U.S.-drafted
provide a mouthpiece for downtrodden Japanese workers. constitution, Japan was now essentially free to move out
Economic inequality in rural areas was to be reduced by a on its own. As the world would soon discover, the Japanese
comprehensive land reform program that would turn the adapted quickly to the new conditions. From a semifeudal
land over to the people who farmed it. society with autocratic leanings, Japan rapidly progressed
into one of the most stable and advanced democracies in
Dream and Reality The Allied program was an ambi- the world.
tious and even audacious plan to remake Japanese society The Allied occupation administrators started with the
and has been justly praised for its clear-sighted vision and conviction that Japanese expansionism was directly linked
altruistic motives. Parts of the program, such as the consti- to the institutional and ideological foundations of the Meiji
tution, the land reform program, and the educational sys- Constitution. Accordingly, they set out to change Japanese
tem, succeeded brilliantly. But as other concerns began to politics into something closer to the pluralistic approach
intervene, changes and compromises were made that have used in most Western nations. The concepts of univer-
become more controversial. In particular, with the rise of sal suffrage, governmental accountability, and a balance
Cold War sentiment in the United States in the late 1940s, of power among the executive, legislative, and judicial
the goal of decentralizing the Japanese economy gave branches that were embodied in the constitution of 1947
way to the desire to make Japan a key partner in the effort have held firm, and Japan today is a stable and mature dem-
to defend East Asia against international communism. ocratic society with a literate and politically active elector-
Convinced of the need to promote economic recovery in ate and a government that usually seeks to meet the needs
Japan, U.S. policymakers began to show more tolerance of its citizens.
for the zaibatsu. Concerned at growing radicalism within Yet a number of characteristics of the current
the new labor movement, where left-wing elements were Japanese political system reflect the tenacity of the
gaining strength, U.S. occupation authorities placed less
emphasis on the independence of the labor unions.
Cold War concerns also affected U.S. foreign rela- Kurile Islands
tions with Japan. On September 8, 1951, the United
States and other former belligerent nations signed a
peace treaty restoring Japanese independence. In turn, CHINA RUSSIA HOKKAIDO
Japan renounced any claim to such former colonies or

territories as Taiwan (which had been returned to the
Republic of China), Korea (which, after a period of
joint Soviet and U.S. occupation, had become two inde-
ea an
NORTH
pendent states), and southern Sakhalin and the Kurile KOREA
p
)
Ja
Islands (which had been ceded to the Soviet Union). The f

o
S
Soviet Union refused to sign the treaty on the grounds st

a
that it had not been permitted to play an active role Se (Ea
in the occupation. On the same day, the Japanese and a n
Americans signed a defensive alliance and agreed that SOUTH
Tokyo
c e
HONSHU
the United States could maintain military bases on the KOREA
Yokohama
Japanese islands. Japan was now formally independent, Kyoto
O
but in a new dependency relationship with the United Hiroshima Kobe Osaka
c
States. A provision in the new constitution renounced

fi
SHIKOKU
war as an instrument of national policy and prohibited
i
Nagasaki
c
the raising of an army (see Historical Voices, “Japan a
KYUSHU P
Renounces War,” p. 281).
Kagoshima 0 400 Kilometers
11-1b The Transformation of Modern Japan: 0 300 Miles
Politics and Government MAP 11.1 Modern Japan. Shown here are the four main islands that
Thus, by the early 1950s, Japan had regained at least comprise the contemporary state of Japan.
partial control over its own destiny (see Map 11.1). Q Why do you think most of the largest cities in Japan are
located along the western coast of the country?
280 ■ CHAPTER 11 Toward the Pacific Century? Japan and the Little Tigers
HISTORICAL VOICES
Japan Renounces War

We, the Japanese people, desire peace for all time and
Q What is the current status of Article 9 of the are deeply conscious of the high ideals controlling human
Japanese Constitution? Why are some observers relationship, and we have determined to preserve our
demanding that this provision be changed? security and existence, trusting in the justice and faith
of the peace-loving peoples of the world. We desire to
occupy an honored place in an international society striv-
Politics & ON MAY 3, 1947, a new Japanese constitution
Government ing for the preservation of peace, and the banishment
went into effect to replace the Meiji
of tyranny and slavery, oppression and intolerance for
Constitution of 1890. The process of drafting the document
all time from the earth. We recognize that all peoples of
had taken place under the watchful guidance of General
the world have the right to live in peace, free from fear
Douglas MacArthur, the supreme commander of the Allied
and want.
Powers, who was determined to guarantee that the
We believe that no nation is responsible to itself alone,
militaristic tendencies of the prewar Japanese government
but that laws of political morality are universal; and that
would not be resurrected in the postwar era. This point of
obedience to such laws is incumbent upon all nations
view was explicitly included in the new constitution.
who would sustain their own sovereignty and justify their
According to Article 9 of the new charter, Japan renounced
sovereign relationship with other nations.
war as an instrument of national policy and eventually
We, the Japanese people, pledge our national honor
decided to maintain only a limited number of so-called self-
to accomplish these high ideals and purposes with all
defense forces to protect itself against external attack. From
our resources.
that time on, Japan relied on the United States for its
protection and security. Chapter I. The Emperor
Excerpts from the Japanese Constitution of 1947 Article 1. The Emperor shall be the symbol of the State
and of the unity of the people, deriving his position
We, the Japanese people, acting through our duly elected
from the will of the people with whom resides sovereign
representatives in the National Diet, determined that we
power. . . .
shall secure for ourselves and our posterity the fruits of
peaceful cooperation with all nations and the blessings Chapter II. Renunciation of War
of liberty throughout this land, and resolved that never
Article 9. (1) Aspiring sincerely to an international
again shall we be visited with the horrors of war through
peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people
the action of government, do proclaim that sovereign
forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation
power resides with the people and do firmly establish this
and the threat or use of force as a mean of settling
Constitution. Government is a sacred trust of the people,
international disputes.
the authority for which is derived from the people, the
(2) In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding
powers of which are exercised by the representatives of
paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war
the people, and the benefits of which are enjoyed by the
potential, will never be maintained. The right of belliger-
people. This is a universal principle of mankind upon which
ency of the state will not be recognized.
this Constitution is founded. We reject and revoke all consti-
tutions, laws, ordinances, and rescripts in conflict herewith.
Source: From the Japanese Constitution of 1947. Accessed at: http://history.hanover.edu/texts/1947con.html.
traditional political culture. Although postwar Japan Liberal Democrats, who had presided over an era of grow-
has had a multiparty system with two major parties, the ing material prosperity, were not voted out of office for
Liberal Democrats and the Socialists, in practice there was thirty years. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party included
a “government party” and a permanent opposition—the several factions, but disputes usually involved personalities
rather than substantive issues. Many of the leading Liberal in the economy has traditionally been widely accepted
Democrats controlled factions on a patron-client basis, and and is often cited as a key reason for the efficiency of
decisions on key issues, such as who should assume the Japanese industry and the emergence of the country as an
prime ministership, were decided by a modern equivalent industrial giant.
of the genro oligarchs.
That tradition changed suddenly in 1993 when the rul-
ing Liberal Democrats, shaken by persistent reports of 11-1c The Economy
corruption and cronyism between politicians and business Nowhere are the changes in postwar Japan so visible as in
interests, failed to win a majority of seats in parliamen- the economic sector, where the nation has developed into
tary elections. Morihiro Hosokawa (b. 1938), the leader a major industrial and technological power in the space
of one of several newly created parties in the Japanese of a century, surpassing such advanced Western societ-
political spectrum, was elected prime minister. He prom- ies as Germany, France, and Great Britain. Here indeed is
ised to launch a number of reforms to clean up the politi- the Japanese miracle in its most concrete manifestation.
cal system. The new coalition government quickly split Although Japanese success has often been described as a
into feuding factions, however, and in 1995, the Liberal direct product of the policies adopted during the occupa-
Democratic Party returned to power. Successive prime tion period, the process actually began over a century ago
ministers failed to carry out promised reforms, and in in the single-minded determination of the Meiji modern-
2001, Junichiro Koizumi (b. 1942), a former minister izers to create a rich country and a strong state. Their ini-
of health and welfare, was elected prime minister on a tial motive was to ensure Japan’s survival against Western
promise that he would initiate far-reaching reforms to imperialism, but this defensive urge evolved into a desire to
fix the political system and make it more responsive to excel and, during the years before World War II, to domi-
the needs of the Japanese people. His charisma raised nate. That desire led to the war in the Pacific and, in the
expectations that he might be able to bring about signifi- eyes of some observers, still contributes to Japan’s prob-
cant changes, but bureaucratic resistance to reform and lems with its trading partners in the world today.
chronic factionalism within the Liberal Democratic Party As we have seen, the officials of the Allied occupation
largely thwarted his efforts. In 2009, three years after he identified the Meiji economic system with centralized
left office, the Liberal Democrats were again voted out of power and the rise of Japanese militarism. Accordingly,
power. But the government’s response to a massive tsu- MacArthur’s planners set out to break up the zaibatsu
nami that struck the mainland island of Honshu in 2011 and decentralize Japanese industry and commerce. But
highlighted the ineptitude of the ruling Democratic Party with the rise of Cold War tensions, the policy was scaled
(a center-left party that had been formed in 1998), and back in the late 1940s, and only the nineteen largest con-
in 2012 the Liberal Democrats returned to power under glomerates were affected. In any event, the new antimo-
Prime Minister Shinzō Abe (b. 1954). The Abe govern- nopoly law did not hinder the formation of looser ties
ment has tried to revive the lagging Japanese economy between Japanese companies, and as a result, a new type
by stimulating competition and adopting new fiscal poli- of informal relationship, sometimes called the keiretsu,
cies, but his foreign policy has aroused unease elsewhere or “interlocking arrangement,” began to take shape
in Asia because of his often-voiced desire to revise the after World War II. Through such arrangements among
Japanese constitution so that the country can play a more suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, and financial institu-
active military role in the region (see “Atoning for the tions, the zaibatsu system was reconstituted under a
Past,” p. 285). new name.
The occupation administration had more success with
Japan, Incorporated One of the major characteristics of its program to reform the agricultural system. Half of
the Japanese political system has been the centralizing ten- the population still lived on farms, and half of all farmers
dencies that it inherited from the Meiji period. The govern- were still tenants. Under a stringent land reform program
ment is organized on a unitary rather than a federal basis; in the late 1940s, all lands owned by absentee landlords
the local administrative units, called prefectures, have few and all cultivated landholdings over an established maxi-
of the powers of states in the United States. Moreover, the mum were sold on easy credit terms to the tenants. The
central government plays an active and sometimes intru- maximum size of an individual farm was set at 7.5 acres,
sive role in various aspects of the economy, mediating while an additional 2.5 acres could be leased to tenants.
management–labor disputes, establishing price and wage The reform program created a strong class of yeoman
policies, and subsidizing vital industries and enterprises farmers, and tenants declined to about 10 percent of the
producing goods for export. This government intervention rural population.
The Japanese Miracle During the next fifty years, Japan Japanese also took a number of practical steps to improve
re-created the stunning results of the Meiji era. At the their competitive position in the world and the effective-
end of the Allied occupation in 1950, the Japanese gross ness of their economic system at home. On the other
domestic product was about one-third that of Great hand, many of these steps were possible precisely because
Britain or France. Thirty years later, it was larger than both of the cultural factors described here. The tradition of loy-
put together and well over half that of the United States. alty to the firm, for example, derives from the communal
For years, Japan was the greatest exporting nation in the tradition in Japanese society. The concept of sacrificing
world, and its per capita income equaled or surpassed that one’s personal interests to those of the state, though not
of most advanced Western states. In terms of education, necessarily rooted in the traditional period, was certainly
mortality rates, and health care, the quality of life in Japan fostered by the genro oligarchy during the Meiji era.
now matches or is superior to that in the United States or
the advanced nations of Western Europe. The Miracle Tarnished By the 1990s, however, the
By the mid-1980s, the economic challenge presented Japanese economy had begun to run into serious difficul-
by Japan had begun to arouse increasing concern in both ties, raising the question of whether the vaunted Japanese
official and private circles in Europe and the United States. model was as appealing as many observers had earlier
Explanations for the phenomenon tended to fall into two declared. A rise in the value of the yen hurt exports and
major categories. Some analysts pointed to cultural fac- burst the bubble of investment by Japanese banks that
tors. The Japanese have over time developed a culture of had taken place under the umbrella of government pro-
cooperation with one another. Traditionally hardworking tection. At the same time, exports—long the driving force
and frugal, they are more inclined to save than to consume, behind the emergence of Japan into the world’s second
a trait that boosts the saving rate and labor productivity.1 largest economy—began to face increasing competition
The Japanese are also family oriented and therefore spend from hungry and aggressive rivals such as South Korea
less on government entitlement programs for the elderly, and Taiwan. With a much smaller domestic market than
who normally live with their children. Like all Confucian the United States has, the Japanese economy slipped into a
societies, the Japanese value education, and consequently, long-term recession that has not yet entirely abated.
the labor force is highly skilled. Finally, Japan is a homoge- These economic difficulties have placed heavy pressure
neous society in which people share common values and on some of the highly praised features of the Japanese
respond in similar ways to the challenges of the modern economy. The tradition of lifetime employment created a
world. bloated white-collar workforce and has made downsizing
Others cited more practical reasons for Japanese suc- difficult. Today, job security is on the decline as increasing
cess. Paradoxically, Japan benefited from the total destruc- numbers of workers are being laid off. Around 16 percent
tion of its industrial base during World War II because it of the population lives in poverty, a figure only slightly
did not face the problem of antiquated plants that plagued lower than the United States. Unfortunately, the burden
many industries in the United States. Under the terms of has fallen disproportionately on women, who lack senior-
its constitution and the security treaty with the United ity and continue to suffer from various forms of discrimi-
States, Japan spends less than 1 percent of its gross domes- nation in the workplace.
tic product on national defense, whereas the United States Ironically, some observers ascribe the country’s recent
has averaged over 4 percent. But the most important fac- economic difficulties to political factors that were once
tor, according to many observers, was that the Japanese viewed as an advantage. The practice of providing the
government actively sought to promote business inter- central government with an influential role in managing
ests rather than hindering them. Some analysts charged the economy has recently come under fire, as Japanese
that Japan used unfair trade practices, subsidizing exports corporations that once sought government protection
through the Ministry of International Trade and Industry from imports have now begun to argue that deregulation
(MITI), dumping goods at prices below cost to break into a is needed to enable Japanese firms to innovate in order to
foreign market, maintaining an artificially low standard of keep up with international competition. Such reforms,
living at home to encourage exports, and unduly restrict- however, have been resisted by powerful government min-
ing imports from other countries. istries in Tokyo, which are accustomed to playing an active
There was some truth on both sides of the argument. role in national affairs.
Undoubtedly, Japan benefited from its privileged position Some point out that as the Japanese economy gradu-
beneath the U.S. nuclear umbrella as well as from its ability ally opens up to the world market, exposure to foreign
to operate in a free trade environment that provided both economic competition may improve the performance
export markets and access to Western technology. The of Japanese manufacturers. In recent years, Japanese

consumers have become increasingly concerned about the is also generally less in Japan than in most European coun-
quality of some of their domestic products, causing one tries and certainly less than in the United States.
cabinet minister to complain about the “sloppiness and Japan’s welfare system also differs profoundly from
complacency” of Japanese firms (even the Japanese auto- its Western counterparts. Applicants are required to seek
maker Toyota has faced quality problems in its best-selling assistance first from their own families, and the physically
fleet of motor vehicles). One apparent reason for the able are ineligible for government aid. As a result, less than
quality problems is the cost-cutting measures adopted by 1 percent of the population receives welfare benefits, com-
Japanese companies to meet the challenges from abroad. pared with more than 10 percent who receive some form
of assistance in the United States. Outside observers attri-
bute the difference to several factors, including low levels
11-1d A Society in Transition of drug addiction and illegitimacy in Japan, as well as the
During the occupation, Allied planners set out to change importance of the work ethic and family responsibility.
social characteristics that they believed had contributed to Emphasis on the work ethic remains strong. The tra-
Japanese aggressiveness before and during World War II. dition of hard work is implanted at a young age by the
The new educational system removed all references to educational system. The Japanese school year runs for
filial piety, patriotism, and loyalty to the emperor, and 240 days, compared to 180 days in the United States, and
emphasized the individualistic values of Western civi- work assignments outside class tend to be more exten-
lization. The new constitution and a revised civil code sive (according to one source, a Japanese student averages
attempted to achieve true gender equality by removing the about five hours of homework per day). Competition for
remaining legal restrictions on women’s rights to obtain acceptance into universities is intense, and many young
a divorce, hold a job, or change their domicile. Women Japanese take cram courses to prepare for the “examina-
were guaranteed the right to vote and were encouraged tion hell” that lies ahead. The results are impressive: the
to enter politics. literacy rate in Japanese schools is almost 100 percent, and
Japanese schoolchildren consistently earn higher scores
An Emphasis on Conformity Such efforts to remake on achievement tests than children in other advanced
Japanese behavior through legislation have had mixed suc- countries. At the same time, this devotion to success has
cess. Since the end of World War II, Japan has unquestion- often been accompanied by bullying by teachers and what
ably become a more individualistic and egalitarian society. Americans might consider an oppressive sense of confor-
Freedom of choice in marriage and occupation is taken for mity (see Historical Voices, “Growing Up in Japan,” p. 285).
granted, and social mobility, though less extensive than in Some young Japanese find suicide the only escape from
the United States, has increased considerably. Although the the pressures emanating from society, school, and family.
Allied occupation policy established the legal framework Parental pride often becomes a factor, with “education
for these developments, primary credit must be assigned to mothers” pressuring their children to work hard and suc-
the evolution of the Japanese themselves into an urbanized ceed for the honor of the family. Ironically, once a student
and technologically advanced industrial society. is accepted into college, the amount of work assigned
At the same time, many of the distinctive characteristics tends to decrease because graduates of the best universi-
of traditional Japanese society have persisted, in somewhat ties are virtually guaranteed lucrative employment offers.
altered form, to the present day. The emphasis on loyalty Nevertheless, the early training instills an attitude of defer-
to the group and community relationships, for example, is ence to group interests that persists throughout life. Some
reflected in the continued strength of corporate loyalties outside observers, however, believe such attitudes can have
in contemporary Japan. Even though competition among a detrimental effect on individual initiative.
enterprises in a given industry is often quite vigorous, By all accounts, independent thinking is on the increase
social cohesiveness among both management and labor in Japan, and some schools are beginning to emphasize cre-
personnel is exceptionally strong within each individual ativity over rote learning. In some cases, it leads to antiso-
corporation, although, as we have seen, that attitude has cial behavior, such as crime or membership in a teen gang.
eroded somewhat in recent years. Usually, it is expressed in more indirect ways, such as the
One possible product of this attitude may be the rela- recent fashion among young people of dyeing their hair
tively egalitarian nature of Japanese society in terms of brown (known in Japanese as “tea hair’’) (see Comparative
income. A chief executive officer in Japan receives, on aver- Illustration, “From Conformity to Counterculture,” p. 286).
age, about twenty times the salary of the average worker, Because the practice is banned in many schools and gener-
compared with more than two hundred times in the ally frowned on by the older generation (one police chief
United States. The disparity between wealth and poverty dumped a pitcher of beer on a student with brown hair
HISTORICAL VOICES
Growing Up in Japan
on the shoes. The number of buttons on a shirt and
Q What is the apparent purpose of these regulations? tucks in a shirt are also prescribed.
How do they differ from standards of behavior in 5. Wear your school badge at all times. It should be posi-
schools in the United States? tioned exactly.
6. Going to school in the morning, wear your book bag
strap on the right shoulder; in the afternoon on the
Family & Japanese schoolchildren are exposed to
Society way home, wear it on the left shoulder. Your book
a much more regimented environment than
case thickness, filled and unfilled, is also prescribed.
U.S. children experience. Most Japanese schoolchildren, for
7. Girls should wear only regulation white underpants
example, wear black-and-white uniforms to school. These
of 100% cotton.
regulations are examples of rules adopted by middle school
8. When you raise your hand to be called on, your arm
systems in various parts of Japan. The Ministry of Education
should extend forward and up at the angle prescribed
in Tokyo concluded that these regulations were excessive,
in your handbook.
but they are probably typical.
9. Your own route to and from school is marked in
School Regulations: Japanese Style your student rule handbook; carefully observe which
side of each street you are to use on the way to and
1. Boys’ hair should not touch the eyebrows, the ears, or
from school.
the top of the collar.
10. After school you are to go directly home, unless your
2. No one should have a permanent wave, or dye his or
parent has written a note permitting you to go to
her hair. Girls should not wear ribbons or accessories
another location. Permission will not be granted by
in their hair. Hair dryers should not be used.
the school unless the other location is a suitable one.
3. School uniform skirts should be _____ centimeters
You must not go to coffee shops. You must be home
above the ground, no more and no less (differs by
by _____ o’clock.
school and region).
11. It is not permitted to drive or ride a motorcycle, or to
4. Keep your uniform clean and pressed at all times.
have a license to drive one.
Girls’ middy blouses should have two buttons on
12. Before and after school, no matter where you are, you
the back collar. Boys’ pant cuffs should be of the
represent our school, so you should behave in ways
prescribed width. No more than 12 eyelets should be
we can all be proud of.
Source: The Material Child: Coming of Age in Japan and America by Merry White.
that he noticed in a bar), many young Japanese dye their women” (prostitutes) for Japanese soldiers during the war,
hair as a gesture of independence and a means of gaining and many Koreans living in Japan contend that such con-
acceptance among their peers. When seeking employment descending attitudes toward minorities continue to exist.
or getting married, however, they return their hair to its Representatives of the “comfort women” have demanded
natural color. both financial compensation and a formal letter of apol-
ogy from the Japanese government for the treatment they
Atoning for the Past Lingering social problems also received during the Pacific War. Negotiations over the
need to be addressed. Minorities such as the eta (heredi- issue have been under way for several years.
tary outcasts in traditional Japan, now known as the The Ainu are another ethnic minority group that
Burakumin) and Korean residents in Japan continue to has been left behind in the country’s headlong rush into
be subjected to legal and social discrimination. For years, modernity. Descendants of the original settlers on the
official sources were reluctant to divulge that thousands islands, they were eventually overwhelmed by later arriv-
of Korean women were conscripted to serve as “comfort als from the mainland and now live for the most part in
From Conformity to Counterculture

trip to Kyoto’s Nijo Castle, built in 1603 by the founder of
Q How would you compare the social requirements the Tokugawa dynasty. Recently, however, a youth
and privileges of Japanese children with those of counterculture has emerged in Japan. Image 11.2b shows
other cultures that we have encountered in this text? fashion-conscious teenagers with “tea hair”—heirs of
Japan’s long era of affluence—revel in their expensive hip-
hop outfits, platform shoes, and layered dresses. Such dress
Family & Traditionally, schoolchildren in Japan have
Society habits symbolize the growing revolt against conformity in
worn uniforms to promote conformity with
contemporary Japan.
the country’s communitarian social mores. In Image 11.2a,
young students dressed in identical uniforms are on a field
Barry Cronin/Getty Images

William J. Duiker
IMAGE 11.2b
IMAGE 11.2a
isolated communities on the northern island of Hokkaido. governments were particularly incensed at Tokyo’s failure
Long ignored by a government that sought to proclaim the to accept responsibility for such behavior and demanded
ethnic homogeneity of the Japanese people, in 2008 they a formal apology. The government expressed remorse,
were finally recognized as a distinct indigenous culture. but only in the context of the aggressive actions of all
Whether their new status will enable the Ainu—currently colonial powers during the imperialist era. In the view of
numbering about 24,000 people—to claim compensa- many Japanese, the actions of their government during
tion for past ill treatment and present neglect is still an the Pacific War were a form of self-defense. When new
open question. textbooks were published that openly discussed instances
Japan’s behavior during World War II has been an of Japanese wartime misconduct, including sex slavery, the
especially sensitive issue. During the early 1990s, critics at use of slave labor, and the Nanjing massacre (see Chapter 6),
home and abroad charged that textbooks printed under the many Japanese were outraged and initiated a campaign
guidance of the Ministry of Education did not adequately to delete or tone down references to atrocities committed
discuss the atrocities committed by the Japanese govern- by imperial troops during the Pacific War. At times, mem-
ment and armed forces during World War II. Other Asian bers of the government have exacerbated the controversy;
Prime Minister Koizumi did so by attending ceremonies at low level of immigration. Immigrants make up only 1 per-
shrines dedicated to the spirits of Japan’s war dead, as did cent of the total population of Japan. Together, the aging
members of Prime Minister Abe’s cabinet in 2013. population and the absence of immigrants are creating
The issue is not simply an academic one, for fear of a the prospect of a dramatic labor shortage in coming years.
revival of Japanese militarism is still strong in the region, Nevertheless, prejudice against foreigners persists in Japan,
where Japan’s relations with other states have recently and the government remains reluctant to ease restrictions
been strained by disputes with South Korea and China over against immigrants from other countries in the region.
ownership of small islands in the China Sea. The United Japan’s aging population has many implications for the
States has not shared this concern, however, and applauded future. Traditionally, it was the responsibility of the eldest
Japan’s recent decision to enhance the ability of its self- child in a Japanese family to care for aging parents, but
defense forces to deal with potential disturbances within that system is beginning to break down because of limited
the region. The proper role of the military has provoked housing space and the growing tendency of working-age
vigorous debate in Japan, where some observers have women to seek jobs in the marketplace. The proportion
argued that their country should adopt a more assertive of Japanese older than sixty-five years of age who live with
stance toward the United States and China and play a larger their children has dropped from 80 percent in 1970 to about
role in Asian affairs. 50 percent today. At the same time, public and private pen-
sion plans are under increasing financial pressure, partly
Women in Japanese Society One of the more tenacious because of the low birthrate and the graying population.
legacies of the past in Japanese society is sexual inequality.
Although women are now legally protected against dis- 11-1e Religion and Culture
crimination in employment, very few have reached senior As in the West, increasing urbanization has led to a decline
levels in business, education, or politics. In the words of in the practice of organized religion in Japan, although
one Western scholar, they remain “acutely disadvantaged,” evangelical sects have proliferated in recent years. The
though, ironically, in a recent survey of Japanese business largest and best-known sect is Soka Gakkai, a lay Buddhist
executives, a majority declared that women were smarter organization that has attracted millions of followers and
than men. Women now make up more than 50 percent formed its own political party, the Komeito. Many Japanese
of the workforce, but most are in retail or service occupa- also follow Shinto, a traditional faith based on the belief in
tions, and on average they are paid only about half as much the existence of spirits in Nature that was once identified
as men.2 There is a feminist movement in Japan, but it has with reverence for the emperor and the state.
none of the vigor and mass support of its counterpart in Western literature, art, and music have also had a major
the United States. impact on Japanese society. After World War II, many of
Most women in Japan consider being a homemaker the writers who had been active before the war resurfaced,
the ideal position. In the home, a Japanese woman has but now their writing reflected demoralization. Many
considerable responsibility. She is expected to be a “good were attracted to existentialism, and some turned to hedo-
wife and wise mother” and has the primary responsibility nism and nihilism. For these disillusioned authors, defeat
for managing the family finances and raising the children. was compounded by fear of the Americanization of post-
Japanese husbands (known derisively in Japan as the “wet war Japan. One of the best examples of this attitude was
leaf tribe”) perform little work around the house, spending the novelist Yukio Mishima (1925–1970), who led a crusade
an average of nine minutes a day on housework, compared to stem the tide of what he described as America’s “uni-
to twenty-six minutes for American husbands. At the same versal and uniform ‘Coca-Colonization’” of the world in
time, Japanese divorce rates are well below those of the general and Japan in particular.3 Mishima’s ritual suicide in
United States. 1970 was the subject of widespread speculation and trans-
formed him into a cult figure.
The Demographic Crisis Many of Japan’s current dilem- One of Japan’s most serious-minded contemporary
mas stem from its growing demographic problems. Today, authors is Kenzaburo Oe (b. 1935). His work, rewarded
Japan has the highest proportion of people older than with a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1994, focuses on Japan’s
sixty-five of any industrialized country—almost 23 per- ongoing quest for modern identity and purpose. His char-
cent of the country’s total population. By the year 2024, acters reflect the spiritual anguish precipitated by the col-
an estimated one-third of the Japanese population will be lapse of the imperial Japanese tradition and the subsequent
over the age of sixty-five, and the median age will be fifty, adoption of Western culture—a trend that Oe contends
ten years older than the median in the United States. This has culminated in unabashed materialism, cultural decline,
demographic profile is due both to declining fertility and a and a moral void. Yet unlike Mishima, Oe does not wish to
restore the imperial traditions of the past but rather seeks unlikely to evolve into a photocopy of the United States,
to regain spiritual meaning by retrieving the sense of com- the image of millions of dedicated “salarymen” heading
munality and innocence found in rural Japan. off to work with their briefcases and their pinstriped suits
Haruki Murakami (b. 1949), one of Japan’s most popu- may no longer be an accurate portrayal of reality in con-
lar authors today, was one of the first to discard the intro- temporary Japan.
spective and somber style of the earlier postwar period.
Characters in his novels typically take the form of a
detached antihero, reflecting the emptiness of corporate 11-2 Taiwan: The Other China
life in contemporary Japan. In The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
(1997), Murakami highlights the capacity for irrational vio-
lence in Japanese society and the failure of the nation to
accept its guilt for the behavior of Japanese troops during
QQ Focus Question: Why do you think the
Republic of China has fared better on the island
of Taiwan than it did when it controlled the
World War II. mainland?
Since the 1970s, increasing affluence and a high literacy
rate have contributed to a massive quantity of publications, It did not take long for other countries in East Asia to
ranging from popular potboilers to first-rate fiction. Much attempt to imitate the Japanese success. To Japan’s south,
of this new literature deals with the common concerns of the Republic of China on the island of Taiwan was one of
all affluent industrialized nations, including the effects of the first to do so (see Map 11.2).
urbanization, advanced technology, and mass consump- After retreating to Taiwan following their defeat by the
tion. A wildly popular genre is the “art-manga,” or graphic Communists, Chiang Kai-shek and his followers estab-
novel. Some members of the youth counterculture have lished a new capital at Taipei and set out to build a strong
used manga to rebel against Japan’s rigid educational and and prosperous nation based on Chinese traditions and the
conformist pressures. principles of Sun Yat-sen. The government, which contin-
Other aspects of Japanese culture have also been influ- ued to refer to itself as the Republic of China (ROC), con-
enced by Western ideas, although without the intense tended that it remained the legitimate representative of
preoccupation with synthesis that is evident in literature. the Chinese people and that it would eventually return in
Western music is very popular in Japan, and scores of triumph to the mainland.
Japanese classical musicians have succeeded in the West. The Nationalists had much more success on Taiwan
Even rap music has gained a foothold among Japanese than they had achieved on the mainland. In the relatively
youth, although without the association with sex, drugs, secure environment provided by a security treaty with the
and violence that it has in the United States. Although United States, signed in 1954, and the comforting presence
some of the lyrics betray an attitude of modest revolt of the U.S. Seventh Fleet in the Taiwan Strait, the ROC was
against the uptight world of Japanese society, most lack able to concentrate on economic growth without worrying
any such connotations. about a Communist invasion. The regime
CHINA
possessed a number of other advantages
11-1f The Japanese Difference ti that it had not enjoyed in Nanjing. Fifty
tra
Whether the unique character of modern Taipei years of efficient Japanese rule had left
nS
Japan will endure is unclear. Confidence in behind a relatively modern economic

wa
the Japanese “economic miracle” has been infrastructure and an educated popula-
Tai
shaken by the long recession, and there are tion, although the island had absorbed
indications of a growing tendency toward considerable damage during World War II
hedonism and individualism among and much of its agricultural produce had
Japanese youth. Older Japanese frequently Pescadores been exported to Japan at low prices.
complain that the younger generation Islands With only a small population to deal with
lacks their sense of loyalty and willingness (about 7 million in 1945), the ROC could
to sacrifice. There are also signs that the make good use of foreign assistance and
Kaohsiung Pa c ifi c
concept of loyalty to one’s employer may the efforts of its own energetic people to
be beginning to erode among Japanese Ocean
build a modern industrialized society.
youth. Some observers have predicted 0 100 Kilometers The government moved rapidly to cre-
that with increasing affluence Japan will 0 60 Miles ate a solid agricultural base. A land reform
become more like the industrialized program, more effectively designed and
societies in the West. Although Japan is MAP 11.2 Modern Taiwan implemented than the one introduced
in the early 1930s on the mainland, led to the reduction high rate of internal saving. By the mid-1980s, more than
of rents, while landholdings larger than 3 acres were pur- three-quarters of the population lived in urban areas.
chased by the government and resold to the tenants at rea-
sonable prices. As in Meiji Japan, the previous owners were
compensated by government bonds. The results were grat- 11-2a From Dictatorship to Democracy
ifying: food production doubled over the next generation In contrast to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the
and began to make up a substantial proportion of exports. mainland, the ROC actively maintained Chinese tradition,
In the meantime, the government strongly encouraged promoting respect for Confucius and the ethical principles
the development of local manufacturing and commerce. of the past, such as hard work, frugality, and filial piety (see
By the 1970s, Taiwan was one of the most dynamic indus- Image 11.3). Although there was some corruption in both
trial economies in East Asia. The agricultural proportion the government and the private sector, income differentials
of the gross domestic product declined from 36 percent in between the wealthy and the poor were generally less than
1952 to only 9 percent thirty years later. At first, the indus- elsewhere in the region, and the overall standard of living
trial and commercial sector was composed of relatively increased substantially. Health and sanitation improved,
small firms engaged in exporting textiles and food prod- literacy rates were quite high, and an active family plan-
ucts, but the 1960s saw a shift to heavy industry, including ning program reduced the rate of population growth.
shipbuilding, steel, petrochemicals, and machinery, and a Nevertheless, the total population on the island increased
growing emphasis on exports. The government played a to about 20 million in the mid-1980s.
major role in the process, targeting strategic industries for In one respect, however, Chiang Kai-shek had not
support and investing in infrastructure. At the same time, changed: increasing prosperity did not lead to the democ-
as in Japan, the government stressed the importance of pri- ratization of the political process. The Nationalists contin-
vate enterprise and encouraged foreign investment and a ued to rule by emergency decree and refused to permit the
William J. Duiker
IMAGE 11.3 What’s in a Name? The National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei. While the Chinese
government on the mainland attempted to destroy all vestiges of traditional culture, the Republic of China
on Taiwan has sought to preserve the cultural heritage as a link between past and present. This policy is
graphically displayed in the mausoleum for Chiang Kai-shek in downtown Taipei, shown in this photograph.
The mausoleum, with its massive entrance gate, not only glorifies the nation’s leader, but recalls the grandeur
of old China. In 2007, the mausoleum was controversially renamed the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial
Hall in a bid by the government to downplay the island’s historical ties to the mainland. In response to
protests from Beijing, in 2008 the name was changed back to the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.
Q Why do you think Chinese leaders in Beijing complained about the change in title for the mausoleum?
11-2 Taiwan: The Other China ■ 289
formation of opposition political parties on the grounds Chen Shui-bian (b. 1950) was elected to the presidency,
that the danger of invasion from the mainland had not ending half a century of Nationalist Party rule on Taiwan.
subsided. Propaganda material from the PRC was rigor- His elevation to the position angered Beijing, which noted
ously prohibited, and dissident activities (promoting either that in the past he had called for an independent Taiwanese
rapprochement with the mainland or the establishment of state. Chen backed away from that position and called for
an independent Republic of Taiwan) were ruthlessly sup- the resumption of talks with the PRC, but Chinese leaders
pressed. Although representatives to the provincial gov- remain suspicious of his intentions and reacted with hostil-
ernment of the province of Taiwan were chosen in local ity to U.S. plans to provide advanced military equipment to
elections, the central government (technically representing the island. In the meantime, charges of official corruption
the entire population of China) was dominated by main- and economic problems began to erode support for the
landers who had fled to the island with Chiang in 1949. DPP on the island. The return to power of the Nationalist
Some friction developed between the mainlanders Party under Ma Ying-jeou (b. 1950) in 2008 and his reelec-
(as the new arrivals were called), who numbered about tion as president in 2012 temporarily eased relations with
2 million, and the indigenous Taiwanese, who, except for mainland China, but when the DPP returned to office in
a small number of aboriginal peoples in the mountains, 2016 under the country’s first woman president, Tsai Ing-
were mostly ethnic Chinese whose ancestors had emi- wen, tensions began to increase once again.
grated to the island during the Qing dynasty. While the Whether Taiwan will remain an independent state or
mainlanders were dominant in government and the probe united with the mainland cannot be predicted at this
fessions, the indigenous Taiwanese were prominent in time. Although diplomatic ties have been severed (see
commerce. Mainlanders tended to view the local popu- Chapter 12), the United States continues to provide defen-
lation with a measure of condescension, and at least in sive military assistance to the Taiwanese armed forces and
the early years, intermarriage between members of the has made it clear that it supports self-determination for the
two groups was rare. Many Taiwanese remembered with people of Taiwan. It has also declared that it expects the
anger the events of March 1947, when Nationalist troops final resolution of the dispute to take place by peaceful
had killed hundreds of Taiwanese demonstrators in Taipei. means. The outcome thus depends in good measure on
More than one thousand leading members of the local developments in the PRC. Economic and cultural contacts
Taiwanese community were arrested or killed in the sub- between Taiwan and the mainland have been increasing,
sequent repression. By the 1980s, however, these fissures in but the Taiwanese—who have followed recent events in
Taiwanese society had begun to diminish; by that time, an Hong Kong closely (see “11-4 Singapore and Hong Kong:
ever-higher proportion of the population had been born the Littlest Tigers,” p. 292)—have shown no inclination to
on the island and identified themselves as Taiwanese. accept Beijing’s offer of “one country, two systems,” under
which Taiwan would accept the PRC as the legitimate gov-
ernment of China in return for autonomous control over
11-2b Crafting a Taiwanese Identity the affairs of Taiwan. The unresolved future of the island
During the 1980s, the ROC slowly began to evolve toward remains one of the most delicate problems in the region
a more representative form of government—a process that of East Asia.
was facilitated by the death of Chiang Kai-shek in 1975.
Chiang Ching-kuo (1910–1988), his son and successor, was
less concerned about the danger from the mainland and 11-3Korea: A Peninsula
more tolerant of free expression. On his death, he was
succeeded as president by Lee Teng-hui (b. 1923), a native Divided
Taiwanese. By the end of the 1980s, democratization was
under way, including elections and the formation of legal
opposition parties. The first fully free national elections,
QQ Focus Question: What factors have
contributed to the economic success achieved
held in 1992, resulted in a bare majority for the Nationalists by South Korea in the years following the end
over strong opposition from the Democratic Progressive of World War II?
Party (DPP).
But political liberalization had its dangers; some leading While the world was focused on the economic miracle
Democratic Progressives began to agitate for an indepen- occurring on the Japanese islands, another miracle of
dent Republic of Taiwan, a possibility that aroused concern sorts was taking place on the Asian mainland. In 1953, the
within the Nationalist government in Taipei and frenzied Korean peninsula was exhausted from three years of bitter
hostility in the PRC. In the spring of 2000, DPP candidate fraternal war, a conflict that took the lives of an estimated
4 million Koreans on both sides of workers spent an average of sixty
R.
Cease-fire line
the 38th parallel and turned as much Tu
me
n
hours a week at their jobs), as well as
as one-quarter of the population into from Japanese capital and technology,
refugees. Although a cease-fire was CHINA Korea gradually emerged as a major
R.
signed at Panmunjom in July 1953, it Yalu industrial power in East Asia. The
NORTH
was a fragile peace that left two heav- KOREA economic growth rate rose from less
ily armed and mutually hostile coun- Korea Sea of Japan than 5 percent annually in the 1950s
tries facing each other suspiciously Bay Pyongyang (East Sea) to an average of 9 percent under Park.
(see Map 11.3). Panmunjom 38th Parallel
The largest corporations—including
North of the truce line was the Seoul Samsung, Daewoo, and Hyundai—
Inchon
Democratic People’s Republic of were transformed into massive con-
Korea (PRK), a police state under SOUTH glomerates called chaebol, the Korean
Yellow KOREA
the dictatorial rule of Communist equivalent of the zaibatsu of prewar
Sea
leader Kim Il-sung (1912–1994). To Japan. Taking advantage of relatively
it
Pusan
ra
Kwangju
the south was the Republic of Korea, low wages and a stunningly high rate
St
under the equally autocratic President 0 150 300 Kilometers
JAPAN of saving, Korean businesses began to
a
Syngman Rhee (1875–1965), a fierce Kore compete actively with the Japanese for
0 100 200 Miles
anti-
Communist who had led the export markets in Asia and through-
resistance to the northern invasion MAP 11.3 The Korean Peninsula Since 1953 out the world. Per capita income also
and now placed his country under U.S. increased dramatically, from less than
military protection. But U.S. troops could not protect Rhee $90 (in U.S. dollars) annually in 1960 to $1,560 (twice that
from his own people, many of whom resented his reliance of Communist North Korea) twenty years later.
on the political power of the wealthy landlord class. After But like many other countries in the region, South Korea
several years of harsh rule, marked by government corrup- was slow to develop democratic principles. Although his
tion, fraudulent elections, and police brutality, demonstra- government functioned with the trappings of democracy,
tions broke out in the capital city of Seoul in the spring of Park continued to rule by autocratic means and suppressed
1960 and forced him into retirement. all forms of dissidence. In 1979, Park was assassinated. But
after a brief interregnum of democratic rule, in 1980 a
new military government under General Chun Doo Hwan
11-3a The Korean Model (b. 1931) seized power. The new regime was as authoritar-
The Rhee era was followed by a brief period of multiparty ian as its predecessors, but after student riots in 1987, by
democratic government, but in 1961, General Park Chung the end of the decade opposition to autocratic rule had
Hee (1917–1979) came to power through a coup d’état. spread to much of the urban population.
The new regime promulgated a new constitution, and in National elections were finally held in 1989, and South
1963, Park was elected president of a civilian government. Korea reverted to civilian rule. Successive presidents sought
He set out to foster an economic recovery after decades of to rein in corruption while cracking down on the chaebols
foreign occupation and civil war. Adopting the nineteenth- and initiating contacts with the Communist regime in
century Japanese slogan “Rich Country and Strong State,” the PRK on possible steps toward eventual reunification
Park built up a strong military while relying on U.S. and of the peninsula. After the Asian financial crisis in 1997,
later Japanese assistance to help build a strong manufac- economic conditions temporarily worsened, but they have
turing base in what had been a predominantly agricultural since recovered, and the country is increasingly competi-
society. Because the private sector had been relatively weak tive in world markets today. In elections held in 2012, South
under Japanese rule, the government played an active role Korea elected its first woman president—Park Guen-hye
in the process by instituting a series of five-year plans that (b. 1952), the daughter of Park Chung Hee. Later, however,
targeted specific industries for development, promoted she was removed from office on the charge of corruption.
exports, and funded infrastructure development. Under a In the meantime, relations with North Korea, now on
land reform program, large landowners were required to the verge of becoming a nuclear power, remain tense.
sell all their farmland above 7.4 acres to their tenants at Multinational efforts to persuade the regime to suspend its
low prices. nuclear program continue, although North Korea claimed
The program was a solid success. Benefiting from the to have successfully conducted a nuclear test in 2009. To
Confucian principles of thrift, respect for education, and add to the uncertainty, the regime faced a succession cri-
hard work (during the 1960s and 1970s, South Korean sis, when Kim Jong-il (1941–2011), the son and successor
11-3 Korea: A Peninsula Divided ■ 291

of founder Kim Il-sung, died sud-
denly in 2011 and was replaced by
his inexperienced son, Kim Jong-un
(b. 1984). In the uncertainty follow-
ing the emergence of a new leader
in North Korea, tensions with
the South erupted once again, as
the communist leadership in that
impoverished country continues to
view the outside world with suspi-
cion. A program run by the North
Korean regime to develop an inter-
continental ballistic missile system
with nuclear warheads has led to
increased tensions in the region. In
a bid to defuse the issue, bilateral
William J. Duiker
meetings between Kim and U.S.
president Donald Trump have taken
place in Singapore and Vietnam, but
so far without positive result.
IMAGE 11.4 Mending the Safety Net in South Korea. Until recently, it was common for South
Korean parents to live with their eldest son’s family in their senior years, a practice that
was viewed as a reward for their past sacrifices in raising their children. But with the
11-3b South Korea: The country now transformed into an industrial and urbanized society, this social contract
Little Tiger with Sharp has eroded. As their children move into the cities, older Koreans are often left to fend for
Teeth themselves in rural areas. Because the government has not yet established an adequate
social security network the elderly are often left in desperate straits. Show here are a
South Korea today is one of the group of elderly women visiting a Buddhist shrine in Pusan.
most competitive economies in the
world. Its manufactures rival in popularity those of other entitled Please Look After Mom. The disappearance of the
East Asian nations for predominance in global markets. protagonist’s mother in the book represents the loss of the
Japanese observers complain about the country’s “hungry country’s traditional values and lifestyles (see Image 11.4).
spirit,” which steals jobs from Japanese workers. Some Whereas some older Koreans undoubtedly feel
critics inside the country, however, worry that Koreans betrayed by the transition to a more contemporary life-
put too much emphasis on achieving success and that style, many of their younger contemporaries decry the
many children spend so much time preparing for college continuing pressure to conform to traditional mores. Han
entrance examinations that they are deprived of a normal Kang (b. 1970) describes the revolt of a young wife’s in her
childhood. The recent effort by Lee Myung-bak (b. 1941), The Vegetarian (2007), who—by adopting a meat-free diet—
who served as president from 2008 to 2012, to enforce a provokes a violent outburst of anger from her husband
five-day workweek was motivated, in part, by the same and expulsion from her family.
considerations.
Whether the Korean people’s drive to get ahead in life is
seen as a benefit or a disadvantage, there is no doubt that,
like many of its counterparts in East Asia, South Korea is
Singapore and Hong
11-4
changing rapidly. A predominantly rural nation at the end Kong: The Littlest Tigers
of World War II, it is now a manufacturing powerhouse.
Though it has historically had a homogeneous population,
it now hosts a growing foreign population, many of whom
QQ Focus Question: What factors do you think
most contributed to the emergence of the tiny
are low-wage workers and young women brought in from state of Singapore as a major factor in Asian
other parts of Asia to marry Koreans living in rural areas, affairs?
where the shortage of marriageable Korean women is
acute. The traumatic effect of the transformation of South The smallest but by no means the least successful of the
Korea from a rural to an urban society is ably described Little Tigers are Singapore and Hong Kong. Both are essen-
by author Kyung-Sook Shin (b. 1963) in her recent novel tially city-states with large populations densely packed
into small territories. Singapore, once MALAYSIA politics, and opposition elements were
a British crown colony and briefly a intimidated into silence or arrested.
part of the state of Malaysia, is now The prime minister openly declared
an independent nation (see Map 11.4). SINGAPORE that the Western model of pluralist
Si n g
Hong Kong was a British colony until it democracy was not appropriate for
ap
was returned to PRC control, but with Singapore and lauded the Meiji model
ore R
Singapore
autonomous status, in 1997. In recent 0 10 Kilometers of centralized development. Confucian
.
Singapore
years, both have emerged as industrial 0 6 Miles Strait values of thrift, hard work, and obedi-
powerhouses with standards of living ence to authority have been promoted
well above the level of their neighbors. MAP 11.4 The Republic of Singapore as the ideology of the state. The govern-
The success of Singapore must be ment has had a passion for cleanliness
ascribed in good measure to the will and energy of its polit- and at one time even undertook a campaign to persuade its
ical leaders. When it became independent in August 1965, citizens to flush the public urinals. In 1989, the local Straits
Singapore was in a state of transition. Its longtime position Times, a government mouthpiece, published a photograph
as an entrepôt for trade between the Indian Ocean and the of a man walking sheepishly from a row of urinals. The
South China Sea was declining in importance. With only caption read “Caught without a flush: Mr. Amar Mohamed
618 square miles of territory, much of it marshland and leaving the Lucky Plaza toilet without flushing the urinal.”4
tropical jungle, Singapore had little to offer but the fru- Today, Singapore is the most prosperous and well-
gality and industriousness of its predominantly overseas educated country in Asia, with a highly competitive indus-
Chinese population. But a recent history of political radi- trial sector, advanced social services, and a well-educated
calism, fostered by the rise of influential labor unions, had population. To provide space for a growing population,
frightened away foreign investors. additional land is being reclaimed from the surrounding
Within a decade, Singapore’s role and reputation had South China Sea, and a new botanical garden contains a
dramatically changed. Under the leadership of Prime futuristic group of tall towers that could provide sustenance
Minister Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015), once the firebrand for local residents in environmentally sound conditions
leader of the radical People’s Action Party, the government (see Image 11.5).
encouraged the growth of an attractive business climate But economic success is beginning to undermine the
while engaging in massive public works projects to feed, authoritarian foundations of the system as a more sophis-
house, and educate the nation’s 2 million citizens. The ticated citizenry begins to demand more political freedoms
major components of success have been shipbuilding, oil and an end to government paternalism. Lee Kuan Yew’s
refineries, tourism, electronics, and finance—the city-state successor, Goh Chok Tong (b. 1941), promised a “kinder,
has become the banking hub of the entire region. gentler” Singapore, and political restrictions on individual
Like the other Little Tigers, Singapore has relied on behavior are gradually being relaxed. In the spring of 2000,
a combination of government planning, entrepreneurial the government announced the opening of a speaker’s
spirit, export promotion, high productivity, and an excep- corner, where citizens would be permitted to express their
tionally high rate of saving to achieve industrial growth views, provided they obtained a permit and did not break
rates of nearly 10 percent annually during the last quar- the law. While this was a small step, it provided a reason for
ter of the twentieth century. Unlike optimism that a more pluralistic politi-
some other industrializing countries in cal system will gradually emerge under
the region, it has encouraged multina- CHINA the current prime minister, Lee Hsien
tional corporations to provide much- Loong (b. 1952), the son of Lee Kuan
needed capital and technological input. Shenzhen Yew. After he assumed office in 2004,
Population growth has been controlled the government announced plans to
by a stringent family planning pro- NEW TERRI TO RIES
relax restrictions on freedom of speech
gram, and literacy rates are among the and assembly in the small island state.
Kowloon
highest in Asia. Today the people of Singapore enjoy
Victoria
As in the other Little Tigers, an increasing freedoms, although poten-
authoritarian political system has pro- tial opposition elements continue to be
vided a stable environment for eco- 0 10 Kilometers South rigorously suppressed.
0 6 Miles
China
nomic growth. Until his retirement in Sea The future of Hong Kong is not
1990, Lee Kuan Yew and his People’s so clear-cut (see Map 11.5). As in
Action Party dominated Singaporean MAP 11.5 Hong Kong Singapore, sensible government
11-4 Singapore and Hong Kong: The Littlest Tigers ■ 293

representatives of Great Britain and
the PRC, the Chinese leaders made
it clear they were determined to
have Hong Kong return to mainland
authority in 1997, when the British
ninety-nine-year lease over the New
Territories, the food basket of the
colony of Hong Kong, ran out. The
British agreed, on condition that
satisfactory arrangements could be
made for the welfare of the popula-
tion. The Chinese promised that for
fifty years, the people of Hong Kong
would live under a capitalist system
and be essentially self-governing.
William J. Duiker
Recent statements and actions by

Chinese leaders, however, have
raised questions about the degree
of autonomy Hong Kong will
IMAGE 11.5 Singapore: Asia’s City of the Future. Since achieving its independence in 1965,
the city-state of Singapore has emerged as one of the most modern and efficiently run receive under Chinese rule, which
cities in Southeast Asia, if not the world. A recent symbol of this achievement is located began on July 1, 1997 (see Historical
on recently reclaimed land in the harbor, where eighteen so-called supertrees have been Voices, “Return to the Motherland,”
constructed in a public park adjacent to downtown skyscrapers. Built of concrete and p. 295). Opposition forces have been
steel, with wire rods for branches, these artificial trees rise up as much as 50 meters in
periodically harassed, and in 2012
height and are festooned with more than 160,000 tropical plants divided among 200
species. Fed by numerous solar panels and rainwater catches, these hanging gardens offer the Hong Kong government, which
a look at the future as human communities seek to find ever more innovative ways to feed normally reflects pressures from
their growing populations. Beijing, sought to install new edu-
cational guidelines similar to those
policies and the hard work of its people have enabled applied in China. Faced with severe
Hong Kong to thrive. At first, the prosperity of the colony public protests, local officials rescinded the order. More
depended on a plentiful supply of cheap labor. Inundated recently, a decision by the local government to extradite
with refugees from the mainland during the 1950s and Hong Kong residents who have been charged with certain
1960s, the population of Hong Kong burgeoned to more types of crimes for trial on the mainland has provoked
than 6 million. Many of the newcomers were willing widespread popular demonstrations against the decision.
to work for starvation wages in sweatshops produc-
ing textiles, simple appliances, and toys for the export
market. More recently, Hong Kong has benefited from
Historians
Debate 11-4a The East Asian Miracle:
increased tourism, manufacturing, and the growing eco- Fact or Myth?
nomic prosperity of neighboring Guangdong Province, What explains the striking ability of Japan and the four
the most prosperous region of the PRC. In one respect, Little Tigers to transform themselves into export-oriented
Hong Kong has differed from the other societies dis- societies capable of competing with the advanced nations
cussed in this chapter in that it has relied on an unbridled of Europe and the Western Hemisphere? Some histori-
free market system rather than active state intervention ans point to the traditional character traits of Confucian
in the economy. At the same time, by allocating substan- societies, such as thrift, a work ethic, respect for educa-
tial funds for transportation, sanitation, education, and tion, and obedience to authority. In a recent poll of Asian
public housing, the government has created favorable executives, more than 80 percent expressed the belief that
conditions for economic development. Asian values differ from those of the West, and most said
Unlike the other Little Tigers, Hong Kong remained that these values have contributed significantly to the
under colonial rule until very recently. British authorities region’s recent success. Others placed more emphasis on
did little to foster democratic institutions or practices, deliberate steps taken by government and economic lead-
and most residents of the colony cared more about eco- ers to meet the political, economic, and social challenges
nomic survival than political freedoms. In talks between their societies face.
HISTORICAL VOICES
Return to the Motherland

affairs, which are the responsibility of the Central
Q To what degree are the people of Hong Kong
People’s Government.
self-governing under these regulations? How do
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will be
the regulations infringe on the freedom of the
vested with executive, legislative, and independent judi-
population?
cial power, including that of final adjudication. The laws
currently in force in Hong Kong will remain basically
Politics & After lengthy negotiations , in 1984 unchanged.
Government
China and Great Britain agreed that on July The Government of the Hong Kong Special
1, 1997, Hong Kong would return to Chinese sovereignty. Administrative Region will be composed of local inhabit-
Key sections of the agreement are included here. In ants. The chief executive will be appointed by the Central
succeeding years, authorities of the two countries held People’s Government on the basis of the results of elec-
further negotiations. Some of the discussions raised tions or consultations by the chief executive of the Hong
questions in the minds of residents of Hong Kong as to Kong Special Administrative Region for appointment by
whether their individual liberties would indeed be respected the Central People’s Government. . . .
after the colony’s return to China. These concerns have been The current social and economic systems in Hong
amply justified in recent years. Kong will remain unchanged, and so will the lifestyle.
Rights and freedoms, including those of the person, of
The Joint Declaration on Hong Kong speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of travel,
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will of movement, of correspondence, of strike, of choice of
be directly under the authority of the Central People’s occupation, of academic research, and of religious belief
Government of the People’s Republic of China. The will be ensured by law. . . . Private property, ownership of
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will enjoy a enterprises, legitimate right of inheritance, and foreign
high degree of autonomy, except in foreign and defense investment will be protected by law.
Source: Kevin Rafferty, City on the Rocks (New York: Penguin, 1991).
There seems no reason to doubt that cultural factors began to place a high priority on economic development
connected to East Asian social traditions have contributed were the stunning advances of recent decades achieved.
to the economic success of these societies. Certainly, hab- One other factor should be taken into account. Japan
its such as frugality, industriousness, and subordination and the little Tigers were operating within a regional
of individual desires have all played a role in their govern- framework highly conducive to rapid economic devel-
ments’ ability to concentrate on the collective interest. opment. The Little Tigers received substantial inputs of
Political elites in these countries have been highly con- capital and technology from the advanced nations of the
scious of these factors and willing to use them for national West (Taiwan and South Korea from the United States,
purposes. Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore Hong Kong and Singapore from Britain). Japan relied to
deliberately fostered the inculcation of such ideals among a greater degree on its own efforts, but received a signifi-
the citizens of his small nation and often lamented the cant advantage by being placed under the U.S. security
decline of Confucian values among the young. umbrella and guaranteed access to market and sources of
As this chapter has shown, however, without active raw materials in a region dominated by U.S. naval power.
encouragement by political elites, such traditions cannot be Without an eager market in Europe and the United States
effectively harnessed for the good of society as a whole. As for consumer goods produced in Asian factories, the mira-
we will see in Chapter 12, the creative talents of the Chinese cle would certainly not have occurred. In effect, the rapid
people were not efficiently utilized under Mao Zedong dur- rise of East Asia in the postwar era was no miracle, but a
ing the frenetic years of the Cultural Revolution. Only when fortuitous combination of favorable cultural factors and
Deng Xiaoping and other pragmatists took charge and deliberate human action.
11-4 Singapore and Hong Kong: The Littlest Tigers ■ 295

On the Margins of Asia:
11-5 immigration from East and Southeast Asia has increased
rapidly. More than one-half of current immigrants to
Postwar Australia and Australia come from East Asia, and about 7 percent of
New Zealand the population of about 18 million people is now of Asian
descent. In New Zealand, residents of Asian descent rep-
resent only about 3 percent of the population of 3.5 mil-
QQ Focus Question: How has the geographical
location of Australia and New Zealand affected
lion, but about 12 percent of the population are Māori,
Polynesian peoples who settled on the islands about a
their history and culture? Do you think they thousand years ago. Second, trade relations with Asia are
should be considered a part of the region of increasing rapidly. About 60 percent of Australia’s export
Southeast Asia? markets today are in East Asia, and the region is the source
of about one-half of its imports. Asian trade with New
Technically, Australia and New Zealand are not part of Zealand is also on the increase.
Asia, and throughout their short history, both countries In recent years, both countries have been relatively
have identified culturally and politically with the West receptive to immigration from Asia, although Australia
rather than with their Asian neighbors. Their political maintained a “White Australia” policy until 1973. One
institutions and values are derived from Europe, and their reason—in the case of Australia—is to increase the popula-
economies resemble those of the advanced countries of tion density in its vast territories, although resistance to the
the world rather than the preindustrial societies of much policy has been more vocal in recent years. The country’s
of Southeast Asia. Legal ties with the United Kingdom treatment of its aboriginal minority has always left much
have been loosened since the end of World War II, but to be desired, and that continues to be the case.
citizens in both countries recently rejected a proposal to Both countries maintain strong economic ties with
form republics, thus retaining the British monarch as their China, but Beijing’s rising strength in the region is cause for
own titular head of state. Both are currently members of concern, and was undoubtedly a factor in the agreement
the British Commonwealth and of the U.S.-led ANZUS reached in 2011 to station 2,500 U.S. troops in Australia.
(Australia, New Zealand, and the United States) alliance. Both countries face the geographical challenge of balanc-
Yet trends in recent years have been drawing both ing their European traditions with the reality of their loca-
states, especially Australia, closer to Asia. In the first place, tion at the edge of the Eurasian supercontinent.
MAKING CONNECTIONS
In the years following the end of World War II, the peoples recently, government repression of opposition has been
of the Pacific Rim emerged from a decade of war to face common throughout East Asia except in Japan. In addi-
the challenge of building stable and prosperous indepen- tion, the rights of national minorities and women are often
dent states. Initially, progress was slow, as new political still limited in comparison with the advanced countries of
leaders were forced to deal with the legacy of imperialism, the West. Still, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan today have
economic dislocation, and internal disagreements over functioning democracies with stable political parties that
their visions for the future. By the end of the century, a replace each other in power without recourse to violence,
small number of nations in East Asia were well on their and the latter two have elected women to the highest posts
way to laying the foundations of advanced industrial soci- in the land. Singapore has not yet followed their example,
eties. They were the first states outside Europe and the as senior political leaders argue that a fully democratic
Western hemisphere to do so. political system is not appropriate in the country’s present
It took a little longer for Japan and the Little Tigers state of development.
to develop stable and mature political systems based on In any event, it should be kept in mind that progress
democratic principles and the rule of law. Some observ- in political pluralism and human rights has taken a long
ers complained that economic growth in the region has time to be realized in Europe and North America and even
sometimes been achieved at the cost of political freedom now frequently fails to match expectations. A rising stan-
and individual human rights, and it is true that, until dard of living, increased social mobility, and a changing
regional environment brought about by the end of the promote social justice in the countries bordering the west-
Cold War should go far to enhance political freedoms and ern Pacific.
QQWhy do you think Japan and the Little Tigers have of women in the region compare with that of their
been so successful in their efforts to build advanced counterparts elsewhere?
industrial societies? QQHow have the nations in the region dealt with
QQHow has independence affected the role of women the challenge of integrating their ethnic and religious
in southern and eastern Asia? How does the position minorities into their political systems?
CHAPTER TIMELINE
1945 1955 1965 1975 1985 1995 2005 2015 2025
Japan and
Little Tigers
Korean War Assassination of Student riots Economic recession Massive Shinzo Abe
(1950–1953) Park Chung Hee in South in Japan tsunami is Prime
(1979) Korea strikes Minister
(1987) Koizumi resigns Japan of Japan
from office (2011) (2012–
(2006) present)
End of Independence of First free Park Geun-hye
World War II Republic of Singapore elections is first woman
in Asia (1965) in Taiwan president in
(1945) South Korea (2012)
U.S. occupation Hong Kong

of Japan returns to China
(1945–1951) (1997)
Nationalist Party
returns to power
in Taiwan
(2008)
CHAPTER NOTES
1. Younger Japanese save only about 6 percent of their 3. Yukio Mishima and Geoffrey Bownas, eds., New Writing
annual income, whereas their parents saved 25 percent. in Japan (Harmondsworth, England, 1972), p. 16.
Far Eastern Economic Review, April 2005. 4. Stan Seser, “A Reporter at Large,” New Yorker, January
2. In 2003, only about 8 percent of managers in Japanese 13, 1992, p. 44.
firms were women, compared with 46 percent in the
United States. New York Times, July 25, 2003.

Chapter
The East Is Red: China Under
12 Communism
Chapter Outline and

Focus Questions
(20th century)/ Private Collection/© The Chambers Gallery, London/The Bridgeman Art Library
Chairman Mao is the Red Sun in our Hearts, August 1969 (colour litho), Chinese School,
12-1 C
hina Under Mao
Zedong
QQHow would you sum up
Mao Zedong’s political
beliefs? Why do you
think the Chinese people
eventually rejected them?
12-2 From Mao to Deng
QQHow did China under
the leadership of Deng
Xiaoping seek to change the
policies followed under his
predecessor Mao Zedong?
How might Deng have
justified these changes in
terms of Marxist-Leninist IMAGE 12.1 Art during the Great Proletarian Revolution depicts Mao Zedong as a
ideology? Chinese demigod
12-3 S erve the People: Chinese Society

“A REVOLUTION IS NOT A DINNER PARTY, or writing an
Under Communism
essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery;
QQHow do the policies adopted by Chinese leaders it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle,
differ from those adopted by their counterparts in so temperate and kind, courteous, restrained, and
Japan and elsewhere in the Pacific Rim? magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act
of violence by which one class overthrows another.”1
12-4 China’s Changing Culture With these words—written in 1926, at a time when
QQHow would you describe the various ways that the Communists, in cooperation with Chiang
Chinese culture has evolved in the years since the Kai-shek’s Nationalist Party, were embarked on
end of World War II? their Northern Expedition to defeat the warlords and
reunify China—the young revolutionary Mao Zedong
warned his colleagues that the road to victory in the
struggle to build a Communist society would be
Connections to Today arduous and would inevitably involve acts of violence
against the class enemy.
To what degree do the ideas of Karl Marx and In the mid-1960s, more than fifteen years after
Vladimir Lenin continue to resonate in China today? the Communist seizure of power in China, Mao’s
Does the Communist Party just utilize Marxist words continued to resonate, as the country entered
ideology as a means of maintaining power, or is its a new era of revolutionary violence, known as the
commitment sincere? Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. For several
years, legions of his supporters, many of them young
298
activists known as Red Guards, scoured Chinese the majority of the population, the land reform program
society for traitorous elements who supposedly that had long been in operation in “liberated areas” was
opposed Mao’s teachings by “following the capitalist now expanded throughout the country. This strategy
road.” Mao was now worshiped by the Chinese people was designed not only to win the gratitude of the rural
as a virtual living god, and some of his writings, drawn masses but also to undermine the political and economic
up into a set of his pithy sayings called the Little Red
influence of counterrevolutionary elements still loyal to
Book, were viewed as holy writ and were read—even
Chiang Kai-shek.
memorized—by millions of his compatriots.
In some ways, New Democracy was a success. About
two-thirds of the peasant households in the country
received property under the land reform program and
thus had reason to be grateful to the new regime. Spurred
12-1 China Under Mao Zedong by official tolerance for capitalist activities and the end of
QQ Focus Questions: How would you sum

up Mao Zedong’s political beliefs? Why do
the civil war, the national economy began to rebound,
although agricultural production still lagged behind both
official targets and the growing population, which was
you think the Chinese people eventually increasing at an annual rate of more than 2 percent. But
rejected them? the picture had a number of blemishes. In the course of
carrying out land redistribution, thousands, if not mil-
In the fall of 1949, China was at peace for the first time in lions, of landlords and rich farmers lost their lands, their
twelve years. The newly victorious Chinese Communist personal property, their freedom, and sometimes their
Party (CCP), under the leadership of its chairman, Mao lives. Many of those who died had been tried and con-
Zedong, turned its attention to consolidating its power victed of “crimes against the people” in tribunals set up
base and healing the wounds of war. Its long-term goal in towns and villages around the country. As Mao himself
was to construct a socialist society, but its leaders real- later conceded, many were innocent of any crime, but
ized that popular support for the revolution was based on in the eyes of the party, their deaths were necessary to
the party’s platform of honest government, land reform, destroy the power of the landed gentry in the country-
social justice, and peace rather than on the utopian side. “You can’t make an omelet,” he remarked laconi-
goal of a classless society. Accordingly, the new regime cally, “without breaking eggs.”
initially followed Soviet precedent in adopting a moder-
ate program of political and economic recovery known as 12-1b The Transition to Socialism
New Democracy.
Originally, the CCP’s leaders intended to follow the
Leninist formula of delaying the building of a fully social-
12-1a New Democracy ist society until China had a sufficient industrial base to
Under New Democracy—patterned roughly after Lenin’s permit the mechanization of agriculture. In 1953, they
New Economic Policy in Soviet Russia in the 1920s launched the nation’s first five-year plan (patterned after
(see Chapter 4)—the capitalist system of ownership earlier Soviet plans), which called for substantial increases
was retained in the industrial and commercial sectors. A in industrial output. Lenin had believed that the promise
program of land redistribution was adopted, but the of mechanization would give Russian peasants an incen-
collectivization of agriculture was postponed. Only after tive to join collective farms, which, because of their
the CCP had consolidated its rule and brought a degree greater size, could better afford to purchase expensive farm
of prosperity to the national economy would the difficult machinery. But the enormous challenge of providing trac-
transformation to a socialist society begin. tors and reapers for millions of rural villages eventually
In following Soviet precedent, Chinese leaders tacitly convinced Mao Zedong and some of his colleagues that it
recognized that time and extensive indoctrination would would take years, if not decades, for China’s infant indus-
be needed to convince the Chinese people of the supe- trial base to meet the burgeoning needs of a modernizing
riority of socialism. In the meantime, the party would agricultural sector. He therefore decided to begin collec-
rely on capitalist profit incentives to spur productivity. tivization immediately, in the hope that collective farms
Manufacturing and commercial firms were permitted would increase food production and release land, labor,
to remain in private hands, but they were placed under and capital for the industrial sector.
stringent government regulations and were encouraged Accordingly, beginning in 1955, the Chinese govern-
to form “joint enterprises” with the government. To ment launched a new program to transform the country
win the support of the poorer peasants, who made up into a socialist society. Virtually all private farmland was
12-1 China Under Mao Zedong ■ 299
collectivized, although peasant families were allowed to Although the commune structure was retained, ownership
retain small plots for their private use (a Chinese ver- and management were returned to the collective level.
sion of the private plots adopted in the Soviet Union). In Mao was severely criticized by some of his more pragmatic
addition, most industry and commerce were national- colleagues (one remarked bitingly that “one cannot reach
ized, as joint enterprises were transformed into fully Heaven in a single step”), causing him to complain that
socialist ones. he had been relegated to the sidelines “like a Buddha on
On paper, the results were impressive. Collectivization a shelf.”
was achieved without arousing the massive peasant unrest
that had occurred in the Soviet Union during the 1930s,
perhaps because the Chinese government followed a pol- 12-1c The Great Proletarian
icy of persuasion rather than compulsion (Mao remarked Cultural Revolution
that Stalin had “drained the pond to catch the fish”) and But Mao, still an imposing figure within the CCP, was not
because the land reform program had already earned the yet ready to abandon either his power or his dream of an
support of millions of rural Chinese. But the hoped-for egalitarian society. In 1966, he returned to the attack, mobi-
production increases did not materialize, and in 1958, at lizing discontented youth and disgruntled workers and
Mao’s insistent urging, party leaders approved a more party members into revolutionary units (soon to be known
radical program known as the Great Leap Forward. as Red Guards) who were urged to take to the streets to
Existing rural collectives, normally the size of a tradi- cleanse Chinese society—from local schools and factories
tional village, were combined into vast “people’s com- to government ministries in Beijing—of impure elements
munes,” each containing more than 30,000 people. These who in Mao’s mind were guilty of “taking the capitalist
communes were to be responsible for all administrative road.” Supported by his wife, Jiang Qing (1914–1991), and
and economic tasks at the local level. The party’s official other radical party figures, Mao launched China on a new
slogan promised “Hard work for a few years, happiness forced march toward communism.
for a thousand.”2 The so-called Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
Mao hoped this program would mobilize the popula- lasted for ten years, from 1966 to 1976. Some Western
tion for a massive effort to accelerate economic growth observers interpreted it as a simple power struggle
and ascend to the final stage of communism before the between Mao and some of his key rivals such as head of
end of the twentieth century. It is better, he said, to “strike state Liu Shaoqi (1898–1969) and Deng Xiaoping (1904–
while the iron is hot” and advance the revolution without 1997), the party’s general secretary. Both were removed
interruption. Some party members were concerned that from their positions, and Liu later died, allegedly of tor-
this ambitious program would threaten the government’s ture, in a Chinese prison. But real policy disagreements
rural base of support, but Mao argued that Chinese peas- were involved. One reason Mao had advocated the Great
ants were naturally revolutionary in spirit: Leap Forward was to bypass the party and government
[The Chinese rural masses are] first of all, poor, and bureaucracy, which in his view had lost their revolutionary
secondly, blank. That may seem like a bad thing, but it is zeal and were primarily concerned with protecting their
really a good thing. Poor people want change, want to power. Now he and his supporters feared that capitalist val-
do things, want revolution. A clean sheet of paper has no ues and the remnants of “feudalist” Confucian ideas and
blotches, and so the newest and most beautiful words can practices would undermine ideological fervor and betray
be written on it, the newest and most beautiful pictures the revolutionary cause. Mao himself was convinced that
can be painted on it.3 only an atmosphere of constant revolutionary fervor, or
uninterrupted revolution as he called it, could enable the
Those words, of course, were socialism and communism. Chinese to overcome their past lethargy and achieve the
The Great Leap Forward was a disaster. Administrative final stage of utopian communism. “I care not,” he once
bottlenecks, bad weather, and peasant resistance to the wrote, “that the winds blow and the waves beat. It is better
new system (which, among other things, attempted to than standing idly in a courtyard.”
eliminate work incentives and destroy the traditional fam- His opponents worried that Mao’s “heaven-storming”
ily as the basic unit of Chinese society) combined to drive approach could delay economic growth and antagonize
food production downward, and over the next few years, the people. They argued for a more pragmatic strategy
as many as 15 million people may have died of starvation. that would give priority to nation building over the ulti-
Many peasants were reportedly reduced to eating the bark mate Communist goal of spiritual transformation. But
off trees and in some cases allowing infants to starve. In with Mao’s supporters now in power, the CCP carried
1960, the commune experiment was essentially abandoned. out vast economic and educational reforms that virtually
300 ■ CHAPTER 12 The East Is Red: China Under Communism
MOVIES & HISTORY
The Last Emperor (1987)
On November 14, 1908, the Chinese emperor Guangxu
died in Beijing. One day later, Empress Dowager Cixi—the
real power behind the throne—passed away as well. A
three-year-old boy, to be known in history as Henry Puyi,
Stanley Bielecki Movie Collection/Getty Images

ascended the throne. Four years later, the Qing dynasty
collapsed, and the deposed monarch lived out the remain-
der of his life in a China lashed by political turmoil and
violence. He finally died in 1967 at the height of the
Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
The Last Emperor, directed by the Italian filmmaker
Bernardo Bertolucci and winner of nine Academy Awards,
is a brilliant portrayal of the experience of one hapless
individual in a nation caught up in the throes of a seem-
Three-year-old Puyi (Richard Vuu), the last emperor of China,
ingly endless revolution. The film evokes the fading maj- watches an emissary approach at the Imperial Palace.
esty of the last days of imperial China but also the chaos
of the warlord era and the terrors of the Maoist period, The film, based on Puyi’s autobiography, benefits from
when the last shreds of the ex-emperor’s personality having been filmed partly on site in the Imperial City. In
were shattered under the pressure of Communist brain- addition to the Chinese American actors John Lone and
washing techniques. The film’s portrayal of the regime’s Joan Chen, the cast includes the veteran film star Peter
thought reform program provides a frightening example O’Toole, who plays Puyi’s tutor when he was an adolescent.
of how Mao and his colleagues obtained compliance from
Chinese citizens for their revolutionary objectives. Puyi Q The Last Emperor portrays Emperor Puyi as a
nondescript individual caught up in events well
(John Lone), who never appears to grasp what is happen-
beyond his understanding. Based on this description
ing to his country, lives and dies a nonentity.
of the film, do you think that is a fair characterization?
eliminated any remaining profit incentives, established colors in stoplights be changed so that red (the revolution-
a new school system that emphasized “Mao Zedong ary color) would indicate that traffic could move.
thought,” and stressed practical education at the elemen- But a mood of revolutionary enthusiasm is difficult to
tary level at the expense of specialized training in science sustain. Key groups, including party bureaucrats, urban
and the humanities in the universities. School learning professionals, and many military officers, did not share
was discouraged as a legacy of capitalism, and Mao’s Mao’s belief in the benefits of uninterrupted revolution
famous Little Red Book, composed partly of Maoist apho- and constant turmoil. Many were alienated by the arbi-
risms to encourage good behavior and revolutionary trary actions of the Red Guards, who indiscriminately
zeal, was hailed as the most important source of knowl- accused and brutalized their victims in a society where
edge in all areas. legal safeguards had almost entirely vanished (see Movies
The radicals’ efforts to destroy all vestiges of tradi- & History, The Last Emperor, above). Whether the Cultural
tional society were reminiscent of the Reign of Terror in Revolution led to declining productivity is a matter of
revolutionary France, when the Jacobins sought to destroy debate. Inevitably, however, the sense of anarchy and
organized religion and even created a new revolutionary uncertainty caused popular support for the movement to
calendar to replace the traditional Christian system. Red erode, and when the end came with Mao’s death in 1976,
Guards rampaged through the country attempting to erad- the vast majority of the population may well have wel-
icate the “four olds” (old thought, old culture, old customs, comed its demise (see Image 12.2).
and old habits). They destroyed temples and religious Personal accounts by young Chinese who took part in
sculptures; they tore down street signs and replaced them the Cultural Revolution show that their initial enthusiasm
with new ones carrying revolutionary names. At one point, often turned to disillusionment. In Son of the Revolution,
the city of Shanghai even ordered that the significance of Liang Heng tells how at first he helped friends organize
12-1 China Under Mao Zedong ■ 301
HISTORICAL VOICES
Make Revolution!
The leading Red Guard, a gangling youth with angry
Q How do the tactics of the Red Guards compare
eyes, stepped forward and said to me, “We are the Red
with those employed by the cadres during the land
Guards. We have come to take revolutionary action
reform program in the early 1950s? To what degree
against you!”
did they succeed in remaking the character of the
Though I knew it was futile, I held up the copy
Chinese people?
of the Constitution and said calmly, “It’s against the
Constitution of the People’s Republic of China to enter a
Politics & In 1966, Mao Zedong unleashed the power of private house without a search warrant.”
Government revolution on China. Rebellious youth in the The young man snatched the document out of my
form of Red Guards rampaged through all levels of society, hand and threw it on the floor. With his eyes blazing, he
exposing anti-Maoist elements, suspected “capitalist said, “The Constitution is abolished. It was a document
roaders,” and those identified with the previous ruling class. written by the Revisionists within the Communist Party.
In this poignant excerpt, Nien Cheng (nee-uhn CHUHNG), We recognize only the teachings of our Great Leader
the widow of an official of Chiang Kaishek’s regime, Chairman Mao.” . . .
describes a visit by Red Guards to her home during the Another young man used a stick to smash the mirror
height of the Cultural Revolution. hanging over the blackwood chest facing the front door.
Mounting the stairs, I was astonished to see several
Nien Cheng, Life and Death in Shanghai Red Guards taking pieces of my porcelain collection out
Suddenly the doorbell began to ring incessantly. At the of their padded boxes. One young man had arranged a set
same time, there was furious pounding of many fists on of four Kangxi wine cups in a row on the floor and was
my front gate, accompanied by the confused sound of stepping on them. I was just in time to hear the crunch of
hysterical voices shouting slogans. The cacophony told delicate porcelain under the sole of his shoe. The sound
me that the time of waiting was over and that I must face pierced my heart. Impulsively I leapt forward and caught
the threat of the Red Guards and the destruction of my his leg just as he raised his foot to crush the next cup. He
home. . . . toppled. We fell in a heap together. . . .
I stood up to put the book on the shelf. A copy of the The young man whose revolutionary work of destruc-
Constitution of the People’s Republic caught my eye. tion I had interrupted said angrily, “You shut up! These
Taking it in my hand and picking up the bunch of keys I things belong to the old culture. They are the useless toys
had ready on my desk, I went downstairs. of the feudal emperors and the modern capitalist class
At the same moment, the Red Guards pushed open and have no significance to us, the proletarian class. . . .
the front door and entered the house. There were thirty Our Great Leader Chairman Mao taught us, ‘If we do
or forty senior high school students, aged between fifteen not destroy, we cannot establish.’ The old culture must be
and twenty, led by two men and one woman much older. destroyed to make way for the new socialist culture.”
Source: From Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng (New York: Penguin, 1986).
Red Guard groups: “I thought it was a great idea. We enemies of the revolution. The family home was regularly
would be following Chairman Mao just like the grownups, raided by Red Guards, and their father was severely beaten
and Father would be proud of me. I suppose I too resented and tortured for having three neckties and “Western
the teachers who had controlled and criticized me for so shirts.” Books, paintings, and writings were piled in the
long, and I looked forward to a little revenge.”4 Later, he center of the floor and burned before his eyes. On leaving,
had reason to repent. His sister ran off to join the local a few of the Red Guards helped themselves to his monthly
Red Guard group. Prior to her departure, she denounced salary and his transistor radio (see Historical Voices “Make
her mother and the rest of her family as “rightists” and Revolution!” above).

government, attention focused on what were called the
Four Modernizations: industry, agriculture, technol-
ogy, and national defense. Deng had been a leader of the
faction that opposed Mao’s program of rapid socialist
transformation, and during the Cultural Revolution, he
had been forced to perform menial labor to “sincerely
correct his errors.” But Deng continued to espouse the
pragmatic approach and reportedly once remarked,
“Black cat, white cat, what does it matter so long
as it catches the mice?” Under the program of Four
Modernizations, many of the restrictions against private
activities and profit incentives were eliminated, and peo-
ple were encouraged to work hard to benefit themselves
and Chinese society. The government popularized the
idea that all Chinese would prosper, although not neces-
AP Images
sarily at the same speed. Familiar slogans such as “Serve

the people” and “Uphold the banner of Marxist-Leninist-
Maoist thought” were replaced by new ones repugnant
IMAGE 12.2 Punishing China’s Enemies during the Cultural
Revolution. During the Great Proletarian Revolution, individuals to the tenets of Mao Zedong thought: “Create wealth for
classified as “class enemies” were often seized and publicly the people” and “Time is money.” The party announced
humiliated to set an example for observers. In this photograph that China was still at the “primary stage of socialism”
from the 1960s, Red Guards parade a victim wearing a dunce and might not reach the state of utopian communism
cap through the streets of Beijing before instilling further
for generations.
punishment. In many cases, these enemies of the state were
subjected to torture and even execution. Crucial to the program’s success was the govern-
ment’s ability to attract foreign technology and capital.
Q Why do you think the United States and other democratic
nations do not punish wrong-doers by inflicting such
For more than two decades, China had been isolated
public humiliation on them? from technological advances taking place elsewhere in
the world. Although China’s leaders understandably
prided themselves on their nation’s capacity for “self-
12-2 From Mao to Deng reliance,” their isolationist policy had been exceedingly
costly for the national economy. China’s post-Mao lead-
QQ Focus Questions: How did China under the

leadership of Deng Xiaoping seek to change the
ers blamed the country’s backwardness on the “ten lost
years” of the Cultural Revolution, but the “lost years,” at
least in technological terms, extended back to 1949 and
policies followed under his predecessor Mao
Zedong? How might Deng have justified these in some respects even before. Now, to make up for lost
changes in terms of Marxist-Leninist ideology? time, the government encouraged foreign investment
and sent thousands of students and specialists abroad to
study capitalist techniques.
In September 1976, Mao Zedong died at the age of eighty-
By adopting this pragmatic approach in the years
three. After a short but bitter succession struggle, the
after 1976, China made great strides in ending its chronic
pragmatists led by Deng Xiaoping seized power from the
problems of poverty and underdevelopment. Per capita
radicals and brought the Cultural Revolution to an end.
income roughly doubled during the 1980s; housing, edu-
Mao’s widow, Jiang Qing, and three other leading radicals
cation, and sanitation improved; and both agricultural and
(derisively called the “Gang of Four” by their opponents)
industrial output skyrocketed. But critics, both Chinese
were put on trial and sentenced to death or to long terms
and foreign, complained that Deng Xiaoping’s program
in prison. The egalitarian policies of the previous decade
had failed to achieve a “fifth modernization”: democracy.
were reversed, and a new program emphasizing economic
Official sources denied such charges and spoke proudly of
modernization was introduced.
restoring “socialist legality” by doing away with the arbi-
trary punishments applied during the Cultural Revolution.
12-2a The Four Modernizations Deng himself encouraged the Chinese people to speak out
Under the leadership of Deng, who installed his sup- against earlier excesses. In the late 1970s, ordinary citizens
porters in key positions throughout the party and the began to paste posters criticizing the abuses of the past on
12-2 From Mao to Deng ■ 303

the so-called Democracy Wall near Tiananmen Square in even with disdain. Several remarked to me that the student
downtown Beijing. protests reminded them of the unruly behavior of the Red
Yet it soon became clear that the new leaders would Guards twenty years previously, and some declared that
not tolerate any direct criticism of the CCP or of Marxist- it was the responsibility of young Chinese to remain in
Leninist ideology. Dissidents were suppressed, and some school. The legacy of the Cultural Revolution may be one
were sentenced to long prison terms. Among them was reason why many Chinese today continue to prize social
the well-known astrophysicist Fang Lizhi, who spoke out stability over individual freedom.
publicly against official corruption and the continuing The demonstrations divided the Chinese leaders.
influence of Marxist-Leninist concepts in post-Mao China, Reformist elements around party general secretary Zhao
telling an audience in Hong Kong that “China will not Ziyang were sympathetic to the protesters, but veteran
be able to modernize if it does not break the shackles of leaders such as Deng saw the students’ demands for more
Maoist and Stalinist-style socialism.” Fang immediately felt democracy as a disguised call for an end to the CCP’s
the weight of official displeasure. He was refused permis- rule (see Opposing Viewpoints, “Students Appeal for
sion to travel abroad, and articles that he submitted to offi- Democracy,” p. 305). After some hesitation, the govern-
cial periodicals were rejected. ment sent tanks and troops into Tiananmen Square to
The problem began to intensify in the late 1980s, as crush the demonstrators. Dissidents were arrested, and
more Chinese began to study abroad and more informa- the regime once again began to stress ideological purity
tion about Western society reached educated individuals and socialist values. Although the crackdown provoked
inside the country. Rising expectations aroused by the widespread criticism abroad, Chinese leaders insisted that
economic improvements of the early 1980s led to increas- economic reforms could only take place in conditions of
ing pressure from students and other urban residents party leadership and political stability.
for better living conditions, relaxed restrictions on study Deng and other aging party leaders turned to the army
abroad, and increased freedom to select employment to protect their base of power and suppress what they
after graduation. described as “counterrevolutionary elements.” Deng was
undoubtedly counting on the fact that many Chinese, par-
12-2b Incident at Tiananmen Square ticularly in rural areas, feared a recurrence of the disorder
As long as economic conditions for the majority of of the Cultural Revolution and craved economic prosper-
Chinese were improving, other classes did not share ity more than political reform. In the months following
the students’ discontent, and the government was able the confrontation, the government issued new regula-
to isolate them from other elements in society. But in tions requiring courses on Marxist-Leninist ideology in the
the late 1980s, an overheated economy led to rising infla- schools, winnowed out dissidents in the intellectual com-
tion and growing discontent among salaried workers, munity, and made it clear that while economic reforms
especially in the cities. At the same time, corruption, would continue, the CCP’s monopoly of power would not
nepotism, and favored treatment for senior officials and be allowed to decay. Harsh punishments were imposed on
party members were provoking increasing criticism. In those accused of undermining the Communist system and
May 1989, student protesters carried placards demand- supporting its enemies abroad.
ing Science and Democracy (reminiscent of the slogan
of the May Fourth Movement, whose seventieth anni- 12-2c Riding the Tiger
versary was celebrated in the spring of 1989), an end to After Tiananmen, party leaders began to realize the com-
official corruption, and the resignation of China’s aging plexity of maintaining control and stability in a rapidly
party leadership. These demands received widespread changing society. “When you ride the tiger,” goes an ancient
support from the urban population and led to massive Chinese proverb, “it’s hard to dismount.” Accordingly, in
protests in Tiananmen Square. the 1990s the government sought to nurture urban sup-
The demonstrations in Beijing and other major cities port by reducing the rate of inflation and guaranteeing
were greeted with less enthusiasm in rural areas, where the availability of consumer goods in demand among
economic conditions had been steadily improving dur- the rising middle class. Under Deng Xiaoping’s successor,
ing the 1980s and where memories of the disruptive era Jiang Zemin ( JAHNG zuh-MIN) (b. 1926), the govern-
of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution were still ment promoted rapid economic growth, while cracking
strong. In my own travels through central China during down harshly on political dissent. Massive construction
the Tiananmen crisis, I encountered much enthusiasm for projects, including a nationwide rail network, modern
the protest movement among urban young people, but airports, and dams to provide hydroelectric power, were
many older Chinese reacted to the events with unease or initiated throughout the country. As industrial production
Opposing Viewpoints
Students Appeal for Democracy

Q What were the key demands of the
protesters in Tiananmen Square?
Were they approved by the Chinese
government?
Politics & In the spring of 1989, thousands

Government of students gathered in
Tiananmen Square in downtown Beijing to
provide moral support to their many compatriots
who had gone on a hunger strike in an effort to
William J. Duiker
compel the Chinese government to reduce the
level of official corruption and enact democratic
reforms, opening the political process to the
Chinese people. The first selection is from an
editorial published on April 26 by the official IMAGE 12.3 Student protesters gather in Tiananmen Square in May 1989.
newspaper People’s Daily. Fearing that the
student demonstrations would get out of hand, as
had happened during the Cultural Revolution, the editorial following two points:
condemned the protests for being contrary to the Communist
1. To engage on a sincere and equal basis in a dialogue
Party. On May 17, student leaders distributed flyers
with the “higher education dialogue group.” In addi-
explaining the goals of the movement to participants and
tion, to broadcast the actual dialogue in its entirety.
passersby, including the author of this text. The second
We absolutely refuse to agree to a partial broadcast,
selection is from one of these flyers.
to empty gestures, or to fabrications that dupe
People’s Daily Editorial, April 26, 1989
the people.
2. To evaluate in a fair and realistic way the patriotic
This is a well-planned plot . . . to confuse the people
democratic movement. Discard the label of “trouble-
and throw the country into turmoil. . . . Its real aim is
making” and redress the reputation of the patriotic
to reject the Chinese Communist Party and the socialist
democratic movement.
system at the most fundamental level. . . . This is a most
serious political struggle that concerns the whole Party It is our view that the request for a dialogue between
and nation. the people’s government and the people is not an unrea-
sonable one. Our party always follows the principle of
“Why Do We Have to Undergo a Hunger Strike?” seeking truths from actual facts. It is therefore only natu-
By 2:00 p.m. today, the hunger strike carried out by the ral that the evaluation of this patriotic democratic move-
petition group in Tiananmen Square has been under way ment should be done in accordance with the principle of
for 96 hours. By this morning, more than 600 participants seeking truths from actual facts.
have fainted. When these democracy fighters were lifted Our classmates who are going through the hunger
into the ambulances, no one who was present was not strike are the good sons and daughters of the people! One
moved to tears. by one, they have fallen. In the meantime, our “public
Our petition group now undergoing the hunger strike servants” are completely unmoved. Please, let us ask
demands that at a minimum the government agree to the where your conscience is.
Sources: “People’s Daily” Editorial from People’s Daily Editorial, April 26, 1989; from a flyer in the archives of William J. Duiker.

continued to rise, living standards, at least in urban areas, Xi was also quick to attack potential adversaries, at
soon followed, and outside observers began to predict that home and abroad. Internally, he cracked down on critics
China would become one of the economic superpowers who sought—in his words—“to negate the legitimacy of
of the twenty-first century. the long-term rule of the CCP.” Externally he adopted an
But now a new challenge arose, as lagging farm income, aggressive posture against perceived threats to national
official corruption, and increasing environmental prob- security from hostile Western forces and ideas. As he began
lems began to spark resentment in the countryside. Highly his second term in office, President Xi continued to consol-
sensitive to the historic record that suggested that peasant idate his power by persuading colleagues to eliminate the
revolt was often the harbinger of dynastic collapse, party two-term limitation on the presidency, while seeking to
leaders sought to contain the issue with a combination of “ride the tiger” of China’s long-term growth into a major
the carrot and the stick. The problem was complicated, world power.
however, by the fact that with the rise of cell phones and
the Internet, the Chinese people were becoming much
more aware of events taking place around them. As the 12-2d Back to Confucius?
public exchange of ideas rapidly increased in the new elec- Through this period of trial and error, senior leaders have
tronic age, dissidents found a forum to voice their views, remained steadfast in their belief that the Communist
while countless ordinary people were newly enabled to Party must remain the sole political force in charge of car-
exchange information on incidents and issues that official rying out the revolution. Ever fearful of chaos, they are
sources wished to suppress. Although the regime scram- convinced that only a firm hand at the tiller can keep the
bled to arrest or intimidate key dissidents and limit pub- ship of state from crashing onto the rocks. At the same
lic access to events taking place in China and around the time, they have tacitly come to recognize that Marxist
world, it was facing an uphill battle. exhortations are no longer an effective means of enforc-
New leaders installed in 2002 appeared aware of the ing social discipline. Accordingly, they have increasingly
magnitude of the challenge. Hu Jintao (b. 1943), the turned to the time-honored nostrum of Confucian prin-
new party general secretary and head of state, called for ciples—notably, hard work, obedience to a superior, and
further reforms to open up Chinese society, reduce the sacrifice for the general good—as a tool to influence politi-
level of corruption, and bridge the yawning gap between cal and social attitudes. Ceremonies celebrating the birth
rich and poor. But the new policies did not entirely fulfill of Confucius now receive official sanction, and hallowed
expectations. Although the economy continued to grow social virtues such as righteousness, propriety, and filial
rapidly during the first decade of the new millennium, piety are widely cited as an antidote to the tide of allegedly
many of the key issues of public concern remained unre- antisocial behavior.
solved, and as party elders gathered in the fall of 2012 to In a striking departure from the precepts of Marxist
select a new slate of leaders for the next decade, it was internationalism, official sources in Beijing have also
clear that rapid economic growth, by itself, was not a pan- turned to Chinese history to defend their assertion that
acea for China’s ills. China is unique and will not follow the path of “peaceful
In the fall of 2010, Xi Jinping (b. 1953), the son of one evolution” (to use their term) toward a future democratic
of Mao Zedong’s closest comrades, was elected president capitalist society. In words that turn the teachings of Mao
of the People’s Republic of China. As a young man, Xi Zedong on their head, President Xi has quoted the ideas
had spent time in the United States and he was generally of some of China’s ancient thinkers, while declaring that
viewed as a pragmatist, but it soon became clear that he the party is “the loyal inheritor and promoter of China’s
was determined to adopt an ambitious agenda to attack traditional culture.” The virtues of ancient Chinese society
the country’s problems and bring to fruition what he are extolled, while the United States is publicly ridiculed
described as “the Chinese dream,” a slogan that appeared for the allegedly dysfunctional character of its own demo-
to reflect above all the traditional imperial goal of wealth cratic system of government.
and power. Although one of his most highly publicized
objectives was to target the rampant corruption within Chasing the Chinese Dream The regime has also begun
the senior ranks of the party, he undercut his message to rely on another familiar tactic to retain control—
by simultaneously taking steps to strengthen the state- stoking the fires of nationalism. Although Chinese lead-
owned enterprises, a sector of the economy which was ers have never been shy in defending what are now labeled
not only marked by inefficiency but was also the source their “core interests” within the Pacific Rim, they have
of much of the wealth in the hands of many leading gov- tended to adopt cautious policies in practice. Recently,
ernment and party officials. however, China has begun to play an increasingly

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MAP 12.1 The People’s Republic of China. This map shows China’s current boundaries.
Major regions are indicated in capital letters.
Q In which regions are there movements against Chinese rule?
assertive role in the region. It has not been shy in seek- “One Belt, One Road Initiative.” Described by Chinese
ing to counter U.S. influence in East and Southeast Asia, sources as an effort to “enhance regional connectivity and
and has aroused concern by claiming sole ownership embrace a brighter future,” it consists of an offer by China
over the Spratly (sprat-LEE) Islands in the South China to help finance roads, bridges, and port facilities through-
Sea and over the Diaoyu (DYOW-you) Islands (also out the Eurasian supercontinent and on to the continent
claimed by Japan, which calls them the Senkakus) near of Africa. Although a number of countries throughout
Taiwan (see Map 12.1). To strengthen their presence the region have accepted the Chinese offer of providing
in the area, the PRC has recently built artificial islands infrastructure assistance, to many observers, China’s new
not far off the coast of the Philippines and has made no posture raises suspicions that Beijing is once again prepar-
secret of its determination to create a deep-water navy ing to flex its muscles as it did periodically in the impe-
that can compete with potential rivals over influence rial era. Indeed, there is no doubt that Chinese strategists
within the region. In the meantime, relations with the view the program as providing the country with political
United States over the island of Taiwan, always a matter influence and access to precious raw materials necessary to
of considerable sensitivity on both sides, have become achieve President Xi’s “Chinese dream.” Beijing argues that
increasingly tense. such actions represent legitimate efforts to resume China’s
In 2013, President Xi Jinping announced an ambitious rightful role in the affairs of the region. After a century
new foreign policy program known originally as the of humiliation at the hands of the Western powers and

million Muslims in Xinjiang have been
sent forcibly to re-education camps
to prevent them from listening to the
siren call of Islamic fundamentalism.
In the meantime, the regime has
been looking with growing uneasi-
ness on the increasing interest in
religious faith within the Chinese
population. Christian churches that
have not agreed to follow rigid state
requirements have been closed, and
their followers are subjected to offi-
cial persecution. Chinese leaders are
particularly suspicious of evangelical
Claire L. Duiker
sects like the Falun Gong religious

movement, which the regime had
attempted to eliminate as a poten-
IMAGE 12.4 The Potala Palace in Tibet. Tibet was a distant and reluctant appendage tially serious threat to its authority.
of the Chinese empire during the Qing Dynasty. Since the Communist Party’s rise But the rise in church attendance
to power in 1949, the regime in Beijing has consistently sought to integrate Tibet among the population, as well as
into the People’s Republic of China. Resistance to Chinese rule, however, has been increasing interest in historically
widespread. In recent years, the Dalai Lama, the leading religious figure in Tibetan
Chinese faiths like Buddhism and
Buddhism, has attempted without success to persuade Chinese leaders to allow a
measure of autonomy for the Tibetan people. In 2008, massive riots by frustrated Daoism, is an additional indication
Tibetans took place in the capital city of Lhasa (LAH-suh) just before the opening that with the disintegration of the old
of the Olympic Games in Beijing. The Potala Palace, symbol of Tibetan identity, was Maoist utopia, the Chinese people
constructed in the seventeenth century in Lhasa and serves today as the foremost will need more than a pallid version
symbol of the national and cultural aspirations of the Tibetan people.
of Marxism-Leninism or a revived
Confucianism to fill the gap.
neighboring Japan, the nation, in Mao’s famous words at

the Gate of Heavenly Peace in 1949, “has stood up,” and no
one will be permitted to humiliate it again. Serve the People:
12-3
Most Chinese appear to approve of their govern- Chinese Society Under
ment’s assertive role in world affairs. In recent years, a fer-
vent patriotism seems to be on the rise in China, actively Communism
promoted by the party as a means of holding the coun-
try together. The decision by the International Olympic
Committee to award the 2008 Summer Games to Beijing
QQ Focus Question: How do the social policies
adopted by Chinese leaders differ from those
led to widespread celebration throughout the country. The adopted by their counterparts in Japan and
event symbolized China’s emergence as a major national elsewhere in the Pacific Rim?
power on the world stage. A large majority also support
China’s insistence that the island of Taiwan should be Enormous changes took place in Chinese society after
returned to the control of the motherland. the Communist rise to power in 1949. Yet beneath the
Pumping up the spirit of patriotism, however, is not surface of rapid change were tantalizing hints that much
the solution to all problems. Unrest is growing among of the old China still endured. The political system was
China’s national minorities: in Xinjiang, where restless still essentially autocratic, the people were trained to obey
Muslim peoples are observing with curiosity the emer- their leaders, and the governing class consisted of a small
gence of independent Islamic states in Central Asia, and elite trained in a single doctrine. Despite all the efforts of
in Tibet, where the official policy of quelling separatist Mao Zedong and his colleagues, the ideas of “Confucius
sentiment has led to the violent suppression of Tibetan and sons” had still not been irrevocably discarded. China
culture and an influx of thousands of ethnic Chinese under communism remained a society that was still in
immigrants (see Image 12.4). In recent years, up to one many respects enthralled by its past.

12-3a The Politics of the Mass Line approach and now sought to adopt a more cautious road
Nowhere was this uneasy balance between the old and the to nation building. To Mao, such views were a betrayal
new more clearly demonstrated than in politics and gov- of the party’s revolutionary principles. The Cultural
ernment. In its broad outlines, the new political system fol- Revolution, which he launched in 1966, can be seen above
lowed the Soviet pattern. Yet from the start, CCP leaders all as his attempt to cleanse the system of its impurities and
made it clear that the Chinese model would differ from the put Chinese society back on the straight road to egalitarian
Soviet in important respects. Whereas the Bolsheviks had communism.
severely distrusted nonrevolutionary elements in Russia In turning his ire on the establishment, Mao found will-
and established a minority government based on the radi- ing ears among the mass of the population, as popular
cal left, Mao and his colleagues were more confident that— discontent was stirring in many sectors of society. Young
at least initially—they possessed the basic support of the people in particular, alienated by the lack of job opportu-
majority of the Chinese people. Under New Democracy, nities and a program that shipped millions of youths to
the party attempted to reach out to all progressive classes rural areas of the country to work with villagers or carry
in the population to maintain the alliance that had brought out massive building projects, flocked to his cause and
it to power in the first place. served with enthusiasm in the Red Guard organizations
The primary link between the regime and the popula- that became the shock troops of the revolution. Laborers
tion was the system of “mass organizations,” representing angered by arrogant superiors or harsh working conditions
peasants, workers, women, religious groups, writers, and often served as willing allies. But the enthusiasms aroused
artists. The party had established these associations during by the Cultural Revolution did not last, and a period of
the 1920s to mobilize support for the revolution. Now they reaction inevitably set in. In China, revolutionary fervor
served as a conduit between party and people, enabling gave way to a new era in which belief in socialist ideals was
the leaders to assess the attitude of the masses while at the replaced by a more practical desire for material benefits.
same time seeking their support for the party’s programs.
Behind this facade of representative institutions stood the 12-3b Economics in Command
awesome power of the CCP. Deng Xiaoping recognized the need to restore a sense of
Initially, this “mass line” system worked fairly well. “socialist legality” and credibility to a system that was on
Although opposition to the regime was ruthlessly sup- the verge of breakdown and hoped that rapid economic
pressed and there was no pretense at Western-style democ- growth would satisfy the Chinese people and prevent
racy, China finally had a government that appeared to be them from demanding political reforms. Mindful of the
“for the people.” Farmland had been distributed on a more disruptive consequences of the period of turmoil just
equitable basis among the rural population, and exploit- experienced, the post-Mao leaders demonstrated a will-
ative landlords had been punished. Corrupt officials and ingness to emphasize economic performance over ideo-
bureaucratic mismanagement and arrogance had by no logical purity. To stimulate the stagnant industrial sector,
means been entirely eliminated, but the new ruling class which had been under state control since the end of the
came preponderantly from the workers and peasants and era of New Democracy, they reduced bureaucratic con-
was more willing than its predecessors to listen to the com- trols over state industries and allowed local managers to
plaints and aspirations of its constituents. have more say over prices, salaries, and quality control.
But the adoption of the Great Leap Forward betrayed Productivity was encouraged by permitting bonuses to be
a fundamental weakness in the policy of the mass line. paid for extra effort, a policy that had been discouraged
While declaring his willingness to listen to the concerns of during the Cultural Revolution. State firms were no lon-
the population, Mao was also determined to build a uto- ger guaranteed access to precious resources and were told
pian society based on Marxist-Leninist principles. Popular to compete with each other for public favor and even to
acceptance of nationalization and collectivization during export goods on their own initiative. The regime also toler-
the mid-1950s indicates that the Chinese people were not ated the emergence of a small private sector. Unemployed
entirely hostile to cooperative ownership, but when those youth were encouraged to set up restaurants, bicycle or
programs were carried to an extreme during the Great Leap radio repair shops, and handicraft shops on their own ini-
Forward, many Chinese, even within the party, resisted and tiative. At first, such enterprises were legally limited to
forced the government to abandon the program. seven employees—to prevent exploitation—but eventually
The failure of the Great Leap Forward split the CCP the restrictions were relaxed.
and led to the revolutionary disturbances of the following Finally, the regime opened up the country to foreign
decade. Some of Mao’s associates had opposed his radical investment and technology. The Maoist policy of
12-3 Serve the People: Chinese Society Under Communism ■ 309

self-reliance was abandoned, and China openly sought the of China’s most crucial staple. Finally, the agricultural pol-
advice of foreign experts and the money of foreign capi- icy threatened to undermine the government’s population
talists. Special economic zones were established in urban control program, which party leaders viewed as crucial to
centers near the coast (ironically, many were located in the the success of the Four Modernizations.
old nineteenth-century treaty ports), where lucrative con-
cessions were offered to encourage foreign firms to build The Population Control Program Since a misguided
factories. The tourist industry was encouraged, and stu- period in the mid-1950s when Mao had argued that more
dents were sent abroad to study. laborers would result in higher productivity, China had
The new leaders especially stressed educational reform. been attempting to limit the growth of its population,
The system adopted during the Cultural Revolution, which chronically threatened to outstrip the country’s
emphasizing practical education and ideology at the food supply. By 1970, the government had launched a
expense of higher education and modern science, was rap- stringent family planning program—including education,
idly abandoned (Mao’s Little Red Book was even withdrawn incentives, and penalties for noncompliance—to persuade
from circulation and could no longer be found on book- the Chinese people to limit themselves to one child per
shelves), and a new system based generally on the Western family. The program did have some success, and the rate
model was instituted. Admission to higher education was of population growth was drastically reduced in the early
based on success in merit examinations, and courses on 1980s. The rural responsibility system, however, under-
science and mathematics received high priority. mined the program because it encouraged farm families
to pay the penalties for having additional children in the
Agricultural Reform No economic reform program could belief that their labor would increase the family income
succeed unless it included the countryside. Three decades and provide the parents with greater security in their
of socialism had done little to increase food production or old age (one family reportedly named its second child
to lay the basis for a modern agricultural sector. China, “Dianshi”—or “television set” in English—because, as the
with a population numbering one billion in the mid-1970s, father explained, that is what he would have purchased
could still barely feed itself. Peasants had little incentive to had he not been required to pay the penalty). Eventually,
work and few opportunities to increase production through the program was relaxed, and rural families were legally
mechanization, the use of fertilizer, or better irrigation. permitted to have a second child if the first child was a
Under Deng Xiaoping, agricultural policy made a rapid girl. Nevertheless, the basic program continued for many
about-face. Under the new rural responsibility system, years, and in 2008 the regime announced that it would
adopted shortly after Deng had consolidated his author- remain in force for at least another decade. By that time,
ity, collectives leased land on contract to peasant families, China’s population, estimated at about 1.4 billion in 2012,
who paid a quota as rent to the collective. Anything pro- was projected to begin to decline.
duced on the land above that payment could be sold on
the private market or consumed. To soak up excess labor China: The New Industrial Powerhouse Still, the overall
in the villages, the government encouraged the forma- effects of the modernization program have been impres-
tion of so-called sideline industries, a modern equivalent sive. The standard of living improved for the majority
of the traditional cottage industries in premodern China. of the population. Where a decade earlier, the average
Peasants raised fish or shrimp, made consumer goods, and Chinese had struggled to earn enough to buy a bicycle,
even assembled living room furniture and appliances to radio, watch, or washing machine, by the late 1980s, many
sell to their newly affluent compatriots (see Comparative were able to purchase videocassette recorders, refrigera-
Illustration, “Sideline Industries,” p. 235). tors, and color television sets. Yet the rapid growth of the
The reform program had a striking effect on rural pro- economy created its own problems: inflationary pressures,
duction. Grain production increased rapidly, and farm greed, envy, increased corruption, and—most dangerous
income doubled during the 1980s. Yet it also created prob- of all for the regime—rising expectations. Young people
lems. In the first place, income at the village level became in particular resented restrictions on employment (most
more unequal as some enterprising farmers (known young people in China were still required to accept the jobs
locally as “ten thousand-dollar” households) earned prof- that are offered to them by the government or school offi-
its several times those realized by their less fortunate or cials) and opportunities to study abroad. Disillusionment
less industrious neighbors. When some farmers discovered ran high, especially in the cities, where lavish living by
they could earn more by growing cash crops or other spe- officials and rising prices for goods aroused widespread
cialized commodities, they devoted less land to rice and alienation and cynicism and laid the groundwork for the
other grain crops, thereby threatening to reduce the supply massive protest demonstrations in 1989.

Since the 1990s, industrial growth rates have continued the 1980s has begun to create a labor shortage, putting
to be high as Chinese exports have surged and domestic upward pressure on workers’ salaries. As a result, China is
capital has become increasingly available. The govern- facing inflation in the marketplace and thus has begun to
ment finally recognized the need to close down ineffi- encounter increased competition from exports produced
cient state enterprises, and by the end of the decade, the by factories located in lower-wage countries in South and
private sector, with official encouragement, accounted Southeast Asia. In 2018, the government suddenly discon-
for more than 10 percent of the nation’s gross domestic tinued its birth-control program in the hope of avoiding a
product. A stock market opened, and with the country’s massive labor shortage in coming years. Even so, China—
entrance into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in like Europe—will begin to suffer from a demographic
2001, China’s prowess in the international marketplace crunch in the near future, with momentous implications
improved dramatically. for the future.
The dramatic growth of the Chinese economy has con- Discontent has also been on the rise in the countryside,
tinued unabated during the first two decades of the new where farmers earn only about half as much as their urban
century, and today China has the second-largest economy counterparts. Efforts to assuage rural concerns by increasing
in the world and is the largest exporter of goods. Even the the official purchase price for grain were discontinued when
global economic crisis that struck the world in the fall of the subsidy program became too expensive. China’s entry
2008 did not derail the Chinese juggernaut, which quickly into the World Trade Organization was greeted with great
recovered from the drop in demand for Chinese goods in optimism but has been of little benefit to farmers facing the
countries suffering from the economic downturn. Flushed challenges of cheap foreign imports. Taxes, environmental
with cash, the government and the Chinese economic elite problems, and local corruption add to their complaints, and
have extended their vision abroad, investing in hotels, holi- land seizures by the government or by local officials are a
day resorts, port facilities, and infrastructure projects all major source of anger in rural communities.
around the world. In desperation, millions of rural Chinese have left for
At the same time, China today possesses a large the big cities, where many of them have been unable to
and increasingly affluent middle class and a burgeoning find steady employment and are forced to live in squalid
domestic market for consumer goods. The vast majority conditions in crowded tenements or in the sprawling sub-
of urban Chinese now own a color television set, a refrig- urbs. Millions of others remain on their farms and attempt
erator, and a washing machine. Over one-third own their to augment their income by producing for the market or,
homes, and nearly as many have an air conditioner. For in accordance with recent legal changes, by increasing the
the more affluent, a private automobile is increasingly a size of their families. A new land reform law passed in
possibility, and in 2010, more vehicles were sold in China 2008 authorizes farmers to lease or transfer land use rights,
than in the United States. although in principle all land in rural areas belongs to the
Still, as capitalist governments in the West discovered local government.
long ago, running an advanced industrial economy can be a
tricky proposition, and rapid economic change never comes An Environmental Time Bomb Another factor that has
without cost. To maintain public support, the regime has begun to hinder China’s rush to economic advancement is
pumped up the economy to keep growth rates at high levels, the impact of rapid industrialization on the environment.
and exports have been the key to keeping Chinese factories With the rising population, fertile land is in increasingly
open and busy. There are warning signs, however, that the short supply (China’s population has doubled since 1950,
global economy is now entering what may be an extended but only two-thirds as much irrigable land is available). Soil
slowdown; as a result, the market for Chinese exports has erosion is a major problem, especially in the north, where
been dropping, and the country’s annual growth rate has over-cultivation of the land is reducing soil fertility, and
declined to an annual rate of only 6 percent. In the mean- thousands of acres of irrigable fields are overrun by sands
time, a trade dispute with the United States has prompted from the Gobi Desert each year (see Image 12.5). Water
the Trump administration to levy tariffs on imports from pollution is also widespread. An ambitious plan to trans-
China, leading some major international corporations to port water by canals from the Yangzi River to the more arid
consider moving their manufacturing facilities out of the northern provinces has run into a number of roadblocks.
country. With millions of workers now being laid off, Another massive project to construct dams on the Yangzi
whether the Chinese consumer can pick up the slack has River has sparked protests from environmentalists, as well
become an open question. as from local peoples forced to migrate from the area.
To complicate the equation, demographic conditions Meanwhile, air pollution is ten times the level in the
are rapidly changing. The reduction in birthrates since United States, contributing to growing health concerns.

generation previously, the leaders
of the new regime believed that old
values, old attitudes, and old cus-
toms were the foremost obstacle
to their ambitious political objec-
tives. At the root of the problem,
in their view, was the time-honored
Confucian emphasis on the family,
headed by the patriarch, as the key
component in Chinese society. To
the Communists, loyalty to the
family, a crucial element in the
Confucian social order, undercut
loyalty to the state and to the dic-
tatorship of the proletariat. Thus,
William J. Duiker
their long-run objective was to

destroy the influence of the tradi-
tional family system.
During the early 1950s, they
IMAGE 12.5 The Mountain of Singing Sands. This spectacular sand mountain is located on
the outskirts of one of the Silk Road’s most famous caravan stops—the city of Dunhuang. took a number of steps to bring
But while its physical beauty and the tantalizing sounds made by the wind as it passes a definitive end to the old system
over the sand make it one of the most popular tourist attractions in China, Mingsha in China. Women were permit-
Mountain also symbolizes one of the country’s most serious environmental issues. In ted to vote and encouraged to
Dunhuang, as elsewhere, drifting sands from nearby deserts are encroaching on precious
become active in the political pro-
farmlands, desperately needed to feed China’s growing population. Much of the problem
is created by overgrazing of surrounding pasture lands. cess. At the local level, an increas-
ing number of women became
active in the CCP and in collec-
Coal is widely used for heating, electricity, and other pur- tive organizations. In 1950, a new marriage law guaranteed
poses, although the government has attempted, with lim- women equal rights with men. Most important, perhaps,
ited success, to wean the economy from its reliance from it permitted women for the first time to initiate divorce
that source. To add to the challenge, more than 700,000 new proceedings against their husbands. Within a year, nearly
cars and trucks appear on the country’s roads each year. To one million divorces had been granted.
reduce congestion on roadways, China is constructing an At first, the government moved carefully on other
extensive rail network for high-speed bullet trains that will family issues to avoid alienating its supporters in the
connect all the major regions in the country. countryside. When collective farms were established in
the mid-1950s, each member of a collective accumulated
12-3c Chinese Society in Flux “work points” based on the number of hours worked dur-
ing a specified time period. Payment for work points was
At the root of Marxist-Leninist ideology is the idea of build-
made not to the individual but to the family head. The pay-
ing a new citizen free from the prejudices, ignorance, and
ments, usually in the form of ration coupons, could then
superstition of the “feudal” era and the capitalist desire for
be spent at the collective community store. Because the
self-gratification. This new citizen would be characterized
payments went to the head of the family, the traditionally
not only by a sense of racial and sexual equality but also
dominant position of the patriarch was maintained. When
by a selfless desire to contribute his or her utmost for the
people’s communes were established in the late 1950s,
good of all. In the words of Mao Zedong’s famous work
however, payments went to the individual.
“The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains,” the
people should “be resolute, fear no sacrifice, and surmount
every difficulty to win victory.”5 Ending the Politics of Dependency During the radical
era of the Great Leap Forward, children were encour-
Out with the Old, In with the New! For Mao and his col- aged to report to the authorities any comments by their
leagues, the first order of business was to remake Chinese parents that criticized the system. Such practices contin-
society as a means of creating the new citizen. Like the ued during the Cultural Revolution, when children were
progressive intellectuals of the New Culture movement a expected to report on their parents, students on their
teachers, and employees on their superiors. By encourag- China today is still essentially a male-dominated society, as
ing the traditionally oppressed elements in society—the is clearly demonstrated in the preponderance of males in
young, the female, and the poor—to voice their bitterness, leadership positions in the Communist Party and in senior
Mao was clearly hoping to break the long Chinese tradi- positions elsewhere in society.
tion of dependency. In his view, the traditional Confucian Much of the new prosperity is a consequence of the
five relationships (subordination of son to father, wife to trend toward privatization and a more capitalistic free
husband, younger to older brother, and subject to ruler, enterprise system. But there is also a price to pay for this
and the proper relationship of friend to friend) forced change. Under the Maoist system, the elderly and the sick
individuals to swallow their anger and frustration (“to eat received retirement benefits and health care from the state
bitterness” in the Chinese phrase) and accept the hierar- or the collective organizations. Today, with the collectives
chical norms established by Confucian ethics. Such denun- no longer playing such a social role and more workers oper-
ciations had been issued against landlords and other “local ating in the private sector, the safety net has been removed.
tyrants” during the era of land reform. During the Cultural No longer does every Chinese citizen have an “iron rice
Revolution, they were applied to other authority figures in bowl” (a common phrase denoting guaranteed employ-
Chinese society.6 ment as well as health, education, and retirement benefits).
The government has attempted to fill the gap by enacting a
The Family System Revives The post-Mao era has social security law, but because of a lack of funds, eligibil-
brought a decisive shift away from revolutionary utopia- ity has been limited primarily to individuals living in urban
nism and a return to the pragmatic approach to social areas. Those living in the countryside—who still represent
engineering. For the vast majority of Chinese, this is over half of the population—are essentially unprotected,
undoubtedly a welcome development; the era of gen- prompting legislation in 2010 to provide modest pensions
erational warfare destroyed millions of lives, and few and medical insurance to the poorest members of society.
lamented its passing. Under the post-Mao leadership, Yet much more needs to be done, for as the population
family relationships once more became a private affair. ages, the lack of an adequate retirement system represents
As with all social changes, however, the return to a more a potential time bomb. It is predicted that the median age
traditional approach has had a price. Although in the large of the Chinese population will rise from 33 in 2005 to 45 at
cities attitudes toward women, marriage, and the family mid-century. In the process, the ratio of workers to retirees
have evolved in line with trends in Western countries, in will drop from 6 to 1 to about 2 to 1. The regime recently
rural areas the old norms about filial piety and the five rela- attempted to ease the problem, when it promulgated a
tionships sometimes still hold sway. Arranged marriages, new law requiring adult children (many of them living in
nepotism, and the mistreatment of females (for example, the cities) to provide occasional visits and necessary care to
under the one-child program, many parents in rural areas their aging parents in the countryside.
reportedly killed female infants in the hope that the next
child would be a son) have returned, although such behav- Lifestyle Changes: From Mao to Mod With the end of
ior most likely persisted under the cloak of revolution- the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the party lead-
ary purity for a generation. Expensive weddings are now ership turned away from the Maoist-inspired puritanical
increasingly common, along with the payment of a dowry ethic and embraced the ideal of material consumption.
to the family of the groom. Prostitution and sex crimes Following the new slogans that urged them to “create
against women also appear to be on the rise. To discourage wealth for the people” (a new version of the revolutionary
sexual abuse, the government now seeks to provide free slogan “serve the people”) and proclaimed “to get rich is
legal services for women living in rural areas. glorious,” enterprising Chinese began to concentrate on
Women in China today do possess some advantages improving their standard of living. For the first time, mil-
compared to their Western counterparts. Because men out- lions of Chinese saw the prospect of a house or an urban
number women in Chinese society (among infants, there flat with a washing machine, television set, and indoor
are 118 males to every 100 females in today’s China), women plumbing. Young people whose parents had given them
can afford to be more particular in selecting a husband. patriotic names such as Build the Country, Protect Mao
Young men often complain that without an automobile or Zedong, and Assist Korea began to choose more elegant
an apartment to offer as an incentive, they find it difficult and cosmopolitan names for their own children. Some
to locate a wife (see Historical Voices, “Love and Marriage names, such as Surplus Grain or Bring a Younger Brother,
in China,” p. 314). Indeed, the problem of rootless young expressed hope for the future.
males, often with limited employment opportunities, is an The growing emphasis on material accumulation in
issue of increasing concern for China’s leaders today. Still, contemporary Chinese society has predictably led to an
HISTORICAL VOICES
Love and Marriage in China

We had our wedding after he came back in the winter
Q Do you think the marriage described here is
of 1973. His leaders and mine all came to congratulate us
successful? Why or why not? What do you think
and give us presents. The usual presents those days were
this woman feels about her marriage?
busts of Chairman Mao. I was twenty-six and he was
twenty-nine. We’ve never had a row.
Family & “What men can do, women can also do.” I never really wanted to take the college entrance
Society So said Chairman Mao as he “liberated” and exams. Then in 1978 the school leadership got us all to put
masculinized Chinese women to work alongside men. our names forward. They said they weren’t going to hold
Women’s individuality and sexual freedom were sacrificed us back: the more of us who passed, the better it would be
for the collective good of his new socialist society. Marriage, for the school. So I put my name forward, crammed for six
which had traditionally been arranged by families for weeks, and passed. I already had two kids then. . . .
financial gain, was now dictated by duty to the state. The I reckoned the chance for study was too good to miss.
Western concept of romantic love did not enter into a And my husband was looking after the kids all by himself.
Chinese marriage, as this interview of a schoolteacher by the I usually only came back once a fortnight. So I couldn’t let
reporter Zhang Xinxin in the mid-1980s illustrates. him down.
According to recent surveys, the same is true today. My instructors urged me to take the exams for graduate
school, but I didn’t. I was already thirty-four, so what was
Zhang Xinxin, Chinese Lives the point of more study? There was another reason too. I
My husband and I never did any courting—honestly! We didn’t want an even wider gap between us: he hadn’t even
registered our marriage a week after we’d met. He was finished junior middle school when he joined the army.
just out of the forces and a worker in a building outfit. It’s bad if the gap’s too wide. For example, there’s a
They’d been given a foreign-aid assignment in Zambia, definite difference in our tastes in music and art, I have
and he was selected. He wanted to get his private life to admit that. But what really matters? Now we’ve set up
fixed up before he went, and someone introduced us. this family we have to preserve it. Besides, look at all the
Seeing how he looked really honest, I accepted him. sacrifices he had to make to see me through college. Men
No, you can’t say I didn’t know anything about him. comrades all like a game of cards and that, but he was
The person who introduced us told me he was a Party stuck with looking after the kids. He still doesn’t get any
member who’d been an organization commissar. Any time for himself—it’s all work for him.
comrade who’s good enough to be an organization cadre We’ve got a duty to each other. Our differences? The
is politically reliable. Nothing special about our standing less said about them the better. We’ve always treated each
of living—it’s what we’ve earned. He’s still a worker, but other with the greatest respect.
we live all right, don’t we? Of course some people have made suggestions, but
He went off with the army as soon as we’d registered my advice to him is to respect himself and respect me.
our marriage and been given the wedding certificates. He I’m not going to be like those men who ditch their wives
was away three years. We didn’t have the wedding itself when they go up in the world.
before he went because we hadn’t got a room yet. I’m the head of our school now. With this change in
Those three years were a test for us. The main prob- my status I’ve got to show even more responsibility for
lem was that my family was against it. They thought I the family. Besides, I know how much he’s done to get
was still only a kid and I’d picked the wrong man. What me where I am today. I’ve also got some duties in the
did they have against him? His family was too poor. Of municipal Women’s Federation and Political Consultative
course I won in the end—we’d registered and got our Conference. No, I’m not being modest. I haven’t done
wedding certificates. We were legally married whether anything worth talking about, only my duty.
we had the family ceremony or not. We’ve got to do a lot more educating people. There
have been two cases of divorce in our school this year.
Source: From Chinese Lives: An Oral History of Contemporary China, by Zhang Xinxin and Sang Ye, copyright © 1987 by W. J. F. Jenner and Delia Davin.

Then and Now: Changing Clothing Styles in China

of college students pose for a photograph in front
Q Does the apparent improvement in living conditions of their classroom at the Beijing Teacher’s College.
over the past generation suggested by these Image 12.6b shows a group of young Chinese on
photographs justify the claim by the Chinese the Bund in Shanghai, complete with their designer
government that centralized leadership by the handbags and their hand-held electronic devices.
Communist Party is necessary to improve the lives The forest of skyscrapers in the Pudong (Poo-
of its citizens? Why or why not? DOONG) district looms in the background. As the
illustration suggests, the Japanese fashion of “tea
hair” (see Chapter 11) has caught on among young
Art & For the longtime visitor to China, the
Ideas people in China as well.
change in clothing styles that has taken
place in China since the end of the Cultural Revolution
is striking. In Image 12.6a, taken in the 1970s, a group
William J. Duiker
Yvonne V. Duiker
increased focus on the needs and wants of the individual, women in the cities. Many had the epicanthic fold over
as opposed to that of the group. On the positive side, it also their eyelids removed or even enlarged their noses—a curi-
tends to produce citizens possessed with greater creativity ous decision in view of the tradition of referring deroga-
and independence of spirit. On the other hand (as Mao torily to foreigners as “big noses.” Prosperity, however, has
undoubtedly worried), it can also lead to hedonistic behav- its own price, as the problem of obesity, especially among
ior and a reluctance to endure sacrifices in the interests of younger Chinese, has skyrocketed in recent years. “China’s
the larger community. Many older Chinese blame the lat- waistlines,” goes one recent pun, “are growing faster than
ter tendency at least partly on the regime’s “one-child” pol- the nation’s gross domestic product.”
icy. With most families limited to a single offspring, many The shift from Marxism toward the worship of con-
parents overindulged their children, who were sometimes sumerism is having another predictable effect by giving
derided by critics as spoiled “little emperors.” birth to a growing sense of rootlessness in Chinese society,
The new attitudes have also been reflected in physical especially among the young, who did not live through the
appearance. For a generation after the civil war, cloth- difficult years prior to the death of Mao Zedong. Incidents
ing had been restricted to the traditional baggy “Mao of random terrorism, once rare, are on the rise, and many
suit” in olive drab or dark blue, but by the 1980s, young young people are openly materialistic in their attitude
people craved such fashionable Western items as designer and—to the discomfort of party leaders—are correspond-
jeans, trendy sneakers, and sweat suits (see Comparative ingly cynical about politics. For many of them, feverish
Illustration, “Then and Now,” above). Cosmetic surgery exhortations from the party leadership to “work hard and
to create a more buxom figure or a more Western facial sacrifice for the achievement of the Chinese dream” fall
look became increasingly common among affluent young on deaf ears.
quality or the personal preference
of the artist but “art for life’s sake,”
whereby culture would serve the inter-
ests of socialism.
12-4aCulture in a
Revolutionary Era
At first, the new emphasis on social-
ist realism did not entirely extinguish
the influence of traditional culture.
Mao and his colleagues tolerated—and
even encouraged—efforts by artists to
synthesize traditional ideas with social-
William J. Duiker
ist concepts and Western techniques.

During the Cultural Revolution,
however, all forms of traditional cul-
IMAGE 12.7 The Revival of Buddhism in China. For over half a century, Communist Party
ture came to be viewed as reaction-
leaders attempted to root out all forms of religious faith among their compatriots. ary. Socialist realism became the only
Yet today, religious belief is alive and well in China, as various forms of religion acceptable standard in literature, art,
are thriving throughout the country, despite efforts by current leaders to contain it. and music. All forms of traditional
Shown here is a procession of Buddhist monks in a temple in the city of Shanghai. expression were forbidden, and the
Q What are some of the reasons why religious faith is reviving in China today? deification of Mao and his central
role in building a Communist paradise
became virtually the only acceptable
The growing popularity of organized religion in form of artistic expression.
today’s China is undoubtedly one consequence. As the Characteristic of the changing cultural climate in China
government has become somewhat more tolerant of reli- was the experience of author Ding Ling. Born in 1904 and
gious belief, some Chinese have returned to the traditional educated in a school for women set up by leftist intellectu-
Buddhist faith or to folk religions, and Buddhist and Taoist als during the hectic years after the May Fourth Movement,
temples are once again crowded with worshippers (see she became involved in party activities in the 1930s. She
Image 12.7). Despite official efforts to suppress its more then settled in Yan’an, where she wrote her most famous
evangelical forms (see “Chasing the Chinese Dream,” novel, The Sun Shines over the Sangan River (1948), which
p. 308), Christianity has become increasingly popular as described the CCP’s land reform program in favorable
well; like the “rice Christians” of the past, many now view terms. It was awarded the Stalin Prize three years later.
it as a symbol of success and cosmopolitanism. During the early 1950s, Ding Ling was one of
the most prominent literary lights of the new China, but
in the more ideological climate at the end of the decade,
12-4 China’s Changing Culture she was attacked for her individualism and her criticism
of the party. Although temporarily rehabilitated, dur-
QQ Focus Question: How would you describe the
various ways that Chinese culture has evolved
ing the Cultural Revolution she was sentenced to hard
labor on a commune in the far north and was not released
until the late 1970s after the death of Mao. Crippled and
in the years since the end of World War II?
in poor health, she died in 1981. Ding Ling’s fate mirrored
the fate of thousands of progressive Chinese intellectu-
During the first half of the twentieth century, Chinese als who, despite their efforts, were not able to satisfy the
culture was strongly influenced by currents from the West constantly changing demands of a repressive regime.
(see Chapter 5). The rise to power of the Communists in
1949 added a new dimension to the debate over the future
of culture in China. The new leaders rejected the Western 12-4b Art and Architecture
attitude of “art for art’s sake” and, like their Soviet coun- After Mao’s death, Chinese culture was finally released
terparts, viewed culture as an important instrument of from the shackles of socialist realism. In painting, where
indoctrination. The standard would no longer be aesthetic for a decade the only acceptable standard for excellence
was praise for the party and its policies, the new permis- Chinese peasants and what he views as the moral deprav-
siveness led to a revival of interest in both traditional ity resulting from the country’s unbridled embrace of
and Western forms. Although some painters continued capitalism. But Yan has no nostalgia for the Maoist era.
to blend Eastern and Western styles, others imitated In Lenin’s Kisses (2004), he is critical of both the Great
trends from abroad, experimenting with a wide range of Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. In The Day
previously prohibited art styles, including Cubism and the Sun Died (2015), he portrays the Chinese people as
abstract painting. sleep-walkers, so completely programmed by the state
In the 1980s, some of the more avant-garde examples that they are incapable of confronting the atrocities that
of contemporary art shocked the Chinese public and pro- have been committed in the name of the revolution. Not
voked the wrath of the party, leading the government to surprisingly, his novels are banned in China, and have
declare that henceforth it would regulate all art exhibits. been published in Taiwan.
More recently, some Chinese artists, such as the world- Another author who lays bare the realities of contem-
famous Ai Weiwei (b. 1957), have aggressively challenged porary China is Jiang Rong (the pen name of Lü Jiamin)
the government’s authority. In response, the government (b. 1946). In his gripping novel Wolf Totem (2007), Jiang
razed Ai’s art studio in Shanghai in 2011. Eventually he describes an example of rural injustice in Inner Mongolia,
was taken into police custody on charges related to tax as Han Chinese migrants are flooding into the area and
evasion. He was subsequently released, but the gov- traditional ecological practices are sacrificed on the altar
ernment is maintaining a close watch on his activities. of rapid economic growth.
Nonetheless, Chinese contemporary art has expanded Public awareness of the existence of such social ills is
exponentially, attracting international attention and com- accelerated by the pervasiveness of the Internet. A new
manding exorbitant prices on the world market. mass literature, much of it written by and intended for
In recent years, China has invested heavily in trans- China’s new urban youth, explores the aspirations and
portation infrastructure and has erected endless blocks frustrations of a generation obsessed with material con-
of apartment complexes to house the steady stream of sumption and the right of individual expression. The
migrants into the cities. This has led to an explosive build- regime has sought to strike back by sponsoring films and
ing boom, highlighted by the projects connected with the operas—such as a new opera on the Long March—that
2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and spreading outward to portray the history of the party in glorious terms, clearly
China’s many megacities. At a dizzying pace, renowned seeking to instill the younger generation with a patriotic
architects, both Chinese and foreign, are executing some fervor matching the decade of the Cultural Revolution.
of the new century’s most original and experimental
architectural designs. The gleaming forest of skyscrap-
ers currently rising in Shanghai’s Pudong district is the Historians
Debate
12-4d Confucius and Marx:
quintessential example (see Image 16.1). What Explains the Tenacity
of Tradition in China?
12-4c Literature Why has communism survived in China, albeit in a sub-
The limits on freedom of expression have been most stantially altered form, when it failed in Eastern Europe
apparent in literature. During the early 1980s, party lead- and the Soviet Union? This question has aroused the
ers encouraged Chinese writers to express their views interest of many historians of China. One of the pri-
on the mistakes of the past, and a new “literature of the mary factors is probably cultural. Although the doc-
wounded” began to describe the brutal and arbitrary char- trine of Marxism-Leninism originated in Europe, many
acter of the Cultural Revolution. Such efforts quickly drew of its main precepts, such as the primacy of the com-
the ire of the authorities, who continued to insist that only munity over the individual and the denial of the con-
the positive aspects of Chinese society be presented. Still, cept of private property, run counter to recent trends
a few writers brave the displeasure of party leaders by por- in Western civilization. This inherent conflict is espe-
traying the shortcomings of the current system. cially evident in the societies of central Europe, which
One such writer is Mo Yan (the pen name of Guan were influenced to varying degrees by Enlightenment
Moye) (b. 1955), whose novels The Garlic Ballads (1988) philosophy and the Industrial Revolution and thus
and Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out (2008) expose the resisted the efforts by Stalin and his successors to force-
rampant corruption of contemporary Chinese soci- feed them with the communist ideology of Karl Marx.
ety, the roots of which he attributes to one-party rule. These forces were weaker farther to the east, where
He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012. Like submission to authority and reliance on communal
Mo Yan, Yan Lianke (b. 1958) addresses the suffering of property were common features of society, although
12-4 China’s Changing Culture ■ 317
Western ideas had begun to penetrate tsarist Russia by predefined objective. Their task is complicated, however,
the end of the nineteenth century. by the fact that real changes are taking place in China
In contrast, Marxism-Leninism found a more recep- today. Although the youthful protesters in Tiananmen
tive climate in China and other countries in the region Square were comparable in some respects to the reform-
influenced by Confucian tradition. In its political culture, ist elements of the early republic—in the sense that their
the Communist system exhibits many of the same char- demands were more relevant to the educated minority
acteristics as traditional Confucianism—a single truth, an in the country than to the mass of the population—the
elite governing class, and an emphasis on obedience to the China of today is fundamentally different from that
community and its governing representatives. Although of the early twentieth century. Literacy rates and the
a significant and influential minority of the Chinese standard of living are far higher, the pressures of out-
population—primarily urban and educated—finds the
side powers are less threatening, and China has entered
idea of personal freedom against the power of the state its own industrial and technological revolution. Many
appealing, such concepts have little meaning in rural vil- Chinese depend more on independent talk radio and the
lages, where the interests of the community have always Internet for news and views than on the official media.
been emphasized over the desires of the individual. It is Whereas Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek, and even Mao
no accident that Chinese leaders now seek to reintroduce Zedong broke their lances on the rocks of centuries of
many of the precepts of State Confucianism to bolster tradition, poverty, and widespread resistance to change,
a fading belief in the existence of a future Communist the present leaders rule a country much more aware of
paradise. the world and China’s place in it. Although the shift in
Party leaders today are banking on the hope that China popular expectations may be gradual, China today is
can be governed as it has always been—by an elite class embarked on a journey to a future for which the past no
of highly trained professionals dedicated to pursuing a longer provides a roadmap.
making connections
For four decades after the end of World War II, the two evidence of “taking the capitalist road,” under Deng and
major Communist powers appeared to have become per- his colleagues, to “get rich” was “glorious.”
manent features on the international landscape. Suddenly, In their effort to make up for the “ten lost years” of the
in the late 1980s, both entered a period of internal crisis Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and transform China
that shook the foundations of both countries. Soon there- from a primarily agricultural society into an advanced
after, the Soviet Union collapsed, while Communist rule in industrial economy, leaders in Beijing benefitted from a
China was shaken by the massive protest demonstrations number of factors, including an ample supply of cheap
held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. But, to the surprise labor, a relatively well-educated population endowed with
of many, the Communist regime in China managed to sur- a strong work ethic and—not least—from an international
vive the crisis and today stands at the height of its power. community that was prepared to encourage China’s entry
One reason for the striking success of China’s post-Mao into the global marketplace. The reason why the Western
leaders is that they accepted the necessity to imitate a num- nations were willing to open the door to China were no
ber of lessons that they had picked up from the capitalist mystery. The one-time closed country would now not only
playbook. With the death of Mao Zedong and the rise to open its vast market to foreign consumer goods, by provid-
power of the Communist veteran Deng Xiaoping in the late ing the world with a cornucopia of cheap consumer goods,
1970s, the trajectory of the Chinese revolution changed China would help to relieve inflationary pressures around
dramatically: from an emphasis on ideology to an empha- the world, thus providing benefits to its new trading part-
sis on pragmatism, from a policy of isolation and economic ners as well as enriching itself. In the meantime, Western
self-sufficiency to a willingness to join the community of leaders hoped that increasing prosperity would convince
nations and participate in the global marketplace. Whereas Chinese leaders to become more receptive to the liberal
under Mao Zedong, material acquisition was viewed as democratic model.

Another key to China’s successful transformation lies But does China today bear any resemblance to the phi-
in its ability to obtain advanced technology from its trad- losophy espoused by that German philosopher who lived
ing partners abroad. Determined to gain access to the in a vastly different world almost two centuries ago? For
gigantic Chinese market (the resemblance to the rush all intents and purposes, the answer is no. Where Marx
by nineteenth-century European imperialist nations to declared that national identity and loyalty would eventu-
sell products to the “400 million Chinese customers” is ally give way to the spirit of proletarian internationalism,
unavoidable), Western governments and business corpo- Xi Jinping and his colleagues blatantly appeal to tradi-
rations willingly provided China with access to many of tional nationalist symbols to drum up public support for
the secrets of their own success. Chinese leaders in Beijing their policies. And where Karl Marx envisioned the emer-
were only too happy to oblige, and some must have recalled gence of a “Communist Man” who would work not for
the famous statement by Lenin during the 1920s that the his own personal benefit but only “according to his need,”
capitalists were willing to sell the very shovels with which China today is a highly acquisitive society with more bil-
to bury themselves. lionaires than any country other than the United States.
Chinese leaders today would undoubtedly insist on a “sec- Many years ago, Deng Xiaoping conceded to his followers
ond rail” to their strategy of achieving wealth and power in that Communism would be a long time coming to China.
the new millennium. When President Xi Jinping promotes Under President Xi Jinping, the vision of the Communist
his vision of the “Chinese dream” today, he elaborates on Man is on life support.
that commitment with a second one: that China will never What is left of the Marxist worldview in China is the
follow its capitalist rivals in adopting a pluralistic democ- Leninist concept of the omnipotent Communist Party,
racy, as anticipated by so many political leaders and pundits dedicated to maintaining power internally and projecting
in the West (the term used by the Chinese to describe that the might of the state on the international stage. At a time
assumption is “peaceful evolution”). Rather, it will follow when the appeal of pluralistic democracy has been shaken
a familiar Chinese trajectory by establishing a political sys- in many parts of the world, President Xi and his colleagues
tem based on the benevolent but dominating role of a ruling are undoubtedly gambling that other nations aspiring for
party, operating this time not under the guidance of State their place in the sun may begin to look at the Chinese
Confucianism, but of the doctrine of Karl Marx. model, not its Western counterpart.
QQWhy do you think communism has survived in China, QQHow has the current generation of leadership
when it failed to survive in the Soviet Union? in China made use of traditional values to solidify
QQHow have six decades of Communist rule affected Communist control over the country? To what degree has
the concept of the family in China? How does the current this approach contradicted the theories of Karl Marx?
state of the family in China compare with the family in
other parts of the world?
CHAPTER TIMELINE
1945 1955 1965 1975 1985 1995 2005 2015 2025

China
Chinese New Democracy Death of Mao Zedong

Civil War (1949–1952) (1976)
(1945–1949)
Great Proletarian Tiananmen China Olympic One Belt,

Cultural Revolution Square joins WTO Games held One Road
(1966–1976) incident (2001) in Beijing Initiative
(1989) (2008) (2013–present)
Great Leap Forward
(1958–1961)
Era of Deng Xiaoping Presidency of Presidency of Presidency of
(1977–1992) Jiang Zemin Hu Jintao Xi Jinping
(1993–2003) (2003–2013) (2013–present)

CHAPTER NOTES
1. “Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement 4. Liang Heng with Judith Shapiro, Son of the Revolution
in Hunan (March 1927),” Quotations from Chairman (New York, 1983).
Mao Tse-tung (Beijing, 1976), p. 12. 5. “The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains,”
2. Quoted in Stanley Karnow, Mao and China: Inside Quotations from Chairman Mao, p. 182.
China’s Revolution (New York, 1972), p. 95. 6. According to many of Mao Zedong’s biographers, as
3. Quoted from an article by Mao Zedong in the jour- a young man Mao had been severely dominated by his
nal Red Flag, June 1, 1958. See Stuart R. Schram, The dictatorial father, and perhaps acted out his hatred of
Political Thought of Mao Tse-tung (New York, 1963), parental authority for the remainder of his life.
p. 253. The quotation “strike while the iron is hot” is
from Karnow, Mao and China, p. 93.

Chapter
Nationalism Triumphant:
The Emergence of Independent
13 States in South and Southeast
Asia
Chapter Outline and
Focus Questions
13-1 South Asia
QQHow did Mahatma Gandhi’s and Jawaharlal
Nehru’s goals for India differ, and what role
did each leader’s views play in shaping modern
India?
13-2 Southeast Asia
QQWhat kinds of problems have the nations of
Southeast Asia had to face since 1945, and how
William J. Duiker
did they attempt to solve them?
IMAGE 13.1 The Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
AT THE DAWN OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM, first-time visitors

to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur were aston-
ished to observe a pair of twin towers thrusting up
above the surrounding buildings into the clouds. The
Petronas Towers rise 1,483 feet from ground level;
they were the world’s tallest buildings at the time
of their completion in 1998. (They have since been
surpassed by other structures such as Taipei 101,
in Taiwan, the Shanghai World Financial Center, and
Burj Khalifa, in Dubai.)
Beyond their status as an architectural achieve-
ment, the Petronas Towers announced the emergence
of Southeast Asia as a major player on the inter-
national scene. It is no accident that the founda-
tions were laid on the site of the Selangor Cricket
Club, once a symbol of British colonial hegemony in
Southeast Asia. “These towers,” commented one local
Connections to Today official, “will do wonders for Asia’s self-esteem and
confidence, which I think is very important, and which
How would you compare the policies adopted by I think at this moment are at the point of takeoff.”1
the nations discussed in this chapter with those That the nations of the Pacific Rim would become
followed by the so-called Little Tigers, as discussed a driving force in global development was all but
in Chapter 11? Are the countries in South and unimaginable in the decades immediately follow-
Southeast Asia following a path toward economic ing the end of World War II, when bitter conflicts in
development and political stability today? Korea and Vietnam and unstable conditions elsewhere
in the region were visible manifestations of a region
321
in turmoil. Yet today, many of the countries in Asia be established. Pakistan would be divided between the main
have become models of successful nation building area of Muslim habitation in the Indus River valley in the
characterized by economic prosperity and political west and a separate territory in eastern Bengal 2,000 miles
stability. Several cities in the region, including Hong to the east. Although Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi
Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, and Shanghai, have become warned that partition would provoke “an orgy of blood,”2
major capitals of finance and monuments of economic
he was increasingly regarded as a figure of the past, and his
prowess, rivaling the traditional centers of New York,
views were ignored.
London, Berlin, and Paris. They have heralded the
opening of what has been called the “Pacific Century.” The British instructed the rulers in the princely states
to choose which state they would join by August 15, but
problems arose in predominantly Hindu Hyderabad,
where the nawab (governor) was a Muslim, and mountain-
ous Kashmir, where a Hindu prince ruled over a Muslim
13-1 South Asia population. After independence was declared, millions of
Hindus and Muslims fled across the new borders, resulting
QQ Focus Question: How did Mahatma Gandhi’s
and Jawaharlal Nehru’s goals for India differ,
in violence and the deaths of more than a million people.
One of the casualties was Gandhi, who was assassinated on
and what role did each leader’s views play in January 30, 1948, as he was going to morning prayer (see
shaping modern India? Movies & History, Gandhi, p. 109). The assassin, a Hindu
militant, was apparently motivated by Gandhi’s opposition
In 1947, nearly two centuries of British colonial rule in to a Hindu India.
South Asia came to an end when two new independent
nations, India and Pakistan, came into being. Under British 13-1b Independent India
authority, the subcontinent had been linked ever more With independence, the Indian National Congress, now
closely to the global capitalist economy. Yet as in other commonly known as the Congress Party, moved from
areas of Asia and Africa, the experience brought only lim- opposition to the responsibility of power under Jawaharlal
ited benefits to the local peoples. Little industrial develop- Nehru (1889–1964), the new prime minister. The prospect
ment took place, and the bulk of the profits went into the must have been intimidating. The vast majority of India’s
pockets of Western entrepreneurs. 400 million people were poor and illiterate. The new
For half a century, nationalist forces had been seek- nation encompassed a significant number of ethnic groups
ing reforms in colonial policy and the eventual overthrow and fourteen major languages. Although Congress leaders
of colonial power. But the peoples of South Asia did not spoke bravely of building a new nation, Indian society still
regain their independence until after World War II. bore the scars of past wars and divisions.
The government’s first problem was to resolve dis-
13-1a The End of the British Raj putes left over from the transition period. The rulers of
During the 1930s, the nationalist movement in India Hyderabad and Kashmir had both followed their own
was severely shaken by factional disagreements between preferences rather than the wishes of their subject popula-
Hindus and Muslims. The outbreak of World War II tions. Nehru was determined to include both states within
subdued these sectarian clashes, but they erupted again India. In 1948, Indian troops invaded Hyderabad and
after the war ended in 1945. Battles between Hindus and annexed the area. India also occupied most of Kashmir,
Muslims broke out in several cities, and Muhammad but at the cost of creating an intractable problem that has
Ali Jinnah (1876–1948), leader of the Muslim League, poisoned relations with Pakistan to the present day.
demanded the creation of a separate state for each group.
Meanwhile, the Labour Party, which had long been critical An Experiment in Democratic Socialism Under Nehru’s
of the British colonial legacy on both moral and economic leadership, India adopted a political system on the British
grounds, had come to power in Britain, and the new prime model, with a figurehead president and a parliamentary
minister, Clement Attlee, announced that power would form of government. A number of political parties oper-
be transferred to “responsible Indian hands” by June 1948. ated legally, but the Congress Party, with its enormous
But the imminence of independence did not dampen prestige and charismatic leadership, was dominant at both
communal strife. As riots escalated, the British reluc- the central and the local levels. It was ably assisted by the
tantly accepted the inevitability of partition and declared Indian civil service, which had been created during the era
that on August 15, 1947, two independent nations— of British colonial rule and provided solid expertise in the
predominantly Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan—would arcane art of bureaucracy.
322 ■ CHAPTER 13 Nationalism Triumphant: The Emergence of Independent States in South and Southeast Asia
OPPOSING VIEWPOINTS
Two Visions for India

capitalist order. Some glimpse we can have of this new
Q What are the key differences between these two civilization in the territories of the U.S.S.R. Much has hap-
views of the future of India? Why do you think pened there which has pained me greatly and with which I
Nehru’s vision triumphed over that of Mahatma disagree, but I look upon that great and fascinating unfold-
Gandhi? ing of a new order and a new civilization as the most
promising feature of our dismal age.
Politics & Although Jawaharlal Nehru and
Government
Mohandas Gandhi, “Nonviolent Democracy: Control by
Mohandas Gandhi agreed on their desire
the People of Themselves and Their Government”
for an independent India, their visions of the future of their
Independence must begin at the bottom. Thus, every
homeland were dramatically different. Nehru favored
village will be a republic or panchayat [traditional vil-
industrialization to build material prosperity, whereas Gandhi
lage council] having full powers. It follows, therefore,
praised the virtues of local self-government. The first excerpt
that every village has to be self-sustained and capable of
is from a speech by Nehru; the second is from an article
managing its affairs even to the extent of defending itself
written by Gandhi and now published in his Collected Works.
against the whole world. . . . Ultimately, it is the individ-
Nehru’s Socialist Creed ual who is the unit. . . .
In this structure composed of innumerable villages,
I am convinced that the only key to the solution of the
there will be ever widening, never ascending circles. Life
world’s problems and of India’s problems lies in socialism,
will not be a pyramid with the apex sustained by the
and when I use this word I do so not in a vague humani-
bottom. But it will be an oceanic circle whose centre will
tarian way but in the scientific economic sense. . . . I see
be the individual always ready to perish for the village,
no way of ending the poverty, the vast unemployment,
the latter ready to perish for the circle of villagers, till at
the degradation and the subjection of the Indian people
last the whole becomes one life composed of individuals,
except through socialism. That involves vast and revolu-
never aggressive in their arrogance but ever humble,
tionary changes in our political and social structure, the
sharing the majesty of the oceanic circle of which they
ending of vested interests in land and industry, as well as
are integral units.
the feudal and autocratic Indian states system. That means
Therefore, the outermost circumference [that is, the
the ending of private property, except in a restricted sense,
national government] will not wield power to crush the
and the replacement of the present profit system by a
inner circle but will give strength to all within and derive
higher ideal of cooperative service. . . . In short, it means
its own strength from it.
a new civilization, radically different from the present
Sources: From Sources of Indian Tradition, 2nd ed. Edited by Stephen Hay, vol. II (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988), pp. 256, 317–318.
Nehru had been influenced by British socialism and pat- must industrialize. In advocating industrialization, Nehru
terned his economic policy roughly after the program of departed sharply from Gandhi, who believed that materi-
the British Labour Party. The state took over ownership alism was morally corrupting and that only simplicity and
of the major industries and resources, transportation, and nonviolence (as represented by the traditional Indian vil-
utilities, while private enterprise was permitted at the local lage and the symbolic spinning wheel) could save India,
and retail levels. Farmland remained in private hands, but and the world itself, from self-destruction (see Opposing
rural cooperatives were officially encouraged. The govern- Viewpoints, “Two Visions for India,” above). Gandhi,
ment also sought to avoid excessive dependence on foreign Nehru complained, “just wants to spin and weave.”
investment and technological assistance. All businesses The primary themes of Nehru’s foreign policy were
were required by law to have majority Indian ownership. anticolonialism and antiracism. Under his guidance, India
In other respects, Nehru was a devotee of Western took a neutral stance in the Cold War and sought to pro-
materialism. He was convinced that to succeed, India vide leadership to all newly independent nations in Asia,
13-1 South Asia ■ 323
Africa, and Latin America. At the Bandung Conference, The Post-Nehru Era Nehru’s death in 1964 aroused con-
held in Indonesia in 1955, India promoted the concept of cern that Indian democracy was dependent on the Nehru
a bloc of “Third World” countries that would provide a mystique. When his successor, a Congress Party veteran,
balance between the capitalist world and the Communist died in 1966, Congress leaders selected Nehru’s daughter,
bloc. It also sought good relations with the new People’s Indira Gandhi (no relation to Mahatma Gandhi), as the new
Republic of China. India’s neutrality put it at odds with prime minister. Gandhi (1917–1984) was inexperienced in
the United States, which during the 1950s was trying to politics, but she quickly showed the steely determination
mobilize all nations against what it viewed as the menace of her father.
of international communism. Like Nehru, Indira Gandhi embraced democratic
Relations with Pakistan continued to be troubled. socialism and a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs, but
India refused to consider Pakistan’s claim to Kashmir, she was more activist than her father. To combat rural pov-
even though the majority of the people there were erty, she nationalized banks, provided loans to peasants on
Muslim. Tension between the two countries persisted, easy terms, built low-cost housing, distributed land to the
erupting into war in 1965. In 1971, when riots against the landless, and introduced electoral reforms to enfranchise
Pakistani government broke out in East Pakistan, India the poor.
intervened on the side of East Pakistan, which declared Gandhi was especially worried by India’s growing popu-
its independence as the new nation of Bangladesh lation and in an effort to curb the growth rate adopted a
(see Map 13.1). policy of forced sterilization. This policy proved unpopular,
however, and, along with growing official corruption and
Gandhi’s authoritarian tactics, led to her defeat in the
general election of 1975, the first time the Congress
KAZAKHSTAN Party had failed to win a majority at the national level.
A minority government of procapitalist parties
KYRGYZSTAN
was formed, but within two years, Gandhi was back
UZ
BE
KI
ST TAJIKISTAN in power. She now faced a new challenge, however, in
C H I N A
AN the rise of religious strife. The most dangerous situ-
TURKMENISTAN ation was in the Punjab, where militant Sikhs were
N
A Srinagar demanding autonomy or even independence from
ST Jammu and
NI Islamabad Kashmir India (the Sikh religion was created in the sixteenth
A
century to incorporate elements of both Islam and

GH
Amritsar
AF
N
PAKISTAN A Hinduism into the new faith). Gandhi did not shrink
UT
NEPAL from a confrontation and ordered an attack on Sikh

BH
Indus
IRAN New Delhi

rebels hiding in their Golden Temple in the city of
Karachi Dhaka Amritsar. The incident aroused widespread anger
Bhopal Kolkata among the Sikh community, and in 1984, Sikh mem-
BA N G
(Calcutta) MYANMAR bers of Gandhi’s personal bodyguard assassinated her.

INDIA (BURMA)
By now, Congress politicians were convinced
LAD
Mumbai
(Bombay) that the party could not remain in power without
Hyderabad
E SH
a member of the Nehru family at the helm. Indira

Arabian Goa
Bay of Gandhi’s son Rajiv (1944–1991), a commercial airline
S ea Bangalore Chennai pilot with little interest in politics, was persuaded to
(Madras) Bengal
replace his mother as prime minister. Rajiv lacked
Tamil Nadu
Kerala the strong ideological and political convictions of
SRI his mother and grandfather and allowed a greater
LANKA role for private enterprise. But his government was
0 1,000 Kilometers
criticized for cronyism, inefficiency, and corruption,
INDONESIA
0 600 Miles as well as insensitivity to the poor.
MAP 13.1 Modern South Asia. This map shows the boundaries of all
Rajiv Gandhi also sought to play a role in regional
the states in contemporary South Asia. India, the largest in area and affairs, mediating a dispute between the govern-
population, is highlighted. ment in Sri Lanka and Tamil rebels (known as the
Elam Tigers or Tamil Tigers), who were ethnically
Q Which of the countries on this map have a Muslim majority?
related to the majority population in southern India.
Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) had been granted indepen- Militant Hindu groups with tacit approval from BJP offi-
dence by the British in 1950 under a government formed cials have provoked clashes with Muslims and with other
by its majority Buddhist population, but two of the island’s minority groups such as Dalits (the lowest class in tradi-
minority groups—Hindus (most of whom were known tional Hindu society, once known as “untouchables”) and
as Tamils) and Muslims—were restive under Buddhist the country’s small Christian community.
rule. The decision to intervene in the bitter civil war cost In the spring of 2019, nearly one billion Indian citizens
Gandhi his life: while campaigning for reelection in 1991, were eligible to vote in national elections to determine
he was assassinated by a member of the Elam Tiger orga- the future course of the country. The BJP’s campaign was
nization. India faced the future without a member of the based on a promise of rapid economic growth and Hindu
Nehru family as prime minister. revivalism. The Congress Party, now led by the latest mem-
During the early 1990s, Congress remained the leading ber of the Gandhi family, Rajiv’s son Rahul (b. 1970), ran on
party, but the powerful hold it had once had on the Indian a platform of ethnic diversity and affirmative action for dis-
electorate was gone. New parties, such as the militantly advantaged groups. Water shortages and dropping prices
Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), actively vied with for farm products have angered the country’s millions of
Congress for control of the central and state governments. agricultural workers and raised questions about the BJP’s
Growing political instability at the center was accompa- ability to deliver on its economic promises, but its defense
nied by rising tensions between Hindus and Muslims, who of Hinduism remains widely popular among the majority
composed about 15 percent of the total population of of Indian voters, and the party won a stunning victory in
the country. the election, thus raising questions about the future direc-
When a coalition government formed under Congress tion of the second largest country in the world today.
leadership collapsed, the BJP, under Prime Minister A.
B. Vajpayee (1924–2018), ascended to power in 1998 and
played on Hindu sensibilities to build its political base. 13-1cThe Land of the Pure: Pakistan Since
The new government based its success on an aggressive Independence
program of privatization in the industrial and commercial When Pakistan achieved independence in August 1947, it
sectors and made a major effort to promote the nation’s was, unlike its neighbor India, in all respects a new nation,
small but growing technological base. But BJP leaders had based on religious conviction rather than historical or eth-
underestimated the discontent of India’s less affluent citi- nic tradition. The unique state united two separate territo-
zens (an estimated 350 million Indians earned less than one ries 2,000 miles apart. West Pakistan, including the Indus
U.S. dollar a day), and in the spring of 2004, a stunning River basin and the West Punjab, was perennially short of
defeat in national elections forced the Vajpayee govern- water and was populated by dry crop farmers and peoples
ment to resign. The Congress Party returned to power at of the steppe. East Pakistan was made up of the marshy
the head of a coalition government based on a commit- deltas of the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers. Densely
ment to maintain economic growth while carrying out populated with rice farmers, it was the home of the artistic
reforms in rural areas, including public works projects and and intellectual Bengalis.
hot lunch programs for all primary school children. The peoples of West Pakistan were especially diverse
But sectarian strife between Hindus and Muslims, as and included, among others, Pashtuns, Baluchis, and
well as pervasive official corruption, continued to bedevil Punjabis. The Pashtuns are organized on a tribal basis
the government. In the fall of 2008, a terrorist attack in and have kinship ties with the majority population across
the city of Mumbai left nearly 200 dead and raised seri- the border in neighboring Afghanistan. Many are nomadic
ous questions about the effectiveness of Indian security and cross the border on a regular basis with their flocks.
procedures. Indian officials charged that the inspiration The Baluchis straddle the border with Iran, while the
for the attack came from Pakistan. The Congress Party region of Punjab was divided between Pakistan and India
remained in power after national elections held the fol- at the moment of independence.
lowing year, but in 2014, the BJP stormed back into Even though the new state was an essentially Muslim
power under Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a pro- society, its first years were marked by intense internal
gram calling for rapid economic growth, a crackdown conflicts over religious, linguistic, and regional issues.
on endemic corruption, and a strengthening of the coun- Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s vision of a democratic state that
try’s role in international affairs. For many Indians, how- would assure freedom of religion and equal treatment for
ever, the BJP was still most identified by its emphasis on all was opposed by those who advocated a state based on
Hinduism as the defining characteristic of the Indian Islamic principles, and eventually Islamic law became the
nation (a concept known as Hindutva, or “Hinduness”). basis for the legal and social system.

Ethnic and territorial differences also plagued the new and a leader of the centrist Justice Movement Party, has
nation. Many residents of East Pakistan felt that the gov- pledged to improve economic conditions in the country,
ernment, based in the west, ignored their needs. In 1952, while cracking down on powerful militant groups and
riots erupted in East Pakistan over the government’s deci- seeking to cut back on the influence of Islamic radicals in
sion to adopt Urdu, a language derived from Hindi and the country’s religious schools.
used by Muslims in northern India, as the national lan- Whoever holds the reins of power in Pakistan faces
guage of the entire country. Most East Pakistanis spoke a number of challenges in coping with the multitude of
Bengali, an unrelated language. Tensions persisted, and in problems affecting the country today. In a nation where
March 1971, East Pakistan declared its independence as the much of the rural population still professes loyalty to
new nation of Bangladesh. Pakistani troops attempted to traditional tribal leaders, the sense of national identity
restore the central government’s authority in the capital remains fragile, while military elites who have long played
of Dhaka, but rebel forces supported by India went on the a central role in Pakistani politics continue to press their
offensive, and the government bowed to the inevitable and own agenda. The influence of radical Islam has been
recognized independent Bangladesh. growing, and in recent years it has peaked because of the
The breakup of the union between East and West war in Afghanistan and anger over India’s suppression of
Pakistan undermined the fragile authority of the military its Muslim minority. Half of the entire population lives
regime that had ruled Pakistan since 1958 and led to its in poverty, and illiteracy is widespread. The government
replacement by a civilian government under Zulfikar Ali is on the verge of bankruptcy because of inadequate tax
Bhutto (1928–1979). But now religious tensions came to revenues and declining exports. Massive flooding of the
the fore, despite a new constitution that made a number Indus River in 2010 killed nearly 2,000 people and left mil-
of key concessions to conservative Muslims. In 1977, a new lions homeless. Plagued by the continuing dispute over
military government under General Zia ul Ha’q (1924– Kashmir, relations with India remain fragile, and chronic
1988) came to power with a commitment to make Pakistan conflicts among the various ethnic and religious groups
a truly Islamic state. Islamic law became the basis for social undermine the search for stability.
behavior as well as for the legal system. Laws governing the
consumption of alcohol and the role of women were tight-
ened in accordance with strict Muslim beliefs. But after 13-1d Poverty and Pluralism in South Asia
Zia was killed in a plane crash, Pakistanis elected Benazir The leaders of the new states that emerged in South Asia
Bhutto (1953–2007), the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto after World War II faced a number of problems. The peo-
and a supporter of secularism who had been educated ples of South Asia were still overwhelmingly poor and illit-
in the United States. In 1990 she too was removed from erate, and the sectarian, ethnic, and cultural divisions that
power by a military regime, on charges of incompetence had plagued Indian society for centuries had not dissipated.
and corruption. Reelected in 1993, she attempted to crack
down on opposition forces but was removed once again on The Politics of Communalism Perhaps the most sincere
similar charges. Her successor soon came under fire for the effort to create democratic institutions was in India, where
same reason and in 1999 was ousted by a military coup led the new constitution called for social justice, liberty, equal-
by General Pervez Musharraf (b. 1943), who promised to ity of status and opportunity, and fraternity. All citizens
restore political stability and honest government. were guaranteed protection from discrimination on the
In September 2001, Pakistan became the focus of inter- grounds of religious belief, race, caste, gender, or place
national attention when a coalition of forces arrived in of birth.
neighboring Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban regime In theory, then, India became a full-fledged democracy
and destroy the al-Qaeda terrorist network. Despite con- on the British parliamentary model. In actuality, a number
siderable support for the Taliban among his constituents, of distinctive characteristics made the system less than fully
President Musharraf pledged his help in bringing terrorists democratic in the Western sense but may also have enabled
to justice. He also promised to return his country to the it to survive. As we have seen, under Nehru and his imme-
secular principles espoused by Muhammad Ali Jinnah. But diate successors India became in essence a one-party state.
the situation was complicated by renewed tensions over By leading the independence movement, the Congress
Kashmir, which led to a series of violent clashes between Party had gained massive public support, which enabled it
Muslims and Hindus in India. In 2008, Pakistan returned to to retain its preeminent position in Indian politics for three
civilian rule through democratic elections, but the politi- decades. The party also avoided being identified as a party
cal influence of the military remained paramount. The exclusively for the Hindu majority by including prominent
current president, Imran Khan (b. 1952), an ex-cricket star non-Hindus among its leaders and favoring measures to
protect minority groups such as Sikhs, untouchables, and including the dubious contention that the Indus Valley
Muslims from discrimination. Civilization, an early polity that arose in the valley of the
After Nehru’s death in 1964, however, problems Indus River about 5,000 years ago, had been founded by
emerged that had been disguised by his adept maneuver- Aryan peoples, ancestors of most present-day Hindus.
ing. One problem was the familiar one of a party too long Even the country’s small Christian community has been
in power. Party officials became complacent and all too affected. In the eastern state of Orissa, pitched battles have
easily fell prey to the temptations of corruption and pork- broken out between Hindus and Christians over efforts by
barrel politics. As a result, the party’s aura has faded, and the latter to win converts to their faith. At the time, India’s
it is viewed today by most Indians as merely one among Congress Party prime minister Manmohan Singh (b. 1932)
several competing groups in the political arena. lamented what he labeled an assault on India’s “composite
Another reason for the decline of the Congress Party’s culture.”3
political standing was the growing power of communal-
ism. Beneath the surface unity of the new republic lay The Economy Jawaharlal Nehru’s answer to the social
age-old ethnic, linguistic, and religious divisions. From the and economic inequality that had long afflicted the sub-
outset, language was an especially knotty problem. Because continent was socialism. He instituted a series of five-year
of India’s vast size and complex history, no national lan- plans, which led to the creation of a relatively large and
guage had ever emerged. Hindi was the most prevalent, reasonably efficient industrial sector, centered on steel,
but it was the native language of less than one-third of the vehicles, and textiles. Industrial production almost tripled
population. During the colonial period, English had served between 1950 and 1965, and per capita income rose by
as the official language of government, and many non- 50 percent between 1950 and 1980, although it was still less
Hindi speakers suggested making it the official language. than $300 (U.S. dollars).
But English was spoken only by the educated elite, and it By the 1970s, however, industrial growth had slowed.
represented an affront to national pride. Eventually, India The lack of modern infrastructure was a problem, as was
recognized fourteen official tongues. the rising price of oil, most of which had to be imported.
Bitter feelings that bedeviled relations among the coun- The relative weakness of the state-owned sector, which
try’s various religious communities, originally sparked by grew at an annual rate of only about 2 percent in the 1950s
the bloody events that took place during the transition to and 1960s, versus 5 percent for the private sector, also
independence, also began to intensify. As we have seen, became a serious obstacle.
Gandhi’s uncompromising approach to Sikh separatism led India’s major economic weakness, however, was in
to her assassination by her own bodyguards in 1984. Under agriculture. At independence, mechanization was almost
her son Rajiv, sectarian disputes between India’s Hindu unknown, fertilizer was rarely used, and most farms were
majority and the minority Muslim community also began small and uneconomical because of the Hindu tradition
to increase. The issue came to international attention in of dividing the land equally among all male children. As
the 1980s, when Hindu militants demanded the destruc- a result, the vast majority of the Indian people lived in
tion of a mosque that had been built during the Mughal conditions of abject poverty. Landless laborers outnum-
dynasty on a traditional Hindu holy site at Ayodhya, in bered landowners by almost two to one. The government
northern India, where a Hindu temple had previously attempted to relieve the problem by redistributing land to
existed. In 1992, Hindu demonstrators destroyed the the poor, limiting the size of landholdings, and encourag-
mosque and erected a temporary Hindu temple at the site, ing farmers to form voluntary cooperatives. But all three
provoking scattered clashes between Hindus and Muslims programs ran into widespread opposition and apathy.
throughout the country. In protest, rioters in neighbor- Another problem was rapid population growth. Even
ing Pakistan destroyed a number of Hindu shrines in that before independence, the country had had difficulty sup-
country. In 2010, an Indian court ordered that the land that porting its people. In the 1950s and 1960s, the population
had contained the mosque be divided between the Hindu grew by more than 2 percent annually, twice the nine-
and Muslim plaintiffs, and the issue died down. teenth-century rate. Beginning in the 1960s, the Indian gov-
The rise of the BJP as a political force added fuel to the ernment sought to curb population growth. Indira Gandhi
fire, as militant Hindu groups began to demand a state instituted a program combining monetary rewards and
that would cater to the Hindu majority, who now num- compulsory sterilization, but popular resistance under-
bered more than 700 million people in the country. The mined the program, which was scaled back in the 1970s.
historical achievements of India’s Mughal dynasty were One factor in the continued population growth has been a
downplayed, and some school textbooks were rewrit- decline in the death rate, especially the rate of infant mor-
ten to reflect a more Hindu-oriented version of history, tality. Nevertheless, as a result of media popularization

HISTORICAL VOICES
Say No to McDonald’s and KFC!

and fried. This is the worst combination possible for the
Q Why does the author of this article oppose the
body and can create a host of health problems, including
introduction of Western-style fast-food restaurants
obesity, high cholesterol, heart ailments, and many kinds
in India? Do you think her complaints apply in the
of cancer. Pizza Hut products are a combination of white
United States as well?
flour, cheese, and meat—again, a combination likely to
cause disease. . . .
Interaction One of the consequences of Rajiv Gandhi’s Then there is the issue of the environmental impact
& Exchange
decision to deregulate the Indian economy of junk-food chains. Modern meat production involves
has been an increase in the presence of foreign corporations, misuse of crops, water, energy, and grazing areas. In
including U.S. fast-food restaurant chains. Their arrival set addition, animal agriculture produces surprisingly large
off a storm of protest in India: from environmentalists amounts of air and water pollution.
concerned that raising grain for chickens is an inefficient KFC and Pizza Hut insist that their chickens be fed
use of land, from religious activists angry at the killing of corn and soybeans. Consider the diversion of grain
animals for food, and from nationalists anxious to protect for this purpose. As the outlets of KFC and Pizza Hut
the domestic market from foreign competition. The protests increase in number, the poultry industry will buy up
went unheeded, however, and fast-food restaurants, many of more and more corn to feed the chickens, which means
them under Indian ownership, have become an increasingly that the corn will quickly disappear from the villages,
visible presence on the urban scene. Most cater to local and its increased price will place it out of reach for the
tastes by avoiding beef products and
offering many vegetarian dishes.
This piece, which appeared in the
Hindustan Times, was written by
Maneka Gandhi, a daughter-in-law
of Indira Gandhi and a onetime
minister of the environment who has
emerged as a prominent rival of
Sonia Gandhi, the widow of Rajiv
Gandhi and the Congress Party
president.
Why India Doesn’t Need Fast Food

India’s decision to allow Pepsi
Foods Ltd. to open 60 restaurants
in India—30 each of Pizza Hut
and Kentucky Fried Chicken—
marks the first entry of multi-
national, meat-based junk-food
© Yvonne V. Duiker
chains into India. If this is allowed

to happen, at least a dozen other
similar chains will very quickly
arrive, including the infamous
McDonald’s. IMAGE 13.2 Fast Food, Indian Style. Some of the popular international fast-food chains
The implications of allowing like McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken have begun to make their appearance
in large Indian cities like Mumbai and New Delhi, despite the criticism by some
junk-food chains into India are
observers that they would encourage bad health habits and hurt local restaurants.
quite stark. As the name denotes, Their familiar logos are rarely seen in smaller towns and in rural areas, however, where
the foods served at Kentucky Fried many Indians cannot afford their prices or prefer to eat at roadside stalls serving a
Chicken (KFC) are chicken-based variety of tasty local dishes, as this small restaurant in the state of Goa attests.
common man. Turning corn into junk chicken is like Of course, it is not just the KFC and Pizza Hut chains
turning gold into mud. . . . of Pepsi Foods Ltd. that will cause all of this damage.
It is already shameful that, in a country plagued by Once we open India up by allowing these chains, dozens
famine and flood, we divert 37 percent of our arable more will be eagerly waiting to come in. Each city in
land to growing animal fodder. Were all of that grain to America has an average of 5,000 junk-food restaurants.
be consumed directly by humans, it would nourish five Is that what we want for India?
times as many people as it does after being converted
into meat, milk, and eggs. . . .
Source: From World Press Review (September 1995), p. 47.
and better government programs, the trend today, even in a symbol of the “outsourcing” of jobs from the United
poor rural villages, is toward smaller families. The aver- States and Europe that has led to an increase in middle-
age number of children a woman bears has been reduced class unemployment throughout the Western world.
from six in 1950 to three today. As has occurred elsewhere, Nevertheless, Nehru’s dream of a socialist society
the decline in family size began among the educated and remains strong. State-owned enterprises still produce
is gradually spreading throughout Indian society. Still, the about half of all domestic goods, and high tariffs continue
population of India has reached over 1.3 billion people, and to stifle imports. Nationalist parties have played on the
the country is on target to surpass China and become the widespread fear of foreign economic influence to make it
world’s most populous nation by the year 2025. difficult for large multinational corporations, such as the
The so-called green revolution that began in the 1960s retail giant Walmart, to break into the Indian market. A few
helped reduce the severity of the population problem. The years ago, a combination of religious and environmental
introduction of more productive, disease-resistant strains of groups attempted unsuccessfully to prevent Kentucky Fried
rice and wheat doubled grain production between 1960 and Chicken from establishing outlets in major Indian cities (see
1980. But the green revolution also increased rural inequality. Historical Voices, “Say No to McDonald’s and KFC!” p. 328).
Only the wealthier farmers were able to purchase the neces- As in the industrialized countries of the West, economic
sary fertilizer, while poor peasants were often driven off the growth in India has been accompanied by serious damage
land. Millions fled to the cities, where they lived in vast slums, to the environment. Water and air pollution have led to
working at menial jobs or even begging for a living. illness and death for many Indians, and a vocal environ-
After the death of Indira Gandhi in 1984, her son Rajiv mental movement has emerged. Some critics, reflecting
proved more receptive to foreign investment and a greater the traditional anti-imperialist attitude of Indian intellec-
role for the private sector in the economy. India began to tuals, blame Western corporations for the problem, as in
export more manufactured goods, including computer the highly publicized case of leakage from a foreign-owned
software. The pace of change has accelerated under Rajiv chemical plant at Bhopal. In reality, much of the problem
Gandhi’s successors, who have continued to transfer state- comes from state-owned factories erected with Soviet
run industries to private hands. These policies have stimu- aid or—more recently—from the millions of small India-
lated the growth of a prosperous new middle class, now made automobiles that now clog the streets of the major
estimated at more than 100 million. Consumerism has cities around the country. And not all the environmental
soared, and sales of television sets, automobiles, DVD play- damage can be ascribed to industrialization. Millions of
ers, and cellphones have increased dramatically. Equally Indians rely on small charcoal stoves to heat their meals
important, Western imports are being replaced by new and their homes, spewing toxic gases into the atmosphere.
products manufactured in India with Indian brand names. The Ganges River—sacred to Hindus for centuries—is so
One consequence of India’s entrance into the industrial polluted by human overuse that it is risky for Hindu believ-
age is the emergence of a small but vibrant technological ers to bathe in it, while air and water pollution is so exten-
sector that provides many important services to the world’s sive that it constitutes a severe health problem in urban
advanced nations. The city of Bangalore in southern India areas throughout the subcontinent. On some days, New
has become an important technological center, benefit- Delhi is the most polluted city on Earth.
ing from low wages and the presence of skilled labor with Moreover, many Indians have not benefited from the
proficiency in the English language. It has also become new prosperity. Nearly one-third of the population lives
Two Indias
to join the global technological marketplace. Yet India
Q In what other regions of the world is lack of water a today remains primarily a nation of villages. Image 13.3b
serious problem? shows women in colorful saris filling their pails with water
at the village well. As in many developing countries, the
scarcity of clean water is one of India’s most crucial
Earth & Contemporary India is a study in contrasts.
Environment problems.
In Image 13.3a, middle-class students learn
to use a computer, a symbol of their country’s recent drive
INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/Getty Images
William J. Duiker
below the national poverty line. Millions continue to Prospects for the future are not bright, for both countries
live in urban slums, such as the famous “City of Joy” in have high birth-rates and lack a modern technological
Kolkata (Calcutta), and most farm families remain desper- sector to serve as a magnet for the emergence of an edu-
ately poor. In India’s countless villages, millions of rural cated middle class.
people rely—like the women in Image 13.3b from a village
near Aurangabad—on local wells for their access to a clean Caste, Class, and Gender The Indian constitution of
water supply (see Comparative Illustration, “Two Indias,” 1950 guaranteed equal treatment and opportunity for all,
above). Despite the socialist rhetoric of India’s leaders, regardless of caste, and prohibited discrimination based on
the inequality of wealth in India is as pronounced as it is untouchability. In recent years, the government has enacted
in capitalist nations in the West. Indeed, India has been a number of laws guaranteeing access to education and
described as two nations: an educated urban India of 100 employment to all Indians, regardless of caste affiliation,
million people surrounded by more than nine times that and a number of individuals of low caste have attained
many impoverished peasants in the countryside. high positions in Indian society. Nevertheless, prejudice is
Such problems are even more serious in neighboring hard to eliminate, and the problem persists, particularly
Pakistan and Bangladesh. As we have seen above, the in rural areas, where dalits (see “The Post-Nehru Era,”
overwhelming majority of Pakistan’s citizens are poor, p. 324) still perform menial tasks and are often denied fun-
and at least half are illiterate. Meanwhile, typhoons are damental rights by their fellow villagers. Educated Indians
frequent in the Bay of Bengal and often cause severe often resent the fact that positions in education and the
damage and loss of life in low-lying areas of Bangladesh. civil service are reserved for low-caste applicants.
Gender equality has also been difficult to establish. In Midnight’s Children (1980), he linked his protagonist,
After independence, India’s leaders also sought to equalize born on the night of independence, to the history of
treatment of the sexes. The constitution expressly forbade modern India, its achievements, and its frustrations.
discrimination based on gender and called for equal pay for Rushdie’s later novels have tackled such problems as
equal work. Laws prohibited child marriage, sati, and the religious intolerance, political tyranny, social injustice,
payment of a dowry by the bride’s family. Women were and greed and corruption. His attack on Islamic funda-
encouraged to attend school and enter the labor market. mentalism in The Satanic Verses (1988) won plaudits from
Such laws, along with the dynamics of economic and literary critics but provoked widespread criticism among
social change, have had a major impact on the lives of Muslims, including a death sentence by Iran’s Ayatollah
many Indian women. Middle-class women in urban areas Khomeini.
are much more likely to seek employment outside the
home, and some hold managerial and professional posi-
tions, although many couples still consult with their Historians
Debate
13-1f What Is the Future
parents or an astrologer before deciding whether to go of India?
through with a marriage. Like other aspects of life, the Today, Indian society looks increasingly Western in form,
role of women has changed much less in rural areas. if not in content, and the distinction between traditional
Female children are still much less likely to receive an and modern, or local and cosmopolitan, sometimes seems
education. The overall literacy rate in India today is about to be a simple dichotomy between rural and urban. The
60 percent, but it is less than 50 percent among women. major cities appear modern and westernized, while many
Laws relating to dowry, child marriage, and inheritance villages have changed little since precolonial days.
are routinely ignored in the countryside.
The young bride in the photograph shown
here may have played little role in the
selection of her future husband (see Image
13.4). There have been a few highly publi-
cized cases of sati, although undoubtedly
more women die of mistreatment at the
hands of their husband or of other mem-
bers of his family.
13-1e South Asian Literature

Since Independence
Recent decades have witnessed a prodigious
outpouring of literature in India. Because
of the vast quantity of works published
(India is currently the third-largest publisher
of English-language books in the world),
only a few of the most prominent fiction
William J. Duiker
writers can be mentioned here. Anita Desai
(b. 1937) was one of the first prominent
female writers to emerge from contempo-
rary India. Her writing focuses on the strug- IMAGE 13.4 Young Hindu Bride in Gold Bangles. Awaiting the marriage ceremony,
gle of Indian women to achieve a degree a young bride sits with her female relatives at the Meenakshi Hindu temple,
of independence. In her first novel, Cry, the one of the largest in southern India. Although child marriage is illegal, Indian
Peacock, the heroine finally seeks liberation girls are still married at a young age. With the marital union arranged by the
parents, this young bride may never have met her future husband. Bedecked in
by murdering her husband, preferring free- gold jewelry and rich silks—part of her dowry—she nervously awaits the priest’s
dom at any cost to remaining a captive of blessing before she moves to her husband’s home. There she will begin a life of
traditional society (see Historical Voices, servitude to her in-laws’ family.
“A Marriage of Convenience,” p. 332).
The most controversial writer from Q How would you compare the position of women in South Asia with what you
have encountered in other parts of the world today? What accounts for the
India today is Salman Rushdie (b. 1947). differences?

HISTORICAL VOICES
A Marriage of Convenience
out, she even had friends who were Muslims, though
Q What is the source of Mrs. Rupa Mehra’s objection almost all of them were not orthodox at all. The Nawab
to her daughter’s planned marriage? How does her Sahib was perhaps, quite orthodox, but then he was,
daughter respond? for Mrs. Rupa Mehra, more a social acquaintance than
a friend.
The more Mrs. Rupa Mehra thought, the more
Art & ONE OF INDEPENDENT INDIA’S foremost
Ideas agitated she became. Even marrying a non-kshatriya
challenges has been to realize Mahatma’s
Hindu was bad enough. But this was unspeakable. It
Gandhi’s dream of integrating the country’s multiple ethnic
was one thing to mix socially with Muslims, entirely
and religious groups into a cohesive society. Among the
another to dream of polluting one’s blood and sacrificing
most serious issues is the uneasy relationship between the
one’s daughter.
Muslim community and the Hindu majority. In A Suitable
Whom could she turn to in her hour of darkness?
Boy, author Vikram Seth (b. 1952) describes the dilemma
When Pran came home for lunch and heard the story,
faced by a Hindu family when a daughter wishes to marry
he suggested mildly that they meet the boy. Mrs. Rupa
her Muslim boyfriend. Rupa Mehra is the mother of two
Mehra threw another fit. It was utterly out of the ques-
daughters, Savita and Lata. Savita has married Pran, a
tion. Pran then decided to stay out of things and to let
fellow Hindu, but Lata has fallen in love with Kabir, a
them die down. He had not been hurt when he realized
Muslim student at her university.
that Savita had kept her sister’s confidence from him, and
In the passage presented here, the author portrays
Savita loved him still more for that. She tried to calm her
the anguish experienced by family members as they seek
mother down, console Lata, and keep them in separate
to resolve the problem. At the end of 1,500 pages, Lata
rooms—at least during the day.
finally agrees to follow family tradition and marry the young
Lata looked around the bedroom and wondered what
Hindu her mother has chosen. Although it will initially be a
she was doing in this house with her mother when her
“marriage of convenience,” she hopes that respect for her
heart was entirely elsewhere, anywhere but here—a boat,
husband will eventually turn to love, as happened with her
a cricket field, a concert, a banyan grove, a cottage in
sister Savita.
the hills, Blandings Castle, anywhere, anywhere, so long
as she was with Kabir. No matter what happened, she
A Suitable Boy
would meet him as planned, tomorrow. She told herself
Mrs. Rupa Mehra was not more prejudiced against again and again that the path of true love never did run
Muslims than most upper-caste Hindu women of her smooth.
age and background. As Lata had inopportunely pointed
Source: From V. Seth, A Suitable Boy (New York: Harper Collins, 1993), pp. 197–198.
Yet traditional practices appear to be more resilient in V. S. Naipaul (1932–2108), a well-known Trinidadian
India than in many other societies, and the result is often author of Indian descent, charged that Mahatma Gandhi’s
a synthesis rather than a clash between conflicting institu- glorification of poverty and the simple Indian village
tions and values. Clothing styles in the streets (where the was an obstacle to efforts to overcome the poverty, igno-
sari and the dhoti continue to be popular), religious prac- rance, and degradation of India’s past and build a prosper-
tices in the temples, and social relationships in the home all ous modern society. Gandhi’s vision of a spiritual India,
testify to the importance of tradition in India. Naipaul complained, was a balm for defeatism and an
One disadvantage of the eclectic approach, which seeks excuse for failure.
to blend the old and the new rather than choosing one over Yet the appeal of Gandhi’s philosophy remains a major
the other, is that sometimes contrasting traditions cannot part of the country’s heritage. In July 2006, at a time when
be reconciled. In his book India: A Wounded Civilization, growing despair at economic conditions in the countryside
resulted in a rash of suicides by poor farmers, Prime peoples, it would be difficult to put the genie back in the
Minister Manmohan Singh called on the Indian people to bottle again.
reject the America model of “wasteful” consumer spend-
ing and return to the frugal teachings and spiritual vision of
13-2a The End of the Colonial Era
Mahatma Gandhi, which were, in his words, a “necessity”
for a country as poor in material goods as India.4 Tragically, Some did not try. In July 1946, the United States granted
poverty conditions in the Indian countryside continue to total independence to the Philippines. The Americans
afflict much of the country’s rural population today. maintained a military presence on the islands, however,
Certainly, India faces a cruel dilemma. As historian and U.S. citizens retained economic and commercial inter-
Martha Nussbaum points out in The Clash Within: Democracy, ests in the new country.
Religious Violence, and India’s Future, much of India’s rural The British too, under the Labour Party, were willing
population continues to hold traditional beliefs, such as the to bring an end to a century of imperialism in the region.
concept of karma and inherent caste distinctions, that are In 1948, the Union of Burma received its independence.
incompatible with the capitalist work ethic and the dem- Malaya’s turn came in 1957, after a Communist-led guer-
ocratic belief in equality before the law. Yet these beliefs rilla movement had been suppressed.
provide a measure of identity and solace often lacking in The French and the Dutch, however, regarded their col-
other societies where such traditional spiritual underpin- onies in the region as economic necessities as well as sym-
nings have eroded. bols of national grandeur and refused to turn them over to
India also faces other serious challenges. Gandhi’s nationalist movements at the end of the war. The Dutch
vision of a diverse society composed of many distinct attempted to suppress a rebellion in the East Indies led by
ethnic and religious communities is increasingly at odds Sukarno (1901–1970), leader of the Indonesian Nationalist
with the virulent spirit of nationalism and religious iden- Party. But the United States, which feared a Communist
tity sweeping the region today. It must also cope with victory there, pressured the Dutch to grant independence
severe environmental difficulties, including land erosion, to Sukarno and his non-Communist forces, and in 1950,
overcrowding, and a scarcity of water and other vital the Dutch finally agreed to recognize the new Republic of
resources, which will place severe limitations on the coun- Indonesia. As we have seen, the situation was even more
try’s ability to transform itself into an advanced industrial complicated in Vietnam, where the French refused to rec-
society. As a democratic and pluralistic society, it is unable ognize Ho Chi Minh’s provisional government in Hanoi
to launch major programs without popular consent and in the fall of 1945 and sought to reimpose colonial rule.
thus cannot move as quickly or often as effectively as an Only in 1954 would Vietnam, temporarily divided into two
authoritarian system like China’s. On the other hand, zones, receive its independence under the Geneva Accords
India’s institutions provide a mechanism to prevent the (see Chapter 7).
emergence of a despotic government interested only in
its own survival. Rich in tradition and experience, India 13-2b In the Shadow of the Cold War
must seek its own path to the future. Unfortunately, the new nations of Southeast Asia faced the
initial challenges of independence during an era of intense
global turmoil because of the outbreak of the Cold War.
13-2 Southeast Asia Although some anti-colonialist leaders within the region
(see Map 13.2) admired Western political institutions and
QQ Focus Question: What kinds of problems have
the nations of Southeast Asia had to face since
hoped to adapt them to their own countries, others were
influenced by the Marxist critique of world capitalism and
1945, and how did they attempt to solve them? sought to bring about revolutionary changes on the model
of the Soviet Union or Communist China. Within a few
The Japanese wartime occupation had a great impact on years after the end of World War II, the Cold War was rag-
attitudes among the peoples of Southeast Asia. It dem- ing in Southeast Asia.
onstrated the vulnerability of colonial rule in the region
and showed that an Asian power could defeat Europeans. The Search for a New Political Culture In the immedi-
The Allied governments themselves also contributed— ate aftermath of independence, most new nations in the
sometimes unwittingly—to rising aspirations for inde- region adopted constitutions patterned on Western demo-
pendence by promising self-determination for all peoples cratic models, and multiparty political systems quickly
at the end of the war. Although Winston Churchill later sprang into operation. By the 1960s, however, many of
said that the Atlantic Charter did not apply to the colonial these budding experiments in pluralist democracy had
13-2 Southeast Asia ■ 333
BHUTAN
NEPAL
CHINA
INDIA Taipei
TAIWAN
MYANMAR Dien Bien Phu Hong Kong
(BURMA)
LAOS Hanoi
BANGLADESH Luang Prabang
Vientiane South Luzon Pacific
Yangon Huê China
Moulmein THAILAND Hoi An Sea
Manila
Bangkok VIETNAM
Andaman
CAMBODIA
and
Nicobar Phnom Penh
PHILIPPINES
Ocean
Islands Port Blair
Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)
Mindanao
BRUNEI
Penang
L A Y S I
Medan M A A Celebes
Kuala Lumpur Sarawak Sea
Kuching
SI Halmahera
Sumatra NG
Kalimantan
AP
Palembang
OR Moluccas
E Sulawesi
Indian Bandjarmasin
Banda Sea
New Guinea
Jakarta Semarang PAPUA

Ocean Bogor
Madura
Surabaja
I N D O N E S I A NEW GUINEA
Flores
Bandung Jogjakarta EAST TIMOR
Sumbawa
Sumba
Timor Arafura Sea
0 500 1,000 1,500 Kilometers
0 500 1,000 Miles

A U S T R A L I A
MAP 13.2 Modern Southeast Asia. Shown here are the countries of contemporary Southeast Asia. The major
islands that make up the Republic of Indonesia are indicated in yellow.
Q Which of the countries in Southeast Asia have functioning democratic governments? Which appear to be
the most prosperous?
been abandoned or were under serious threat. Some it ended economic inequality and the domination of the
had been replaced by military or one-party autocratic local economies by foreign interests. Most economies in
regimes. In Burma, a moderate government based on the the region were still characterized by tiny industrial sec-
British parliamentary system and dedicated to Buddhism tors; they lacked technology, educational resources, and
and nonviolent Marxism had given way to a military capital investment. Disillusionment that the bright prom-
dictatorship. In Thailand too, the military ruled. In the ise of independence was not being fulfilled was quick to
Philippines, President Ferdinand Marcos (1917–1989) dis- spread among the general population.
carded democratic restraints and established his own cen- The presence of widespread ethnic, linguistic, reli-
tralized control. In South Vietnam, under pressure from gious, and economic differences also made the transition
Communist-led insurgents, Ngo Dinh Diem and his suc- to Western-style democracy difficult. In Malaya, for exam-
cessors paid lip service to the Western democratic model ple, the majority Malays—most of whom were farmers
but ruled by authoritarian means. and virtually all of whom were (and still are) Muslims—
One key reason why democratic institutions failed to feared economic and political domination by the local
take root in postwar Southeast Asia was that independence Chinese minority, who were much more experienced in
had not brought material prosperity in its wake, nor had industry and commerce. In 1961, the new Federation of
Malaya, whose ruling party was dominated by Malays, inte- The army and many devout Muslims resented
grated former British possessions on the island of Borneo Sukarno’s increasing reliance on the Communists, and
into the new Union of Malaysia in a move to increase the devout Muslims were further upset by his refusal to con-
non-Chinese proportion of the country’s population. Yet sider a state based on Islamic principles. In 1965, a few left-
periodic conflicts persisted as the Malaysian government ist military officers launched a coup d’état that provoked a
adopted a program of affirmative action to grant favorit- military takeover of the government and a mass popular
ism in the economic sphere to Malays while seeking to uprising, which resulted in the slaughter of several hundred
guarantee Malay control over politics. thousand suspected Communists, many of whom were
It was unfortunate that the new nations of Southeast overseas Chinese, long distrusted by the Muslim major-
Asia were seeking to realize their ambitious objectives in ity (see Movies & History, The Year of Living Dangerously,
a time of intense Great Power rivalry throughout Asia. p. 337). After passions had cooled, in 1967, a military gov-
While their leaders were under severe pressure to take ernment under General Suharto (1921–2008) was installed.
sides in the Cold War, revolutionary parties—many of The new government made no pretensions of revert-
them influenced by the Maoist strategy of “people’s ing to democratic rule, but it did restore good relations
war”—operated outside the system as they sought to with the West and sought foreign investment to repair
bring about drastic change on the model of the new the country’s ravaged economy. It also sought to placate
China. These revolutionary parties drew support not demands from some Muslim groups for a state based on
only from China but also from North Vietnam, where strict Islamic principles, a demand that ran counter to one
Communist leaders openly rejected the Western model of the core principles of the 1945 constitution—the con-
and opted for the Leninist pattern of national develop- cept of “Five Principles” (or Panca Sila)—that called for
ment based on Communist Party rule. In 1958, North a secular state that would reconcile the diverse religious
Vietnamese leaders launched a three-year plan to lay the beliefs that characterized the population of the country. In
foundations for a fully socialist society. Collective farms a few areas, notably in western Sumatra, militant Muslims
were established in rural areas, and all industry and com- took up arms against the state.
merce above the family level were nationalized. To wor-
ried U.S. officials in Washington, a “red tide” threatened 13-2c Southeast Asia in the New Millennium
to overrun the entire region of Southeast Asia. With the end of the Vietnam War and the gradual rapproche-
ment between China and the United States that began in
Sukarno and “Guided Democracy” The most promi- the late 1970s, the ferment and uncertainty that had marked
nent example of a failed experiment in democracy was in the first three decades of independence in Southeast Asia
Indonesia. In 1950, the new Indonesian leaders drew up a gradually gave way to an era of greater political stability
constitution creating a parliamentary system under a titu- and material prosperity. In the Philippines, the dictatorial
lar presidency. Sukarno was elected the first president. A regime of Ferdinand Marcos was overthrown by a mas-
spellbinding orator, Sukarno played a major role in creat- sive public uprising in 1986 and replaced by a democrati-
ing a sense of national identity among the disparate peo- cally elected government under President Corazon Aquino
ples of the Indonesian archipelago (see Historical Voices, (1933–2009), the widow of a popular politician assassinated
“The Golden Throat of President Sukarno,” p. 336). a few years earlier. Aquino was unable to resolve many of
But Sukarno grew exasperated at the incessant the country’s chronic economic and social difficulties, how-
maneuvering among devout Muslims, Communists, and ever, and political stability remained elusive. The current
the army, and in the late 1950s, he dissolved the consti- president, Rodrigo Duterte (b. 1945), is an outspoken popu-
tution and attempted to rule on his own through what list who has sought popularity by vigorously pursuing drug
he called guided democracy. As he described it, guided pushers and other criminal elements in the country. A long-
democracy was closer to Indonesian traditions and supe- running dispute rages on the southern island of Mindanao,
rior to the Western variety. The weakness of the latter, where dissident Muslim groups have mounted a terrorist
he argued, was that it allowed the majority to dominate campaign in their effort to obtain autonomy or indepen-
the minority, whereas guided democracy would reconcile dence from the central government.
different opinions and points of view in a government Similar trends are at work elsewhere in the region.
operated by consensus. Highly suspicious of the West, Malaysia is a practicing democracy, although the ruling
Sukarno nationalized foreign-owned enterprises and coalition of various ethnic groups has long experienced
sought economic aid from China and the Soviet Union chronic difficulties in satisfying demands by militant
while relying for domestic support on the Indonesian Muslims to create an Islamic state—an eventuality that
Communist Party. would arouse deep unease among the country’s many
HISTORICAL VOICES
The Golden Throat of President Sukarno

And what are we today? We are a great nation.
Q Does Sukarno’s argument that Western-style We are bigger than Poland. We are bigger than Turkey.
democracy allows the majority to tyrannize the We have more people than Australia, than Canada, we
minority have any merit? If not, why not? are bigger in area and have more people than Japan.
In population now we are the fifth-largest country in
the world. In area, we are even bigger than the United
Politics & President Sukarno of Indonesia was a
Government States of America. The American Ambassador, who is
spellbinding speaker and a charismatic
here with us, admits this. Of course, he points out that
leader of his nation’s struggle for independence. These two
we have a lot of water in between our thousands of
excerpts are from speeches in which Sukarno promoted two
islands. But I say to him—America has a lot of moun-
of his favorite projects: Indonesian nationalism and “guided
tains and deserts, too!
democracy.” The force that would guide Indonesia, of
course, was to be Sukarno himself. While Sukarno tried to Sukarno on Guided Democracy
justify his plan to strengthen his own authority by harking
Indonesia’s democracy is not liberal democracy.
back to local village traditions, his real objective was one
Indonesian democracy is not the democracy of the
that is shared by would-be autocrats throughout the world.
world of Montaigne or Voltaire. Indonesia’s democracy
Sukarno on Indonesian Greatness is not à la America, Indonesia’s democracy is not the
Soviet—NO! Indonesia’s democracy is the democracy
What was Indonesia in 1945? What was our nation then?
which is implanted in the breasts of the Indonesian
It was only two things, only two things. A flag and a song.
people, and it is that which I have tried to dig up again,
That is all. (Pause, finger held up as afterthought.) But
and have put forward as an offering to you. . . . If you,
no, I have omitted the main ingredient. I have missed the
especially the undergraduates, are still clinging to and
most important thing of all. I have left out the burning
being borne along the democracy made in England,
fire of freedom and independence in the breast and heart
or democracy made in France, or democracy made in
of every Indonesian. That is the most important thing—
America, or democracy made in Russia, you will become
this is the vital chord—the spirit of our people, the spirit
a nation of copyists!
and determination to be free. This was our nation in
1945—the spirit of our people!
Source: From Howard Jones, Indonesia: The Possible Dream (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Hoover Institute, 1971), pp. 223, 237.
ethnic and religious minorities. Critics argue that the by Aung San Suu Kyi, the admired daughter of a World
program that assigns employment preferences for indig- War II nationalist leader, the new government faces intimi-
enous Malays appears above all to benefit the traditional dating challenges from anemic economic growth and a bit-
ruling elites. In 2018, for the first time the government ter conflict between the country’s Buddhist majority and
was voted out of office on charges of chronic corruption. a widely distrusted Muslim minority group known as the
In neighboring Thailand, fragile democratic forces are Rohingya. Government efforts to expel the Rohingya from
observed warily by the military, which recently declared the country have aroused widespread criticism from civil
martial law over the country after a series of massive anti- rights groups abroad.
government protests.
In Burma (renamed Myanmar in 1989), the forces of Indonesia after Suharto For years, a major excep-
greater popular participation were long silenced by a repres- tion to the trend toward political pluralism in the region
sive military regime known as SLORC. Recently, however, was Indonesia, where Suharto ruled virtually without
the military junta agreed to a gradual transition to civilian restraints. But in 1997, protests against widespread offi-
leadership under the National League for Democracy. Led cial corruption (several members of Suharto’s family had
MOVIES & HISTORY
The Year of Living Dangerously (1983)
President Sukarno of Indonesia was one of the most
prominent figures in Southeast Asia in the first two
decades after World War II. A key figure in the national-
ist movement while the country was under Dutch colo-
nial rule, he was elected president of the new republic
when it was granted formal independence in 1950. The
charismatic Sukarno initially won broad popular support
for his efforts to end colonial dependency and improve
living conditions for the impoverished local population.
But the government’s economic achievements failed to
match his fiery oratory, and when political unrest began
to spread through Indonesian society in the early 1960s,
Sukarno dismantled the parliamentary system that had
been installed at independence and began to crack down
Album/Alamy Stock Photo

on dissidents.
These conditions are the setting for the Australian
film The Year of Living Dangerously. Based on a novel
of the same name by Christian Koch, the movie takes
place in the summer of 1965, at a time when popular
unrest against the dictatorial government had reached Photographer Billy Kwan (Linda Hunt) and reporter Guy
a crescendo and the country appeared about to erupt Hamilton (Mel Gibson) film a political protest.
in civil war. The newly arrived Australian reporter Guy
Hamilton (Mel Gibson) is befriended by a diminutive
Chinese Indonesian journalist Billy Kwan, effectively not so fortunate, as Sukarno’s security police crack down
played by Linda Hunt, who received an Academy Award forcefully on critics of his regime.
for her performance. Kwan, who has become increas- The Year of Living Dangerously (the title comes from a
ingly disenchanted with Sukarno’s failure to live up to his remark made by Sukarno during his presidential address
promises, introduces Hamilton to the seamy underside in August 1964) is an important if underrated film that
of Indonesian society as well as to radical elements con- dramatically portrays a crucial incident in a volatile region
nected to the Communist Party who are planning a coup caught in the throes of the global Cold War. The beautiful
to seize power in Jakarta. scenery (the film was shot in the Philippines because the
The movie reaches a climax as Hamilton—a quintes- story was banned in Indonesia) and a haunting film score
sentially ambitious reporter out to get a scoop on the big help create a mood of tension spreading through a tropi-
story—inadvertently becomes involved in the Communist cal paradise.
plot and arouses the suspicion of government authori-
ties. As Indonesia appears ready to descend into chaos, Q Do you think this film provides justification for the
Hamilton finally recognizes the extent of the danger and decision by the Indonesian army to step in and
manages to board the last plane from Jakarta. Others are overthrow the Sukarno regime?
reportedly used their positions to amass considerable aspirations. The new government faced internal challenges
wealth), coupled with Muslim demands for a larger role from dissident elements seeking autonomy or separation
for Islam in society, led to violent street riots and calls for from the republic, as well as from religious forces seeking
Suharto’s resignation. Forced to step down in the spring to transform the country into an Islamic state. Under pres-
of 1998, Suharto was replaced by his deputy B. J. Habibie sure from the international community, Indonesia finally
(1936–2019), who called for the establishment of a national agreed to grant independence to the onetime Portuguese
assembly to select a new government based on popular colony of East Timor, where the majority of the people
are Roman Catholics. But violence provoked by pro-Indo- the islands of Java and Bali. Still, the fact that democratic
nesian militia units forced many refugees to flee the island. elections can take place holds promise for the future.
Religious tensions also erupted between Muslims and
Christians elsewhere in the archipelago, and Muslim rebels
in western Sumatra continued to agitate for a new state Vietnam and Cambodia: The God that Failed As always,
based on strict adherence to fundamentalist Islam. In 2002, Vietnam is a special case. After achieving victory over
a terrorist attack directed at tourists on the island of Bali South Vietnam with the fall of Saigon in the spring of 1975
aroused fears that Indonesia had become a haven for ter- (see Chapter 7), the Communist leaders in Hanoi, heady
rorist elements throughout the region. with success, decided to carry out the rapid reunification
In direct elections held in 2004, General Susilo of the two zones into a new Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Yudhyono (b. 1949) defeated Sukarno’s daughter Megawati (SRV). Simultaneously they also laid plans to begin the pro-
Sukarnoputri and ascended to the presidency. The new cess of socialist transformation throughout the country.
chief executive inaugurated an era of economic reform The result was a disaster, as the economy virtually stalled,
and political stability, and power was transferred peacefully creating widespread hunger and provoking the exodus of
ten years later to his successor, the mayor of Jakarta, Joko thousands of refugees to neighboring countries. In 1986,
Widodo. Pressure from militant Muslim groups to aban- party leaders finally recognized reality and—following the
don the country’s secular tradition continues, however, example of Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow—introduced
and was recently punctuated by bloody terrorist attacks on their own version of perestroika in Vietnam (see Chapter 9).
The turn toward moderation suc-
ceeded, and the trend in recent
years has been toward a mixed
capitalist-socialist economy along
Chinese lines and a greater, but
still limited, popular role in the
governing process. Elections for
the unicameral parliament are
more open than in the past, but
the government remains suspi-
cious of Western-style democ-
racy and represses any opposition
to the Communist Party’s guid-
ing role over the state.
An even greater tragedy took
place in neighboring Cambodia,
where a brutal revolutionary
regime under the leadership of
Pol Pot, the dictatorial head of
the Khmer Rouge (“red Khmer”
William J. Duiker
in French), took power in the

spring of 1975. The new regime,
which had established close ideo-
logical ties with Mao Zedong
IMAGE 13.5 Holocaust in Cambodia. When the Khmer Rouge seized power in Cambodia
in April 1975, they immediately emptied the capital of Phnom Penh and systematically during the Cultural Revolution
began to eliminate opposition elements throughout the country. Thousands were tortured in China, proceeded to carry out
in the infamous Tuol Sleng prison and then marched out to the countryside, where they the massacre of more than one
were summarily executed. Many of the victims had been arrested simply because they wore million Cambodians in pursuit
eyeglasses or had soft hands, indicating that they were members of the bourgeois class.
of the perfect communist soci-
Their bodies were thrown into massive pits. The remains were disinterred after the fall of
the Khmer Rouge regime and are now displayed at an outdoor museum on the site. ety (see Image 13.5). Eventually,
dissident elements led by the
Q How would you compare the extermination of class enemies by the Khmer Rouge in
Cambodia with the mass executions that took place in Nazi Germany and in the Soviet
ex-Khmer Rouge cadre Hun Sen
Union under Stalin? Were they similar in scope and intent, or were there significant revolted against the regime’s
differences? excesses, and with the aid of a
IMAGE 13.6 A Forest Fire on the
Island of Sumatra. Man-made forest
fires are one of the most prevalent
forms of environmental pollution in
Southeast Asia today, as precious
rainforests are clear-cut to make
room for valuable export crops
such as rubber, coffee, and palm
oil. Shown here, a forest fire on
the Indonesian island of Sumatra
casts a pall of acrid smoke over
neighboring communities.
Q How do you think the

destruction of the rainforest
in Southeast Asia compares
with the clearing of land for
economic use that often takes
place in the United States?
William J. Duiker
Vietnamese invading force brought an end to the reign of down rainforests to clear land for the cultivation of prof-
terror. Almost forty years later, Hun Sen still rules in the itable tropical products such as rubber, coffee, and palm
capital of Phnom Penh. oil. The disappearance of the forest cover has cut down on
the natural absorption of carbon dioxide gases. On some
Financial Crisis and Recovery The trend toward more days, a heavy pall of smoke hangs over the entire region
representative systems of government in the region has (see Image 13.6). Meanwhile, the draining of underground
been due in part to increasing prosperity and the growth aquifers and the rise in sea levels throughout the region
of an affluent and educated middle class. Although has led to chronic flooding in low-lying major cities such
Myanmar, the Philippines, and the three Indochinese as Bangkok and Jakarta.
states (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam) are still struggling,
the remaining states in the region have been undergoing
relatively rapid economic development. 13-2d Regional Conflict and Cooperation:
In the summer of 1997, however, a financial crisis swept The Rise of ASEAN
throughout the region, triggered by growing budget defi- Southeast Asia has historically been vulnerable to outside
cits and irresponsible investment practices by financial interference because of the absence of powerful states
institutions. Recovery from the shockwaves was delayed within the region. Recent efforts by local governments
by a massive tsunami that struck the western islands of to protect themselves from hostile foreign influence have
Indonesia and the Malay Peninsula a few years later, and often failed because of the political, ethnic, and religious
caused heavy casualties as well as inflicting substantial eco- diversity that characterizes the population in the area.
nomic damage. Sometimes that diversity has led to the outbreak of serious
Eventually, the region managed to weather both crises. internal disputes. Some of these disputes have been caused
Blessed with abundant natural resources, the nations of by historical rivalries and territorial disputes that had been
Southeast Asia today enjoy an annual growth rate greater submerged during the long era of colonial rule. In the 1960s,
than most parts of the world. As they reap the benefits Indonesian president Sukarno briefly launched a policy of
of these resources, however, progress in the region is confrontation with the Federation of Malaya, contending
endangered by growing environmental pollution. One key that the Malay peninsula had once been part of long-ago
cause for concern is the widespread practice of cutting empires based on the Indonesian islands. The claim was
dropped after Sukarno’s fall from power in 1965. Another from precolonial days. In cities such as Bangkok, Manila,
chronic border dispute has long existed between Cambodia and Jakarta, broad boulevards lined with skyscrapers alter-
and two of its neighbors, Thailand and Vietnam, both of nate with muddy lanes passing through neighborhoods
which once exercised suzerainty over Cambodian territo- packed with wooden shacks topped by thatch or rusty tin
ries. The frontiers established at the moment of Cambodian roofs. Nevertheless, in recent decades, millions of Southeast
independence were originally drawn up by French colonial Asians have fled to these urban slums. Although most avail-
authorities for their own convenience. able jobs are menial, the pay is better than in the villages.
After the Communist victories in Vietnam and
Cambodia in 1975, the lingering border dispute between Traditional Customs, Modern Values The urban migrants
the two one-time ideological allies briefly erupted into change not only their physical surroundings but their atti-
violence, when the Khmer Rouge dictator Pol Pot claimed tudes and values as well. Sometimes the move leads to a
that vast territories in the Mekong delta had been seized decline in traditional religious faith. Belief in natural and
from Cambodia by the Vietnamese in previous centu- ancestral spirits, for example, has declined among the
ries. When the Khmer Rouge launched attacks across the urban populations of Southeast Asia. In Thailand and
common border, Vietnamese forces invaded Cambodia Myanmar, Buddhism has come under pressure from the
in December 1978 and installed a pro-Hanoi regime in rising influence of materialism, although temple schools
Phnom Penh. Fearful of Vietnam’s increasing power in still educate thousands of rural youths whose families can-
the region, China launched a brief but bloody attack on not afford the cost of public education. In Indonesia, rev-
Vietnam to demonstrate its displeasure. Although the dis- erence for the past is undermined by the fact that ancient
pute was quickly resolved, mutual suspicions between the Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms on the islands have been
two Communist countries continue to linger. replaced by the relatively recent arrival of Islam. On the
The outbreak of war among the erstwhile Communist predominantly Hindu island of Bali, however, traditional
allies aroused serious concern from other countries in the values and practices fill the everyday lives of the popula-
neighborhood. In 1967, several countries in the region had tion (see Image 13.7).
established the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Nevertheless, Buddhist, Muslim, and Confucian beliefs
or ASEAN. Composed of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, still remain strong, even in cosmopolitan cities such as
Singapore, and the Philippines, ASEAN at first concen- Bangkok, Jakarta, and Singapore. This preference for the
trated on cooperative social and economic endeavors, but traditional also shows up in lifestyle. Traditional dress—or
after the end of the Vietnam War, it recognized the need an eclectic blend of Asian and Western dress—is still com-
to broaden the scope of its efforts. mon. Asian music, art, theater, and dance remain popular,
The ASEAN alliance has thus grown from a weak col- although Western music has become fashionable among
lection of diverse states into a stronger organization whose the young, and Indonesian filmmakers complain that
ten members—Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Western films are beginning to dominate the local market.
Brunei have joined the original five countries—cooperate The increasing inroads made by Western culture have
militarily and politically to provide the nations of Southeast caused anxiety in some countries. In Malaysia, for exam-
Asia with a more cohesive voice to represent their interests ple, fundamentalist Muslims criticize the prevalence of
on the world stage. They will need it, for disagreements pornography, hedonism, drugs, and alcohol in Western
with Western countries over global economic issues and culture and have tried to limit their presence in their own
the rising power of China present major challenges to their country. The Malaysian government has attempted to limit
well-being. The admission of Vietnam into ASEAN in 1995 the number of U.S. entertainment programs shown on
was especially important, since it provided both Hanoi and local television stations and has replaced them with shows
its neighbors with greater leverage in dealing with their on traditional themes.
powerful neighbor to the north, whose claims of owner-
ship over islands in the South China Sea have aroused wide- Changing Roles for Women One of the most significant
spread concern throughout the region. changes that has taken place in Southeast Asia in recent
decades is in the role of women in society. In general,
women in the region have historically faced fewer restric-
13-2e Daily Life: Town and Country tions on their activities and enjoyed a higher status than
in Contemporary Southeast Asia women elsewhere in Asia. Nevertheless, they were not
The urban–rural dichotomy observed in India is also found the equal of men in every respect. With independence,
in Southeast Asia, where the cities resemble those in the Southeast Asian women gained new rights. Virtually all
West while the countryside often appears little changed of the constitutions adopted by the newly independent
William J. Duiker
IMAGE 13.7 Tourism and Tradition in Bali. The influence of modern Western culture has had a corrosive effect on
contemporary societies throughout Southeast Asia. Traditional forms of art and architecture, music, and film have
been replaced by their modern Western equivalents. The small island of Bali in eastern Indonesia has managed
to preserve much of its traditional way of life by presenting it to visitors as a tourist experience. Although the
tourist district in the capital of Denpasar is overrun with modern hotels, bars, and tourist shops, residents of
the island still seek to preserve elements of their heritage as an outpost of Hindu culture in a country with 90
percent Muslim citizens. This photo shows Balinese actors at a theatrical performance on a familiar theme from
the classical Indian repertoire. In an ironic twist, tourism in Bali helps to preserve traditional culture even as it
undermines its relevance in the daily lives of the islanders.
Q Is it important for societies to maintain their traditional values and customs, even as the world is changing
so rapidly under the challenge of globalization?
states granted women full legal and political rights, fundamentalism has had an especially strong impact in
including the right to work. Today, women have increased countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, where women are
opportunities for education and have entered careers pre- expected to cover their bodies and wear the traditional
viously reserved for men. Women have become more Muslim headdress (see Image 13.8). Even in non-Muslim
active in politics, and as we have seen, some have served countries, women are expected to behave demurely and
as heads of state. exercise discretion in all contacts with the opposite sex.
Yet women are not truly equal to men in any country in
Southeast Asia. Sometimes the distinction is simply a mat-
ter of custom. In Vietnam, women are legally equal to men, 13-2f Cultural Trends
yet until recently no women had served in the Communist In most countries in Southeast Asia, writers, artists, and
Party’s ruling Politburo. In Thailand, Malaysia, and composers are attempting to synthesize international
Indonesia, women rarely hold senior positions in govern- styles and themes with local tradition and experience. The
ment service or in the boardrooms of major corporations. novel has become increasingly popular as writers seek to
Similar restrictions apply in Myanmar, although Aung San find the best medium to encapsulate the dramatic changes
Suu Kyi, the daughter of a respected nationalist leader, is that have taken place in the region in recent decades.
currently head of state. The best-known writer in postwar Indonesia—at least
Sometimes, too, women’s rights have been undermined to readers abroad—was Pramoedya Toer (1925–2006).
by a social or religious backlash. The revival of Islamic Born in eastern Java, he joined the Indonesian nationalist
William J. Duiker
IMAGE 13.8 Behind the Veil. Until fairly recently, women in Muslim-majority countries in Southeast
Asia have tended to dress in the manner that had existed in colonial and pre-colonial times. But
since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 (see Chapter 15), Muslim women all over Asia have begun to
follow stricter dress codes in imitation of practices in the Middle East. While full-body coverings like
the burka and the chador are rarely seen in the region, head scarves are commonplace. In the image
shown here, a group of young girls from a Muslim school on the Malaysian island of Penang pay a
tourist visit to the city of Malacca, once a major entrepot for the spice trade with Europe. The bright
colors of their footwear and handbags offer a startling contrast with the jet black of their cloaks.
Q Do you believe that a veil or a full body covering is inherently demeaning to a woman, or do you
feel that women in any society should be allowed to dress as they please, or in accordance with
religious tradition?
movement in his early twenties. Arrested in 1965 on the has written several novels that express the horrors expe-
charge of being a Communist, he spent the next several rienced by guerrilla fighters during the Vietnam War and
years in prison. While incarcerated, he began writing his the cruel injustices perpetrated by the regime in the cause
four-volume Buru Quartet, which recounts in fictional form of building socialism. She has recently written a fictional
the story of the struggle of the Indonesian people for free- biography of Ho Chi Minh entitled The Zenith (2012).
dom from colonial rule and the autocratic regimes of the
independence period.
Among the most talented of contemporary Vietnamese 13-2g A Region in Flux
novelists is Duong Thu Huong (b. 1947). A onetime mem- Today, the Western image of a Southeast Asia mired in
ber of the Vietnamese Communist Party who served on the Vietnam conflict and the tensions of the Cold War
the front lines during the Sino-Vietnamese war in 1979, has become a distant memory. In ASEAN, the states in
she later became outspoken in her criticism of the party’s the region have created the framework for a regional
failure to carry out democratic reforms and was briefly organization that can serve their common political,
imprisoned in 1991. Undaunted by official pressure, she economic, technological, and security interests. A few
members of ASEAN are already on the road to advanced to an end. Although most Muslims in Southeast Asia have
development. The remainder are showing some indica- traditionally embraced moderate political, social, and reli-
tions of undergoing a similar process within the next gen- gious views, radical agitators have made inroads through
eration. Although ethnic and religious tensions continue the increasing numbers of Muslim schools, many of them
to exist in most ASEAN states, there are promising signs financed by fundamentalist Islamic groups in the Middle
of increasing political stability and pluralism throughout East, in the region.
the region. All things considered, however, the situation is more
To be sure, there are challenges to overcome. The finan- promising today than would have seemed possible half a
cial crisis that erupted in the fall of 2008 continues to test century ago. For the most part, the nations of Southeast
the resilience of local economies that depend on robust for- Asia have put aside the bitter legacy of the colonial era and
eign markets for their exports. Myanmar is only beginning appear capable of coordinating their efforts to erase the
to emerge from a long period of isolation and is still mired internal divisions and conflicts that have brought so much
in a state of chronic underdevelopment. The Indochinese tragedy to the peoples of the region for centuries. Most
countries remain potentially unstable and have not been have abandoned the bitter divisions of the Cold War to
fully integrated into the region as a whole. Finally, terror- embrace the wave of globalization that has been sweeping
ist activity, especially in Indonesia, has not been brought the world in recent years.
MAKING CONNECTIONS
At the beginning of the twentieth century, virtually all the next stage of technological revolution, significant seg-
of South and Southeast Asia was under colonial rule. ments of the population in southern Asia—and especially
The regional economy was primarily rural and based in rural areas—are still living in pre-industrial conditions, a
on the export of natural resources, the local population reality which will make it much more difficult for govern-
was mainly poor and illiterate, and power and influence ments to carry out measures to eliminate poverty and pre-
resided in a colonial authority or a discredited ruling elite. pare their society for the transformation into the industrial
The once-vibrant region that had historically served as age. Not every Asian nation can become a Little Tiger.
the fulcrum of the Eurasian supercontinent, uniting great At the same time, the tenacity of tradition is arguably
empires from the Mediterranean Sea to the shores of the stronger in many Asian countries than it is in the West.
Pacific in a global network for the exchange of goods, tech- After all, the Industrial Revolution in Europe emerged from
nology, and ideas had declined into a sleepy “periphery,” a within European tradition, rather than being imported
backdoor to the “center” of global power and influence, from the outside, as was the case in much of Asia. The
then located in Western Europe. values and institutions that characterized traditional Asian
Today, many of the nations in Asia have passed through societies were a product of internal conditions and many
the stage of industrialization and a few have taken their of them have survived, even under the impact of global-
places in the forefront of the technological age. In parts of ization. The fact is, culture still matters, and Asians, like
the region, a younger generation is proving to be as adept Europeans and Americans, will each seek to adopt their
at mastering the challenges of new information technol- own path into an uncertain future.
ogy as their counterparts in the United States and Western Still, for the moment the trend lines are clear. Barring
Europe. To many observers today, British poet Rudyard unforeseen events, the nations of Asia are currently on a
Kipling’s famous phrase, “East is East and West is West, path to evolve in a manner similar to, if not identical with,
and ne’er the twain shall meet,” seems both racially color- their counterparts in Europe and the Western Hemisphere.
blind and a gross failure to recognize the ability of societies In so doing, Asia is preparing to take its place in the fore-
to adapt themselves to changing circumstances. front of human achievement, a position the continent had
A closer look at the situation, however, reveals that there proudly occupied prior to the Industrial Revolution in
remain some significant differences between the indepen- Europe. The powerful force of globalization, combined
dent nations of southern Asia and the advanced societies in with the countervailing efforts on the part of those who
the West. Whereas most of Europe and the Western hemi- are determined to resist it, is now a common phenomenon
sphere is now fully industrialized and well embarked into that unites East and West, for good or for ill.
Whether the current trends will continue to remain in direction of globalization, but in the process they have
effect, of course, is the key issue here. So far, the Industrial given birth to the emergence of powerful countervailing
and Technological Revolutions of the past two centuries forces throughout the world. We will discuss this issue in
have driven the trajectory of human civilization in the more detail in the final chapter of this book.
QQHow have the nations of South and Southeast Asia QQWhat kinds of environmental problems do the
dealt with the challenge of integrating their ethnic and nations of South and Southeast Asia face today? How
religious minorities into their multi-ethnic societies? Have have the region’s governments sought to deal with such
some nations done better than others? challenges? To what degree have they been successful?
QQHow has independence affected the role of women in
contemporary South and Southeast Asia? How does their
role compare with that in other parts of the world?
CHAPTER TIMELINE
1945 1955 1965 1975 1985 1995 2005 2015 2025
South Asia
India and Pakistan Death of Era of Indira Gandhi New military Peace talks Narendra Modi
declare Jawaharlal Nehru (1966–1984) regime under on Kashmir is Prime Minister
independence (1964) Musharraf in (2003) of India
(1947) Pakistan (2014-present)
(1999)
Southeast
Asia Southeast Asian states Formation of Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia Financial crisis
restore independence ASEAN (1978) in Southeast Asia
(1967) (1997–2000)
Era of guided democracy Suharto steps down as Terrorist Aung San

in Indonesia president of Indonesia attack in Suu Kyi
(1959–1965) Overthrow of Sukarno (1998) Bali elected to
(1967) (2002) parliament
in Myanmar
(2012)
Corazon Aquino elected Massive Yudhyono Joko

president of the Philippines tsunami wins second Widodo
(1986) strikes the term in is President
region Indonesia of Indonesia
(2004) (2009) (2014-present)
CHAPTER NOTES
1. New York Times, May 2, 1996. 4. From Pankaj Mishra, “Impasse in India,” New York
2. Quoted in Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, Review of Books, June 28, 2007, p. 51.
Freedom at Midnight (New York, 1975), p. 252.
3. Cited in Somini Sengupta, “In World’s Largest
Democracy, Tolerance Is a Weak Pillar,” New York
Times, October 29, 2008.
Chapter
14 Emerging Africa
Chapter Outline and

Focus Questions
huru: The Struggle for
14-1 U
Independence in Africa
QQWhat role did nationalist movements
play in the transition to independence
in Africa, and how did such movements
differ from their counterparts elsewhere?
14-2 The Era of Independence
QQIn what diverse ways has the emergence
of independent states affected the peoples
William J. Duiker
of Africa? What explains the different
strategies that various African leaders
have adopted in seeking to carry out
their nation’s destiny?
IMAGE 14.1 Morning in Timbuktu
14-3 C
ontinuity and Change in Modern
African Societies
QQHow would you compare living conditions in ON TAKING OVER THE CITY, they began to terrorize the
Africa with those that you have observed in inhabitants—cutting off the hands of suspected
South and Southeast Asia? What accounts for thieves, stoning adulterous couples to death, forbid-
the differences? ding the playing of any kind of musical instrument,
and desecrating the shrines of local Sufi mystics.
The invaders were probably fanatical Berber warriors
who sought to impose their strict version of Islam on
the population throughout the region. The city was
Timbuktu, once a fabled caravan stop on a major
trade route snaking through the Sahara and more
recently a sleepy river port in the central African
country of Mali. The time was January 2013.
Timbuktu lies in the Sahel, a grassy region just
south of the Sahara that stretches from the western
tip of the African continent to the Nile River valley
in the east. A geographic fault line between the arid
desert and the rich tropical forest lands along the
Connections to Today Atlantic coast to the south, it has historically marked
the division between predominantly Muslim pasto-
In what ways has the modern history of Africa ral peoples to the north and farming communities,
differed from other parts of the world? How have many of them Christians or followers of indigenous
these differences affected the situation on the faiths, to the south. When these areas were placed
continent today? under European rule in the late nineteenth century,
345
colonial authorities ignored these cultural and envi- Zimbabwe, respectively), although whites generally domi-
ronmental differences and drew their boundary lines nated the political scene.
based simply on the extent of their conquests. A similar process of political liberalization was tak-
In recent times the Sahel has become a political ing place in the French colonies. At first, the French tried
and ideological battleground as well, as Muslim pas- to integrate the African peoples living under the French
toralists compete with Christian and animist farmers
flag—or at least their traditional elites—into French cul-
for scarce fertile land and access to precious water
ture. By the 1920s, however, racist beliefs in Western cul-
reserves. The struggle has been going on for centu-
ries, but it has intensified in recent years as a result tural superiority and the tenacity of traditional beliefs and
of the increasing desiccation of the region. As grass- practices among Africans had somewhat discredited this
lands dry up along the edge of the Sahara, pastoral ideal (see Chapter 2). The French therefore substituted a
peoples are forced to move southward in search of more limited program of assigning a limited number of
adequate pasture lands, where they encounter agri- French-educated elites as administrators at the local level
culturalists reluctant to give up their farms. It is one as a link to the rest of the population. The remaining
of the political and environmental challenges that European colonial powers, notably Belgium and Portugal,
many nations in Africa face today. made little effort to prepare their subject peoples in the
Congo and southern Africa for independence.
14-1a The Colonial Legacy

14-1Uhuru: The Struggle for As in Asia, colonial rule had a mixed impact on the societ-
Independence in Africa ies and peoples of Africa. The Western presence brought
some short-term and long-term benefits to Africa, such as
QQ Focus Question: What role did nationalist
movements play in the transition to
improved transportation and communication facilities, and
in a few areas laid the foundation for a modern industrial
and commercial sector. Improved sanitation and medical
independence in Africa, and how did such
movements differ from their counterparts care increased life expectancy. The introduction of some
elsewhere? modern schools and selective elements of Western politi-
cal systems laid the groundwork for the future creation of
After World War II, some European governments reluc- democratic societies.
tantly recognized that the end result of colonial rule in Yet the benefits of westernization were distributed very
Africa would be African self-government, if not full inde- unequally, and the vast majority of Africans found their
pendence. The war had imposed enormous strains on lives little improved, if at all (see Chapter 2). Many suffered
the economies of the colonial countries, and the costs under harsh European colonial regimes. Only South Africa
of maintaining their empires had become prohibitive. and French-held Algeria, for example, developed modern
Accordingly, in their view, colonial rule had to be brought industrial sectors, extensive railroad networks, and mod-
to an end and the African population would have to be ern communications systems. In both countries, European
trained to handle the responsibilities of representative gov- settlers were numerous, most investment capital for indus-
ernment. As a result, during the 1950s most British colo- trial ventures was European, and whites comprised almost
nies introduced reforms that increased the representation the entire professional and managerial class. Members of
of the local population. Members of legislative and execu- the local population were generally restricted to unskilled
tive councils were increasingly chosen through elections, or semiskilled jobs at wages less than one-fifth of those
and Africans came to constitute a majority of these bodies. enjoyed by Europeans.
Elected councils at the local level were introduced in the Many colonies concentrated on export crops—peanuts
1950s to reduce the power of the chiefs and clan heads, in Senegal and Gambia, cotton in Egypt and Uganda, cof-
who had controlled local government under indirect rule. fee in Kenya, palm oil and cocoa products in the Gold
An exception was South Africa, where full European domi- Coast. In some cases, the crops were grown on planta-
nation continued. In the Union of South Africa, the fran- tions, which were usually owned by Europeans. But
chise was restricted to whites except in the former territory plantation agriculture was not always suitable in Africa,
of the Cape Colony, where persons of mixed ancestry had and much farming was done by free or tenant farmers.
enjoyed the right to vote since the mid-nineteenth cen- In some areas, where land ownership was traditionally
tury. Black Africans did win some limited electoral rights vested in the community, the land was owned and leased
in Northern and Southern Rhodesia (now Zambia and by the corporate village. The vast majority of the profits
346 ■ CHAPTER 14 Emerging Africa

from the exports, however, accrued to Europeans or to population and led the Kenyan colonial government
merchants from other foreign countries, such as India to declare an official emergency in 1952. In the subse-
and the Arab emirates. quent fighting, which lasted into 1956, about 600 sol-
While a fortunate few benefited from the increase in diers and policemen and 2,000 civilians were killed,
exports, the vast majority of Africans continued to be along with about 10,000 Mau Mau. The emergency
subsistence farmers growing food for their own consump- ended in 1959, and Kenyan independence came in 1963.
tion. The gap was particularly wide in places like Kenya, Yet the scale of the conflict is only recently becoming
where the best lands were reserved for European settlers publicly known. In 2011, the Kenyan Human Rights
to make the colony self-sufficient. As in other parts of the Commission alleged that more than 90,000 Kenyans
world, the early stages of the Industrial Revolution were were executed, tortured, or mutilated by security
especially painful for the rural population, and ordinary forces during the emergency, and that perhaps 160,000
subsistence farmers reaped few benefits from colonial rule. were detained in poor conditions. The recent discov-
Thousands were pressed into gang labor to work on plan- ery of secret British colonial archives from the Kenyan
tations or infrastructure projects. To make matters worse, Emergency, revealed during recent court cases brought
in some areas—notably in West Africa—the cultivation of by Kenyans against the British government, has con-
cash crops eroded the fragile soil base and turned farmland firmed some of these allegations.
into desert. In South Africa and Algeria, where the political system
was also dominated by European settlers, the transition
to independence was more complicated. In South Africa,
14-1b The Rise of Nationalism political activity by African peoples began with the for-
Political organizations for African rights did not arise mation of the African National Congress (ANC) in 1912.
until after World War I, and then only in a few areas, Initially, the ANC was dominated by Western-oriented
such as British-ruled Kenya and the Gold Coast. At first, intellectuals and had limited mass support. Its goal was
organizations such as the National Congress of British to achieve economic and political reforms, including full
West Africa (formed in 1919 in the Gold Coast) and equality for educated Africans, within the framework of
Jomo Kenyatta’s Kikuyu Central Association focused on the existing system. Some of its key leaders had been
improving living conditions in the colonies rather than influenced by Mohandas Gandhi and his program of non-
on national independence. After World War II, however, violence. But the ANC’s efforts to protect African land
following the example of independence movements rights and to gain voting rights met with little success,
elsewhere, these groups became organized political par- while conservative white parties managed to stiffen the
ties with independence as their objective. In the Gold segregation laws and impose a policy of full legal segre-
Coast, Kwame Nkrumah (1909–1972) led the Convention gation, called apartheid, in 1948. In response, the ANC
People’s Party, the first formal political party in black became increasingly radicalized, and by the 1950s, many
Africa. In the late 1940s, Jomo Kenyatta (1894–1978) ANC leaders such as Nelson Mandela had given up on the
founded the Kenya African National Union (KANU), non-violent approach and decided to adopt the strategy
which focused on economic issues but had an implied of workers’ strikes, demonstrations, and civil disobedi-
political agenda as well. ence. Nelson Mandela was arrested and sentenced to life
For the most part, these political activities were in prison.
nonviolent in their tactics and were led by Western- In Algeria, resistance to French rule by Berbers and
educated African intellectuals. Their constituents were Arabs in rural areas had never ceased. After World War
primarily urban professionals, merchants, and mem- II, urban agitation intensified, leading to a widespread
bers of labor unions. But the demand for independence rebellion against colonial rule in the mid-1950s. At first,
was not entirely restricted to the cities. In Kenya, for the French government tried to maintain its authority in
example, the widely publicized Mau Mau movement Algeria, which was considered an integral part of metro-
among the Kikuyu people used guerrilla tactics as an politan France. But when Charles de Gaulle became pres-
element of its program to achieve uhuru (Swahili for ident of France in 1958, he reversed French policy, and
“freedom”) from the British. One of the primary rea- Algeria became an independent republic four years later,
sons for the revolt was to protest against the unlawful with Ahmad Ben Bella (1918–2004) as its president. The
seizure of African lands by European plantation owners. armed struggle in Algeria hastened the transition to state-
In an initial uprising in 1952, the Mau Mau killed about hood in its neighbors as well. Tunisia won its indepen-
100 Europeans and an estimated 2,000 Africans. The dence in 1956 after some urban agitation and rural unrest
specter of a nationwide revolt alarmed the European but retained close ties with Paris. The French attempted
14-1 Uhuru: The Struggle for Independence in Africa ■ 347

MAP 14.1 Contemporary
Africa. This map shows the
independent states of Africa
TUNISIA Medit
erranean Sea today.
MOROCCO
Q Why was the goal of
African unity so difficult
WESTERN ALGERIA
Ni
LIBYA le
SAHARA to achieve after the rise
EGYPT
(Morocco) of independent states?
MAURITANIA
MALI
R.
GAMBIA
NIGER ERITREA
SENEGAL CHAD DJIBOUTI
BURKINA
FASO ig SUDAN
N
GUINEA
er
IVORY NIGERIA SOMALIA

COAST CENTRAL REP. OF ETHIOPIA
R.
GHANA AFRICAN SOUTH

GUINEA- CAMEROON REPUBLIC SUDAN
BISSAU TOGO
LIBERIA BENIN Congo UGANDA
.
R
SIERRA EQUATORIAL CONGO KENYA
LEONE GUINEA GABON REP. RWANDA
DEMOCRATIC BURUNDI
REPUBLIC OF Zanzibar
Cabinda THE CONGO
TANZANIA
COMOROS
MALAWI
ANGOLA
Atlantic ZAMBIA
MOZAMBIQUE
Ocean ZIMBABWE
NAMIBIA MADAGASCAR
BOTSWANA
Walvis
Bay
SWAZILAND
LESOTHO
REPUBLIC OF
0 750 1,500 2,250 Kilometers SOUTH AFRICA
0 750 1,500 Miles
to suppress the nationalist movement in French Morocco thing, colonialism was established in Africa somewhat
by sending Sultan Muhammad V into exile, but the effort later than in most areas of Asia, and the inevitable
failed, and in 1956, he returned as the ruler of the inde- reaction from the local population was consequently
pendent state of Morocco. later in coming. Furthermore, with the exception of a
Most black African nations achieved their indepen- few areas in West Africa and along the Mediterranean,
dence in the late 1950s and 1960s, beginning with the coherent states with a strong sense of cultural, e thnic,
Gold Coast, renamed Ghana, in 1957 (see Map 14.1). and linguistic unity did not exist in most of Africa
It was soon followed by Nigeria; the Belgian Congo, during precolonial times. Most traditional states, such
renamed Zaire and then the Democratic Republic of the as Ashanti in West Africa, Songhai in the southern
Congo; Kenya; Tanganyika, later joined with Zanzibar Sahara, and Kongo in the Congo River basin, were
and renamed Tanzania; and several other countries. Most collections of heterogeneous peoples with little sense
of the French colonies agreed to accept independence of national or cultural unity. Even after colonies were
within the framework of de Gaulle’s French Community. established, the European powers often practiced a
By the late 1960s, only parts of southern Africa and the policy of “divide and rule,” and the British encouraged
Portuguese possessions of Mozambique and Angola political decentralization by retaining the authority of
remained under European rule. the traditional local chieftains. It is hardly surprising
Independence thus came later to Africa than to most that when opposition to colonial rule emerged, unity
of Asia. Several factors help explain the delay. For one was difficult to achieve.
14-2 The Era of Independence might be appropriate for African peoples as they entered
a new stage of independence. After all, they reasoned, the
QQ Focus Questions: In what diverse ways has the

emergence of independent states affected the
power of nationalism in Europe had been a double-edged
sword—it had united diverse peoples according to their cul-
tural or ethnic identity but then divided them into squab-
peoples of Africa? What explains the different
bling contestants for control over territory and resources.
strategies that various African leaders have adopted
The result had been two disastrous world wars.
in seeking to carry out their nation’s destiny?
Pan-Africanism was a theory that originated among a
number of African intellectuals during the first half of the
The newly independent African states faced intimidating
twentieth century. A basic component of the idea was the
challenges. They had been profoundly affected by colo-
conviction that there was a distinctive “African personality”
nial rule, but for the most part, the experience had been
that owed nothing to Western materialism and provided
detrimental to their interests. Although Western political
a common sense of destiny for all black African peoples.
institutions, values, and technology had been introduced,
According to Aimé Césaire, a West Indian of African
the exposure to European civilization had been superficial
descent and a leading ideologist of the movement, while
at best for most Africans and tragic for many. At the out-
Western civilization prized rational thought and mate-
set of independence, most African societies were still pri-
rial achievement, African culture emphasized emotional
marily agrarian and traditional, and their modern sectors
expression and common sense of humanity.
depended mainly on imports from the West.
The concept of a unique African destiny—known to
its originators by the French term négritude, or “black-
ness” (a concept on which the English-language “Black
Historians
Debate
14-2a The Destiny of Africa: is Beautiful” movement was based)—was in part a natu-
Unity or Diversity? ral defensive response to the social Darwinist concept of
Like their counterparts in South and Southeast Asia, most Western racial superiority that was popular in Europe
of Africa’s new leaders came from the urban middle class. and the United States during the early years of the twen-
They had studied in Europe or the United States and spoke tieth century. But the pan-African movement was also
and read European languages. Although most were pro- stimulated by growing self-doubt among many European
foundly critical of colonial policies, they had been influ- intellectuals after World War I, who feared that Western
enced by Western civilization and appeared for the most civilization was a path of self-destruction. To such critics
part to accept the Western model of governance and of Western civilization, the Western drive for economic
Western democratic values. profit and political hegemony was like a plague that
Their views on economics were somewhat more threatened ultimately to destroy all civilization. To like-
diverse. Some, like Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya and General minded African intellectuals like Aimé Césaire, it was the
Mobutu Sese Seko (1930–1997) of Zaire, were advo- obligation of Africans to use their own humanistic and
cates of Western-style capitalism. Others, like Julius spiritual qualities to help save the human race. In his words:
Nyerere (1922–1999) of Tanzania, Kwame Nkrumah of Those who invented neither gunpowder nor compass
Ghana, and Sékou Touré (1922–1984) of Guinea, pre- those who tamed neither steam nor electricity
ferred an “African form of socialism,” which bore scant those who explored neither sea nor sky
resemblance to the Marxist-Leninist socialism practiced but those who know the humblest corners of the country suffering
in the Soviet Union. According to its advocates, it was those whose only journeys were uprooting
descended from traditional communal practices in pre- those who went to sleep on their knees
colonial Africa. those who were domesticated and christianized
At first, most of the new African leaders accepted the those who were inoculated with degeneration.1
national boundaries established during the colonial era.
But as we have noted, these boundaries were artificial cre- The idea had more appeal to Africans from French
ations of the colonial powers. Virtually all of the new states colonies than to those from British possessions. Yet it also
included widely diverse ethnic, linguistic, and territorial found some adherents in the British colonies, as well as in
groups. Zaire, for example, was composed of more than the United States and elsewhere in the Americas. African-
200 territorial groups speaking seventy-five different lan- American intellectuals such as W.E.B. Dubois and George
guages. For some African observers, the fact that the con- Padmore and the West Indian politician Marcus Garvey
tinent was not historically divided into a number of clearly attempted to promote a “black renaissance” by popular-
defined nation-states suggested that a different pattern izing the idea of a distinct African personality.
14-2 The Era of Independence ■ 349
HISTORICAL VOICES
Toward African Unity

achievement of the legitimate aspirations of the African
Q What are the key objectives expressed in this peoples;
charter? To what degree have they been achieved? CONSCIOUS of our responsibility to harness the
natural and human resources of our continent for the
total advancement of our peoples in spheres of human
Interaction IN MAY 1963, the leaders of thirty-two African
& Exchange endeavor;
states met in Addis Ababa, the capital of
INSPIRED by a common determination to promote
Ethiopia, to discuss the creation of an organization that
understanding among our peoples and cooperation
would represent the interests of all newly independent
among our States in response to the aspirations of our
African countries. The result was the Organization of African
peoples for brotherhood and solidarity, in a larger unity
Unity. An excerpt from its charter is presented here.
transcending ethnic and national differences;
Although the organization did not realize all of its founders’
CONVINCED that, in order to translate this deter-
aspirations, it provided a useful forum for the discussion
mination into a dynamic force in the cause of human
and resolution of common problems. In 2001, it was
progress, conditions for peace and security must be
replaced by the African Union, which was designed to bring
established and maintained;
about increased cooperation among the states on the
DETERMINED to safeguard and consolidate the
continent; unlike the OAU, the African Union has recognized
hard-won independence as well as the sovereignty and
the need on occasion to intervene in the internal affairs of
territorial integrity of our States, and to fight against
member nations.
neocolonialism in all its forms;
Charter of the Organization of African Unity DEDICATED to the general progress of Africa; . . .
We, the Heads of African States and Governments DESIROUS that all African States should henceforth
assembled in the City of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; unite so that the welfare and well-being of their peoples
CONVINCED that it is the inalienable right of all can be assured;
people to control their own destiny; RESOLVED to reinforce the links between our states
CONSCIOUS of the fact that freedom, equal- by establishing and strengthening common institutions;
ity, justice, and dignity are essential objectives for the HAVE agreed to the present Charter.
Source: J. Woronoff, Organizing African Unity (Scarecrow Press, 1980), pp. 642–649.
A number of African political leaders—including education and wealth and the lingering effects of colonial
Nkrumah of Ghana, Touré of Guinea, and Kenyatta of domination made it hard to establish material prosperity
Kenya—were also enticed by the dream of Pan-Africanism, in much of Africa. Expectations that independence would
a concept of continental unity that transcended national lead to stable political structures based on “one person, one
boundaries and, with their encouragement, was to find its vote” were soon disappointed as the initial phase of plural-
first concrete manifestation in the Organization of African istic governments gave way to a series of military regimes
Unity (OAU), which was founded in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in and one-party states. Between 1957 and 1982, more than
1963 (see Historical Voices, “Toward African Unity,” above). seventy leaders of African countries were overthrown by
violence, and the pace has not abated in recent years.
14-2bDream and Reality: Political and The Problem of Neocolonialism Part of the problem
Economic Conditions in Independent Africa could be (and was) ascribed to the residual impact of colo-
The program of the OAU called for an Africa based on free- nialism. Most new countries in Africa were dependent on
dom, equality, justice, and dignity and on the unity, soli- the export of a single crop or natural resource. When prices
darity, prosperity, and territorial integrity of African states. fluctuated or dropped, these countries were at the mercy of
It did not take long for reality to set in. Vast disparities in international markets. In several cases, the resources were
HISTORICAL VOICES
Stealing the Nation’s Riches

In the life of the nation itself, maybe nothing really
Q According to Ayi Kwei Armah, who was to blame for new would happen. New men would take into their
conditions in his country? hands the power to steal the nation’s riches and to use
it for their own satisfaction. That, of course, was to be
expected. New people would use the country’s power to
Art & After 1965, African novelists transferred
Ideas
get rid of men and women who talked a language that
their anger from the foreign oppressor to their did not flatter them. There would be nothing different in
own national leaders, deploring their greed, corruption, and that. That would only be a continuation of the Ghanaian
inhumanity. One of the most pessimistic expressions of this way of life. But here was the real change. The individual
betrayal of newly independent Africa is found in The Beautiful man of power now shivering, his head filled with the
Ones Are Not Yet Born, a novel published by the Ghanaian fear of the vengeance of those he had wronged. For him
author Ayi Kwei Armah in 1968. The author decried the everything was going to change. And for those like him
government of Kwame Nkrumah and was unimpressed with who had grown greasy and fat singing the praises of their
the rumors of a military coup, which, he predicted, would chief, for those who had been getting themselves ready
simply replace the regime with a new despot and his for the enjoyment of hoped-for favors, there would be
entourage of “fat men.” Ghana today has made significant long days of pain ahead. The flatterers with their new
progress in reducing the level of corruption. white Mercedes cars would have to find ways of burying
old words. For those who had come directly against the
Ayi Kwei Armah, The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born
old power, there would be much happiness. But for the
The net had been made in the special Ghanaian way that nation itself there would only be a change of embez-
allowed the really big corrupt people to pass through it. zlers and a change of the hunters and the hunted. A
A net to catch only the small, dispensable fellows, trying pitiful shrinking of the world from those days Teacher
in their anguished blindness to leap and to attain the still looked back to, when the single mind was filled
gleam and the comfort the only way these things could with the hopes of a whole people. A pitiful shrinking,
be done. And the big ones floated free, like all the slogans. to days when all the powerful could think of was to use
End bribery and corruption. Build Socialism. Equality. the power of a whole people to fill their own paunches.
Shit. A man would just have to make up his mind that Endless days, same days, stretching into the future with
there was never going to be anything but despair, and no end anywhere in sight.
there would be no way of escaping it. . . .
Source: From The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born by Ayi Kwei Armah (Heinemann, 1989).
still controlled by foreigners, leading to the charge that colo- obtain even the most basic services (see Historical Voices,
nialism had been succeeded by neocolonialism, in which “Stealing the Nation’s Riches,”above).
Western domination was maintained primarily by economic
rather than political or military means. To make matters External Interference, Internal Division Many of the
worse, most African states had to import technology and problems encountered by the new nations of Africa were
manufactured goods from the West, and the prices of those also ascribed to the fact that independence did not bring
goods rose more rapidly than those of their export products. an end to Western interference in Africa’s political affairs.
In some cases, the new states contributed to their own During the Cold War, both superpowers routinely inter-
problems. Scarce national resources were squandered on fered in the internal affairs of African states, notably when
military equipment or expensive consumer goods rather the United States engineered the overthrow of the left-
than used to create the infrastructure needed to support ist leader Patrice Lumumba (1925–1961) in the Congo,
and sustain an industrial economy. Corruption, a pain- and the Soviet Union similarly interfered in Ethiopia and
ful reality throughout the modern world, became almost Angola. Most African countries adopted a neutral stance
a way of life in Africa as bribery became necessary to in the Cold War, but competition between Moscow and
Washington throughout the region was fierce, often
undermining the efforts of fragile governments to build
stable new nations.
To make matters worse, new African nations had dif-
ficulty achieving a united position on many issues, and
their disagreements left the region vulnerable to external
influence and conflict. Border disputes festered in many
areas of the continent, and in some cases flared into out-
right war—as in Morocco (where a rebel movement in the
Western Sahara fought against Moroccan control), in the
Horn of Africa (where Muslim guerrillas fought against
the Christian government in Ethiopia), and between Kenya
and Uganda in a dispute over boundaries in the lake district
William J. Duiker
of East Africa.
The concept of nationhood was also undermined by the
lingering force of regionalism or ethnic rivalries. Nigeria,
with the largest population on the continent, was rent by IMAGE 14.2 Manioc, Food for the Millions. Manioc (also called
civil strife during the late 1960s when dissident Ibo groups cassava or yuca), a tuber like the potato, was brought to
in the southeast attempted unsuccessfully to form the Africa from South America soon after the voyages of Columbus.
independent state of Biafra. Another force undermining Although low in nutrient value, it can be cultivated in poor soil
with little moisture and is the staple food for nearly one-third
nationalism in Africa was that of pan-Islamism. Its prime
of the population of sub-Saharan Africa. Manioc is also widely
exponent in Africa was the Libyan president Muammar grown in tropical parts of Asia and South America and is familiar
Qaddafi (1942–2011), whose ambitions to create a greater to Westerners as the source of tapioca. In this photograph,
Muslim nation in the Sahara under his authority led to village women in Senegal, dressed in the colorful clothing so
conflict with neighboring Chad. Pan-Islamic ideas have characteristic throughout the continent, rhythmically pound
manioc to remove traces of naturally occurring cyanide that
also recently surfaced in Nigeria and other nations of West
would otherwise poison those who rely on the tuber as a basic
Africa, where divisions between Muslims and Christians commodity. As the threat of chronic drought becomes an ever
have recently erupted into violence (see “Tensions in the more common reality in parts of Africa, dry crops like manioc will
Desert,” p. 356). acquire increasing importance in the diet of the African people.
Q What types of staple foods can you think of that are widely
cultivated in other parts of the world for the purpose of
The Population Bomb Finally, rapid population growth
providing sustenance to the local population?
has crippled efforts to create modern economies. By the
1980s, annual population growth averaged nearly 3 per-
cent throughout Africa, the highest rate of any continent.
among the three-quarters of the population still living off
Unfortunately, drought conditions and the inexorable
the land. Urban areas have grown tremendously, but as in
spread of the Sahara (usually known as desertification),
much of Asia, most are surrounded by massive squatter
caused partly by overcultivation of the land, led to wide-
settlements of rural peoples who have fled to the cities in
spread hunger and starvation, first in West African coun-
search of a better life. The expansion of the cities has over-
tries such as Niger and Mali and then in Ethiopia, Somalia,
whelmed fragile transportation and sanitation systems
and the Sudan (see Image 14.2).
and led to rising pollution and perpetual traffic jams, while
Predictions are that the population of Africa will
millions are forced to live without running water and elec-
increase by at least 200 million over the next ten years, but
tricity. Meanwhile, the fortunate few (all too often govern-
that estimate does not take into account the prevalence of
ment officials on the take) live the high life and emulate
AIDS, which has reached epidemic proportions in Africa.
the consumerism of the West (in a particularly expressive
According to a United Nations study, at least 5 percent of the
phrase, the rich in many East African countries are known
entire population of sub-Saharan Africa is infected with the
as wabenzi, or “Mercedes-Benz people”).
virus, including a high percentage of the urban middle class.
In “Pedestrian, to Passing Benz-Man,” the Kenyan poet
Some observers estimate that without measures to curtail
Albert Ojuka voiced the popular discontent with economic
the effects of the disease, it will have a significant impact
inequality in the 1970s:
on several African countries by reducing population growth.
Although economic growth has quickened in recent You man, lifted gently
years, poverty is still widespread in Africa, particularly out of the poverty and suffering
we so recently shared; I say— inequality and government corruption. Sympathetic for-
why splash the muddy puddle on to eign countries provided considerable economic aid to
my bare legs, as if, still unsatisfied assist the experiment, and many observers noted that lev-
with your seated opulence els of corruption, political instability, and ethnic strife were
you must sully the unwashed lower in Tanzania than in many other African countries.
with your diesel-smoke and mud-water Nyerere’s vision was not shared by all of his compatriots,
and force him to buy, beyond his means however. Political elements on the island of Zanzibar, cit-
a bar of soap from your shop? ing the stagnation brought by two decades of socialism,
A few years back we shared a master agitated for autonomy or even total separation from the
today you have none, while I have mainland. Tanzania also has poor soil, inadequate rainfall,
exchanged a parasite for something worse. and limited resources, all of which have contributed to its
But maybe a few years is too long a time.2 slow growth and continuing rural and urban poverty (see
It is a lament still voiced today. Historical Voices, “Socialism Is Not Racialism,” p. 354).
In 1985, Nyerere voluntarily retired from the presi-
dency. In his farewell speech, he confessed that he had
14-2c The Search for Solutions failed to achieve many of his ambitious goals to create a
While the problems of nation building described here socialist society in Africa. In particular, he admitted that
have to one degree or another afflicted all of the emerging his plan to collectivize the traditional private farm (shamba)
states of Africa, each has sought to deal with the challenge had run into strong resistance from conservative peasants.
in its own way, sometimes with strikingly different con- “You can socialize what is not traditional,” he remarked.
sequences. Some African countries have made dramatic “The shamba can’t be socialized.” But Nyerere insisted that
improvements in the past two decades, but others have many of his policies had succeeded in improving social and
encountered increasing difficulties. Despite all its shared economic conditions, and he argued that the only real solu-
problems, Africa today remains one of the most diverse tion was to consolidate the multitude of small countries in
regions of the globe. the region into a larger East African Federation. Today, a
quarter of a century later, Nyerere’s party, the Party of the
Tanzania: An African Route to Socialism Concern over Revolution, continues to rule the country.
the dangers of economic inequality inspired a number of
African leaders to restrict foreign investment and nation- Kenya: The Perils of Capitalism The countries that opted
alize the major industries and utilities while promoting for capitalism faced their own dilemmas. Neighboring
democratic ideals and values. Julius Nyerere of Tanzania Kenya, blessed with better soil in the highlands, a local tra-
was the most consistent, promoting the ideals of social- dition of aggressive commerce, and a residue of European
ism and self-reliance through his Arusha Declaration of settlers, welcomed foreign investment and profit incen-
1967, which set forth the principles for building a socialist tives. The results have been mixed. Kenya has a strong
society in Africa. Nyerere did not seek to establish a current of indigenous African capitalism and a substantial
Leninist-style dictatorship of the proletariat in Tanzania, middle class, mostly based in the capital, Nairobi. But land-
but neither was he a proponent of a multiparty democ- lessness, unemployment, and income inequities are high,
racy, which in his view would be divisive under the condi- even by African standards (almost one-fifth of the coun-
tions prevailing in Africa: try’s 41 million people are squatters, and unemployment is
currently estimated at 40 percent). The rate of population
Where there is one party—provided it is identified with
growth—about 2.5 percent annually—is one of the higher
the nation as a whole—the foundations of democracy
rates in the world. Almost 80 percent of the population
can be firmer, and the people can have more opportunity
remains rural, and 50 percent of the people live below the
to exercise a real choice, than when you have two or
poverty line. The result has been widespread unrest in a
more parties.
country formerly admired for its successful development.
To import the Western parliamentary system into Kenya’s problems have been exacerbated by chronic dis-
Africa, he argued, could lead to violence because the oppo- putes between disparate ethnic groups and simmering ten-
sition parties would be viewed as traitors by the majority sions between farmers and pastoralists, leading some to
of the population.3 question whether the country is capable of achieving political
Taking advantage of his powerful political influence, stability. For many years, the country maintained a fragile sta-
Nyerere placed limits on income and established village bility under the dictatorial rule of President Daniel arap Moi
collectives to avoid the corrosive effects of economic (b. 1924), one of the most authoritarian of African leaders.
HISTORICAL VOICES
Socialism Is Not Racialism

Acceptance of this principle is absolutely fundamental
Q How does African socialism, as described in this to socialism. The justification of socialism is Man—not the
excerpt, compare with the version practiced in the State, not the flag. Socialism is not for the benefit of black
Soviet Union and in China today? What are the key men, nor brown men, nor white men, nor yellow men.
differences? The purpose of socialism is the service of man, regardless
of color, size, shape, skill, ability, or anything else . . .
Socialism has nothing to do with race, nor with coun-
Politics & At Arusha, Tanzania, in 1967, Julius Nyerere,
Government try or origin. In fact any intelligent man, whether he is a
the president of Tanzania, set forth the
socialist or not, realizes that there are socialists in capital-
principles of building a socialist society in Africa. An African
ist countries—and from capitalist countries. Very often
style of socialism, he explained, would put the country’s
such socialists come to work in newly independent and
wealth in the hands of the people rather than in the hands
avowedly socialist countries like Tanzania because they
of foreign capitalists. Under Nyerere and his successors,
are frustrated in their capitalist homeland . . .
the country has taken a socialist approach to economic
Neither is it sensible for a socialist to talk as if all capi-
development. The results have been mixed: the country
talists are devils. It is one thing to dislike the capitalist sys-
is not wealthy, but there are few extremes of wealth and
tem and to try and frustrate people’s capitalist desires. But
poverty.
it would as stupid for us to assume that capitalists have
Julius Nyerere, The Arusha Declaration horns as it is for people in Western Europe to assume that
we in Tanzania have become devils.
The Arusha Declaration and the actions relating to pub-
In fact the leaders in the capitalist countries have now
lic ownership were all concerned with ensuring that we
begun to realize that communists are human beings like
can build socialism in our country. The nationalization
themselves—that they are not devils. It would be very
and the taking of a controlling interest in many firms
absurd if we react to the stupidity they are growing out
were a necessary part of our determination to organize
of and become equally stupid ourselves in the opposite
our society in such a way that our efforts benefit all
direction! We have to recognize in our words and our
of our people and that there is no exploitation of one
actions that capitalists are human beings as much as
many by another.
socialists. They may be wrong; indeed by dedicating
Yet these actions do not in themselves create socialism
ourselves to socialism we are saying that they are. But
. . . The basis of socialism is a belief in the oneness of
our task is to make it impossible for capitalism to domi-
man and the common historical destiny of mankind. Its
nate us.
basis, in other words, is human equality.
Source: From Julius Nyerere, “The Arusha Declaration” in Freedomways (magazine) (Dar es Salaam: Second Quarter, 1970), pp. 124–127.
Plagued by charges of corruption, Moi finally agreed to retire resulted in a victory for Uhuru Kenyatta (b. 1961), the son of
in 2002, but under his successor, Mwai Kibaki (b. 1931), the the country’s popular first president. Although Kenyatta’s
twin problems of political instability and widespread poverty party has been plagued with charges of corruption, ethnic
continue to afflict the country. When presidential elections favoritism, and election irregularities, it comfortably won re-
held in December 2007 led to a victory for Kibaki’s party, election in 2018.
opposition elements—angered by the government’s perceived
favoritism toward Kibaki’s Kikuyu constituency—launched South Africa: An End to Apartheid Perhaps Africa’s
numerous protests, and violent riots occurred throughout greatest success story is in South Africa, where the white
the country. A fragile truce was eventually put in place, but government, which long maintained a policy of racial seg-
popular anger at current conditions smolders just beneath the regation (apartheid) and restricted black sovereignty to a
surface. In March 2013, another disputed presidential election series of small “Bantustans” in relatively infertile areas of

the country, finally accepted the inevi-
tability of African involvement in the
political process and the national econ-
omy. A key factor in the decision was
growing international pressure in the
form of a campaign to persuade for-
eign investors to withdraw funds from
the country. In 1990, the government
of President F. W. (Frederik Willem)
de Klerk (b. 1936) released African
National Congress leader Nelson
ALEXANDER JOE/AFP/Getty Images

Mandela (1918–2013) from prison,
where he had been held since 1964. In
1993, the two leaders agreed to hold
democratic national elections the fol-
lowing spring. In the meantime, ANC
representatives agreed to take part in a
transitional coalition government with
de Klerk’s National Party. Those elec- IMAGE 14.3 An End to Apartheid. In 1994, Nelson Mandela, the long-time head of
tions resulted in a substantial major- the African National Congress (ANC), was elected president of the Republic of South
ity for the ANC, and Mandela became Africa and the policy of apartheid officially came to an end. Shown here in an iconic
photograph, Mandela stands between his predecessor F. W. de Klerk and his chief
president (see Image 14.3). lieutenant and eventual successor as chief of state, Thabo Mbeki. The ANC remains
In May 1996, a new constitution was in power today, twenty-five years later.
approved, calling for a multiracial state.
The National Party immediately went Q Why do you think Nelson Mandela, a one-time member of a radical organization,
was elected as president of South Africa to widespread acclaim?
into opposition, claiming that the new
charter did not adequately provide for
joint decision-making by members of the coalition. But the industrialized state in Africa and the best hope that a multi-
new ANC-dominated government won broad support from racial society can succeed on the continent. The country’s
many groups within the country, and in 1999, a major step black elite now number nearly one-quarter of its wealthi-
toward political stability was taken when Nelson Mandela est households, compared with only 9 percent in 1991.
stepped down from the presidency and was replaced by his
long-time disciple Thabo Mbeki (b. 1942). The new president Nigeria: A Nation Divided If the situation in South Africa
faced a number of intimidating problems, including rising provides grounds for modest optimism, the situation in
unemployment, widespread lawlessness, chronic corruption, Nigeria provides reason for serious concern. Africa’s larg-
and an ominous flight of capital and professional personnel est country in terms of population and one of its wealthiest
from the country. Mbeki’s conservative economic policies because of substantial oil reserves, Nigeria was for many
earned the support of some white voters and the country’s years in the grip of military strongmen. During his rule,
new black elite but were criticized by labor unions, which General Sani Abacha (1943–1998) ruthlessly suppressed
contended that the benefits of the new black leadership were all opposition and in late 1995 ordered the execution of
not seeping down to the poor. The government’s promises author Ken Saro-Wiwa (1941–1995) despite widespread
to carry out an extensive land reform program—aimed at protests from human rights groups abroad. Saro-Wiwa
providing farmland to the nation’s 40 million black farmers— had criticized environmental damage caused by foreign
were not fulfilled, leading some squatters to seize unused pri- oil interests in southern Nigeria, but the regime’s major
vate lands near Johannesburg. concern was his support for separatist activities in the
In 2008, Mbeki was forced out of office by disgruntled area that had launched the Biafran insurrection in the late
ANC party members. A year later, his one-time vice presi- 1960s. When Abacha died in 1998 under mysterious cir-
dent and rival Jacob Zuma (b. 1942) was elected president. cumstances, national elections led to the creation of a civil-
Zuma won reelection six years later, but high unemploy- ian government under Olusegun Obasanjo (b. 1937).
ment and charges of government corruption have tar- Civilian leadership has not been a panacea for Nigeria’s
nished the image of the ANC, and Zuma was forced to problems, however. Although Obasanjo promised reforms
resign. Still, South Africa remains the wealthiest and most to bring an end to the corruption and favoritism that had

long plagued Nigerian politics, the results were disappoint- part of the country raged for years until the government
ing (the state power company—known as NEPA— was so finally agreed to permit a plebiscite in the south under the
inefficient that Nigerians joked that the initials stood for sponsorship of the United Nations to determine whether
“never expect power again”). the local population there wished to secede from the coun-
Equally serious has been the challenge of resolving the try. In elections held in early 2011, voters overwhelmingly
country’s territorial and religious disputes. Unified in 1914 supported independence as the new nation of the Republic
into a single colony by the British for their own convenience, of South Sudan, but tribal disputes and clashes along the
Nigeria has been faced since independence with the uneasy disputed border continue to provoke tensions in the region.
reality of a Muslim north and a predominantly Christian In 2019, widespread public protests forced the resignation
south. In early 2000, religious tensions between Christians of the long-time dictator Omar Hassan al-Bashir of the
and Muslims began to escalate when riots broke out in sev- Republic of Sudan, but the future remains uncertain.
eral northern cities as a result of the decision by some Muslim The dispute between Muslims and Christians through-
provincial officials to apply strict Islamic law throughout out the southern Sahara is a contemporary African variant
their jurisdictions. Although the violence abated when local of the traditional tensions that have existed between farm-
officials managed to craft a compromise that limited the ers and pastoralists throughout recorded history. Muslim
application of some of the harsher aspects of Muslim law, cattle herders, migrating southward to escape the increas-
it arose again during the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan ing desiccation of the grasslands south of the Sahara, com-
(b. 1951), a Christian. Churches and mosques were bombed pete for precious land with primarily Christian farmers. As
by extremists in the northern sections of the country and a result of the religious revival now under way throughout
massacres took place on both sides of the religious divide. the continent, the confrontation often leads to outbreaks of
The unrest has been fueled in part by the terrorist activities violence with strong religious and ethnic overtones.
of Boko Haram, an al-Qaeda affiliate active in the region.
But after terrorist cells identified with Boko Haram kid- Central Africa: Cauldron of Conflict But perhaps the most
napped thousands of students and converted them to Islam, tragic situation took place in the central African states of
efforts by the government to recover the victims have been Rwanda and Burundi, where a chronic conflict between the
hindered by reports of widespread brutality committed minority Tutsis and the Hutu majority has led to a bitter
by Nigerian military units on the civilian population. The civil war, with thousands of refugees fleeing to neighbor-
replacement of Jonathan by the one-time military strong- ing Zaire. The predominantly pastoral Tutsis, supported by
man Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 aroused hopes that a new the colonial Belgian government, had long dominated the
administration could calm tensions and restore some sem- sedentary Hutu population. The Hutus’ attempt to bring
blance of order to the country, but so far passions have not an end to Tutsi domination initiated the conflict, which was
diminished; meanwhile, the nation’s economy is slumping marked by massacres on both sides. The presence of large
because of a drop in oil prices. numbers of foreign troops and refugees intensified centrifu-
gal forces inside Zaire, where General Mobutu Sese Seko had
Tensions in the Desert The religious tensions that long ruled with an iron hand. In 1997, military forces led by
erupted in Nigeria have spilled over into neighboring Mobutu’s long-time opponent Laurent-Désiré Kabila (1939–
states on the border of the Sahara. Pressure to apply 2001) managed to topple the general’s corrupt government.
Shari’a has spread to the neighboring state of Mali, where Once in power, Kabila renamed the country the Democratic
a radical Islamic group has seized power in the northern Republic of the Congo and promised a return to democratic
part of the country, applying strict punishments on local practices. But the new government systematically suppressed
residents for alleged infractions against Shari’a law and political dissent, and in January 2001, Kabila was assassinated.
destroying Muslim shrines in the historic city of Timbuktu. He was succeeded by his son Joseph Kabila (b. 1971). Peace
Unrest in the area is also fomented by the efforts of ethnic talks to end the conflict began that fall, but the fighting has
Tuareg peoples (related to the Berbers) to obtain indepen- continued, leading to horrific casualties among the civilian
dence from the state of Mali. French military units were population. An election held in 2019 has resulted in a dis-
dispatched to the region in January 2013 and drove the reb- puted result, and the situation remains uncertain.
els out of the major population centers, but the threat of
Islamic radicalism has not subsided.
A similar rift has been at the root of the lengthy civil 14-2d Africa: A Continent in Flux
war in Sudan. Conflict between Muslim pastoralists— The brief survey of events in some of the more important
supported by the central government in Khartoum—and African countries provided here illustrates the enormous
predominantly Christian black farmers in the southern difficulty that historians of Africa face in drawing any

general conclusions about the pace and scope of change Unfortunately, African concerns carry little weight in
that has taken place in the continent in recent decades. the international community. A recent agreement by the
Progress in some areas has been countered by growing World Trade Organization (WTO) on the need to reduce
problems elsewhere, and signs of hope in one region con- agricultural subsidies in the advanced nations has been
trast with feelings of despair in another. widely ignored. In 2000, the General Assembly of the
The shifting fortunes experienced throughout the con- United Nations passed the Millennium Declaration, which
tinent are most prominently illustrated in the political called for a dramatic reduction in the incidence of poverty,
arena. Over the past two decades, the collapse of one-party hunger, and illiteracy worldwide by the year 2015, but the
regimes has led to the emergence of fragile democracies appeal for foreign assistance was widely ignored by the
in several countries. In other instances, however, demo- world’s wealthier nations.
cratic governments erupted in civil war or were replaced Over the years, some foreign governments have sought to
by authoritarian leaders. One prominent example of the respond to requests for help, but aid from the United States
latter is the Ivory Coast, long considered one of West and Europe has been on the decline, as many argue that exter-
Africa’s most stable and prosperous countries. After the nal assistance cannot succeed unless the nations of Africa
death of President Félix Houphouet-Boigny in 1993, long- adopt measures to bring about good government and sound
simmering resentment between Christians in the south economic policies. The largest amount of foreign investment
and newly arrived Muslim immigrants in the north erupted today seems to come from China, which has recently signed
into open conflict. National elections held in 2010 led to agreements with several African governments to invest in
sporadic violence and a standoff between opposition forces various infrastructure projects. China’s objectives in extend-
and the sitting president, who was forced to resign the fol- ing its increasingly powerful reach to Africa are reminiscent of
lowing year. By contrast, Ghana, once one of the most those that inspired the era of Western imperialism: broaden-
fragile countries in West Africa, has shown signs of making its political influence on the international stage and gain-
ing the transition to a stable democracy. Even in Liberia, ing access to the continent’s vast store of natural resources.
a bitter civil war recently gave way to the emergence of a The scope of Chinese assistance has recently been reduced,
stable democratic government under Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf however, as a result of the economic slowdown in China com-
(b. 1938), the continent’s first female president. bined with growing African concerns about a potential loss of
In general, then, the political picture in Africa is cloudy. sovereignty. In the meantime, Russia has sought to enter the
Although many African leaders voice their support for the competition by offering military equipment and advisers to
principles of democracy and human rights, such concepts authoritarian governments who view military prowess as the
clearly have not yet struck deep roots in the soil of the con- best defense against rivals at home and abroad. The Cold War
tinent. Efforts to build a foundation for stable and effective is back in Africa, but now under a different name.
governments are undermined by rampant corruption and In sum, the African continent still suffers from a number of
widespread popular dissatisfaction with the quality of leader- chronic political and economic problems, but there are some
ship. An additional obstacle to progress is the fact that the lin- signs of hope. The overall rate of economic growth for the
gering influence of ethnic and tribal differences prevents the region as a whole is twice what it was during the 1980s and
emergence of a broader commitment to a sense of shared 1990s and even today remains on a par with the rest of the
national identity. In that sense, advocates of pan-Africanism, world. As a result, Africans have been lifted out of poverty
who argued that the peoples of the continent should avoid the by the millions (see Comparative Illustration “New Housing
pitfall of nationalism, have gotten their wish. for the Poor,” p. 358). Although poverty, AIDS, and a lack of
Similarly, the economic picture in Africa has also been education and infrastructure are still major impediments in
mixed. Until recently, high growth rates in some of the con- much of the region, rising commodity prices—most notably,
tinent’s largest economies gave rise to the popular slogan an increase in oil revenues—could enable many countries to
“Africa Rising,” but falling commodity prices (by far Africa’s make additional investments and reduce their national debt.
greatest export earner) as a result of the recent economic One promising sign is that the African people are not about to
slowdown in China and Europe have tarnished that image despair. In a recent survey of public opinion throughout the
and induced a more sober assessment of the situation. Most continent, the majority of respondents were optimistic about
African states are still poor and their populations often are illit- the future and confident that they would be economically bet-
erate. Infrastructure is still primitive in many areas, and agri- ter off in five years.
cultural yields are low by global standards. More than half a
century since the end of the colonial era, the industrial revolu- The African Union: A Glimmer of Hope A significant part
tion has not transformed the continental landscape the way it of the problem is that Africans must find better ways to
has in many other parts of the world. cooperate with one another and to protect and promote

New Housing for the Poor

Q Why do you think the segregated
housing facilities known as “townships”
developed in the first place in South
Africa? For whom were they designed?
Family & Under apartheid, much of the

Society black population in South Africa
was confined to so-called townships, squalid
slums located along the fringes of the country’s
major cities. Image 14.4a shows a crowded
William J. Duiker
IMAGE 14.4b
township on the edge of Cape Town, one of the

most modern cities on the continent of Africa.
Today, the government is actively building new
communities that provide better housing,
running water, and electricity for their residents.
Image 14.4b shows a new township rising on
William J. Duiker
the outskirts of the city of New London. The

township has many modern facilities and even
a new shopping mall with consumer goods for
IMAGE 14.4a local residents.
their own interests. A first step in that direction was taken

in 1991, when the OAU agreed to establish the African
14-3Continuity and Change
Economic Community (AEC). In 2001, the OAU was in Modern African Societies
replaced by the African Union, which is intended to pro-
vide greater political and economic integration through-
out the continent on the pattern of the European Union
(see Chapter 10). The new organization has already sought
QQ Focus Question: How would you compare
living conditions in Africa with those that you
have observed in South and Southeast Asia?
to mediate several of the conflicts in the region. What accounts for the differences?
As Africa evolves, it is useful to remember that eco-
nomic and political change is often an agonizingly slow In general, the impact of the West has been greater
and painful process. Introduced to industrialization on urban and educated Africans and more limited on
and concepts of Western democracy only a century their rural and illiterate compatriots. One reason is that
ago, African societies are still groping for ways to graft the colonial presence was first and most firmly estab-
Western political institutions and economic practices lished in the cities. Many cities, including Dakar, Lagos,
onto a structure still significantly influenced by tradi- Johannesburg, Cape Town, Brazzaville, and Nairobi, are
tional values and attitudes. direct products of the colonial experience. Most African
cities today look like their counterparts
elsewhere in the world. They have high-
rise buildings, blocks of residential apart-
ments, wide boulevards, neon lights,
movie theaters, and traffic jams.
14-3a Education
The educational system has been the pri-
mary means of introducing Western values
and culture. In the precolonial era, formal
schools did not really exist in Africa except
for parochial schools in Christian Ethiopia
and academies to train young males in
Islamic doctrine and law in Muslim soci-
© Ruth Petzold
eties in North and West Africa. For the
average African, education took place at
the home or in the village courtyard and
stressed socialization and vocational train- IMAGE 14.5 Learning the ABCs in Niger. Educating the young is one of the most
ing. Traditional education in Africa was crucial problems for many African societies today. Few governments are able to
allocate the funds necessary to meet the challenge, so religious organizations—
not necessarily inferior to that in Europe. Muslim or Christian—often take up the slack. In this photo, students at a
Social values and customs were transmit- madrasa—a Muslim school designed to teach the Qur’an—are learning how to
ted to the young by storytellers, often vil- read Arabic, the language of Islam’s holy scripture. Madrasas are one of the
lage elders and frequently women, who most prominent forms of schooling in Muslim societies in West Africa today.
could gain considerable prestige through
their performance.
Q Do you feel that African nations are justified in approving the establishment
of schools based on religious teachings in the absence of sufficient funds to
Europeans introduced modern Western build a more extensive public school system?
education into Africa in the nineteenth
century. At first, the schools concentrated on vocational Western-style homes or apartments and eat Western foods
training, with some instruction in European languages and stored in Western refrigerators, and those who can afford
Western civilization. Eventually, pressure from Africans to drive Western cars. It has been said, not wholly in praise,
led to the introduction of professional training, and the that there are more Mercedes-Benz automobiles in Nigeria
first institutes of higher learning were established in the than in Germany, where they are manufactured.
early twentieth century. Outside the major cities, where about three-quarters
With independence, African countries established of the continent’s inhabitants live, Western influence has
their own state-run schools. The emphasis was on the pri- had less impact. Millions of people throughout Africa live
mary level, but high schools and universities were estab- much as their ancestors did, in thatched huts, such as the
lished in major cities. The basic objectives have been to one shown being built here by this young man in Kenya
introduce vocational training and improve literacy rates. (see Image 14.6). Many are without modern plumbing
Unfortunately, both funding and trained teachers are scarce and electricity: they farm or hunt by traditional meth-
in most countries, and few rural areas have schools (see ods, practice time-honored family rituals, and believe
Image 14.5). As a result, illiteracy remains high, estimated in the traditional deities. Even here, however, change is
at about 40 percent of the population across the continent. taking place. Economic need has brought about massive
There has been a perceptible shift toward education in the migrations in parts of Africa as some leave their home
vernacular languages. In West Africa, about one in four village to work on plantations, others move to the cit-
adults is conversant in a Western language. ies, or flee abroad or to refugee camps to escape hunger
or starvation. The drying up of arable lands in the Sahel
areas of West Africa has prompted a mass exodus of refu-
14-3b Urban and Rural Life gees northward to the Mediterranean coast, where they
The cities are where the African elites live and work. hope—often in vain—to find overseas transportation to
Affluent Africans, like their contemporaries in other devel- the continent of Europe. Migration itself is a wrenching
oping countries, have been strongly attracted to the glit- experience, disrupting familiar family and village ties and
tering material aspects of Western culture. They live in enforcing new social relationships.
14-3 Continuity and Change in Modern African Societies ■ 359
also served a variety of purposes, some in connection with
Nature, while others provided other benefits, such as good
health or human fertility.
Belief in an afterlife was closely connected to the
importance of ancestors and the lineage group or clan.
Each lineage could trace itself back to a founding ancestor
or group of ancestors. These ancestral souls would not be
extinguished as long as the group continued to perform rit-
uals in their name (see Image 14.8). The rituals could also
benefit the lineage group on Earth because the ancestral
souls, being closer to the gods, had the power to influence
the lives of their descendants for good or evil.
Such beliefs have often been challenged but by no
means replaced in those parts of the continent that have
been affected by the arrival of Christianity and Islam.
Although both “Great Tradition” religions reject the idea
of spirit worship and the concept of lesser deities, such
indigenous traditions have often survived through synthe-
William J. Duiker
sis with the imported faiths to create a unique brand of

Africanized religion.
IMAGE 14.6 Building His Dream House. In Africa, the houses of 14-3d African Women
rural people are often constructed with a wood frame, known
as wattle, daubed with mud, and then covered with a thatched As noted in Chapter 2, one of the consequences of colonial-
roof. Such houses are inexpensive to build and remain cool in ism in Africa was a change in the relationship between men
the hot tropical climate. In this Kenyan village not far from the and women. Some of these changes could be described as
Indian Ocean, a young man is applying mud to the wall of his beneficial, but others were not. Women were often intro-
future home. Houses are built in a similar fashion throughout
duced to Western education and given legal rights denied
the continent, as well as in much of southern Asia.
to them in the precolonial era. But they also became a
labor source and were sometime recruited or compelled
Nowhere, in fact, is the dichotomy between old and to work on construction projects.
new, local and foreign, rural and urban so clear and pain- Independence also had a significant impact on gender
ful as in Africa. Urban dwellers regard the village as the roles in African society. Almost without exception, the new
repository of all that is backward in the African past, while governments established the principle of sexual equality and
rural peoples view the growing urban areas as a source of permitted women to vote and run for political office. Yet
corruption, prostitution, hedonism, and the destruction as elsewhere, women continue to operate at a disability in
of communal customs and values. The tension between a world dominated by males. In general, politics remains a
traditional ways and Western culture is particularly strong male preserve, and although a few professions, such as teach-
among African intellectuals, many of whom are torn ing, child care, and clerical work, are dominated by women,
between their admiration for things Western and their most African women are employed in menial positions such
desire to retain an African identity. as agricultural labor, factory work, and retail trade or as
domestics. Education is open to all at the elementary level,
14-3c Religious Belief but women comprise less than 20 percent of students at the
Before the arrival of the world religions like Christianity upper levels in most African societies today.
and Islam, most of the 800 different ethnic communities
in Africa had their own well-developed religious systems. Urban Women Not surprisingly, women have made the
Like other aspects of life, African religious beliefs var- greatest strides in the cities. Most urban women, like men,
ied considerably, but certain characteristics were shared now marry on the basis of personal choice, although a sig-
throughout much of the continent. One common feature nificant minority are still willing to accept their parents’
was pantheism, the belief in a single creator god from choice. After marriage, African women appear to occupy a
whom all things come. This transcendent figure was gen- more equal position than their counterparts in most Asian
erally not accessible to communication with individual countries. Each marriage partner tends to maintain a sepa-
human beings, except through intermediary deities, who rate income, and women often have the right to possess
property separate from their husbands. Though many The dichotomy between rural and urban values can lead
wives still defer to their husbands in the traditional man- to acute tensions. Many African villagers regard the cities
ner, others are like the woman in Abioseh Nicol’s story as the fount of evil, decadence, and corruption. Women in
“A Truly Married Woman,” who, after years of living as a particular have suffered from the tension between the pull
common law wife with her husband, is finally able to proof the city and the village. As men are drawn to the cities
vide the price and finalize the marriage. After the wedding, in search of employment and excitement, their wives and
she declares, “For twelve years I have got up every morning girlfriends are left behind, both literally and figuratively, in
at five to make tea for you and breakfast. Now I am a truly the village. In some areas, African women become active in
married woman, [and] you must treat me with a little more commerce while their husbands labor in the fields. Often,
respect. You are now my husband and not a lover. Get up however, women perform heavy work along with the male
and make yourself a cup of tea.”4 counterparts. In this photograph of a salt mine in Senegal,
In the cities, a feminist movement is growing, but it men are assigned to unearth salt from the lake bed, while
is firmly based on conditions in the local environment. women carry it to the shore (see Image 14.7).
Many African women writers, for example, opt for a brand
of African feminism much like that of Ama Ata Aidoo
(b. 1942), a Ghanaian novelist, whose ultimate objective is 14-3e African Culture
to free African society as a whole, not just its female inhab- Inevitably, the tension between traditional and modern,
itants. After receiving her education at a girls’ school in local and foreign, and individual and communal that has
the preindependence Gold Coast and attending Stanford permeated contemporary African society has spilled over
University in the United States, she embarked on a writ- into culture. In general, in the visual arts and music, util-
ing career. Every African woman and every man, she ity and ritual have sometimes given way to pleasure and
insists, “should be a feminist, especially if they believe that decoration. In the process, Africans have been affected to
Africans should take charge of our land, its wealth, our a certain extent by foreign influences but have retained
lives, and the burden of our development. Because it is not their distinctive characteristics. Wood carving, metalwork,
possible to advocate independence for
our continent without also believing
that African women must have the best
that the environment can offer.”5
Women in Rural Areas Feminism

has had less impact on women in rural
areas, where traditional attitudes con-
tinue to exert a strong influence. In
some societies, female genital mutila-
tion, the traditional rite of passage for
a young girl’s transit to womanhood,
is still widely practiced. Polygamy is
also not uncommon, and arranged
marriages are still the rule rather than
William J. Duiker
the exception. In some Muslim societ-
ies, efforts to apply Shari’a law have
led to greater restrictions on the free-
dom of women. As we have seen, in IMAGE 14.7 Salt of the Earth. During the precolonial era, many West African societies
northern Nigeria, Boko Haram ter- were forced to import salt from Mediterranean countries in exchange for tropical
rorists recently kidnapped hundreds products and gold. Today, the people of Senegal satisfy their domestic needs by
of Christian school children and con- mining salt deposits contained in lakes like this one in the interior of the country.
These lakes are the remnants of vast seas that covered the region of the Sahara in
verted them to Islam in preparation
prehistoric times. Note that women are sharing the heavy labor, while men occupy the
for a life of prostitution or marriage to managerial positions. In mining the salt, men and women have clearly assigned roles,
their followers. A Muslim woman was with men dislodging the salt from the lake bed and women carrying it to shore.
recently sentenced to death for com-
mitting adultery. The sentence was Q Can you think of cases in other countries where women are routinely assigned
to carry on heavy labor? Do you feel that the practice in African societies is
later reversed on appeal. justified or not?

painting, and sculpture, for example, have preserved their reason, perhaps, in the late 1970s, he was placed under
traditional forms but are now increasingly adapted to house arrest for writing subversive literature. There, he
serve the tourist industry and the export market. One of secretly wrote Devil on the Cross, which urged his compa-
the most renowned artists in Africa today is the Ghanaian- triots to overthrow the ruling government. Published in
born El Anatsui (b. 1944), whose monumental draperies 1980, the book sold widely and was eventually read aloud
made of stapled aluminum bottle caps evoke the tapestry by storytellers throughout Kenyan society. Fearing an
of many traditional African societies. Stunningly majestic, attempt on his life, Ngugi has since lived in exile.
these dramatic panels recall the colorful patterns of tradi- Many of Ngugi’s contemporaries have followed his lead
tional African textiles. and focused their frustration on the failure of the conti-
nent’s new leadership to carry out the goals of indepen-
Literature No area of African culture has been so strongly dence. One of the most outstanding is the Nigerian Wole
affected by political and social events as literature. Except Soyinka (b. 1934). His novel The Interpreters (1965) lam-
for Muslim areas in North and East Africa, precolonial basted the corruption and hypocrisy of Nigerian politics.
Africans did not have a written literature, although their Succeeding novels and plays have continued that tradition,
tradition of oral storytelling served as a rich repository of resulting in a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986. In 1994,
history, custom, and folk culture. The first written litera- however, Soyinka barely managed to escape arrest, and he
ture in the vernacular or in European languages emerged entered a self-imposed exile abroad until the Abacha regime
during the nineteenth century in the form of novels, in Nigeria came to an end. In a protest against the brutality
poetry, and drama. of the regime, he published from exile a harsh exposé of
Angry at the negative portrayal of Africa in Western lit- the crisis. His book, The Open Sore of a Continent, placed
erature (see Opposing Viewpoints, “Africa: Dark Continent the primary responsibility for failure not on Nigeria’s long
or Radiant Land?” p. 363), African authors initially wrote list of dictators but on the very concept of the modern
primarily for a European audience as a means of establish- nation-state, which was introduced to Africa arbitrarily by
ing black dignity and purpose. In response to condescend- Europeans. A nation, he contends, can only emerge spon-
ing Western attitudes about African history, many glorified taneously from below, as the expression of the moral and
the emotional and communal aspects of the traditional political will of the local inhabitants; it cannot be imposed
African experience. The Nigerian Chinua Achebe (1930– artificially from above.
2013) is considered the first major African novelist to write Recently, novelists in Nigeria have addressed a number
in the English language. In his writings, he attempted to of other controversial subjects, like polygamy and vio-
interpret African history from an African perspective and lence against women, topics which are politically sensitive
to forge a new sense of African identity. In his trailblazing because of Muslim taboos. Ayobami Adebayo’s Stay With
novel Things Fall Apart (1958), he recounted the story of a Me (2017), for example, portrays the struggle of an infertile
Nigerian who refused to submit to the new British order wife to prevent her husband from taking a second spouse.
and eventually committed suicide. Criticizing his con- A number of Africa’s most prominent writers today
temporaries who accepted foreign rule, the protagonist are women. Traditionally, African women were valued
lamented that the white man “has put a knife on the things for their talents as storytellers, but writing was strongly
that held us together and we have fallen apart.” discouraged by both traditional and colonial authorities
In recent decades, the African novel has turned its focus on the grounds that women should occupy themselves
from the brutality of the foreign oppressor to the short- with their domestic obligations. In recent years, however,
comings of African leaders. Having gained independence, a number of women have emerged as prominent writ-
African politicians are portrayed as mimicking and even ers of African fiction. Two examples are Buchi Emecheta
outdoing the injustices committed by their colonial prede- (1940‒2017) of Nigeria and Ama Ata Aidoo (b. 1942) of
cessors. A prominent example of this genre is the work of Ghana. Beginning with Second Class Citizen (1975), which
the Kenyan Ngugi Wa Thiong’o (b. 1938). His first novel, chronicled the breakdown of her own marriage, Emecheta
A Grain of Wheat, takes place on the eve of independence. published numerous works exploring the role of women in
Although Ngugi mocks local British society for its racism, contemporary African society and decrying the practice of
snobbishness, and superficiality, his chief interest lies in the polygamy. Ata Aidoo has focused on the identity of today’s
unsentimental and even unflattering portrayal of ordinary African women and the changing relations between men
Kenyans in their daily struggle for survival. and women in society. In her novel Changes: A Love Story
Like most of his predecessors, Ngugi initially wrote in (1991), she chronicles the lives of three women, none
English, but he eventually decided to write in his native presented as a victim but all caught up in the struggle for
Kikuyu as a means of broadening his readership. For that survival and happiness. Of late, two young authors have

Opposing Viewpoints
Africa: Dark Continent or Radiant Land?

the roll of drums behind the curtain of trees would
Q Compare the depiction of the continent of Africa in run up the river and remain sustained faintly, as if
these two passages. Is Laye making a response to hovering in the air high over our heads, till the first
Conrad? If so, what is it? break of day. Whether it meant war, peace, or prayer
we could not tell. . . . But suddenly, as we struggled
round a bend, there would be a glimpse of rush walls,
Interaction Colonialism camouflaged its economic
& Exchange of peaked grass-roofs, a burst of yells, a whirl of black
objectives under the cloak of a “civilizing
limbs, a mass of hands clapping, of feet stamping, of
mission,” which in Africa was aimed at illuminating the
bodies swaying, of eyes rolling, under the droop of
so-called Dark Continent with Europe’s brilliant civilization.
heavy and motionless foliage. The steamer toiled along
In 1899, the Polish-born English author Joseph Conrad
slowly on the edge of a black and incomprehensible
(1857–1924) fictionalized his harrowing journey up the
frenzy. The prehistoric man was cursing us, praying
Congo River in the novella Heart of Darkness. Conrad’s
to us, welcoming us—who could tell? We were cut
protagonist, Marlow, travels upriver to locate a Belgian
off from the comprehension of our surroundings; we
trader who has mysteriously disappeared. The novella
glided past like phantoms, wondering and secretly
describes Marlow’s gradual recognition of the egregious
appalled, as sane men would be before an enthusiastic
excesses of colonial rule, as well as his realization that such
outbreak in a madhouse.
evil lurks in everyone’s heart. The story concludes with a cry:
“The horror! The horror!” Voicing views that expressed his
Camara Laye, The Radiance of the King
Victorian perspective, Conrad described an Africa that was
incomprehensible, sensual, and primitive. At that very moment the king turned his head, turned it
Over the years, Conrad’s work has provoked much imperceptibly, and his glance fell upon Clarence. . . .
debate. Author Chinua Achebe, for one, lambasted Heart “Yes, no one is as base as I, as naked as I,” he thought.
of Darkness as a racial diatribe. Since independence, many “And you, lord, you are willing to rest your eyes upon
African writers have been prompted to counter Conrad’s me!” Or was it because of his very nakedness? . . .
portrayal by reaffirming the dignity and purpose of the “Because of your very nakedness!” the look seemed to
African people. One of the first to do so was the Guinean say. “That terrifying void that is within you and which
author Camara Laye (1928–1980), who in 1954 composed opens to receive me; your hunger which calls to my
hunger; your very baseness which did not exist until
a brilliant novel, The Radiance of the King, which can be
I gave it leave; and the great shame you feel. . . .”
viewed as the mirror image of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
In Laye’s work, Clarence, another European protagonist, When he had come before the king, when he stood in
undertakes a journey into the impenetrable heart of Africa. the great radiance of the king, still ravaged by the tongue
This time, however, he is enlightened by the process, of fire, but alive still, and living only through the touch
obtaining self-knowledge and ultimately salvation. of that fire, Clarence fell upon his knees, for it seemed to
him that he was finally at the end of his seeking, and at
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness the end of all seekings.
We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of
darkness. It was very quiet there. At night sometimes
Sources: “Joseph Conrad Selection”: From Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Penguin Books, 1991. “Camara Laye Selection”: From The Radiance
of the King by Camara Laye, translated from the French by James Kirkup. New York: Vintage, 1989.
garnered great acclaim for their novels about Nigeria’s Music Contemporary African music also reflects a
political and social upheavals—Chimamanda Ngozi hybridization or fusion with Western culture. Traditional
Adichie (b. 1977) in Half a Yellow Sun (2006) and Sefi Atta music in Africa was closely connected with every aspect
(b. 1964) in Everything Good Will Come (2005). of daily life. Through music and dance, Africans recalled

Even as African societies evolve and
absorb multiple forms of influence
from abroad, African dance survives
today as a means of uniting the peoples
of the continent to their cultural tradi-
tions of the past. Traditional dance
continues to be a key instrument in pre-
serving African traditions and way of
life in a world marked by rapid change
(see Image 14.8).
Having traveled to the Americas
via the slave trade centuries ear-
lier, African drum beats evolved
into North American jazz and Latin
American dance rhythms, only to
return to reenergize African music. In
fact, one of the most vibrant aspects
William J. Duiker
of African culture today is its thriv-

ing musical scene, as it has become
one of the continent’s most effec-
IMAGE 14.8 African Dance Today. Group dancing has always played an important role tive weapons for social and politi-
in sub-Saharan African society. Traditionally it has served several functions, including cal protest. One can find Afropop
religious performance, ceremonies celebrating rites of passage, and the portrayal of groups at almost every major music
local history. As many Africans have moved away from their rural villages into the cities,
they have created “dance clubs” in their new environment as a means of maintaining
festival these days, and performers
ties with their ancestral village while creating a substitute community in their new like Angelique Kidjo from Benin and
environment. Shown here, members of a Zulu village in South Africa perform a warrior Cesaria Evora of Cape Verde are truly
dance to recall the glorious history of Zulu warriors defending their homeland against global superstars. Recently, the “des-
European invaders. ert blues” style of the West African
Q Does music and dance in the United States play a similar role in maintaining
tradition and linking performers with their past?
nation of Mali has found its way onto
the airwaves in the United States and
Europe with the songs of the Tuareg
their local history, expressed reverence for their ancestors, musical collective Tinariwen, Ali Farka Touré, and the
marked important social rituals, and maintained contact kora player Toumani Diabeté, all of whom have won
with the world of the spirits. A wide variety of instruments Grammy awards. Many of the lyrics are openly political
were used, including woodwinds, strings, “talking drums,” and serve as a call to action (some of the musicians are
and other percussion instruments. A strong rhythmic pat- actively fighting for the independence of the Tuareg peo-
tern was an important feature of most African music, ples against the government in Mali), while others simply
although the desired effect was achieved through a wide evoke the realities and the challenges of contemporary
variety of means, including gourds, pots, bells, sticks African life.
beaten together, and hand clapping, as well as the talking Easily accessible to all, African music, whether Afro-beat
drums. Much was produced in the context of social rituals in Nigeria, rai in Algeria, or reggae in Benin, represents the
such as weddings and funerals, religious ceremonies, and “weapon of the future,” say contemporary musicians; “it
inaugurations. helped free Nelson Mandela” and “will put Africa back on
Music could also serve an educational purpose by pass- the map.” Censored by all the African dictatorial regimes,
ing on to the young generation information about the his- these courageous musicians persist in their struggle against
tory and social traditions of the community. In the absence corruption, what one singer calls the second slavery, “the
of written language in sub-Saharan Africa, music and dance cancer that is eating away at the system.” Their voices echo
served as the primary means of transmitting folk legends the chorus “Together we can build a nation/Because Africa
and religious traditions from generation to generation. has brains, youth, knowledge.”6

making connections
Nowhere in the developing world is the dilemma of still yearn for the dreams embodied in the program of
continuity and change more agonizing than in Africa. the OAU in the hope that the continent might avoid the
Mesmerized by the spectacle of Western affluence yet dual pitfalls of virulent nationalism and industrialization.
repulsed by the bloody trail from slavery to World War Novelist Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, for one, does not despair,
II and the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and calls for “an internationalization of all the democratic
African intellectuals have been torn between the dual and social struggles for human equality, justice, peace,
images of Western materialism and African uniqueness. and progress.”7 But others have discarded the democratic
For the average African, of course, such intellectual ideal and turned their attention to autocratic systems as
dilemmas pale before the daily challenge of survival. But the most effective guiding principle of national develop-
the fundamental gap between traditional and modern is ment. As both China and Russia intensify their efforts
perhaps wider in Africa than anywhere else in the world to gain political influence on the continent, the statist
and may well be harder to bridge. model that they project has proven attractive to politi-
What is the future of Africa? It seems almost fool- cal forces that seek a shorter and surer route to power
hardy to seek an answer to such a question, given the than the ballot box. Like all peoples, however, Africans
degree of ethnic, linguistic, and cultural diversity that must ultimately find their own solutions within the con-
exists throughout the vast continent. Not surprisingly, text of their own traditions, not by seeking to imitate the
visions of the future are equally diverse. Some Africans example of others.
QQTo what degree have the nations of Africa managed to think that nations are the most effective way to organize
achieve political stability and economic prosperity since human society or not?
achieving independence after World War II? QQHow have African writers sought to portray the
QQWhat are some of the key challenges facing African political and social realities of the continent since the
nations and peoples today? How are they attempting to inauguration of the era of independence? Does
address them? African literature play a role similar to that of the
QQWhy has the idea of the nation-state been so slow to United States?
take root in Africa since the end of World War II? Do you
CHAPTER TIMELINE
1945 1955 1965 1975 1985 1995 2005 2015 2025
Africa
Statehood Algeria becomes Civil war in Central Africa
for Ghana independent
(1957) (1962)
African Economic Election of Ellen

Community formed Johnson-Sirleaf
(1991) in Liberia
(2006)
Creation of Ethnic strife Rise of

African Union intensifies in Boko Haram
Formation of the Organization Nyerere retires (2001) northern in Nigeria
of African Unity (1985) Nigeria (2015–present)
(1963) (2009–2013)
Nyerere’s Arusha Nelson Mandela New constitution

Declaration released from prison in South Africa
(1967) (1990) (1996)

CHAPTER NOTES
1. Aimé Césaire, Cahier d’un retour du pays natal, trans. 4. Abioseh Nicol, “A Truly Married Woman” and Other
John Berger and Anna Bostock (Harmondsworth, Stories (London, 1965), p. 12.
England,1969), p. 10, quoted in Emmanuel N. 5. Ama Ata Aidoo, No Sweetness Here (New York, 1995),
Obiechina, Language and Theme: Essays on African p. 136.
Literature (Washington, D.C. 1990), pp. 78–79. 6. Gilles Médioni, “Stand Up, Africa!” World Press Review,
2. Albert Ojuka, “Pedestrian, to Passing Benz-Man,” July 2002, p. 34.
quoted in A. Roscoe, Uhuru’s Fire: African Literature East 7. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Decolonising the Mind: The Politics
to South (Cambridge, England, 1977), p. 103. of Language in African Literature (Portsmouth, N.H.,
3. Cited in Martin Meredith, The Fate of Africa (New York, 1986), p. 103.
2004), p. 168.

Chapter
15 Ferment in the Middle East
Chapter Outline and

Focus Questions
15-1 Crescent of Conflict
QQWhy does the Middle East appear to be
one of the most unstable and conflict-
ridden regions in the world today? What
historical factors might help explain this
phenomenon?
15-2 S ociety and Culture in the
Contemporary Middle East
QQHow have religious issues affected
William J. Duiker
political, economic, and social
conditions in the Middle East in recent
decades?
IMAGE 15.1 Answering the call of the muezzin
“WE MUSLIMS ARE OF ONE FAMILY even though we live

under different governments and in various regions.”1
So said Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, the Islamic
religious figure and leader of the 1979 revolution that
overthrew the shah in Iran. The ayatollah’s remark was
dismissed by some as just a pious wish by a religious
mystic. In fact, however, it illustrates a crucial
aspect of the political dynamics in the Middle East:
if the concept of cultural uniqueness represented a
potential alternative to the system of nation-states in
Africa, then the desire for Muslim unity has played
a similar role for many people in the Middle East.
In both regions, a yearning for a sense of commu-
nity beyond national borders tugs at the emotions
and intellect of their inhabitants and counteracts
the dynamic pull of nationalism that has provoked
political turmoil and conflict in much of the rest of
Connections to Today the world.
What possible strategies might the peoples of

the Middle East adopt to assist them in restoring
peaceful conditions and stable societies throughout
the region today?
367
15-1 Crescent of Conflict declared that it was a response to the “humiliation and dis-
grace” that have afflicted the Islamic world for more than
QQ Focus Questions: Why does the Middle East

appear to be one of the most unstable and
eighty years, a period dating back to the end of World
War I (see Historical Voices, “I Accuse!”, p. 369). Although
that was clearly not the only motive, there seems little
conflict-ridden regions in the world today?
doubt that the rage that has spread through much of the
What historical factors might help explain this
Islamic world has deep historical roots and will not be eas-
phenomenon?
ily quenched.
For the Middle East, the period between the two world
A dramatic example of the powerful force of pan-Islamic wars was an era of transition. With the fall of the Ottoman
sentiment took place on September 11, 2001, when and Persian Empires, new modernizing regimes emerged
Muslim terrorists hijacked four U.S. airliners and turned in Turkey and Iran, and a more traditionalist but fiercely
them into missiles aimed at the center of world capitalism. independent government was established in Saudi Arabia.
Although the headquarters of the organization that car- Elsewhere, however, European influence continued to
ried out the attack—known as al-Qaeda—was located in be strong; the French and British had mandates in Syria,
Afghanistan, the militants themselves came from several Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine, and British influence per-
different Muslim states. In the months that followed, popu- sisted in Iraq and southern Arabia and throughout the Nile
lar support for al-Qaeda and its mysterious leader, Osama valley. Pan-Arabism—the concept of the unity of all Arab
bin Laden (1957–2011), intensified throughout the Muslim peoples—was on the rise, but it lacked focus and coherence
world. To many observers, it appeared that the Islamic (see Map 15.1).
peoples were embarking on an era of direct confrontation During World War II, the Middle East became the
with the entire Western world. cockpit of European rivalries, as it had been during
What were the sources of Muslim anger? In a speech World War I. The region was more significant to the
released on videotape shortly after the attack, bin Laden
RUSSIA KAZAK. KAZAKHSTAN

Ca
Black Sea UZBEKISTAN

s
pia
GEORGIA KYRGYZSTAN
n
Ankara ARMENIA AZERBAIJAN

TURKEY TURKMENISTAN TAJIKISTAN
Sea
CYPRUS SYRIA IRAQ Tehran PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC

AFGHANISTAN OF CHINA
LEBANON Baghdad
ISRAEL IRAN
JORDAN PAKISTAN
Cairo
Persian
KUWAIT Gulf NEPAL
EGYPT BAHRAIN Strait of Hormuz
UNITED ARAB
SAUDI EMIRATES
R. ARABIA Arabian INDIA
Re
QATAR
Sea
dS
Mecca
Nile
ea
OMAN
Major oil-producing areas
SUDAN
ERITREA
YEMEN
0 500 1,000 1,500 Kilometers
DJIBOUTI
0 500 1,000 Miles
ETHIOPIA
SOMALIA
MAP 15.1 The Modern Middle East. Shown here are the boundaries of the independent states in the
contemporary Middle East.
Q Which are the major oil-producing countries?
368 ■ CHAPTER 15 Ferment in the Middle East

HISTORICAL VOICES
I Accuse!
which they intend to make an important part of the so
Q What reasons did Osama bin Laden present to called Greater Israel.
justify the terrorist attacks carried out by his Many of the Arabic as well as the Western mass media
followers around the world? How would you respond accuse you of terrorism and of supporting terrorism. What do
to his charges? you have to say to that?
Every state and every civilization and culture has to
resort to terrorism under certain circumstances for the
Politics & In 1998, Osama bin Laden was virtually
Government purpose of abolishing tyranny and corruption. Every
unknown outside the Middle East. But this
country in the world has its own security system and its
scion of a wealthy industrialist from Saudi Arabia was on
own security forces, its own police, and its own army.
a mission—to avenge the hostile acts perpetrated on his
They are all designed to terrorize whoever even contem-
fellow Muslims by the United States and its allies. Having
plates an attack on that country or its citizens. The ter-
taken part in the successful guerrilla war against Soviet
rorism we practice is of the commendable kind for it is
occupation troops in Afghanistan during the 1980s, bin
directed at the tyrants and the aggressors and the enemies
Laden now turned his ire on the tyrannical regimes in the
of Allah, the tyrants, the traitors who commit acts of trea-
Middle East and their great protector, the United States. In
son against their own countries and their own faith and
the following excerpts from a 1998 interview, he defended
their own prophet and their own nation. Terrorizing those
the use of terror against those whom he deemed enemies
and punishing them are necessary measures to straighten
of Islam. Three years later, his followers launched the
things and to make them right. Tyrants and oppressors
surprise attacks that led to more than 3,000 deaths on
who subject the Arab nation to aggression ought to be
September 11, 2001.
punished. . . . America heads the list of aggressors against
Muslims. The recurrence of aggression against Muslims
Interview with Osama bin Laden by His Followers (1998) everywhere is proof enough. For over half a century,
What is the meaning of your call for Muslims to take up arms Muslims in Palestine have been slaughtered and assaulted
against America in particular, and what is the message that you and robbed of their honor and of their property. Their
wish to send to the West in general? houses have been blasted, their crops destroyed. And the
The call to wage war against America was made strange thing is that any act by them to avenge themselves
because America has spearheaded the crusade against the or to lift the injustice befalling them causes great agitation
Islamic nation, sending tens of thousands of its troops to in the United Nations, which hastens to call for an emer-
the land of the two Holy Mosques [Saudi Arabia], over gency meeting only to convict the victim and to censure
and above its meddling in its affairs and its politics and its the wronged and the tyrannized whose children have
support of the oppressive, corrupt, and tyrannical regime been killed and whose crops have been destroyed and
that is in control. These are the reasons behind the sin- whose farms have been pulverized. . . .
gling out of America as a target. And not exempt from In today’s wars, there are no morals, and it is clear that
responsibility are those Western regimes whose presence mankind has descended to the lowest degrees of deca-
in the region offers support to the American troops there. dence and oppression. They rip us of our wealth and of
We know at least one reason behind the symbolic partici- our resources and of our oil. Our religion is under attack.
pation of the Western forces and that is to support the They kill and murder our brothers. They compromise
Jewish and Zionist plans for expansion of what is called our honor and our dignity and if we dare to utter a single
the Great Israel. Surely, their presence is not out of con- word of protest against the injustice, we are called terror-
cern over their interests in the region. . . . Their presence ists. This is compounded injustice. And the United Nations
has no meaning save one and that is to offer support to insistence to convict the victims and support the aggres-
the Jews in Palestine who are in need of their Christian sors constitutes a serious precedent that shows the extent
brothers to achieve full control over the Arab Peninsula of injustice that has been allowed to take root in this land.
Source: From Khater, Sources in the History of the Modern Middle East, 2nd Edition. © 2011 Cengage Learning.
15-1 Crescent of Conflict ■ 369

warring powers than previously because of the growing Shortly after the stroke of midnight, as the British man-
importance of oil and the Suez Canal’s position as a vital date formally came to a close, the Zionist leader David
sea route. For a brief period, the Afrika Korps, under Ben-Gurion (1886–1973) announced the independence of
the command of the brilliant German general Erwin the state of Israel and established its temporary capital at
Rommel, threatened to seize Egypt and the Suez Canal, Tel Aviv. Later that same day, the new state was formally
but British troops defeated the German forces at El recognized by the United States, while military forces
Alamein, west of Alexandria in 1942, and gradually drove from several neighboring Muslim states—all of which had
them westward until their final defeat after the arrival vigorously opposed the formation of a Jewish state in the
of U.S. troops in Morocco under the field command of region—entered Israeli territory but were beaten back.
General George S. Patton. From that time until the end Thousands of Arab residents of the new state fled. Internal
of the war, the entire region from the Mediterranean Sea dissonance among the Arabs, combined with the strength
eastward was under secure Allied occupation. of Jewish resistance groups, contributed to the failure of
the invasion, but the bitterness between the two sides did
not subside. The Muslim states refused to recognize the
15-1a The Question of Palestine
new state of Israel, which became a member of the United
With the end of World War II, a number of independent Nations, legitimizing it in the eyes of the rest of the world.
states emerged in the Middle East. Jordan, Lebanon, and The stage for future conflict was set.
Syria, all European mandates before the war, became inde- The exodus of thousands of Palestinian refugees into
pendent. Egypt, Iran, and Iraq, though still under a degree neighboring Muslim states had repercussions that are still
of Western influence, became increasingly autonomous. felt today. Jordan, which had become an independent king-
Sympathy for the idea of Arab unity led to the formation dom under its Hashemite ruler, was flooded by the arrival
of the Arab League in 1945, but different points of view of one million urban Palestinians. They overwhelmed
among its members prevented it from achieving anything the country’s half million residents, most of whom were
of substance. Bedouins. To the north, the state of Lebanon had been
The one issue on which all Muslim states in the area created to provide the local Christian community with a
could agree was the question of Palestine. As tensions country of their own, but the arrival of the Palestinian ref-
between Jews and Arabs in that mandate intensified during ugees upset the delicate balance between Christians and
the 1930s, the British attempted to limit Jewish immigra- Muslims. Moreover, the creation of Lebanon had angered
tion into the area and firmly rejected proposals for inde- the Syrians, who had lost that land as well as other territo-
pendence, despite the promise made in the 1917 Balfour ries to Turkey as a result of European decisions before and
Declaration that Palestine should become a national home after World War II.
for the Jewish people (see Chapter 5).
After World War II ended, the situation drifted rapidly
toward crisis, as thousands of Jewish refugees, many of 15-1b Nasser and Pan-Arabism
them from displaced persons camps in Europe, sought to The dispute over Palestine placed Egypt in an uncomfort-
migrate to Palestine despite Palestinian Arab complaints able position. Technically, Egypt was not an Arab state.
and British efforts to prevent their arrival (see Opposing King Farouk (1920–1965), who had acceded to power in
Viewpoints, “The Arab and the Jewish Case for Palestine,” 1936, had frequently declared support for the Arab cause,
p. 371). As violence between predominantly Muslim but the Egyptian people were not Bedouins and shared
Palestinian Arabs and Jews intensified in the fall of 1947, little of the culture of the peoples across the Red Sea.
the issue was taken up in the United Nations General Nevertheless, Farouk committed Egyptian armies to the
Assembly. After an intense debate, the assembly voted to disastrous war against Israel.
approve the partition of Palestine into two separate states, In 1952, King Farouk, whose corrupt habits had severely
one for the Jews and one for the Palestinian Arabs. The city eroded his early popularity, was overthrown by a military
of Jerusalem was to be placed under international control. coup engineered by young military officers ostensibly
A UN commission was established to iron out the details under the leadership of Colonel Muhammad Nagib. The
and determine the future boundaries. real force behind the scenes was Colonel Gamal Abdul
During the next several months, growing hostility Nasser (1918–1970), the son of a minor government func-
between Jewish and Palestinian Arab forces—the latter tionary who, like many of his fellow officers, had been
increasingly supported by neighboring Muslim states— angered by the army’s inadequate preparation for the war
caused the British to announce that they would with- against Israel four years earlier. In 1953, the monarchy was
draw their own peacekeeping forces by May 15, 1948. replaced by a republic.

Opposing Viewpoints
The Arab and the Jewish Case for Palestine

Peace Conference to ensnare for them, wherever they
Q How did the authors of these documents justify have been oppressed, as for all peoples, equal rights
their position on the issue of Palestine? What and humane conditions. A Jewish National Home in
counterarguments could be advanced in each case? Palestine will, however, be of high value to them also.
Its influence will permeate the Jewries of the world, it
will inspire these millions, hitherto often despairing,
Politics & After the British government issued the
Government with a new hope; it will hold out before their eyes a
Balfour Declaration in 1917 recognizing the
higher standard; it will help to make them even more
right of the Jewish people to a homeland in Palestine, the
useful citizens in the lands in which they dwell.
Zionist organization issued a memorandum making the case
4. Such a Palestine would be of value also to the world
for the idea. But as more and more Jews began to immigrate
at large, whose real wealth consists in the healthy
to Palestine after World War II, the Arab Office in Jerusalem
diversities of its civilizations.
issued a statement defending the right of the indigenous
5. Lastly, the land itself needs redemption. Much of
inhabitants to preserve its traditional character.
it is left desolate. Its present condition is a stand-
Memorandum to the Peace Conference in Versailles ing reproach. Two things are necessary for that
redemption—a stable and enlightened Government,
The Historic Title
and an addition to the present population which shall
The claims of the Jews with regard to Palestine rest upon be energetic, intelligent, devoted to the country, and
the following main considerations: backed by the large financial resources that are indis-
1. The land is the historic home of the Jews; there they pensable for development. Such a population the Jews
achieved their greatest development; from the cen- alone can supply.
tre, through their agency, there emanated spiritual
and moral influences of supreme value to mankind. The Problem of Palestine
By violence they were driven from Palestine, and 1. The whole Arab People is unalterably opposed to the
through the ages they have never ceased to cherish attempt to impose Jewish immigration and settlement
the longing and the hope of a return. upon it, and ultimately to establish a Jewish State in
2. In some parts of the world, and particularly in Eastern Palestine. Its opposition is based primarily upon right.
Europe, the conditions of life of millions of Jews are The Arabs of Palestine are descendants of the indig-
deplorable. Forming often a congested population, enous inhabitants of the country, who have been in
denied the opportunities which would make a healthy occupation of it since the beginning of history; they
development possible, the need of fresh outlets is cannot agree that it is right to subject an indigenous
urgent, both for their own sake and the interests of the population against its will to alien immigrants, whose
population of other races, among whom they dwell. claim is based upon a historical connection which
Palestine would offer one such outlet. To the Jewish ceased effectively many centuries ago. Moreover they
masses it is the country above all others in which they form the majority of the population; as such they
would most wish to cast their lot. By the methods of cannot submit to a policy of immigration which if
economic development to which we shall refer later, pursued for long will turn them from a majority into
Palestine can be made now, as it was in ancient times, a minority in an alien state; and they claim the demo-
the home of a prosperous population many times as cratic right of a majority to make its own decisions in
numerous as that which now inhabits it. matters of urgent national concern. . . .
3. Palestine is not large enough to contain more than a 2. In addition to the question of right, the Arabs
proportion of the Jews of the world. The greater part oppose the claims of political Zionism because of
of the fourteen millions or more scattered through- the effects which Zionist settlement has already had
out all countries must remain in their present locali- upon their situation and is likely to have to an even
ties, and it will doubtless be one of the cares of the greater extent in the future. Negatively, it has diverted
(continued)
(Opposing Viewpoints continued)
the whole course of their national development. in Palestine being cut off from the other Arab coun-
Geographically Palestine is part of Syria; its indig- tries and subjected to a regime, administrative, legal,
enous inhabitants belong to the Syrian branch of the fiscal, and educational, different from that of the
Arab family of nations; all their culture and tradition sister-countries. Quite apart from the inconvenience
link them to the other Arab peoples; and until 1917 to individuals and the dislocation of trade which
Palestine formed part of the Ottoman Empire which this separation has caused, it has prevented Palestine
included also several of the other Arab countries. The participating fully in the general development of the
presence and claims of the Zionists, and the support Arab world.
given them by certain Western Powers have resulted
Sources: From David Hunter Miller, My Diary at the Conference of Paris (New York, 1924), V, pp. 15–29, as printed in Akram F. Khater, Sources in the
History of the Modern Middle East, 2nd ed. (Cengage, 2011), pp. 152–153. From Akram Khater, Sources in the History of the Modern Middle East, 2nd ed.
(Cengage, 2011), pp. 179–190.
In 1954, Nasser seized power in his own right and Egypt and Syria hoped that the union would eventually
immediately instituted a land reform program. He also include all Arab states, but other Arab leaders, including
adopted a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs and young King Hussein of Jordan and the kings of Iraq and
expressed sympathy for the Arab cause. The British Saudi Arabia, were suspicious. The latter two in particu-
presence had rankled many Egyptians for years, for even lar understandably feared pan-Arabism on the assumption
after granting Egypt independence, Britain had retained that they would be asked to share their vast oil revenues
control over the Suez Canal to protect its route to the with the poorer states of the Middle East.
Indian Ocean. In 1956, Nasser suddenly nationalized the Nasser opposed the existing situation, in which much
Suez Canal Company, which had been under British and of the wealth of the Middle East flowed into the treasuries
French administration. Seeing a threat to their route to of a handful of wealthy feudal states or, even worse, the
the Indian Ocean, the British and the French entered into pockets of foreign oil interests. In his view, through Arab
a secret agreement with Israel, inviting Israel to attack unity, this wealth could be put to better use to improve the
Egypt to give Britain and France a pretense for deploy- standard of living in the area. To achieve a more equitable
ing peacekeeping forces to the canal zone, thereby division of the wealth of the region, natural resources and
protecting their investment. Exasperated at sporadic major industries would be nationalized; central planning
Arab commando raids on Israeli territory, Israel agreed would ensure that resources were exploited efficiently, but
to participate. In late 1956, Israel attacked Egypt, and private enterprise would continue at the local level.
France and Britain seized the canal. But the Eisenhower In the end, however, Nasser’s determination to extend
administration in the United States, concerned that the state control over the economy brought an end to the
attack smacked of a revival of colonialism, supported UAR. When the government announced the nationaliza-
Nasser and brought about the withdrawal of foreign tion of a large number of industries and utilities in 1961, a
forces from Egypt and of Israeli troops from the Sinai military coup overthrew the Ba’ath leaders in Damascus,
peninsula. and the new authorities declared that Syria would end its
relationship with Egypt.
The United Arab Republic Nasser now turned to pan- The breakup of the UAR did not end Nasser’s dream of
Arabism. In 1958, Egypt united with Syria in the United pan-Arabism. In 1962, Algeria finally received its indepen-
Arab Republic (UAR). The union had been proposed by dence from France and, under its new president, Ahmad
members of the Ba’ath Party, which advocated the unity of Ben Bella (1918–2004), established close relations with
all Arab states in a new socialist society. In 1957, the Ba’ath Egypt, as did a new republic across the Red Sea in Yemen.
Party assumed power in Syria and opened talks with Egypt During the mid-1960s, Egypt took the lead in promoting
on a union between the two countries, which took place Arab unity against Israel. At a meeting of Arab leaders held
in March 1958 following a plebiscite. Nasser, despite his in Jerusalem in 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization
reported ambivalence about the union, was named presi- (PLO) was set up under Egyptian sponsorship to represent
dent of the new state. the interests of the Palestinians. According to the charter of

the PLO, only the Palestinian people (and thus not Jewish in June 1967 Israel suddenly launched air strikes against
immigrants from abroad) had the right to form a state Egypt and several of its Arab neighbors. Israeli armies
in the old British mandate. A guerrilla movement called then broke the blockade at the head of the Gulf of
al-Fatah, led by the dissident PLO figure Yasir Arafat (1929– Aqaba and occupied the Sinai peninsula. Other Israeli
2004), began to launch terrorist attacks on Israeli territory, forces attacked Jordanian territory on the West Bank
prompting Israel to raid PLO bases in Jordan in 1966. of the Jordan River ( Jordan’s King Hussein had recently
signed an alliance with Egypt and placed his army under
Egyptian command), occupied the whole of Jerusalem,
15-1c The Arab-Israeli Dispute and seized Syrian military positions in the Golan Heights
Growing Arab hostility was a constant threat to the secu- along the Israeli-Syrian border.
rity of Israel. In the years after independence, Israeli lead- Despite limited Soviet support for Egypt and Syria, in
ers dedicated themselves to creating a Jewish homeland. a brief six-day war, Israel had mocked Nasser’s preten-
Aided by reparations paid by the postwar German govern- sions of Arab unity and tripled the size of its territory, thus
ment and private funds provided by Jews living abroad, enhancing its precarious security (see Map 15.2). Yet Israel
notably in the United States, the government attempted had also aroused more bitter hostility among the Arabs
to build a democratic and modern state that would be a and brought an additional million Palestinians inside its
magnet for Jews throughout the world and a symbol of borders, most of them living on the West Bank.
Jewish achievement. During the next few years, the focus of the Arab-
But ensuring the survival of the tiny state surrounded Israeli dispute shifted as Arab states demanded the return
by antagonistic Muslim Arab neighbors was a consider- of the territories lost during the 1967 war. Meanwhile,
able challenge, made more difficult by divisions within the many Israelis argued that the new lands improved the
Israeli population. Immigrants from Europe tended to be security of the beleaguered state and should be retained.
secular and even socialist in their views, whereas those from
the Middle East were often politically and religiously con-
Beirut
servative. The state was also home to Christians as well as
Proposed Jewish state,
many Muslim Palestinians who had not fled to other coun- LEBANON SYRIA
UN partition (1947)
tries. To balance these diverse interests, Israel established Other areas occupied Galilee Damascus
a parliament, called the Knesset, on the European model, in 1948–1949 Golan
Acre
with proportional representation based on the number of Areas occupied in 1967 Haifa Nazareth
Heights
votes each party received in the general election. The par-
.
Jordan R
ties were so numerous that none ever received a majority Tel Aviv Amman
of votes, and all governments had to be formed from a Jericho
Mediterranean Sea Jerusalem
coalition of several parties. As a result, moderate secu-
Gaza Strip West Bank
lar leaders such as long-time prime minister David Ben-
Gurion had to cater to more marginal parties composed Dead Sea
Port
of conservative religious groups. Said
EGYPT Suez JORDAN
Canal Sinai
(occupied
The Six-Day War During the late 1950s and 1960s, the Isma’ilia
1967–1982)
dispute between Israel and other states in the Middle East Suez
Aqaba
escalated in intensity. Essentially alone except for the sym-
pathy of the United States and several Western European
Gulf of Aqaba
SAUDI
countries, Israel adopted a policy of determined resistance
Gu
ARABIA
. R
lf
Nile
and immediate retaliation against PLO and Arab provoca-

of
Su
tions. By the spring of 1967, relations between Israel and

ez
Sharm al-
its Arab neighbors had deteriorated as Nasser attempted 0 50 100 150 Kilometers Shaykh
to improve his standing in the Arab world by intensifying 0 50 100 Miles
military activities and imposing a blockade against Israeli
commerce through the Gulf of Aqaba. MAP 15.2 Israel and Its Neighbors. This map shows the evolution
Concerned that it might be isolated, and lacking firm of the state of Israel since its founding in 1948. Areas occupied
support from Western powers (which had originally by Israel after the Six-Day War in 1967 are indicated in green.
guaranteed Israel the freedom to use the Gulf of Aqaba), Q What is the significance of the West Bank?

Concerned that the dispute might lead to a confronta- States and agreed on a framework for peace in the region
tion between the superpowers, the Nixon administra- (see Image 15.2). A year later, in the first treaty signed with
tion tried to achieve a peace settlement. The peace effort a Muslim Arab state, Israel agreed to withdraw from the
received a mild stimulus when Nasser died of a heart Sinai, but not from other occupied territories unless it was
attack in September 1970 and was succeeded by his vice recognized by other Arab countries.
president, ex-general Anwar al-Sadat (1918–1981). Sadat The promise of the Camp David agreement was not
soon showed himself to be more pragmatic than his fulfilled, however. One reason was the assassination of
predecessor, dropping the now irrelevant name United Sadat by Islamic militants in October 1981. But there were
Arab Republic in favor of the Arab Republic of Egypt and deeper causes, including the continued unwillingness of
replacing Nasser’s socialist policies with a new strategy many Muslim governments to recognize Israel and the
based on free enterprise and encouragement of Western Israeli government’s encouragement of Jewish settlements
investment. He also agreed to sign a peace treaty with in the occupied West Bank.
Israel on the condition that Israel withdraw to its pre-
1967 frontiers. Concerned that other Arab countries The PLO and the Intifada During the early 1980s, the
would refuse to make peace and take advantage of its militancy of the Palestinians increased, leading to rising
presumed weakness, Israel refused. unrest, popularly labeled the intifada (uprising), among
Rebuffed in his offer of peace, smarting from criti- PLO supporters living inside Israel. To control the situ-
cism of his moderate stand from other Arab leaders, and ation, a new Israeli government under Prime Minister
increasingly concerned over Israeli plans to build perma- Itzhak Shamir (1915–2012) invaded southern Lebanon
nent Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Sadat attempted to destroy PLO commando bases near the Israeli border.
once again to renew Arab unity through a new confronta- The invasion aroused controversy abroad and further
tion with Israel. In 1973, on Yom Kippur (the Jewish Day destabilized the perilous balance between Muslims and
of Atonement), an Israeli national holiday, Egyptian forces Christians in Lebanon. As the 1990s began, Israel and
suddenly launched an air and artillery attack on Israeli a number of its neighbors engaged in U.S.-sponsored
positions in the Sinai just east of the Suez Canal. Syrian peace talks, but progress was slow. Terrorist attacks by
armies attacked Israeli positions in the Golan Heights. Palestinian militants resulted in heavy casualties and
After early Arab successes, the
Israelis managed to recoup some
of their losses on both fronts.
As a superpower confronta-
tion between the United States
and the Soviet Union loomed,
a cease-fire was finally reached.
In the next years, a fragile peace
was maintained, marked by U.S.
“shuttle diplomacy” (carried
out by Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger) and the rise to power in
Israel of the militant Likud Party
under Prime Minister Menachem David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images
Begin (1913–1992).
The Camp David Agreement

After his election as U.S. presi-
dent in 1976, Jimmy Carter began
to press for a compromise peace
based on Israel’s return of terri- IMAGE 15.2 The Camp David Accords. Prime Minister Menachim Begin of Israel and
tories occupied during the 1967 President Anwar al-Sadat hold a joint press conference after the signing of the Camp
war and Arab recognition of the David Accords in September 1978. U.S. President Jimmy Carter is seated between
state of Israel. In September 1978, them. Tragically, Sadat (on Carter’s right) paid a high price for his courage in signing the
Sadat and Begin met with Carter agreement, for he was assassinated in Cairo by a Muslim terrorist two years later.
at Camp David in the United Q Why do you think the Camp David agreement did not resolve the Palestinian dispute?

shook the confidence of many
Jewish citizens that their secu-
rity needs could be protected.
National elections held in 1996
led to the formation of a new
government under Benjamin
Netanyahu (b. 1949), which
adopted a tougher stance in
negotiations with the Palestinian
Authority under Yasir Arafat.
In 1999, a new Labour govern-
ment under Prime Minister Ehud
Barak (b. 1942) sought to revitalize
the peace process. Negotiations
resumed with the PLO and also
got under way with Syria over a
William J. Duiker
peace settlement in Lebanon and
the possible return of the Golan
Heights. But the talks broke down
over the future of the city of IMAGE 15.3 The Temple Mount at Jerusalem. The Temple Mount is one of the most sacred
Jerusalem (see Image 15.3), lead- places in the city of Jerusalem. Originally, it was the site of a temple built during the
reign of Solomon, king of the Israelites, about 1000 b.c.e. The Western Wall, built during
ing to massive riots by Palestinians
the reign of King Herod, is shown in the foreground. Beyond the wall is the Dome of the
and a dramatic increase in blood- Rock complex, built on the place from which Muslims believe that Muhammad ascended
shed on both sides. The death to heaven. Sacred to both religions, the Temple Mount is now a major bone of contention
of Yasir Arafat in 2004 and his between Muslims and Jews and a prime obstacle to a final settlement of the Arab-
replacement by Palestinian mod- Israeli dispute. In 2018, the Trump administration suddenly announced that the U.S.
erate Mahmoud Abbas (b. 1935), Embassy would be shifted from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a clear sign that the United States
recognizes Israeli ownership of the entire city of Jerusalem.
as well as the withdrawal of Israeli
settlers from Gaza in 2005, raised Q What is the significance of the Temple Mount in the context of the Arab-Israeli dispute?
modest hopes for progress, but the
victory of Hamas, a radical organization dedicated to the 15-1d Revolution in Iran
destruction of the state of Israel, in Palestinian elections in As it intensified, the Arab-Israeli dispute sent shockwaves
2006 undermined the search for peace. throughout the region. In 1960, a number of oil-producing
Also in 2006, radical Muslim forces, known as states formed the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Hezbollah and operating in southern Lebanon, launched Countries (OPEC) to gain control over oil prices, but the
massive attacks on Israeli cities. In response, Israeli troops organization was not recognized by the foreign oil com-
crossed the border in an effort to wipe out the source of panies. In the 1970s, a group of Arab oil states established
the assault. Two years later, Hamas militants in the Gaza the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries
Strip launched their own rocket attacks on sites in south- (OAPEC) to use as a weapon to force Western govern-
ern Israel. The latter responded forcefully, thereby rais- ments to abandon pro-Israeli policies. During the 1973
ing the specter of a wider conflict. As attitudes hardened, Yom Kippur War, some OPEC nations announced signifi-
Israeli elections in early 2009 led to the return to office of cant increases in the price of oil to foreign countries. The
former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a virtual price hikes were accompanied by an apparent oil short-
stalemate in the peace process. Apparently convinced age and created serious economic problems in the United
that a peace settlement is increasingly unlikely, the Israeli States and Europe, as well as in the Third World.
government has continued to expand the number of One of the key oil-exporting countries was Iran (see
Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank—home to Map 15.3). Under the leadership of Shah Mohammad
almost five million Muslims—and recently passed legisla- Reza Pahlavi (1919–1980), who had taken over from
tion declaring that Israel is “the nation-state of the Jewish his father in 1941, Iran had become one of the richest
people.” Weary of war but pessimistic about the pros- countries in the Middle East. Although relations with the
pects of finding a solution, Israeli voters in 2019 returned West had occasionally been fragile (especially after Prime
Benjamin Netanyahu to office for another five-year term. Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq had briefly attempted to
nationalize the oil industry in 1951), 0 500 Kilometers Bakhtiar attempted to concili-
during the next twenty years, Iran ate the rising opposition and per-
0 300 Miles
became a prime ally of the United mitted Khomeini to return to Iran,
Caspian TURKMENISTAN
States in the Middle East. With Sea
where he demanded the govern-
encouragement from Washington, ment’s resignation. With rising pub-
N
ISTA
which hoped that Iran could become Tehran lic unrest and incipient revolt within
a force for stability in the Persian Gulf, the army, the government collapsed
HAN
IRAQ IRAN
the shah attempted to carry through a and was replaced by a hastily formed
AFG
series of social and economic reforms Islamic republic. The new govern-
to transform the country into the KUWAIT ment, which was dominated by
Pe
ia
rs
n
most advanced in the region. SAUDI Gu
lf
Major oil-
producing
Shi’ite ulama under the guidance
On paper, it appeared that his ARABIA areas of Ayatollah Khomeini, immedi-
efforts were succeeding. Per capita ately began to introduce traditional
income increased dramatically, literacy MAP 15.3 Iran Islamic law (see Movies & History,
rates improved, a modern communi- Persepolis, p. 377). A new reign of ter-
cations infrastructure took shape, and ror ensued as supporters of the shah
an affluent middle class emerged in the capital of Tehran. were rounded up and executed.
Under the surface, however, trouble was brewing. Despite Though much of the outside world focused on the
an ambitious land reform program, many peasants were U.S. embassy in Tehran, where militants held a num-
still landless, unemployment among intellectuals was dan- ber of foreign hostages, the Iranian Revolution involved
gerously high, and the urban middle class was squeezed much more. In the eyes of the ayatollah and his follow-
by high inflation. Housing costs had skyrocketed, in part ers, the United States was “the great Satan,” the power-
because of a massive influx of foreigners attracted by oil ful protector of Israel, and the enemy of Muslim peoples
money. everywhere. Furthermore, it was responsible for the cor-
Some of the unrest took the form of religious disruption of Iranian society under the shah. Now Khomeini
content as millions of devout Shi’ite Muslims looked demanded that the shah be returned to Iran for trial and
with distaste at what they viewed as a new Iranian that the United States apologize for its acts against the
civilization based on greed, sexual license, and material Iranian people. In response, the Carter administration
accumulation. Conservative ulama (Muslim scholars) stopped buying Iranian oil and froze Iranian assets in the
opposed rampant government corruption, the ostenta- United States.
tion of the shah’s court, and the extension of voting The effects of the disturbances in Iran quickly spread
rights to women. Some opposition elements resorted to beyond its borders. Sunni militants briefly seized the holy
terrorism against wealthy Iranians or foreign residents places in Mecca and began to appeal to their brothers to
in an attempt to initiate social and political disorder. launch similar revolutions in Islamic countries around the
In response, the shah’s U.S.-trained security police, the world, including far-off Malaysia and Indonesia. At the
SAVAK, imprisoned and sometimes tortured thousands same time, ethnic unrest emerged among the Kurdish
of dissidents. minorities along the border. In July 1980, the shah died
of cancer in Cairo. With economic conditions in Iran rap-
The Fall of the Shah Leading the opposition was idly deteriorating, the Islamic revolutionary government
Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini (1900–1989), an austere finally agreed in January 1981 to free the 52 remaining U.S.
Shi’ite cleric who had been exiled to Iraq and then to citizens and diplomats held hostage in the U.S. Embassy
France because of his outspoken opposition to the shah’s in return for the release of Iranian assets in the United
regime. From Paris, Khomeini continued his attacks in States. During the next few years, the intensity of the
print, on television, and in radio broadcasts. By the late Iranian Revolution moderated slightly, as the government
1970s, large numbers of Iranians began to respond to displayed a modest tolerance for a loosening of clerical
Khomeini’s diatribes against the “satanic regime,” and control over freedom of expression and social activities.
demonstrations by his supporters were repressed with But rising criticism of rampant official corruption and a
ferocity by the police. But workers’ strikes (some of them high rate of inflation sparked a new wave of government
in the oil fields, which reduced government revenue) repression; newspapers were censored, the universities
grew in intensity. In January 1979, the shah appointed a were purged of disloyal or “un-Islamic” elements, and reli-
moderate, Shapur Bakhtiar (1914–1991), as prime minis- gious militants raided private homes in search of blasphe-
ter and then left the country for medical treatment. mous activities.

movies & HIstory
Persepolis (2007)
The Iranian author Marjane Satrapi (b. 1969) has recre- After the revolution, however, the severity of the ayatol-
ated Persepolis, her autobiographical graphic novel, as an lah’s Islamic rule arouses their secularist and democratic
enthralling animated film of the same name. Using simple impulses. Encouraged by her loving grandmother, who
black-and-white animation, the movie recounts key stages reinforces her modernist and feminist instincts, Marjane
in the turbulent history of modern Iran as seen through the resents having to wear a head scarf and the educational
eyes of a spirited young girl, also named Marjane. The dia- restrictions imposed by the puritanical new Islamic
logue is in French with English subtitles (a version dubbed regime, but to little avail. Emotionally exhausted and fear-
in English is also available), and the voices of the characters ful of political retribution from the authorities, her family
are rendered beautifully by Danielle Darrieux, Catherine finally sends her to study in Vienna.
Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni, and other European film stars. Study abroad, however, is not a solution to Marjane’s
In the film, Marjane is the daughter of middle-class problems. She is distressed by the nihilism and emotional
left-wing intellectuals who abhor the dictatorship of the shallowness of her new Austrian school friends, who seem
shah and actively participate in his overthrow in 1979. oblivious to the contrast between their privileged lives
and her own experience of living under the shadow of a
tyrannical regime. Disillusioned by the loneliness of exile
and several failed love affairs, she descends into a deep
depression and then decides to return to Tehran. When
she discovers that her family is still suffering from politi-
cal persecution, however, she decides to leave the country
permanently and settles in Paris.
Observing the events, first through the eyes of a
child and then through the perceptions of an innocent
schoolgirl, the viewer of the film is forced to fill in the
blanks, as Marjane initially cannot comprehend the
meaning of the adult conversations swirling around her.
As Marjane passes through adolescence into adulthood,
the realization of the folly of human intransigence and
superstition becomes painfully clear, both to her and to
the audience. Although animated films have long been
a staple in the cinema, thanks in part to Walt Disney,
both the novel and the film Persepolis demonstrate how
graphic design can depict a momentous event in history
with clarity and compassion. After it began to appear
in movie theaters in some cities in the Middle East,
RGR Collection/Alamy Stock Photo
protests based on its depiction of Muhammed and the

Islamic religion were a factor in inciting the riots that
inaugurated the Arab Spring.
Q Why might a devout Muslim find some aspects of life

in modern Western society morally unacceptable today?
Presidential elections held in 2004 brought a new hard- by increasing support for terrorist groups in the region
line leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (b. 1956), to power in and calling publicly for the destruction of the state of
Tehran. A new wave of official repression soon ensued. Israel; his government also aroused unease throughout
The new president immediately inflamed the situation the world by proclaiming its determination to develop

a nuclear energy program, ostensibly for peaceful pur- in return for territorial concessions at the head of the
poses. Blessed with the support of the conservative reli- gulf. Five years later, however, the Kurdish revolt had
gious leadership, Ahmadinejad was reelected in 2009, but been suppressed, and President Saddam Hussein, who
worsening economic conditions inside Iran—in part the had assumed power in Baghdad in 1979, began to per-
consequence of a trade embargo enforced by the United secute non-Arab elements in Iraq, including Persians,
States and several other major nations—eroded the gov- Kurds, and the country’s small Christian community. A
ernment’s popularity and led to the victory of a moder- fervent believer in the Ba’athist vision of a single Arab
ate candidate, Hassan Rouhani (b. 1948) in presidential state in the Middle East, Saddam then turned his sights to
elections held in 2013. the east, accusing Iran of violating the territorial agree-
With his election came a sliver of hope that the era of ment and launching an attack on his neighbor. The war
confrontation with Western nations might be brought was a bloody one and lasted nearly ten years; poison gas
to an end, as much of the younger generation appeared was used against civilians, and children were sent out
anxious to end the country’s isolation from the rest of the to clear minefields. Other countries, including the two
world. In 2015, a breakthrough agreement between Iran superpowers, watched nervously in case the conflict
and a coalition of global nations was signed, bringing spread throughout the region. Finally, with both sides
an end to the trade embargo in return for a halt in Iran’s virtually exhausted, a cease-fire was arranged in the fall
nuclear program. But the determination of the country’s of 1988.
religious leadership to spread Iran’s influence throughout
the region appeared undiminished. In retaliation, in 2018 The Vision of Saddam Hussein The bitter conflict with
the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump rein- Iran had not slaked Saddam Hussein’s appetite for territo-
stated its sanctions against Iran, and the issue was at a stale- rial expansion in the form of a Ba’athist state that would
mate once again. Periodic clashes between naval forces of dominate the Middle East. In early August 1990, Iraqi
Iran and Western nations in the Persian Gulf have intro- military forces suddenly moved across the border and
duced the specter of military conflict to the dispute. occupied the small neighboring country of Kuwait at the
head of the gulf. The immediate pretext was the claim
that Kuwait was pumping oil from fields inside Iraqi ter-
15-1e Crisis in the Persian Gulf ritory. Baghdad was also angry over the Kuwaiti govern-
Although much of the public anger was directed against ment’s demand for repayment of loans it had made to
the United States during the early phases of the Iranian Iraq during the war with Iran. But the underlying reason
revolution, Iran had equally hated enemies closer to home. was Iraq’s contention that Kuwait was legally a part of
To the north, the immense power of the Soviet Union, Iraq. Kuwait had been part of the Ottoman Empire until
driven by atheistic communism, was viewed as a modern- the beginning of the twentieth century, when the local
day version of the Russian threat of previous centuries. To prince had agreed to place his patrimony under British
the west was a militant and hostile Iraq, now under the protection. When Iraq became independent in 1932, it
leadership of the ambitious Saddam Hussein (1937–2006). claimed the area on the grounds that the state of Kuwait
Problems from both directions appeared shortly after had been created by British imperialism, but opposition
Khomeini’s rise to power. Soviet military forces occupied from major Western powers and other countries in the
Afghanistan to prop up a weak Marxist regime there. The region, which feared the consequences of a “greater
following year, Iraqi forces suddenly attacked along the Iraq,” prevented an Iraqi takeover.
Iranian border.
Iraq and Iran had long had an uneasy relationship, The Persian Gulf War The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait
fueled by religious differences (Iranian Islam is predomi- sparked an international outcry, and the United States
nantly Shi’ite, while the ruling class in Iraq was Sunni) amassed an international force that liberated the country
and a perennial dispute over borderlands adjacent to the and destroyed a substantial part of Iraq’s armed forces.
Persian Gulf, the vital waterway for the export of oil from But the allied forces did not occupy Baghdad at the end of
both countries (see Map 15.1). Like several of its neigh- the war because allied leaders feared that doing so would
bors, Iraq had long dreamed of unifying the Arabs but had cause a total breakup of the country, an eventuality that
been hindered by internal factions and suspicion among would operate to the benefit of Iran. They hoped instead
its neighbors. that the Hussein regime would be ousted by an internal
During the mid-1970s, Iran gave some support to a revolt. In the meantime, harsh economic sanctions were
Kurdish rebellion in the mountains of Iraq. In 1975, the imposed on the Iraqi government as the condition for
government of the shah agreed to stop aiding the rebels peace. The anticipated overthrow of Saddam Hussein did

not materialize, however, and his UZB Taliban forces have managed to
TU
EK
IST TAJIKI
K STAN
N
tireless efforts to evade the condi- regroup among tribal communi-
RK
AN
CHINA
MEN
tions of the cease-fire continued ties in Afghanistan and continue
ISTAN
to bedevil the administrations to operate in mountainous areas
of Presidents Bill Clinton and Kabul of the country. With the U.S. mili-
Jammu and
George W. Bush. Isl
sllama
a bad ba Kashmir tary presence in the mountainous
AFGHANISTAN
country now stretching almost
two decades, peace talks have
15-1f Turmoil in the been held without success (see
PAKISTAN TA
Middle East New Delhi Map 15.4).
The terrorist attacks launched Emboldened by its initial
against U.S. cities in September INDIA success in evicting the Taliban
2001 added a new dimension to from its dominant position in
the Middle Eastern equation. The 0 500 Kilometers
Afghanistan, the administration
operation had been orchestrated Arabian Sea 0 300 Miles of George W. Bush broadened
by an organization called a l-Qaeda its regional objectives. In March
that, under the leadership of MAP 15.4 Afghanistan
2003, the Bush administration
Osama bin Laden, had begun to ordered U.S.-led forces to occupy
recruit followers from all over the Muslim world with Iraq and topple the Saddam Hussein regime. To justify
the intention of waging terrorist attacks against promi- the action, the White House charged that Iraqi dicta-
nent targets in Europe and the United States. Al-Qaeda’s tor Saddam Hussein had not only provided support to
ultimate objective was to destabilize those governments bin Laden’s terrorist organization but also stockpiled
that—in the eyes of bin Laden and his associates—were weapons of mass destruction for use against his ene-
propping up dictators in the Middle East and weaken- mies. Although the plan was controversial among the
ing the forces of the true faith of Islam (see Historical American public and was opposed by many U.S. allies,
Voices, “I Accuse!” p. 369). administration strategists hoped that the overthrow
of the Iraqi dictator would promote the spread of
Conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq After the failure of the democracy throughout the region. In the months that
Soviet Union to quell the rebellion in Afghanistan during followed, U.S. occupation forces sought to restore stabil-
the 1980s (see Chapter 7), a fundamentalist Muslim group ity to the country while setting out plans to transform
known as the Taliban, which had been supported covertly Iraq into a democratic society. But although Saddam
by the United States during the revolt, seized power in Hussein was captured by U.S. troops and later executed,
Kabul and began to rule the country armed resistance by militant Muslim
with a fanaticism reminiscent of the elements continued, while the new
0 400 Kilometers
Cultural Revolution in China. Backed Iraqi government soon descended
by conservative religious forces in TURKEY 0 200 Miles into turmoil as sectarian clashes took
Pakistan, the Taliban provided a base IRAN place between Sunnis and the major-
of operations for Osama bin Laden’s Mosul ity Shi’ite population.
al-Qaeda terrorist network. After the SYRIA On assuming office in 2009,
attacks of September 11, however, a President Barack Obama promised
coalition of forces led by the United Baghdad
IRAQ to bring about the withdrawal of U.S.
States drove the Taliban out of Kabul Ti gr combat forces from Iraq, while train-
Eup
and attempted to build a new and mod- ing an Iraqi military force capable of
is
ra
JORDAN
h
tes
R.
R.
erate government in Afghanistan. But defeating the remaining insurgents. But
the country’s history of bitter inter- as the final U.S. combat forces departed
SAUDI
necine warfare among tribal groups ARABIA Iraq, the situation inside the country
presented a severe challenge to those KUWAIT
was slow to stabilize as Sunni militants,
efforts, and although al-Qaeda was Predominantly Sunni areas some of them infiltrated from neigh-
dealt a major blow in May 2011 when Predominantly Shi’ite areas boring Syria, unleashed attacks that
Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Predominantly Kurdish areas threatened to undermine the fragile
special operations forces during a raid stability of the Shi’ite-dominated Iraqi
on his hideout in northern Pakistan, MAP 15.5 Iraq regime (see Map 15.5).

False Dawn: The Arab Spring As the wave of unrest threat- restored the autocratic rule practiced by his predecessor
ened to engulf the entire region, popular protests against Hosni Mubarak.
current conditions broke out in several countries in the A bloodier confrontation took place in neighboring
Middle East. Beginning in Tunisia, the riots spread rapidly Libya, where the long-time dictator Muammar Qaddafi was
to Egypt—where they forced the abrupt resignation of long- toppled by a popular revolt with the assistance of NATO
time president Hosni Mubarak (b. 1929)—and then to other air strikes, but a fragile peace has since descended into civil
countries in the region, including Syria, Libya, and Yemen, war. In Yemen, a mountainous state along the southern
where political leaders sought to quell the unrest, often by coast of the Arabian peninsula, bitter fighting between the
violent means. The uprisings (dubbed by pundits the “Arab established Sunni-based government and a rebel Shi’a group
Spring”) aroused hopes around the world that the seeds of known as the Houthi has resulted in thousands of civilian
democracy had been planted in a region long dominated by casualties. The conflict has serious regional implications,
autocratic governments (see Image 15.4). with Saudi Arabia backing the Sunni-based government
It soon became clear that such optimism was drastically forces, while the Houthis—who currently occupy the capital
misplaced, as the unstable conditions led rapidly to the of Sana’a—have received support from their co-religionists
outbreak of civil wars in several countries in the region. In in Iran.
Egypt, a newly elected government under Prime Minister The consequences of spreading violence were most
Mohamed Morsi (1951-2019), a member of the one-time ominous in Syria, where a variety of ethnic groups rose
radical Muslim Brotherhood, antagonized moderates by up in opposition to the minority Shi’ite government led by
seeking to install a strict interpretation of Islamic law, and President Bashir al-Assad (b. 1965). Although some resis-
another round of popular protests led to his overthrow tance forces sought to form a more pluralist society or, like
and a return to military rule. A new government under the Kurds, were struggling to realize their dream of creating
General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has suppressed protest and an independent Kurdistan carved from several neighboring
states, other resistance groups
allied with militants operating
in neighboring Iraq to form
a new terrorist organization,
popularly called the Islamic
State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The goal of the ISIS leader-
ship was to create a caliph-
ate that would rule the entire
region according to the tenets
of fundamentalist Islam. As
ISIS began to seek recruits
among restive Muslims else-
where, terrorist attacks carried
out by its supporters spread
Claudia Wiens/Alamy Stock Photo
rapidly throughout the world.

Meanwhile, casualties resulting
from the civil war within Syria
numbered in the hundreds of
thousands, unleashing a mass
migration of frightened refu-
IMAGE 15.4 Tahrir Square: Ground Zero for the Arab Spring. When popular demonstrations broke gees into continental Europe
out against the regime of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in early 2011, Tahrir Square, (see Image 15.5).
in the heart of the teeming metropolis of Cairo, was at the epicenter of the protests. For Today, the situation
weeks, supporters and opponents of the regime clashed periodically in the square, resulting
throughout the Middle East
in severe casualties. After the overthrow of Mubarak, the square continued to provide a venue
for public protests against the new government of President Mohamed Morsi, leader of the remains unstable, with auto-
Muslim Brotherhood, and when public protests against the latter escalated, the army stepped cratic governments ruling
in to depose President Morsi. with ruthless determination
against restive populations
Q Why were the demonstrations in Tahrir Square not successful in changing the trajectory
of Egyptian politics? suffering under economic

of religious faith. Whereas in
much of the rest of the world,
the center of popular attention
is usually focused on political
or economic issues as some-
times related but ultimately
separate from religious beliefs
and practices, in most coun-
tries of the Middle East, Islam
is at the center of social, politi-
cal, and economic life.
Varieties of
George Ourfalian/Getty Images
15-2a
Government: The
Politics of Islam
When U.S. forces invaded Iraq
in 2003, Bush administration
officials argued that the over-
IMAGE 15.5 The Destruction of Aleppo. One of the most disastrous consequences of the civil
throw of the Saddam Hussein
war in Syria has been its effect on the people living in that war-torn country. With casualties regime would open the door
numbering in the hundreds of thousands, and countless others fleeing for safety abroad, to the spread of democratic
those remaining in ancient cities like Aleppo are caught in the crossfire of tenacious values throughout the region.
opposing forces, as this photograph graphically demonstrates. In the eyes of many seasoned
observers, however, ambitious
underdevelopment, high rates of unemployment, and schemes drafted by outsiders to remake the Middle East
widespread civic unrest. Even countries that have long in the Western image are unrealistic, since Western-style
appeared to be unaffected by the turmoil in the region democratic values are not deeply rooted in the culture
have now caught the virus. Young people in the funda- of the region. Although the popular uprisings that have
mentalist Islamic kingdom of Saudi Arabia—where the taken place in many countries in recent years are a clear
unemployment rate is alarmingly high, especially among sign that the autocratic ways of the past are no longer
the young—have begun to clamor for greater freedom of as effective as they had been in the past, few countries in
thought and action, while in the one-time French possession the Middle East have managed to make the transition to
of Algeria, massive popular demonstrations brought about broad-based pluralistic societies based on the concept of
the resignation of the aging ruler Abdelaziz Bouteflika, equal rights and a peaceful transfer of power. A few Arab
who had presided over a repressive military regime since nations, such as Jordan and the Persian Gulf mini-states
the end of the twentieth century. It is no exaggeration to of Bahrain, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE),
say that the situation in the Middle East is more dangerous have engaged in limited forms of democratic experimen-
than it has been for decades. tation, but they too continue to repress dissident activi-
ties. The Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,
Muhammad bin Salman, has recently declared his inten-
Society and Culture in the
15-2 tion to introduce political reforms in his once-closed
kingdom, but even here, his autocratic tendencies and
Contemporary Middle East brutal suppression of critics raises doubts among many
about his ultimate intentions.
QQ Focus Question: How have religious issues
affected political, economic, and social
Some tolerance for political dissent and religious plu-
ralism appears to prevail in the North African nations
conditions in the Middle East in recent decades? of Tunisia and Morocco. In general, however, Muslim
leaders like ex-President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt usu-
In the Middle East today, all aspects of society and c ulture— ally insist that only authoritarian rule can prevent the
from political and economic issues to literature, art, and spread of civil disorder and Islamic radicalism through-
the role of the family—are intertwined with questions out the region. To some, the recent rise of ISIS in the
15-2 Society and Culture in the Contemporary Middle East ■ 381

aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq has appeared to provoking some observers to charge that they coddled
justify those fears. Middle Eastern dictatorships as a means of preserving access
But is autocracy the only answer, or is it only a band to the vast oil reserves in the region (see Historical Voices,
aid applied to a deep flesh wound? Syria’s Bashar al-Assad “Islam and Democracy,” p. 383). The recent wave of popular
(b. 1965) once remarked that he would tolerate only “posi- unrest initially aroused hopes that a new order awaited in
tive criticism” of his policies. “We have to have our own the wings, but as sectarian conflicts have spread rapidly
democracy to match our history and culture,” he said, “aris- throughout the region, the current signs suggest that this
ing from the needs of our people and our reality.”2 Today, wave of political and social instability is likely to continue for
Assad’s regime is on life support as the result of the series of the indefinite future. Effective democracy relies for its sur-
popular uprisings that have destabilized his country, and the vival on a shared sense of national destiny, and any public
only peace in Syria today is the peace of death. agreement on such issues is in short supply these days.
For many years, the shining exception to the general Certainly there is nothing inherent in the religion of
rule appeared to be Turkey, where—after a long period of Islam that is contrary to democratic principle and prac-
military rule—free elections and the sharing of power had tice. There are no privileged castes or classes recognized in
recently tended to become more prevalent. For decades, Muslim society, and all believers are theoretically equal in
the military had played the dominant role in Turkish poli- the eyes of God. Muslim countries in Southeast Asia like
tics, enforcing Kamal Ataturk’s policy of secularism and Indonesia and Malaysia are obvious testimonials to the
ethnic tolerance with a sometimes iron hand, but in 2007 fact that free elections can take place in Muslim-majority
a Muslim-based political party won peaceful elections countries with a minimum of violence and public dispute.
and took power in the capital of Ankara. The new gov- On the other hand, the treatment of religious minorities in
ernment, under the direction of Prime Minister Recep many states in the Middle East leaves much to be desired,
Erdogan (b. 1954), earned popular support by combining while the position of women remains an obvious affront to
a moderate stance on religious issues with a number of the basic democratic principle of sexual equality.
economic reforms. The crux of the problem, then, appears to lie not in
As time went on, however, Erdogan’s autocratic instincts the Islamic creed itself but in the inherited crust of tradi-
became more in evidence. Official corruption, a pronounced tion that has accompanied its rise to prominence as a world
favoritism to traditional Islam, and the brutal suppression religion. Many Muslim religious figures in the Middle East
of dissenting voices have severely tested the government’s seem intent on enforcing a rigid interpretation of Islam
popularity, which is based primarily in religiously con- that is often based not on scripture but on ancient practice.
servative rural areas on the Asian peninsula of Anatolia. And many politicians in the region appear unwilling to risk
Erdogan—who has now assumed the presidency to per- antagonizing such voices, out of fear of the political con-
petuate his power—appears unfazed by such criticism and sequences. As Islamic societies are buffeted by the coun-
openly promotes the past glories of the Ottoman Empire tervailing winds of globalization and traditional resistance,
as a potential model for a new Turkey. But Erdogan’s tough the fate of the region hangs in the balance.
stance toward his opponents has not always worked to his
benefit. Many of Turkey’s most enterprising people have
left the country, and the economy has been badly damaged 15-2b The Economics of the Middle East:
by the flight of capital toward more secure locations. With Oil and Sand
the population of Turkey bitterly divided and a destructive Few areas exhibit a greater disparity of individual and
civil war in Syria still being waged at its doorstep, it remains national wealth than the Middle East. While millions live
an open question whether Turkey’s recent experiment with in abject poverty, a fortunate few rank among the wealthi-
political pluralism will succeed. est people in the world. The primary reason for this dis-
parity is oil. Unfortunately for most of the peoples of the
Historians Islam and Democracy: Are They region, oil reserves are distributed unevenly and all too
Debate
Compatible? Is it still possible to turn often are located in areas where the population density
Muslim countries like Iraq into democratic nations, as is low (see Map 15.1). Egypt and Turkey, with more than
President George W. Bush and his advisers believed? Or are 75 million inhabitants apiece, have almost no oil reserves.
critics correct that states in which a majority practice the The combined population of Kuwait, the United Arab
Islamic faith are not fertile ground for the establishment of Emirates, and Saudi Arabia is about 45 million people. This
democratic institutions? For many years, most Western gov- disparity in wealth inspired Nasser’s quest for Arab unity
ernments followed the assumption that only a strong pater- but has also posed a major obstacle to that objective, as
nal government could rule effectively in the Middle East, oil-rich states proved unwilling to share the largess that lay

HISTORICAL VOICES
Islam and Democracy

slow, uncertain, and full of traps planted by the world’s
Q How does the author answer the charge that preeminent powers.
democracy and Islam are incompatible? To what The West, in the shape of Britain, France, or America,
degree is the West responsible for the problems of was never interested in democracy when a helpful dicta-
the Middle East? tor or king would serve. When people got a chance to
express their wish, it was only logical that they would ask
for popular rule. It was the street that brought Mosaddeq
Religion & One of George W. Bush’s key objectives
Philosophy to power in Iran and drove the shah of Iran to tearful
in launching the invasion of Iraq in 2003
exile in Rome. Who brought the shah of Iran and autoc-
was to promote the emergence of democratic states
racy back to Iran? The CIA.
throughout the Middle East. According to U.S. officials, one
If Iranian democracy had been permitted a chance in
of the ultimate causes of the formation of terrorist
1953, there would have been no uprising led by Ayatollah
movements in Muslim societies is the prevalence in such
Khomeini in 1979. In other countries, where the struggle
countries of dictatorial governments that do not serve the
for independence was long and brutal, as in Algeria and
interests of their citizens. According to the author of this
Indonesia, the militias who had fought the war institu-
editorial, an Indian Muslim, the problem lies as much with
tionalized army authority. In other instances, civilian
the actions of Western countries as it does with political
heroes confused their own well-being with national
attitudes in the Muslim world.
health. They became regressive dictators. Once again,
there was nothing Islamic about it.
M. J. Akbar, “Linking Islam to Dictatorship” Muslim countries will become democracies, too,
Let us examine a central canard, that Islam and democ- because it is the finest form of modern governance. But it
racy are incompatible. This is an absurdity. There is noth- will be a process interrupted by bloody experience as the
ing Islamic or un-Islamic about democracy. Democracy is street wrenches power from usurpers.
the outcome of a political process, not a religious process. Democracy has happened in Turkey. It has hap-
It is glibly suggested that “every” Muslim country is a pened in Bangladesh. It is happening in Indonesia. It
dictatorship, but the four largest Muslim populations of almost happened in Pakistan, and the opportunity will
the world—in Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, and Turkey— return. Democracy takes time in the most encouraging
vote to change governments. Pakistan could easily have environments.
been on this list. Democracy has become the latest rationale for the
Voting does not make these Muslims less or more reli- occupation of Iraq. . . . Granted, democracy is always
gious. There are dictators among Muslims just as there preferable to tyranny no matter how it comes. But Iraqis
are dictators among Christians, Buddhists, and Hindus are not dupes. They will take democracy and place it at
(check out Nepal). . . . Christian Latin America has seen the service of nationalism. A decade ago, America was
ugly forms of dictatorship, as has Christian Africa. careless about the definition of victory. Today it is care-
What is unique to the Muslim world is not the absence less about the definition of democracy.
of democracy but the fact that in 1918, after the defeat of There is uncertainty and apprehension across the
the Ottoman Empire, every single Muslim in the world Muslim nations: uncertainty about where they stand, and
lived under foreign subjugation. apprehension about both American power and the repug-
Every single one, from Indonesia to Morocco via nant use of terrorism that in turn invites the exercise of
Turkey. The Turks threw out their invaders within a few American power. There is also anger that a legitimate
years under the great leadership of Kemal Atatürk, but cause like that of Palestine can get buried in the debris of
the transition to self-rule in other Muslim countries was confusion. Muslims do not see Palestinians as terrorists.
Source: From M. J. Akbar, “Linking Islam to Dictatorship” in World Press Review, May 2004. Reprinted by permission.

From Rags to Riches in the Middle East

impoverished conditions barely above the means of
Q Which are the wealthiest states in the Middle East? subsistence, a fortunate few possess among the highest
Which are the poorest? standards of living in the entire world. Image 15.6a shows a
shepherd with his donkey and two camels in the Arabian
desert scratching out a living near the coast of Yemen.
Politics & FEW PARTS OF THE WORLD exhibit such a
Government
Image 15.6b shows the skyline of the modern city of Abu
glaring contrast between conditions of wealth
Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
and poverty as the contemporary Middle East. Although
much of the population in the region still lives in
William J. Duiker
William J. Duiker
under their soil (see Comparative Illustration “From Rags population growth, widespread corruption, and a lack of
to Riches in the Middle East,” above). adequate educational and technological skills, all of which
have acted as a drag on economic growth (see Image 15.7).
Economics and Islam The Qur’an provides little guidance One key problem is rural poverty. Arable land is in
to Muslims searching for economic policies appropriate to short supply throughout the region and is often concen-
their faith, although it is clear in its concern for the overall trated in the hands of wealthy absentee landlords. Some
welfare of the community. Thus, it is no surprise that the countries such as Egypt and Iran have adopted ambi-
states of the Middle East have adopted diverse approaches tious land reform programs, although with mixed suc-
to the challenge of developing strong and stable economies. cess. In any case, there are many structural obstacles to
Some, like Nasser in Egypt and the leaders of the Ba’ath rural prosperity, including rapid population growth, low
Party in Syria, were attracted to a form of Arab socialism agricultural productivity, and a lack of water resources.
with a high degree of government intervention in the econ- Much of the Arabian Peninsula is desert, and those
omy to relieve the inequities of the free enterprise system. who inhabit the area—like the lonely shepherd shown
Others have turned to the capitalist model to maximize in the comparative illustration above—are barely able
growth while using taxes or massive development projects to scratch out a livelihood. Agricultural productivity
to build a modern infrastructure, redistribute wealth, and throughout the region has been plagued by a lack of
maintain political stability and economic opportunity for all. water. With populations growing at more than 2 percent
Regardless of the strategy employed, many Middle annually on average in the Middle East (more than 3 per-
Eastern states have been plagued with problems of rapid cent in some countries), several governments have tried
to reduce their migrant popula-
tion. Today migrant workers are a
volatile force in the politics of the
region.
15-2c The Islamic Revival

In recent years, developments in
the Middle East have often been
described in terms of a resurgence
of traditional values and customs
in response to Western influ-
ence. Indeed, some conservative
religious forces in the area have
consciously attempted to replace
foreign culture and values with
Yvonne V. Duiker.
allegedly “pure” Islamic forms of

belief and behavior. Such views
have undoubtedly been a major
IMAGE 15.7 An Unlimited Resource: School Children in Yemen. One of the chief sources of factor in the recent popularity of
political unrest in many Middle Eastern countries is the high level of unemployment, terrorist movements such as al-
especially among the young. Almost one-half of the total population of 30 million people Qaeda and ISIS.
in Yemen today are under the age of 15, and the average Yemeni woman produces
almost five children, one of the highest fertility rates in the world. Tragically, the current
civil war in the country has led to the death by violence or starvation of thousands of Modernist Islam In the early
civilians, certainly a brutal way to control population growth. twentieth century, many Muslim
intellectuals responded to Western
Q Are countries faced with high birth rates and stagnant economies justified in
adopting population control problems, as has been the case in China? influence by trying to create a “mod-
ernized” set of Islamic beliefs and
practices that would not clash with
to increase the amount of water available for irrigation. the demands of the twentieth century. This process was
Many attempts have been sabotaged by government particularly espoused in countries with modernizing lead-
ineptitude, political disagreements, and territorial con- ers like Turkey, Egypt, and Iran. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
flicts, however. For example, disputes between Israel embraced the strategy when he attempted to secularize
and its neighbors over water rights and between Iraq the Islamic religion in the new Turkish republic (see Image
and its neighbors over the exploitation of the Tigris and 15.8). The Turkish model was followed by Shah Reza Khan
Euphrates Rivers have caused serious tensions in recent and his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in Iran and then by
years. Today, the dearth of water in the region is reach- Nasser in postwar Egypt, all of whom attempted to honor
ing crisis proportions. Islamic values while asserting the primacy of other issues
Emigration to the cities has not been a panacea, as few such as political and economic development. Religion, in
Middle Eastern leaders have managed to adopt policies effect, had become the handmaiden of political power,
calculated to place their country on a path of sustained national identity, and economic prosperity.
economic growth. Another way that governments have These secularizing trends were particularly noticeable
attempted to deal with rapid population growth is to among the political, intellectual, and economic elites in
encourage emigration. Oil-producing states with small urban areas. They had less influence in the countryside,
populations, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab among the poor, and among devout elements within
Emirates, have imported labor from other countries in the clergy. Many Muslim clerics believed that Western
the region, mostly to work in the oil fields. Since the influence in the cities had given birth to political and
mid-1980s, the majority of the population in those states economic corruption, sexual promiscuity, hedonism,
has been composed of foreign nationals, who often send individualism, and the prevalence of alcohol, pornogra-
the bulk of their salaries back to their families in their phy, and drugs. Although such practices had long existed
home countries. When oil revenues declined in the 1980s in the Middle East, they were now far more visible and
and 1990s, however, several governments took measures socially acceptable.
a campaign of terrorism against
moderates that claimed thousands
of lives. A similar trend emerged
in Egypt, where militant groups
such as the Muslim Brotherhood
engaged in terrorism, including
the assassination of President
Anwar al-Sadat and attacks on for-
eign tourists, who are considered
carriers of corrupt Western influ-
ence. Military rule over both coun-
tries has been justified by the fear
of a recurrence of the civil unrest.
Even in Turkey, generally con-
sidered the most secular of Islamic
societies, the victory of the Islamic
Justice and Development Party
William J. Duiker
(AKP) in recent elections has led

to efforts on their part to guaran-
tee the rights of devout Muslims
to display their faith publicly. Such
IMAGE 15.8 Santa Sophia: Symbol of Religious Tolerance in Turkey. The Church of Holy policies have opened a growing
Wisdom (Hagia Sofia in Greek) was built by the sixth-century Byzantine Emperor divide between secular elements
Justinian in the center of his capital of Constantinople to proclaim the glories of
Christianity throughout the eastern Mediterranean. After the fall of the Byzantine empire
among the middle class and more
in 1453, the Ottomans turned the magnificent church into a mosque, but Kemal traditionalist forces in the coun-
Ataturk, modern Turkey’s first president, ordered that it be made a museum to symbolize tryside that represent the base
his country’s recent embrace of secular governance. Visitors today are awestruck by the of President Erdogan’s political
magnificent Christian mosaics in the interior, which vie for attention with gigantic discs authority.
in gilded Arab script praising the glories of Allah.
The shift from secularism to
Q Do you believe that a constitutional provision to guarantee the separation of church
and state is desirable in all countries that seek to govern by democratic means?
fundamentalist Islam has had a
perceptible influence within the
region. The Erdogan government
Return to Tradition Reaction among conservatives has adopted a pro-Arab stance in foreign affairs, while
against the modernist movement in the Middle East gradu- threatening to reduce the country’s economic and politi-
ally built up after World War II and reached its zenith in cal ties to Europe and the United States. Worried moder-
the late 1970s with the return of the Ayatollah Khomeini ates increasingly voice concern that the secular legacy of
to Iran. It is not surprising that Iran took the lead in light Kemal Atatürk was being eroded, but an abortive coup
of its long tradition of ideological purity within the Shi’ite d’etat led to the arrest of many of Erdogan’s enemies in
sect as well as the uncompromisingly secular character government and the professions and an effort to silence
of the shah’s reforms in the postwar era. Over forty years critical voices in the media.
later, key elements within the Iranian political and reli-
gious leadership continue to enforce traditional Islamic
customs and beliefs despite a growing counter-reaction 15-2d Women in the Middle East
from among the younger generation, many of whom are Nowhere have the fault lines between tradition and
increasingly drawn to the glittering Western lifestyle they modernity in the Middle East been so sharp as in the ongo-
see on social media. ing debate over the role of women in a Muslim society. At
The cultural and social effects of the Iranian Revolution the beginning of the twentieth century, women’s place in
soon began to spread. In Algeria, the political influence of Middle Eastern society had changed little since the death
fundamentalist Islamic groups enabled them to win a stun- of the prophet Muhammad. Women were secluded in
ning victory in the national elections in 1992. When the their homes and had few legal, political, or social rights.
military stepped in to cancel the second round of elections During the first decades of the twentieth century, advo-
and crack down on the militants, the latter responded with cates of modernist views began to contend that Islamic

doctrine was not inherently opposed to women’s rights. as to attend soccer matches in public in 2017. That dra-
To modernists, Islamic traditions such as female seclu- matic change in policy seems to reflect the determination
sion, wearing the veil, and polygamy were actually pre- of the kingdom’s new ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed
Islamic folk traditions that had been tolerated in the early bin Salman (b. 1985) to bring his country into the mod-
Islamic era and continued to be practiced in later centu- ern world. Once granted, rights are difficult to suppress,
ries. Such views had a considerable impact on a number and women in Saudi Arabia today continue their efforts
of Middle Eastern societies, including Turkey and Iran. As to obtain full civil rights equal to those possessed by their
we have seen, greater rights for women were a crucial ele- male counterparts.
ment in the social revolution promoted by Kemal Atatürk
in Turkey. In Iran, Shah Reza Khan and his son granted
female suffrage and encouraged the education of women. 15-2e Literature and Art
In Egypt, a vocal feminist movement arose in educated As in other areas of Asia and Africa, the encounter with the
women’s circles in Cairo as early as the 1920s. With the West in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries stimulated
exception of Orthodox religious communities, women a cultural renaissance in the Middle East. Muslim authors
in Israel have achieved substantial equality with men and translated Western works into Arabic and Persian and
are active in politics, the professions, and even the armed began to experiment with new literary forms.
forces. Golda Meir (1898–1978), prime minister of Israel
from 1969 to 1974, became an international symbol of the National Literatures Since World War II, Iranian litera-
ability of women to be world leaders. ture has been hampered somewhat by political consider-
In recent years, a more traditional view of women’s ations, since it has been expected to serve first the Pahlavi
role has tended to prevail in many Middle Eastern coun- monarchy and then the Islamic republic. Nevertheless,
tries. Attacks by religious conservatives on the growing Iran has produced one of the most prominent national lit-
role of women contributed to the emotions underly- eratures in the contemporary Middle East.
ing the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Iranian women were Despite the male-oriented nature of Iranian society,
instructed to wear the veil and to dress modestly in public. many of the new writers are women. Since the revolu-
Films produced in post-revolutionary Iran rarely featured tion, the veil and the chador, an all-enveloping cloak, have
women, and when they did, physical contact between men become the central metaphor in Iranian women’s writ-
and women was prohibited. The events in Iran had reper- ing. Advocates praise these garments as the last bastion of
cussions in secular Muslim societies such as Egypt, Turkey, defense against Western cultural imperialism and the cou-
and far-off Malaysia, where women began to dress more rageous woman’s weapon against Western efforts to domi-
modestly in public and criticism of open sexuality in the nate the Iranian soul. Behind the veil, the Islamic woman
media became increasingly frequent. can breathe freely, unpolluted by foreign exploitation and
Still, women’s rights have been extended in a few coun- moral corruption. Other Iranian women, however, con-
tries. In 1999, women obtained the right to vote in Kuwait, sider the veil and chador a “mobile prison” or an oppressive
and they have been granted an equal right with their hus- anachronism from the Dark Ages. A few use the pen as
bands to seek a divorce in Egypt. In Iran, women have a weapon in a crusade to liberate their sisters and enable
many freedoms that they lacked before the twentieth cen- them to make their own choices. As one writer, Sousan
tury; for example, they can receive military training, vote, Azadi, expressed it, “As I pulled the chador over me, I felt a
practice birth control, and publish fiction. Most important, heaviness descending over me. I was hidden and in hiding.
today nearly 60 percent of university entrants in Iran are There was nothing visible left of Sousan Azadi.”3
women. Like Iran, Egypt in the twentieth century experienced a
The most conservative nation with respect to social flowering of literature accelerated by the establishment of
relations in the Middle East has long been Saudi Arabia the Egyptian republic in the early 1950s. The most illustri-
where, following Wahhabi tradition, women have not only ous contemporary Egyptian writer was Naguib Mahfouz
been segregated and expected to wear the veil in public but (1911–2006), who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in
also restricted in education and employment and forbid- 1988. His Cairo Trilogy (1952) chronicles three generations
den to drive automobiles (see Historical Voices, “Keeping of a merchant family in Cairo during the tumultuous years
the Camel Out of the Tent,” p. 388). Even there, however, between the world wars. Mahfouz was particularly adept
there are tantalizing signs that change is in the air. In recent at blending panoramic historical events with the intimate
years, laws restricting women’s right to work in commer- lives of ordinary human beings. Unlike many other mod-
cial establishments have been loosened, and women have ern writers, his message was essentially optimistic and
been given formal permission to drive vehicles as well reflected his hope that religion and science could work

HISTORICAL VOICES
Keeping the Camel Out of the Tent

having to contaminate themselves by being seen by him.
Q According to Geraldine Brooks, do women in Saudi When the first dozen women graduated from university
Arabia have an opportunity to receive an education? in 1973, they were devastated to find that their names
To what degree do they take advantage of it? hadn’t been printed on the commencement program.
The old tradition, that it dishonors women to mention
“ALMIGHTY GOD CREATED SEXUAL DESIRE in them, was depriving them of recognition they believed
Family &
Society ten parts; then he gave nine parts to women they’d earned. The women and their families protested,
and one to men.” So pronounced Ali, Muhammad’s son-in- so a separate program was printed and a segregated
law, as he explained why women are held morally graduation ceremony was held for the students’ female
responsible as the instigators of sexual intercourse. relatives. . . .
Consequently, over the centuries, Islamic women have been But while the opening of women’s universities wid-
secluded, veiled, and in many cases genitally mutilated in ened access to higher learning for women, it also made
order to safeguard male virtue. Women are forbidden to look the educational experience much shallower. Before 1962,
directly at, speak to, or touch a man prior to marriage. Even many progressive Saudi families had sent their daughters
today, they are often sequestered at home or limited to abroad for education. They had returned to the kingdom
strictly segregated areas away from all male contact. Women not only with a degree but with experience of the outside
normally pray at home or in an enclosed antechamber of the world. . . . Now a whole generation of Saudi women have
mosque so that their physical presence will not disturb completed their education entirely within the country. . . .
men’s spiritual concentration. Lack of opportunity for education abroad means that
Especially limiting today are the laws governing women’s Saudi women are trapped in the confines of an education
behavior in Saudi Arabia. Schooling for girls has never system that still lags men’s. Subjects such as geology and
been compulsory because fathers believe that “educating petroleum engineering—tickets to influential jobs in Saudi
women is like allowing the nose of the camel into the tent; Arabia’s oil economy—remain closed to women. . . . Few
eventually the beast will edge in and take up all the room women’s colleges have their own libraries, and libraries
inside.” The country did not establish its first girls’ school shared with men’s schools are either entirely off limits to
until 1956. The following description of Saudi women is women or open to them only one day per week. . . .
from Nine Parts Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women But women and men sit for the same degree exami-
by the journalist Geraldine Brooks. nations. Professors quietly acknowledge the women’s
scores routinely outstrip the men’s. “It’s no surprise,”
Geraldine Brooks, Nine Parts Desire said one woman professor. “Look at their lives. The boys
Women were first admitted to university in Saudi Arabia have their cars, they can spend the evenings cruising the
in 1962, and all women’s colleges remain strictly segre- streets with their friends, sitting in cafés, buying black-
gated. Lecture rooms come equipped with closed-circuit market alcohol and drinking all night. What do the girls
TVs and telephones, so women students can listen to have? Four walls and their books. For them, education is
a male professor and question him by phone, without everything.”
Source: From Nine Parts Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women, by Geraldine Brooks (Doubleday, 1996).
together for the overall betterment of humankind. One he expressed criticism of restoration of the autocratic,
of the most popular contemporary authors presents a and has been prosecuted for his comments. No woman
more pessimistic view. In The Yacoubian Building, Alaa writer has played a more active role in exposing the physi-
al-Aswany (b. 1957) deplored the problems of political cor- cal and psychological grievances of Egyptian women than
ruption and religious fundamentalism that plagued Egypt Nawal el-Saadawi (b. 1931). For decades, she has battled
under Mubarak’s regime. After the arrest of demonstra- against the injustices of religious fundamentalism and a
tors who had taken part in the uprising in Tahrir square, male-dominated society—even enduring imprisonment
for promoting her cause. In 1982 she established the Arab Some contemporary Israeli authors, however, have
Women’s Solidarity Association, which promotes the cause taken controversial positions on sensitive national issues.
of women in society and politics, and is still in operation Their works address the difficulties of the Israeli situation
today. In Two Women in One (1985), el-Saadawi follows the as well as the bitterness of Palestinians living under Israeli
struggle of a young university student as she rebels against occupation. In his extraordinary novel, To the End of the
the life her father has programmed for her, striking out Land (2010), David Grossman (b. 1954) weaves together the
instead on an unchartered independent destiny. daily joys and sorrows of an ordinary Israeli family with
The emergence of a modern Turkish literature can the constant undercurrent of conflict and loss. Having lost
be traced to the establishment of the republic in 1923. his own son in battle in 2006, Grossman has been labeled
The most popular contemporary writer is Orhan Pamuk by some the moral conscience of his country. With the
(b. 1952), whose novels attempt to capture Turkey’s unique Arabs feeling victimized by colonialism and the Jews by
blend of cultures. “I am living in a culture,” he writes, Nazi Germany, each side believes that it alone is the right-
“where the clash of East and West, or the harmony of East ful proprietor of ancient Palestine.
and West, is the lifestyle. That is Turkey.”4 His novel Snow
(2002) dramatizes the conflict between secularism and rad- Music Popular music in the contemporary Middle East
ical Islam in contemporary Turkey. Pamuk was awarded reflects worldwide trends because it blends global and
the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006. local musical elements. Hip-hop is especially popular
The current turmoil in the Middle East has been because it allows the disadvantaged to express their griev-
explored by a number of writers from the region. Mohsin ances and yearnings in hypnotic rhymes and rhythms. In
Hamid (b. 1971), a Pakistani author, has explored recent Israel, some groups rely on the shock value of their music
global issues in his two novels The Reluctant Fundamentalist to pillory the country’s political and social shibboleths.
(2007) and Exit West (2017). In the latter, he encapsulates Palestinian hip-hop projects the despair and rage of the
the forced emigration of millions of refugees forced to performers as they portray the misery and futility of their
flee their homes because of war or environmental degra- everyday lives. In “Sham put the soul in the 47,” the widely
dation. Hamid then describes their brave struggle to adapt popular group Sham has recently lauded the Palestinian
to a foreign culture in exile. resistance fighters who resisted the establishment of the
Although Israeli literature arises from a totally different state of Israel in 1948.
tradition from that of its neighbors, it shares with them As the shockwaves from the Arab Spring spread from
certain contemporary characteristics and a concern for Tunisia and Egypt throughout the region, many other per-
ordinary human beings. Early writers identified with the formers were inspired to use their music for openly politi-
aspirations of the new nation, trying to find a sense of cal purposes. One song, entitled “Come on Bashar, Leave,”
order in the new reality, voicing terrors from the past and became popular as a rallying cry for dissidents during the
hopes for the future. civil war in Syria.
making connections
The Middle East is one of the most unstable regions in the of a broader Islamic community, a dream that dates back to
world today. This turbulence is due in part to the contin- the time of the Prophet Muhammad. Although the motives
ued interference of outsiders attracted by the massive oil for seeking that Arab unity are sometimes self-serving—two
reserves under the Arabian peninsula and the Persian Gulf. such examples are Nasser and Saddam Hussein—there is no
Outside interference has underlined the humiliating weak- doubt that the sentiment is widespread within the popula-
ness of Muslim nations in their relationship with the West, tion and has fueled the recent support for ISIS, whose stated
and also identified Western policy toward the Middle East objective is to produce a caliphate that will erase national
with unpopular dictators in the region. boundaries throughout the region.
But internal factors are equally if not more important in Another reason for the current unrest in the Middle East
provoking the chronic turmoil in the region. One divisive is the intense debate over the role of religion in civil society.
issue is the tug-of-war between the sense of ethnic identity Muslims, of course, are not alone in believing that a purer
in the form of nationalism and the intense longing to be part form of religious faith is the best antidote for such social

evils as hedonism, sexual license, and political corruption. economies and the emergence of a deep-seated sense of
But it is hard to deny that the issue has been pursued with anger and frustration, especially among the young, that is
more anger and passion in the Middle East than in almost surging through the Islamic world today, a sense of resent-
any other part of the world. In fact, many Muslim societ- ment that is directed as much at the region’s internal lead-
ies in the region have yet to accept the reality of a world ership as at allegedly hostile forces in the West. Today, the
characterized by dramatic social and technological change. world is reaping the harvest of that bitterness, and the con-
One of the consequences of such a view is stagnant sequences cannot yet be foreseen.
QQWhy does the Middle East appear to be one of the QQWhy do you think religious and ethnic issues play
most unstable and conflict-ridden regions in the world such a significant role in provoking conflict in the
today? What historical factors might help explain this Middle East today? How do such issues contribute to the
phenomenon? popularity of radical terrorist organizations in the region?
QQWhat are some of the key reasons advanced to QQDo you feel that U.S. policies in the Middle East
explain why democratic institutions have been slow to contributed to the rise of al-Qaeda and other terrorist
take root in the Middle East? groups in recent years?
CHAPTER Timeline
1955 1965 1975 1985 1995 2005 2015 2025
Middle East
Egypt nationalizes First oil Iranian Revolution Iraqi invasion U.S. invasion of Iraq Protests erupt
the Suez Canal crisis (1979) of Kuwait (2003) throughout
(1956) (1973) (1991) Middle East
(2011)
Formation of the Wars between Israel Camp David accords Moderates gain Ahmadinejad as Civil War
state of Israel and Egypt and other (1978) political influence in Iran president of Iran in Syria
(1948) Arab states (1997–2000) (2005–2013) (2015–present)
(1967–1973)
Founding of the Palestine Election of Era of

Liberation Organization Hamas in Netanyahu
(1964) Palestine in Israel
(2006) (2009–present)
Chapter Notes
1. Quoted in R. R. Andersen, R. F. Seibert, and J. G. 3. Sousan Azadi, with Angela Ferrante, Out of Iran
Wagner, Politics and Change in the Middle East: Sources of (London, 1987), p. 223, quoted in Stories by Iranian
Conflict and Accommodation, 4th ed. (Englewood Cliffs, Women Since the Revolution, ed. S. Sullivan (Austin, Tex.,
N.J., 1982), p. 51. 1991), p. 13.
2. Susan Sachs, “Assad Looks at Syria’s Economy in 4. Brian Lavery, “In the Thick of Change Where
Inaugural Talks,” New York Times, July 18, 2000. Continents Meet,” New York Times, August 27, 2003.

Par t I V
reflections
IN THE ATLANTIC CHARTER, issued after their meeting near development. For them, the example set by the Soviet
the coast of Newfoundland in August 1941, Franklin Union, or by China, would be the path to follow.
Roosevelt and Winston Churchill set forth a joint It did not take long for reality to set in, as most of
declaration of their peace aims calling for the self- the new governments in Asia and Africa quickly fell well
determination of all peoples and self-government and short of their ambitious goals. Virtually all remained
sovereign rights for all nations that had been deprived of economically dependent on the advanced industrial
them. Although Churchill later disavowed the assump- nations. Several faced severe problems of urban and
tion that he had meant these conditions to apply to rural poverty. Fledgling democratic governments soon
colonial areas, Roosevelt on frequent occasions during proved ineffective and
the war voiced his own intention to bring about the were gradually replaced
end of colonial domination throughout the world at the by military dictatorships
close of the conflict. In his mind, Churchill’s nostalgia or one-party regimes that
for the past glories of the British Empire could safely dismantled representative
be ignored. institutions and oppressed
It took many years to complete the process, but the dissident elements and
promise contained in the Atlantic Charter to bring an ethnic minorities within
end to the colonial era was eventually fulfilled. Although their borders. Only in a few
some powers were reluctant to divest themselves of cases—notably with Japan
their colonies, World War II had severely undermined and the Little Tigers—were many of the initial aspira-
the stability of the colonial order, and by the end of tions actually fulfilled.
the 1940s, most colonies in Asia had received their THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT What had happened to
independence. Africa followed a decade or two later. tarnish the bright dreams of the post-colonial lead-
In a few instances—notably in Algeria, Indonesia, and ers for material affluence, national unity, and political
Vietnam—the transition to independence was a violent self-determination? During the 1950s and 1960s, one
one, but for the most part, it was realized by peaceful school of thought was dominant among scholars and
means. government officials in the United States as they con-
THREE WISHES What did the leaders of these new templated the challenge of preventing a Communist
nations hope to achieve, now that they had the oppor- takeover of the Third World. Advocates of modernization
tunity? Based on their writings, their speeches, and theory, as it was known, believed that the political and
especially their actions, it seems that they harbored economic problems faced by the newly independent
three broad goals at the outset of independence: to countries were a consequence of the difficult transition
throw off the shackles of Western economic domination from a traditional agrarian to a modern industrial soci-
and ensure material prosperity for all their citizens; to ety. Although they expected most newly independent
introduce new political institutions that would enhance countries in Asia and Africa to follow a path toward the
the right of self-determination of their peoples; and to creation of modern industrial societies on the capital-
develop a sense of nationhood and establish secure ist model, they would need both time and substantial
territorial boundaries. How did they choose to get amounts of economic and technological assistance to
there? Not surprisingly, given their background and complete the journey. It was the duty of the United
experience, most of them opted to follow a capitalist States and other advanced capitalist nations to pro-
or moderately socialist path toward economic develop- vide such assistance while encouraging the leaders of
ment. Only in a few cases—North Korea and Vietnam these states to follow the path already adopted by the
being the most notable examples—did revolutionary West. In cases where Communist meddling threatened
leaders decide to pursue the Communist model of to derail the process, direct intervention—political and
Part IV Reflections ■ 391

even military—was justified to keep the process of on peaceful economic development. With the decline
modernization on track. in ideological tensions and in great power rivalry, the
As it turned out, modernization theory had only nations of Asia and Africa could shift their attention to
limited success in the practical arena (Vietnam was more practical concerns about achieving political sta-
a prime example of its limitations), and it soon came bility, promoting economic development, and enacting
under attack from a younger generation of revisionist social reforms to improve the lives of their citizens. As
scholars, many of whom had reached maturity dur- we have seen in the chapters above, some states have
ing the Vietnam War and who argued that the prime made substantial progress in what was once described
responsibility for continued political unrest and eco- as “modernizing” their societies. Where Japan and the
nomic underdevelopment in the developing world lay Little Tigers were the first, other nations eventually
not with the new countries themselves but with their began to follow, although in many cases the progress
continued domination by the former colonial powers. was uneven. In much of South and Southeast Asia, a
In this view, known as dependency theory, the coun- peaceful transition of power is now the general rule
tries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America were the victims for governments, and the standard of living has been
of the international marketplace, which charged high improving steadily, although there are still pockets of
prices for the manufactured goods of the West while extreme poverty in some areas. Clashes over ethnic and
paying low prices for the raw material exports of prein- religious issues still occur with regularity in a number
dustrial countries. Efforts by these countries to build of countries, but territorial conflicts between neighbor-
up their own industrial sectors and move into the stage ing nations have declined simultaneously as a sense of
of self-sustaining growth were hampered because many nationhood generally prevails.
of their resources were still controlled by European One of the most dramatic and momentous transfor-
and American corporations. To end this “neocolonial” mations that has taken place in Asia is in China. Once
relationship, dependency a predominantly rural country with wide areas of poverty
theory advocates argued, and rural illiteracy, China today is an advanced indus-
developing societies should trial power and has taken its place at the forefront of
reduce their economic ties the technological revolution now sweeping across the
with the West and adopt a world. With its increasingly affluent middle class and its
policy of economic self-re hard-working and relatively well-educated labor force, it
liance, thereby taking con- is a vital component driving the globalization process.
trol of their own destinies. On the other hand, Beijing’s single-minded commit-
ment to achieving national “wealth and power,” car-
FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE Either way, it was clear ried out under the direction of an exclusive ideological
that most newly independent African and Asian coun- elite with seemingly limitless power poses an existential
tries faced severe challenges in forging political and challenge to its competitors in a multipolar world.
economic policies responsive to their citizens’ needs.
And it was also evident that a one-size-fits-all approach OBSTACLES TO CHANGE IN AFRICA AND THE
was not the answer. A few countries had adapted rap- MIDDLE EAST Not all the important regions of the
idly to the changing environment and entered a stage world have shared in the general trend toward politi-
of political stability and sustaining economic growth, cal stability and socio-economic progress. In the con-
but many others had not. temporary Middle East, protracted ethnic and religious
In 1991, the Cold War suddenly came to an end. unrest has resulted in chronic economic underdevelop-
The Soviet Union disintegrated into multiple indepen- ment and an almost constant state of civil conflict. In
dent nations, while China abandoned its emphasis on Africa, widespread poverty and a political culture char-
“people’s war” and embraced a new strategy based acterized by endemic corruption and mismanagement
392 ■ Part IV Reflections

have undermined the continent’s effort to carry out they made few contributions
measures to build a modern manufacturing industry to the broader society.
and take an active part in the technological revolution. In premodern times,
Why have the nations of Africa and the Middle Europe was a patriarchal
East experienced greater difficulties in taking an society, but with the advent
active part in the global transformation that is occur- of the Industrial Revolution
ring elsewhere in the world? A couple of salient issues the role of women gradually
are perhaps worthy of particular attention here. As we began to change, and today
have seen above, in the Middle East, religious tradi- women in Western countries have reached a point
tion has been a powerful barrier to political, economic, where they can, if they wish, play almost any role in
and social change. Social practices that prevailed in society that is open to a man. While many still experi-
nomadic communities during the pre-Islamic era are ence cultural, religious, or political resistance to their
still promoted as the only proper standard for contem- expanding role, women in Western societies today are
porary behavior. Even Muslim countries located thou- active, and often prominent, in such important fields
sands of miles away from the Middle East have not as politics, education, business, law, and the arts. And
been immune to such teachings, which are promoted Western society is the better for it.
in local madrasas by puritanical Wahhabi instructors In many Asian countries, women’s role in society
imported from Saudi Arabia. Many politicians and gov- has steadily expanded in recent years. Although women
ernment officials are undoubtedly skeptical that such still confront persistent obstacles to advancement,
mores have relevance in the modern world but, fearful their position has improved as these nations enter the
of provoking a violent public reaction, they are often ranks of advanced industrial societies. China, the new
intimidated against announcing their opposition. superpower, was traditionally a highly patriarchal soci-
In sub-Saharan Africa, one key factor that may have ety, and in some respects it still is. But Chinese lead-
hindered the capacity of the region to adapt quickly ers have come to recognize the importance of women
to the rapid pace of global change may have been its in participating in the process of building a modern
ethnic and linguistic diversity, which undoubtedly hin- nation. Even the Communist leader Mao Zedong, an
dered the ability of the African peoples to effectively outright chauvinist in his personal behavior, conceded
counter the Western onslaught and ultimately led to the as much when he quoted a Chinese proverb to the effect
particularly rapacious character of the colonial enter- that women “make up half the sky.” While women con-
prise there. Even today, half a century after the end of tinue to suffer from many disadvantages in China, they
formal colonial rule, much of the continent of Africa is have begun to play a significant role in the economy,
still locked into an unequal relationship with the former notably as workers in factories, much as female silk
colonial powers, a relationship which has been exacer- workers in Japan helped to fuel the Meiji revolution
bated by the rapid pace of technological change that in the nineteenth century. The much-criticized “one
has been taking place elsewhere in recent years. child per family” policy set the stage for the process
by enabling Chinese women to leave the home and
HALF THE SKY One of the most important signposts seek employment in the workplace. China’s future suc-
that helps us to determine the success of a particular cess in emerging as one of the world’s most advanced
country or a region in coping with the challenges of nations is largely dependent upon its capacity to rec-
global change is in how it defines the proper role of the ognize the important role that women can play in all
sexes in society. In most traditional societies, the sole aspects of government and society.
responsibility of a woman was to be a proper daughter, In the Middle East and Africa, women are begin-
wife, and mother. Women’s activities were restricted ning to knock on the door to demand equality, but to
to the home, and outside of educating their children, a large extent have not yet been admitted. In much
Part IV Reflections ■ 393

of the Middle East, many traditional limitations still changes taking place in the world today? Future trends
apply. Women are not even equal in the mosque, where remain difficult to predict, since the impact of global-
they are assigned a separate room for prayer so that ization simultaneously provokes both rapid change and
they will not present a temptation to the male worship- bitter resistance. Like the advanced industrial regions
per. Their prospects are measurably better in Africa, in Europe and the Western hemisphere, they will need to
since the obstacles there are founded not on religion, learn how to maximize the opportunities of global change
but on custom. Even there, women have traditionally while minimizing its disruptive effects on society. The
been active in commerce, and have been honored as wild card in the deck is the potential impact of climate
educators and storytellers for generations. Their role change, which almost inevitably will affect many of the
in society will undoubtedly expand as the continent political, economic, and social realities that we take
seeks to adjust to the rapidly changing conditions that for granted today. Many areas of Asia and Africa have
characterize our present age. already been seriously affected by climate change, and
the consequences have had global repercussions. We
GLOBALIZATION AND TRADITION How will the will deal with this important issue in the final chapter
nations of Asia and Africa be affected by the dramatic of the book.
394 ■ Part IV Reflections

Pa r t V
The New Millennium

16 The Challenge of a New Millennium
William J. Duiker
The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain
Chapter
The Challenge of a New
16 Millennium
Chapter Outline and

Focus Questions
16-1 After the Cold War: The Revenge of History
QQWhy did the end of the Cold War not lead to the
“new world order” that many observers at the
time anticipated?
16-2 C
ontemporary Capitalism and Its
Discontents
QQBased on the conditions that exist around the
world today, do you believe that capitalism is the
best economic system for improving the lives
AP Images/Carmen Taylor
of human populations? Are there ways in which
capitalism should be changed to improve its
performance?
16-3 F rom the Industrial to the Technological

Revolution IMAGE 16.1 Terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York
QQIn what ways is technology having an effect on City, September 11, 2001
economic systems around the world today? On
balance, do you believe that new technology 16-7 The Arts: Mirror of the Age
should be adopted whenever it can improve QQHow do the current trends in the art world reflect
productivity in a particular branch of the economy the age that we live in today?
even at the possible cost of jobs?
16-4 Democracy in Crisis
QQWhat are some of the reasons for the attacks on
liberal democratic systems and values that are Do you believe that the system of liberal democracy
taking place around the world today? What do that exists in the continent of Europe and much of
these attacks have in common? the Western Hemisphere is capable of resolving the
problems that are discussed in this chapter? What
16-5 A
Transvaluation of Values: Social Change
changes would you suggest to improve the system
in the Technological Era to make it more effective?
QQHow have social institutions and values been
affected by the dramatic changes taking place in
the world today?
ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001, two commercial airliners
16-6 One World, One Environment skyjacked by Islamic terrorists slammed into the
QQHow persuasive to you is the warning by many twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York
climate scientists that human action is at least City (see Image 16.1). Another struck a side wall
partly responsible for global warming? of the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C. A fourth
396
crashed in a field in central Pennsylvania. These Today, more than two decades later, they have taken on
heinous attacks ushered in a new era for the United even greater relevance as the world faces the future with
States—and for the world at large. The Cold War had ever-increasing concern and trepidation.
ended a decade earlier, encouraging prognosticators
to predict the advent of a new world order marked by
global peace and prosperity. But the fallout from the
stunning attacks on the power centers of the United
States, along with the unleashing of two new wars 16-1After the Cold War:
in the Middle East and President George W. Bush’s
declaration of a global “war on terror,” aroused new The Revenge of History
questions and anxieties about the future. Would the
new century introduce an era of international peace
and relative stability, such as had occurred after the
end of the Napoleonic wars in nineteenth-century
QQ Focus Question: Why did the end of the Cold
War not lead to the “new world order” that
many observers at the time anticipated?
Europe? Or would the end of the Cold War signal the
rise of a new spirit of rivalry and national competitive-
ness, leading to destructive wars reminiscent of the With the end of superpower rivalry and the collapse
last century? Would the dramatic expansion of trade of the Soviet Union in 1991, the attention of the world
among nations lead to global prosperity and material shifted to the new post-Cold War era. For many observ-
accumulation, or would the Technological Revolution ers, the prognosis was excellent. George H. W. Bush, the
already under way lead to the kinds of political, U.S. president at the time, looked forward to a new era
social, and cultural ferment that had characterized of peace and international cooperation that he labeled the
the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century? “new world order,” while pundits predicted the advent of
Certainly, at the turn of the century there were a new “American century,” marked by the victory of liberal
sufficient grounds to adopt any or all of these points democratic values and free enterprise capitalism.
of view. As the new millennium dawned, the United
The wave of optimism that accompanied the end of
States bestrode the world like a colossus, unchallenged
in its military and economic might and sufficiently
the Cold War was all too brief. After a short period of
confident in its destiny to play the role of global police- euphoria, it soon became clear that forces were now being
man. Yet there were already disquieting signs—in released that had long been held in check by the ideologi-
the form of ethnic and religious clashes in Eastern cal rigidities of the Cold War. The era of conflict that had
Europe, the Middle East, and Africa—that the vision of characterized much of the twentieth century was not at an
a new era of peace and stability might turn out to be end; it was simply taking a different form. In effect, the ide-
a mirage. By the same token, the expansion of world ological issues that had defined the Cold War were being
trade was already beginning to produce victims as well replaced by a series of ethnic or national disputes that were
as beneficiaries, and competition among nations over reminiscent of those that had taken place during the first
access to crucial resources was beginning to intensify. half of that turbulent century.
Globalization, like the Industrial Revolution of an earlier
The first major eruption took place in a familiar venue:
age, was not a tide that lifted all boats.
In the meantime, other issues—some of them
the Balkans, where the Yugoslavian Federation—long held
virtually ignored by world leaders during the era of together by the transcendent personality of Marshal Tito—
the Cold War—were increasingly in need of atten- broke apart in a bitter conflict that has yet to be finally
tion. Environmental degradation, rapid population resolved. An even more dangerous arena of discord exhib-
growth, and the projected shortage of many precious ited familiar signs of turmoil: in the Middle East, where
natural resources, including liquid energy and fresh historical ethnic and religious animosities spread rapidly
water, were now widely viewed as serious threats to throughout the region and culminated in the outbreak of
the future success of the human experiment. And civil war in a number of countries. Finally, another devel-
behind all of these pressing concerns lay a more opment revived worries over the possible resumption of
existential one—how to seek out the underlying the Cold War itself: after a brief flirtation with democracy,
purpose and meaning of life in a world increasingly
Russia turned back to its familiar refuge of autocratic rule
defined by the voracious accumulation of material
goods. Was the rise of the consumer society the ulti-
under the leadership of the ex-KGB official Vladimir Putin.
mate objective of all humankind, or could ultimate Putin looked longingly at the past as he hoped to revive the
happiness be achieved only through the emergence empire that had once flourished under the tsars and the com-
of a new spiritual civilization? missars. Even in East Asia, where an atmosphere of peace
Such questions were undoubtedly in the minds of and cooperation had briefly reigned after the restoration
many as they faced the challenges of a new millennium. of U.S.‒Chinese relations, new territorial disputes between
16-1 After the Cold War: The Revenge of History ■ 397
China and its neighbors over ownership of the South China number of related problems, several of them containing
Sea threatened to embroil the Pacific region in a new round serious social and political implications. These problems
of dangerous conflicts. As the world began to show signs included an increase in the level of unemployment; gov-
of returning to the threatening image of warring nations ernment belt-tightening policies to reduce social services
that had characterized the first half of the twentieth century, and welfare and retirement benefits; and in many coun-
many observers expressed concern that the new world order tries, growing popular resentment against minority groups
was beginning to look a lot like the old one. or recent immigrants, who were blamed by some for their
Are we headed, then, toward the emergence not of a deteriorating economic prospects.
new world order, but of a more familiar one character- There are several reasons for the declining productivity
ized by an uneasy balance between competing power blocs of most Western economies, including a gradual reduc-
intent on imposing their will on an uncertain world? Or are tion in consumer demand (caused partly by a period of
there significant differences in the contemporary situation stagnant wages), increased competition from low-wage
that will enable policy makers in world capitals to avoid countries in Asia, and lower levels of government invest-
some of the disastrous mistakes of the past? We will seek ment in infrastructure projects. One flagrant symptom of
answers to these questions, and to their implications, dur- the problem was the widening financial gap between the
ing the remainder of this chapter. wealthy minority and the remainder of the population. As
consumer demand declined, corporation executives had
little incentive to place their savings in capital investment
16-2Contemporary Capitalism projects, and turned their attention to investment overseas,
or wealth accumulation for themselves.
and Its Discontents The financial meltdown that struck first in the United
States and then spread to the rest of the world in the fall
QQ Focus Questions: Based on the conditions that
exist around the world today, do you believe
of 2008 added a new sense of urgency to the challenge.
Declining revenues resulting from the economic downturn
that capitalism is the best economic system forced business owners to cut back on their payrolls and
for improving the lives of human populations? made it more difficult for governments to meet their own
Are there ways in which capitalism should be financial responsibilities. At the same time, the globaliza-
changed to improve its performance? tion of world markets limited the ability of world leaders
to insulate their peoples from the vicissitudes of the mar-
During the slightly more than half-century that divided the ketplace at a time of heightened instability. The dream of a
end of World War II from the beginning of the new millen- crisis-free form of capitalism came to an abrupt end.
nium, capitalism proved itself to be—at least in terms of the
rise of global GDP per capita—a highly productive system
for promoting economic growth and prosperity in coun- 16-2a The View from the Top
tries where it was practiced. Although the degree to which In the advanced industrial countries around the world
the goods produced in the factories of capitalist countries today, the primary economic challenge lies not so much in
were distributed in a reasonably equitable manner is a mat- levels of production as in the means of distribution, a strik-
ter of debate, there is general agreement that the postwar ing similarity to the situation in Europe in the middle of
era has seen more progress in bringing about the elimina- the nineteenth century (see Chapter 1). There is an abun-
tion of world poverty than any other period in recorded dance of goods in the economy, certainly more than suffi-
history (see “The Elimination of Poverty and Disease,” cient to feed, clothe, and house virtually every member of
p. 401). An outside observer seeking to single out the pri- the population. But how can governments ensure that the
mary reason for the victory of the West over the socialist material benefits of the capitalist system will be divided
camp—a reversal of the Maoist parlance that the East Wind on a reasonably equitable basis among the entire commu-
would triumph over the West Wind—would find it difficult nity? A healthy economy is a prosperous consumer, but
to avoid the conclusion that the material benefits provided with income levels flat, the equation becomes broken. In
by a global capitalist system was one of the key factors for seeking to rise to the challenge, capitalist nations around
the victory of the West in the Cold War. the world have adopted a variety of strategies.
By the opening of the new century, however, a gen-
eration of rapid growth in the capitalist states in Europe Europe: Speed Bumps on the Road to the Welfare State In
and North America began to give way to a general decline Europe, the challenge of harnessing capitalist productivity
in economic performance. This slowdown gave rise to a to the needs of the general population has been shaped by
398 ■ CHAPTER 16 The Challenge of a New Millennium

the fact that growth rates in Europe have traditionally been began to rise again, a consequence of growing entitlement
kept artificially low because of the persistent fear of infla- costs and the Bush administration policy of reducing taxes
tion (rampant inflation, it is widely believed, was a major while simultaneously trying to wage two wars abroad.
factor in the rise of Hitler in Germany in the 1930s), and also Although gross domestic product continued to grow, eco-
because welfare payments have been more generous than in nomic growth did not lead to increased prosperity for all
most other capitalist countries. Ever since the start of the Americans. While the rich were getting richer, the poorest
Industrial Revolution two centuries ago, European govern- 20 percent of the population saw little benefit.
ments have accepted the necessity of taming the market in The financial crisis that struck in the fall of 2008 was the
order to minimize the risk of social unrest. In seeking to result of several factors, including the collapse of a housing
maintain a balance between promoting unbridled growth bubble (the result of easier access to money for home mort-
and protecting the general welfare, European governments gages), lax government regulatory procedures on lending,
have consistently placed a higher emphasis on the latter. and a steady increase in household debt. Although the Bush
Today, however, with the threat of a demographic administration belatedly announced a major federal bailout
crunch on the horizon, European governments have been to prevent additional losses on Wall Street, the stock mar-
compelled to face the realization that a cutback in their ket suffered its largest collapse since the Great Depression.
generous welfare programs will be required to keep their After the presidential elections in November, the incoming
economies on a sound footing. As they grapple with solu- Obama administration prepared a major stimulus package
tions to this dilemma, they have exposed one of the underly- to jump-start the economy. These measures were successful
ing weaknesses of the European Union as it has attempted in reversing the downward trend in the stock market and
to integrate the economies of its various members under a production began slowly to recover. But because the pro-
single set of principles. While the economies of most north- gram had been scaled back from its original planned size and
ern European states are sufficiently robust to manage the scope in deference to political realities, growth rates were
challenge, governments in the southern tier like Greece, insufficient to reduce the unemployment rate, which was
Italy, and Spain have been unable to trim social benefits still close to 8 percent at the beginning of President Obama’s
because of stiff public opposition, despite the growing risk second term in office. At the root of the problem was the
of bankruptcy. Even in France, one of the most important age-old debate between Democrats and Republicans over
economies in the EU, recent cuts to the country’s generous the proper role of government and the relative importance
welfare programs ignited social unrest with the outbreak of of entitlement spending and deficit reduction. As the two
the “yellow vest” protest movement (see Chapter 10). parties locked horns over the issue in Congress, the danger
Compounding the problem is the fact that the European of political paralysis loomed.
Union, as a multinational organization, lacks a centralized The Trump administration followed party precedent by
executive body authorized to make difficult decisions in a seeking to stimulate economic growth through a tax cut,
time of crisis. The nations most affected by the economic combined with a roll back of government regulations that
downturn have appealed for assistance from their more inhibit entrepreneurs from investing in job-creating proj-
fortunate counterparts, notably Germany, but the latter ects. The administration also followed GOP orthodoxy by
have been reluctant to sacrifice their own well-being in issuing periodic threats to cut back on social entitlement
an effort to save what they regard as their more profligate programs like Social Security and Medicare. Heartened by
neighbors. The expansion of the EU into Eastern Europe, continued public resistance to the “individual mandate”
where economies are more vulnerable and capitalist prac- requirement in the Affordable Care Act, the administration
tices are a comparatively recent phenomenon, only adds to particularly focused its attention on cutting government
the complexity of the issue. Today, in both economic and health-care spending, and planned deep cuts in other social
structural terms, the continent of Europe is facing its most programs to reduce the federal budget deficit.
serious internal challenge since the end of World War II. But the Trump administration broke with the
Republican playbook on trade policy by raising tariffs on
The United States: Capitalism Ascendant? As we have goods imported from other countries—some of them
seen above, the United States fared better than many other key U.S. allies like Canada and the EU. The White House
capitalist states in the 1990s, since the economic revival argued that raising tariffs would serve to protect working-
at that time—stimulated by technological advances— class jobs in the United States, while discouraging U.S.
enabled the Clinton administration to reduce budget defi- corporations from shipping their factories to lower-wage
cits without having to engage in substantial tax increases or countries abroad. In line with that strategy, the adminis-
a massive reduction in welfare spending. During the first tration announced its decision to abandon the Obama
decade of the new century, however, the federal deficit administration’s plan to join with other Asian nations in
16-2 Contemporary Capitalism and Its Discontents ■ 399

a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and called for a rene- while poverty levels in certain parts of the country have
gotiation of the NAFTA treaty with U.S. neighbors in the resisted all efforts to alleviate the situation. The Trump
Western Hemisphere. The administration focused partic- administration’s adoption of an “America first” trade pol-
ular attention on trade relations with China, contending icy, while probably justified in its determination to achieve
that the long-standing U.S. trade deficit with that country a more equitable economic relationship with China and
was too large to sustain. It also charged that the economic some other countries, represents a gamble that the rising
relationship between the two countries was not based on costs of goods to U.S. consumers stemming from higher
a level playing field, since China’s state capitalist economy tariffs will be compensated for by the return of thousands
openly manipulates the markets in order to promote of well-paying jobs for workers in U.S. factories.
Beijing’s ambitious political and foreign policy objectives. Future prospects for the U.S. economy are uncertain,
Another element in the Trump administration’s strat- and are highly dependent upon political trends. As we have
egy was to impose severe limits on immigration into the seen earlier (see Chapter 8), economic policy in the United
United States from across the border with Mexico. As the States has always followed a pattern of pendulum swings
volume of unauthorized migrants arriving at the border from a laissez-faire approach to one of active government
(some of them traveling in family groups from conflict- intervention. So long as the U.S. economy maintains a level
prone countries in Central America) has increased, the of steady growth, most Americans have usually been sat-
White House responded by demanding funds from isfied with an emphasis placed on the former, but a new
Congress to build a concrete wall along the border to deter economic crisis could signal the onset of a strong public
future arrivals. Resistance to the plan from Democratic demand for greater government intervention.
members of Congress—who argue that other means to
control the level of immigration are more effective—has Capitalism in Asia: From Low Wage to High End One area in
been steadfast, and the issue has not yet been resolved. the capitalist world that has so far been able to avoid the worst
Although the issue of immigration into the United States consequences of the global economic slowdown is East Asia,
has often been framed by many politicians in terms that where most of the industrializing nations have managed to
exploit raw emotion and seek political advantage, it also con- maintain steady economic growth with a minimum of social
tains major economic implications. Since most immigrants unrest and an impressive record of political stability. During
from Mexico and Central America gravitate to low-paying the 1990s, pundits opined that the “East Asian miracle” was
jobs that are not appealing to most Americans, they have his- a product of the amalgamation of capitalist economic tech-
torically been tacitly accepted by the public and the govern- niques and a value system inherited from Confucianism that
ment alike as a necessary reality. But as their numbers have stressed hard work, frugality, and the subordination of the
increased, some Americans point to the financial burden that individual to the community—all reminiscent of the “Puritan
the new arrivals place on the nation’s educational and medi- work ethic” of the early capitalist era in the West.
cal systems. In recent years, centrist members of Congress An important corollary of the region’s achievements has
from both parties have attempted to craft a compromise been the capacity of Asian governments to use the advan-
solution which reconciles the political, economic, and moral tage of their relatively low-wage working force as a means
aspects of the issue, but as the positions on both sides have of gaining entrée into the global marketplace. First it was
hardened, a solution today appears as far away as ever. the Japanese; then South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore
How successful has the Trump administration been in stepped in; finally China, by being accepted into the World
achieving the president’s stated campaign objective? So far, Trade Organization in 2000, found the key to escaping its
the results have been mixed. While the stock market has risen own poverty trap. Today other nations throughout the
steadily on positive economic news—recent figures indicate continent are following a now familiar pattern.
that the country enjoys an annual growth rate of just under There is an inherent risk in such a strategy, of course.
three percent, with unemployment figures dipping to a fifty- As noted just above, where one treads, others may follow.
year low—the economic gains for the average American have Then, as wages rise, Asian economies are forced to seek for-
been marginal, at best. While the already-rich have gotten eign markets for more high-end products—a strategy that
steadily richer in recent decades, salaries for the middle class puts them in direct competition with their Western counter-
have been relatively stagnant and often do not match the parts. The riskiest consequence of this export-driven strat-
steady increase in retirement and health-care costs. egy is that it exposes the practitioner to the rapid swings of
At the same time, most new job opportunities in the the international marketplace. To apply a well-worn meta-
contemporary economy are at salary levels that are barely phor, during a global economic downturn, advanced econo-
adequate to meet the needs of the average family (the cur- mies may catch a slight cold; their competitors develop a
rent national minimum wage is still stuck at $7.50 an hour), high fever (see Map 16.1).

ARCTIC
OCEAN
EUROPE
NORTH WESTERN EASTERN
AMERICA ASIA ASIA
© Cengage. Based on World Trade Organization Press Release, April 2, 2019.

CENTRAL
AMERICA ATLANTIC SOUTHERN PACIFIC
OCEAN AFRICA ASIA OCEAN
PACIFIC
OCEAN
SOUTH
AMERICA INDIAN
OCEAN
AUSTRALIA
MAP 16.1 Global Patterns of Trade. International trade is the engine that drives the expansion of economic
growth all over the world. This map shows major trade routes around the globe. The vast majority of trade
consists of liquid energy, mining, goods and services, and agricultural products. In 2018 the total value of
merchandise trade was almost $20 trillion dollars, 98% of which took place among members of the World Trade
Organization. The major countries involved in world trade are China, the European Union, Japan, and the United
States. International trade grew by 4.6% in 2017 but dropped to about 3% growth in 2018 because of slack
economies and trade tensions between major partners.
Q Do you believe that active participation in world trade is beneficial for all nations? If not, why not?
The financial crises of 1997 and 2008 (see Chapter 13) regions of the world have not experienced the degree of
demonstrated that the Pacific nations were not immune rapid economic growth and political stability that has been
to the vicissitudes of capitalism, but (with the excep- experienced in the most highly industrialized parts of the
tion of Japan), they rapidly recovered and have now world. For r easons that we have discussed above, the most
resumed the steady growth that had characterized their prominent regions that have not shared in the rise of global
performance during the last quarter of the twentieth prosperity over the past few decades are in Africa and the
century. China in particular has become a major force Middle East. Some countries in Asia and Latin America fall
in the global economy, replacing Japan and Germany as into the same category.
the world’s largest exporter of goods and serving as an
engine of growth for nations throughout the region (see The Elimination of Poverty and Disease One of the
Image 16.2). Many observers see China, with its growing greatest challenges facing the global economy today is
industrial base and abundant supply of cheap labor, as to reduce the high level of poverty that persists in many
the most serious threat to the U.S. economic hegemony. parts of the world. In 1990, about 36 percent of the total
But China has a number of its own vulnerabilities (see population of the world lived in conditions of extreme
Chapter 12), and a further slowdown in the global econ- poverty (as defined by the World Bank Group in terms of
omy could have a chilling effect on its already declining a daily salary of $1.90). An approximately equal number
pace of growth. were illiterate, while hundreds of thousands died annually
from malnutrition, hunger, or disease. At a Millennium
16-2b Life on the Margins of Capitalism Summit in 2000, the United Nations adopted a plan calling
Capitalism has always had winners and losers. That gen- for advanced nations to double their financial assistance to
eralization is true of countries and regions as well as of poorer countries, while taking measures to equalize the
individuals. And it is an unfortunate reality that some playing field in the realm of trade to assist the developing

a total of over one billion people raised themselves from
impoverished conditions. One troubling factor, however,
is that today the incidence of poverty is now concentrated
in specific regions, with over forty percent of the world’s
extreme poor living in sub-Saharan Africa. Another 12 per-
cent are located in the countries of South Asia.1
Steady progress has been achieved in improving health
conditions around the world as well. Although news
reports often contain warnings about the possible pan-
demic spread of various dangerous diseases (the latest
threat is of the spread of measles, that once-common
childhood affliction that can sometimes lead to serious
health consequences) from country to country and conti-
nent to continent, impressive progress has been achieved
worldwide in reducing the threat of a number of serious
William J. Duiker
dangerous diseases such as pneumonia and HIV. According

to World Health Organization estimates, the number of
children who die before the age of five has dropped by at
IMAGE 16.2 Silk Workers of the World Unite! In recent years, least 50 percent in the last three decades. Deaths from that
many critics have charged that Chinese factories are able old scourge malaria have also dropped by nearly one-half
to market their goods at cheap prices abroad because their since the beginning of this century, leading to increased
employees are paid low wages and often must work in abysmal life expectancy in almost every country around the world.
conditions. The silk industry, which produces one of China’s
key high-end exports, is a case in point. At this factory in
A key reason for the improving quality of global
Wuxi, women workers spend ten-hour days with their hands health care is the growing use of vaccinations. With
immersed in boiling water as they unwind filaments from substantial help from international agencies, medicines
cocoons onto a spool of silk yarn. Their blistered red hands are more widely available in afflicted areas, leading to a
testify to the difficulty of their painful task. decrease in the number of women dying in childbirth.
Q Are developing nations like China justified in placing
male and female workers in low-wage jobs under
Yet, as health-care professionals and advocates empha-
size, much more needs to be done, including improved
challenging conditions in order to improve their
medical qualifications for health workers and better
competitiveness in world markets?
diagnoses of illnesses. Some of the potential solutions
are difficult to achieve because of the spread of smoking
and the popularity of fast-food restaurants in emerging
countries in working their way out of debt. The declared countries. Tobacco companies have reacted to a decline
goal was to reduce the number of those suffering extreme in smoking in the West by actively marketing their
poverty and hunger by half by the year 2015, while reduc- goods in Africa and Asia.
ing infant mortality and ensuring basic education for all There has also been some good news on the literacy
the world’s children. front. Rising literacy levels are one of the key signals that
It has not been easy. When the UN General Assembly a given area is climbing out of poverty. Since the early
returned to the issue five years later the acrimony of the nineteenth century, the rate of literacy around the globe
debate demonstrated how difficult it would be to carry the has risen from only 12 percent in 1820 to about 83 percent
plan from dream to reality. Disagreements over how to today. Since 1960, global literacy has increased by an aver-
fight terrorism and protect human rights, combined with age of almost one percent per year. Not surprisingly, the
the reluctance of industrial countries to open their mar- regions of the world where literacy rates are low are also
kets to agricultural imports, prevented the delegates from those where extreme poverty is common. To reduce one
implementing a specific plan. problem is to reduce the other. Efforts are underway to
Still, recent figures show that the incidence of extreme promote more universal education for both boys and girls
poverty had been reduced in the year 2015 to about ten at the elementary and the secondary level, but when local
percent of the total population of the world, or a total of funding is absent—notably in Africa—progress is slow
about 735 million people. That figure indicated that the (see Chapter 14).
level of global poverty had declined an average of about One key reason for the continued prevalence of pov-
one percent a year since 1990. During that 25-year period, erty and illiteracy in the developing world is the lack

HISTORICAL VOICES
Women on the Front Lines of Development

founded in India in 1972 and ever since has supported
Q What are some of the various ways that East Asian the poorest women in starting businesses—raising liv-
countries have sought to engage women in the ing standards in ways that have dazzled scholars and
developmental process, according to the authors of foundations. In Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus devel-
this book? Why are women so important in the effort to oped microfinance at the Grameen Bank and targeted
improve economic conditions around the world today? women borrowers…
Eighty percent of the employees on the assembly lines
in coastal China are female, and the proportion across
Family & In their highly praised book Half the Sky,
Society the manufacturing belt of East Asia is at least 70 percent.
authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
The economic explosion in Asia was, in large part, an out-
explore the challenges and opportunities for women in the
growth of the economic empowerments of women…
developing world today. Partly an appeal for global attention
[T]he case for investing in girls’ education is still very,
to the plight of women in many countries as they struggle
very strong. Anecdotally, we know of many women who,
against generations of oppression, the book also highlights
with education, were able to obtain jobs or start busi-
ways in which women have become a key resource for
nesses and transform their lives and the lives of those
nations that seek to pass from an agrarian to an advanced
around them. More broadly, it’s generally accepted that
industrial economy.
one of the reasons East Asia has prospered in recent
Half the Sky decades is that it educates females and incorporates them
Women are…a linchpin of [East Asia’s] development into the labor force, in a way that has not been true of
strategy. Economists who scrutinized East Asia’s success India or Africa…
noted a common pattern. These countries took young The challenges are manifest: Of the 115 million chil-
women who previously had contributed negligibly to dren who have dropped out of elementary school, 57 per-
gross national product (GNP) and injected them into the cent are girls. In South and West Asia, two-thirds of the
formal economy, hugely increasing the labor force. The children who are out of schools are girls…
basic formula was to ease repression, educate girls as well One of the most cost-effective ways to increase school
as boys, give the girls the freedom to move to the cities attendance is to deworm students. Intestinal worms affect
and take factory jobs, and then benefit from a demo- children’s physical and intellectual growth. Indeed, ordi-
graphic dividend as they delayed marriage and reduced nary worms kill 130,000 people a year, typically through
childbearing. The women meanwhile financed the educa- anemia or intestinal obstruction, and the anemia particu-
tion of younger relatives, and saved enough of their pay larly affects menstruating girls…
to boost national savings rates. This pattern has been Another cost-effective way of getting more girls to
called “the girl effect…” attend high school may be to help them manage men-
Evidence has mounted that helping women can struation. African girls typically use (and reuse) old rags
be a successful poverty-fighting strategy anywhere in during their periods, and they often have only a single
the world, not just in the booming economies of East torn pair of underwear. For fear of embarrassing leaks
Asia. The Self-Employed Women’s Association was and stains, girls sometimes stay home during that time.
Source: Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide (New York: Random House,
2010), pp. xix–xx, 170–172.
of educational opportunities for women. In 2006, the for the next generation.”2 In their book Half the Sky:
United Nations Development Program declared that Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,
“women’s empowerment helps raise economic productiv- Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn described the lack
ity and reduce infant mortality. It contributes to improved of medical facilities and the deplorable health conditions in
health and nutrition. It increases the chances for education many rural areas of Africa and Asia (see Historical Voices,

“Women on the Front Lines of Development,” above). In during the early modern period. It resumed during the
many areas, women suffer myriad illnesses as a result of era of war and revolution in the first half of the twenti-
cooking on traditional wood-burning stoves that produce eth century. But during the Cold War, migration almost
smoke containing carbon monoxide and other pollutants. came to a halt as the two opposing ideological blocs hud-
To alleviate the problem, the Global Alliance for Clean dled behind their respective boundaries on both sides of
Cookstoves is developing and marketing efficient and low- the invisible iron curtain.
cost cook-stoves, with the goal of producing 100 million Since the beginning of the new millennium, people
stoves by the year 2020. have been on the move once again, migrating in a steady
stream from the poorer regions of the world toward the
The Great Escape: The Migration of Peoples People advanced nations of the West. In the past few years, the
have been migrating from place to place, as individuals, trickle has turned into a flood. Statistics tell the story:
as families, or in larger groups, since prehistorical times. from 2010 to 2013, almost one and one-half million ref-
They are motivated by a variety of causes—by war, by ugees from Africa and the Middle East crossed the bor-
pestilence, by economic need, or more recently by cli- ders into the European Union each year. Some of them
mate change—and in the process they have profoundly came from the Middle East via the Anatolian Peninsula
shaped the character of the human experience through- and into the Balkans. Others risked their lives by cross-
out the world. After a great wave of migration during the ing the Mediterranean Sea in flimsy boats, hoping to
Middle Ages—much of it composed of pastoral peoples arrive safely on the beaches of Greece, Italy, and Spain
emanating from Central Asia—the process decelerated (see Map 16.2).
ARCTIC
© Cengage. Based on United Nations International Migration Report, issued by the UN Department of
OCEAN
EUROPE
NORTH WESTERN EASTERN
AMERICA ASIA ASIA
SOUTHERN
CENTRAL ATLANTIC ASIA
AMERICA OCEAN PACIFIC
OCEAN
Economic and Social Affairs on December 18, 2017.

PACIFIC AFRICA
OCEAN
SOUTH
AMERICA INDIAN
OCEAN
AUSTRALIA
MAP 16.2 Patterns of International Migration. According to a recent United Nations report, there were over
250 million people living outside their country of birth in 2017, an increase of almost 50% since the
year 2000. About 64% of them live in high-income countries and about half live in ten countries, most
importantly Saudi Arabia, Germany, Russia, and the United States. In the past few years the pace of
migration has quickened, as more and more people flee war, climate change, and terrorism. Almost 50%
of all international migrants are women, while 74% of migrants are of working age. Among all international
migrants, a total of 26 million are classified as refugees. Although the refugee issue attracts much
attention in Europe and the United States, over 80% of refugees worldwide are currently settled in low-
income countries.
Q Where do you think most refugees are coming from these days, and why are they leaving their home
countries?

Why do they come? As in all cases involving mass reality is the fact that in many poor rural societies large
movement, there are undoubtedly many reasons, families are required to support the household. One of
but a few key factors stand out. Refugees from the the consequences of such traditional practices, of course,
Middle East fled from the civil wars in Syria, Iraq, and is that women in such societies are viewed almost exclu-
Afghanistan, or have sought to escape the activities sively as mothers, and their role in society is restricted to
of Islamic terrorists in the region; those coming from the home and the nurturing of their children.
Africa are more likely motivated by economic reasons At some point, poor countries run the risk of allow-
and climate change. With the increasing desiccation of ing the local population to outstrip its capacity to feed
the Sahara and its environs, individuals and families are itself. Concern over excessive population growth dates
fleeing their homes in search of jobs to improve their back to the early nineteenth century, when the British
livelihood, or to escape the growing conflict between economist Thomas Malthus worried that the population
farmers and pastoralists in Nigeria and other states in of the world would increase more rapidly than the food
Central Africa (see Historical Voices, “Migration and supply. Such fears peaked in the decades immediately
Climate Change,” p. 406). following World War II, when a rise in world birthrates
Migration is taking place in other areas of the globe and a decline in infant mortality combined to fuel a dra-
as well. Substantial numbers of migrants from South matic increase in population in much of the developing
Asian countries cross the Indian Ocean to seek asylum world. The concern was alleviated after the 1970s, when
in Australia or Southeast Asia; others head west in the the so-called green revolution improved crop yields, and
hopes of finding temporary employment in the oil-rich statistical evidence began to suggest that the rate of
states of Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf. And there population growth was declining in many countries of
has been a steady movement of peoples from Mexico and Asia and Latin America.
Central America northward toward the United States. Yet some experts question whether increases in food
Some are seeking employment opportunities and plan to production, through technological innovation in farm-
return home when conditions at home improve. Others ing practices as well as genetic engineering of crops,
seek permanent residence in the United States. Most can keep up indefinitely with global population growth,
recently, thousands of families have left their homes in which continues today, though at a slightly reduced rate
poor regions of Central America to escape gang warfare from earlier levels. In recent years, the green revolu-
and widespread government corruption. South America tion has been supplemented by a “blue revolution” to
itself is not immune to the pattern of migration and increase food yields from the world’s oceans, seas, and
resettlement, as a flood of refugees have left the conflict- rivers. From a total of 2.5 billion people in 1950, world
ridden state of Venezuela for neighboring countries in population rose to 7.1 billion in 2013 and is predicted
South America. to exceed 9 billion by the middle of this century. Today,
Large-scale human migration, of course, can be a many eyes are focused on India, where the population
double-edged sword. On the positive side, for the receiv- recently surpassed 1.2 billion, and on Africa, where rapid
ing countries it provides an influx of low-wage workers rates of growth are expected to continue for the foresee-
to help fuel the local economy and support the gener- able future (see Image 16.4). Both areas are faced with the
ous welfare programs that characterize many industri- danger of dramatic climate change.
alized societies. But it can have a destabilizing effect as Many European countries have the opposite problem,
well, since it arouses resentment among local residents in as low fertility rates among European-born women raise
areas where high unemployment is a matter of popular the prospect of lower population levels in the near future.
concern. And, as we have seen, it can have a particularly A decrease in population not only would lead to labor
unsettling effect when the new arrivals are ethnically or shortages, thereby increasing the need for “guest workers”
culturally distinct from the majority population of their from Africa and the Middle East, but also would reduce
host countries. In such cases, migration on a large scale the number of employed workers paying taxes, making
can tend to intensify feelings of uneasiness and popular it difficult to maintain expensive welfare programs (see
resentment against the new arrivals (see “16-4 Democracy Chapter 10). Many Europeans feel, however, that intro-
in Crisis,” later in this chapter). ducing more refugees from strife-torn areas of Africa and
the Middle East is not the best answer to the problem.
The Danger of Overpopulation It is no accident that Some European countries like France are now providing
some of the poorest countries in the world have the high- financial incentives to encourage young European citi-
est rate of population growth. Part of the reason for that zens to have larger families.

HISTORICAL VOICES
Migration and Climate Change

Q What parts of the world are currently experiencing
dramatic population movements? Do you agree with
the solutions offered in this document?
Earth & One of the primary causes of the
Joerg Boethling/Alamy Stock Photo

Environment large-scale migration of peoples that is
taking place these days can be ascribed to dramatic
climate change and its impact in certain parts of the
world, notably in North Africa and the Middle East.
Drought conditions and shortage of water have become
commonplace in these regions, and as conditions
continue to deteriorate, the pace of departure to more
hospitable parts of the world is likely to rise accordingly. IMAGE 16.3 Refugees fleeing flood conditions in eastern India.
A recent report issued by the UN Migration, Environment
and Climate Change Division sought to bring public
attention to the problem. The following document knowledge there is more incentive to act urgently, be
contains excerpts from a statement by Dina Ionesco, the prepared, and respond.
chairperson of the division. …The main priority is to find solutions that allow
people to stay in their homes and give them the means
Dina Ionesco, Climate Change and Global Migration to adapt to changing environmental conditions. [This]
…Environmental changes and natural disasters have approach aims to avoid instances of desperate migration
played a role in how the population is distributed on and its associated tragedies…. However, where climate
our planet throughout history…. However, it is highly change impacts are too intense, another priority…is to
likely that undesirable environmental changes directly enhance availability and flexibility of pathways for regular
created by, or amplified by, climate change, will migration….
extensively change the patterns of human settlement. A last resort measure is to conduct planned relocations
Future degradation of land used for agriculture and of population—this means organizing the relocation of
farming, the disruption of fragile ecosystems and the entire villages and communities away from areas bearing
depletion of precious natural resources like fresh water the brunt of climate change impacts….
will directly impact people’s lives and homes…. There is no one single solution to respond to the chal-
There are predictions for the twenty-first century lenge of environmental migration, but there are many
indicating that even more people will have to move solutions that tackle different aspects of this complex
as a result of these adverse climate impacts…. The equation. Nothing meaningful can ever be achieved with-
World Bank…has put forward projections for internal out the strong involvement of civil society actors and the
climate migration amounting to 143 million people communities themselves who very often know what is
by 2050 in three regions of the world, if no climate best for them and their ways of life….
action is taken…. However, our level of awareness and I also think that we need to stop discourses that focus
understanding of how environmental factors affect only on migrants as victims of tragedy. The bigger pic-
migration, and how they also interact with other ture is certainly bleak at times, but we need to remember
migration drivers such as demographic, political and that migrants demonstrate everyday their resilience and
economic conditions, has also changed. With enhanced capacity to survive and thrive in difficult situations.
Source: UN News, Migration and the climate crisis: the UN’s search for solutions, 31 July 2019. (https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/07/1043551).

Jobs are lost, and new ones
appear. The essence of tech-
nology, as of capitalism itself,
is creative destruction.
Part of the trouble is,
many human beings are—
sometimes understandably—
resistant to change. When
the first automated looms
and knitting frames began to
appear in British factories in
the early nineteenth century,
local weavers—who had spent
a lifetime perfecting their
craft—began to attack the
machines and burn down the
William J. Duiker
factories that contained them.

Known as Luddites (from a
possibly fictitious character
Ned Ludd who had allegedly
IMAGE 16.4 India’s Hope, India’s Sorrow. In India, as in many other societies in South Asia,
overpopulation is a serious obstacle to economic development. The problem is particularly engaged in the protests him-
serious in large cities where thousands of poor children are forced into begging or self ), they attempted to halt
prostitution. Shown here are a few of the thousands of street children in the commercial hub the advance of technology in
of Mumbai. With the Indian economy experiencing rapid growth, the national government is the textile industry in order
aggressively addressing the issue of poverty.
to protect their livelihood.
Q Do you believe that countries like India that have a high birth rate are justified in
establishing family planning programs to control population growth? Why or why not?
Not surprisingly, factory own-
ers did not agree, and called
out the police to confront the
strikers, who died by the hun-
16-3From the Industrial to dreds for their pains. In the end, the mechanization of the
textile industry led to cheaper and better products, and
the Technological Revolution more employment in the factories.
The adoption of the machine spread inexorably from
QQ Focus Questions: In what ways is technology
having an effect on economic systems around
England across the Atlantic to the United States. In 1900,
there were twelve million Americans farmers who (like
the world today? On balance, do you believe their counterparts the world over) tilled their fields with
that new technology should be adopted horse and plow. But in the first quarter of the twentieth
whenever it can improve productivity in a century, tractors and combines from newly established
particular branch of the economy? factories began to replace human labor, and today agricul-
ture in the United States employs only about two million
Technology has always been the engine that drives the cap- people, many of them immigrants from Latin America.
italist machine. In its early stages it was the steam engine But jobs lost were jobs gained, since many of those who
that dug the coal, and the railroad car that carried it to the left the fields found new employment in the booming fac-
factory. It was the incandescent bulb that lit the factory tories. And as farm machines led to increased food produc-
floor, and the truck that delivered the finished product to tion, marketed at lower prices, farmers, factory workers,
the consumer. More recent inventions increasingly allow and consumers alike profited, to the ultimate benefit of
the individual worker to be replaced by the machine, and the U.S. economy as a whole.
enable the movement of goods, services, and ideas from As many observers have noted, the world economy
one end of the world to another in hours, minutes, or even today is in the process of transition to what has been called
a split second. But as technology creates, it also destroys. In a “postindustrial age,” characterized by the emergence
the name of efficiency and productivity, old ways are aban- of a system that is not only increasingly global in scope
doned to give way to new methods and new possibilities. but also increasingly technology intensive. This process,
16-3 From the Industrial to the Technological Revolution ■ 407

which futurologist Alvin
Toffler dubbed the Third Wave
(see Chapter 1), offers the
promise of bringing about
increased global economic
growth and human prosperity
on a massive scale.
For many observers of
the process, in most respects
the transition from the
Industrial to the Technological
Revolution will thus be a posi-
tive development. Jobs lost are
jobs gained, and they are bet-
ter jobs, with better working
conditions and higher salaries.
As had occurred in the fac-
tories of nineteenth-century
England and in the field of
William J. Duiker
American agriculture in the
early twentieth century, soci-
ety as a whole stands to ben-
efit from the entire process. IMAGE 16.5 The Container Ship: Delivery Truck of the Seven Seas. The shipping container was
There is certainly much to invented in the 1950s by Malcom P. McLean, the owner of an American trucking company
be said for the argument that in North Carolina. It soon revolutionized the shipping industry, enabling U.S. companies to
the shift from an industrial to box their products at their factory and then ship the container by truck to what was now a
container port, where the box was loaded onto a container ship to be transported to a far-
a technological age has been, off destination. Although labor unions initially resisted the new invention (it reduced the
on balance, of benefit to the amount of human labor involved in the process at portside), it dramatically lowered the cost
vast majority of people in the to transport goods long-distance and has become the standard means of shipping bulk goods
world. It is certainly responsi- from one port to another. As such, it ranks as one of the most important inventions of the
modern age.
ble for the flood of consumer
goods that permeate so much Q How do you think labor unions justified their opposition to the invention of the container?
Were they justified in their opposition?
of the world today. In the years
following the end of World
War II, television offered easy access to the news of the day an alternative to the now antiquated postal service. It
and provided cheap entertainment to millions. Jet planes provides jobs and educational opportunities to ambitious
enabled the tourist and the business traveler alike to cover young people living in India and the Philippines, who can
thousands of miles around the Earth between breakfast politely inform a consumer in Europe or the United States
and dinner (or, sometimes, between dinner and breakfast). with the comforting news that “your package is on its
The invention of the shipping container—and its inevitable way,” often from a Chinese port (see Chapter 13).
spin-off, the container ship (see Image 16.5)—made it pos- Today cell phones, tablets, and other mobile devices are
sible to transport vast amounts of manufactured products nothing short of “mini-computers in the pocket,” putting
from place to place at an affordable cost, bringing a smile the world at one’s fingertips and enabling communication
to the face of every defender of the free trade philosophy with friends, family, or business associates at a fraction of
of the famous Scotsman Adam Smith. the cost of Alexander Graham Bell’s now-outmoded land-
In the past few decades, the pace of technological line telephone. Robots have begun to replace human labor
change has increased exponentially. The invention of the on the factory floor and to speed up the manufacturing
personal computer has provided its user with access to vast process. Drones (officially known as “unmanned aerial
stores of useful (and useless) information, all of which can vehicles”) serve a wide variety of useful purposes: scour-
be quickly and easily dispatched immediately to recipients ing the world above the treetops, they monitor the move-
anywhere on the globe. It simplifies the workload in small ments of endangered wildlife species, seek out and destroy
businesses and large corporations worldwide by providing nests of dangerous terrorists, assist farmers in trying to

anticipate weather and crop conditions, identify egregious doing things are the primary mechanism that drives the capi-
polluters, patrol national borders to pinpoint drug deal- talist machine. But in many advanced countries today, the
ers, and monitor our air quality and water supply. Drones view is growing that increased automation in the office or
are also used as carriers—delivering goods to customers the manufacturing process no longer provides clear benefits
in hard-to-reach places, assisting paramedics by providing to the society at large. The reality is that in the contemporary
them with equipment and medications, and engaging in economy, when automation takes place productivity growth
firefighting and rescue operations. They even pollenate is often sluggish. As the economist Lawrence Summers (a
our plants when bees are unavailable. In China, they have former Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton adminis-
been especially useful in delivering precious life-saving tration) remarked recently: “Until a few years ago, I didn’t
medicines to outlying areas of the country that are inac- think this was a very complicated subject; the Luddites were
cessible to motorized vehicles. wrong and the believers in technology and technological
The most recent technological miracle is known as progress were right. I’m not so completely certain now.”3
Artificial Intelligence (AI). It offers the promise of boosting
labor productivity in the United States by 40 percent and is Societal Consequences The hidden social costs of
already being utilized in the fields of education, health, poli- technology have provoked growing anger throughout
tics, national security, criminal justice, and the military. But, the advanced industrialized countries, where access to
as the name implies, there are dangers inherent in its wide- a job with middle-class wages and benefits is viewed by
spread use, including those of data bias, lack of transparency, many as a social right. And it is undoubtedly a major fac-
and unequal distribution. Ill-informed use can lead to bad tor in provoking the decline in public confidence toward
judgment. There are also unanswered questions about the government and the bureaucratic elites that fuels the
social and ethical impact of a system that revolves around populist revolt now taking place in many industrialized
human interaction with machine intelligence. The full countries. The reality is, of course, that it is now increas-
implications of recent advances in artificial intelligence are ingly clear that the Technological Revolution, like the
yet to be determined, but are enormous in their potential. Industrial Revolution that preceded it, will entail enor-
mous societal consequences and—unless solutions can
be found—may ultimately give birth to a level of social
16-3a Is Technology a Magic Wand? and political instability that has not been seen in the
Despite the manifold benefits that much new technology developed world since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
brings, some critics take issue with the glib assumption The success of the advanced capitalist states in the sec-
that technology is an unalloyed benefit to the human com- ond half of the twentieth century was built on the foun-
munity. Even in the United States, where Schumpeter’s dations of a broad consensus on several propositions:
philosophy of “creative destruction” commands general (1) the importance of limiting income inequities to reduce
acceptance, some critics complain that the slavish devotion the threat of political instability while maximizing domestic
to the gods of technology have imposed serious costs, not consumer demand; (2) the need for high levels of govern-
only on the U.S. economy but beyond that, on the American ment investment in infrastructure projects such as educa-
way of life (see “16-5c Technology and Society,” later in this tion, communications, and transportation as a means of
chapter). The same complaint could be equally applied to coping with the challenges of continued economic growth
many other parts of the world. Although new technology and technological innovation; and (3) the desirability of
provides high-wage jobs to those with the training to master cooperative efforts in the international arena as a means of
its often-complex requirements, it drives many other work- maintaining open markets for the free exchange of goods.
ers who previously occupied well-paying jobs off the factory The ultimate purpose of these principles was to create the
floor and into low-wage employment in service industries. conditions for the continued spread of the social benefits
Similarly, countless numbers of middle-aged office employ- of the Industrial Revolution while at the same time mini-
ees have seen the number of available jobs shrink as comput- mizing the material inequities and disruptive market cycles
ers accelerate worker productivity and, lacking retraining that are endemic to the capitalist system.
for a modern workforce, are forced into retirement or com- Recent events graphically demonstrate that these prin-
pelled to work as clerks in Walmart, or in competition with ciples remain of crucial importance as the world enters
teenagers looking for summer jobs in the fast-food industry. the next stage of the Technological Revolution. Yet as the
There is no way to halt the process, because in today’s new century gains momentum, all of these assumptions
competitive marketplace business owners must automate are increasingly coming under attack. Citizens are react-
wherever and whenever they can in the search to benefit the ing with growing hostility to the high tax rates needed to
bottom line. After all, new technologies and new ways of maintain the welfare state, refusing to support education
16-3 From the Industrial to the Technological Revolution ■ 409

and infrastructure development, and opposing the forma- those that have been discussed above are badly needed
tion of trade alliances to promote the free movement of to help preserve the current capitalist system that, with
goods and labor across national borders. Such attitudes are all its faults, has provided so many benefits to the world.
being expressed by individuals and groups on all sides of The Technological Revolution is already posing a
the political spectrum, making the traditional designations number of other serious consequences in contemporary
of left-wing and right-wing politics increasingly meaning- society—notably in the realm of politics and social attitudes
less. Although most governments and political elites have and behavior. I will discuss some of these implications in
continued to support most of the programs that under- a later section of this chapter (see “16-5c Technology and
pin the welfare state and the global marketplace, they are Society,” later in this chapter).
increasingly attacked by groups in society that feel they
have been victimized by the system. The breakdown of
the public consensus that brought modern capitalism to a 16-4 Democracy in Crisis
pinnacle of achievement raises serious questions about the
likelihood that society can meet the coming challenge of
the Third Wave without increasing political and social ten-
QQ Focus Questions: What are some of the
reasons for the attacks on liberal democratic
sions in both the domestic and international arenas. systems and values that are taking place
Can anything be done to soften the powerful but dis- around the world today? What do these
ruptive economic effects of the Technological Revolution? attacks have in common?
Can the global effort to improve conditions for human
life on this planet keep pace with the voracious demand Government is the most important tool available in human
for new technology that envelops the global market- societies to establish and guarantee public order, as well
place? It seems obvious that any decision to turn away as to protect the welfare of their inhabitants. And since
from the wondrous advances that technology has to offer the outbreak of the European Enlightenment and the
would be impractical and, regardless, almost certainly cataclysmic popular revolutions to which it gave birth,
impossible. Some level of division in society between most thoughtful observers in Western civilization have
high-skilled and lower-skilled jobs is inevitable, and not concluded that the best system of governance in the mod-
everyone benefits in an equal manner to changes taking ern world, by far, is the system that we know as liberal
place in the global marketplace. The most sensible and democracy. As defined by political philosophers, liberal
practical solution is to find ways to reward workers in all democracy is a form of government based on the will of
economic fields with a living wage and a ladder to seek a the people that seeks to provide equal protection for all
life of personal satisfaction and material comfort. It also citizens under the law. It is based on the principle that the
entails the need to provide educational opportunities for separation of powers and the creation of a representative
workers at all levels of the economic spectrum. As many government is the best guarantee that the civil rights and
observers have noted, not every young person needs, liberties of all will be protected. It operates under the prin-
or even wants, a college degree. Statistics suggest that ciples of classical liberalism which seek to uphold the sanc-
the global marketplace—in the advanced industrialized tity of individual liberty, private property, and the market
countries as well as in the developing world—requires economy (see Chapter 1).
middle-skilled workers more than it does applicants with Based on the historical record over the past two cen-
graduate degrees. Adequate funding for education to turies, those countries that have adopted a liberal demo-
provide technological skills at the secondary or at the cratic system of government have tended to be stable,
community college level and at an affordable cost would peaceful, and reasonably efficient in creating conditions
go a long way to providing job opportunities for the that promote the betterment of the lives of their citizens.
young, and qualified applicants for employers in the new During the twentieth century, the community of liberal
highly competitive environment. democratic nations faced severe threats from proponents
Over a century ago, prescient governments in Western of rival political systems, who trumpeted the superiority
Europe and the United States successfully prevented the of fascist, communist, or other autocratic ideologies, but
collapse of the capitalist system by adopting measures they have emerged victorious on all occasions. It is not sur-
to improve living conditions and salaries for the working prising that since the end of World War II, many nations
population of those countries. They also opened up the and peoples in other parts of the world—headed by the
political system to enable working men and women to advanced industrialized societies in East Asia—have come
play an active role in bringing about changes to improve to view the liberal democratic system of government with
their own betterment. Today, sensible solutions such as admiration, and have sought to emulate it.

In retrospect, the high point for public confidence in and practices and have openly declared their preference for
the superiority of liberal democracy probably occurred at a more autocratic form of government—a system which,
the end of the Cold War, when the collapse of the Soviet they maintain, is more appropriate to their own historical
Union and is satellites confirmed to many observers at and cultural traditions.
the time that no other form of government presented a China has been the most open in taking the argu-
realistic alternative to the dominance of liberal democracy ment a step further, proposing itself as an alternative to
throughout the world. In 1989, the political philosopher the Western model, and it has not been shy at promoting
Francis Fukuyama voiced these views in a famous maga- its case (notably through the establishment of so-called
zine article. He argued that the decline of communism “Confucian Institutes” in willing foreign nations) to the rest
demonstrated conclusively that the advanced capitalist of the world. In a visit to the United States in 1997, China’s
democracies of the West had triumphed in the war of then-president Jiang Zemin declared that human rights were
ideas and would now proceed to remake the rest of the something that should be determined by individual societies
world in their own image. Three years later, in a widely dis- on the basis of their own traditions and course of develop-
cussed book entitled, The End of History and the Last Man, ment, rather than being dictated by the powerful nations of
Fukuyama contended that capitalism and liberal democ- the world. China’s current leader, Xi Jinping, has sought to
racy, while not necessarily ideal mechanisms to satisfy refine the issue. To Xi and other Chinese observers, by defin-
all human aspirations, were more effective than any rival ing human rights almost exclusively in terms of individual
doctrine and deserved consideration as the best available freedom, Western commentators ignore the importance of
ideology to be applied universally throughout the globe.4 providing adequate food and shelter for all members of soci-
Even at the time, not all commentators agreed with ety, an achievement that China has singularly brought about
Fukuyama’s prognosis. Some questioned whether the tri- in the course of one generation.
umph that he had predicted was as complete as he con-
tended. Autocratic practices still flourished in many other
parts of the world, and their incapacity to provide for 16-4a Europe Today: Nationalism Redux
the needs of the local population had not yet been dem- The contention in Moscow and Beijing that liberal democ-
onstrated. Others pointed out some of the alleged weak- racy is not the only—or even necessarily the best—way
nesses in liberal democracy—its relatively laissez-faire to govern a society has attracted favorable attention else-
attitude toward systemic problems in human society, or its where. Many political leaders in Africa, Asia, and Latin
dismissal of the role of religion and the life of the spirit as a America have openly declared their preference for a more
force for stability and change in society. Others pointed out centralized form of government, describing it as a better
that greater human freedom and increasing material pros- means of pursuing their multiple objectives in a complex
perity had not led to a heightened level of human achieve- world. This preference has even spread to Europe, where
ment and emotional satisfaction, but rather to increasing newly established political parties and governments in vir-
alienation and a crass pursuit of hedonistic pleasures. tually every country on the continent have openly flouted
Some concluded that a new and perhaps “postmodernist” liberal democratic norms as they seek to promote what
paradigm for the human experience must be found. they proclaim to be their national destiny. The trend is
Still, confidence that liberal democracy was the most most pronounced in Eastern Europe, where government
appropriate form of government for all peoples and nations leaders in countries like Poland and Hungary imprison or
remained high among most members of Western society, force into exile their opponents, undermine the system
and the promotion of democratic institutions and values of justice, and attack the news media for publishing “fake
around the world has remained a bedrock principle of the news.” The idea of “the Nation” is sacred, and resistance
foreign policy of most Western nations ever since. The to the admission of immigrants from non-European coun-
British politician and statesman Winston Churchill put it tries is running strong among the local populace.
succinctly in 1947 when he remarked: “No one pretends that Although democratic institutions are still relatively
Democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that healthy in Western Europe, restive populations there have
Democracy is the worst form of Government except for all begun to complain about foreigners in their midst and to
those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”5 rail against the overreach of EU functionaries in Brussels.
But in recent years, for the first time since the perilous One of the most familiar complaints about the European
era of the 1930s, the assumption that liberal democracy Union from among its citizens is that its bureaucrats try
is superior to all of its alternatives is in serious doubt. to micromanage behavior and attitudes in total disregard
Political leaders in Moscow and Beijing, in particular, of local customs and patterns of behavior. Recently estab-
shrug off demands that they adopt democratic institutions lished political parties today openly resort to nationalist
16-4 Democracy in Crisis ■ 411

appeals to earn popular support, and in Italy influential people. That radical frenzy began to fade when economic
political figures have reminisced about the fascist era and conditions slowly improved and, perhaps more importantly,
the strong leadership qualities of Benito Mussolini (see when the country was suddenly faced with a serious threat
Chapter 6). Even in Great Britain, perhaps the birthplace of from abroad. Many who were alive during those years are
modern pluralistic democracy, one of the most powerful convinced that at no time in U.S. history were the American
messages expressed by those who favor a British exit from people as united in purpose as they were during World War II.
the EU has been the desire to cut off the flow of migrants In recent years, there have been multiple warning signs
from the European continent into the British Isles. that a populist fervor is once again on the rise in the land.
The creation of the Tea Party was an early sign, since it
attained wide popularity after the 2008 election by focusing
16-4b The Making of Two Americas public anger on an allegedly oppressive federal government
Populism, which is generally defined as a political approach that routinely interfered in the private lives of U.S. citizens.
directed at ordinary people who feel that their concerns are In the minds of many supporters of the movement was
ignored by establishment elites, has been a familiar histori- the contention that the country was dominated by liberal
cal factor in U.S. politics, but for the most part its influence elites who favored the interests of minorities over the needs
has been limited. Fear of mob rule was one of the con- of ordinary people in the American heartland. Although
cerns that inspired the Founding Fathers to draft a consti- there was a whiff of racism in the movement, the concerns
tution containing the sovereign principle of separation of expressed by supporters more often focused on economic
powers, as well as instituting a representative government concerns or on the tendency of the government to interfere
which was designed to enable debate on crucial issues to in the personal lives of individual citizens.
take place, removed from the passions of the crowd.
On the whole, most Americans have accepted these Trumpism: Symptom or Cause? As a presidential candi-
principles embodied in the U.S. Constitution and have date in 2016, Donald J. Trump played effectively on the
resisted the appeal of a strong chief executive who might populist emotions that were rapidly being injected into
manipulate the popular passions of the moment to take the bloodstream of the country. Running as an outsider, he
actions beyond established law. They have also accepted criticized “the Establishment,” composed of the bureau-
the bedrock principle inherent in liberal democracy that cracy and the politicians in Washington, which included
while the voice of the majority must be heard, the rights of not only his Democratic opponent but also prominent
the minority must also be respected. In a nation composed members (and previous presidents) of his own Republican
of immigrants, and blessed with a plethora of wide-open Party. In Trump’s view and that of many of his supporters,
spaces, most Americans have accepted the view that there the bureaucrats in Washington D.C. were determined to
is plenty of room for everybody. defend their privileges, and routinely ignored the wishes
In difficult times, however, the American people have not and the interests of average Americans. The Washington
been immune to the siren lure of a powerful chief executive bureaucracy, he warned his followers—quoting the phrase
who will cut through the bureaucratic red tape and follow of Steve Bannon, one of his key supporters and advisors—
“the will of the people.” During the late nineteenth century, was a “deep state,” which would use every technique at its
harsh economic conditions stemming from the transition to disposal to resist all efforts by his administration to serve
an industrial society gave rise to populist movements that the will of the people.
demanded drastic change and a return to economic fairness. On entering the White House, Trump followed
Often the anger was directed at foreigners (favorite targets through on the populist aspect of his campaign, testing
were Irish immigrants in eastern cities or Asian workers on many of the key norms of the country’s liberal demo-
the west coast). Only after the passage of reformist legis- cratic system of government. He attacked judges whose
lation during the early twentieth century were conditions legal decisions were at variance with his wishes, and when
alleviated, allowing the movements to subside. his own Attorney General appointed a special counsel, ex-
Populist unrest revived again during the Great Depression FBI director Robert Mueller, to investigate charges that his
of the 1930s, when strident voices from both the right and presidential campaign had colluded with Russian sources
the left began to lose faith in the American system of govern- to obtain derogatory information on his Democratic oppo-
ment (much of the anger at the time was focused directly nent, he openly sought to sabotage the investigation. He
on capitalist moguls or on the then-current occupant of the adopted a classical populist tactic by focusing public anger
White House—Franklin D. Roosevelt) claiming that only on alleged “outsiders”—Muslim terrorists from the Middle
drastic change could bring about the creation of a govern- East, or gang members and drug pushers who entered the
ment that would look out for the interests of the American country illegally from Mexico. At a time when job security

had been a matter of widespread public concern for many
years, such inflammatory messages found a willing audi-
16-5A Transvaluation of
ence in the broader population. Values: Social Change in
The tendency of the new administration to overthrow
established norms spilled over into foreign policy. President
the Technological Era
Trump broke postwar precedent by downplaying the
importance of relations with leaders of key Western allies
like Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Theresa
QQ Focus Question: How have social institutions
and values been affected by the dramatic
changes taking place in the world today?
May of Great Britain, and publicly suggested that the
NATO alliance no longer deserved U.S. support, since most
of the organization’s European members have lagged in As should be clear from the chapters above, not all the
providing financial support for the common defense. In an problems and concerns facing human societies today can
additional slap at the U.S. foreign policy establishment, he be ascribed directly to economic factors. It is one of the
behaved as if his closest ally and confidante on the world paradoxes of the modern world that at a time of almost
stage was Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, a man whose unsurpassed political stability and relative economic pros-
autocratic proclivities openly run counter to the Western perity for the majority of the population in most Western
political principle of the separation of powers, and whose countries, public cynicism about the system is increasingly
recent actions threatened to undermine the alliance of widespread. Many people appear to tune out the litany of
democratic nations established at the end of World War II. political and social commentary and focus exclusively on
As opposition to its actions mounted, the Trump admin- their own personal concerns. Although the levels of alien-
istration persistently attacked the mainstream media, among ation and cynicism might seem to run higher in Western
whose ranks were some of its severest critics. The press, the societies, the problem has begun to appear in relatively
White House declared, was the purveyor of “fake news” prosperous Asian countries as well. It almost seems to be
designed to undermine and distort the president’s achieve- the price human beings pay for affluence.
ments, and his supporters were encouraged to obtain their
information on national issues from sources that had openly 16-5a Family and Society
supported him from the start of his campaign. The reasons that have been advanced to explain this para-
Under the circumstances, it was probably inevitable that dox vary widely. Some observers place the responsibility
the president’s critics, whether within the political estab- for many contemporary social problems in Western soci-
lishment or in the press, relentlessly attacked virtually all eties on the decline of the traditional family system. With
of the administration’s initiatives, an understandable reac- the family now increasingly deprived of its historic role of
tion but one that left little room for those Americans who providing a moral grounding to its younger members, they
were hoping for a sober evaluation of the facts. The attacks argue, children grow up without moorings in a soulless and
from the media also convinced Trump’s supporters that his impersonal world. The statistical evidence is clear. There has
opposition was out to destroy him, regardless of the cost indeed been a steady rise in the percentage of out-of-wed-
to the country. In consequence, the level of partisanship lock births and single-parent families in countries through-
in Washington politics, already at a high pitch since the out the Western world. In the United States, 40 percent of
1990s, has reached the point where compromise on almost all births were out of wedlock in 2014, compared with about
any issue became virtually impossible in Washington, D.C. 7 percent in 1960. The percentage is even higher in Europe.
Some of President Trump’s most fervent critics concluded Between 1980 and 2005, the proportion of single-parent
that the political crisis in the United States was a consequence households doubled in the Western world. Approximately
of the unique character of the president himself, a man who half of all marriages in the United States end in divorce,
cannily manipulated the emotions and fears of the American although the rate has declined somewhat in recent years.
people to satisfy his own narcissistic and autocratic impulses. Even in two-parent families, both parents often work full
They dismissed his followers as racists and Bible-toting red- time, thus leaving their children with too much unsuper-
necks who have been left behind in the historic struggle to vised time and limited opportunity to benefit from parental
build a better and more efficient society. As we have seen guidance at a critical time in their young lives.
above, however, the rise of populism today is a phenomenon On the other hand, there is scant evidence that long-
common to almost all liberal democratic countries, which term partnerships are less effective in raising healthy and
suggests that Donald Trump is more a symptom of weak- well-adjusted children than are their traditional counter-
nesses in the system than a cause. I shall return to this issue parts. Same-sex parents often work out as well or even bet-
briefly in the concluding section of this book. ter than is the case with conventional relationships. What is
16-5 A Transvaluation of Values: Social Change in the Technological Era ■ 413
important, many feel, is the quality of the parental experi- advertising media, and in places like China by the state;
ence and the nature of the guidance that is provided rather the rise of feminist advocacy for shared responsibilities
than the formal character of the parental relationship itself. between male and female parents, which is sometimes
The decline in the traditional family is not so prevalent in mischaracterized as an effort to remove women from
many other parts of the world. In much of Africa and Asia, responsibility for the care and nurturing of the next gen-
the nuclear family still functions as an important building eration altogether; and the increasing mobility of con-
block of contemporary society. In China, India, and Africa, temporary life, which disrupts traditional family ties and
for example, only about one percent of children are born creates a sense of rootlessness and impersonality in the
out of wedlock. By the same token, divorce rates in most individual’s relationship to the surrounding environment.
Asian and African countries are much lower than in the
Western world. Only about four percent of marriages in
China end in divorce. Curiously, while in the United States 16-5b Religion: A Matter of Faith
divorce is more common among relatively uneducated While some analysts cite the reduced role of the traditional
families, in China it is almost exclusively an urban phe- family as a major factor in the widespread sense of malaise in
nomenon (a common joke in Beijing ends with “have you the contemporary world, others point to the decline in reli-
had your divorce today?”). Still, given the large numbers gious faith and the increasing secularization of world society.
of people in China, those small percentages translate to It seems indisputable that one of the causes of the widespread
nearly four million couples applying for divorce each year. feeling of alienation in many societies is the absence of any
Why are divorce and out-of-wedlock births rela- sense of underlying meaning and purpose in life, a quality
tively uncommon in most Asian and African societies? which religion often provides. Religious faith not only offers
Undoubtedly part of the reason is the residual force of tra- belief in a universal moral order, it also creates a sense of
dition, since divorce in such areas can bring shame on both belonging among a community of believers. The members
parties, and especially on the woman. Economic necessity of a church, a temple, or a mosque provide the faithful with
is also an important factor, since the wife is often economi- a built-in support group that can serve as a surrogate family
cally dependent upon her husband and would struggle to in times of need. A community of faith also imparts a set of
secure a livelihood as a single woman. Strong family ties, it values that give every young member a roadmap for proper
should be kept in mind, are often achieved at the expense behavior in the process of entering adulthood.
of the degradation of women, and are not necessarily an Historical experience suggests, however, that there can
indication of a healthy society. be a price to pay for an enhanced sense of community, since
It should also be noted that although the traditional fam- it can result in the heightened intolerance of “outsiders” or
ily system is more resilient in Africa and Asia than it is in the unbelievers. History is replete with examples of religious
West, there are perceptible signs of change. Divorce is on differences that escalate into bloody conflict. The religious
the rise in some major East Asian countries and, despite the wars in Europe during the Medieval and early modern
Confucian tradition of filial piety, more and more elderly eras, the ongoing clash of faiths in the Middle East, and the
parents have begun to complain that they are being ignored religious divide that still plagues the subcontinent of South
by their children, many of whom have abandoned their rural Asia are only some of the most flagrant examples. Many of
birthplace to seek employment in the cities (see Chapters 12 these historical confrontations have not yet been resolved,
and 13). Not surprisingly, older citizens frequently react by and continue to poison the politics of many regions in the
complaining that Asian youth of today are too materialistic, world today. In virtually every continent on this Earth,
faddish, and steeped in the individualistic values of the West. religious differences still present a flashpoint for conflict
It is a concern that would probably be shared in many other within otherwise peaceful communities.
parts of the world, including the Middle East, Africa, and The issue of religion and its implications for social policy
Latin America. The trend away from the traditional family are thus quite complicated. Although the percentage of peo-
is a world-wide phenomenon, but at varying rates of change ple attending church on a regular basis or professing firm
and with varying consequences. religious convictions has been dropping steadily in most
Observers point to several factors as an explanation for Western countries, the intensity of religious belief appears
these conditions: the increasing mobility of the world’s to be growing in many individual communities. In the
population, as increasing numbers of people move from United States, the evangelical movement has become a sig-
the countryside to the cities; the growing emphasis (espe- nificant force in politics and an influential factor in defining
cially in advanced capitalist states around the world) on many social issues. In Europe, Christian groups have begun
an individualistic lifestyle devoted to instant gratification, to organize in opposition to the immigration of migrants
a phenomenon promoted vigorously in the West by the of other faiths. In Latin America, a decline in membership

in the Roman Catholic Church in
some countries has been offset by
significant increases in the popu-
larity of evangelical Protestant
sects. In predominantly Muslim
countries like Egypt and Turkey,
a growing intensity of religious
belief in some communities has
led to stricter behavioral codes
and growing suspicion of fellow
citizens of other faiths.
In parts of Africa and Asia as
well, there are clear signs that organ
ized religion is expanding in scope
and influence. Both Christianity
and Islam are gaining adherents
in Africa, and the intense competi-
tion between the two faiths is one
William J. Duiker
reason for the increased violence
along the southern rim of the
Sahara. Throughout the Muslim
world, conflict between Sunnis and IMAGE 16.6 A Prayer to the Buddha. Religion continues to play a major role in the lives
Shi’ites, and between traditionalists of many peoples throughout the world today, and is even reviving in countries living
and modernists, has reached crisis under Communist rule, such as contemporary China and Vietnam. Although the practice
proportions in many countries. In of religion has long been officially discouraged in both countries, the government has
relaxed its restrictions in recent years, and attendance at religious functions is increasing
India, Hindu revivalist groups seek steadily. Some observers speculate that religious faith provides a sense of purpose and
to change the secular character the meaning of life in societies where the dialectical materialism of Karl Marx has long
of the Indian republic, while spo- been official doctrine. Shown here, two Vietnamese are praying at a brightly decorated
radic outbreaks of violence among Buddhist temple in the commercial center of Ho Chi Minh City—the one-time Saigon.
Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and
Sikhs are increasingly common in
Q Which are the major Buddhist societies in the world today?
various parts of the country.

Even in China, where the Communist government believed that in a modern world governed by scientific
long imposed strict limitations on the practice of any achievement and the theory of evolution, religion would
organized religion, attendance at Buddhist temples and become a relic of the past. Even in Muslim countries, the
Christian churches has been steadily increasing in recent rise of Modernist Islam was cited as tacit evidence that fer-
years, especially among members of the growing and vent belief was headed toward the dust heap of history.
highly influential middle class, who often view their faith That assumption is no longer tenable. As we have noted
as a stepping-stone to higher status and achievement in above, religious belief is alive and well in many regions of
Chinese society (see Image 16.6). In the meantime, dissi- the world, even in secular societies where attendance at
dent nationalities like the Tibetans and the Muslim minori- religious ceremonies has declined and more people adopt
ties in Xinjiang province turn to traditional religion as a a secular lifestyle. Vast numbers of people once living
symbol for their demand for greater autonomy or indepen- behind the Iron Curtain have been attracted to religion as
dence from the People’s Republic of China. Throughout an alternative to the Marxist-Leninist shibboleths of the
the world, religion, politics, and national identity are past. Even in Russia, Christianity has become an important
increasingly intertwined. attribute of Vladimir Putin’s strategy to rebuild the once-
Not long ago, there was a common assumption in powerful Russian empire, and it is flourishing in Moscow’s
secular circles that religious faith was in decline around one-time satellites in Eastern Europe. For many peoples on
the world. As attendance at church in Western countries Earth today, religion provides a vital sense of community
dropped and peoples living in countries ruled by com- and defines their own place in the world.
munist parties were presumably convinced to adopt the The truth is that the divide between the secular and
Marxist theory of historical materialism, many observers the religious in many countries is one aspect of the
16-5 A Transvaluation of Values: Social Change in the Technological Era ■ 415

larger divide that is taking place as a consequence of significant. Advances in human communication like the
the technological revolution. In urban areas and within Internet have provided people living even in isolated
educated communities, religious belief often no longer areas with easy access to information and communi-
occupies an important position, although in parts of cation (see Image 16.7). On the other hand, the social
Asia, organized religions like Christianity and Buddhism media have sometimes inflamed historic antagonisms
are sometimes viewed as a ticket to the good life. In and enabled terrorist groups to spread their message
rural areas and in smaller communities where respect throughout the world. Dictatorial regimes have with
for tradition continues to hold sway, religion plays a varying degrees of success sought to screen out critical
central role in the community. To ride on the wave of opinions on local websites and freely use the new tech-
change that is sweeping across the modern world is to nology to spread their own propaganda among their
adopt a secular world view that is characterized by a citizens. For the purveyors of “fake news” worldwide,
belief in science and confidence in the power of tech- the social media are an ideal platform to broadcast their
nology to improve the human condition. Whether that alternative views.
is a reasonable assumption is one of the central ques- Social media also can have an influential effect on
tions facing us today. Billions of people in all regions human behavior. The Internet provides users with the
of the world are convinced that religious faith is what opportunity to seek out others with common interests, but
provides meaning in their lives. often to the exclusion of hearing and considering differing
viewpoints. It can also discourage face-to-face communica-
16-5c Technology and Society tion by encouraging individuals to bury their heads in their
It goes without saying that new scientific and techno- electronic devices. Who isn’t familiar with the cartoon that
logical discoveries will exert a continuing impact on our shows a family of four spending their vacation at a beau-
changing world. We have already discussed some of the tiful beach, yet all of whom have hardly looked up from
economic repercussions in an earlier section (see “16-3a their cell phones? Millions of parents around the world are
Is Technology a Magic Wand?” earlier in this chapter). faced with the need to insist that their children put aside
But the political and social reverberations are equally their electronic devices and take part in a family discussion.
William J. Duiker
William J. Duiker
IMAGE 16.7 Hello, World. In the twenty-first century, the entire world is becoming wired, as peoples in the developing nations
realize that economic success depends increasingly on information technology. Few countries have embraced the Internet as
enthusiastically as China. Millions of Chinese citizens—sometimes to the discomfort of their government—now turn to the
electronic media for their chief source of information about the wider world. In Image 16.7a, an Apple store on a major shopping
street in Shanghai displays the new iPhone (a device itself manufactured in Chinese factories) to potential buyers. The response
to the new technology has been enthusiastic all over the world. Image 16.7b shows young Buddhist monks in Bagu, a city in
south Myanmar, communicating with their friends on their ubiquitous cellphones.
Q Do you think that Apple is justified in permitting its products to be manufactured in China? What are the benefits and
disadvantages in doing so?

Governments and the major social media platforms
are well aware of the promise and the risk of the new
16-6One World, One
communications technology, and government hearings Environment
have been held in many countries to seek out solutions.
But technology is notoriously difficult to control, and
common sense suggests that no simple nostrum will be
found. Like so many other scientific advances that have
QQ Focus Question: How persuasive to you is the
warning by many climate scientists that human
action is at least partly responsible for global
marked the human quest for knowledge, the benefits and warming?
the costs of communications technology cannot be eas-
ily measured, and easy solutions for the latter are most In the opinion of many climatologists, no single factor is
often elusive. more likely to affect future events on this Earth than sig-
As we have discussed, these questions have inspired nificant changes taking place in the global environment.
some people to express serious doubts about the role of If the scientific community is correct in asserting that
science and technology and its impact on the contempo- global warming is currently underway and will probably
rary world. Nuclear power has been targeted by environ- intensify in the coming decades, it will inevitably have dra-
mental groups for decades. Many people express distrust matic and possibly catastrophic effects on all living things
of all genetically modified food products. Voices across on this Earth. Climate change will impact societies on
the political and social spectrum have begun to complain every continent, albeit in different ways in different areas.
that technological advances are at least partly responsible While a warmer Earth may provide benefits to some peo-
for the psychological malaise now so prevalent in much ples and some countries, others may suffer from highly
of the contemporary world. The criticism dates back at negative effects, with serious consequences on their
least to the advent of television. Television, in the eyes political and social stability. In that event, the political
of its critics, has contributed to a decline in human com- ramifications could be significant: collapsed economies,
munication and turned viewers from active participants widespread political conflict and social unrest, intensi-
in the experience of life into passive observers. With fied competition for dwindling natural resources, and
the advent of the computer and products like the smart massive migration of peoples out of adversely affected
phone, the process has accelerated as recent generations countries seeking a safe haven. The first signs of such a
of young people raised on video games and surfing the movement are now clearly visible in parts of Africa, the
Web find less and less time for personal relationships or Middle East, and southern Asia (see “The Great Escape:
creative activities away from their computers. Many older The Migration of Peoples,” p. 404). If global warming is
observers find the current popular use of “selfies” as the as likely and widespread as some scientists warn, it could
height of self-absorption. eventually transform the human experience in multiple
But nowhere is the suspicion of modern science more and unforeseen ways and bring an end to the world as we
pronounced than it is in devout communities where it now know it (see Map 16.3).
contradicts deeply held convictions based on an inter- Climate change, of course, has been taking place since
pretation of holy writ. In Christian evangelical com- the original creation of the Earth. It has continued to
munities, many devout believers take issue with one of occur on a regular basis in historical times, bringing about
the most fundamental assumptions of modern science: the rise and fall of civilizations, the migration of peoples,
the concept of the evolution of species. Evangelical and the opening of new historical eras. It can be benefi-
Christian groups have opposed the teaching of evolu- cial or harmful in its impact. Widespread drought in the
tionary theory in the classroom, or have demanded that Middle East may have precipitated the movement of the
public schools also present the biblical interpretation first farmers into the European continent several thousand
of the creation of the Earth, and qualify evolution as years ago. Dramatic climatic changes triggered by El Nino
only one theory. In adopting such attitudes, conservative events probably led to the collapse of advanced civiliza-
Christians share their convictions with devout believers tions along the Pacific coast of South America. A period
in other faiths such as Islam and Judaism. The sense of of cold weather called the Little Ice Age led to crop fail-
mutual distrust and discomfort between the world of ures and unsettled conditions in Europe during the Middle
science and the world of faith is not a new phenome- Ages, followed by a warming trend that played a significant
non, of course (dating back at least to the early years of role in giving birth to the modern world.
Christianity), but it seems to have become increasingly Historians have discovered that human beings have
prevalent in recent years. often inadvertently played a role in bringing about climate
16-6 One World, One Environment ■ 417

Climate Change
Small Large
University of Cincinnati
MAP 16.3 Global Climate Change. Climate change is projected to have a major impact all over the world, but some areas
will be more adversely affected than others. Using the year 2000 as a baseline, this map shows a projection of the relative
degree of change that is currently expected to take place over the first 70 years of the twenty-first century. The areas most
affected—many of them in the tropics and the arctic regions—are shown in brown and white. This map image was generated
by the Climate Explorer interactive web application developed by Professor Tomasz Stepinski at the University of Cincinnati.
change, and sometimes human action has caused signifi- the use of artificial fertilizers and insecticides led to urban
cant damage to the natural surroundings. It may first have smog, extensive damage to crops and wildlife, poisoned
occurred when Neolithic peoples began to practice slash- rivers and streams, and a major reduction of the ozone
and-burn agriculture or when excessive hunting depleted layer in the upper atmosphere. In recent decades, however,
the herds of bison and caribou in the Western Hemisphere. as the Industrial Revolution has spread to other areas of
Silting up of the irrigation systems almost certainly played the world, the problem has become global in scope and has
a major role in the decline of the ancient civilizations in finally led to demands for vigorous action to counter the
the Persian Gulf region, and soil erosion and other conse- danger to peoples and societies around the world.
quences of human action may have contributed to the fall of Awareness of the increasing damage to the environment
the Roman Empire. Overplanting and excessive population first came to public attention in the 1950s, when Rachel
growth probably caused the erosion of cornfields and the Carson pointed to the dangers that the widespread use
ultimate collapse of Mayan civilization in Central America. of some pesticides posed for animal and human life (see
Never before, however, has the danger of significant ecolog- Chapter 8). Then, the opening of Eastern Europe after the
ical damage been as serious as it has during the past century. revolutions of 1989 brought to the world’s attention the
The underlying culprit, without a doubt, is the incredible environmental destruction in that region caused
Industrial Revolution. The effects of chemicals introduced by unfettered industrial pollution. Communist governments
into the atmosphere or into rivers, lakes, and oceans have had obviously operated under the assumption that produc-
increasingly threatened the health and well-being of all tion quotas were much more important than environmen-
living species. For many years, the main focus of envi- tal protection. The nuclear power disaster at Chernobyl in
ronmental concern was in the developed countries of the Ukraine in 1986 made Europeans acutely aware of potential
West, where industrial effluents, automobile exhausts, and environmental hazards, and 1987 was touted as the “year
of the environment.” In response, many European states, entire region, forcing schools and offices to close and caus-
following the lead of the United States, implemented new ing respiratory ailments in thousands of people. Some of the
regulations to protect the environment and established damage could be attributed to the traditional slash-and-burn
government ministries to oversee environmental issues. techniques used by subsistence farmers to clear forest cover
Green movements and political parties played an important for their farmlands, but the primary cause was the clearing
role in bringing the issue to public attention. of forests to create or expand palm oil plantations, one of the
region’s major sources of export revenue (see Image 16.8b).
Most of the attention concerning threats to the climate in
16-6a A Nightmare Scenario
recent years has been focused on the threat of global warm-
In recent years, recognition of the problem has spread to all ing. Global temperatures caused by the emission of green-
parts of the world. China’s headlong rush to industrializa- house gases have been rising steadily (climatologists routinely
tion has resulted in major ecological damage in that country. announce that the most recent five years are among the hot-
Industrial smog, caused by the widespread use of coal as a test on record), resulting in warmer ocean temperatures, a
source of energy, has created almost unlivable conditions in melting ice pack in the polar regions, and a steady rise in the
many cities, and hillsides denuded of their forest cover have sea level. Consequences could include the periodic inundation
experienced severe erosion that has led to the destruction of densely populated coastal areas around the world, flood-
of thousands of acres of farmland. Although the Chinese ing in river basins, and the very disappearance of low-lying
government has invested heavily in tree planting and “clean islands in the seas and oceans. A significant rise in sea level
coal” technology, levels of pollution in China are already could force the evacuation and relocation of peoples living in
higher than in the fully developed industrial societies of the coastal areas along the eastern and gulf states of the United
West (see Chapter 11 and Image 16.8a). States and along the perimeter of Asia.
Destruction of the world’s forest cover is a problem of
equal importance in many parts of the world, notably in
the Amazon rainforest of Brazil and on the islands of the 16-6b Facing the Prospect of Climate Change
Indonesian archipelago. With the rapid decline in the forest Governments and peoples around the world have been
cover throughout the Earth, there is less plant life to perform slow to recognize the threat posed by changes in the
the crucial process of reducing carbon dioxide levels in the environment. Because catastrophic events such as hur-
atmosphere. In 1997, forest fires on the Indonesian islands ricanes, floods, and droughts occur frequently in nature,
of Sumatra and Borneo created a blanket of smoke over the it is tempting to view these kinds of discrete weather
William J. Duiker
William J. Duiker
IMAGE 16.8 The Face of Climate Change. The impact of climate change on the global environment takes various forms and imposes
different costs on society as a whole. Image 16.8a shows the skies over the city of Shanghai covered with its familiar blanket of
smog. High levels of greenhouse gases are commonplace in many Asian cities today, and no more so than in China, where carbon
effluents from factories, power plants, and automobile exhausts combine to make Chinese cities among the most unhealthy
environments in the world today. Image 16.8b shows a wildfire in the nation of Chile. Trees are an important mechanism for
absorbing harmful greenhouse gases, and their destruction caused by acts of nature or by deliberate human activity removes an
important natural tool in the struggle to limit the effects of global warming in the years to come.
Q Do you believe that it is possible to counter the trend toward global warming? If so, how?
events as either evidence for or against a major change The Paris Climate Agreement committed 175 signa-
in the overall climate. Climate change, however, actually tory countries, including the Earth’s two major polluters,
refers to trends that are measured over decades. One cold China and the United States, to set specific goals to bring
winter in parts of the United States is not an indication about reductions in the emissions of harmful gases. While
that global warming is a hoax. Warming and cooling pat- the goals established at the conference were voluntary in
terns have taken place before and throughout all of our nature, signatory countries were committed to provid-
recorded weather history, and unusual weather changes ing targets for further action every five years. The overall
can easily be passed off as a statistical anomaly. Scientists objective at the conference was to limit global warming to
who voice concern over global climate trends are some- a level below two degrees centigrade, cutting greenhouse
times dismissed by critics as alarmists. Examples of sci- gas emissions to reach a net-zero emissions target by the
entific exaggeration that never came to pass remain in last half of this century.
the public memory, notably when some researchers pre-
dicted the return of a new Ice Age in the latter half of
the twentieth century. However, overall advances in our 16-6c The Debate over Global Warming
understanding of climate dynamics in recent years make Problems were not long in coming. In 2017, the Trump
it far less likely that scientists are misinterpreting the signs administration announced that the United States intended
of climate change today. to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. The deci-
Still, as scientific evidence and understanding about the sion was not a complete surprise since, as a candidate,
growing risk of environmental catastrophe has continued Donald Trump had openly expressed his doubts on the
to accumulate, political leaders in many countries have topic of global warming during the presidential cam-
begun to pay more attention to the problem. After several paign. In explaining the decision to abandon the treaty, he
efforts to bring the environmental issue to the conference declared that he did not necessarily dispute the fact that
table were aborted, an international conference on the the Earth’s temperature was rising, but he dismissed the
subject was finally convened in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997. evidence that it was being caused by human action. In any
It is one thing to recognize a problem, however, and case, he added, the climate may turn colder again, as it has
quite another to resolve it. The Kyoto conference was periodically throughout history.
marked by bitter disagreement among delegates over the The decision by the Trump administration to withdraw
degree to which developing countries should share the from the climate agreement was a severe blow to its pros-
burden of cleaning up the environment. Nations such pects of success, and highlighted one of the key challenges
as China and India expressed the view of many smaller for those who hope to engage the nations of the world in
countries in the developing world when they objected to a concerted effort to address the problem. Although a sub-
being held to the same standards as their more industrial- stantial majority of Americans consistently agree with the
ized counterparts. The latter, they argued, bore primary proposition that global warming is currently taking place,
responsibility for starting the Industrial Revolution in the there is less agreement about the role of human action in
first place. As a result, few nations expressed a willing- bringing it about. Since many of the skeptics support the
ness to take unilateral action that might pose an obstacle President’s party, the issue has been firmly imbedded in the
to their economic development plans or could lead to a partisan deadlock that has poisoned the political scene in
rise in unemployment. Measures to reduce the release of Washington since the beginning of the new century.
harmful gases into the atmosphere are costly and can have The issue of climate change has not always been subject
significant negative effects on economic growth. Thus, to partisan disagreement in American politics. In the past,
politicians who embraced such measures risked political leaders of both major parties have supported legislation to
suicide, despite the evident severity of the problem. clean up the environment and address the climate issue.
What was most needed was to reach a level of interna- But the increasing influence of evangelicals within the
tional cooperation that would bring about major efforts Republican Party—many of whom are already suspicious
to reduce pollution levels throughout the world. After of science because of its rejection of biblical explanations
several further international conferences yielded only lim- for the creation of the Earth—has led the party leader-
ited agreements to preserve tropical forests and develop ship to adopt a position skeptical of climate science, thus
clean energy, years of talks finally managed to forge wide rendering a bipartisan solution more difficult to achieve.
agreement on a number of key issues, and in December In their resistance to the adoption of measures to control
2015 a conference was convened in the city of Paris where climate change, climate-deniers are joined by powerful
it brought about an agreement to adopt major steps to forces within the business community, who are concerned
address the problem. at the costs that decisive action would entail, and at the

prospective impact that it would impose on their own eco- are hopeful that economic realities—always a driving force
nomic interests. for change in capitalist societies—will eventually resolve
One of the issues that originally drove the movement the debate in a favorable manner.
to bring an end to the planet’s reliance on sources of liquid Many environmentalists warn, however, that the world
energy was the fear that such sources around the world is in a race against time in the fight against climate change,
were drying up. As supplies of oil and natural gas dwin- and is currently losing the competition. Bill McKibben,
dled, the cost of fuel periodically increased, thus threat- one of the most outspoken writers on the environmental
ening the ability of governments and consumers alike to front, argues that at the current pace of change, the world
manage their expenses. But the invention of horizontal will not be able to prevent major and perhaps catastrophic
drilling and fracking—a process involving the use of a damage from environmental pollution before the benefits
pressurized liquid to fracture rock formations containing of new discoveries take hold. He warns that scientists, far
shale oil deposits—has opened up new sources of natural from exaggerating the dangers, have “routinely underes-
gas and petroleum and led to a steady reduction in the cost timated the pace of planetary disruption,” which is cur-
of these products to the consumer. Critics have pointed rently taking place at a faster rate than even many alarmists
out that the environmental risks posed by the use of such in previous years had predicted. And because the fossil
a process are substantial, in the form of oil spills, air and fuel industry is reluctant to change (more financial profit
water pollution, and the increased potential for triggering comes from the continuing exploitation of an oil field than
earthquakes under the Earth’s crust, but the political and from the one-time installation of a wind or solar farm),
economic advantages posed by fracking are so self-evident firm and rapid government intervention is still needed to
that the process is now widespread. Science can give, and push the widespread transition to renewable energy along
science can take away. at a faster pace.6
As world leaders flounder over how to address the In May 2019, a United Nations report on the current
climate crisis, some optimists have expressed the hope state and future prospects of the Earth’s climate presented
that new technology will eventually step in to resolve a stark warning that the decline of animal species around
the debate. After all, the introduction of safer pesticides the world has reached dangerous proportions, and that
in the 1960s and 1970s brought an end to the widespread “transformative changes” in global policy with regard to
use of DDT, thus reducing the threat of polluted waters global warming were needed to restore and protect nature
and skies. Stricter gasoline requirements in the United from potentially catastrophic consequences. (see Historical
States lowered the presence of carbon dioxide in automo- Voices, “The UN Raises the Alarm,” p. 422).
bile exhausts, thus clearing the atmosphere over cities like
Los Angeles (car companies have successfully reduced the
level of carbon dioxide emanating from their vehicles by 16-6d Population Growth and the Environment
over 90% in the past fifty years). The skies over the city One aspect of the debate on the environment that has
of Pittsburgh, once heavily laden with coal dust particles sometimes been underestimated is the role which popula-
emanating from the steel mills nearby, have also improved tion growth plays in the process of climate change. As the
in recent years, reducing the threat of respiratory ailments world population continues to rise, the demand for food
to people living in the area. increases steadily. Today, the replacement of forest land
Optimists also point to the fact that with the help of for agriculture and pastureland is estimated to account
government subsidies that were negotiated under previ- for up to 25% of the greenhouse gases released on Earth
ous administrations, alternative energy sources like wind each year. Half a century ago, predictions that population
and solar power are becoming cheaper to produce, and growth would outstrip the capacity of the Earth to feed its
some analysts predict that they will overtake and eventu- inhabitants raised expressions of alarm in some quarters.
ally bring to an end the world-wide reliance on traditional Fortunately, those warnings were somewhat overdrawn,
energy sources like coal, oil, and natural gas. Even today, as new genetically engineered crops led to an increase in
in the United States there are more job opportunities in food production, while family planning programs and the
the field of wind and solar power than there are in the oil shift of millions of people from farming to other occupa-
and gas industry. Electric cars, once a dream sitting on a tions led to a decline in the rate of population growth (see
drawing board, are now a realistic alternative to the inter- “The Danger of Overpopulation,” p. 405). Still, the Earth’s
nal combustion engine. Even the giant oil companies have population continues to rise, particularly in regions where
begun to recognize the fact that change is on the way, and local peoples are vulnerable to the risk of starvation.
have begun to invest in alternative sources of energy them- Adding to the serious implications of the problem is
selves. As a result of such factors, some climate scientists the fact that as the standard of living in many parts of the

HISTORICAL VOICES
The UN Raises the Alarm

be missed by the 2020 deadline. Current negative trends
Q What does this report indicate are the primary in biodiversity and ecosystems will undermine progress
threats to the global environment in the present towards 80% of the assessed targets of the Sustainable
day? How, according to the author of this report, is Development Goals, related to poverty, hunger, health,
global warming likely to harm the world’s economy? water, cities, climate, oceans and land. Loss of biodiver-
sity is therefore shown to be not only an environmental
issue, but also a developmental, economic, security, social
Earth & In the spring of 2019, a United Nations
Environment and moral issue as well.
committee on the environment issued a
Three-quarters of the land-based environment and
report on the current state of biodiversity on this planet.
about 66% of the marine environment have been signifi-
The report warned that the damage now being inflicted on
cantly altered by human actions. On average these trends
nature was unprecedented in its severity, and that current
have been less severe or avoided in areas held or managed
efforts to control it were insufficient. It concluded that
by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities…
“transformative changes” were needed to restore nature to a
Land degradation has reduced the productivity of 23%
point where it could meet human requirements.
of the global land surface, up to US$577 billion in annual
A Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services global crops are at risk from pollinator loss and 100–300
million people are at increased risk of floods and hurri-
…The assessment’s authors have ranked, for the first time
canes because of loss of coastal habitats and protection.
at this scale and based on a thorough analysis of the avail-
In 2015, 33% of marine fish stocks were being har-
able evidence, the five direct drivers of change in nature
vested at unsustainable levels; 60% were maximally
with the largest relative global impacts so far. These
sustainably fished, with just 7% harvested at levels lower
culprits are, in descending order: (1) changes in land and
than what can be sustainably fished.
sea use; (2) direct exploitation of organisms; (3) climate
Urban areas have more than doubled since 1992.
change; (4) pollution and (5) invasive alien species.
Plastic pollution has increased tenfold since 1980,
The Report notes that, since 1980, greenhouse gas
300–400 million tons of heavy metals, solvents, toxic
emissions have doubled, raising average global tempera-
sludge and other wastes from industrial facilities are
tures by at least 0.7 degrees Celsius—with climate change
dumped annually into the world’s water, and fertil-
already impacting nature from the level of ecosystems to
izers entering coastal ecosystems have produced more
that of genetics—impacts expected to increase over the
than 400 ocean ‘dead zones’, totally more than 245,000
coming decades, in some cases surpassing the impact of
square kilometers—a combined area greater than that
land and sea change and other drivers.
of the United Kingdom.
Despite progress to conserve nature and imple-
Negative trends in nature will continue to 2050 and
ment policies, the Report also finds that global goals for
beyond in all of the policy scenarios explored in the
conserving and sustainably using nature and achieving
Report, except those that include transformative change—
sustainability cannot be met by current trajectories, and
due to the projected impacts of increasing land-use change,
goals for 2030 and beyond may only be achieved through
exploitation of organisms and climate change, although
transformative changes across economic, social, politi-
with significant differences between regions.
cal and technological factors…it is likely that most will
Source: Media Release by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem services, Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations, pp. 1–3.
world continues to rise, more and more consumers turn of protein produced per acre. The problem is particularly
to meat products, thus putting farmers under pressure to serious in developing countries like China, where millions
turn their lands into pasture for livestock, which is statisti- of people turn away from staple products like wheat and
cally the most wasteful use of land in terms of the amount rice in favor of meat products like beef, chicken, and pork.

Today the debate over the environment is growing regions played in stimulating the Industrial Revolution. As
in intensity, and if the vast majority of climate scientists one Japanese composer declared not long ago, “I would
are correct in their predictions, it may eventually dwarf like to develop in two directions at once: as a Japanese with
in importance many of the other issues facing the world respect to tradition, and as a Westerner with respect to inno-
today. It is an unfortunate characteristic of human nature vation. . . . In that way I can avoid isolation from the tradi-
to avoid facing an uncomfortable reality until a moment of tion and yet also push toward the future in each new work.”7
crisis has arrived. It may be that the peoples of the Earth Such a globalization of culture, however, has its price.
still have time to take action to avoid the worst of the Because of the popularity of Western culture throughout
calamity that threatens their future livelihood. The next the developing world, especially among young people,
few years are likely to provide us with a greater awareness local cultural forms are being eroded and destroyed as a
of the scope of the problem and, depending on our ability result of contamination by Western music, mass televi-
to act, the range of possible outcomes. sion, and commercial hype. Although what has been called
the “McWorld culture” of cola drinks, denim jeans, and
rock music is considered merely cosmetic by some, oth-
16-7 The Arts: Mirror of the Age ers see it as cultural neo-imperialism and a real cause for
alarm (see Image 16.9). How does a society preserve its tra-
QQ Focus Question: How do the current trends
in the art world reflect the age that we live
ditional culture when the young prefer to spend their eve-
nings at a rock concert rather than attend a traditional folk
in today? opera or wayang puppet theater? Although there is some-
times local resistance to outside cultural influence, espe-
If, as has been observed, the arts are the signature of their cially in the Middle East where religious traditionalists see
age, what has been happening in literature, art, music, and the hand of Satan in all forms of Western culture, it is an
architecture in recent decades is a reflection of the evolving uphill battle—as we saw in Chapter 15, young Palestinians
global response to the rapid changes taking place in human are using hip-hop to convey their anti-Israeli message.
society today. This reaction has sometimes
been described as Postmodernism, although
today’s developments are much too diverse
to be placed under a single label. Some of the
arts are still experimenting with the Modernist
quest for the new and the radical. Others have
begun to return to more traditional styles as a
reaction against globalization and a response
to the search for national and cultural identity
in a bewildering world.
The most appropriate label for the contem-
porary cultural scene, in fact, is probably plu-
ralism. The arts today are an eclectic hybrid,
combining different movements, genres, and
William J. Duiker
media, as well as incorporating different ethnic
or national characteristics. There is no doubt
that Western culture has strongly influenced
the development of the arts throughout the IMAGE 16.9 Ronald McDonald in Indonesia. The giant statue shown in this
world in recent decades. In fact, the process has photograph welcomes patrons to a McDonald’s restaurant in Jakarta,
gone in both directions as art forms from Africa the capital city of Indonesia. Fast-food restaurants like McDonald’s and
and Asia have profoundly enriched the cultural Kentucky Fried Chicken have served as beacons for those who not only
scene in the West. One ironic illustration is that appreciate the taste, but also wish to be seen as members of a new
generation of citizens of the world. As they symbolize the globalization of
some of the best literature in the English and today’s world civilization, these restaurants also inspire resentment on the
French languages today is being written in the part of those who lament the decline of traditional culture and the delights
nations that were once under British or French of experiencing a local cuisine.
colonial rule. Today, global interchange in the
arts is playing the same creative role that the Q Do you see the proliferation of fast-food restaurants around the world as
a positive development, or as a sign of the emergence of a world devoid
exchange of technology between different of cultural uniqueness?
16-7 The Arts: Mirror of the Age ■ 423

World conferences have been convened to safeguard tradi- recalls the famous painting of 1893 entitled “The Scream” by
tional cultures from extinction, but is there sufficient time, the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch. It is almost a relief
money, or inclination to turn back the tide? to experience the humorous solid gold, fully operational
What do contemporary trends in the art world have to say toilet by the Italian artist, Maurizio Cattelan (b. 1960) at
about the changes that have occurred since the beginning of the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Almost a cen-
the twentieth century? One reply is that the euphoric opti- tury later, Duchamp’s plain porcelain urinal created in 1917
mism of artists during the age of Picasso and Stravinsky has had been transformed into an ostentatious symbol of the
been seriously tempered more than a century later. Naiveté excesses of unbridged capitalism.
has been replaced by cynicism or irony as protection against What, then, are the prospects for the coming years? One
the underlying pessimism of the current age. Conceptual critic has complained that Postmodernism, “with its sad air
art has become dominant, setting ideas above aesthetic pur- of the parades gone by,”8 is spent and exhausted. Others
suits. Installation art and videos best express these artists’ suggest that there is nothing left to say that has not been
desire to confront the social, economic, and political injus- expressed previously and more effectively. The public itself
tices of the era. Some critics on the Left even declare that appears satiated and desensitized after a century of “shock-
the exclusive purpose of art is to serve the cause of politi- ing” art and, as in the case of world events, almost incapa-
cal reforms. Until the Beijing regime began to crack down ble of being shocked any further. Human sensibilities have
on its critics, Chinese writers and artists followed a similar been irrevocably altered by the media, by technology, and
path, mocking the excesses of state capitalism and the cor- especially by the cataclysmic events that have taken place
rupt practices of many of the country’s communist leaders, in our times. Perhaps the twentieth century was the age of
while African artists echo some of the same themes, blend- revolt, representing “freedom from,” while the next hun-
ing traditional African motifs with multimedia compositions dred years will be an era seeking “freedom for.”
that confront the social and political issues that characterize What is comforting is that no matter how pessimistic
contemporary life on the continent. and disillusioned people claim to be, hope springs eternal
By the 1990s, some critics began to call the contempo- as young writers, artists, and composers continue to grap-
rary art scene “the art of distemper,” focused exclusively on ple with their craft, searching for new ways to express the
expressing the anxiety and disaffection of our age, no longer human condition. Of all the contemporary arts, architects
morally uplifting but devoid of a pleasure principle or any around the world are producing imaginative and original
aesthetic value. Whereas a few painters such as the British works that can still inspire wonder and admiration. How
artist David Hockney (b. 1937) still create works of stunning can one not be astonished by architect Frank Gehry’s
beauty, many others offer a tired repetition of the shrill and Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain (see the Part V open-
angry diatribe against the multiple ills afflicting today’s world. ing photo on p. 395), with its thrusting turrets and billow-
In fact, anger may be the signature of Western art today, per- ing sails of titanium? Such exuberance can only testify to
haps best reflected in the breathless paintings created by the humanity’s indomitable spirit and ceaseless imagination—
American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988), which characteristics that are badly needed in the world today.
making connections
In the opening chapter of this book, I referred to the par- imperialist nations culminated in two fratricidal wars of
adox of the Industrial Revolution. On the one hand, the unprecedented ferocity. The Industrial Revolution was not
creation of advanced industrialized societies that began only an outstanding achievement, but an appalling tragedy.
to emerge in the Western world during the nineteenth As the current wave of globalization and technological
century led to an era of unprecedented economic growth change has steadily worked its way through recent history,
and human achievement in those countries affected by the the world is now at a similar juncture, as the advent of
phenomenon. On the other hand, it resulted in abysmal the age of globalization and of its twin, the Technological
living and working conditions for a substantial proportion Revolution, are having a transformative impact of their
of the population in the industrializing countries, as well as own, simultaneously creative and destructive, affecting
in the colonialized territories under their rule. Ultimately rich and poor nations alike. At the same time, changes in
the competition for markets and resources among the the global environment are a wild card that may ultimately

trump all other problems afflicting the world today. The center was not the foreigner lingering in the square. It was
twenty-first century is currently characterized by simulta- the big-box shopping center sitting on the outskirts of town, a
neous trends toward globalization and fragmentation, as consequence of globalization that appeals to the local shopper
the inexorable thrust of technology transforms societies because of its cheap prices and its wide selection of consumer
and individuals seeking to preserve their own identity and goods. The immigrant is not the source of the problem, but
a sense of meaning and purpose in a confusing world. merely a symbol of the globalization process itself.
It is a cruel irony that this titanic process is taking People living in the larger cities in liberal democratic
place at a time when the liberal democratic nations of countries—and especially those residing in affluent
the West—the nations that have, for good or ill, provided communities—are generally less prone to such feelings of
the primary impetus for global change over the past 200 cultural malaise. They are normally accustomed to living
years—find themselves today afflicted by their own doubts in a culturally diverse environment, and in many cases they
and disagreements, not only over their own internal chal- have benefitted from globalization and view the future
lenges, but over their proper role and responsibility in the with a measure of optimism. Where rapid change is a way
world beyond. If the United States and other advanced of life and not a force to be feared, tradition can seem like a
liberal democratic nations hope to play an active and influ- force holding back progress and therefore something to be
ential role in shaping a world marked by rapid globaliza- opposed. But for those individuals who reside in ethnically
tion and technological change, they must come to terms distinct communities and feel exposed to the vicissitudes
with the current limitations in their own performance and of the market, the fear is real, and the threat of change has
devise new solutions to their problems. Otherwise, their an ominous ring to it. They thereby become vulnerable to
ability to shape the future will be severely undermined, to the appeals of demagogues, who thrive on public dissent
the detriment of the world and its peoples. and seek to use it to achieve power and influence.
Most liberal democratic societies have faced such chal-
lenges in the past, and have ultimately devised strategies
Coping with the Strains of Globalization to surmount the problem. As economic conditions gradu-
What are some of the chief sources of the malaise that is ally improve, the populist wave subsides, and the fear of
currently afflicting so many liberal democratic societies outsiders declines along with it. The most effective answer
around the world today? Certainly one of the key symp- to feelings of cultural insecurity is an improvement in the
toms of their current status is the growing alienation of general welfare, wherein most people accept the truism
many individuals and groups from the central government that “a rising tide lifts all boats.”
and from the political system that it represents. As we have The key to defusing much of the public anger that per-
seen above, countless peoples have become convinced that meates the political culture today, then, is to find effective
their voices are not being heard in the cacophony of noise ways to protect the economic interests and the needs of
that proliferates in the political arena, and resigned to the the more vulnerable members of society. Sometimes that
fact that their votes do not count in a system where wealth means heightened attention to depressed minority com-
buys enormous influence. As a result, they tune out, rather munities in the larger cities; in others it requires measures
than paying attention to public affairs, or they listen to angry to provide economic opportunities in rural areas and small
voices on the left or the right who argue that the only solu- towns that have been adversely affected by the steady
tion is to overthrow the current system and start over. thrust of globalization. To achieve maximum effect, it may
Although much of the public discontent that has driven the require putting less emphasis on enhancing the productive
rise of populism is caused by economic insecurity, the reaction capacity of the marketplace than on seeking to manage the
often takes on cultural overtones, as people begin to view the destabilizing effects of rapid change on vulnerable groups
“other”—the foreigners in their midst—as the source of the within the system. Rampant capitalism that ignores its
problem. Such is certainly the case in Eastern Europe and in social consequences is not only morally objectionable, it is
the Mediterranean, where the rapid influx of refugees from also counterproductive, for recent history provides ample
Africa and the Middle East has inspired calls to shut the bor- evidence that, in the long run, capitalism has been at its
der and send the new arrivals back to their home country. In most effective when the divide between great wealth and
towns and villages across Europe, long-time residents witness poverty has been kept to a moderate level.
the shuttering of local shops and businesses, and assign blame
for the change on the foreign-looking people congregating The Search for Consensus The formula used successfully
in the town square, that once-vibrant center of local culture by most liberal democratic societies over the years to resolve
that now too often seems like a forlorn relic of the past. But such challenges has been by government action. The passage
the primary factor that led to the hollowing-out of the town of legislation to eliminate gross economic inequities and the

adoption of measures to encourage a broader proportion liberal democracy as a universal litmus test for achieving
of the populace encourages people to feel that they have political stability and economic prosperity in all countries.
a stake in the system. Unfortunately, one of the most seri- Democracy has been seen by most Western thinkers and
ous weaknesses in many liberal democratic societies today is political leaders as the best means to bring about the cre-
their blatant failure to meet their most basic responsibilities. ation of a peaceful, stable, and prosperous world. As we
The political gridlock in the United States and the United have seen in earlier chapters, until recently the strategy has
Kingdom, a bleak performance matched in many other appeared to be fairly successful. The one-time Soviet satel-
European countries as well, leaves many to conclude that a lites in Eastern Europe, for the most part, have adopted
liberal democratic system falls far short of attending to their the model of their Western counterparts. Some of the
needs. No wonder political leaders in Moscow and Beijing more advanced industrialized societies in East Asia have
are encouraged to offer their own systems as an alternative. introduced their own pluralistic political systems, many
The spirit of compromise, of course, is in short supply of which are currently functioning as well or even more
almost everywhere these days, but nowhere more so than in effectively than are their counterparts in the West. India
the Western democracies, where the very search for a mid- has been a practicing democracy for over seventy years.
dle ground seems to be one of the casualties, as much of the Democratic forms of government have been successfully
energy in politics gravitates to the extremes. One important installed in Latin America and Africa, although their roots
reason for the abandonment of the center is the information are fragile and could be seriously undermined in the event
revolution which is extending its reach around the world. of a national crisis.
With the rising popularity of social media, more and more But in light of the recent problems encountered by
people receive their news via their computer or their cell many liberal democratic societies, some have asked
phone, where many sites are blatantly partisan and make no whether the Western model can still serve as a beacon for
pretense of reporting a balanced presentation of the news. nations outside the tradition of Western civilization. After
Still, it is important to remember that compromise is the all, it runs counter to the historical experience of many
oil that lubricates politics in a liberal democracy, and that regions elsewhere in the world, where until fairly recently
without it, the system ultimately cannot survive. Peoples the individual has historically been firmly subordinated
and societies can function effectively for lengthy periods to the larger community or the state. Many scholars and
even in the face of unresolved differences within their midst, political pundits have argued that democracy is the best
but without eventual recourse, the system ultimately breaks answer for all social ills. But in recent years, a number of
down. The challenge for political leaders is to find ways to knowledgeable observers have pointed out that the instal-
defuse the anger and the mutual distrust, lest demagogic lation of Western-style democratic systems continue to
forces find a foothold from which to work their mischief. face a number of historical and cultural headwinds in
How can a consensus on key issues be reached at a time other parts of the world. As the TV political commenta-
when charges of “fake news” and “alternative facts” are an tor Fareed Zakaria has recently pointed out, a benevolent
abrupt impediment to what should be a shared discourse form of autocracy may sometimes by temporarily prefer-
to discover truth? One of the presumed truths of political able to an unstable and conflict-ridden democracy. Such
science theory is that an informed voter is the best defense views were tacitly held by many senior Middle Eastern
of a healthy democracy. The most important means of pro- specialists in the U.S. foreign policy establishment during
viding accurate information in any society are a free press and after the Cold War, and some have concluded today
and an effective educational system. Although both edu- that their bleak assessments were justified by the results of
cation and the press are under attack today from outside the Arab Spring in Egypt. Examples abound of traditional
forces, one has to hope that through these mechanisms, societies that have passed through a stage of autocratic rule
most voters will eventually be enabled to make their own en route to the creation of a government characterized by
individual choices based on an ability to separate truthful democratic principles and institutions. The challenge, of
evidence from falsehoods, and from innuendos designed to course, is how to differentiate a soft form of autocratic rule
inflame the public debate. that is open to evolution from its more malignant variant.
As some critics have pointed out, the tendency of many
observers in Europe and the United States to promote the
Historians
Debate
Can Liberal Democracy Western democratic model to the rest of the world emits a
be Exported? discernible whiff of the same cultural arrogance that char-
As Western nations have sought to project their power acterized the doctrine of social Darwinism at the end of
and influence abroad since the end of World War II, they the nineteenth century. Both views take as their starting
have naturally promoted the fundamental principles of point the assumption that the Western conceptualization

of the human experience is universal in scope and will ulti- A Final Word
mately, inexorably spread to the rest of the world. Neither It will not be easy to manage the stresses and strains that
gives much credence to the view that other civilizations globalization will impose on world societies as it trans-
might have seized on a corner of the truth and thus have forms the political, the economic, the social, and the
something to offer. cultural institutions and values that have been crafted
Promoters of the liberal democratic model take heart and practiced over the centuries. Further advances in
from the fact that the only realistic alternative is a form of technology will complicate the process, simultaneously
autocracy, which by nature has its own limits. Although promoting and inhibiting solutions. Global warming will
dictatorships, whether defined by ideology, by faith, or undoubtedly add significantly to the stresses involved,
simply by the theory of “might makes right” often pos- and may eventually have a game-changing impact on the
sess a short-term advantage by dint of their ability to act process. Our generation thus bears an enormous respon-
quickly and decisively to attack a problem, they tend to be sibility in seeking the means to navigate our current dif-
more brittle by nature, since they are not selected through ficulties and find calm waters on the other side.
the ballot box, but at the point of a gun. More tolerant of A historian seeking to learn from a comparable
diversity and more open to the dictates of the popular will, period in the recent past can do worse than to look back
liberal democracies are much better prepared to find ways to the era of the Industrial Revolution, itself a global
to balance competing forces among the populace, and to event that over the course of more than a century dra-
craft solutions that can reconcile divergent views with a matically changed the human as well as the natural envi-
minimum of political conflict. By contrast, autocracies are ronment in myriad ways. As it worked its way through
more prone to dismiss such concerns as illegitimate efforts the historical landscape, industrialization gave rise to
to divide the nation and to resort to force to curb any poten- a horrific era of total war and violent revolution, but
tial form of unrest. There is probably no better example of then followed up with a half-century of technological
that tactic today than in the Chinese province of Xinjiang, change, growing material prosperity, and the broaden-
where the central government’s response to the ethnic and ing of human freedoms. And nowhere during that pro-
religious unrest has been to herd up to one million Muslim cess were human beings more often able to rise to the
Uighurs into re-education camps to enforce their loyalty to occasion than during those times when the challenge
the state. When, for whatever reason, discontent rises to was the greatest, such as during the era of World War II,
the surface—a constant nightmare of the current leaders when countless individuals—political leaders and their
in Moscow and Beijing—autocrats are directly exposed to constituents alike—were able to rise above their petty
the anger of the populace. disputes and to cooperate in a common effort against
The fact remains that although the liberal democratic the twin evils of racial genocide and fascism. There is
model appears to be a resilient system of government reason, then, to hope for the best. Human beings have
suited to handle the stresses of globalization and the the capacity to find ways to cooperate on surmounting
technological revolution, its current performance has not their differences before the advent of a new world crisis.
always been sufficiently effective in mastering the chal- Perhaps we will not learn how to control the forces of
lenge. To put it in the starkest terms: in the eyes of many change until they begin to compel us to do so. In the
observers today China currently appears to present a bet- meantime, I recall the words that the talented American
ter model for economic development and political stabil- actress Bette Davis addressed to her houseguests as she
ity than do the Western democracies. The latter obviously faced the unenviable prospect of aging in the block-
must improve their performance before one can effectively buster film All About Eve: “Fasten your seat belts, it’s
predict the outcome of the contest. going to be a bumpy night.”
QQDo you believe that the capitalist system is the best QQHow serious is the threat of global warming, and
available to human beings as they seek to achieve their what actions, if any, should the governments of the world
ultimate destiny? What are its advantages and its defects? adopt to address the challenge?
QQWhat, in your view, are some of the benefits and risks
as the world enters the Technological Revolution? What,
if anything, can be done to minimize the risks?

Chapter Timeline
1945 1965 1985 2005 2025
Global Events
US adopts Cuban Missile Balkan conflict
Containment Crisis End of Cold War
strategy (1962)
(1948) Treaty of Terrorist U.S. Syrian civil war
Maastricht attack Invasion
(1991) on U.S. of Iraq
(2001) (2003)
Global Economy China becomes

Thirty Glorious Years in Europe China joins world's second
WTO largest economy
(2000) (2010)
OPEC creates
oil crisis European Financial UK votes
Union Crisis in for Brexit
adopts US (2016)
the Euro (2008)
(2002)
Social Change
China adopts U.S. Civil Margaret Thatcher is Netherlands Barack Obama first
population Rights Act first woman British is first country African-American U.S.
control program (1964) prime minister to legalize president
(1960) (1979-1990) same-sex (2009–2017)
marriage
(2001)
Feminist
movement China relaxes
begins one-child policy
(2016)
Me Too movement
begins in US
(2016)
Environment
Publication Green parties emerge Ozone Kyoto Paris Agreement US Renewable
of Rachel in Europe hole Conference on Climate Change energy production
Carson's discovered on Climate (2015) surpasses coal for
Silent Spring over Antarctica (1995) first time
(1957) (1985) Deepwater (2019)
Horizon disaster
Chernobyl in Gulf of Mexico
disaster (2010)
(1986)
Technology
Television enters Popularization of Rise of the global
U.S. homes the home computer Internet
Invention of the
containership Emergence of the Apple Emergence Growing use
(1956) cell phone and revolution- of the of Artificial
wireless izes Internet Intelligence
communication music with of Things
iPod MP3 (IoT)
player
(2001)
Chapter Notes
1. The World Bank, Press release, dated September 19, spectrum organized increasingly around identity issues,
2018. A preliminary estimate suggests that extreme many of which are defined more by culture than by eco-
poverty has declined to about 8.6 percent in 2018. The nomics.” Cited in David Frum, “The Case for Liberal
current goal is to reduce it to under 3 percent by 2030. Republicanism,” in The Atlantic (November 2018), p. 15.
2. Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Half the 5. Richard Langworth (ed.), Churchill by Himself (New
Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women York: Public Affairs, 2008), p. 574.
Worldwide (New York, 2009), p. xx. 6. Bill McKibben, “A Future Without Fossil Fuels?” in The
3. Eduardo Porter “Tech Splits Workers: High Pay for New York Review of Books, April 4, 2019.
a Few, Low Pay for the Rest,” in The New York Times, 7. The composer was Toru Takemitsu. See Robert P.
February 5, 2019. Morgan, Twentieth-Century Music (New York, 1991),
4. In retrospect, Fukuyama now concedes that he might p. 422.
have been overly optimistic in his original analysis. 8. Herbert Muschamp, “The Miracle in Bilbao,” New York
The world today, he admits, has reverted to “a political Times Magazine, September 7, 1997, p. 72.
glossary
A Bolsheviks a small faction of the Russian Social Democratic

Abstract Expressionism a post–World War II artistic movement Party that was led by Lenin and dedicated to violent revolution.
that broke with all conventions of form and structure in favor of The Bolsheviks seized power in Russia in 1917 and were subse-
total abstraction. quently renamed the Communists.
Abstract painting an artistic movement that developed early in Brezhnev Doctrine the doctrine, enunciated by Leonid Brezhnev,
the twentieth century in which artists focused on color to avoid that the Soviet Union had a right to intervene if socialism was
any references to visual reality. threatened in another socialist state; used to justify the use of
African National Congress see ANC. Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia in 1968.
African Union the organization that replaced the Organization Burakumin a Japanese minority similar to dalits (untouchables)
of African Unity in 2001; designed to bring about increased in Indian culture. Past and current discrimination has resulted
political and economic integration of African states. in lower educational attainment and socioeconomic status for
Afropop a general term for contemporary African popular music. members of this group. Movements with objectives ranging
Many current stars use their music as a medium for social and from “liberation” to integration have tried over the years to
political protest. change this situation.
Ainu an ethnic minority group in Japan. Descendants of the islands’
original settlers, they now live mainly on the island of Hokkaido. C
anarchists people who hold that all government and existing cartel a combination of independent commercial enterprises that
social institutions are unnecessary and advocate a society based work together to control prices and limit competition.
on voluntary cooperation. caste system a system of rigid social hierarchy in which all mem-
ANC the African National Congress. Founded in 1912, it was the bers of that society are assigned by birth to specific “ranks” and
beginning of political activity by South African blacks. Banned by inherit specific roles and privileges.
the politically dominant whites in 1960, it was not officially “un- chaebol a South Korean business conglomerate similar to the
banned” until 1990. It is now the majority party in South Africa. Japanese keiretsu.
anti-Semitism hostility toward or discrimination against Jews. civil disobedience the tactic of using illegal but nonviolent
apartheid the system of racial segregation practiced in the means of protest; designed by the Indian nationalist leader
Republic of South Africa until the 1990s; involved political, legal, Mohandas Gandhi to resist British colonial rule. The tactic was
and economic discrimination against nonwhites. later adopted by nationalist and liberation forces in many other
apparatchik a government functionary or member of the countries.
Communist Party apparatus in the Soviet Union. civil rights the basic rights of citizens, including equality be-
appeasement the policy, followed by the European nations fore the law, freedom of speech and press, and freedom from
in the 1930s, of accepting Hitler’s annexation of Austria and arbitrary arrest.
Czechoslovakia in the belief that meeting his demands would civil service examination an elaborate Chinese system of select-
ensure peace and stability. ing bureaucrats on merit, first introduced in 165 c.e., developed
ASEAN the Association for the Southeast Asian Nations, formed by the Tang dynasty in the seventh century c.e., and refined
in 1967 to promote the prosperity and political stability of its under the Song dynasty. It contributed to efficient government,
member nations. Currently, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, upward mobility, and cultural uniformity.
Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Cold War the ideological conflict between the Soviet Union and
Vietnam are members. Other countries in the region participate the United States between the end of World War II and the early
as “observer” members. 1990s.
assimilation the concept, originating in France, that the colonial collective farms large farms created by combining many small
peoples should be assimilated into the parent French culture. holdings into large farms worked by the peasants under govern-
association the concept, developed by the French colonial ment supervision; created in the Soviet Union by Stalin and in
officials, that the colonial peoples should be permitted to retain China by Mao Zedong.
their precolonial cultural traditions. communalism in South Asia, the tendency of people to band
Atlantic Charter a policy statement, drafted by Great Britain and together in mutually antagonistic social subgroups; elsewhere
the United States in 1941, that set out the Allies’ goals for the post– used to describe unifying trends in the larger community.
World War II world, including the self-determination of all peoples. Communist International (Comintern) a worldwide organiza-
tion of Communist Parties, founded by Lenin in 1919 and dedi-
B cated to the advancement of world revolution; also known as the
blitzkrieg “lightning war.” A war conducted with great speed Third International.
and force, as in Germany’s advance at the beginning of World conceptual art an artistic movement beginning in the 1970s
War II. in which the emphasis is on conveying a concept and on the
Boko Haram terrorist group affiliate of al-Qaeda, active in means used to create the art rather than on the object that is
Nigeria and neighboring countries. created.
429
Confucianism a system of thought based on the teachings of E
Confucius (551–479 b.c.e.) that developed into the ruling ideol- Einsatzgruppen in Nazi Germany, special strike forces in the
ogy of the Chinese state. SS that played an important role in rounding up and killing
conquistadors “conquerors.” Leaders in the Spanish conquests Jews.
in the Americas, especially Mexico and Peru, in the sixteenth Elam Tigers a militant separatist organization based in
century. northern Sri Lanka that sought to obtain a separate state for
consumer society a term applied to Western society after World the Tamil people, an ethnic group whose members live in
War II as the working classes adopted the consumption patterns India and Malaysia as well as Sri Lanka; also known as the
of the middle class and installment plans, credit cards, and easy Tamil Tigers (the formal name is Liberation Tigers of Tamil
credit made consumer goods such as appliances and automobiles Eelam).
widely available. eta in feudal Japan, a class of hereditary slaves who were respon-
containment a policy adopted by the United States during the sible for what were considered degrading occupations, such
Cold War. It called for the use of any means, short of all-out as curing leather and burying the dead; known today as the
war, to limit Soviet expansion. Burakumin.
Contras in Nicaragua in the 1980s, an anti-Sandinista guerrilla ethnic cleansing the policy of killing or forcibly removing people
movement supported by the U.S. Reagan administration. of another ethnic group; used by the Serbs against Bosnian
Muslims in the 1990s.
D existentialism a philosophical movement that arose after World
Dadaism an artistic movement in the 1920s and 1930s by artists
War II and emphasized the meaninglessness of life, born of the
who were revolted by the senseless slaughter of World War I
desperation caused by two world wars.
and used their “anti-art” to express contempt for the Western
tradition. F
daimyo prominent Japanese landowning families who provided fascism an ideology that exalts the nation above the individual
allegiance to the local shogun in exchange for protection; similar and calls for a centralized government with a dictatorial leader,
to feudal vassals in Europe. economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression
dalits the lowest level of Indian society, technically outside the of opposition; in particular, the ideology of Mussolini’s Fascist
caste system and considered less than human. Commonly re- regime in Italy.
ferred to as untouchables, they were renamed harijans (“children favelas slums and shantytowns in and around urban areas in Brazil.
of God”) by Gandhi. They remain the object of discrimination feminism the belief in the social, political, and economic equal-
despite affirmative action programs. ity of the sexes; also, organized activity to advance women’s
deconstruction (poststructuralism) a theory formulated by rights.
Jacques Derrida in the 1960s, holding that there is no fixed, Final Solution the Nazis’ name for their attempted physical
universal truth because culture is created and can therefore be extermination of the Jewish people during World War II.
analyzed in various ways. Five Pillars of Islam the core requirements of the Muslim faith:
deficit spending the concept, developed by John Maynard belief in Allah and his prophet, Muhammad; prescribed prayers;
Keynes in the 1930s, that in times of economic depression, observation of Ramadan; pilgrimage to Mecca; and giving alms
governments should stimulate demand by hiring people to do to the poor.
public works, such as building highways, even if this increases five relationships in traditional China, the hierarchical inter-
the public debt. personal associations considered crucial to the social order;
denazification after World War II, the Allied policy of rooting consisted of the subordination of son to father, wife to husband,
out all traces of Nazism in German society by bringing promi- younger brother to older brother, and subject to ruler, and the
nent Nazis to trial for war crimes and purging any known Nazis proper relationship of friend to friend.
from political office. Four Modernizations the radical reforms of Chinese industry,
dependency theory the theory, emerging in the 1960s, that the agriculture, technology, and national defense instituted by Deng
economic underdevelopment of the developing nations of Asia, Xiaoping after his accession to power in the late 1970s.
Africa, and Latin America is caused by their continued economic fracking a process involving the use of a pressurized liquid
domination by the former colonial powers. to fracture rock formations containing shale oil and gas
descamisados the “shirtless ones.” The working-class supporters deposits.

of Juan Perón during his rise to power in Argentina.

desertification the process of becoming desert, often as a result G
of mismanagement of the land or climate change; especially, the genro the ruling clique of aristocrats in Meiji Japan.
expansion of the Sahara. glasnost “openness.” Mikhail Gorbachev’s policy of encouraging
de-Stalinization the policy of denouncing and undoing the Soviet citizens to openly discuss the strengths and weaknesses of
most repressive aspects of Stalin’s regime; begun by Nikita the Soviet Union.
Khrushchev in 1956. globalization a term referring to the trend by which peoples and
détente the relaxation of tension between the Soviet Union and nations have become more interdependent; often used to refer to
the United States that occurred in the 1970s. the development of a global economy and culture.
direct rule a concept devised by European colonial governments global warming the gradual increase in the overall tempera-
to rule their colonial subjects without the participation of lo- ture of the earth's atmosphere, attributed to the greenhouse
cal authorities. It was most often applied in colonial societies in effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide and other
Africa. pollutants.
430 ■ Glossary
Good Neighbor policy a policy adopted by the administration of intifada the “uprising” of Palestinians living under Israeli control,
President Franklin D. Roosevelt to practice restraint in U.S. rela- especially in the 1980s and 1990s.
tions with Latin American nations. Islam the religion derived from the revelations of Muhammad,
Gosplan in the Soviet Union, the “state plan” for the economy the Prophet of Allah; literally, “submission” (to the will of
drawn up by the central planning commission. Allah); also, the culture and civilization based on the faith.
Great Leap Forward a short-lived radical experiment in China,
started in 1958, that created vast rural communes in an attempt K
to replace the family as the fundamental social unit. keiretsu a type of powerful industrial or financial conglomerate
Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution an attempt to destroy that emerged in post–World War II Japan following the abolition
all vestiges of tradition in China in order to create a totally of the zaibatsu.
egalitarian society. Launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, it de- kokutai in Meiji Japan, the core ideology of the state, embodying
volved into virtual anarchy and lasted only until Mao’s death the notion of the supreme authority of the emperor.
in 1976. kowtow the ritual of prostration and touching the forehead to
green revolution the introduction of technological agriculture, the ground, demanded of all foreign ambassadors to the Chinese
especially in India in the late 1960s; increased food production court as a symbol of submission.
substantially but also exacerbated rural inequality because only kulaks prosperous Russian and Ukrainian peasant farmer class
the wealthier farmers could afford fertilizer. who rose from Tsar Alexander II's emancipation of the serfs in
guided democracy the name given by President Sukarno of the late nineteenth century. By the 1930s, many resisted Stalin's
Indonesia in the late 1950s to his style of government, which efforts at farm collectivization, and were targeted for punish-
theoretically operated by consensus. ment by the Soviet regime.
H L
Hamas a militant Islamic group, whose goal is to liberate the laissez-faire French for “leave it alone.” An economic doctrine
Palestinian territories from Israel. Hamas has controlled the that holds that an economy is best served when the government
Gaza Strip since winning elections in 2006. does not interfere but allows the economy to self-regulate
harijans “children of god.” A name used by Mohandas Gandhi to according to the forces of supply and demand.
refer to the dalits (untouchables) in India. Lebensraum “living space.” A doctrine, adopted by Hitler, that
Hezbollah a radical Islamist political party and militant group holds that a nation’s power depends on the amount of land it
based in Lebanon. occupies. Thus, a nation must expand to be strong.
high culture the literary and artistic culture of the educated and liberalism an ideology based on the belief that people should be as
wealthy ruling classes. free from restraint as possible. Economic liberalism is the idea that
hijab a traditional head, face, or body covering worn in public by the government should not interfere in the workings of the econ-
some Muslim women. omy. Political liberalism is the idea that there should be restraints
Hinduism the main religion in India. It emphasizes reincarna- on the exercise of power so that people can enjoy basic civil rights
tion, based on the results of the previous life, and the desirability in a constitutional state with a representative assembly.
of escaping this cycle. Its various forms feature both asceticism liberation theology an activist movement, especially among
and the pleasures of ordinary life and encompass a multitude of Roman Catholic clergy in Latin America, that combines Marxist
gods as different manifestations of one ultimate reality. ideas with a call to liberate the oppressed from injustice.
Holocaust the mass slaughter of European Jews by the Nazis lineage group segment of an African clan. Lineages are traced
during World War II. through a single parent, either father or mother, and trace back
Holodomor the man-made famine imposed by Stalin's regime many generations to a common ancestor. Lineage remains an
on Soviet Ukraine in 1932–1933, during which millions of important aspect of African social identity.
Ukrainians died.
Houthi rebel militant Shi'a group that emerged in Yemen M
in the 1990s, in opposition to the established Sunni-based maharaja originally, a king in the Aryan society of early India
government. (a great raja); later used more generally to denote an important
ruler.
I Marshall Plan the European Recovery Program, under which
imperialism the policy of extending one nation’s power either the United States provided financial aid to European countries to
by conquest or by establishing direct or indirect economic or help them rebuild after World War II.
cultural authority over another. Generally driven by economic Marxism the political, economic, and social theories of Karl
selfinterest, it can also be motivated by a sincere (if often mis- Marx, which included the idea that history is the story of class
guided) sense of moral obligation. struggle and that ultimately the proletariat will overthrow the
indirect rule a colonial policy of foreign rule in cooperation with bourgeoisie and establish a dictatorship en route to a classless
local political elites. Though implemented in much of India and society.
Malaya and in parts of Africa, it was not feasible where resistance mass leisure forms of leisure that appeal to large numbers
was greater. of people in a society, including the working classes; emerged
informal empire the growing presence of Europeans in Africa at the end of the nineteenth century to provide workers
during the first decades of the nineteenth century. During this with amusements after work and on weekends; used during
period, most African states were nonetheless still able to main- the twentieth century by totalitarian states to control their
tain their independence. populations.
Glossary ■ 431
mass society a society in which the concerns of the majority— isms become extinct; known by the shorthand expression
the lower classes—play a prominent role; characterized by “survival of the fittest.”
extension of voting rights, an improved standard of living for the Nazi New Order the Nazis’ plan for their conquered territories;
lower classes, and mass education. included the extermination of Jews and others considered infe-
matrilinear passing through the female line—for example, from rior, ruthless exploitation of resources, German colonization in
a father to his sister’s son rather than to his own—as practiced in the east, and the use of Poles, Russians, and Ukrainians as slave
some African societies; not necessarily or even usually combined labor.
with matriarchy, in which women rule. neocolonialism the use of economic rather than political or
Meiji Restoration the period during the late nineteenth and early military means to maintain Western domination of developing
twentieth centuries when fundamental economic and cultural nations.
changes occurred in Japan, transforming it from a feudal and new course a short-lived liberalizing change in Soviet policy
agrarian society to an industial and technological one. toward Eastern European allies instituted after Stalin’s death in
Mensheviks the faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor 1953.
Party that called for the gradual achievement of socialism by demo- New Culture Movement a protest launched by students at
cratic means and opposed Lenin’s emphasis on violent revolution. Beijing University after the failure of the 1911 revolution; aimed
Me Too movement social movement arising in the 2010s to sup- at abolishing the remnants of the old system and introducing
port and give voice to victims of sexual harassment and sexual Western values and institutions into China.
violence. New Deal the reform program implemented by President
minimalism a style of music originating in the 1960s that is Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s; included large public works
characterized by subtle and gradual transformations of musical programs and the introduction of Social Security.
phrases or rhythmic patterns that are continuously repeated. New Democracy the initial program of the Chinese Communist
ministerial responsibility a tenet of nineteenth-century liberal- government, from 1949 to 1955; focused on honest government,
ism that held that ministers of the monarch should be respon- land reform, social justice, and peace rather than the goal of a
sible to the legislative assembly rather than to the monarch. classless society.
mir a traditional peasant village commune in Russia. New Economic Policy a modified version of the old capital-
MITI the Ministry of International Trade and Industry in Japan; ist system introduced in the Soviet Union by Lenin in 1921 to
responsible for formulating and directing much of Japanese revive the economy after the ravages of the civil war and war
industrial policy after World War II. communism.
Modernism the artistic and literary styles that emerged in the de- New Order in East Asia Japan’s plan in the 1930s to create a
cades before 1914 as artists rebelled against traditional efforts to por- Japanese-dominated sphere of influence comprising Japan,
tray reality as accurately as possible and writers explored new forms. Manchuria, and China.
modernization theory the theory, prevalent in the 1950s and new world order a term used by President George H. W. Bush
1960s, that the world’s newly independent countries would ulti- to refer to the new era of peace and international cooperation
mately follow the Western model and create modern industrial that he envisioned would result after the collapse of the Soviet
societies and that their current economic problems were a conse- Union.
quence of the difficult transition from a traditional agrarian to a Nonaligned Movement an organization of neutralist nations
modern industrial economy. established in the 1950s to provide a third alternative to the
Monroe Doctrine for Asia Japan’s plan to end Western influence socialist bloc, headed by the Soviet Union, and the capitalist
in East Asia while guiding the nations of the region to modern- nations led by the United States. Jawaharlal Nehru of India,
ization and prosperity on the Japanese model. Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt, and Sukarno of Indonesia were
the movement’s chief sponsors.
N
Narodnaya Volya the “People’s Will.” A left-wing Russian terror- O
ist organization that assassinated Tsar Alexander II in 1881. Open Door Notes a series of letters sent in 1899 by U.S.
nationalism a sense of national consciousness based on aware- Secretary of State John Hay to Great Britain, France,
ness of being part of a commmunity—a “nation”—that has Germany, Italy, Japan, and Russia, calling for equal economic
common institutions, traditions, language, and customs and that access to the Chinese market for all states and for the main-
becomes the focus of the individual’s primary political loyalty. tenance of the territorial and administrative integrity of the
nationalization the process of converting a busines or in- Chinese Empire.
dustry from private ownership to government control and organic evolution Darwin’s principle that all plants and animals
ownership. have evolved over a long period of time from earlier and simpler
NATO the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a military alli- forms of life.
ance formed in 1949 in which the signatories (Belgium, Canada,
Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the P
Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United States) agreed to pan-Africanism the concept of African continental unity and
provide mutual assistance if any one of them was attacked; later solidarity in which the common interests of African countries
expanded to include other nations, including former members of transcend regional boundaries.
the Warsaw Pact. pan-Arabism a movement promoted by Egyptian president
natural selection Darwin’s idea that organisms that are most Gamal Abdul Nasser and other Middle Eastern leaders to unify
adaptable to their environment survive and pass on the varia- all Arab peoples in a single supra-national organization. After
tions that enabled them to survive while less adaptable organ- Nasser’s death in 1971, the movement languished.
432 ■ Glossary
Panca Sila the "Five Principles" of Indonesia's state philosophy, S
formulated by nationalist leader Sukarno. Sahel the grassy semidesert region extending across Africa south
pan-Islamism a movement aimed at unifying all Muslim peoples of the Sahara.
throughout Africa; promoted first by Gamal Abdul Nasser of samizdat the clandestine publication and sharing of government-
Egypt and later by Muammar Qaddafi of Libya. suppressed literature in Eastern Bloc countries.
Paris Climate Agreement international accord signed in 2016 samurai “retainers.” Japanese warriors who usually served a
that seeks to mitigate global warming through long-term active particular shogun and lived by a strict code of ethics and duty;
measures by 195 signatory countries to reduce greenhouse gas similar to European knights.
emissions. The United States signed onto the agreement during sati the Hindu ritual requiring a wife to throw herself on her de-
the Obama administration, but the Trump administration has ceased husband’s funeral pyre.
since taken steps to withdraw the U.S. from the agreement. In satyagraha “hold fast to the truth.” The Hindu term for the prac-
the face of the federal government's reversal, many state and tice of nonviolent resistance advocated by Mohandas Gandhi.
local governments and businesses in the U.S. have nonetheless self-strengthening a late-nineteenth-century Chinese policy
expressed their intent to work toward the Paris agreement under which Western technology would be adopted while
goals. Confucian principles and institutions were maintained intact.
peaceful coexistence the policy adopted by the Soviet Union un- sepoys local troops who formed the basis of the British Indian
der Nikita Khrushchev in 1955 and continued by his successors Army; hired by the East India Company to protect British inter-
that called for economic and ideological rivalry with the West ests in South Asia.
rather than nuclear war. Shari’a a law code, originally drawn up by Muslim scholars
perestroika “restructuring.” The term applied to Mikhail shortly after the death of Muhammad, that provides believers
Gorbachev’s economic, political, and social reform in the Soviet with a set of prescriptions to regulate their daily lives.
Union. Shi’ite the second largest tradition of Islam, which split from
polygny the practice of having more than one wife at a time. the majority Sunni soon after the death of Muhammad in a
Pop Art an artistic movement of the 1950s and 1960s in which disagreement over the succession; especially significant in Iran
artists took images of popular culture and transformed them and Iraq.
into works of fine art; for example, Andy Warhol’s paintings of Shinto a kind of state religion in Japan, derived from beliefs in
Campbell’s soup cans. nature spirits and until recently linked with belief in the divinity
popular culture as opposed to high culture, the unofficial written of the emperor and the sacredness of the Japanese nation.
and unwritten culture of the masses, much of which was passed shogun a powerful Japanese leader, originally military, who ruled
down orally and was centered on public and group activities under the titular authority of the emperor.
such as festivals; in the twentieth century, the entertainment, shogunate system the system of government in Japan in which
recreation, and pleasures that people purchase as part of mass the emperor exercised only titular authority while the shoguns
consumer society. (regional military dictators) exercised actual political power.
Popular Fronts governments to be formed by coalitions of left- Sikhism a religion, founded in the early sixteenth century in the
ist parties including Communists in the 1930s as part of Stalin’s Punjab, that began as an attempt to reconcile the Hindu and Muslim
strategy to form a united front with the capitalist nations against traditions and developed into a significant alternative to both.
Nazism. Although the strategy did not succeed in most coun- social Darwinism the application of Darwin’s principle of or-
tries, a Popular Front government was formed in France in 1936 ganic evolution to the social order; led to the belief that progress
and survived until 1938. comes from the struggle for survival as the fittest advance and
Postmodernism a term used to cover a variety of artistic the weak decline.
and intellectual styles and ways of thinking prominent since socialism an ideology that calls for collective or government
the 1970s. ownership of the means of production and the distribution
poststructuralism see deconstruction. of goods.
priyayi the local landed aristocracy in the Dutch East Indies; used socialized medicine health services for all citizens provided by
as local administrators by the Dutch East India Company. government assistance.
proletariat the industrial working class; in Marxism, the class that soviets councils of workers’ and solders’ deputies formed
will ultimately overthrow the bourgeoisie. throughout Russia in 1917; played an important role in the
purdah the Indian term for the practice among Muslims and Bolshevik Revolution.
some Hindus of isolating women and preventing them from as- sphere of influence a territory or region over which an outside
sociating with men outside the home. nation exercises political or economic influence.
Star Wars nickname for the Strategic Defense Initiative, proposed
R by President Ronald Reagan, which was intended to provide a
raja originally, a chieftain in the Aryan society of early India, a
shield that would destroy any incoming missiles; named after a
representative of the gods; later used more generally to denote
popular science fiction movie series.
a ruler.
sultan “holder of power.” A title commonly used by Muslim rul-
reparations payments made by a defeated nation after a war to
ers in the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, and elsewhere; still in use in
compensate another nation for damage sustained as a result of
parts of Asia, sometimes for regional authorities.
the war; required from Germany after World War I.
Sunni the largest tradition of Islam, from which the Shi’ites split
rural responsibility system post-Maoist land reform in China,
soon after the death of Muhammad in a disagreement over the
under which collectives leased land to peasant families, who could
succession.
consume or sell their surplus production and keep the profits.
Glossary ■ 433
Surrealism an artistic movement that arose between World War I uninterrupted revolution the goal of the Great Proletarian
and World War II. Surrealists portrayed recognizable objects in Cultural Revolution launched by Mao Zedong in 1966.
unrecognizable relationships in order to reveal the world of the
unconscious. V
Swahili a mixed African-Arab culture that developed by the varna Indian classes or castes. See also caste system.
twelfth century along the east coast of Africa; also, the national Viet Cong the forces of the National Liberation Front of South
language of Kenya and Tanzania. Vietnam (NLF) during the Vietnam War. The term is short for
“Vietnamese Communists.”
T Vietminh Front the multiparty national alliance led by Ho Chi
Taisho Democracy following the Meiji period, time from 1912 to Minh that took control of northern and central Vietnam after
1926 that saw the rise of democratic institutions and political lib- World War II and waged a “people’s war” of national liberation
eralism in Japan, during the reign of Taisho emperor Yoshihito. against the French.
tariffs duties (taxes) imposed on imported goods; usually Vietnam syndrome the presumption, from the 1970s on, that the
imposed both to raise revenue and to discourage imports and U.S. public would object to a protracted military entanglement
protect domestic industries. abroad, such as another Vietnam-type conflict.
Tea Party faction of the Republican Party arising during the Obama
administration as a grassroots conservative populist movement. W
three obediences the traditional duties of Japanese women, in war communism Lenin’s policy of nationalizing industrial and
permanent subservience: child to father, wife to husband, and other facilities and requisitioning the peasants’ produce during
widow to son. the civil war in Russia.
Three People’s Principles the three principles on which war guilt clause the clause in the Treaty of Versailles that
the program of Sun Yat-sen’s Revolutionary Alliance declared Germany (and Austria) responsible for starting
(Tongmenghui) was based: nationalism (meaning primarily World War I and ordered Germany to pay reparations for
the elimination of Manchu rule over China), democracy, and the damage the Allies had suffered as a result of the war.
people’s livelihood. Warsaw Pact a military alliance, formed in 1955, in which
totalitarian state a state characterized by government control Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary,
over all aspects of economic, social, political, cultural, and intel- Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union agreed to provide mu-
lectual life; subordination of the individual to the state; and insis- tual assistance. After it was dissolved in 1991, most former mem-
tence that the masses be actively involved in the regime’s goals. bers eventually joined NATO.
trade union an association of workers in the same trade, formed welfare state a social and political system in which the govern-
to help members secure better wages, benefits, and working ment assumes primary responsibility for the social welfare of its
conditions. citizens by providing such things as social security, unemploy-
trench warfare warfare in which the opposing forces attack and ment benefits, and health care.
counterattack from a relatively permanent system of trenches women’s liberation movement the struggle for equal rights
protected by barbed wire; characteristic of World War I. for women, which has deep roots in history but achieved new
Truman Doctrine the doctrine, enunciated by President Harry prominence under this name in the 1960s, building on the work
Truman in 1947, that the United States would provide economic of, among others, Simone de Beauvoir and Betty Friedan.
aid to countries that were threatened by Communist expansion.
Y
U Young Turks a successful Turkish refomist group in the late
uhuru “freedom” in Swahili. A key slogan in African indepen- nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
dence movements, especially in Kenya.
ulama a convocation of leading Muslim scholars. The earliest, Z
which took place shortly after the death of Muhammad, drew up zaibatsu powerful business cartels formed in Japan during the
the Shari’a, a law code based largely on the Qur’an and the say- Meiji era and outlawed following World War II.
ings of Muhammad, to provide believers with a set of prescrip- zamindars Indian tax collectors who were assigned land from
tions to regulate their daily lives. which they kept part of the revenue. The British revived the sys-
unconditional surrender complete, unqualified surrender of a tem in a misguided attempt to create a landed gentry.
nation; required of Germany and Japan by the Allies in World Zionism an international movement that called for the establish-
War II. ment of a Jewish state or a refuge for Jews in Palestine.
434 ■ Glossary
INDEX
A African Americans: authors, 208; civil All Quiet on the Western Front (Remarque), 84
Abacha, Sani, 355 rights for, 192–193, 193; Great Society Al-Qaeda, 197; in Afghanistan, 379; Boko
Abbas, Mahmoud, 374 program and, 200; Jim Crow laws, Haram and, 356; September 11th
Abdulhamid (Ottoman Empire), 110 192; lack of opportunities for, 17; terrorist attacks and, 368, 379
Abe, Shinzō, 282 migration to the North, 152; Alsace, 89
Abkhazia, 241 post-World War I, 96 Alternative for Germany (AfD), 254, 255
ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) Treaty, African Economic Community (AEC), 358 Amazon rainforest, 419
185–186 African National Congress (ANC), 347, 355, American Federation of Labor, 17
Abolition of slavery, 17 355 American Indians (Native Americans), 18
Abortion, 203 African Union, 357–358 Amritsar, India, 109
Abstract Expressionists, 207 Afrika Korps, 152 Anarchists, 20
Abstract painting, 101 Afropop, 364 Anastasia (Romanov family), 94
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 384 Age of Exploration, 30 Anatolian peninsula, 15, 112
ACA (Patient Protection and Affordable Age of Imperialism, 29 Anatsui, El, 362
Care Act), 198 Agricultural Involution: The Process of ANC (African National Conference), 347,
Achebe, Chinua, 362, 363 Economical Change in Indonesia 355, 355
Acheson, Dean, 166–167 (Geertz), 51 Andropov, Yuri, 227
Adams, John, 207 Agricultural taxes, 34, 68 Angell, Norman, 80–81
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 350 Agriculture: in Africa, 47, 346, 347; in China, Angkor, 36
Addis Ababa, Treaty of, 49 54–55, 310; Eastern Europe and, 8, 233; Angola, 186, 348
Adenauer, Konrad, 252 in Egypt, 346; in India, 34–35, 327; in the Ankara, Turkey, 112
Adès, Thomas, 271 Middle East, 384–385; plantation, 39, 40, Annexation: African areas, 45, 45; of Algiers
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi, 363 43, 346, 347; in Russia under Yeltsin, 240; and surrounding area, 43; of Austria,
Adowa, Battle of, 49, 49 shift to cities from, in postwar Europe, 140; of Bosnia-Herzegovina, 79; of
Affirmative action, 200 263; slash-and-burn, 418, 419; Southeast Hawaii, 37; of Korea, 71
Affluence, 263–264, 275–276 Asia, 40; Soviet Union under Brezhnev, Anthony, Susan B., 96
Afghanistan: colonialism and, 31; Soviet 224, 225, 227; Soviet Union under Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty,
troops in, 186; Taliban and, 326, 379; Khrushchev, 223; in Taiwan, 288–289. 185–186
U.S. aid to, 187 See also Farming and farmers Anti-Comintern Pact, 139
Africa, 345–364; agriculture, 47, 346, 347; Aguinaldo, Emilio, 37 Anti-Semitism, 135, 225
AIDS in, 352; arts, 361–362, 424; border Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud, 377, 378 ANZUS (Australia, New Zealand, and the
disputes in, 352; Caffard Cove shipwreck, Ahmad, Muhammad (the Mahdi), 43 United States) alliance, 296
42; capitalism in, 349, 353–354; Charter Aidoo, Ama Ata, 361, 362 Apartheid, 347, 354–355
of the Organization of African Unity, AIDS, 352 Apparatchiks, 223
350; Christianity and, 44, 356, 360; Ainu ( Japan), 285–286 Apple computer, 206
cities, 358–359; colonization of, 31, Airplanes, 6, 81 April Theses (Lenin), 91, 92
33, 40–47, 44; culture, 361–364; dance, Air pollution, 7, 268, 311–312, 329 Aquino, Corazon, 335
364; democracy in, 357; depicted in Ai Weiwei, 317 Arabian peninsula, 111, 112
literature, 363; divorce in, 414; economic Akbar, Emperor of India, 34 Arab-Israeli conflict: Camp David agreement,
inequality in, 352–353; education in, Akbar, M.J., 383 374; Hezbollah attacks (2006), 375;
359, 359; ethnic conflict, 352, 356; Albania and Albanians, 169, 260 invasion of Lebanon, 374; oil prices and,
future of, 357–358; immigration Aleppo, Syria, 381 375; PLO and, 372–373, 374–375;
from, 404, 405; before imperialism, Alexander II, 14 Six-Day War, 373–374; Temple Mount
41; Islam in, 352, 360; leaders of, after Alexander III, 14 and, 375; Yom-Kippur war (1973), 374, 375
independence, 349; literature, 362–363; Alexievich, Svetlana, 243 Arab League, 370
map of contemporary, 348; marriage in, Al-Fatah, 373 Arab Republic of Egypt, 374
360–361; Marxism in, 349; missionaries Alfonsín, Raúl, 213 Arabs and Arab world: nationalism in,
in, 44; music and dance, 363–364, 364; Algeria, 110, 381; under colonial rule, 114–116; in new state of Israel, 370;
nationalism in, 346–347, 347–348; as 346; fundamentalist Islam in, 386; Palestine and, 115, 370, 371–372;
a nation in flux, 356–357; obstacles independence of, 249, 347, 372; Pan-Arabism, 368, 370, 372–373; PLO
to change in, 392–393; opposition to transition to independence, 347 (Palestine Liberation Organization),
colonial rule in, 47, 49; Pan-Africanism, Algiers, 43 372–373; Six-Day War and, 373; United
349–350; political and economic Ali, Haider, 47 Arab Republic (UAR), 372; Wahhabi
conditions in independent, 350–353; Ali, Muhammad, 16, 43 revolt, 114–115
poverty in, 402; religion in, 44, 360, 415; Allenby, Edmund, 85 Arab socialism, 384
rural and urban areas in, 359–360; the Allied Council, Tokyo, 279 Arab Spring, 380, 426
Sahel, 345–346; socialism in, 349, 353, Allied Reparations Commission, 95 Arab traders, 41
354; trade, 3, 30, 41; Western interference Allies (World War I), 83, 85, 86, 89 Arab Women’s Solidarity Association, 389
during Cold War, 351–352; women in, 47, Allies (World War II), 151, 152–153, 154, 162 Arafat, Yasir, 373, 375
360–361, 393–394; World War I and, 83 All-India Muslim League, 113 Aramco, 115
435
Architecture: Bauhaus School, 102; the Austria-Hungary, 14, 15; in 1871, 15; collapse Battle of Kursk, 153
Chicago school, 26; functionalism, 26; in of, 63; Industrial Revolution and, 75; Battle of Masurian Lakes, 81
Japan, 71; modernism in, 26, 102; post- Treaty of Versailles and, 89–90; in Triple Battle of Stalingrad, 152
World War I, 102; Soviet era, 232 Alliance, 79; World War I and, 79–80, 81 Battle of Tannenburg, 81
Ardennes forest, 146 Authoritarian regimes. See Dictatorial regimes Battle of the Bulge, 153
Arendt, Hannah, 134 Autocracy, 381–382 Battle of the Coral Sea, 150
Argentina: autocratic rule in, 127; cattle Automobile(s): in China, 311; in Cuba, 216; Battle of Waterloo, 12
ranchers, 19; Falkland Islands and, 213; internal combustion engine and, 6; Bauhaus School, 102
military and, 213; oil industry in, 127; Middle Eastern women driving, 387; Bay of Bengal, 330
population, 19; trade, 127; urbanization new technology in, 206; For plants, 96; Bay of Pigs (1961), 180–181, 216
in, 19 in postwar Europe, 264, 266 The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born
Arguedas, José Maria, 217 Automobile industry, 6 (Armah), 351
Aristocracy, in Europe, 7. See also Elite class Ayodhya, India, 327 Beauvoir, Simone de, 268, 269
Armah, Ayi Kwei, 351 Azadi, Sousan, 387 Bechuanaland (Botswana), 46
Armenia, 112, 238, 261 Azerbaijan, 166, 261 Beckett, Samuel, 270–271
Arms race, 171, 186–187 Azuelo, Mariano, 130 Beer Hall Putsch, 135
Arranged marriages, 69, 123, 124, 313, 361 Begin, Menachim, 374, 374
Art(s): Abstract Expressionists, 207; Abstract B Beijing, China, 57, 60
paintings, 101; African, 361–362, 424; in B-29 bombers, 156 Beijing University, 118–119
China, 123, 316–317; conceptual, 207; Ba’ath Party, 372, 384 Belarus, 240, 261
contemporary, 422–423; Dadaism, 101; Ba’ath vision of Hussein, 378 Belgian Congo, 33, 44, 45, 47, 348, 351
in Japan, 71, 72; late nineteenth century, Babur, 34 Belgium: colonization in Africa, 44, 44, 45; in
24–26, 25; Mexican, 130; in the 1920s, Baby boomers, 197 the Common Market, 249; NATO and,
101; Pop Art, 207; postwar Europe, Bacon, Francis, 271 168; steel and, 5; uprising in 1848, 13
271; post-World War II American, 207; Baghdad, 114, 378 Bell, Alexander Graham, 6, 408
Soviet era, 232; in Soviet Union under Bahrain, 381 Belloc, Hilaire, 49
Gorbachev, 235–236; Surrealism, 101 Ba Jin, 124 Bellow, Saul, 208
Artificial Intelligence (AI), 409 Bakhtiar, Shapur, 376 Ben Bella, Ahmad, 347, 372
Art-manga, 288 Bakunin, Mikhail, 20 Bengali, 326
Arusha Declaration of 1967, 353, 354 Baldwin, James, 208 Ben-Gurion, David, 370, 373
ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Balfour Declaration, 115, 116, 370 Berbers, 347
Nations), 339, 342–343 Balfour, Lord Arthur, 115 Beria, Lavrenti, 221
Ashanti, 43, 49, 348 Bali, 338, 341 Berlin Airlift, 168
Asia: capitalism in, 400–401; Cold War in, Balkans, the: nationalism in, 15–16; Soviet Berlin Blockade, 168
171–176; colonization in, 31; divorce occupation of, 165; territorial changes Berlin Conference (1884), 45
in, 414; events leading to World War after World War I, 90; Treaty of Berlin Crisis (1957), 179
II in, 142–144; Lenin and, 116–117; Versailles and, 90; World War I and, Berlin, Germany, 229; division of, 168, 168,
nationalist movements in, 106; religion 79–80, 80; World War II and, 146. 169; at end of World War II, 246
in, 415; Shidehara diplomacy and, 126; See also individual country names Berlin Wall, 229; fall of, 236–238, 238
trade with, 3; women and economic Ballet Russe, 26 Bernstein, Leonard, 179
development in, 403; women in, 393; Baltic region, 148, 153 Bertolucci, Bernardo, 301
World War II in, 149–151, 150. See also Baluchis, the (Pakistan), 325 Bey (Turkey), 112
Southeast Asia; specific locations Al-Bana, Hasan, 115 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 325
Al-Assad, Bashir, 380, 382 “Banana Chinese,” 121 Bhopal, 329
Assimilation, colonialism and, 32 “Banana republics,” 127 Bhutto, Benazir, 326
Association, colonialism and, 32 Bandung Conference (1955), 324 Bhutto, Zulfikar Ali, 326
Association of Southeast Asian Nations Bangalore, India, 329 Biafra, 352, 355
(ASEAN), 339, 342–343 Bangladesh, 324, 330, 403 Biao, Lin, speech (1966), 178–179
Al-Aswany, Alaa, 388 Banknotes, 95 Bicycle program, Paris, 268
Atatürk. See Kemal Atatürk, Mustafa Bank of England, 254 Big Four, 88
Atlantic Charter, 152, 333, 391 Banks and banking: Great Depression and, 97; Big Three, 88, 153
Atlee, Clement, 154, 254, 322 Latin America borrowing money from Binding feet (China), 64, 64, 65, 123
Atomic bomb: bombing of Japan, 156–157; foreign, 210 Bin Laden, Osama, 197, 368, 369, 379
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 156; Potsdam Bannon, Steve, 412 Bin Salman, Muhammad, 381, 387
Conference and, 154–155 Bantu-speaking peoples, 45 Biological weapons, 151
Atta, Sefi, 363 Barak, Ehud, 375 Birmingham, England, coal pollution in, 7
Attenborough, Richard, 109 Barth, John, 207 Birth rates, 264, 385
Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma), 336, 341 Al-Bashir, Omar Hassan, 356 Bismarck, Otto von, 13, 79
Aurora (battleship), 91 Basketball, 208 Black Africans, voting rights for, 346
Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, 148 Basquiat, Jean-Michel, 425 Black Lines No. 189 (Kandinsky), 102
Australia: postwar, 296; women’s right to vote Basutoland (Lesotho), 46 The Black Man’s Burden (Morel), 33
in, 10; World War I and, 83; World War Bataan peninsula, 149 Black Muslims, 193
II and, 150 Batavia ( Jakarta), Java, 40 Blair, Tony, 257
Austria: annexation of, 140; events Bathing Women (Cézanne), 25 Blitzkrieg, 145, 146
leading to World War I and, 79–80; Batista, Fulgenico, 127, 215 Boers, the, 45, 45, 47, 49
parliamentary system in, 137; Treaty Battle at Normandy, 153 Boer War, 46
of Versailles and, 89, 90, 94; uprisings Battle of Britain, 146 Bohemia, 141
in 1848 and, 13 Battle of Dien Bien Phu, 176 Boko Haram, 356, 361
436 ■ Index
Bolívar, Simón, 18, 19, 217 Burundi, 356 Central America: immigration from, 400, 405;
Bolivia, copper mining industry, 127 Buru Quartet (Toer), 342 racial diversity in, 17; trade, 127; U.S.
Bolsanaro, Jair, 214–215 Bush, George H.W., 196; on New World influence in, 127
Bolshevik Revolution (1917), 85, 91–93, 116 Order, 187–188; war on terrorism, 197 Central Asia, 29, 238
Bolsheviks, 91–93, 94, 99 Bush, George W. Jr., 197–198; Iraq and, 379; Central Europe: in 1939, 140; dominating
Bombay (Mumbai), textile mills in, 35 “war on terror” and, 398 world economy, 7. See also individual
Bonn, Germany, 252 country names
The Book (Kiefer), 271 C Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 216
Border disputes, 339–340, 352 Caffard Cove, 42 Central Kingdom (China), 54
Borneo, 40, 335, 419 Cage, John, 207 Central Powers (World War I), 85, 89
Bosnia, 16; Austrian annexation of, 79; World Cairo Trilogy (Mahfouz), 387 Césaire, Aimé, 349
War I and, 80 Cai Yuanpei, 119 Cézanne, Paul, 25, 25–26
Bosnia-Herzegovina, 258 Calcutta, 108 Chador, 387
Botswana, 46 Calderón, Felipe, 215 Chaebol, 291
Boulez, Pierre, 271 Caliphate, 112, 113 Chamberlain, Neville, 141
Bourgeoisie, 7, 14, 21, 92 Cambodia, 37, 38–39; border dispute with Changes: A Love Story (Ata Aidoo), 362
Boxer Rebellion, 60, 61 Vietnam and, 340; French withdrawal, Charter 77, 236
Brahma, 32 176; Khmer Rouge, 338, 338–339 Chávez, Hugo, 217
Brahmin (India), 110 Camera, 25 Chechnya, 239
Brandt, Willy, 252 Cameron, David, 257 Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin, Germany, 169
Braque, Georges, 26 Camp David, 179 Cheka, 93–94
Brazil, 213–215; Amazon rainforest, 419; Camp David agreement, 374, 374 Chen Shui-bian, 290
autocratic rule in, 128–129; coffee Camus, Albert, 270 Chernenko, Konstantin, 227, 234
barons in, 19; economy, 214, 215; Canada: economy, 208; Helsinki Accords Chernobyl incident (1986), 227, 235, 243, 418
independence from Portugal, 18; and, 186; language, 209–210; NAFTA Chiang Ching-kuo, 290
Portugal and, 17; post-World War II and, 197; national unity in, 17; NATO Chiang Kai-shek, 111, 120, 121–122, 123; Cold
politics, 213–215; steel industry in, 127; and, 168; politics, 209; relationship with War in Asia and, 171; on Communists,
trade, 127; urbanization in, 19 U.S., 208 171–172; criticism of, 121; death,
Brazil Workers’ Party (BWP), 214 Canada Pension Plan, 209 290; Japan and, 138; on the Japanese,
Brexit (British Referendum Act), 257–258 Can Vuong, 47 119–120, 142; kidnapping of, 142; Mao
Brezhnev Doctrine, 229, 230 Cape Colony, 28, 45, 46, 346 Zedong an, 174; National Kai-shek
Brezhnev, Leonid, 185, 223–227 Cape of Good Hope, 41, 43 Memorial Hall, 289; opposing the
Briand, Aristide, 95 Cape Town, South Africa, 29, 358 communists, 119; Taiwan and, 288;
Bribery, 351 Cape Verde, 43 World War II and, 149–150
Bridge of Spies (film), 180 Capitalism: in Africa, 349, 353–354; in Asia, Chiapas, Mexico, 129
The Bridge on the River Kwai (film), 151 400–401; China and, 56; economic Chicago, Illinois, 98
Brigandage (thuggee), 34 performance and, 398; in Europe, 20, 22; The Chicago school, 26
Britain. See Great Britain European welfare state and, 398–399; Chihuahua, Mexico, 129
Britain, Battle of, 146 Great Depression and, 139–140; in Child labor, 8
British Columbia, Canada, 17 Japan, 139; Marxism and, 20; New Child marriage, 34, 108, 331, 331
British Isles, Industrial Revolution and, 3 Economic Policy (NEP) and, 99; reforms Chile, 127; steel industry in, 127; trade, 127;
British Referendum Act (Brexit), 257–258 in Europe, 20, 22; technology and, 407; urbanization in, 19
Brooks, Geraldine, 388 in the U.S., 17, 399–400 China, 392; agriculture, 54–55, 310; art(s),
Brown, Gordon, 257 Capitalist countries, Soviet Popular Fronts 123, 316–317; attack on Vietnam, 340;
Brown versus the Board of Education (1954), 192 with, 140 Australia/New Zealand and, 296; Boxer
Broz, Josip (Tito). See Tito ( Josip Broz) Cárdenas, Lázaro, 129–130 Rebellion in, 60; Buddhism an, 64, 316,
Brunei, 340 Cardoso, Fernando, 214 316; capitalism and, 56; Christianity and,
Buchenwald, death camp at, 149 Carnegie Steel Company, 17 64, 316; civil war in, 171–173, 173; as
Buddhism and Buddhists, 308; in China, 64, Carson, Rachel, 204, 205, 418 a closed society, 54; clothing styles in,
316, 316; modern nationalism and, 107; Cartels, 6–7 315; colonialism and, 31; communism,
revolutionary Marxism and, 117; Soka Carter Doctrine, 186 119, 120, 121, 142, 171–173, 299–302,
Gakkai in Japan, 287; in Southeast Asia, Carter, Jimmy, 186; Camp David Accords and, 303, 304; communism in the West
340; in Vietnam, 182 374, 374; economy under, 196 vs. in, 317–318; Confucianism, 54;
Buenos Aires, Brazil, 19 Casement, Roger, 47 consumerism in, 313, 315; countryside
Buhari, Muhammadu, 356 Castes, 34 and farmers, 122–123; Cultural
Bulgaria, 16, 233; autonomy of, 16; Castro, Fidel, 180, 217 Revolution in, 298–299, 300–302, 303,
parliamentary system in, 137; removal Castro, Raúl, 216 312–313; debate over reform in, 58;
of Communist Party, 236; Treaty of Caterpillar tractor, 81 democracy in, 303–304; under Deng
Versailles and, 89; Warsaw Pact, 169; Catholic Church and Catholics: in France, Xiaoping, 303–308, 309–310; divorce
World War I and, 81 251; Latin America and, 18, 19, 211, in, 414; economic development in, 304,
Bulge, Battle of the, 153 212; Mussolini’s fascism and, 135; Nazi 306, 392, 401; economic problems,
Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Germany and, 137; Northern Ireland, 122–123; education in, 300–301, 309;
Maidens), 137 256; in Northern Ireland, 256; in Poland, electronic media in, 416; environmental
Burakumin, 285 228; Vietnam and, 176 concerns, 311–312; family in, 312;
Burma (Myanmar), 37, 59, 333, 334, 336, 340, Cattelan, Maurizio, 424 foreign concession areas in, 56–57, 63,
343; under Japanese occupation, 151; Cattle ranchers, 19 65; foreign investment in Africa, 357;
modern nationalism in, 107 Caucasus, the, 238 Four Modernizations in, 303–304; Great
Burma-Thailand railway, 151 The Cave (Saramago), 271 Leap Forward in, 300; Hong Kong
Index ■ 437
and, 294, 295; human rights and, 411; Chunshan Gate, Nanjing, 143 Colonialism: in Africa, 31, 33, 40–41, 346–347;
imperialism in, 59–60, 60, 63; India and, Churchill, Winston: Atlantic Charter and, 391; assimilation and, 32; association and,
324; industrial development in, 55–56, on democracy, 411; speech about Soviet 32; cultural influences and, 39; direct
122, 310–311; Japan and, 65, 119, 126, threat (1946), 166; on United Nations, and indirect rule of, 31, 46–47; end of,
142–143, 143, 144; Kissinger’s trip to, 154; World War II and, 146, 152 391; Gandhi and Indian resistance to,
184; Korea and, 70; Korean War and, Church of the Holy Wisdom, Turkey, 386 108–110; impact of, in Africa, 350–351;
175; literature, 124; the Long March, CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), 216 Industrial Revolution and, 29, 30;
120, 122; Macartney mission, 53–54; Civil disobedience, 110 nationalist movements and, 106–107;
under Mao Zedong, 299–303, 309; map Civil Rights Act (1964), 193, 194 philosophy of, 31–32; resistance to,
of current boundaries, 307; marriage Civil rights, in the U.S., 96, 192–193, 193 47–51; rubber and, 38; social Darwinism
in, 123, 124, 314; “mass line” system in, Civil service examination, 60, 64 and, 29, 31, 32; tactics of conquest,
309; minorities in, 308; modernization, Civil war: in China, 171–173, 173; in Russia 30–31; “white man’s burden” and,
121–122, 123–124, 303–304; Mukden after Bolshevik Revolution, 93–94; 31–32, 33, 44
Incident and, 138; myth of European in Sudan, 356; in Syria, 380, 381; in Colonies and colonization: in Africa, 41–47;
superiority and, 29; “Nanjing incident” U.S., 17 British, 32–35, 35, 36–37; Communist
in, 142; Nanjing Republic, 119–121; Cixi, Empress Dowager (China), 59, 61, 301 International in, 117; French, 37, 38–39;
nationalist movement, 119–122; New The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, modern nationalism and, 107–108;
Culture Movement in, 117–119; New and India’s Future, 333 nationalist movements and, 106–107;
Democracy in, 299; October uprising Classical economics, 12 recruiting soldiers for World War from,
in (1911), 61–63; One Belt, One Road Clemenceau, Georges, 86, 88 83; in Southeast Asia, 36–40, 37; U.S.,
Initiative, 307; Opium War, 56, 57; Cleveland, Ohio, 98 37–38
in the Pacific Rim, 306–307; Paris Climate change, 204, 206, 394; debate over, Columbus, Christopher, 17
Climate Agreement and, 420; pollution 420–421; growing recognition of, 276; “Comfort women,” 151, 285
in, 419, 419; population control, 310; impact of, 417, 419, 419–420; map of Comintern, 117, 118, 119
post-World War I, 106; Qing dynasty global, 418; migration and, 406; Paris Commerce. See Trade
(1644-1911), 54–56; reform in Qing, Climate Agreement and, 420; projection Committee for State Security (KGB), 222
58–59, 60–61; religion in, 308, 316, 316, of degree of, map, 418; role of humans Common Market (Europe), 249, 261. See also
415; revolutionary Marxism and, 117, in, 417–418 European Union (EU)
122; silk factory in, 402; Singapore and, Clinton, Bill: economy under, 196–197; Communalism, 327
293; social change in, 123; social unrest, scandals relating to, 197 Communism: in China, 119, 120, 121,
60–61; Soviet Russia and, 171, 173, 180, Clinton, Hillary Rodham, 198 142, 171–173; in China under
181; Sun Yat-Sen and, 61–63; Taiping Clitoridectomy, 47 Deng Xiaoping, 303, 304; in China
Rebellion, 56–57; Taiwan an, 174, 176; Clothing styles: in India, 332; in Southeast under Mao Zedong, 299–302;
Taiwan and, 181, 289–290, 307, 308; Asia, 340 Chinese society under, 308–316;
Tiananmen Square demonstrations, Coal and coal industry, 97; cartels, 7; child Communist International and,
304, 305; Tibet and, 174, 308; trade labor in, 8; in Germany, 254; in Great 117; in Czechoslovakia, 165; in
between Europe and, 29–30; U.S. trade Britain, 3; Industrial Revolution and, Eastern Europe, 165, 166; economic
relations with, 400; Vietminh and, 176; 3, 4; post-World War I, 96; Soviet Union, development and, 391; Germany
Vietnam War and, 182, 184; women in, 227; used in China, 418; use in and, 133–134; Ho Chi Minh on, 118;
64, 64–65, 123, 312, 313, 393; World War China, 312 Indonesia and, 335; in Korea, 175;
II and, 150; under Xi Jinping, 306; under Coastal flooding, 204 in postwar Europe, 248; “red scare”
Yuan Shikai, 117. See also Qing dynasty Code breakers, in World War II, 146 and, 177, 191–192; in Southeast Asia,
(1644-1911) Coffee barons, 19 335; stages leading to, 99; Thatcher’s
Chinese Central Asia (Xinjiang), 59 Coffee production, 128 foreign policy (Great Britain) on, 256;
Chinese Communist Party (CCP), 117, 119, Cold War, 165; in Asia, 171–176; Berlin threat of expansion of (See Cold War);
172, 173; Bolsheviks and, 309; Deng blockade, 168; Berlin Crisis and, 179; Vietnam and, 176, 182; Vietnam War
Xiaoping an, 304; under Mao Zedong, Brezhnev, Leonid and, 185; under and, 181–185; in the West vs. China,
299, 300–301; Tibet and, 308; women Carter, 186; Chinese civil war and, 317–318; Yugoslavia and, 165–166.
in, 312 171–173; coexistence and, 176–180; See also Chinese Communist Party (CCP);
“Chinese dream,” 306–307, 306–308 containment policy, 168; Cuban Missile Marx, Karl and Marxism; Socialism
Chinese Lives (Zhang Xinxin), 314 Crisis and, 180–182; debate on who Communist International (Comintern), 117
Chinese Turkestan, 174 began the, 169–171; détente and, Communist Manifesto, 21
Chirac, Jacques, 250 185–186; European alliance system The Communist Manifesto (Marx and Engels),
Choshu, Japan, 67 in, 170; events leading to, 165–166; 20, 21
Christian Democrats, 248, 253 global conflicts and disputes following, Communist Party (China). See Chinese
Christianity and Christians: in Africa, 356, 397–398; global, map of, 177; Japan and, Communist Party (CCP)
360; in China, 64, 316; Darwin’s theory 280; Korean War, 175; migration and, Communist Party (German), 168
of evolution and, 23; evangelical, 197, 404; NATO and, 168; “new world order” Communist Party (Indonesia), 335
414–415; evolutionary theory and, 417; after, 397; prospects of a new, 275; under Communist Party (Soviet Union), 100, 165,
in India, 327; in Indonesia, 337, 338; in Reagan, 186–187; red scare and, 177; 225
Israel, 373; in Lebanon, 370; in Nigeria, renewed suspicions under Carter, 186; Communist Party of Mexico, 130
356; prevalence in modern world, 415; Southeast Asia and, 181–185, 333–335; Compulsory education, 8
in Sudan, 356; Taiping Rebellion and, 57; Taiwan and, 174; Truman Doctrine and, Concentration camps: Boer War and, 46;
Victorian middle class and, 8 166–167; Vietnam and, 181–182; Warsaw Nazi, 137, 149, 149; Siberian, 221;
Christian missionaries, 32, 44, 54, 65 Pact and, 169; Western interference in Soviet, 225, 226; of Stalin, 100, 221,
Chulaloongkorn, king of Thailand, 37 Africa during, 351–352; Yugoslavia 222, 223
Chun Doo Hwan, 291 and, 166 Conceptual art, 207, 424
Chungking, China, 143, 150 Collective farms, 100, 299, 312, 335 Conformity, in Japan, 284–285, 286
438 ■ Index
Confucianism and Confucian values, 54, 64, Currency: European common, 261; German, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
123; communism in China and, 318; for reparations, 95, 95 (DPRK), 175, 291
family, 123, 312; five relationships, 313; Cyprus, 261 Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
in Japan and the Little Tigers, 294–295; Czechoslovakia: communist government in, (Taiwan), 290
in Singapore, 293; in Southeast Asia, 165; division of, 258; education, 233; Democratic Republic of the Congo, 348, 356
340; Xi Jinping presidency and, 306 Hungarian uprising and, 228; in 1939, Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), 176
Congo. See Belgian Congo map, 140; parliamentary system in, 137; Democratic socialism, India and, 322–324
Congress of People’s Duties, 235 Prague Spring, 229; Soviet invasion of, Demographic problems: in China, 310, 311; in
Congress of Vienna, 12, 13, 79 229, 230; Soviet Popular Fronts and, India, 324, 327, 329; in Japan, 287
Congress Party (India), 322, 324–325, 140; Sudetenland and, 140; transition Denazification, 168
326–327 from Soviet satellite to sovereign nation, Deng Xiaoping, 300, 303–308, 309
Conquistadors, 18 236; Treaty of Versailles and, 90, 94; Denmark: in the European Community (EC),
Conrad, Joseph, 362 velvet revolution, 236; Versailles Treaty 261; NATO and, 168; World War II and,
Conservative Party, 16, 251 provisions, 139; Warsaw Pact, 169 146, 148
Conservative Party (Great Britain), 254–255 Czech Republic, 258, 261, 263 Department stores, 6
Constantinople, 110 Desai, Anita, 331
Constituent Assembly, 94 D Descamisados, 128
Constitution(s): Indonesian, 335; Japan, 67–68, Dadaism, 71, 101 The Descent of Man (Darwin), 24
70, 279, 280, 281; United States, 412 Da Gama, Vasco, 30 Desertification, 352
Constitutional monarchy, 12, 13, 14–15 Dahran, 115 De-Stalinization, 223, 225
Constitutional Party (Mexico), 129 Daimyo ( Japan), 65–66, 67 Détente, 185–186
Consumerism and consumer goods, 275; Dalí, Salvador, 101 Detroit, Michigan, 98
in Africa, 352; in China, 311, 313, 315; Dalits, 325, 330 Devil on the Cross (Ngugi), 362
decline in quality of Japanese, 282–283; Dance, African, 364 Dewey, George, 37
in Eastern Europe, 233; in India, 329, Danzig, 142 Dewey, John, 118
333; industrialization and, 6; postwar Daoism (Taoism), 64, 67, 308, 316 Dhaka, Pakistan, 326
Europe and, 263–264; in Soviet Union, Dardanelles, 112 Dhoti, 109, 111
221, 227; technological progress Darwin, Charles: The Descent of Man, 24; Diabeté, Toumani, 364
and, 408 influence on Zola, 23; The Origin of Diaghilev, Sergei, 26
Consumer society, 199 Species, 23; social Darwinism, 29; Diamonds, Boer War and, 46
Container ships, 408 “survival of the fittest,” 31; theory of Diaoyu Islands, 307
Containment policy, 168, 171, 186 evolution, 23, 24 “Diary of a Madman” (Lu Xun), 123
Convention People’s Party, 347 Das Kapital (Capital) (Marx), 20 Díaz, Porfirio, 19, 129
Cookstoves, 403 Dawes Plan, 95 Dickens, Charles, 3
Coolidge, Calvin, 195 The Day of the Oprichnik (Sorokin), Dictatorial regimes: after World War II,
Copper mining industry, 127 243–244 247–248; in Eastern Europe, 137;
Coral Sea, Battle of the, 150 The Day the Sun Dies (Yan), 317 Islam and, 383; in Italy, 134–135; in
Corbyn, Jeremy, 258 DDT, 205, 421 Spain, 138
Corregidor, 149 Death camps, in World War II, 148 Diefenbaker, John, 209
Corruption, in Russia, 240, 243 Death in Shanghai (Nien Cheng), 302 Dien Bien Phu, battle at, 176
Cottage industry, 9 Declaration of Independence (1776), 11 Ding Ling, 316
Cotton, 4, 69 Declaration of Rights, 3 Direct democracy, 17
Council for Mutual Economic Assistance The Declaration of Sentiments, 10, 11 Direct rule, 31, 38, 46–47
(COMECON), 169 Deconstruction, 271 “Dirty War” (Argentina), 213
Council of People’s Commissars, 93 Defence of the Realm Act (DORA), 86 Divorce, 69, 287, 312, 414
Credit-Anstalt (bank), 97 Deficit spending, 97 Dizac, François, 42
Crimea, 241, 242 Degas, Edgar, 72 Djibouti, 45
Crimean peninsula, 152 De Gaulle, Charles, 153, 249, 250, 347 Djugashvili, Joseph. See Stalin, Joseph and
Croatia, 258, 259 De Klerk, F.W., 355, 355 Stalinism
Cry, the Peacock (Desai), 331 Demilitarization. of Japan, 279 Doctor Atomic (Adams), 207
Cuba, 37; automobiles and, 216; Bay of Pigs Democracy: in Africa, 357; in China, 303–304; Doctor Zhivago (Pasternak), 232
invasion, 180–181, 216; independence in Eastern Europe, 137, 265–266; in Doctrine of equivalence, 186
from Spain, 19; revolution in, 215–216 Europe, 134, 411–412; exporting, A Doll’s House (Ibsen), 202
Cuban Missile Crisis, 180–182, 216 426–427; facing challenges of Domestic servants, 8
Cubism, 26 globalization and, 425–426; following Dominican Republic, 19
Cultural Revolution (China), 300–302, 303, World War I, 96; in India, 326; Islam Domino theory, 167, 182
309, 312–313, 316 and, 382, 383; in Japan, 125, 126–127, Dona Barbara (Gallegos), 130
Culture: African, 361–364; British colonization 138–139; in postwar Europe, 247–248, Donnersmarck, Florian Henckel, 231
in India and, 35; China’s Cultural 265–266; in postwar Southeast Asia, Don Segundo Sombra (Guiraldes), 130
Revolution and, 300–302; colonialism 333–335, 334; Progressive Era, 17; Dreiser, Theodore, 102
and, 32, 39; Cultural Revolution and, Sun’s Three People’s Principles, 61; Drones, 408–409
316; developments in (1870-1914), superiority of liberal, 410–411; in Drought, in India (1870s), 35
22–26; global, 423–424; Japanese, 71–72, Taiwan, 289–290; Tiananmen Square Dubček, Alexander, 229
283, 287–288; Latin American, 130, 217; protests and, 304, 305 Dubois, W.E.B., 349
post-World War II American, 206–208; Democracy Wall, Beijing, 304 Duchamp, Marcel, 101
success of Japan and Little Tigers and, Democratic National Headquarters, 195 Duma, the, 14–15
294–295. See also Architecture; Art(s); Democratic Party (United States), 191, 192, Dunhuang, China, 312
Literature; Music; Religion 195, 198 Dunkirk, beaches of, 147
Index ■ 439
Dutch East Indies, 36, 38, 40, 333; Japan and, 127; Meiji ( Japan), 68; in the Middle Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World
143–144, 151; modern nationalism and, East, 382, 384–385; Nazi Germany and, Order and the Lessons for Global Power
107; World War II and, 149 136; postwar Germany, 253; post-World (Ferguson), 75–76
Dutch spice trade, 36 War II American, 191; post-World War Employment. See Labor
Duterte, Rodrigo, 335 II Soviet Union, 221, 225–227; under The End of History and the Last Man
Reagan, 196; in Southeast Asia, 334, 339; (Fukuyama), 411
E Soviet, 99, 187, 220–221, 225–227; Soviet Enfield rifle, 49
East Africa, the British in, 46 New Economic Policy (NEP), 99; U.S., Engels, Friedrich, 20, 21
East Asian miracle, 278–279, 283–284, 294–295 196–197, 198, 199; Vietnam, 338 England, Brexit votes in, 257. See also Great
Eastern Europe: after fall of Communist Edo (Tokyo), Japan, 66, 67 Britain
governments, 258–260; agriculture Education: in Africa, 359, 359; under British Enigma (German code machine), 146
in, 8, 233; communism in, 165, 166; rule in India, 34; in China, 300–301, Enlightenment, 12, 22
democracy under stress in postwar, 309; China’s Cultural Revolution and, Environmental issues, 203–206, 417–423; in
265–266; education in, 233–234; 300–301; Eastern Europe, 233–234; in China, 311–312; fracking, 421; growing
industrialization and, 7; nationalism and, Japan, 68–69, 279, 282, 284, 285; postwar awareness of, 418–419; in India, 329;
13; in 1948, map, 166; pollution in, 418; Europe, 266, 267; in Qing China, 64, Industrial Revolution and, 7, 418; Kyoto
slow economic growth in, 265; social 65; Saudi Arabian women in higher, conference (1997), 420; in need of
changes in, 233–234; Soviet occupation 388; in Southeast Asia, 340; women and attention, 397; in postwar Europe, 268,
of, 165, 227–228; Treaty of Versailles compulsory, 8; for women, economic 270; rainforests and, 419; in Southeast
and, 89–90, 94; U.S. intervention in, development and, 402–403 Asia, 339, 339; UN report on, 422.
228–229; Yalta Agreement and, 154. Egypt: after World War II, 370; agriculture, See also Climate change; Pollution;
See also individual country names 346; Arab-Israeli dispute and, 370, Population growth
Eastern Front, in World War I, 82 372, 373; Arab Spring uprising in, 380; Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 205
Eastern Samoa, 37 autonomy from Ottoman rule, 16; Equal Rights Amendment, 201, 203
East Germany, 168, 180; Berlin Wall, 229–230; colonization, 43; feminism in, 387; Erdogan, Recep, 382
creation of, 168; education in, 233; fall fundamentalist Islam in, 386; literature, Estonia, 90, 261
of Berlin Wall and, 236–238, 238; film 387–388, 387–389; modernized Islamic Eta, in Japan, 285
about, 231; people leaving for West beliefs in, 385; under Nasser, 370, Ethiopia, 186, 351; Fascist Italy and, 139;
Germany, 229; persistence of Stalinism 372; nationalist movement, 115–116; resistance to colonialism in, 49; war
in, 229–230; reunifying with West Palestine question and, 370; PLO with Italy, 17
Germany, 252–253; Stasi in, 230, 231, and, 372; reform efforts (1830s), 16; Ethnic Albanians, 260
253; television sets in, 233; Warsaw Suez Canal and, 43; Tahir Square Ethnic cleansing, 259
Pact, 169; worker strikes in, 179. demonstrations, 380; United Arab Ethnic conflicts: in Africa, 352, 356; in the
See also Germany Republic (UAR) and, 372; women in, Balkans, 397
East India Company, 34, 49, 56 115, 387; World War II and, 152 Ethnic diversity, as obstacle to global
East Indies trade, 40 Ehrenburg, Ilya, 232 change, 393
Eastman, George, 25 Eiffel, Gustave, 6 Ethnic minorities, 275
East Pakistan, 324, 325, 326 Eiffel Tower, 6 EU. See European Union (EU)
East Timor, 337–338 Einsatzgruppen, 148 Eurasia, trade and, 29–30
Ebert, Friedrich, 96 Einstein, Albert, 22–23 Europe: aristocracy, 7; capitalism in, 20, 22;
Economic changes: in eighteenth century Eisenhower, Dwight D.: on Brown versus Board colonialism and, 30–31; decrease in
Great Britain, 3; Great Depression and, of Education ruling, 192; Cuba and, 216; population in, 405; democracy in, 134,
97–98; under Meiji government in Japan, infrastructure and, 191; meeting with 247–248, 265–266, 411–412; dictatorial
68; postwar, 275–276; in Qing China, Khrushchev, 179, 180; on Vietnam, regimes in, 134–135; feminism in, 9, 268;
54–56; Technological Revolution an, 181–182; World War II and, 153 immigration to Latin America from,
407–410 Eisenman, Peter, 271 19; industrialization in, 4, 5; industrial
Economic development: capitalism and, 398; Elam Tigers, 324–325 regions of, at end of nineteenth century,
in China, 304, 306, 392, 401; colonial Elections: in Brazil, 214; in Germany, 253; in 5; labor in postwar, 263–264, 267–268;
policy and, 39–40, 44; dependence India (2019), 325; in Indonesia (2004), Latin America and, 17, 18; liberalism
theory on, 392; modernization theory 338; in Mexico, 214, 215; in Poland, in, 12; literature in postwar, 269–271;
on, 391–392; obstacles to, in Africa and 236; in Taiwan, 290; Trump’s collusion map of, in 1871, 15; map of, in 1939, 140;
the Middle East, 392–393; in Southeast with Russians (2016) and, 412; U.S. Marshall Plan and, 167–168; myth of
Asia, 39–40; in South Korea, 291; in the presidential, 191, 192, 195–196, 197, 198; superiority of, 29–31; nationalism in, 13,
U.S., 97, 399–400; women and, 402–403 of women in U.S. Congress, 203 411–412; new political parties in, 265–
Economic inequities, 195, 275–276; in Africa, Electric cars, 421 266; popular culture, 264, 269; postwar
352–353; Industrial Revolution and, 10, Electricity, 5–6 integration of, 248–249; postwar
19; in Japan, 126; in the U.S., 200 Elite class: in Argentina, 128; in Brazil, 128; recovery, 247–249; post World War II
Economic liberalism, 12 in China, 60, 311; in Latin America, 18, territorial changes in, 155; religion,
Economic recessions, 199 19; mass society and, 7; in Mexico, 129; 414; role in global trade network,
Economy: in Africa, 357; after World War I, modernized Islamic beliefs and, 385; 29–30; single-parent households in,
96; Brazilian, 214, 215; Canadian, 208; in Soviet era, 234; in Soviet Union, 413; social and cultural developments
China, 304, 309–310; East Germany, 229, 225–226 in postwar, 263–267; social changes in
230; financial crisis in postwar Europe, Ellison, Ralph, 208 postwar, 266–267; social class system,
265; in France, 250; Germany, 252; El Nino, 35, 417 7–8; tariffs, 6; territorial changes in, after
global financial crisis (2008), 247, 275, El-Saadawi, Nawal, 388–389 World War I, 89; territorial changes
398; in Great Britain, 255–256; in India, El Salvador, Nicaraguan Sandanistas and, 187 in, after World War II, 248; trade and
327, 329–330; Japanese, 125–126, 138– Emecheta, Buchi, 362 manufacturing, 6–7; transportation in,
139, 282–284; Latin American, 18–19, Emmanuel III, Victor (Italy), 134 6; welfare state in, 249–258, 398–399;
440 ■ Index
women in postwar, 267–268, 269; World The Feast of the Goat (Llosa), 217 reform, 16; Popular Front government
War II and, 139–142, 146–149, 147. Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). See West in, 140; post-World War I, 96; slave trade
See also Eastern Europe; individual Germany and, 42; social benefits, 399; steel and, 5;
country names; specific locations Federal Reserve System, 17 Suez Canal and, 372; Syria and, 111–112;
European Atomic Energy Community Federation of Malaya, 334–335, 339–340 theory of colonialism, 32; Treaty of
(EURATOM), 261 Female genital mutilation, 361 Locarno, 95; Treaty of Versailles and,
European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), The Feminine Mystique (Friedan), 202 94–95; in Triple Entente, 79; Tunisian
260–261 Feminism, 202; African, 361; in Europe, 9, independence and, 347–348; uprisings
European Community (EC), 261. See also 268; in the United States, 9–10. See also in 1848 and, 13; U.S. defensive alliance
European Union (EU) Women’s rights movements with, 94; Vietnam and, 37, 176; welfare
European Economic Community (EEC), 261 Ferdinand, Archduke Francis, 80 state in, 249–251; women’s suffrage in,
European Recover Program (Marshall Plan), Ferdinand, Sophia, 80 268; World War I and, 78, 81, 86; World
167–168 Ferguson, Niall, 76 War II and, 146, 153
European Union (EU), 249; Brexit and, 257; Ferry, Jules, 30 Franco, Francisco, 138, 139
complaints about, 411–412; creation Feudal system, 65–66 Frankfurt, Germany, 13
of, 249; economic downturn and, 399; Fez, 112 Free Democratic Party (Germany), 252, 253
euro and, 261; expansion of, 261–263; Filial piety, 123 “Free French,” 249
membership (2013), 259 Fillmore, Millard, 66 Free French movement, 153
Euro, the, 261 Final Solution, 148 Free market economy, 258, 294. See also
Evangelical Christians, 417, 420 Financial crisis: in 2008, 247, 275, 398; Capitalism
Evangelical movement, 414–415 postwar, in Europe, 265; stock market French Canadians, 17
Everything Good Will Come (Atta), 363 crash of 1929, 97. See also Great French Communist Party, 176
Evolutionary theory, 417 Depression, the French Community, 348
Evolution, theory of (Darwin), 23, 24 Finland, Treaty of Versailles and, 90 French Indochina, World War I and, 83.
Evora, Cesaria, 364 First Battle of the Marne, 81 See also Cambodia; Indochina; Laos;
Executions: Bolshevik Revolution and, 94; in First National, the, 20 Vietnam
China, 59, 65; under Stalin, 100 First World War. See World War I French Popular Movement, 249
Existentialism, 269–270 Five Pillars of Islam, 115 French Revolution, 12, 13
Exit West (Hamid), 389 Five relationships, in China, 313 French Socialist Party (FSP), 105, 118
Expressionism, 25 Five-year plan (Soviet Union), 221 Freud, Sigmund, 23
Flying shuttle, 3–4 Friedan, Betty, 202, 269
F Food riots, 126 Fuentes, Carlos, 217
Factories: child labor in, 8; munition, during Food supply, population and, 405 Fukuyama, Francis, 411
World War I, 87; post-World War II Football, 208 Functionalism, 26
Soviet Union, 221; silk industry in Foot binding (China), 64, 64, 65, 123 Fundamentalist Islam: in Algeria, 386; ISIS
China, 402; Soviet Union, 226–227; Forbidden City, 53, 54 and, 380; Middle East politics and,
textile, 8, 9; women in textile, 8; World Ford, Gerald R.: economy under, 196; 381–382; Muslim guerilla groups, 186;
War I, 86 Vietnam War and, 185 The Satanic Verses (Rushdie) and, 331;
“Fake news,” 411, 413 Ford, Henry, 6, 96, 99 Sumatra and, 338; Taliban, 379
Falkland Islands, 213, 256 Foreign concession areas, in China, 56–57,
Family: in China, 312, 313; Confucianism and, 63, 65 G
123, 312; decline in size of, in India, 327, Forster, E.M., 36 Galapogas Islands, 23
329; decline in traditional, 413–414; in Fourastié, Jean, 264 Gallegos, Rómulo, 130
Fascist Italy, 135; Japanese culture and, “Four Freedoms” speech (Roosevelt), 145 Gallipoli, 83
282; postwar society and, 276; single- Four Modernizations (China), 303–304 Gambia, 346
parent, 413; in South Korea, 292, 292 4’33” (Cage), 207 Gandhi, Indira, 324, 327, 328
Family (Ba Jin), 124 Fourth Republic (France), 249 Gandhi, Maneka, 328
Family planning program, in China, 310 Fox, Vicente, 215 Gandhi, Mohandas (Mahatma), 108–110, 111,
Fang Lizhi, 304 Fracking, 421 322, 323, 332, 347
Far Eastern Commission, 279 France: Africa and, 43, 44, 44, 45, 347–348; Gandhi, Rahul, 325
Farming and farmers: in Africa under Algeria and, 43, 249, 347; automobile Gandhi, Rajiv, 324–325, 327, 328, 329
colonialism, 346–347; in China, 63, industry in, 6; bicycle program in Paris, Gandhi, Sonia, 328
122–123; collective, 100, 299–300, 312, 268, 270; casualties in World War I, 88; Ganges River, 329
335; discontent by Chinese, 311; in colonialism in Southeast Asia, 37, 38–39, Gang of Four (China), 303
India, 329; Industrial Revolution in 333; colonization by, 31; in the Common Gardens, Japanese, 72
the United States and, 4; in Japan, 126; Market, 249; conflict in Indochina, 176; The Garlic Ballads (Mo Yan), 317
selling produce on open market, 234, declaring war on Germany, 142, 145; Garvey, Marcus, 349
235; in Southeast Asia, 335 demilitarized Rhineland and, 139; direct Gates, Bill, 206
Farouk, King, 370 rule in Africa, 46–47; economy, 250; Gatling gun, 49
Fascio di Combattimento (League of Combat), Eiffel Tower, 6; French Revolution, 12; GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and
134 government, 13, 16; Great Depression Trade), 191
Fascism, 134–135. See also Dictatorial regimes; and, 97; immigrants in postwar, 250; Gaucho (cowboy), 130
Hitler, Adolf; Mussolini, Benito; Nazi imperialism and, 30; League of Nations Gay, Peter, 8
Germany and, 88; Munich Conference and, 140, Gaza Strip, 375
Fashoda, Sudan, 45 141; Muslims in, 266; NATO and, 168; Geertz, Clifford, 51
Fast food, in India, 328–329 Nile valley and, 43; in North Africa, Gehry, Frank, 424
Fattah el-Sisi, Abdel, 380 110; occupation of the Ruhr valley, 95; General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
Favelas, 214 Paris Peace Conference and, 88; political (GATT), 191
Index ■ 441
Geneva Conference (1954), 151, 176 Gosplan, 226 Great Depression, the, 97–98, 98; Japan and,
Genghis Khan, 34 Gottwald, Klement, 165 138; Latin America and, 127, 210; Stalin
Genital mutilation, 388 Government and politics: Africa, 353–358; on, 139–140; Taisho democracy and,
Genro ( Japan), 67 alienation from, 425; Canadian, 209; 127; totalitarian state and, 134
George, David Lloyd, 88 culture of, in Southeast Asia, 333–334; Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere,
Georgia (country), 238, 261 French, 13, 16; under Gorbachev 150, 151
German Communist Party (GCP), 133 in the Soviet Union, 236; in Great “The Great Game,” 34
German Democratic Republic (GDR). See Britain, Industrial Revolution and, The Great Illusion (Angell), 80–81
East Germany 3; in India, 110, 322–323, 326–327; Great Lakes, 4
German Social Democratic Party, 16 Islam and, 381–382; in Israel, 373; Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, 208
German Workers’ Party, 135 in Italy, 16–17; in Japan, 65, 67, 71; Great Leap Forward, 300, 309
Germany: agriculture in, 8; Anti-Comintern in Latin America, 19; Meiji ( Japan), Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, 298–
Pact, 139; coal production, 7; 67; parliamentary, in Europe, 137; 299, 300–302, 303
colonization in Africa, 44, 44; in the political liberalism and, 12; postwar Great Society program, 190, 192, 200
Common Market, 249; division of, Japan, 279, 280–282; in Russia, after Great Trek, 45, 46
168, 168; in 1871, 15; Greece and, 254; Bolshevik Revolution, 93–94; in Great War. See World War I
immigrants in, 253, 254, 255; League of Russia, after World War I, 90; in Greece: British aid to, 254; in the European
Nations and, 88, 94, 95; Lenin and, 91; Singapore, 293; Southeast Asian Community (EC), 261; financial
nationalism, 13–14; naval warfare with colonies, 39; South Korea, 291; Soviet problems in postwar, 265; Germany
Great Britain, 83, 85; before outbreak of Russia, 165; in Vietnam, 338. See also and, 254; independence of (1830), 16;
World War I, 79; Paris Peace Conference Democracy; Dictatorial regimes; NATO and, 168; occupying Anatolian
and, 88; post-World War I adjustments Parliamentary governments peninsula, 112; social benefits, 399;
in, 97; reparations after World War I, Government of India Act (1921), 110 Soviet threat in, 166–167; Truman
89, 94–95, 95; reparations after World A Grain of Wheat (Ngugi), 362 Doctrine, 167; World War II and, 146
War II, 154, 168; Soviet Russia and, 94; Grameen Bank, 403 Greene, Graham, 271
steel and, 5; Treaty of Locarno, 95; Grand Alliance (World War II), 152, 164 Greenhouse gases, 419, 419
Treaty of Versailles and, 89, 94; in Triple Grand Canal, 56 Green parties, 268
Alliance, 79; triumph of liberalism in, Grand National Assembly (Turkey), 112 Green Party (Germany), 254
16; unification of, 13–14, 15; uprising Grass, Günter, 271 Green revolution, 329
in 1848, 13; U.S. bank loans to, 97; Great Britain: Boer War and, 46; Brexit and, Grey, Edward, 79
Versailles Treaty provisions, 139; wage 257–258; in Burma, 107; in China, 59; Grossman, David, 389
increases, 6; welfare state in, 251–254; colonial policy, 30, 32; colonization in Guadeloupe, 42
World War I and, 78, 79–80, 81, 83, Africa, 31, 44, 44, 45, 346; colonization Guam, 37
86–87. See also East Germany; Nazi in Southeast Asia, 36–37; creation Guangdong Province (China), 294
Germany; West Germany; World War I; of Trans-Jordan/Jordan, 115; under Guangxu (emperor), 59, 61, 301
World War II David Cameron, 257; declaring war Guan Moye (Mo Yan), 317
Ghana, 43, 348, 351, 357 on Germany, 142, 145; domestic labor Guatemala, 216
Ghettos, Jewish, 135, 148 in, 8; economy, 255–256; in Egypt, Guevara, Ernesto “Ché,” 215, 216
Gibson, Mel, 337 115–116; in the European Community Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain, 395, 424
Ginza (Tokyo, Japan), 71, 71 (EC), 261; Falkland Islands and, 213; Guided democracy, 335, 336
Glasnost, 235 Great Depression and, 97; Hong Kong Guild organizations, in Qing China, 55–56
Glass, Philip, 207 and, 294; imperialism and, 30, 38, 333; Guiraldes, Ricardo, 130
Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, 404 India and, 34–37, 108, 109, 110, 322; The Gulag Archipelago (Solzhenitsyn), 233
Global change: climate change and, 394; Industrial Revolution in, 3–4; Japan Gulf of Aqaba, 373
factors related to success with, 392–394; borrowing money from, 68; Kenyan Guomindang (Revolutionary Alliance), 62
impact of, 424–425 independence movement and, 347; Guomindang (Nationalist) Party (China), 117
Global financial crisis (2008), 247, 275, 398 League of Nations and, 88; Macartney Gurkhas, 49
Global health care, 402 mission, 53–54; mandates of, in Middle Gypsies, Holocaust and, 149
Globalization, 397, 398, 423 East, 111; Margaret Thatcher era, 256;
Global warming. See Climate change on migrants from Europe, 412; Munich H
Gober, Robert, 207 Conference and, 140, 141; nationalist Habibie, B.J., 337
Gobi Desert, 59, 60, 311 movement in India and, 108; NATO Habsburg Empire, 14
Goh Chok Tong, 293 and, 168; naval warfare with Germany, Haiti, 127
Gokhale, Gopal, 108 83, 85; Nile River valley and, 110; on Half a Yellow Sun (Adichie), 363
Golan Heights, 373, 374 occupation of German Rhineland, Half the Sky (Kristof and WuDunn), 403
Gold, Boer War and, 46 139; Opium War, 56, 57; Palestine and, Hall of Mirrors, 14
Gold Coast (Ghana), 43, 346, 347, 348 370; Paris Peace Conference and, 88; Hamas, 375
Golden Age, 54 political reform, 16; post-World War I, Hamid, Mohsin, 389
Golden Temple, Amritsar, 32432 96; resigning from the EU, 261; rubber Harding, Warren, 96
Gómez, Vicente, 127 and, 19; Sepoy uprising and, 49–50; Harijans, 109
Gomulka, Wladyslaw, 228 settlements in Africa, 43; slave trade Harpers Ferry arsenal, 4
Goodman, Benny, 179 and, 41; Soviet Popular Fronts and, 140; Harper, Stephen, 209
Good Neighbor policy, 127, 130 steel and, 5; Suez Canal and, 372; Tibet Harris, Townsend, 67
Gorbachev, Mikhail, 100; attempted coup of, and, 59; Tony Blair era, 257; in Triple Havana, Cuba, 37
238; early years, 234; economic reform Entente, 79; wage increases, 6; welfare Havel, Václav, 236, 237, 258
under, 235–236; resignation of, 238 state in, 254–258; women’s movement Hawaiian Islands, 37, 149
Gordon, Charles, 43 in, 10; World War I and, 78, 83; World Hawkins, Jack, 85
Gore, Albert, 197, 204 War II and, 146 Hay, John, 59
442 ■ Index
Healthcare: Canadian system, 210; in China, Human rights, 186, 411 Hindu-Muslim relations, 322, 325, 326,
313; Obamacare, 198; in the U.S., 191, Humphrey, Hubert, 195 327; independence of, 322; under Indira
192, 198, 200 Hungary: education in, 233; in the EU, 261; Gandhi, 324; industrial development,
Health conditions, 402 Fidesz party, 266; immigrants in, 264; 35, 323, 327; inequalities in, 330;
Heart of Darkness (Conrad), 363 NATO and, 263; in 1939, map, 140; manufacturing in, 35; marriage in, 34,
Heath, Edward, 256 overthrow of Stalinist leadership in, 331, 331, 332, 332; Mughal Empire, 34;
Hegel, Georg W.F., 20 179; transition from Soviet satellite Mumbai terrorist attack (2008), 325;
Heller, Joseph, 207 to sovereign nation, 236; Treaty of nationalist movements, 108–110; under
Helsinki Accords (1975), 186, 225 Versailles and, 89, 90, 94; Warsaw Nehru, 322–324; opium grown in, 56;
Hemingway, Ernest, 102 Pact, 169 overpopulation in, 407; politics, 326–327;
Herder, Johann Gottfried, 13 Hunger strike, in China, 305 population problem in, 327, 329; post-
Herzegovina, 16, 79 Hunt, Linda, 337 Nehru era, 324–325; religion in, 415;
Herzl, Theodor, 115 Huong, Duong Thu, 342 rural-urban dichotomy in, 329–330, 331;
Heydrich, Reinhard, 148 Husák, Gustáv, 229, 236 Sepoy uprising, 49–50; Sikhs in, 324,
Hezbollah, 375 Hussein ( Jordan), 372, 373 327; Tamil rebels in, 324–325; trade, 30;
High colonialism, 47 Hussein, Saddam, 197, 378, 379 “untouchables” in, 109, 325; Western-
High culture, 269 Hutu, the, 356 style fast foods in, 328–329; women in,
Higher education, 200. See also Education Hyderabad, India, 322 33, 34, 331; World War I an, 83
Hijabs, 267 India: A Wounded Civilization (Naipaul), 332
Himmler, Heinrich, 137 I Indian National Congress, 35, 108, 110, 322
Hindenberg, Paul von, 136, 1133 Ibo groups, Nigeria, 352 Indians. See Native Americans
Hinduism and Hindus, 33, 34; clashes with Ibsen, Henrik, 118, 202 Indigenous societies: colonialism and, 31;
Muslims in South Asia, 322, 325, 326, Iceland, 168 Western ideas/institutions and, 107–108
327; India and, 322, 325, 327; revivalist “I have a dream” speech (King), 193 Indirect rule, 31, 38, 46
groups, 415; Sikhs and, 324; in Southeast Ikki, Kita, 139 Individualism, in America, 195
Asia, 340 Illegal immigration, to U.S., 197, 200, 201 Indochina: after 1954, map, 176; conflict in,
Hindustan Times, 328 Illiteracy, 402–403 after Korean War, 175–176; France and,
Hindutva (Hinduness), 325 Immigrants and immigration: from Africa, 31, 32, 176; the Japanese and, 151.
Hip-hop music, 325, 423 404, 405; to Australia, 296; Canada and, See also Southeast Asia
Hirobumi, Prince Ito, 67 210; globalization and, 425; to Latin Indochinese Communist Party, 176
Hirohito, Emperor ( Japan), 142, 278, 278, 279 America from Europe, 19; from Mexico, Indochinese Union, 37
Hiroshima, bombing of, 156, 157 201, 400, 405; to Palestine, 115, 116, Indonesia: in ASEAN, 340; Bali, 341; East
Hispanic population, in the U.S., 201 370; in postwar Europe, 264; in postwar Timor and, 337–338; guided democracy
Hitler, Adolf, 97, 133; Czechoslovakia and, France, 250; in postwar Germany, 253, in, 335, 336; Japanese occupation,
140–141; foreign policy objectives, 134; 255; Trump, Donald on, 198; to the 151; literature, 341–342; map, 334;
Mein Kampf, 135; Munich Conference United States, 197, 198, 200–201; U.S. under Suharto, 336–337; Suharto and,
and, 141; rise to power, 133–134, 135– populist movements and, 412; in U.S. 335, 336–337; Sukarno and, 336, 337;
136; suicide of, 154; Versailles Treaty under Trump, 400. See also Migration traditional values vs. Western culture in,
provisions and, 139; youth, 135 Impeachment, 196, 197, 214 340; tsunami in, 339; women in, 341
Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth), 137 Imperialism: Africa before, 41; in China, Indonesian Communist Party, 335
HMS Nemesis, 57 59–60, 60, 63; collaboration and, 50; Indonesian Nationalist Party, 333
Hobson, John A., 30 European expansion into Asia and Industrial development and industrialization:
Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam), 33, 117, 176, 182; Africa, 30–31; European superiority in China, 55–56, 122, 310–311;
fictional biography of, 342; on his and, 29; impact of, 50–51, 75–76; colonialism, 31; in Egypt, 16; in Europe,
reason for being a Communist, 118; Lenin’s alliance with Asia and, 116–117; 4, 5; in India, 35, 323, 327; in Japan, 68,
at meeting in Tours (1920), 105–106; motives, 30, 31; relation to Industrial 74; Ottoman Empire and, 16; in Russia,
working with U.S. military officials, 151 Revolution, 74; Rhodes, Cecil, 28–29; 14; in Southeast Asia, 40; in South
Ho Chi Minh Trail, 183 in Southeast Asia, 333; use of term, 30. Korea, 291; Soviet Union, 221, 223, 224;
Hockney, David, 424 See also Colonialism; Colonies and Stalin’s forced, 100; in Taiwan, 289; in
Hollande, François, 251 colonization the United States, 4, 17; winners and
Hollywood studio system, 102, 191–192 Imperialism A Study (Hobson), 30 losers of, 74
Holocaust Memorial (Berlin), 272 Imperial Rescript on Education, 69 Industrial Revolution: colonialism and, 29,
Homosexuals, Holocaust and, 149 Impressionism, 24–25 30; dual faces of, 10; environmental
Honduras, 19, 127 Incandescent filament lamp, 6 impact of, 7, 418; factory rules during,
Honecker, Erich, 230, 236 Income disparities, 97. See also Economic 9; in Great Britain, factors related to,
Hong Kong: China and, 295; “Little Tigers” inequities 3–4; impact of, 2–3, 26; imperialism and,
and, 279; Opium War and, 56; postwar, An Inconvenient Truth (film), 204 74; labor by women in, 8; legacy of,
293–294 Independence movements. See Nationalist 74–75; material progress and, 4–5; social
Hong Xiuquan, 57 movements class system and, 7–12; spread of, 4–7;
Honshu, tsunami on, 282 India: agriculture, 34–35, 327; British transition to Technological Revolution
Hoover, Herbert, 97 colonization of, 34–35, 35, 322; from, 407–410. See also Industrial
Hosokawa, Morihiro, 282 Buddhism and, 64; caste and class development and industrialization
Houphouet-Boigny, Félix, 357 in, 330; class structure in, 32, 34; Indus Valley Civilization, 327
House Un-American Activities communalism in, 327; cotton trade and, Inequalities, economic. See Economic
Committee, 191 4; democratic socialism in, 322–324; inequities
Housing, in Africa, 358, 360 economy, 327, 329–330; future of, Inflation, 95, 126
Houthis, 381 331–333; Gandhi, Mohandas and, 108, “I novel” ( Japan), 125
Hu Jintao, 306 109; Gandhi vs. Nehru’s visions, 323; Installation art, 244
Index ■ 443
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Islamic Justice and Development Party Jerusalem, 373, 375, 375
130, 215 (AKP), 386 Jesuit priests, 64
Internal combustion engine, 6 Islamic law. See Shari’a (Islamic law) Jews: anti-Semitism and, 135; Holocaust and,
International Monetary Fund (IMF), 191, 213 Israel: creation of, 373; divisions within the 148–149, 149; immigration to Palestine,
“International school,” 102 population of, 373; evolution of, since 115, 116; literature, 208; in Nazi
International Workingmen’s Association (First 1948 (map), 373; independence of, 370; Germany, 137; Palestine and, 370, 371.
National), 20 invasion of Lebanon, 374; literature See also Israel; Palestine and Palestinians
Internet, the, 206, 416, 417 from, 389; Suez Canal and, 372. See also Jiang Qing, 303
The Interpretation of Dreams (Freud), 23 Arab-Israeli conflict Jiang Roong (Lü Jiamen), 317
The Interpreters (Soyinka), 362 Istanbul, 110 Jiang Zemin, 304, 411
Intifada, 374 Italy, 399; alliance with Hitler, 139; Jim Crow laws, 192
Inventions, 407; electricity, 5; incandescent colonization in Africa, 44; in the Jinnah, Muhammad, 100, 322, 325, 326
filament lamp, 6; leading to textile Common Market, 249; Ethiopia and, 17, Jobs. See Labor
production, 3–4; personal computer, 49, 49, 139; fascist regime in, 134–135; Jobs, Steve, 206
408; shipping container, 408, 408; Libya and, 17; NATO and, 168; Paris John Paul II, Pope, 236
telephone, 6 Peace Conference and, 88; in Triple Johnson, Boris, 258
Ionesco, Dina, 406 Alliance, 79; unification of, 13; uprising Johnson, Lyndon B.: civil rights legislation,
Iqbal, Mohammed, 113 in 1848, 13; women’s suffrage in, 268; 192–193, 194; Great Society reforms
IRA (Irish Republican Army), 256 World War II and, 146 and, 190–191, 192; Vietnam policy, 182,
Iran: after World War II, 370; colonialism and, Ivory Coast, 357 183, 184
31; conflict with Iraq, 378; democracy Izvestiya (newspaper), 225 Johnson-Sirleaf, Ellen, 357
and, 383; hostage crisis, 196, 376; Jonathan, Goodluck, 356
modernized Islamic beliefs in, 385; J Jordan: creation of, 115; independence of, 370;
nationalist movement in, 114; Persepolis Japan, 392; aggressive advances into China, Palestinian refugees in, 370; Six-Day
(film) on, 377; revolution in, 375–378, 142–143, 143, 144; Anti-Comintern War and, 373; United Arab Republic
386; under Shah Mohammad Reza Pact, 139; atomic bombing of, 156–157; (UAR) and, 372
Pahlavi, 375–376; Soviet threat in, 166; B-29 bombing over, 156; China and, Joseph, Francis, 78
trade embargo, 378; western influences, 65, 119, 126, 142–143, 143; closed Joyce, James, 102
115; women in, 387 country policy in, 65–66; colonialism “July Days,” 91
Iraq: after World War II, 370; conflict with and, 31; constitutions, 67–68, 280, 281; Justice and Development Party (AKP), 386
Iran, 378; Kurdish rebellion in, 378; counterculture, 286; culture, 71–72, 283, Justice Movement Party (India), 326
Persian Gulf War and, 378–379; Tony 287–288; democracy in, 125, 126–127,
Blair on U.S.-led invasion of, 257; United 138–139; demographic problems in, 287; K
Arab Republic (UAR) and, 372; United economy, 125–126, 138–139, 282–284; Kabila, Joseph, 356
States and, 197, 379, 381 education in, 68–69, 279, 282, 284, 285; Kabila, Laurent-Désiré, 356
Ireland, in the European Community factors related to success of, 283, 294–295; Kádár, János, 228, 229, 236
(EC), 261 Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, Kahlo, Frida, 130, 130
Irigoyen, Hipólito, 128 150, 151; historical differences between Kanagawa, Treaty of, 67
Irish Republican Army (IRA), 256 China and, 65; industrialization in, 68, 74; Kandinsky, Wassily, 101, 102
Iron, 3, 4, 6 Korea and, 59, 70, 71, 119, 151, 175; land Kang, Han, 292
Iron Curtain, 166. See also Soviet Union reform, 68, 280, 282; literature, 71, 125, Kangxi (emperor), 54
The Iron Lady (film), 256 287; main islands of contemporary, 280; Kang Youwei, 59
ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), 380, Manchuria and, 138, 144; manufacturing, Karma, 333
381–382 68, 125–126; Meiji era, 67–70, 71, 125; Kashmir, 322, 324, 326
Iskander, Fazil, 233 Meiji Restoration in, 68, 72; militarism Kazakhstan, 223
Islam, 33; in Africa, 352, 360; African trade in, 138–139; military, 68; minorities in, Keiretsu, 282
and, 41; caliphate and, 112, 113; 285–286; Monroe Doctrine for Asia, 143; Kellogg-Briand Pact, 95–96
conflict in Nigeria and, 356; current Mukden Incident and, 138; “Nanjing Kellogg, Frank B., 95
challenges related to, 415; democracy incident” and, 142; nationalism in, 125, Kemal Atatürk, Mustafa, 112, 113, 114, 115,
and, 382, 383; dictatorship and, 383; 126; opening up of, 66–67; Pearl Harbor 383, 385, 386, 387
economics and, 384–385; in Egypt, and, 37, 149, 152; political system, 66, 67, Kennan, George, 168, 171
115–116, 385, 386; Five Pillars of, 71; postwar Allied occupation of, 279– Kennedy, John F.: assassination of, 192; Bay
115; Hinduism in India and, 109, 280, 282, 284; postwar economic miracle, of Pigs and, 216; Berlin and, 180; civil
110; in India, 35, 113, 327; Iranian 278–279, 283–284; postwar politics and rights legislation, 192, 194; Cuban
Revolution and, 376, 386; modernist government, 279, 280–282; post-World Missile Crisis and, 180–181; presidency
movement, 385, 415; modern War I, 106; problems with contemporary, of, 192; U.S.-Soviet relations and, 180
nationalism in Dutch East Indies and, 288; Qing China and, 59; religion in, 287; Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), in India, 328, 329
107; in Pakistan, 325, 326; politics of, renouncing war, 280, 281; samurai, 67; Kenya: agriculture, 346, 347; border dispute
382; purdah and, 34; revolutionary security treaty with U.S., 280; Shidehara with Uganda, 352; British in, 46;
Marxism and, 117; Reza Khan, 114; diplomacy in, 126, 138; Southeast Asia capitalism and, 353–354; houses,
shift from secular to fundamentalist, and, 143–144, 149, 151, 333; territorial 360; independence movement in,
386; Sikhs and, 324; in Southeast expansion by, 70, 70–71; Tokugawa, 65; 347; independence of, 348; literature
Asia, 36; in Turkey, 112, 385, 386; two trade, 138–139; wartime misconduct, from, 362; nationalism and, 347; Pan-
branches of, 114. See also Arab-Israeli 286–287; women in, 69–70, 125, 283, 284, Africanism and, 350; problems in,
conflict; Middle East; Muslims 287; World War I and, 83; World War 353–354
Islamic Association (Sarekat Islam), 107 II and, 149, 150, 279; zaibatsu system, Kenya African National Union (KANU), 347
Islamic fundamentalism. See Fundamentalist 125–126, 138, 279, 280, 282 Kenyan Human Rights Commission, 347
Islam Java, 40, 338 Kenyatta, Jomo, 347, 349
444 ■ Index
Kenyatta, Uhuru, 354 Kulaks, 100 League of Communists of Yugoslavia, 258
Kerensky, Alexander, 91 Kurdish minorities: Iranian revolution and, League of Nations, 88, 94, 111; Balfour
Kerry, John F., 197 376; rebellion in Iraq, 378; Syria and, 380 Declaration and, 115; Mukden Incident
Keynes, John Maynard, 97, 191 Kurdistan, 112, 380 and, 138
KGB (Committee for State Security), 222, Kurile Islands, 70–71, 154, 280 Lean, David, 36, 85
223, 238 Kursk, Battle of, 153 Lebanon, 370, 374
Khai, Hoang Cao, 48 Kuwait, 378, 381 Lebensraum, 135
Khan, Imran, 326 Kwasniewski, Aleksander, 258 Le Clézio, Jean-Marie, 271
Khartoum, 43 Kyoto, Japan, 420, 667 Lee Hsien Loong, 293
Khe Sanh (KAY SARN) Marine base, 184 Lee Kuan Yew, 293, 295
Khmer Rouge, 338, 338–339, 340 L Lee Myung-bak, 292
Khoisan-speaking peoples, 45 Labor: child, 8; foreign, in World War II, 148; Lee Teng-hui, 290
Khomeini, Ayatollah, 196, 331, 367, 376, 386 immigrant, in Europe, 264; industrial, Lend-Lease program, 148, 152
Khrushchev, Nikita: Cuban Missile Crisis and, in postwar Europe, 263; Japanese Leningrad, Russia, 147, 153
181; peaceful coexistence and, 177–178; women, 69; migrant workers in the Lenin’s Kisses (Yan), 317
Poland and, 228; reform under, 223; Middle East, 385; migration and, 405; Lenin, Vladimir: addressing a rally (photo),
seeking alliances in neutralist countries, outsourcing U.S., 197, 198; population 93; alliance with the East, 116–117; April
180; shooting of U.S. reconnaissance shortages and, 405; postwar European, Theses (1917), 91, 92; the Bolsheviks
plane and, 180; on Stalin, 223, 224; visit 263–264; in post-World War Soviet and, 91; Bolsheviks/Bolshevik
to the U.S., 179 Union, 221 227; silk workers in China, Revolution and, 91, 92; Communist
Kibaki, Mwai, 354 402; technology and, 409, 410; U.S. International (Comintern) and, 117,
Kidjo, Angelique, 364 technical achievements and, 4; women 118; government in Petrograd, 93–94;
Kiefer, Anselm, 271 during Industrial Revolution, 8; by on social revolutions, 99; Stalin and,
Kikuyu Central Association, 347 women during World War I, 86, 87; by 100–101
Kikuyu Islands, 70 women during World War II, 152, 153; Leopold II, king of Belgium, 44, 45
Kilwa, Africa, 41 by women in the Soviet bloc, 234; by Le Pen, Jean-Marie, 250, 251
Kim Il-sung, 175, 291, 292 women, postwar, 201–202, 267–268; Lesotho, 46
Kim Jong-il, 291–292 working class, 8 Lesseps, Ferdinand de, 43
Kim Jong-un, 292 Labor shortage, in China, 311 Lewis, Sinclair, 102
The King and I (film), 37 Labor unions, 236; postwar Japan, 279–280; LGBTQ rights, 203
King, Martin Luther Jr., 192, 193 shipping container and, 408; in the Lhasa, 308
Kingoro, Hashimoto, 144 U.S., 17 Liang Heng, 301–302
Kingsley, Ben, 109 Labour Party (Great Britain), 16, 254, 257 Liaodong peninsula, 59, 70
“King Tiger” tanks, 153 Labour Party (India), 322 Liberal democracy, 410, 426–427. See also
Kipling, Rudyard, 32, 33, 50 Lacarno, Treaty of, 95 Democracy
Kirchner, Cristina Fernández de, 213 Laissez-faire, 12 Liberal Democrats ( Japan), 281–282
Kirchner, Néstor, 213 Landes, David, 74 Liberalism, 12, 14
Kiril, Patriarch, 242 Land reform programs: in China, 122, 299, Liberal Party (Canada), 209
Kirkuk, Iran, 114 311; in Egypt, 372; in Japan, 68, 280, 282; Liberal Party (Great Britain), 16
Kirov Ballet (Soviet Russia), 179 in South Africa, 355; in South Korea, Liberals ( Japan), 67
Kissinger, Henry, 184, 374 291; in Taiwan, 288–289 Liberation theology, 211
Kita Ikki, 125 Language: in India, 327; in Pakistan, 326 Liberia, 43, 357
Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, 6 Lansing, Robert, 90 Libya: Arab Spring and, 380; Italy and, 17
Klee, Paul, 101 Laos, 37; ASEAN and, 340; French Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out
Knesset, the, 373 withdrawal, 176 (Mo Yan), 317
Koch, Christian, 337 The Last Emperor (film), 301 Likud Party (Israel), 374
Kodak camera, 25 Latin America: “banana republics” in, 127; Lineage group, 360
Kohl, Helmut, 252, 253 boundaries of, after independence Lin, Maya, 195
Koizumi, Junichiro, 281 movements, 128; Catholic Church, Literacy, 402–403
Kokutai, 67–68, 279 18, 19, 211, 212; culture, 130, 217; Literature: African, 362–363; in China, 124,
Kolkata (Calcutta), India, 330 dependent on other countries, 210–212; 317; in Indonesia, 341–342; in Japan, 71,
Komeito ( Japan), 287 economy, 18–19, 127; Great Depression 125, 287; late nineteenth century, 23–24;
Kongo, 348 and, 127, 210; independence movement Latin American, 130; postwar Europe,
Korea: China and, 70; elders, 292, 292; Japan in, 18; military and, 213; military 269–271; postwar Latin American, 217;
and, 59, 70, 71, 119, 151, 175; since 1953, dictatorships in, 128–130; nationalism post-World War I, 102; post-World War
map, 291; two separate governments in, 213–215; post-World War I, 106; II, 207–208; Russian, 242–243, 243–244;
in (division of ), 175, 291. See also South religion, 414–415; trade, 18, 127; South Asian, 331; Soviet era, 232–233
Korea urbanization in, 19; U.S. influence in, Lithuania, 90, 94, 238, 261
Korean War, 175, 290–291 127–128. See also Central America; Little Ice Age, 417
Kornilov, Lavr, 91 South America; specific country names Little Red Book (Mao Zedong), 301
Kosovo, 241, 259–260 Latournelle, Dount de, 42 “Little Tigers,” 279, 392; factors related to
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), 260 Latvia, 90, 261 success of, 294–295; Hong Kong,
Kosygin, Alexei, 185, 223 Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, 17 293–294; Singapore, 292–293; South
Kowloon, peninsula of, 57 Lausanne, Treaty of, 112 Korea, 290–292; Taiwan, 288–290
Kowtow, 53 Law and Justice Party, 266 Liu Shaoqi, 300
Kristallnacht, 137 Lawrence of Arabia, 83, 85 The Lives of Others (film), 231
Krupp armaments factories, 86 Lawrence, T.E., 83, 85 Livingstone, David, 44
Ku Klux Klan (KKK), 96, 98 Laye, Camara, 363 Long March, the, 120, 120, 122
Index ■ 445
López Obrador, Andrés Manuel, 215 Mao Dun, 124 Medical care, 200
Lorraine, 89 Mao Zedong: China under, 299–303; Cultural Medicare, 198
Loughnan, Naomi, 87 Revolution and, 298–299; death, 303; Medina, 114, 115
Louis Philippe, king of France, 13 handshakes with Chiang Kai-shek and Medvedev, Dmitri, 240
Louis XV, king of France, 13 Stalin, 174; Korean War and, 175; on Meenakshi Hindu temple, 331
Luddites, 407 the Long March, 122; peasant revolt Meiji (ruler), 67
Ludd, Ned, 407 and, 120, 121121; Pol Pot and, 338; Meiji Constitution, 280
Ludendorff, Erich von, 86 on revolution, 298; Stalin on, 171; on Meiji era ( Japan), 67–70, 71, 125
Luftwaffe, 146 women, 393 Meiji Restoration, 68, 72, 279
Lula da Silva Luiz Inácio, 214 Māori, 296 Mei-ling Soong, 122
Lumumba, Patrice, 351 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom Mein Kampf (Hitler), 135, 146
Lusitania (ship), 85 (1963), 192 Meir, Golda, 387
Luxembourg, 168, 249 March Uprising (Russia), 90–91, 93 Mekong delta, 38
Lu Xun, 123 Marconi, Guglielmo, 6 Mello, Fernando Collor de, 214
Luzon, 37 Marco Polo Bridge event (1937), 142 Menem, Carlos Saúl, 213
Lynchings, of African Americans, 96 Marcos, Ferdinand, 334 Menilik II, Emperor, 49
Márquez, Gabriel García, 217 Mensheviks, 91
M Marriage: in Africa, 360–361; arranged, 69, Merkel, Angela, 241, 253–254, 268, 413
Maastricht Treaty, 261, 262, 265 123, 124, 313, 361; in China, 123, 314; of Mesopotamia, 111
MacArthur, Douglas, 150, 175, 278; on elites, 7; in India, 34, 331, 331, 332; Me Too movement, 203
Japanese economic system, 282; meeting in Japan, 69; in South Korea, 292. Mexico: art, 130; copper mining industry,
with Emperor Hirohito, 278; occupation See also Divorce 128; in early twentieth century,
regime in Japan and, 279 Marriage Act (2013) (Great Britain), 257 129–130; government under Díaz,
Macartney, Lord, 53–54 Marshall, George C., 172, 173, 247 19; immigration from, 201, 400, 405;
Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 34 Marshall Plan, 166, 167–168, 191, 247 NAFTA and, 197, 215; oil industry in,
Macedonia, 258 Martinique, 42 127, 215; politics, 215; World War I
Macron, Emmanuel, 251–252 Marx, Karl and Marxism, 232; in Africa, 349; and, 85
Madagascar, 44 Asia and, 116; Bolshevik Revolution Microsoft, 206
Madero, Francisco, 129 and, 93; The Communist Manifesto, 20, Middle class: in China, 311; under colonial
Maduro, Nicolás, 217 21; Das Kapital (Capital), 20; Ho Chi rule, characteristics of, 107; European,
“Magic” (Ultra project), 150 Minh and, 105; Industrial Revolution 7–8; in Latin America, 19; in mass
Maharajas, 34 and, 3; in Japan, 125; nationalism and, society, 7–8; in postwar Europe,
Mahdi (Muhammad Ahmad), 43 22; overview, 20; reality of Soviet 263–264; in Russia, 14; in Southeast
Mahdi, the (Egypt), 43, 47 life vs., 220–221; rise of, 20; Russian, Asia, 339; in the U.S., 400
Mahfouz, Naguib, 387–388 90; Saint Petersburg Soviet party, 90; Middle East, 367–389, 397; contemporary,
“Make America Great Again” (Trump), 198 Stalin and, 100; transitional phase map of, 368; economic inequities in,
Makoto, Saito, 139 into communism, 99; in the West vs. 384; economy, 382, 384–385; immigrants
Malamud, Bernard, 208 in China, 317–318; World War I and, from, 250, 254, 255, 257, 264, 266,
Malaria, 402 78–79. See also Communism 404; Marxist ideology in, 117; music,
Malaya, 39, 334–335 Mass entertainment, 102 389; Muslim unity in, 367; nationalist
Malay peninsula, 36, 149, 339 Mass leisure, 264 movements in, 106; obstacles to change
Malays, 336 Mass line system (China), 309 in, 392–393; oil and, 196; Palestine and,
Malaysia, 335–336; in ASEAN, 340; Petronas Mass society, 7–8 370, 371–372; post-World War I, 106;
Towers in, 321, 321; Western culture in, 340 Masurian Lakes, Battle of, 81 refugees and, 261, 405; Soviet threat
Malcolm X, 193 Materialism, 340. See also Consumerism and in, 166, 186; territorial changes in,
Malenkov, Georgy, 177, 222 consumer goods after World War I, 89; women in, 382,
Mali, 356, 364 Material progress, Industrial Revolution and, 386–387, 393–394; World War I and, 83,
Malindi, Africa, 41 4–5 85; World War II and, 368, 370. See also
Malta, 261 Matrilineal systems, 47 Arabs and Arab world; specific locations
Malthus, Thomas, 405 Mau Mau movement, 347 Middle Passage, 42
Malvinas, the, 256 Maxim gun, 49 Midnight (Mao Dun), 124
Manchu dynasty. See Qing dynasty (1644-1911) “May Fourth Movement,” 119 Midnight’s Children (Rushdie), 331
Manchukuo, 138 Ma Ying -jeou, 290 Midway Island, 150
Manchuria, 119, 138; under communist May, Theresa, 257–258, 413 Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig, 102
control, 172; hope of restoring influence Mbeki, Thabo, 355, 355 Migration: climate change and, 406;
in, 173–174; Japan and, 138, 142, 144; McCain, John, 198 motivations for, 404, 405; origins and
Nanjing republic and, 138 McCarthy, Joseph, 177, 181, 191–192 destinations, 404, 405; patterns of
Mandela, Nelson, 347, 355, 355 McDonald’s, 328 international, 404; periods of, 404.
Manga novel, 288 McGovern, George, 195 See also Immigrants and immigration
Manifesto for Germany, 255 McKibben, Bill, 421 Military: compulsory service in, 86; Japanese
Manila Bay, 37 McKinley, William, 37 (Meiji), 68; Latin America, 213; Soviet
Manioc (cassava/yuca), 352 McLean, Malcolm P., 408 Germany, 139; Treaty of Versailles and,
Manitoba, Canada, 17 “McWorld culture,” 423 89; U.S., in Japan, 280; U.S., in Latin
Manufacturing: in China, 55, 63; in India, Measles, 402 America, 127; World War I and, 81
35; industrialization and, 6–7; in Meat Inspection Act, 17 Military draft, 86, 139
Japan, 68, 125–126; in the U.S., 197. Mecca, 111, 115 Military rule: in Burma, 336; in Latin
See also Industrial development and Media: Soviet Union, 225, 235; U.S., on America, 128–130; in Nigeria, 355
industrialization Trump, 413 Millennium Declaration, 357
446 ■ Index
Millennium Summit (2000), 401 389; postwar Europe, 271; post-World Nationalist Party of Indondesia (PNI), 107
Milošević, Slobodan, 258, 259, 260 War II American, 207, 208; Soviet era, Nationalists, in Taiwan, 288, 289, 290
Mindanao, 335 232; Soviet Union under Gorbachev, Nationalization, of Bank of England, 254
Ming dynasty, 54 235–236 National Labor Relations Act (1935), 98
Minimalism, 207 Muslim Brotherhood, 115–116 National League for Democracy, 336
Minimum wage, 86, 400 Muslim League, 110, 322 National Liberation Front (NLF), 182
Ministerial responsibility, 14 Muslims: in China, 308; classes with Hindus National Liberation Front of South Vietnam
Ministry of International Trade and Industry in South Asia, 322, 325, 326, 327; dress (NLF), 182, 183
(MITI), 284 codes, 342; equating terrorism with, National Park system, 204
Minseito, the ( Japan), 138 266; ethnic cleansing of Bosnian, 259; National Party (South Africa), 355
Mir, the (Russia), 91 in France, 250, 251; Hezbollah, 375; in National Recovery Administration (NRA), 98
Mishima, Yukio, 287 Indian society, 108; in Indonesia, 335, National Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi)
Missionaries, 32, 44, 54, 65 336, 337, 338; in Malaya, 334, 335–336; Party, 97, 130
“Missionary factor,” 44 national home for Jewish people and, National Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi)
Mistral, Gabriela, 217 115; in Nigeria, 356; Pakistan and, 322; Party (NSDAP), 135
Mitterand, François, 250, 250 Palestine and, 370, 373; purdah, 34; Native Americans, 18
Mobutu Sese Seko, 348, 356 Sarekat Islam (nationalist movement) NATO. See North Atlantic Treaty
Model T car, 96 of, 107; September 11th terrorist attacks Organization (NATO)
Modernism, in the arts, 24–26 and, 197; in Sudan, 356; Timbuktu and, Naturalism, 23
Modernist Islam, 385, 415 345. See also Middle East Natural resources: colonization and, 38;
Modernization: in China, 121–122, 123–124, Mussolini, Benito, 134–135, 154, 412 Japan’s “southern strategy” and,
303–304; in Egypt, 115–116; in Iran, 112, Myanmar. See Burma (Myanmar) 143–144, 151
114; of Turkey, 112 Natural selection, 24, 29
Modernization theory, 391 N Naval warfare, 83, 85, 150, 153
Modern nationalism, 107–108 NAFTA (North American Free Trade Nazi Germany: alliances, 139; Austria
Modi, Narendra, 325 Agreement), 107, 215, 400 and, 140; Czechoslovakia and,
Moi, Daniel arp, 353–354 Nagasaki, bombing of, 156, 157 140–141; economy, 136; Nazi-Soviet
Moldova, 261 Nagib, Muhammad, 370 Nonaggression Pact, 142; in 1933-1939,
Molotov, Vyacheslav, 171, 221–222 Nagy, Imre, 228 136–137; nonaggression pact with the
Mona Lisa (Warhol), 207 Naipaul, V.S., 332 Soviets, 143; Poland and, 142, 145, 148;
Mondrian, Piet, 101 Nairobi, Kenya, 353 public attitudes and, 149; SS in, 136–137;
Monet, Claude, 24–25 Nanjing: communism and, 172; Japan and, Triumph of the Will (documentary)
Mongkut, king of Thailand, 37 142, 143, 143, 151; massacre of, 142; on, 136; women in, 137, 137; youth
Mongols, 29 rebellion, 57; Treaty of, 56 organizations, 137. See also Hitler, Adolf;
Monroe Doctrine for Asia, 143 Nanjing Republic, 119–121, 138 World War II
Montenegro, 260 Napoleon Bonaparte, 12 Nazi New Order, 148
Moravia, 141 Napoleon III, 13, 16 Nazi Party, 133, 135, 136, 140, 149
Morel, Edmund, 33 Napoleon, Louis, 13 Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, 142, 238
Morocco, 347–348, 352, 381 Nardodnaya Volya, 14 Négritude (“blackness”), 349
Morrison, Toni, 208 Narodniks, 14 Nehru, Jawaharlal, 109, 110, 327; foreign
Morsi, Mohamed, 380, 380 Narodnya Volya, 90 policy under, 323–324; Gandhi and, 111;
Mosaddeq, Mohammad, 375–376 Nasser, Gamal Abdul, 370, 372, 374, 384 political system under, 322–323; socialist
Motion pictures, 102 Natal, 46 creed of, 323
Mott, Lucretia, 10, 11 National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Nehru, Motilal, 110
Mountain of the Singing Sands, 312 Taipei, 289 Neocolonialism, 350–351
Movies, 102 National Congress of British West Africa, 347 Netanyahu, Benjamin, 375
Mo Yan, 317 National Congress of the CPSU, 100 Netherlands, the: in the Common Market,
Mozambique, 43, 348 National Environmental Policy Act, 195 249; NATO and, 168; World War II
Mubarek, Hosni, 380, 381 National Front (France), 250 and, 148
Mueller, Robert, 412 National Health Service Act (1946), 254 New Brunswick, Canada, 17
Mughal Dynasty, 47, 50, 327 National Insurance Act (1911), 16 New Course, 222
Mughals, the, 34, 35 National Insurance Act (1946), 254 New Culture Movement, 117–119, 123
Muhammad (prophet), 41 Nationalism, 13; in Africa, 352; in the Balkans, New Deal, the, 98, 191
Muhammad Ali (Egypt), 16, 43 15–16; in Europe, 13, 411–412; in New Delhi, India, 329
Muhammad V (Morocco), 348 Germany, 13–14, 135; in Japan, 125, 126; New Democracy, 299
Muken incident ( Japan), 138 in Latin America, 213–215; Marxism New Economic Policy (NEP), 99, 100, 299
Muller, Herta, 271 and, 22, 116; modern, 107–108; Sun’s New Guinea, 150
Multinational empires, 12 Three People’s Principles, 61; Turkish, New Life Movement, 122
Mumbai, 108 112; unifications in Germany and Italy New London, South Africa, 358
Munch, Edvard, 25, 424 and, 13–14 New Order in East Asia, 143
Munich Conference (1938), 140–141 Nationalist movements: in Africa, 347–348; New Party (India), 108
Munition plants, 87 anti-colonial sentiment and, 106–107; New Territories, 59
Murakami, Haruki, 288 in the Arab world, 114–116; in China, Newtonian physics, 22
Mural art, 130 119–122; in Egypt, 115–116; in India, Newton, Isaac, 22
Musharraf, Pervez, 326 108–110, 322; in Iran, 114; in Japan, 125, “New world order,” 187–188, 397
Music: African, 363–364; atonal system 126; questions related to, 107–108 New Zealand: postwar, 296; women’s right to
(Schoenberg), 101–102; Expressionism Nationalist (Guomindang) Party, 117 vote in, 10; World War I and, 83
in, 26; in Japan, 288; in the Middle East, Nationalist Party (China), 62, 119 Ngo Dinh Diem, 182, 334
Index ■ 447
Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, 362 Obasanjo, Olusegun, 355 Pagan (Burma), 36
Nguyen Ai Quoc. See Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam) Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), 203 Pahlavi dynasty (Iran), 114; Mohammad Reza,
Nicaragua, 19, 127, 187 Obrador, Manuel, 215 375, 385; Reza Khan, 385, 387
Nicholas II (Russia), 14, 78, 80, 90 Obregón, Alvaro, 129 Painting (Bacon), 271
Nicol, Abioseh, 361 October uprising, 61 Pakistan, 110; independence of, 322; India’s
Nicolson, Harold, 88 Oe, Kenzaburo, 287–288 relationship with, 324; inequalities
Nien Cheng, 302 Official Languages Act (1968), 209 in, 330; literature from, 389; since
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 23, 118 Oil and oil industry: Arab-Israeli conflict and, independence, 325–326; Taliban
Nigeria, 43; Boko Haram and, 356, 361; British 375; British profits from Iranian, 114; and, 379
rule in, 46; civilian government in, 355– Carter Doctrine and, 186; deposits in Palace of Culture, 232
356; Ibo groups, 352; independence of, the U.S., 204; fracking and, 421; increase Palestine and Palestinians, 111; after World
348; military rule in, 355; pan-Islamism in prices, 196; in Latin America, 127; in War II, 370; Arab and Jewish case for,
and, 352; religious and territorial Mexico, 130, 215; in the Middle East, 371; as homeland for Jewish people,
disputes in, 356 385; OPEC and, 375; Russia and, 14; 115, 116
Nile River valley, 110, 115 Soviet Union, 227; in Sumatra, 39; in Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO),
Nile valley, British imperialism and, 43, 44, 111 Venezuela, 217 372–373, 374–375
Nineteenth Amendment, 10, 96, 201 Ojuka, Albert, 352–353 Palin, Sarah, 198
Nineteenth amendment, 96 Olympic Games, Summer, 1980, 225 Pamuk, Orhan, 389
Nixon in China (Adams), 207 “One Belt, One Road Initiative” (China), Pan-Africanism, 349, 357
Nixon, Richard M.: Khrushchev and, 179; 307–308 Panama Canal, 127
on “law and order,” 193, 195; trip to One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Pan-Arabism, 368, 372
China, 184; Vietnam War and, 184, 195; (Solzhenitsyn), 226, 233 Panca Sila, 335
Watergate and, 195 “One Hundred Days” (reform program), 59 Pan-Islamism, 352
Nkrumah, Kwame, 347, 349, 351 One Hundred Years of Solitude (Márquez), 217 Pankhurst, Christabel, 10
Nobel Peace Prize, 252 Ontario, Canada, 17 Pankhurst, Emmeline, 10, 12
Nobel Prize, 232, 233, 243, 271 OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Pankhurst, Sylvia, 10
Nobel Prize in Literature, 287, 317, 362, Countries), 196, 375 Pantheism, 360
387, 389 Open Door, 59–60 Paris Climate Agreement, 420
Nonaligned Movement, 180 Open Door Notes, 59–60 Paris Peace Conference, 88–90, 89, 119
Nonviolence, Gandhi on, 323 The Open Sore of a Continent (Soyinka), 362 Park Chung Hee, 291
Non-violent protest, 193 Operation Overlord, 153 Park Guen-hye, 291
Nonviolent resistance, Gandhi and, 108–109 Operation Sealion, 146 Parks, Rosa, 192
Normandy, battle at, 153 Opium, 56 Parliamentary governments, 137; in Africa,
North Africa, 110; World War II and, 146, Opium War, 56, 57 353; in India, 322, 326; in Indonesia, 335
147, 152 Orange Free State, 45 Parti Québécois, 209
North American Air Defense Command Orban, Viktor, 266 Party of the Revolution (Tanzania), 353
(NORAD), 208 Organic evolution, 24 Pasha (Turkey), 112
North American Free Trade Agreement, 107, Organization of African Unity (OAU), 350 Pashtuns, the (Pakistan), 325
215, 400 Organization of American States (OAS), 211 Pasternak, Boris, 232–233
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
168–169, 170, 208; air strikes on Libya, Countries (OAPEC), 375 (ACA), 198
380; European unity and, 263; expansion Organization of Petroleum Exporting Patriotism, World War I and, 84
of, 263; France and, 249; Trump on, 412 Countries (OPEC), 196, 375 Peaceful coexistence policy (Soviet Union),
Northern Expedition, the (China), 119, 120, Oriel College, Oxford University, 28 177–178
120 The Origin of Species (Darwin), 23 Pearl Harbor, 37, 149, 152
Northern Ireland, 256 The Origins of Totalitarianism (Arendt), 134 Peasant revolts, 47; in China, 121; Mao
Northern Rhodesia, 46 Orthodox Marxism, 116 Zedong calling for, 121; Taiping
North German Confederation, 13 Ostpolitik, 252 Rebellion, 56–57
North Korea, 175, 291, 292 Oswald, Lee Harvey, 192 Peasants: Chinese civil war and, 172; Great
North Vietnam, 176, 335 O’Toole, Peter, 85 Leap Forward (China) and, 300; in
Norway: NATO and, 168; women’s right to Ottoman Empire, 15–16; collapse of, 63, Japan, 66, 68; Russian, 14; in Soviet
vote in, 10; World War II and, 146, 148 110–112; colonialism and, 31; Industrial collective farms, 100; Soviet New
Nova Scotia, Canada, 17 Revolution and, 75; Treaty of Versailles Economy Policy and, 99; wages of
Novotný, Antonín, 229 and, 90; Wahhabi revolt and, 114–115; Polish, during Soviet era, 233. See also
Nuclear testing, 181 World War I and, 83, 85; Young Turks Farming and farmers; Land reform
Nuclear weapons: Cuban Missile Crisis and, and, 110–111 programs
180–181; France and, 249–250; North Ottoman Turks, 15, 43 “Pedestrian, to Passing Benz-Man” (Ojuka),
Korea and, 292; public’s fear of, in the Outsourcing of jobs, 329 352–353
U.S., 192; Star Wars, 186–187 Oxford University, 28, 29 Pelevin, Victor, 244
Nuoc mam, 40 PEMEX, 130
Nussbaum, Martha, 333 P Penang, 38
Nyerere, Julius, 349, 353, 354 “Pacific Century,” 321 Peña Nieto, Enrique, 215
Pacific, the: end of World War II in, 156; People’s Action Party (Singapore), 293
O “island-hopping” approach in World People’s Daily (China), 305
OAPEC (Organization of Arab Petroleum War II, 150, 156; World War II in the, People’s Liberation Army (PLA), 120, 172, 173
Exporting Countries), 375 149–150, 150 People’s Republic of China (PRC), 172, 175.
Obama, Barack, 198, 204, 216, 379 Padamsee, Alyque, 100 See also China
Obamacare, 198 Padmore, George, 349 Perestroika, 187, 338
448 ■ Index
Pérez, Carlos Andrés, 216 Pomeranz, Kenneth, 74 63–64; map, 55; October uprising and,
Peron, Eva, 213 Pop Art, 207 61; opium and, 56; reform and, 58, 60;
Peron, General Juan, 128 Popular culture: European, 264, 269; post- Taiping Rebellion and, 57; trade with
Peronistas, 213 World War II American, 208 British, 53–54; western imperialism and,
Perón, Juan, 213 Popular Fronts, 140 63; women in, 64–65
Perry, Matthew, 66, 66 Population growth: in Africa, 352; in China, 63, Qiu Jin, 65
Persepolis (film), 377 310; dangers of, 405, 407; in India, 324, Quantum theory, 22
Persian Gulf: oil in, 115; Soviet advance into 327, 329; in Japan, 126; in Kenya, 353; in Quebec, Canada, 17, 209
Afghanistan and, 186 the Middle East, 384–385; overplanting The Quiet American (Greene), 271
Persian Gulf War, 378–379 and, 418; in Southeast Asia, 40 Qur’an, 41, 116, 384
Personal computer, 206, 408 Populism, 412–413, 425
Peru, 127 Port Arthur, 59, 70, 171 R
Pesticides, 418, 421 Portugal: Brazil and, 17, 18; colonization in The Radiance of the King (Laye), 363
Petain, Marshal Philippe, 146 Africa, 44; in the European Community Radical Party (Argentina), 128
Petrograd, Russia, 90, 91, 92, 93. See also (EC), 261; NATO and, 168; Timor and, 36 Radio, 102
Leningrad, Russia Postmodernism, 207, 271, 423, 424 Radio Free Europe, 228–229
Petronas Towers, Malaysia, 321, 321 Potala Palace, Tibet, 308, 308 Radio Liberty, 228
Philippines, 37; under Aquino, 335; in ASEAN, Potsdam Conference (1945), 154–155 Radio waves, first, 6
340; colonialism in, 31, 32, 36, 38; Poverty, 275, 327, 401–402; in Africa, 352; Raffles, Stamford, 37
independence, 333; under Marcos, 334; colonialism and, 51; in India, 328–329; Railroads, 4, 5, 68
trade, 40; World War II and, 149 in the Middle East, 384; post-World War Rainforests, 339, 339
Photography, 25 II, 398 Raj, British, 34, 35
Phung, Phan Dinh, 48 Power loom, 3–4 Rákosi, Mátyás, 228
Physics, 22–23 Powers, Francis Gary, 180 Ramadan, 114
Picasso, Pablo, 26 Prague Spring, 229 Rangoon, Burma, 40
Piedmont, kingdom of, 13 Pravda (newspaper), 225, 235 Rauschenberg, Robert, 207
Pinochet, Augusto, 212 The Princess (Tennyson), 8 “Raw communism,” 99. See also Socialism
Piracy, 43 Prisoners of war: used for labor by Japan, 151; Ready-Mades (Duchamp), 101
Pissarro, Camille, 24 World War II, 148 Reagan, Ronald: Cold War and, 186–187;
Pizza Hut, 328 Privy Council of Martinique, 42 dismantling the welfare state, 196
PLA. See People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Priyayi (East Indies), 38 Recession, Japanese, 283. See also Financial
Plage du Diamant, 42 Progressive Era, 17 crisis
Planck, Max, 22 Progressives ( Japan), 67 Red Army (Russia), 91, 94
Plantation agriculture, 40, 43, 346, 347 Proletariat, 21, 92 Red Guards (China), 298–299; Cultural
Plantations: in Belgian Congo, 47; rubber, 19, 40; Protestantism and Protestants: British Revolution and, 301–302
in Southeast Asia, 40; sugar, 42; tea, 40 growing economy and, 3; in Latin Red Guard units, Bolshevik Revolution
Please Look After Mom (Shin), 292 America, 211; Nazi Germany and, 137; and, 91
Plekhanov, George, 91 in Northern Ireland, 256 “Red October,” 93
PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), Protests: antiwar, during Vietnam War, 182, 193; “Red scare,” 177, 191–192
372–373, 374–375 civil rights, 192; in Eastern Europe, 179; in Red Sea, 31
Pluralism, 423 France, 251–252; in India, 109; in Indonesia, Ree, Syngman, 291
Poetry, in Japan, 71 336–337; in postwar France, 250; student, in Reform(s): capitalism in Europe, 20, 22; in
Poison gas, 82–83, 151 postwar Europe, 267; Tiananmen Square, China, 58–59, 60–61; under China’s
Poland: after World War II, 154; in the EU, 1989, 303, 304; by Tibetans, 308; Western Cultural Revolution, 301–302; under
261; free market economy in, 258; Law imperialism and, 29. See also Riots Gorbachev in the Soviet Union,
and Justice Party, 266; NATO and, 263; Prussia: Treaty of Versailles and, 89; 235–236; in India, 110; in Japan, 67;
Nazi Germany and, 142, 145, 148; in unification of Germany and, 13, 14 Kosygin reforms, in Soviet Union, 224;
1939, map, 140; parliamentary system Psychoanalysis, 23 Meiji government in Japan, 67–69, 279;
in, 137; post-World War II unrest in, Public health, Industrial Revolution and, 7 Ottoman Empire, 110; postwar Japan,
228; transition from Soviet satellite Public transportation, 268 282; Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia,
to sovereign nation, 236; Treaty of Puerto Rico, 37 229; Progressive Era in U.S., 17; in
Versailles and, 90, 94; uprising in 1848, Punjab, 35, 49, 324 Turkey, 112. See also Modernization
13; Versailles Treaty provisions, 139; Purdah (India), 34 Refugees: in Great Britain, 257; international
Warsaw Pact, 169; World War II and, Pure Food and Drug Act, 17 migration patterns and, 404; Jewish, 370;
145, 146, 148 Purge trials (U.S.S.R.), 100 Middle East, 261, 405; Palestinian, in
Police, Nazi, 135 Pussy Riot (music group), 240 Jordan, 370; from Rwanda and Burundi,
Politburo, 177 Putin, Vladimir, 240–242, 241, 397; autocratic 356; Syrian, 254; from Vietnam, 338;
Political liberalism, 12 model of, 275; Serbia in the EU and, from West Africa, 359
Pollock, Jackson, 206 261; Trump, Donald and, 413 Reichstag, 16
Pollution, 268; air, 7, 268, 311–312, 329; in Puyi, Henry, 301 Reign of Terror (France), 300
China, 419; in communist countries, Pynchon, Thomas, 207 Relativity, theory of, 22–23
418–419; in Eastern Europe, 418; Religion: in Africa, 44, 360, 415; as barrier to
Industrial Revolution and, 7; water, 7, Q socio-economic change, 393; in China,
311, 329 Qaddafi, Muammar, 352, 380 54, 64, 308, 316, 316; China’s Cultural
Pol Pot, 338, 340 Qajar dynasty (Persia), 112–113 Revolution and, 301; colonialism
Polygamy, 361 Qianlong, Emperor, 53, 54 and, 32; conflict in Nigeria and, 356;
Polygyny, 47 Qing dynasty (1644-1911): changes during, dictatorships and, 383; differences in,
Polynesian peoples, in New Zealand, 296 54–56; collapse of, 54, 59; daily life in, conflict and, 414; evangelical movement,
Index ■ 449
414–415; Gandhi and, 109–110; in India, expansion, 143–144; the New Deal an, Samizdat, 225
33, 34; in Indonesia, 335; in Japan, 287; 98; Soviet-U.S. tensions and, 165; World Samurai, 67
Marxism and, 116; postwar society and, War II strategy, 149; Yalta Agreement Sandanistas, 187
276; prevalence of, in technological and, 154, 164, 165 San Martín, José, 18, 19
society, 415–416; in Southeast Asia, 340; Roosevelt, Theodore, 17, 71, 204 Sarajevo, 78, 80
Theosophy, 101. See also Buddhism and Roshan, Seth, 100 Saramago, Josè, 271
Buddhists; Christianity and Christians; Rosie the Riveter, 153 Sarekat Islam (Islamic Association), 107
Hinduism and Hindus; Islam; specific Roth, Philip, 208 Sarkozy, Nicolas, 251
religions Rouhani, Hassan, 378 Saro-Wiwa, Ken, 355
The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Hamid), 389 Rousseff, Dilma, 214 Sarraut, Albert, 32, 39
Remarque, Erich Maria, 84 Rubber and rubber plantations, 19, 38, 39, 40 Sarraute, Nathalie, 271
Reparations, 89; German, after World War II, Ruhr valley, French occupation of, 95 Sartre, Jean-Paul, 269–270
154; World War I, 94–95, 95 Rural areas: in Africa, 359–360; authoritarian The Satanic Verses (Rushdie), 331
Republican China, 122–123 governments in Europe and, 137; in Sat-Cho alliance, in Japan, 67
Republican Party (United States), 191, 195, India, 330, 331; Meiji reform ( Japan) SA, the (Storm Troops), 135
197, 198 and, 68; migration from the South, 96; Sati, 34, 108, 331
Republic of China (ROC). See Taiwan migration to the cities in China, 311; Satrapi, Marjane, 377
Republic of Indonesia, 333, 334 poverty in the Middle East, 384–385. Satsuma, Japan, 67
Republic of Korea (ROK), 176, 291. See also See also Peasants Satyagraha, 109
South Korea Rural policies, in Southeast Asia, 40 Saudi Arabia, 381; establishment of, 115;
Republic of South Sudan, 356 Rural responsibility system, 310 independence of, 112; oil industry,
Republic of Vietnam (RVN), 176 Rushdie, Salman, 331 385; political reform, 381; United Arab
La Republique en Marche, 251 Rusk, Dean, 181, 185 Republic (UAR) and, 372; women in,
Retirement age, 264 Russell, Bertrand, 118 387, 388
Revive China Society, 61 Russia: Bolshevik Revolution (1917), 85, SAVAK (security police), 376
Revolts: Bolshevik Revolution, 91–93; by 91–93; China and, 59; civil war in, after Savanna belt, 41
Chinese Communist Party, 119; in Bolshevik Revolution, 93–94; Crimean Schlieffen, Alfred von, 81
East Germany, 229; in Mexico, 129; dispute, 241–242; current, 242–243; Schlieffen Plan, 81
peasant, in response to colonialism, 47; Industrial Revolution and, 75; Japan Schmidt, Helmut, 252
South America, 18; Taiping Rebellion, and, 70; League of Nations and, 94; Schoenberg, Arnold, 101–102, 271
56–5757. See also Peasant revolts; literature, 242–243; March Uprising, Schröder, Gerhard, 253
Uprisings 90–91; Marxist movement, 91; military Science: developments in, late nineteenth
Revolution(s): of 1848, 13; Bolshevik aid to Africa, 357; NATO expansion century, 22–23; in post-World War II
Revolution, 85, 90–93; in China, 61–63, and, 263; Putin era, 240–241; religion U.S., 206
120, 121, 298–299, 298–303; in Cuba, in, 415; Romanov family, 94; roots of Scientific Revolution, 22
215–216; in Iran, 375–378; roots of revolution in, 14–15; in Triple Entente, “Scientific socialism,” 20
Russian, 14–15 79; Trump’s collusion with, in 2016 Scotland, 256, 257
Revolutionary Alliance (Tongmenghui), 61–62 election, 412; World War I and, 78, “The Scream” (Munch), 424
Revolutionary parties: in Southeast Asia, 335 79–80, 81, 85, 90; Yeltsin era, 239–240. Sealion operation, 146
Reza Khan. See Pahlavi dynasty (Iran) See also Soviet Union Second Battle of the Marne, 86
Rhenish-Westphalian Coal Syndicate, 7 Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), 15, 242 Second Class Citizen (Emecheta), 362
Rhineland, 139 Russian Revolution. See Bolshevik Revolution Second Empire (France), 16
Rhodes, Cecil, 28–29, 30, 46 (1917) Second Indochina war, 181–185
Riefenstahl, Leni, 136 Russian Social Democratic Labor Party Second International, the, 22, 105
Riots: civil rights movement, 193; Hindu- (RSDLP), 90, 91 Second National Congress of the RSKLP
Muslim clashes in India, 327; in Kenya, Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), 71, 90 (1903), 91
354; in postwar France, 251. See also Rwanda, 356 Second New Deal, 98
Protests The Second Sex (de Beauvoir), 269
Rivera, Diego, 130 S Segregation, in the U.S., 192
Robbe-Grillet, Alain, 271 Al-Sadat, Anwar, 374, 384, 386 Seiyukai, the ( Japan), 138
Robots, 408 Sahara desert, 41 Selangor Cricket Club, 321
Roe v. Wade (1973), 203 Sahel, the, 345–346 Self-determination, principle of, 88
Rohingya, the, 336 Saigon, 40 Self-Employed Women’s Association, 403
Roman Catholic Church. See Catholic Church Sailendra, 36 “Selfies,” 417
and Catholics Saint Basil’s Church, Moscow, 243 Self-strengthening policy (China), 58, 59
Romania: autonomy of (1878), 16; Saint Petersburg, Russia, 90 Selim III (Ottoman Empire), 110
parliamentary system in, 137; removal Saint Petersburg Soviet, 90 Seneca Falls, New York, 10
of Communist Party from, 236; Soviet Sakhalin Islands, 70, 154, 280 Senegal, 43, 346, 361, 361
Popular Fronts and, 140; Treaty of Sakharov, Andrei, 225, 236 Sen, Hun, 338–339
Versailles and, 90; Warsaw Pact, 169 Salcedo, Doris, 217 Senkakus, the, 307
Romanov dynasty, 93, 94 Salinas, Carlos, 215 Sepoys, 49–50
Rome Treaty, 261 SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks), September 11th terrorist attacks, 188, 197,
Rommel, General Erwin, 152 185–186 368, 396–397
Ronald McDonald, 423 SALT II, 186 Serbia, 16, 258–259, 260; autonomy of (1878),
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 152; Atlantic Charter Salt mine, Senegal, 361, 361 16; European Union and, 261; events
and, 391; death, 154, 165; “Four Salt tax, 110 leading to World War I and, 79–80;
Freedoms” speech, 145, 165; Good Same-sex marriage, 251, 257 Treaty of Versailles and, 90; World War
Neighbor policy of, 127; on Japanese Same-sex parents, 413 I and, 79–80
450 ■ Index
Serbian Communist Party, 258 Social Revolutionary Party (Russia), 93, 94 275; collective farms in, 100; creation
Serfs/serfdom, 14, 20 Social Security, 197–198 of, 98–99; Cuba and, 215–216; Cuban
Serialism, 271 Social Security Act (1935), 98 Missile Crisis and, 180–181; cultural
Seth, Vikram, 332 Social structures, mass society and, 7–8 exchange with U.S., 179; cultural
Sèvres, Treaty of, 112 Society for Foreign Missions, 36 expression in, 232–233; de-Stalinization,
Sexual equality, 201–203 Sofala, Africa, 41 223; dictatorial regime in, 134;
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, 375, 385 Soil erosion, 311 disintegration of, 234–236; economy,
Shah Reza Khan, 114, 385, 387 Soka Gakkai, 298 99, 187, 220–221, 225–227; Ethiopia,
Shaka (Zulu), 45 Solar power, 421 351; expansion into Third World, 186;
Sham (music group), 389 Solidarity (labor union), 236 Helsinki Accords and, 186, 225; invasion
Shamba, 353 Soloman Islands, 150 of Czechoslovakia, 229, 230; Japan and,
Shamir, Itzhak, 374 Solzhenitsyn, Alexander, 225, 226, 233 143, 280; Khrushchev and, 177–179, 222–
Shandong peninsula, 59 Somalia, 186 223; Korean War and, 175; Malenkov
Shandong Province, China, 119, 126 Some Prefer Nettles (Tanizaki), 125 and, 222; Marshall Plan and, 168; media,
Shanghai, China, 119, 120 Songhai, 348 225, 235; Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression
Shanghai massacre (1927), 119, 120 Son of the Revolution (Liang Heng), 301–302 Pact, 142; New Economic Policy (NEP),
Shari’a (Islamic law), 41, 112, 116, 356, 376 Sorokin, Vladimir, 243 99, 100; nonaggression pact with
Shidehara diplomacy, 126, 138 Sot-Weed Factor (Barth), 207 Germany, 143; perestroika, 187; Poland
Shi’ite Muslims, 114, 376, 378, 379, 386, 415 South Africa: apartheid and, 347, 354–355; and, 145, 165; post-World War II, 221,
Shimonoseki, Treaty of, 70 British colonization, 46; colonization 222; Potsdam Conference and, 154–155;
Shin, Kyung-Sook, 292 of, 45; European colonialism in, 45, 45, SALT I and, 185–186; SALT I and SALT
Shinto, 287 346; Gandhi and, 108, 109; housing, 358; II, 186; seeking united fronts with
Shipping container, 408, 408 transition to independence, 347 capitalist countries, 140; space program,
Shipwreck, at Caffard Cove, 42 South African Republic (Transvaal), 45, 46 181, 206; Stalin and, 221; Stalin’s
Shogunate system, 65 South America: immigration from, 405; map, strategy to build socialism in, 100; threat
Shostakovich, Dmitri, 232 210; racial diversity in, 17–18. See also of expansion by, 166–167; Vietnam and,
Siberian concentration camps, 221, 222, 226 Latin America 176; Vietnam War and, 182; Warsaw
Sideline industries, 235, 310 South Asia, 322–333; cotton fibers imported Pact, 169; women in, 234; World War
Sierra Leone, 43 from, 4; map of modern, 324; II and, 146–148, 152, 153, 221; Yalta
Sikhs, 35, 49, 324, 327 partitioning of, 322. See also India; Agreement and, 154. See also Cold War;
Silent Spring (Carson), 204, 205 Pakistan Lenin, Vladimir; Stalin, Joseph and
Silk industry, 65, 68, 402 Southeast Asia, 333–343; agriculture, 40; Stalinism
Singapore, 292–293, 293; in ASEAN, 340; as ASEAN alliance and, 339–340; border Soyinka, Wole, 362
British colony, 37; “Little Tigers” and, disputes, 339–340; China and, 56; Cold Space program, 181
279; politics and government, 293; War and, 181–185; colonization in, 31, Space race, 206
postwar, 292–293; towers/trees in, 293, 36, 37, 38–40; cultural trends, 341–342; Spain: authoritarian government in, 138;
294; World War II and, 149 democracy in postwar, 333–335; colonization in Africa, 44; in the
Singh, Manmohan, 327, 333 economic development in, 39–40; European Community (EC), 261; Latin
Single-parent households, 413 future of, 342–343; Islam in, 36; Japan’s America and, 17; social benefits, 399
Six-Day War, 373–374 conquest of, 149, 151; Japan’s “southern Spanish-American War, 37–38
Sjahrir, Sutan, 108 strategy” and, 143–144, 333; in the new Spheres of influence, 59
Skyscrapers, 5, 26, 232 millennium, 335–339; political culture, Spice Islands, 36
Slash-and-burn agriculture, 418, 419 333–334; rainforests in, 339; trade, 36; Spielberg, Steven, 180
Slaves and slavery: British settlements for urban-rural dichotomy in, 340; women Spinning jenny, 3–4
freed, 43; European colonialism in in, 340–341 Spinning wheel, Gandhi’s message and, 109
Africa and, 47; in Latin America, 18; Southern Christian Leadership Conference Sports, 208, 233
textile work by, 8 (SCLC), 192 Spratly Islands, 307
Slave trade, 41, 42 Southern Rhodesia, 46 Sputnik I, 206
Slavophiles, 14 South Korea, 175, 291; economic growth in, Sri Lanka, 324–325
SLORC, 336 291; family in, 292, 292; “Little Tigers” Srivijaya, 36
Slovakia, 258, 261 and, 279; North Korea and, 291–292; SS (Schutzstaffel), 136–137
Slovenia, 258, 261 politics and government, 291 Stagflation, 196
Smith, Adam, 408 South Ossetia, 241 Stalingrad, Battle of, 152
Snow (Pamuk), 389 South Vietnam, 176, 182, 183, 185, 334, 338 Stalin, Joseph and Stalinism, 99, 134; death of,
Social Darwinism, 29, 31, 32, 135 South Yemen, 186 177, 222; economic recovery program,
Social Democrats (Germany), 252 Soviet Red Army, invasion of Czechoslovakia, 221; on the Great Depression, 139–140;
Socialism, 22; in Africa, 349, 353, 354; China’s 229 Greece and, 167; Khrushchev on, 223,
transition to, 299–300; in India, 327; Soviets of Agricultural Laborer’s Deputies, 92 224, 225; Korean War and, 175; legacy
New Economic Policy (NEP) and, Soviets of Deputies of Poor Peasants, 92 of, 100–101; on Mao Zedong, 171;
99; rise of, 19–20; Stalin’s policies on Soviets of Workers’ Deputies, 92 Mao Zedong and, 174; at Potsdam
transition to, 100; in Tanzania, 353 Soviet Union: Afghanistan and, 186, 379; Conference, 155; reputation of, under
Socialist Party (French), 118 agriculture in, 223, 224, 225, 227; Brezhnev, 225; responsibility for the
Socialist realism, 232 Armenia and, 112; arms race and, Cold War and, 169, 171; seeking united
Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), 338 186–187; Berlin Blockade and, 168; fronts, 140; Soviet-U.S. tensions and,
Socialists ( Japan), 281 Berlin Crisis and, 179; Brezhnev and, 165; suspicions by, 221–222; on United
Socialized medicine, 254 185, 223–227; China and, 171, 173, 180, Nations, 154; Yalta Conference and, 164,
Social media, 416, 416–417, 426 181; Chinese civil war and, 173; Cold 165; Yugoslavia and, 165–166
Social Revolutionaries (Russia), 90, 92 War and, 169–170, 187; collapse of, Standard Oil, 115
Index ■ 451
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 10, 11 288; Nationalist Party rule in, 288–290; Third International (Comintern), 117, 118
Starry Night (van Gogh), 25 postwar, 288–290; U.S.-China relations Third Republic (France), 16
Starvation, 100, 300, 352 and, 176, 184, 185, 307; U.S. fears about Third Wave, the, 75, 408
Star Wars (Strategic Defense Initiative), 187 Chinese invasion of, 175 Third World: Cold War and, 180; Soviet
Stasi, the (East Germany), 230, 253 Taliban, 379 expansion into, 186. See also individual
Steamboat, 4 Tamil Tigers, 324–325 country names
Steam engine, 4 Tanganyika, 348 Three obediences ( Japan), 69
Steamships, 57 Tanizaki, Junichiro, 125 Three People’s Principles, 61, 120
Steel: Industrial Revolution and, 4–5; in Latin Tannenberg, Battle of, 81 Thuggee, 34
America, 127; produced in Russia, Tanzania, 348, 353 Tiananmen Square demonstrations (1989),
14; Soviet production of, 100; U.S. Taoism. See Daoism (Taoism) 304, 305
production of, 17 Tariffs, 97, 399 Tianjin, Treaty of, 57
Sterilization, compulsory (India), 324, 327 Taxes/taxation: agricultural, in India, 34; Tibet, 59, 174, 308, 308
Stevens, Hiram, 49 agricultural, in Japan, 68; carbon, 204; Tilak, Balwantrao, 108
Stilwell, Joseph, 149–150 salt, in India, 110 Timbuktu, 41, 345, 345
Stimson, Henry L., 142 “Tea hair,” 284, 315 Timor, 36
Stockhausen, Karlheinz, 271 Tea industry, 56, 68 Tinariwen, 364
Stock market: Great Depression and, 97 Teakwood, 39–40 The Tin Drum (Grass), 271
Strait of Malacca, 37 Tea Party, 198, 412 Tito ( Josip Broz), 165, 167, 258
Straits Times, 293 Tea plantations, 40 Toer, Pramoedya, 341–342
The Stranger (Camus), 270 Technological Revolution, 3, 206, 397 Toffler, Alvin, 75, 408
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), 187 Technology and technological change(s): Tokugawa system ( Japan), 65, 67
Stravinsky, Igor, 26 capitalism and, 407; China’s use of Tokyo, 67, 71, 71, 156
Streetcars, 6 western, 58; in China under Deng Tokyo Bay, 66, 66
Stresemann, Gustav, 95, 96 Xiaoping, 303; criticisms of, 409; Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and
Sturmabteilung (SS Troops), 135 economy and, 407–408; electronic, in Music, 72
Submarine warfare, 85 China, 416; examples of recent, 408–409; Tokyo School of Fine Arts, 72
Sub-Saharan Africa, 117, 352 impact on, 75; in India, 329; in the past Tools, manufacturing, 7
Subways, 6 few decades, 408–409; in post-World Totalitarian state, 134
Sudan, 356 War II U.S., 206; religion and, 415–416; To the End of the Land (Grossman), 389
Sudetenland, 140 social and political influences, 416–417; Touré, Ali Farka, 364
Suez Canal, 31, 43, 43, 115, 372, 374 societal consequences of, 409–410; in Touré, Sékou, 349
Suez Canal Company, 372 Soviet Union, 227 Tourism, 233, 264, 310
Suffragette (film), 12 Tehran, Iran, 114, 154 Toynbee, Arnold, 79
Suffrage, women’s, 10, 11, 12, 96, 112, 268, 387 Telephone, invention of, 6 Trade: in Africa, 41; in Argentina, 127; in
Sugar plantations, 42 Television, 208, 233, 311, 408, 417 China, 55, 56, 311; Chinese, 122;
Suharto, General, 335, 336–337 Television shows, 201 colonial policy on, 39–40; cotton, 4;
Suicide: in Japan, 284 Tennyson, Alfred Lord, 8 global patterns of, 401; industrialization
A Suitable Boy (Seth), 332 “Ten thousand-dollar” households and, 6; Japanese, 138–139; Latin
Sukarno (Indonesia), 333, 335, 336, 339–340 (China), 310 America, 18, 127; linking Europe with
Sukarnoputri, Megawati, 338 Terrorism: by al-Qaeda, 379; bin Laden’s other nations, 29–30; opium, 56; in Qing
Sullivan, Louis H., 26 justification for, 369; Boko Haram, 356; China, 55; Qing Dynasty, 53–54, 56–57;
Sumatra, 36, 39, 40, 338, 339, 419 in France, 251; in Indonesia, 338; by Southeast Asia, 36, 37; of Southeast
Sunni Muslims, 114, 379, 415 Irish Republican Army (IRA), 256; in Asia, 36; spice, 36; in U.S. under Trump,
The Sun Shines over the Sangan River, 316 Mumbai, India, 325; Muslim population 399–400
Sun Yat-Sen, 61, 117, 119; Chiang Kai-shek in Europe and, 266; in Nigeria, 356; by Trade embargo, 378
and, 111; Three People’s Principles, 120 Palestinian militants, 374–375; PLO Trade unions: British, 16
Surrealism, 71, 101 attacks on Israel, 373; Russian radicals, Traditional customs: in Bali, 341; in India,
“Survival of the fittest,” 31 14; September 11th attacks, 188, 197, 331–332, 333; in Southeast Asia, 340
Swahili, 41 368, 396–397 Trans-Jordan, 115
Swaziland, 46 Tet Offensive, 182 Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), 399–400
Symbolism, 71 Textile industry: in China, 123; in India, 35; Transportation, 4, 6
Syria, 111–112; Arab-Israeli conflict and, inventions leading to, 3–4; in Japan, 69; Trans-Siberian Railway, 70
374; Arab Spring and, 380; Assad technology in, 407; women working Transvaal (South African Republic), 45, 46
regime, 382; civil war within, 380, in, 8, 86 Treaty of Addis Ababa, 49
381; independence of, 370; refugees in Thailand, 334; ASEAN and, 340; border Treaty of Kanagawa, 67
Germany, 254; Six-Day War and, 373; dispute with Cambodia, 339–340; Treaty of Lacarno, 95
United Arab Republic (UAR) and, 372 colonialism and, 31, 37 Treaty of Lausanne, 112
Thakin, Burma, 107 Treaty of Maastricht, 261, 262, 265
T Thatcher, Denis, 256 Treaty of Nanjing, 56
Tabriz, Iran, 114 Thatcher, Margaret, 250, 256, 257 Treaty of Sèvres, 112
Tahir Square demonstrations, 380 The Thaw (Ehrenburg), 232 Treaty of Shimonoseki, 70
Taiping Rebellion, 56–57, 65 “Theater of the absurd,” 270 Treaty of Tianjin, 57
Taisho democracy, 125, 126–127 Theory of evolution, 23, 24 Treaty of Versailles, 89–90
Taiwan, 70, 172, 173; agriculture, 288–289; Theory of relativity, 22–23 Trench warfare, 82
China and, 181, 307, 308; Cold War Theosophy, 101 Trifonov, Yury, 233
and, 174; Khrushchev and, 181; “Little The Rite of Spring (Stravinsky), 26 Triple Alliance, 15, 79, 80
Tigers” and, 279; map of modern, Things Fall Apart (Achebe), 362 Triple Entente, 15, 79, 80
452 ■ Index
Tripoli, 43 Declaration, 357; on poverty, 401–402; scandal in, 195–196; women’s rights
Triumph of the Will (film), 136 report on environmental issues, 422; movement in, 201–203; World War
Trotsky, Leon, 91, 93, 94, 99 Sudan conflict and, 356 I and, 83, 85; World War II and, 148,
Trudeau, Justin, 209 United Nations Charter, 175 149–150, 152, 156
Trudeau, Pierre, 209 United Nations General Assembly, 242, 370, 401 University of Cape Town, South Africa, 29
Trujillo, Fulgencio, 217 United Nations Security Council, 175 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 190
“A Truly Married Woman” (Nicol), 361 United States: aid to China, 172; Arab-Israeli University of Rangoon, 107
Truman Doctrine, 166, 167 conflict and, 374; atomic bomb and, “Untouchables” (India), 325
Truman, Harry, 154, 165; atomic bomb and, 156–157; automobile industry in, 6, Untouchables, in India, 109
156, 157; Potsdam Conference and, 96; bombing Japan (World War II), Uprisings: in China, 61; by Hitler, 135; in
154–155; speech on aid to Greece and 156; Boxer Rebellion and, 60; Chinese Hungary, 228–229, 229; independence
Turkey, 167 civil war an, 172–173; colonization movements in Africa, 347; March 1917,
Trump, Donald, 198–199, 201; economic by, 31, 37–38; Communist China and, in Russia, 90–91; Marxism and, 20; in the
policies, 399–400; foreign policy, 413; 172; Congo and, 351; consumerism Middle East (Arab Spring), 380; Russian,
immigration policy, 400; media and, in, 199; Cuba and, 215–216; cultural 14; sepoys, 49–50; in Syria, 382. See also
413; Paris Climate Agreement and, 420; exchange with Soviet Union, 179; Protests; Revolts; Riots
populism and, 412; sanctions against culture, post-World War II, 206–207; Urbanization: in Japan, 68; in Latin America,
Iran under, 378 democracy under threat in, 134; 19; in the U.S., 17
Tsai Ingwen, 290 divorce in, 414; domino theory and, Urban women, in Africa, 360–361
Tsar, Russian, 14 166–167; economic growth in, 399–400; Urban working class, 8
Tsunami, 282, 339 economic inequalities in, 200; economy, Urdu, 326
Tsuyoshi, Inukai, 138–139 196–197, 198, 199; environmental U.S. consulate, in Japan, 67
Tuareg peoples, 356 issues, 203–206; evangelical movement, U.S.S. Cole (ship), 197
Tunis, 43 414; feminism in, 9–10; financial crisis U.S. Seventh Fleet, 175
Tunisia, 110, 347, 380, 381 (2008), 399; Great Depression in, 97, U.S. Supreme Court cases, 192, 203
Tuol Sleng prison, 338 98; Great Society reforms, 190–191;
Turkey: British aid to, 254; Church of Holy Hawaii and, 37; Helsinki Accords and, V
Wisdom in, 386; European Union and, 186; immigration and, 197, 200–201, V. (Pynchon), 207
262–263; literature, 389; modernization 400, 405; Industrial Revolution and, Vaccinations, 402
in, 112; modernized Islamic beliefs 4; infrastructure, 191; intervention in Vajpayee, A.B., 325
in, 385; NATO and, 168; politics and Eastern Europe, 228–229; intervention Vanderbilt, Consuelo, 7
government, 382; shift from secularism in Latin America, 19, 31; investment in Van Gogh, Vincent, 25, 72
to fundamentalist Islam in, 386; Treaty Latin America, 127; Iran and, 375–376; Vargas, Getúlio, 128–129, 213–214
of Versailles and, 89; Truman Doctrine Iraq and, 197, 379, 381; Israel and, 370; Vargas Llosa, Mario, 217
and, 167 Japan and, 126, 142, 143–144, 156, Varna (color), 33, 35
Tutsis, 356 279–280; Japanese expansion and, The Vegetarian (Kang), 292
Two-party parliamentary system, 16 71, 143–144; on Japanese takeover of Veils, worn by women, 387, 388
Two Women in One (el-Saadawi), 389 Manchuria, 142; Kellogg-Briand Pact Velvet revolution (Czechoslovakia), 236
and, 95; Korean War and, 175; Mexico Venezuela, 216–217
U and, 129; military aid from, 152, 182, Verdun, 82
Uganda, 346, 352 290; NATO and, 168; New Deal, 191, Versailles, Palace of, 14
Uhuru, 347 198; the New Deal in, 98; oilmen in Versailles Peace Conference, 88–90
Ukraine: “black earth” regions of, 227; Persian Gulf, 115; opening of Japan and, Versailles, Treaty of, 88, 89–90, 94, 139
Chernobyl accident (1986), 418; 66–67; overthrow of Saddam Hussein, Vichy France, 146
Crimean dispute, 241–242; end of Soviet 379; Paris Climate Agreement, 420; Victorian Britain, 7
empire and, 238; in the EU, 261; grain Paris Peace Conference and, 88; Pearl Victoria, Queen of England, 8, 32
requisitions in, 100; Putin and, 240; Harbor and, 149; political influence Viet Cong (Vietnamese Communists), 182
World War II and, 147, 153 in, 127–128; politics, Clinton through Vietminh Front, 176
Ukrainian Republic, 242 Trump presidency, 196–199; populist Vietnam, 17, 36, 59; ASEAN and, 340; border
Ulama, 376 movements in, 412; postwar occupation dispute with Cambodia, 340; China and,
Ulbricht, Walter, 168, 229, 230, 252 regime in Japan, 279–280; post-World 340; communism and, 176, 182; division
Ultra project, 150 War II economic recovery in, 191; of, 176, 181–182, 333; France and, 37,
Ulyanov, Vladimir. See Lenin, Vladimir post-World War I women’s rights in, 176; the Japanese and, 151; postwar,
Ulysses ( Joyce), 102 96; progressive movement, 17; public 338; response to colonial rule in, 47, 48;
Unconditional surrender, 152 opinion on Soviet threat, 166; “red revolutionary Marxism and, 117
The Underdogs (Azuela), 130 scare” in, 177, 191–192; science and Vietnamese Communist Party, 105
Unemployment: after World War I, 96; in technology in, 206; September 11th Vietnamese Worker’s Party (VWP), 176
Germany, 253; Nazi rise to power and, terrorist attacks, 197, 396–397; sexual Vietnam syndrome, 186
136; U.S. (1937), 98 equality in, 201–203; single-parent Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 195
Uninterrupted revolution, 300 households in, 413; slave trade and, 41; Vietnam War, 181–182, 193
Union of Burma, 333 social mores, changing, 199–200; South Villa, Pancho, 129, 129
Union of Malaysia, 335 Korea and, 291; steel production, 17; Viva Zapata (film), 129
United Arab Emirates, 381, 382, 385 stock market collapse (1929), 97; Taiwan Volk (German concept), 135
United Arab Republic (UAR), 372, 374, 381 and, 174, 175, 176, 184, 185, 290; Taliban Voting rights: in Africa, 346; in Latin
United Fruit Company, 127 and, 379; transportation system, 4; America, 19; liberalism and, 12; western
United Nations (UN): creation of, 154; urbanization in, 17; Venezuela and, 217; European reform and, 16. See also
Migration, Environment and Climate Vietnam War, 181–185, 193; Washington Women’s suffrage
Change Division, 406; Millennium Conference (1922), 126; Watergate Voting Rights Act (1965), 193
Index ■ 453
Vukic, Aleksander, 261 West Side Story (film), 179 World War I: in 1914-1915, 81; in 1916-1917,
Vukovar, Croatia, 260 What Is to Be Done? (Lenin), 91 81–83; aircraft industry and, 6; armistice,
Whistler, James, 72 87; Balkans crisis (1908-1913), 79–80;
W “White flight,” 200 casualties, 81, 82, 88, 90; conditions of
Wabenzi, 352 “White man’s burden,” 39, 44, 50 soldiers, 83, 83, 84; Eastern Front, 82;
Wafd Party (Egypt), 115 The White Man’s Burden (Kipling), 33 events leading to, 79; home front, 86;
Wages: economic development and, 398; White Paper, 172, 173 impact of, 79; last year of, 86–87; morale
increase in, after World War II, 191; White Russians, 93, 94, 98 problems, 86; optimism before outbreak
increase in, during industrialization, 6; White supremacist organizations, 96 of, 79; Ottoman Empire and, 111;
for leisure, 8; minimum, 86, 400; in the Widodo, Joko, 338 outbreak of, 78–79, 80; peace settlement,
U.S., 400; working class, 8 William II of Germany, 78, 79, 83, 85 88–90, 94; recruiting soldiers from other
Wahhabi movement, 114–115 Wilson, Woodrow, 17; “Fourteen Points” countries for, 83; reparations, 89, 94–95,
Wahhabi tradition, 387 of, 88; League of Nations and, 88; on 95; “return to normalcy” following,
Waiting for Godot (Beckett), 270–271 Middle East territories, 111; proposal for 96; Treaty of Versailles, 89–90; trench
Wales, 256 alliance with Great Britain and France, warfare in, 81–82; U.S. involvement in,
Wałe˛sa, Lech, 236 94; on women’s suffrage, 96; on World 83, 85; Western Front, 82; women in,
Wang Tao, 58 War I, 96; World War I and, 83 86, 87
War guilt clause, 89 Wind farms, 268, 270 World War II: in 1942-1943, 152; in Asia,
Warhol, Andy, 207 Wind power, 421 149–151, 150; Battle of Britain, 146;
The War of the End of the World (Llosa), 217 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Murakami), 288 blitzkrieg, 145; bombing of civilians
War on terrorism, 197, 397 Winter Palace, 91 in, 156; in Europe, 146–149, 147;
Warren, Earl, 192 Wolf Totem ( Jiang), 317 events leading to, in Asia, 142–144;
Warsaw Pact, 169, 228 Women: in Africa, 47, 360–361, 393–394; events leading to, in Europe, 139–142;
Washington Conference, 126 in China, 64–65, 123, 312, 313; dress Holocaust, 148–149, 149; Japan wartime
Watergate scandal, 195–196 codes of Muslim, 342; economic misconduct, 286–287; labor by women
Waterloo, battle of, 12 development and empowerment of, during, 152, 153; last years of, 152–153;
Water pollution, 7, 311, 329 402–403; educational opportunities map, 150; Middle East and, 368, 370;
Water, security of clean, 330 for, 402–403; in Egypt, 115, 387; Mukden incident and, 138; Operation
Water shortage, 384–385 equality for American, 201–203; in Overlord, 153; peace settlement
The Wealth and Poverty of Nations (Landes), 74 Fascist Italy, 135; first U.S. presidential following, 154–155; the “phony war,”
Weapons of mass destruction, 197, 379 nominee, 198; foot binding, in China, 145; Russian campaign, 146–148;
Weapons, resistance to colonialism and, 49 64; in India, 33, 34, 331; during territorial changes in Europe after, 155
Wehrmacht, 139 Industrial Revolution, 8; in Japan, World Zionist Organization (WZO), 115
Weimar Republic (Germany), 97, 136 69–70, 125, 283, 284, 287; labor Wright brothers, 6
Weizmann, Chaim, 115 during Industrial Revolution, 8; labor Wright, Frank Lloyd, 26
Weizsacker, Richard von, 252 during World War I, 86, 87; labor Wuhan, 61, 119
Welfare state, 398–399; criticisms of, 409–410; during World War II, 152, 153; labor,
in France, 249–251; in Germany, postwar by, 201–202, 267–268; Me Too X
251–254; in Great Britain, 254–258 movement, 203; in the Middle East, Xi Jinping, 306, 411
West Africa, 346, 352; European presence in, 382, 386–387, 393–394; in Pakistan, Xinjiang (Chinese Central Asia), 59, 174, 308
41, 43; resistance to British colonialism 326; in postwar Europe, 267–268, 269;
in, 49 right to vote, 96; role of, influence on Y
West Bank, 373, 375 a country’s success, 393–394; in Saudi The Yacoubian Building (al-Aswany), 388
West Berlin, 168, 179 Arabia, 387, 388; in Southeast Asia, Yalta Agreement, 154, 164–165
Western colonialism. See Colonialism 340–341; in the Soviet Bloc, 234; the Yalu River, 175
Western Europe: dominating world economy, traditional family and, 414; in Turkey, Yan’an, China, 172
7; importing values of into Russia, 14; 112; wages, 86; working in textile Yan’an, the Long March to, 120, 122
triumph of liberalism in, 16–17. See also mills, 123; in World War I, 86 “Yankee imperialism,” 19
France; Germany; Great Britain Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps Yan Lianke, 317
Western Front, in World War I, 81, 82, 82, 85 (WAACs), 152 Yanukovich, Viktor, 242
Western imperialism. See Imperialism Women’s liberation movement, 203 The Year of Living Dangerously (film), 337
Western values and influences: in China, Women’s rights movements, 9–12; in China, The Yellow Arrow (Pelevin), 244
121–122, 123–124; globalization of 65; Declaration of Sentiments, 10, 11; “Yellow vest” protest movement, 251–252, 399
culture and, 423; indigenous cultures in postwar Europe, 268, 269; in the U.S., Yeltsin, Boris, 238–239
and, 107–108; in Iran, 115; in Japanese 11, 201–203 Yemen, 372, 380, 386
occupied Southeast Asia, 151; liberal Women’s Social and Political Union, 10 Yew, Lee Kuan, 293
democracy and, 426–427; New Culture Women’s suffrage, 10, 11, 12; in Europe, 268; Yi, Pu (emperor), 138
Movement and, 118; Pan-Africanism in Kuwait, 387; in Turkey, 112 Yom-Kippur war (1973), 374, 375
and, 349; in Southeast Asia, 340 Woodblock printing, 71, 71 Young Turks, 16, 110–111
West Germany, 179–180; creation of, 168; fall Working class, 8 Youth organizations, in Nazi Germany, 137
of Berlin Wall and, 236–238, 238; NATO Works Progress Administration (WPA), 98 Yuan Shikai, 61, 117, 119
and, 168; people leaving East Germany World Bank, 191, 406 Yudhyono, Susilo, 338
for, 229; reunifying with East Germany, World Disarmament Conference (1932), 96 Yugoslavia: disintegration of, 258–260;
252–253. See also Germany World Health Organization (WHO), 402 immigration to Germany from, 253;
Westminster College, Churchill’s speech at The World of Yesterday (Zweig), 84 Soviet Popular Fronts and, 140; Soviet
(1946), 166 World Trade Center, 197 Russia an, 165–166; Treaty of Versailles
West Pakistan, 325 World Trade Organization (WTO), 311, and, 90; World War II and, 146
West Punjab, 325 357, 400 Yunus, Muhammad, 403
454 ■ Index
Z Zapata, Emiliano, 129, 129 Zimbabwe, 346
Zaibatsu ( Japan), 125–126, 138, 279, 280, 282 The Zenith (Huong), 342 Zimmerman, Alfred von, 85
Zaire, 348, 349, 356 Zeppelin airship, 6 Zionism, 370
Zakaria, Fareed, 426 Zhang Xinxin, 314 Zola, Émile, 4, 23
Zakat (alms), 114 Zhang Xueliang, 119, 138, 142 Zouaves, in World War I, 83
Zambezi River, 46 Zhang Zhidong, 58 Zulus, the, 45, 46, 47, 49
Zambia, 346 Zhang Zuolin, 119, 138 Zuma, Jacob, 355
Zamindar system, 34 Zhao Ziyang, 304 Zweig, Stefan, 84
Zanzibar, 44, 348, 353 Zhdanov, Andrei, 221 Zyklon B (hydrogen cyanide), 148
Zia ul Ha’q, General, 326 Zyuganov, Gennadi, 240
Index ■ 455

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Seventh

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Printed in the United States of America

TO JULES F. DIEBENOW (1929–2013),

Historical Voices: Documents xiv

Historical Voices: Documents xiv HISTORICAL VOICES

1-3 The Emergence of a Mass Society 7

viii ■ Detailed Contents

5-2 Revolution in China 117 6-4 The World at War 145

xii ■ Detailed Contents

Detailed Contents ■ xiii

The Four Freedoms 145

Historical Voices: Documents ■ xv

MOVIES & HISTORY

New World in the Making

The Crystal Palace in London

Chapter Outline and

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

 1-1 The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain ■ 3

QQ Focus Question: To what degree did other

London NETHERLANDS Breslau

Railroad development Steel Low-grade coal Oil production

Trade and Manufacturing The growth of industrial pro-

Discipline in the New Factories

The Dual Face of the Industrial Revolution

Politics & To many contemporaries, the Industrial

Universal History Archive/UniversalImagesGroup/Getty Images

Mary Evans Picture Library/The Image Works

A Plea for Women’s Rights

 1-3 The Emergence of a Mass Society ■ 11

QQ Focus Questions: What were the major ideas

MOVIES & HISTORY

Watts (Carey Mulligan), a laundry worker who—as a result

12 ■ CHAPTER 1 The Rise of Industrial Society in the West

14 ■ CHAPTER 1 The Rise of Industrial Society in the West

FRANCE Po R.Venice CRIMEA

 1-4 Reaction and Revolution: The Decline of the Old Order ■ 15

16 ■ CHAPTER 1 The Rise of Industrial Society in the West

 1-5 The Triumph of Liberalism in the West ■ 17

The Emergence of Independent States Until the begin-

The Classless Society

 1-6 The Rise of the Socialist Movement ■ 21

The Theory of Evolution

PRISMA ARCHIVO/Alamy Stock Photo

 1-7 Toward the Modern Consciousness: Intellectual and Cultural Developments ■ 25

2 Africa and Asia in an Era of

Chapter Outline and

Time Life Pictures/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

QQ Focus Question: Do you believe that

White Man’s Burden, Black Man’s Sorrow

Take up the White Man’s burden—

 2-3 India Under the British Raj ■ 33

 2-3 India Under the British Raj ■ 35

EVERETT COLLECTION, INC.

 2-4 The Colonial Takeover of Southeast Asia ■ 37

5-2 Revolution in China 117 6-4 The World at War 145

1-1 The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain ■ 3

1-3 The Emergence of a Mass Society ■ 11

1-4 Reaction and Revolution: The Decline of the Old Order ■ 15

1-5 The Triumph of Liberalism in the West ■ 17

1-6 The Rise of the Socialist Movement ■ 21

1-7 Toward the Modern Consciousness: Intellectual and Cultural Developments ■ 25

2-3 India Under the British Raj ■ 33

2-3 India Under the British Raj ■ 35

2-4 The Colonial Takeover of Southeast Asia ■ 37

2-5 Empire Building in Africa ■ 45

2-6 Patterns of Resistance to Colonial Conquest ■ 49

3-4 Traditional Japan and the End of Isolation ■ 65

3-5 Rich Country, Strong Army ■ 71

4-2 The World at War ■ 81

4-3 The Peace Settlement ■ 89

4-5 An Uncertain Peace ■ 95