Cold War and Asia

Cold War Need-to-Know
Soviet Union v. United States in Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Germany
Economic Recovery Program -- Marshall Plan
Berlin Airlift
Policy of Containment
Mao Zedong
First Vietnam War -- colonial independence from France led by Ho Chi Minh
Fidel Castro and Cuban Missile Crisis
Yugoslavia and Josip Tito
Clement Attlee and Labour England

Asia Need-to-Know
"Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom"
"Great Leap Forward"
"Cultural Revolution"
Chinese Foreign Relations w/ U.S.S.R. and U.S.A.
Four Asian Tigers
Mohandas Gandhi and Civil Disobedience
Jawaharlal Nehru
"Three No's"
Second Vietnam War -- Results? Why U.S. was unsuccessful?
Khmer Rouge

World War II

World War I was "The War to End All Wars," and as we have seen, that is clearly not the case. This was despite the attempts of some people, especially British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, to avoid war at all costs. Even as France was outraged at the militarization of Germany under Adolf Hitler, Britain continued to appease Germany. As Germany restarted a military draft, expanding their army from 100k to 550k, built a new air force, the Luftwaffe, and re-militarized the Rhineland, France continued to desire revenge and counters; however, Britain believed this was making up for the poor treatment of Germany as a result of the Treaty of Versailles.

The greatest example of appeasement at work was Munich, where the fate of the Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia was determined by Britain, France, and Germany. The Czechs were forced to give up the Sudetenland, which was home to approximately 3 million ethnic Germans. Upon entering the Sudetenland, the Nazi troops continued through Czechoslovakia and captured the capital city of Prague in March, 1939.

World War II officially begins with the invasion of Poland. Before invading Poland, Germany had formed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with the Soviet Union, making them allies. Quickly, Germany rolls through Poland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Belgium. By June 1940, France had fallen and all that remained against Germany was Britain. In May of 1940, before France had been defeated, Neville Chamberlain was replaced by Winston Churchill as British Prime Minister.

Other aspects of World War II to know:
1: Germany calls off the attack on Britain and declares war on the Soviet Union. The Germans launched a massive attack on the Soviet Union. Three-pronged attack with almost 4 million men in total.

2: The United States does not enter World War II until the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. On December 8, FDR claimed that December 7 was "a date which will live in infamy."

3: The turning point in the Pacific Theater was the Battle of Midway. A great documentary of Midway is below. Following the victory at Midway, the United States begins an islandhopping campaign through the Japanese possessions of the Pacific Ocean.

4: The turning point in Europe was the Battle of Stalingrad. The Military Channel has a brief description of the Stalingrad Soviet counter.

5:The Holocaust -- one of the greatest tragedies in the Western World was Hitler's Final Solution. Hitler used four different models: the Ottomans implementation of the Armenian Genocide, the forced marches and reservations in the United States upon the American Indians, British India, and concentration camps used in the Boer War. The death camps, most known being Auschwitz, were utilized in 1942 until the end of the war. The overall casualties from the "Final Solution" are staggering -- approximately 6 million Jews and 10 million people total, lost their lives to the Holocaust.

6:June 6, 1944 -- the beginning of the invasion at Normandy on D-Day -- remember, this was the beginning of a 2 month project. 3 million troops did not land on 5 beaches in one day. Combined with the Soviet offensive from the East and the Allied invasion through Italy, the move from France began the final squeeze on Nazi Germany. In April 1945, Hitler committed suicide and the Germans surrendered. The official surrender was signed on May 8, 1945 -- V-E Day.

7: The war between Japan and the United States continued after the European theater. The Japanese fought tooth and nail and did not believe in a system of surrender. This is one of the reasons that their pilots, when flying a crippled plane, began utilizing kamikaze tactics. One does not have to look much past the slide on Iwo Jima for other examples.

8: The United States, under President Harry Truman (FDR died April 1945), decide, as to not risk American lives, to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Three days later, having not received a surrender from Japan, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. On August 15, 1945, the Japanese surrendered and WW2 was finished.

1920s and 1930s

There were 5 totalitarian states discussed in the 1920s and 1930s. You should be able to identify the rulers with which country they ruled. Spain -- Francisco Franco (following the Spanish Civil War); Germany (Hitler); Italy (Mussolini); Soviet Union (Stalin); Japan (Hirohito is the ruler, but really the army is in charge).

The 1920s is marked by the Depression in Europe, particularly in Germany. Who saw this Depression coming (Keynes) and why did he see an economic depression as an inevitable event? What was the feeling of a majority of Germans towards the Weimar Republic? What enabled Hitler to come into power? A ruler like that does not immediately rise and maintain power, especially with the deeds he was undertaking in the open!


Remember your extremes! What are the differences between Fascism and Communism? This is not limited to geography. Mussolini and Stalin are both totalitarian rulers, but there are differences. How do fascism and communism treat religion? Social classes? Property?

The clip above is from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. The party goers are dancing the Charleston. Note a collection of the ladies have their hair cut short and are wearing shorter dresses, around the knee area. Do these look familiar? Fitzgerald is probably the most prominent author of Jazz Age literature, and the second most famous writer of what is called "The Lost Generation." The most famous of these WWI-eligible authors was Ernest Hemingway.  Below is a remarkable clip of Hemingway's Nobel Prize Acceptance speech, which was recorded at a Cuban radio station in 1954. It does give an idea of the complicated man who would end his own life with his shotgun in Ketchum, Idaho in 1961.

Imperialism and World War I

A very quick blog entry for this lesson.

What is imperialism?

What was the significance of the Berlin West Africa? More specifically, what happened at the Berlin West Africa Conference and what was wrong with what happened there?

What are the main ideas of the White Man's Burden and the Black Man's Burden? What does Kipling propose in the former? What does Morel respond in the latter? Does Morel oppose WMB? Why or why not?

What is the significance of the dismissal of Bismarck?

What are the causes of World War I? What countries consist of the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance?

At the end of the war, why do the German people feel stabbed in the back? By whom do they feel stabbed in the back? The French? The Army? Their own government?

What treaty ends World War I?

The Industrial Revolutions

In class, we have discussed two industrial revolutions. The original Industrial Revolution featured Great Britain at the forefront; the Second Industrial Revolution saw Germany and the United States equal and quickly surpass Great Britain in power and prestige. In Great Britain, industry was based around the textile industry; it can be said, and should be known, that the Industrial Revolution started as an agricultural movement. Inventions, such as the Jethro Tull, the Cotton Gin, the Seed Drill and the Rotherham Iron Plough, made agriculture more bountiful and productive. Machines, such as the Flying Shuttle, the Water Frame, and the Spinning Jenny, then utilized the excess cotton to produce more yarn and more textile to sell. Britain was separated from the rest of Europe by the Continental System of Napoleon. Remember, the rest of Europe was behind Britain considerably in industrialization by approximately 60 years.

Socially, the Industrial Revolution saw tough urban living conditions. The streets were dirty; crowded rowhouses were made with wood and were fire traps; there was no separation from drinking water and sewage. How did Charles Dickens describe the industrial town in Coketown? Who were the employees within factories? As the picture shows above, children were frequently employed within the coal mines because they were small and easily moved throughout the mines. In the factories, women and children worked because they were cheaper labor.

The Second Industrial Revolution and the second half of the nineteenth century brings forth the industrial power of both the United States and Germany. We had seen during the First Industrial Revolution that the United States had greatly increased the methods of transportation, by digging canals and lying down railroad tracks. With regards to the Second Industrial Revolution, the United States sees the Gilded Age, a term used by Mark Twain, and the rise of the "Robber Barons." Who are these heads of the monopolies in industry and what industries were they leading? For example, Henry Ford was the automobile giant.

In Europe, Great Britain's machinery was getting older and had not been replaced. Because of this, Germany, who focused on metallurgy rather than agriculture, went to the head of the industrial class. With Otto von Bismarck promising "blood and iron," Germany matched British superiority of the seas with their battleships, called dreadnoughts, and their complex railroad system. Furthermore, because Germany had a large army, the improvement in technology greatly improved their potency as a unit.

Other changes occurred during the later half of the 19th century. For one, Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels co-author The Communist Manifesto, which establishes the economic school of thought of equal distribution of goods and no private property. Now, why would this book be important? There were also improvements in science. For chemistry majors, the periodic table of elements was organized by the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869. The periodic table orders elements by their atomic weight. In physics, Michael Faraday discovered the principle of electromagnetic induction, while Albert Einstein (and Max Planck) describes the theories of relativity. Another scientific difference for the Second Industrial Revolution was the source of power. In the first, coal was used as a primary powering force; the second edition saw the use of oil and more importantly, the cleaner electricity.

As industrialization progressed, so did the adjustments made by governments to improve the living conditions in cities and the working conditions in the factories. Education became more widespread as laws were put into place to limit hours of work for children in factories. Women shifted out of factories into more white-collar, middle-class professions. Women operated phones, worked as secretaries, became teachers with the expansion in education, and, because of the work of Florence Nightingale in British war camps in Crimea, women became the majority of nurses.

Artistically, the latter half of the nineteenth century had two differing moments. One was realism. In literature, one of the most famous realist authors we have read in class, Charles Dickens. In art, names such as Gustave Courbet (seen above with The Burial at Ornans) and Edouard Manet (seen below with A Bar at the Folies Bergere) depict ordinary life scenes. There is little flamboyance; instead, it is truth on canvas. It can be argued that the realists were descendants of the academy painters of neoclassicism.

Manet is a key painter for the transition from the first art movement, realism, to the second art movement, impressionism (which is eerily similar to an early line from Wikipedia, but straight from my art history notes from my freshman year of college -- before Wikipedia). Impressionists did not paint very rigid scenes or people. Edges were blurred, brushstrokes were varied. Impressionist artists focused not on form, but on color. More closely related with Delacroix and the Romanticism paintings than realism. Influenced by further research in the scientific field of optics and the play of light in nature, impressionists painted for what the eye saw, not what was necessarily proper and correct in drawing. Manet was criticized by the realists and the neoclassicists for his painting, The Luncheon on the Grass, because a female figure was nude in a realistic setting.

Manet is generally not considered an impressionist, as there are still lines and more forms are clearly identifiable. The most prolific of the impressionists would be of a similar name, Claude Monet. Known for his water lilies and his landscapes, Monet would spend days working on the same scene at different times of the day, as to trace the changes of light and shadow during the course of the day. A great example of this is his series of paintings at the Rouen Cathedral, of which Columbia University has put a wonderful slide show together for here. Other famous painters include Vincent Van Gogh (Starry Night), Edgar Degas (known for his ballerinas and dance studios), Pierre Renoir, and Alfred Sisley (landscapes, especially snowy ones). One should know both impressionism and realism, their connections to neoclassicism and romanticism, and the differences between them.

-isms!! -isms!! More -isms!!

Conservatism: The political theater of post-Vienna Europe was dominated by a longing for the way things used to be. Edmund Burke, considered "The Father of Conservatism," observed reasons why a restoration of monarchy, a central role of religion, a balance of power throughout Europe, and the prevention of revolution was the ideal way to run a country. How did Burke view the French Revolution on a whole, despite not being French himself?

 

The man seen above, Klemens von Metternich, made sure the idea of conservatism continued after Burke. As he orchestrated the peace at Vienna following the Napoleonic Wars, Metternich made sure the European powers followed such guidelines as balance of power and monarchy being the government of choice. The Congress of Vienna is given credit for preventing a continental war in Europe for 100 years, until World War I.

Liberalism: Considered the antithesis of conservatism, liberalism, as its root implies. believes in freedoms. What are some of the freedoms discussed by one of the more famous liberals, John Stuart Mill, in On Liberty? Freedom of opinion? Openness in political conversation and debate? Support of checks and balances? Liberals did not support monarchies; rather, they supported checks and balances and a greater say for the people.

Economically, the liberals were followers in capitalism and the ideas put forth by Adam Smith in Wealth of Nations. Liberals believed in a laissez-faire economy, with no regulations upon trade and commerce put forth by the government. Whereas conservatives sought a return to mercantilism and government intervention, liberals sought the opposite. Oh my, how times have changed!

Struggles: Of course, what did differences between political philosophies bring? Combined with popular economic struggle, the people wanting more freedoms, and the government wanting more control -- revolutions ran rampant. Greece fought for independence from the Ottoman Empire during the 1820s; Russia went through the Decembrist Revolt in 1825; Belgium broke away from The Netherlands in 1830; France saw revolution in July, 1830.

1830 was the opening act for violence around Europe. The climax occurred during 1848. The call for more freedom had increased in places, such as the Italian States, Prussia and other German states, the Austrian Empire, Denmark, Wallachia, Grand Duchy of Poland, and Belgium. That is quite the list of places! The result of these conflicts were more constitutional monarchies where the people landowning men would have a voice, at least a vote, in politics. Of course, this was quickly corrupted by strong-willed leaders, i.e. Louis Napoleon in France.

Nationalism and Unification: A greater sense of national pride permeates the 19th century, particularly on the continent. It is from around 1820 until 1861, beginning with the Young Italians, continuing with the efforts of Count Cavour in the Piedmont and Garibaldi in the South with his "Redshirts," and ending with the actual unification in 1861, that Italy had worked to become a united peninsula. What two entities had been blocking this unification? Why was this the case?

It is during the 1860s that the Austrian Empire recognizes the Hungarians within their borders and becomes the Kingdom of Austria-Hungary. Hungary gets their own capital in Budapest and their own legislature, but Francis Joseph I is still in control with one army and a single currency. Did this satisfy or answer the problems Austria had been facing with ethnic tensions? Why or why not?

The most important unification, at least for the purpose of testing in this class, is that of Germany. When did the unification of Germany occur? 1871, or following the defeat of the French in the Franco-Prussian War. Remember, following the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, Napoleon III is removed from power and Germany unifies. A central figure in unification for Germany is seen above wearing the Piceklhaube (pointed helmet) -- Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck was nicknamed "The Iron Chancellor," and was interested in building Germany on "Blood and Iron." He was the Chancellor of Prussia and later Chancellor of Germany during the reign of Kaiser William I (a.k.a. Wilhelm I). Under their leadership, Germany would dominate the continent as an industrial power and rival Britain and the United States for global supremacy.

Romanticism v. Neoclassicism: The two dominant artistic movements of the early nineteenth century were bitter rivals in France. The Romantics believed man could not control nature, as had been discussed during the Enlightenment. Nature was a dominant force that could not be contained. Both Gericault and Turner show the power of the sea in the form of shipwrecks. First, Gericault in The Raft of the Medusa:

A

And now, second, Joseph Turner and his Shipwreck of the Minotaur:

Paintings of intense national pride, such as Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, would also be considered romantic art. Romanticism was also present in music and literature. Music was put forward for a larger audience with a greater range of instruments in the works of Beethoven and Lizst. Wagner brought German folk lore to the stage and added music with powerful opera. Tchaikovsky, in Russian music, commemorated the defeat of Napoleon with his 1812 Overture, but also wrote for the public in the form of ballet, Nutcracker Suite and Swan Lake. In literature, the Bronte sisters were romantic romantics in Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre; William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and William Blake would be considered the foremost romantic poets, not named Lord Byron.

On the other side of the spectrum are the neoclassicists. The pinnacle figure in painting in neoclassicism is the painter of the French Revolution and of Napoleon, David. The neoclassicists believed in replicating antiquity and the High Renaissance. Their goal was perfection; it was a craft that could be taught in academies by copying and using models. Raphael was one of the foremost authorities. Artists, such as Ingres (see Napoleon at beginning of this section), traveled to Rome to see the ruins of Roman architecture. The paintings also have classical or mythological scenes, such as David's Death of Socrates

REVOLUTION!

Before studying the American and French Revolutions, we discussed the French and Indian War, which is also known as the Seven Years' War. It was in this conflict, the British defeated the French and gained control of almost all of Canada and Florida. Spain gained the Louisiana Territory, which had been under the control of the French. As a result of this conflict, the British began to tax the American colonists in order to recoup the financial losses from the war. Taxes went on sugar, paper goods, and tea. The taxes enraged the colonists, resulting in the motto, "No taxation without representation." The famous pamphleteer, Thomas Paine, put his pen to paper and described reasons why the American colonies should break away from British control. What were some of these reasons?

To best describe the process that was the American Revolution, I leave it to the classic educational program known as Schoolhouse Rock:

What were the causes of the French Revolution? These would be helpful to know. If you do not remember, let Mel Brooks help.

Remember the governmental system the Estates General? The clergy was the First Estate, the nobility was the Second Estate, and everybody else made up the Third Estate. Emmanuel Sieyes does a great job of capturing the Third Estate in your primary source reader in his What is the Third Estate?  Each estate had one vote in the Estates General. What happened? The First and Second Estates would vote against the Third Estate to protect their interests.

Enraged, the Third Estate storms out and forms their own government, the National Assembly. Locked in an indoor Tennis Court, the treasonous Third Estate developed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizen, still the backbone to the present-day French Constitution. Inspired by this document, but suggesting it did not go far enough, the Frenchwoman Olympe de Gouges penned The Declaration of the Rights of Woman to fight for female equality.

So, there is a storming of the Bastille (Date?), a women's march on Versailles to bring the royal family back to the capital city, the king and queen escaping Paris only to be captured at the border, returned to Paris, tried and convicted of treason and executed, and a Reign of Terror (Hello, Robespierre!). And this is all before Napoleon even gets a sniff of being head of the military, let alone consul or emperor. Napoleon has the reputation of strictly being a military leader; however, as we discussed, the Napoleonic Code and the acceptance of the Declaration of the Rights of Man showed that he had a pulse on the Parisian climate, as well. However, what proved to be Napoleon's downfall (Before his final Waterloo!)?

And now, I will end this blog entry with a painting by the official painter of the French Revolution and Napoleonic France. Who was this artist?