Mona Lisa by Da Vinci	Pieta by Michelangelo

The Renaissance was an era of intellectual and artistic brilliance unsurpassed in European history. It is clear that some thinking people in this era, largely a mercantile elite, saw themselves living in an age more akin to that of the bright and creative ancient world than that of the recent dark and gloomy Middle Ages. Although many of the supposedly "new" Renaissance ideas are actually found in the Middle Ages, scholars generally agree that the Renaissance was characterized by a number of distinctive ideas about life and humanity - individualism, secularism, humanism, materialism, hedonism, and even the identification of popular homoerotic activity.

The Renaissance began in Florence, Italy in the late thirteenth century. It subsequently spread to the rest of Italy-particularly Rome-and then to Northern Europe, where it developed somewhat differently. The best-known expressions of the bold new Renaissance spirit can be seen in the painting, sculpture, and architecture of the period. New attitudes were also found in education, politics, and philosophy; in Northern Europe new ideas of social reform developed. Although the Renaissance brought some benefits to the masses of people, such as the printing press, it was basically an elitist movement. A negative development of the age was a deterioration in the power and position of women in society.

In politics, the Renaissance produced an approach to power and the state that historians often call"new monarchies." The best known and most popular theoretician of this school was the Florentine Niccolo Machiavelli. Its most able practitioners were the fifteenth- and sixteenth- century monarchs of France, England, and Spain. In Italy, the city-state system led to wealthy and independent cities that were marvelously creative but also vulnerable to invasion and control from the outside by powerful Spanish and French kings.

Schmiechen, James. A History of Western Society, 6th ed. Study Guide vol. II. Boston: Houghton, 1999. (pp. 209-210)

Age of Exploration

      
MAGELLAN                           COLUMBUS                            PIZARRO

The ships used by the explorers were small, but more sea worthy than the clumsy vessels of the middle Ages.  They used a mixture of square and lateen (triangular) sails for easier steering and greater maneuverability.  Sailors had only crude maps and simple measurements to guide them on the voyages lasting many months.  In 1519 a Portuguese captain, Ferdinand Magellan, set out from Spain with five ships.  They sailed around South America, across the Pacific Ocean to the Philippines (where Magellan was killed in a fight with local people) and across the Indian Ocean to Africa.  Only one ship found its way home to Spain, becoming the first ship to sail completely around the world.

Spain became the superpower of Europe in the 1500s.  Spanish and Portuguese explores led the way in the European voyages of discovery, to the Americas and to Asia

Medieval Spain was divided between Christian and Muslim Kingdoms.  After wars to recon- quest, the two Christian monarchs who ended Muslim rule in Spain were Ferdinand of Argon and Isabella Castile.  In 1469 Ferdinand and Isabella were married, uniting Spain’s two strongest Christian Kingdoms.  By 1492 their forces had captured Granada, the last Muslim outpost in Spain.  The new rulers were intolerant of other religions and set up Spanish Inquisition to search out heretics-both Christian who held different beliefs from the established Church and people of other faiths, such as Jews.

In the 16th century, Spain became Europe’s strongest nation.  Its power was based on a strong army, which fought wars in Europe (against the Dutch, for example) and on a large navy, which controlled the profitable trade in gold and silver from Spain’s newly conquered empire in the Americas.  Spanish power reached its peak during the reign of Charles I (1516-1556) who also became Holy Roman emperor in 1519 and so controlled lands in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands, as well as parts of France and Italy.  On his death, his lands were divided between his son Philip II( who ruled Spain, the Netherlands, and Spanish colonies in the Americas) and his brother Ferdinand( who became Holy Roman emperor.

By 1580, the Spanish empire included Portugal.  With its long Atlantic coastline and shipbuilding skills. Portugal had led the way in European exploration of the oceans.  Its sailors had opened up new trade routes to Asia.  The Portuguese already had controlled an overseas empire that included large stretches of coastline in the East Goa in India, as well as trading posts such as many-islands in Southeast Asia.

Martin Luther	Pope Leo X	John Calvin

 

A great religious upheaval called the protestant Reformation ended the centuries-long religious unity of Europe and resulted in a number of important political changes. In the sixteenth century, cries for reform were nothing new, but this time they resulted in revolution. There were a number of signs of disorder within the church, pointing to the need for moral and administrative reform. For example, it was the granting of indulgences that propelled Martin Luther into the movement for doctrinal change in the church. Luther had come to the conclusion that salvation could not come by good works or indulgences, but only through faith. This was to be one of the fundamental tenets of Protestantism and one of the ideas that pushed Luther and The German nobility to revolt against not only Rome by Rome's secular ally, the Holy Roman emperor.

It is important to recognize that Luther's challenge to the authority of the church and to Catholic unity in Europe invited and supported an attack on the emperor by the German nobility. The pope and the emperor, as separate powers and allies, represented religious and political unity and conformity in Germany. Thus, the victory of Luther and the nobility was a victory for decentralized authority. It meant the collapse of Germany as a unified power in Europe. This is one reason Catholic France usually supported the German Protestants in their quarrel with Rome.

Outside of Germany, the Protestant reformer Calvin had a greater impact on Europe than Luther. Calvin's harsh and dogmatic religion spread from Geneva into northern Europe, England, and Scotland. It was England, in fact, that eventually became the political center of Protestantism. Initiated by Henry VIII, the English Protestant reformation was at first motivated by the personal and political interests of the king himself. The type of Protestantism eventually adopted by the Church of England was much more moderate- and closer to Catholicism- than that of Scotland.

With the Council of Trent of 1545-1563, the Catholic church, finding the Habsburgs unable to destroy the heretical Protestantism launched a massive and partially successful Counter Reformation to convince dissidents to return to the church.

All in all, Protestantism developed and spread for economic and political reasons as well as religious ones. In the end Protestantism, meant greater spiritual freedom for some individuals, but spiritual disunity and disorganization for Europe as a whole. In England, Scotland, the Scandinavian countries, and else where, it contributed to the power of the nation and thus meant a further political division of Europe, while in Germany it slowed down the movement toward nationhood.

Schmiechen, James. A History of Western Society, 6th ed. Study Guide vol. II. Boston: Houghton, 1999. (pp. 228-229)

 

The Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453 marked the beginning of a Turkish golden age.  They controlled the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East, and their armies moved west to threaten Europe.  They fought many wars against their Muslim rivals in Persia, the Safavids.

After the fall of Constantinople, the Ottoman Turks renamed the city Istanbul and it became the center of a Muslim Empire that, at its peak, stretched from Algeria to Arabia and from Egypt to Hungary.  Most of these conquests were made during the rule of Suleiman I (1520-1566), who was known as the Law-Giver to his own subjects and as the Magnificent to Europeans.  The Turks invaded Persia (modern-day Iran), captured Baghdad, took control of the island of Rhodes, and crossed the river Danube into Hungary, where they won the battle of Mahacs in 1526.

By 1529 the Turkish army was outside the city walls of Vienna and looked likely to burst into Western Europe.  However, the siege of Vienna was lifted and Europe relaxed.  Ottoman fleets of galleys (oared ships) controlled the Mediterranean Sea and Turkish pirates, such as fearsome Barbarossa (Khayr ad-Din Pasha), raided ports, captured merchant ships, and carried of Christians to be slaves.  Ottoman sea power, too, was checked, when in 1571 a combined Christian fleet defeated the Turkish fleet at the naval battle in the Gulf of Corinth in Greece.  This battle ended Turkish threats to Europe by sea.

Suleiman also tried three times to conquer Persia, which from 1501 was under the rule of the Safavid dynasty founded by Shah Ismail I.  Here the people were Shiites, not Sunni Muslims as in the Ottoman Empire.  Safavid rivalry with the ottomans continued under Shah Abbas I (1557-1628).  From his capital of Isfahan with its beautiful tiled mosques, Shah Abbas I ruled not only Persia but also most of modern day Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq).  Wars between the two empires continued throughout the 16^th century and helped to stop the Ottoman Empire advancing into Europe.

  Ming China     Cheng Ho (Zheng He), Ming Porcelain

In the 1300's the Mongol grip on China grew weak. A revolt drove out the last Yuan (Mongol) emperor and in 1368 a Buddhist monk took his place and called himself Ming Hong Wu founding a new dynasty. The Ming dynasty ruled China for almost 300 years. Under Hong Wu, Chinese self-confidence and national pride reasserted itself. Initially an able and efficient ruler, though despotic later, the first Ming emperor established good government that ensured a long period of peace and prosperity for China. Hong Wu made Chinese society more equal by abolishing slavery, confiscating large estates and redistributing them among the poor, and demanding higher taxes from the rich (precursor to communist China? I say yes!). China began to reassert its power over its neighbors and a strong army was maintained to withstand foreign attacks.

Hong Wu was succeeded by emperors who continued the good work he had begun. They sponsored the arts, so making the Ming period one of great creativity, especially in porcelain. In the early 1400's, Chinese ships (then the largest in the world) made voyages as far as Africa and Arabia in fleets under the command of the half Chinese, half Arab admiral Zheng He (Chang Ho). The Ming emperors were also great builders and from 1421, they lived within the walls of the Forbidden City in Beijing, a huge complex of palaces, temples, and parks into which no foreigner was admitted. Few Chinese ever saw inside the Forbidden City, apart from the emperor’s family and the officials and servants of the royal household.

China’s first contacts with European traders began in the 1500's, when Portuguese ships arrived. By 1557 the Portuguese had a trading settlement in Macao, and Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit missionary, came to China in 1583. Western traders were eager to buy Chinese porcelain and silk and a new drink, tea, which first reacher Europe in 1610.

The Chinese had seldom looked far beyond their borders and after the mid 1500's the government banned voyages overseas after only 28 years (big mistake). As the most powerful empire in the world, Ming rulers regarded China as the center of the world. They defended their territory and weaker subject-peoples against foreigners such as Hideyoshi of Japan, whose armies tried to invade Korea in the 1590's but later withdrew.

African Slave Trade   Slave Auction, Slave Trade Routes, Slave Advertisement  

Louis XIV	James I

The two most important forms of government to evolve in early modern times were the absolute monarchy and the constitutional state. This chapter examines how the political system of absolutism succeeded gloriously in France and faded dismally in England in the seventeenth century. Few kings have been as successful in establishing complete monarchical sovereignty as the great Sun King of France, Louis XIV. Louis gave Europe a masterful lesson on how to collaborate with the nobility to strengthen the monarchy and to reinforce the ancient aristocracy. He was a superb actor and propagandist, who built on the earlier achievements of Henry IV and Richelieu and used his magnificent palace of Versailles to imprison the French nobility in a beautiful golden cage. He succeeded in expanding France at the expense of the Habsburgs, and his patronage of the arts helped form the great age of French classicism. However, the economic progress he first made was later checked by his policy of revoking religious toleration.

While the France of Louis was the classic model of absolutism as the last phase of an historic feudal society, Spain was the classic case of imperial decline. By 1600 Spain was in trouble, and by 1700 it was no longer a major European power. Not only did the silver and labor of America run out, but this great American wealth ruined the Spanish economic and social structure. War with the Dutch, the English, and the French also helped turn Spain into a backwater of Europe.

England and the United Provinces of the Netherlands provide a picture of constitutionalism triumphing over absolutism. For England, the seventeenth century was a long period of political conflict, complete with a bitter civil war and a radical experiment with republicanism. The causes of this era of conflict were varied, but it is clear that by 1689 the English army and Parliament had destroyed the Stuart quest for divine-right absolutism. The period that followed witnessed some important changes in the way the state is managed. The Netherlands was important not only because it became the financial and commercial center of Europe, but also because it provided the period's third model of political development-a loosely federated, middle-class constitutional state.

Schmiechen, James. A History of Western Society, 6th ed. Study Guide vol. II. Boston: Houghton, 1999. (pp. 264-265)

Scientific Revolution & Enlightenment

Rene Descartes	Galileo Galilei	Voltaire

 

Schmiechen, James. A History of Western Society, 6th ed. Study Guide vol. II. Boston: Houghton, 1999. (pp. 298-299)

Austria and Prussia

Frederick II (the Great), Maria Theresa

Europe in the 18th century was dominated by absolute monarchs. Rulers of all they surveyed, they built lavish palaces and attracted artists and intellectuals to their “enlightened” courts. Two of the richest and most powerful European states at that time were Austria and Prussia.

Austria was ruled by the Habsburgs, a family that had dominated Europe since the 13th century. Through a series of wars, inheritances, and marriages, the Habsburgs came to rule a vast area of land that by the 16th century had become too large for one person to rule alone. The Habsburg emperor, Charles V (and I of Spain) divided his lands so that one half was governed from Madrid in Spain while the other was governed from Vienna in Austria. In 1700 the Spanish Habsburgs died out, but the Austrian Habsburgs continued to assert their power.

In 1740 Maria Theresa came to the Austrian throne. She pulled Austria back from virtual bankruptcy, restoring its power and under her rule. Austria became the artistic center of Europe. Artists from all over Europe came to work on its grand building projects. Maria Theresa was succeeded in 1780 by her son Joseph II, who was a follower of the Enlightenment. He was concerned with the living conditions of his poorer subjects and began reforms such as freeing the serfs and abolishing privileges.

Frederick II (the Great) became king of Prussia in 1740. He inherited a well-organized state with an efficient and powerful army, which eh used to increase Prussia’s power. Frederick was an outstanding general, his greatest victory being at Rossbach (1757) when he routed a combined French and Austrian army twice the size of his own.  Under his leadership, Prussia emerged from struggles to dominate Europe as a major power. He introduced economic reforms, religious freedom, and abolished torture in the belief that only a ruler with absolute power could improve society.

  American Revolution

Before 1750, fighting frequently broke out between British and French colonists in North America over trade and wars in Europe. This fighting was brought to an end when British control of all Canada was agreed by the signing of the Treaty of Paris at the end of the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763).

With the threat from the French removed, British colonists in America no longer relied on Britain for defense. But Britain needed American taxes to pay for governing their new French territories. By this time there were about two million people living in Britain’s 13 colonies in America. They produced most of the food and goods they needed, but taxes were imposed on imported goods, such as tea, and legal documents.

By 1770 the colonists were becoming increasingly unhappy with the British government. Even though they had to pay British taxes they had no say in how government was run. The colonists declared that “taxation without representation is tyranny.” Britain reacted by sending more soldiers and, in April 1775, an armed confrontation between colonists and British troops took place at Lexington in Massachusetts. The colonists formed an army of their own, commanded by George Washington and on June 17 the two armies clashed at Bunker Hill, near Boston. The British were successful, but the War of Independence had begun.

Fighting continued and on July 4, 1776 the colonial leaders passed the Declaration of Independence from Britain. The British government refused to accept this. Under Washington’s continuing command, the colonists’ army increased in size, becoming better equipped and better trained, and began defeating the British. France, Spain, and the Netherlands all joined in on the colonists’ side, making it difficult for Britain to keep its army supplied. The six-year war ended in 1781 when the British surrendered at Yorktown. Two years later, Britain recognized an independent United States of America.

In the 18th century, society in France was divided into three classes, known as estates.  The first estate was the nobility, the second was the clergy, and the third was everyone else.  Only people in the third estate paid taxes, however, and discontent grew as taxes kept increasing.

In 1788, a bad harvest made food scarce and pushed up prices leaving many poorer people facing starvation.  The government was also short of money, as a result of extravagant kings and costly wars.  Many well-educated members of the third estate knew about the ideas of the Enlightenment and some had helped America in its war of independence from Britain.  This made them realize how unfair they system was in France.  When the French king, Louis XVI, called a meeting of the Estates General (the nearest France had to a parliament) in 1789 to try and raise more money, the third estate started to rebel.  They said that if they had to pay taxes, they should have a say in the way the country was run.  Louis XVI refused this request and locked them out of the room in Versailles in which the Estates General was meeting.

The third estate decided to hold its own meeting on a tennis court at Versailles.  Calling themselves the National Assembly, its member refused to move until the King listened to their demands.  Unrest was growing elsewhere - in Paris a mob attacked the Bastille, a royal prison, and soon riots broke out all over France.

The National Assembly then made its Declaration of the Rights of Man.  These included liberty, equality and the right to resist oppression.  Louis XVI refused to agree to this and so he and his family were arrested and brought back to Paris, where they were held in the Tuileries until 1793.  Finally, as the king still refused to give more power to the people, he was put on trial and was executed.

This was the start of the Reign of Terror, led by Maximilien Robespierre, which lasted until 1794.  During that time thousands of people were arrested and put to death.  Austria, Britain, the Netherlands, Prussia, and Spain all declared war on France.  Frightened by this turn of events, Robespierre’s colleagues ordered his execution.  A new government, the Directoire, was set up.  The threat of civil war in 1795 lead to the rise to power of an ambitious French general - Napoleon Bonaparte.

The opium wars and the opening of China: In 1839–42 and 1856–60, their were two wars between China and Western countries. The first was between Great Britain and China. Early in the 19th century, British merchants began smuggling opium into China in order to balance their purchases of tea for export to Britain. In 1839, China enforced its prohibitions on the importation of opium by destroying at Guangzhou (Canton) a large quantity of opium confiscated from British merchants. Great Britain, which had been looking to end China's restrictions on foreign trade, responded by sending gunboats to attack several Chinese coastal cities. China, unable to withstand modern arms, was defeated and forced to sign the Treaty of Nanjing (1842) and the British Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue (1843). These provided that the ports of Guangzhou, Jinmen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai should be open to British trade and residence; in addition Hong Kong was ceded to the British. Within a few years other Western powers signed similar treaties with China and received commercial and residential privileges, and the Western domination of China's treaty ports began. In 1856 a second war broke out following an allegedly illegal Chinese search of a British-registered ship, the Arrow, in Guangzhou. British and French troops took Guangzhou and Tianjin and compelled the Chinese to accept the treaties of Tianjin (1858), to which France, Russia, and the United States were also party. China agreed to open 11 more ports, permit foreign legations in Beijing, sanction Christian missionary activity, and legalize the import of opium. China's subsequent attempt to block the entry of diplomats into Beijing as well as Britain's determination to enforce the new treaty terms led to a renewal of the war in 1859. This time the British and French occupied Beijing and burned the imperial summer palace (Yuan ming yuan). The Beijing conventions of 1860, by which China was forced to reaffirm the terms of the Treaty of Tianjin and make additional concessions, concluded the hostilities.

The Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the mid-18th century, transforming society as people moved from the countryside to the town in order to work in factories.

Two events in the early 18th century helped make the Industrial Revolution possible. The first was Abraham Darby’s discovery that coke instead of charcoal was a better fuel for smelting iron. The second was Thomas Newcomen’s improved steam engine, used to pump water out of coal mines. These two inventions meant more coal and better quality iron could be produced for industry.

Until the 1760s most goods were hand-made by people working at home or in small workshops. Many were spinners and weavers, producing woolen or linen cloth. Others made small metal items, such as nails, pins, and knives. From the start of the century, however, there had been a rising demand for cotton cloth for clothes that were more comfortable to wear and easier to wash than either wool or linen. At first cotton was imported from India as rolls of ready made cloth, but then raw cotton was imported and British spinners and weavers started manufacturing the cloth themselves.

In 1733 the invention of a flying shuttle speeded up the weaving process so much that ordinary spinning wheels could not produce enough yarn to keep the weavers supplied. Then in 1764, James Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny, which allowed on person to spin eight threads at once. Five years later, Richard Arkwright invented the spinning frame. This could spin more threads but needed water power to run it as it was to heavy to turn by hand. Factories were built near fast-flowing streams to house these new machines and soon the cotton industry began to develop on a very large scale. By 1790, James Watt’s improvements to the steam engine meant that steam power could be used to drive machinery. Coal expanded, while canals (and later railroads) were built to bring raw materials to the factories and take the finished goods away.

Towns boomed as people moved in to be near their place of work. Both housing and working conditions were often poor and many people, including children, suffered from malnutrition, disease, or accidents at work.

 

Although Europeans had been trading with Africa since the 16th century, they knew very little about the interior of the continent. They hardly ever ventured beyond the trading posts on the coast, partly because traveling was difficult in many places and partly because they were afraid of catching deadly diseases or being attacked by wild animals.

As the view of the Enlightenment became better known, the situation began to change. In Britain especially, people became more curious about the interior of Africa and in 1788 an association was formed in London to encourage exploration and trade in Africa. At the same time, many Europeans started to campaign for slavery to be abolished. They also thought that Africans should become Christians and so, from around 1800, increasing numbers of missionaries were sent out. Many went to Cape Colony (now part of South Africa), which the British took from the Dutch in 1806. This was the largest European settlement in Africa with a population of around 21,000 people.

Most of the colonists were Dutch farmers, known as Boers. By 1835, many of them were unhappy with living under British rule and decided to set off on the Great Trek into the interior. After much hardship the trekkers formed two new republics, the Transvall and the Orange Free State. But the trekkers came into conflict with the Zulus, whose homelands they had moved into. The Zulus attacked the Boers and the Boers retaliated. Eventually the Zulus were defeated by the British in 1879.

Many British expeditions explored Africa’s interior along its great rivers between 1768 and 1875. From 1768 to 1773, James Bruce explored Ethiopia, and in two expeditions from 1795 to 1806 Mungo Park explored the Niger River. From 1852 to 1856 David Livingstone crossed the continent following the Zambezi River, and Richard Burton, John Speke, and James Grant set out to look for the source of the Nile. Livingstone also set out to look for the source of the Nile in 1866, but lost contact with Britain for almost three years. Another expedition sent out to look for him and led by journalist Henry Stanley found him on the shores of Lake Tanganvika.

Queen Victoria succeeded to the British throne in 1837 and reigned for almost 64 years.  At the time of her accession, trade and industry had already helped to make Britain one of the richest and most powerful countries in the world.  Britain was also a land of great contrasts, with landowners and industrialists living in luxury, while the poor led very lives both in the towns and in the countryside.

Much of Britain’s wealth came from her colonies, which were eventually known as the British Empire.  The earliest colonies had been established in the 17^th and 18^th centuries in places as far as Canada, India, Australia, and the Caribbean.  More were added by the Treaty of Vienna at the end of the Napoleonic Wars.  During Victoria’s reign, still more colonies were added, including New Zealand, many islands in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, parts of the Far East and large areas of Africa, until, at its greatest extent, the empire contained a quarter of the world’s land and a quarter of its people.

The colonies mainly provided raw materials for British factories and a ready market for their goods.  At first, colonies were often run by trading companies, such as the East India Company in India and Hudson’s Bay Company in Canada, but gradually they all came under direct rule from Britain.  India was the most prized and Britain went to great lengths to protect its trade routes with India.

This was especially true after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, which cut 4,000 miles (6,400 km) off the journey from Britain to India.  As British rule became established, the economies of many of the colonies were also changes as plantations were set up to produce tea, sugar, coffee, and spices for the British market.  Other plantations produced rubber or cotton.  Many people also migrated from Britain to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, where they set up farms producing wheat, cattle and sheep to export to Britain.

Toward the end of Victoria’s reign, however, Britain began to lose its place as the world’s leading industrial capital.

Until 1581, the Netherlands, or Low Countries, was made up of 17 provinces, which included Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. From 1482 they were part of the Holy Roman empire, ruled by Phillip of Burgundy. When he died in 1506, they passed to his son Charles. Charles became king of Spain in 1516, so they became a Spanish possession. The majority of the people in the northern provinces followed the Protestant religion and Charles’s son, Phillip II, persecuted them for this.

When they refused to give up Protestantism, he used terror tactics to try and persuade them. This led to a series of revolts from 1568 to 1581, led by William of Orange. Then the seven northern provinces declared their independence from Spain, calling themselves the Republic of the United Netherlands. Seafaring, trade, finance, and fishing were the main ways of making a living in the Netherlands and following the declaration of independence in 1581, these all increased in importance. Amsterdam became the chief city and was home to many wealthy merchants and bankers.

Although Spain did not yet recognize their independence, the Dutch started to build up a trading empire. In 1599 they began to take control of the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, from the Portuguese and in 1602 the Dutch East India Company was set up to encourage more trade with the islands of the East Indies. In 1619 the Company set up its headquarters in Batavia (now Djakarta) on the island of Java. Then, helped by its own army and ships, the Company drove the Portuguese and English merchants out of the area. The Dutch East India Company went on to take control of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and several ports in India. In 1652 it set up a colony at Cape Town on the southernmost tip of Africato supply its ships sailing between the Netherlands and the East Indies.

Other Dutch merchants sailed westwards and, in 1621, they set up the Dutch West India Company. This took control of several islands in the Caribbean, as well as Guiana on South America’s mainland, some islands off the coast of Venezuela and parts of Brazil. The company traded in slaves, tobacco and sugar. This trading empire helped to make the Dutch very wealthy people. Their trade was jealously guarded, however, and this led to wars with England in the second half of the 17th century.

   

We live in a world today in which the consequences of nineteenth-century Western imperialism are still being felt. By about 1914 Western civilization reached the high point of its long-standing global expansion. This expansion in this period took many forms. There was, first of all, economic expansion. Europeans invested large sums of money abroad, building railroads and ports, mines and plantations, factories and public utilities. Trade between nations grew greatly and a world economy developed. Between 1750 and 1900 the gap in income disparities between industrialized Europe and America and the rest of the world grew at an astounding rate. Part of this was due, first, to a rearrangement of land use that accompanies Western colonialism and to Western success in preventing industrialization in areas Westerners saw as markets for their manufactured goods. European economic penetration was very often peaceful, but Europeans (and Americans) were also quite willing to force isolationist nations such as China and Japan to throw open their doors to Westerners. Second, millions of Europeans migrated abroad. The pressure of poverty and overpopulation in rural areas encouraged this migration, but once in the United States and Australia, European settlers passed laws to prevent similar mass migration from Asia.

A third aspect of Western expansion was that European states established vast political empires, mainly in Africa but also in Asia. This "new imperialism" occurred primarily between 1880 and 1900, when European governments scrambled frantically for territory. White people came, therefore, to rule millions of black and brown people in Africa and Asia. The causes of the new imperialism are still hotly debated. Competition for trade, superior military force, European power politics, and a racist belief in European superiority were among the most important. Some Europeans bitterly criticized imperialism as a betrayal of Western ideals of freedom and equality.

Western imperialism produced various reactions in Africa and Asia. The first response was simply to try to drive the foreigners away. The general failure of this traditionalist response then led large masses to accept European rule, which did bring some improvements. A third response was the modernist response of Western-educated natives, who were repelled by Western racism and attracted by Western ideals of national independence and economic progress. Thus, imperialism and reactions to it spread Western civilization to non-Western lands.

Schmiechen, James. A History of Western Society, 6th ed. Study Guide vol. II. Boston: Houghton, 1999. (pp. 441-442)

   

  Revolution in China

By 1900, China’s crumbling Manchu Dynasty was losing control of government and large parts of the country were dominated by foreign powers.  The Chinese nationalist party, the Kuomintang, was founded by Sun Yat-sen to try and unify the country under a democratic government. In 1911, the Manchu dynasty was overthrown. China became a republic with Sun Yet-sun as provisional president.

Sun died in 1925 and Chiang Kai-shek then became president of China and leader of the Kuomintang. By that time the Chinese Communist party had been founded.  Its first meeting was held in Shanghai in 1921. Mao Zedong was an early member of the party.

Throughout the1920’s, warlords in the north of China tried to gain control of the country. In order to fight them, Kuomintang and Communists united in 1926 and defeated the warlords. But the following year, in 1927, civil war broke out between the Kuomintang and the Communists as Chiang Kai-shek carried out a lighting coup and executed hundreds of communists. The communists were forced out of Shanghai and took refuge farther south in the province of Jiangxi.

The Kuomintang then claimed to have united the whole of china under their government in Nanjing. But, in 1931, the Communists, lead by Mao, set up a Rival Government in Jiangxi. In October 1933 Chiang Kai-shek sent hi army to Jiangxi with the intention of wiping out the communists once and for all. After resisting the Kuomintang forces for a year, the Communists were forced to give up the province. In order to Escape, Mao led 100,000 Communists on the “Long March” from Jiangxi in the south to Shaanxi in the North. Around 80,000 died on the year-long march. At its end Mao was confirmed as leader of the Communists.

During World War II, Japan invaded China and the two sides united to defeat them. When Japan surrendered in 1945, civil war broke out again.  This time the Communists waged a successful guerilla war against the Kuomintang, helped by peasant uprisings throughout China. By January 1949 the communists had taken control of Tianjin and Beijing from Kuomintang. They continued moving south, forcing the Kuomintang off the mainland and on the island of Taiwan. On October 1, 1949 mainland China became the People’s Republic of China with Mao as its First President.

WWI

War in the Trenches	Kaiser Wilhelm II	British Soldier

The war that began in the summer of 1914 was unexpectedly long and destructive and had enormous consequences. Western civilization changed decisively, as the war caused not only death and destruction but a variety of revolutions as well. Thus, the First World War opened a new era in European history. This chapter shows how andwhy this was so. Beginning with the system of alliances that had formed two hostile military blocs by 1914, the text explains how nationalism and fears of nationalism toched off a world war. Contrary to expectations, the First World War became a ghastly military stalemate. The stalemate forced each government to make a total war effort, which demanded great sacrifices and major social changes. Economic life was strictly controlled, women entered defense plants, and nationalistic propaganda strengthened genuine popular support for the war.

By 1916 there was growing discontent and war weariness in all countries.Russia broke first under the enormous strains of total war. In March 1917, a moderate patriotic revolution established a Russian republic. In November 1917, Lenin and the Bolsheviks took power in a socialist revolution. Lenin was a dedicated revolutionary who had reinterpreted Marxism in a radical way before 1914, and he took Russia out of the war and established a harsh dictatorship. This dictatorship allowed the Bolshevik government to survive and to defeat many different foes in a bloody civil war. Revolution also occurred in Germany and Austria. Germany established a republic, and Austria-Hungary broke into pieces. In 1919, the world of 1914 lay in ruins, due to the impact of total war and radical revolution. Nor did the peace settlement of Versailles bring stability, since the defeated Germans hated the peace treaty, and the victorious Americans rejected it.

Schmiechen, James. A History of Western Society, 6th ed. Study Guide vol. II. Boston: Houghton, 1999. (p. 459)

 

The Russian Revolution

Romanov Symbol	Nicholas II	Vladimir Lenin	Communist Symbol

Absolutism remained the system of government, social injustice and economic want were also character-istics of the Russian state. Discontent was wide spread especially as follows:

Political Conditions: Until 1905 the Tsar's powers were unlimited. Russia had no constitution, no political party system to check the Tsar's power and a strong secret police which terrorized the people. As a result reformers were forced underground during the late 1800's.

Social Conditions: Russia had rigid class distinctions with the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Nobility at the top. Most of the land and high government positions were in the hands of the rich. Peasant life was dull and uninteresting. Public education was regarded as dangerous because things learned by the commoners might increase their dissatisfaction and lead to revolt. Great emphasis was placed on "Russification", that is, the process of making the subject peoples Russian in language, dress, religion, and culture. Jew's were often singled out for ill treatment. "Pogroms", outbursts of violence were common.

Economic Conditions: Agriculture was the chief way to make a living. Even after the Serfs were freed in 1861, life barely rose above the starvation level. Farming methods were old-fashioned and little land was available to the peasant. When industrialization came to Russia, workers flocked to the cities. They were quick to voice their dissatisfaction because of poor working conditions, low wages and slums.

There were many causes for the revolution of 1917. These include:

Democratic groups sought an end to Tsarist absolutism. Farmers wanted the fertile land owned by the nobility. City workers wanted a voice in the government and better living conditions.The small Russian middle class wanted a voice in the government. Subject peoples wanted an end to "Russification". Russo-Japanese war (1904-05) was fought over Korea. Russia was defeated and it proved to be a humiliating loss for the Russian Empire. Bloody Sunday; Revolution of 1905 was the last peaceful effort by the people to seek reforms. Thousands were shot, hung and imprisoned by the Tsars Troops. During World War I the soldiers were receiving poor supplies, the Russian nobility serving as officers were poor leaders. Defeat after defeat led to low morale and causalities were extremely high. On the home front industry bogged down, the transportation system deteriorated, people suffered from shortages and government officials were thought to be sympathetic to the Germans. In 1914 the Russians were totally unprepared for war. With the war going poorly the Tsar made the decision to leave the capital, Petrograd (St. Petersburg), and take personal command of the troops at the front. With the Tsar gone, the Tsarina (Alexandra) was in command and she was heavily influenced by the Starist monk, Rasputin. In December 1916 he was assassinated. In March of 1917 a Woman's Day parade led to rioting. The police and Tsarist troops were called to put down the riot but instead of shooting the demonstrators they joined them. This event led to the Duma (Legislature) calling for a Provisional (Temporary) Government. Tsar Nicholas II, the last of the Romanov's, abdicated on March 15, 1917.

The Russian socialist movement began in the 19th century. In 1903 it split into two factions, the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks. The Mensheviks supported a Democratic Revolution with wide appeal and broad participation. the Bolsheviks favored a small professionally led revolution using any means necessary to accomplish their goals. When the Tsar abdicated Lenin, leader of the Bolsheviks, was in exile in Switzerland. He made arrangements with the German government to get him back into Russia. In return for the Germans help Lenin promised to pull Russia out of the war. (This would allow Germany to send about a million troops to the Western Front and defeat the British and French.) When Lenin arrived in Russia he called for "Land, Bread, and Peace". Land for the peasants, Bread for the workers and Peace for the soldiers. In November of 1917 a second revolution occurred. It was led by the Bolshevik and overthrew the Provisional Government. The Bolsheviks then proclaimed the Soviet Socialist Republic.

The Provisional Government lasted from March until November 1917 and failed for a number of reasons:It remained involved in an unpopular war. (World War I) It was unable to end the food shortage. It did not support the peasant seizures of nobility owned land. It lacked military strength to back up its politics. (It offered too little to late)

Irish Home Rule 

Eamon De Valera

At the end of World War I, the question of Irish independence from Britain became critical.  Many Irish wanted self-government were increasingly frustrated as two home rule bills put before the British parliament were defeated.  Then, in 1912, a third home rule bill was approved, but it was prevented from coming into force by the outbreak of World War I. 

Not all the Irish wanted home rule.  Most people in the six counties of the north, known as Ulster, wanted to remain part of Britain and by governed from London, while in the south most wanted Ireland to become a completely independent republic.  This division between north and south dated back to the 16th century, when a succession of English monarchs had used the planting of Protestant English and Scottish people on lands seized from Irish Catholics as a way of increasing loyalty to the British crown.  Conflict between the two sides pushed Ireland to the brink of a civil war, also only prevented by the outbreak of World War I.  During the war, people who wanted Ireland to become a republic continued their campaign.  They belonged to various organizations, including the political party Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Irish Volunteers, and the Irish Citizen Army.  Led by Padraig Pearse and James Connolly, around 1,600 protesters rose up in armed rebellion on Easter Monday, 1916.  They took control of several public buildings in Dublin and declared Ireland a republic.  The fighting lasted for four days before they were forced to surrender. 

In the British general election of December 1918, Sinn Fein candidates were elected to every Irish constituency outside Ulster. Instead of going to Houses of Parliament in London, however, they set up their own parliament, called the Dail Eireann, in Dublin.  It had its own courts, tax system, and postal service, and in 1919 it declared Ireland a republic.  This led to three years of war between the military wing of Sinn Fein (later called the Irish Republican Army) led by Michael Collins, and the Royal Irish Constabulary, helped by the British soldiers known as the Black and Tans.  In July 1921 Michael Collins decided to negotiate with the British government, rather than continue fighting.  In December he signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which made most of Ireland independent, but let Northern Ireland under British rule.  This led to another outbreak of civil war, this time between the Free-Staters, who supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty, and the Republicans who wanted independence for a united Ireland.

The civil war lasted until 1923, when the Republicans decided to accept the division of Ireland for the time being. Their leader, American-born Eamon de Valera, founded a new political party, called Fianna Fail, in 1926, won the Irish general election 1932, and served as head of government for many years. 

 

German Inflation 1923	Soviet Poster 1920	Nazi Poster 1928

 The first World War and the revolutions in Russia and elsewhere shattered many traditional ideas, beliefs, and institutions. As a result, many people of the postwar era found themselves living in an age of anxiety and continuous crises. Many developments in thought, science, and the arts after the war encouraged this crisis even further. The first half of this chapter deals with major changes in ideas and in culture that were connected to this age of anxiety. Some of these changes began before 1900, but they became widespread only after the great upheaval of the First World War affected millions of ordinary people and opened an era of uncertainty and searching. people generally became less optimistic and had less faith in rational thinking. Radically new theories in physics associated with Albert Einstein and Werner Heisenberg took form, while Sigmund Freud's psychology gave a new and disturbing interpretation of human behavior. Philosophy and literature developed in new ways, and Christianity took on renewed meaning for thinking people. There was also great searching and experimentation in architecture, painting, and music, all of which went in new directions. Much painting became abstract, as did some music. Movies and radio programs, which offered entertainment and escape, gained enormous popularity among the general public.In short, there were revolutionary changes in thought, art, and popular culture.

Schmiechen, James. A History of Western Society, 6th ed. Study Guide vol. II. Boston: Houghton, 1999. (pp. 480-481)

World War II

German Poster	Adolf Hitler	American Poster

The anxiety and crisis that followed the First World war contributed to the rise of powerful dictatorships in parts of Europe, and , unfortunately, an even more horrible Second World War. Some of these dictatorships were old-fashioned and conservative, but there were new totalitarian dictatorships as well, notably in Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. This section examines the different kinds of dictatorship in a general way and then looks at Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany in detail. It goes on the describe the Second World War and why and how the great coalition of the Soviet Union, Britain, and the United States defeated Germany and its allies. In Soviet Russia, Lenin relaxed rigid state controls in 1921 after the civil war in order to revive the economy. After defeating Trotsky in a struggle for power, Stalin established a harsh totalitarian dictatorship, which demanded great sacrifices from the people. Soviet Russia built up its industry while peasants lost their land and a radically new socialist society came into being. Mussolini's government in Italy was much less radical and totalitarian.

 

This section then examines Adolf Hitler and the totalitarian government of the Nazis in Germany. The roots of Nazism are found in racism, extreme nationalism, and violent irrationality, all of which drove Hitler relentlessly. Hitler was also a master politician, and this helped him gain power legally. His government was popular, especially because it appeared to solve the economic problems of the Great Depression. Hitler also had the support of many of the German people because of his success in foreign affairs. He used bullying and fears of communism in Britain and France to rearm and expand, until finally war broke out over Poland in 1939. By 1942, Hitler and the Nazis had temporarily forged a great empire andwere putting their anti-Jewish racism into operation. The Grand Alliance, consisting of the Soviet Union, Britain, and the United States, was able to wage a successful war against Hitler partly because it postponed political questions and adopted the principle of unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan, and partly because of the great and heroic contributions of the British and soviet peoples and American resources. The beginning of the end for Germany came in 1942, when its offensive into the Soviet Union was turned into a retreat, and the end became certain in 1944, when the American and British forces began to push into Hitler's empire form the west.

Schmiechen, James. A History of Western Society, 6th ed. Study Guide vol. II. Boston: Houghton, 1999. (pp. 498-499)

  The Cold War     The Big Three at Yalta, February 1945  

This chapter discusses the main political and economic trends in the Western world since the dark day of the Second World War. It shows how Europe, especially western Europe, recovered from the destruction of 1945, how the cold war split the Continent into communist and non-communist blocs, how European empires came to an end as the peoples of Africa and Asia achieved national independence. The section begins by examining why the Grand Alliance of Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States failed to hold together after they succeeded in defeating Nazi Germany. Military decision, ideological differences, and disputes over eastern Europe were key factors in the origins of the cold war.

 

 By 1950, the Iron Curtain was in place, and western and eastern Europe were going their separate ways. Battered western Europe rebuilt quickly and successfully, helped by new leaders and attitudes, American aid, and the creation of the Common Market. Developments in East European countries closely followed those in Soviet Russia. Stalin reimposed a harsh dictatorship after the war, which Khrushchev relaxed but which Brezhnev tightened once again. An anticommunist popular revolt in Hungary failed, while material conditions in communist countries gradually improved and communist governments remained firmly in control. European empires in Asia and Africa went out of business after the Second World War. India led the way to national independence right after the war, and other British, French, and Dutch territories followed. Most countries gained independence peacefully, but there were bitter colonial wars in Vietnam and Algeria. Western influence lives on in Asia and Africa, since most of the newly independent countries have retained Westernnationalism and either communism or democracy as guiding ideas.

Schmiechen, James. A History of Western Society, 6th ed. Study Guide vol. II. Boston: Houghton, 1999. (pp. 518-519)

  The Cultural Revolution     Top party officials being denounced during a public rally, flanked by cultral revolutionary propaganda

When Mao Zedong came to power in 1949, many Chinese could not read or write.  Many also suffered from ill health and hunger.  To try and make life better for everyone, the new government improved health care and provided schools in which adults as well as children could be taught.

 For the first time, women were given equal rights with men.  Large farms were taken from wealthy landowners and divided up among the peasants.  New roads and railroads and power plants to generate electricity were built.  But the problem of providing enough food for everyone remained.  In 1958, Mao introduced the Great Leap Forward, to try and make each village self-sufficient, not only by growing its own food, but also by producing its own clothing and tools in small factories belonging to the whole village. The plan failed, because the government did not invest enough money in it, while bad weather led to poor harvests and even greater food shortages.  Many people died of starvation and in 1959 Mao Zedong decided to retire.

Over the next seven years, Mao’s successors tried to solve the economic problems caused by the Great Leap Forward.  At the same time, tension grew between China and the Soviet Union.  Mao thought the Soviet Union had lost its revolutionary sprit.  Not wanting the same to happen to China, he swept back to power in 1966 and launched the Cultural Revolution.  Its aim was to overthrow old tradition ideas and habits and rid the Communist party and the country of people who disagreed with Mao.  Young people formed groups of Red Guards who criticized foreigners and their elders.  Many artists, writers, and teachers were forced to leave their jobs and go to work on the land.  Schools, universities, factories, and hospitals closed as older members of staff were forced out by students.  Many people were killed and others were sent into exile for criticizing Mao.

When Mao died in 1976, the Cultural Revolution came to an end.  His successor, Deng Xiaoping, began to open up China to trade and contact with the West. 

  Indian Independence   Mohandas Karamchand Ghandi , Ghandhi's Funeral Pyre

At the start of the 20^th century, India was the largest colonial territory in the World. It included Pakistan and Bangladesh, as well as India and had been ruled directly from Britain since 1858.

The people of India wanted independence not only for self-government but also to build up their industries again, instead of having to supply raw materials to Britain and but back manufacturing goods at high prices. In 1885 a political party, the Indian National Congress, was founded and began to campaign for reforms. At first it wanted India to remain a part of Britain, but from 1917 onward, the National Congress began to campaign for Home Rule.

Britain saw India as the “jewel of the crown” of its empire and so was reluctant to let it go. Instead, mainly in gratitude for India’s support during World War I, the British government passed a Government of India Act in 1919. This made some reforms, but most power remained with Britain. In the same year, British soldiers opened fire on a crowd at Amritsar protesting against British rule. Almost 400 people were killed and, as a result, the campaign for Indian Independence began to grow.

By 1920 Mohandas Karamchand Ghandi had become the leader of the Indian National Congress and he launched a policy of non-cooperation with the British. This included encouraging Indians to boycott British goods, give up their jobs in local government, and refuse to obey any British authorities. Many blocked the streets by sitting down and refusing to move even if they were beaten by the police. Gandhi himself was arrested several times and sent to prison, where he continued his campaign of civil disobedience by going on a hunger strike. His biggest protest against British rule in India was in 1930, when he led thousands of people on the Salt March to the coast. There they made salt from sea water in protest against the law that made everyone buy heavily taxed salt from the state, even though they could make it very cheaply themselves.

 In 1945, the British Government finally agreed to India’s independence within the British commonwealth. One of the biggest problems to independence was religion. The majority of India’s problems to independence was religion. The majority of India’s people were Hindus, but there were also large numbers of Muslims who did not want to live under Hindu rule. Violence often broke out between the two sides, so Muhammad Ali Jinnah began to campaign for a separate state for the Muslims. This was finally agreed by the British government. On August 14, 1947, two areas to the northeast and northwest of India became the independent state country of Pakistan, with Jinnah as their governor general. The following day the rest of India gained its independence with Jawaharlal Nehru as prime minister. Immediately violence broke out as a result of the partition. Millions of people found themselves in the “wrong” country – Muslims in India and Hindus in Pakistan – so mass migrations began. As the people fled, atrocities were inflicted on both sides and hundreds of thousands of people were killed. 

 

  Israel & Palestine   Star of David, Map With Opposing Flags, Islamic Moon

The spiritual homeland of the Jews was in and around the ancient city of Jerusalem, but at the start of the 20th century most Jews lived elsewhere, especially in Europe, the USA, and Russia. Jerusalem itself was in a country called Palestine, which was part of the Ottoman empire.  Most of its people were Arabs, but from the 1880s small numbers of Jews began to go back there and settle

In the Balfour Declaration of 1917 Britain promised its support for the establishment of a Jewish homeland within Palestine.  At this time the Ottoman was facing defeat in World War I and was about to be broken up.  When this happened, the League of Nations gave Britain its mandate (permission) to rule over Palestine until the country was able to govern itself.

At first, only small numbers of Jews arrived in Palestine.  After the Nazi party came to power in German in the 1930s, German Jews were persecuted, imprisoned or even killed. Their businesses were destroyed and their families terrorized.  Those who could began to leave.  Some went to other parts of Europe and the USA, but some started a new life in Palestine.  As the numbers of Jewish immigrants increased, tension grew and fighting broke out.  To keep the peace, Britain restricted the numbers of new settlers allowed in.

After World War II, many more Jews wanted to move to Palestine and Jewish terrorists (or Zionists) started to attack the British as well as the Arabs.  Unable to solve the problem itself,  Britain took the matter to the United Nations and in 1947 it was decided to split Palestine into two states, one Jewish and the other Arab. Jerusalem would become international, since it was equally sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians.  The Jews agreed to this, but the Arabs did not.

Britain gave up its mandate on May 14, 1948 and, on the same day, Jewish leader David Ben Gurion announced the founding of the state of Israel. The Arab League (Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Transjordan, and Egypt) instantly declared war on Israel and attacked on it.  Israel quickly defeated them, taking Palestinian lands that increased Israel’s territory by a quarter.  

  The Space Race      Soviet and American Flags, Neil Armstrong, Sputnik

During the 1930’s, scientists in Germany experimented with making rockets. The first ones were used to launch guided missiles during World War II. When the war ended, many of the scientists left Germany and continued their research either in the United States or in the Soviet Union.

The scientists realized that their technology might make it possible for people to travel in space on day and, as the Cold War worsened, the “space race” started. Both countries wanted to be the first to send a rocket into space.

In 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite. It weighed about 185 pounds and took 96 minutes to orbit the Earth once at a maximum distance of 630 miles. The following year the US launched its first satellite Explorer 1 and both sides started to spend vast amounts of money on space exploration.

The first person to orbit the Earth was Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union in 1961. This achievement prompted President John F. Kennedy to say that the United States would land a man on the Moon by 1970. This ambition was achieved when Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969.

During the 1970’s, Britain, China, France, India, and Japan all joined in the space race and started launching their own spacecraft. Many of these wee satellites, used for weather forecasting and for communications. At the same time the United States and the Soviet Union continued to send craft deeper and deeper into space. Equipped with computers, these rival spacecraft were able to send back pictures and other information from planets as far away as Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

With the easing of the Cold War, both sides began to share their ideas and worked together on projects, such as building and maintaining an orbiting space station. Improvements in computer technology and communications on Earth have made it possible for the US spacecraft Pathfinder to land a robot explorer on Mars in 1997, which was controlled form Earth. The pictures it sent back were not only seen by scientists in their laboratories, but also by ordinary people at home watching television.

  African Independence     Map of Decolonized Africa, Nelson Mendela w/ Muhammed Ali

After World War II, many of the countries of Europe found it difficult to maintain their overseas colonies.  In Africa, as elsewhere, some achieved independence peacefully, but others had to use violence to regain the right to govern themselves.

Most African countries gained their independence in the 1960s and 1970s.  Once they were independent, these countries had to work out their own systems of government, law education, and health services, which had previously been organized along Europhan-style forms of government.  They also had to run their own economies and their own armed forces.

What did not change at first, however, were the borders of the new countries.  They remained as they had been set up by the Europeans during the scramble for Africa in the late 19th century.  These borders didn’t not reflect natural boundaries nor the ethnic groups of the peoples of Africa.  This led inevitably to civil wars in several countries, notably in the Congo, Ethiopia, and Nigeria, as people from one area within a country tried to become independent and form a new country of their own.

In other countries, such as Angola, Rwanda, and Burundi, civil wars broke out between rival ethnic groups, which wanted complete control of the whole country.  In some countries, the military overthrew the elected government, while others were ruled by dictators.

Problems also occurred in countries where the white settlers wanted to stay in control.  This happened in Algeria, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and South Africa and in each case cost many lives and much bitterness between the two groups.  It was especially difficult in South Africa, where, from 1948 to 1990, the white government used a system known as Apartheid to keep blacks out of power by not giving them the right to vote.  Once Apartheid was abolished, free elections were held and in 1994 Nelson Mandela became the first black president of South Africa.

  A Social Revolution   Anti-Abortion Rally, Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Same Sex Marriage Poster

At the start of the second half of the 20th century, many people throughout the world were still treated unequally because of their race, the color of their skin, their religion, or sex.

Black people were especially discriminated against in education, employment, housing, transportation, and health care.  Many also had to use separate facilities in public places such as restaurants, beaches, restrooms, and theaters.  With few or no civil rights, they could not even vote to try and change their situation.  All they could do was protest and campaign, even though this often led to fines, imprisonment, or worse.

 Some of the earliest protests were in the southern United States.  They started in earnest in 1955 when Rosa Parks, an African American, was arrested for refusing to move from a seat reserved for whites on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.  This led to a boycott of the local bus service that lasted for over a year.  It was followed by many more nonviolent protests, often inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, a Baptist minister.  The largest was a march to Washington D.C., in 1963 to demand equal justice for everybody.  More than 250,000 people took part and, in the following year, the US government passed the Civil Rights Act, which made discrimination illegal.

At the same time, the white minority government in South Africa was tightening up on its policy of Apartheid (the separation of whites and blacks).  In 1960 the police opened fire on a group of unarmed protesters in Sharpeville, killing 69 of them.  This brought an end to peaceful demonstrations and led to the formation of a guerilla army called Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation).  One of its most important members was Nelson Mandela, but in 1962 he was arrested and sent to prison.  The following year he was accused of plotting to overthrow the government and sentenced to life imprisonment.  This action drew attention to what was happening in South Africa and people all over the world started to protest against it.  By 1990 the government, led by F.W. de Klerk, knew it had to change its policy and on February 11, Mandela was released from prison.  After long discussions, Apartheid was abolished and in 1994 South Africa held its first election in which all adults had the right to vote.

The struggle for black equality led others to protest against injustice.  In the 1960s, women began to campaign for equal pay and job opportunities, better health care, and the right to have abortions.  New laws were introduced to ban sex discrimination in employment.  In the late 60s, gay men and women also began to campaign for equal rights.  Since then, in many countries there have been protests about lack of government action on gay issues, which include sexual freedom and equal rights of marriage and parenthood.

  The Vietnam War   "Huey" UH-1B helicopter, Map of Vietnam, Buddhist Monk Protesting, "Hippie" Counterculture

Vietnam, together with Cambodia and Laos, was part of the French colony of Indochina. It was occupied by the Japanese in World War II and during this time the Viet Minh league, led by the communist Ho Chi Minh, declared Vietnam independent.

After the war, France refused to recognize Ho Chi Minh’s government and war broke out between the French and Vietnamese. This war ended in the defeat of the French at the battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. An international agreement then divided Vietnam into communist North and noncommunist South.

Almost immediately civil war broke out between the two countries. From 1959, communist guerrillas in the South, known as the Viet Cong, were helped by North Vietnam. The US, worried about the spread of communism, sent military aid to help the South Vietnamese. As the conflict escalated, the US began sending troops to help the South from 1965. The Viet Cong’s guerrilla tactics made it very difficult to defeat them. In an attempt to cut off their supply lines, the US planes began bombing North Vietnam. At the same time, whole villages in the south and vast areas of forest were sprayed with chemicals to destroy any Viet Cong hiding places.

By 1966, antiwar demonstrations had begun and in 1968, the Viet Cong’s major Tet offensive on the South convinced Americans that the war could not be won. In 1969 the US began to withdraw its troops and a cease-fire was agreed in 1973. Fighting continued until 1975, when the north brought the south under its control.

Crisis In the Middle East

An uneasy peace followed the defeat of the Arab League by Israel in 1948. Jordan had captured Israeli land on the West Bank of the River Jordan, including much of Jerusalem. At the same time, Israel continued to encourage large numbers of Jews to migrate from Europe, Russia, and the United States. The Palestinian Arabs were pushed into separate communities within Israel and they began to campaign for a land of their own.

The next crisis came in 1956, when Egypt took control of the Suez Canal. This led to a war, with Egypt on one side and Britain and France, who had previously controlled the canal, on the other. Feeling threatened by this, Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula and destroyed Egyptian bases there. The third war between Israelis and their Arab neighbors broke out on June 5, 1967 and lasted for six days. In this, Israel destroyed the Egyptian air force and also took control of the whole of Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and Sinai. A fourth war broke out in October 1973 when Egyptian forces attacked Israel across the Suez Canal and Syrian forces attacked on the Golan Heights. Israel managed to defeat both forces.

Three years later, fighting broke out in Lebanon, where many Palestinians lived in refugee camps. They joined forces with Lebanese Muslims who were in conflict with Lebanese Christians. Syrian and UN troops were also involved. In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon to try and drive the Palestinians out, but failed.

From 1980 to 1988 another large-scale war broke out between Iraq and Iran, bother of which were major oil producing countries. Then in 1990 Iraqi troops invaded oil-rich Kuwait. UN forces freed Kuwait in 1991.

Since then, peace agreements have been signed between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Israel has granted limited Palestinian self-rule, but tension and conflict continue to disrupt the peace process.

Europe in Upheaval  

The Berlin Wall Comes Down: November 9, 1991  

Beginning in 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev worked to democratize the Soviet Union, increase Soviet productivity, and end its control over eastern Europe. Most revolutionary, the Communist party lost control of the state in July of 1990, followed by the dismantling of the entire Soviet state. Gorbachev's realism was the spark that set off a series of largely peaceful revolutions (with the exception of Romania) by the peoples of eastern Europe to cast out their communist leaders, hold free elections, and start on the road to a free market economy. Toward the mid-1990's, the Russians found that life under democracy was not turning out to be much better than life under communism. In some cases, it was worst. Hospitals and health clinics were in terrible shape, and the economy got even worst. Many Russians became unemployed. The Communist party grew once again. Many Russian towns raised the famous hammer and sickle that they once hated years ago. Other nations grew scared of another communist era. Gennady Zyuganov, the head of the Communist party in Russia was the leading candidate in the 1995 elections. Boris Yeltsin wanted another term. Zyuganov imposed the Cold War and strict laws. But by slim margins, Yeltsin won another term. In late 1996, Yeltsin had to have major heart surgery. It was successful, but people wondered who will be next. In 1996, fierce fighting broke out in the Muslim Chechnya region of Russia. Russia is refusing to allow Chechnya to succeed. The Russian army proves to be nothing like it was under the Soviet Union. Fierce violence in Chechnya sporadically continues although Russia won the war. During the late 1990's, economists were predicting the Russian economy would somewhat improve because of the abundance of oil reserves. Some economists went as far to say that the economy would experience significant growth. However, by 1998, Russia's economy was on the verge of collapse. All around the country, corruption, violence, drugs, and cronyism became problems.

Schmiechen, James. A History of Western Society, 6th ed. Study Guide vol. II. Boston: Houghton, 1999. (p. 540)