Post-1950 Global Changes

Post-1950 Global Changes

• Independence from European powers did not eliminate European control in many countries.
• The end of European empires dramatically changed the political landscape.
• Europe focused on rebuilding its economy and moving toward a greater union.
• Communism spread to Eastern Europe, China, Southeast Asia, and Cuba.
• The Cold War developed, China became powerful, and the Middle East became unstable.

Recovering from War

• Europeans rebuilt their industrial economy and revived democratic political systems.
• Industrial society was resilient and able to integrate economies with other Western European countries.
  • The European Economic Community (EEC) of 1957 later became the European Union in 1993.
• The U.S. became a global superpower after 1945 and the center of Western civilization.
  • The Marshall Plan sent $12 billion in aid to Europe to rebuild, indicating U.S. intent to lead.
• NATO formed in 1949 with U.S. backing to defend Europe against the Soviet Union.
• Japan became an economic giant from the 1950s-1970s, dependent on the U.S. for military security.
• The Soviet Union utilized convict labor for cheap labor and essential goods.

Characteristics of Chinese-Style Communism

• China began "building socialism" differently from the Soviets.
• China established itself as an ally of the Soviet Union.
• Revolutionaries governed large parts of the country for decades.
• The communist party already had support in rural areas and among peasants.
• China had a larger population but a smaller industrial base than the Soviet Union.
• New agricultural land was more limited compared to the Soviet Union.
• China had less developed literacy, modern education, and transportation networks.
• China initially followed socialist modernization, with peaceful collectivization in the 1950s due to the Communist Party's relationship with the peasantry.
• China modeled itself on the Soviet Union, focusing on heavy industries, urban factories, centralized planning, and mobilizing women.
• The Great Leap Forward was an effort to mobilize for development and transition to a fully communist society.
  • This included addressing individualism, careerism, and urban bias, however resulted in catastrophic famine.
• The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was Mao's measure to combat capitalist tendencies.
  • Healthcare and education prioritized the countryside, rural industrialization through local control.
• Mao called for rebellion against the Communist Party due to infiltration of capitalist values.
  • Millions of young Red Guards attacked officials and teachers
  • Violence broke out, and the military intervened to prevent civil war.

East vs. West: The Global Divide and Cold War

• Europe was the initial arena of the Cold War, driven by Soviet security concerns and a desire for control in Eastern Europe.
• The US and Britain sought open societies linked to the capitalist world economy.
• Rival military alliances emerged, including NATO in 1949 and the Warsaw Pact in 1955.
  • Western Europe fell under the American sphere of influence, primarily voluntary.
  • Eastern Europe was in the Soviet sphere and was imposed.
  • The "Iron Curtain" divided the spheres.
• Communism spread into Asia, causing conflict in Korea and Vietnam with massive U.S. intervention in the 1960s.
• A major Cold War conflict in Afghanistan involved a Marxist party taking power in 1978 but soon alienating the population.
  • Soviet military intervention from 1979-1989 was met with little success, and the USSR withdrew in 1989 due to international pressure, leading to the collapse of communist rule.
• Cuba never became a field of battle, and Fidel Castro rose to power in the early 1960s

Nuclear Standoff and Third-World Rivalry

• The USSR acquired nuclear weapons in 1949, resulting in a massive arms race with nearly 60,000 nuclear warheads by 1989.
• From 1949-1989, there was constant fear of massive nuclear destruction.
• Both sides were aware of their destructive capabilities and took measures to avoid nuclear triggers, particularly after 1962.
• While avoiding direct military clash, they continued to build arsenals.
• Both the United States and the USSR sought alliances with Third World countries.
• The US often supported corrupt and authoritarian regimes, intervening in Iran, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, Chile, and the Congo due to fear of communist penetration.
• Many Third World countries resisted being used as pawns.
  • Some countries, like India, claimed nonalignment status.
  • Some attempted to play the superpowers against each other.
• The US became the leader of the West against communism post-WWII. supported by the economy and an increasing middle class.
• The US had no physical destruction of its soil, and had a more productive economy.

Communist State Turmoil

• Stalin's crimes came to light in the mid-1950s.
• Reform movements occurred in Hungary (1956-1957), Czechoslovakia (19680, and Poland (early 1980s) against Soviet-dominated communist Governments.
• Conflict grew among communist countries when Yugoslavia rejected Soviet domination.
• The Soviet Union invaded Hungary and Czechoslovakia to crush the reform movements.
• Poland was also threatened with Soviet invasion.
• The brutal suppression of reform tarnished the image of Soviet communism.
• The view of the Cold War was a struggle between tyranny and freedom became widely accepted.
• Sharp opposition arose between the USSR and China stemming from nuclear arms.
• China went to war against a communist Vietnam in 1979, and Vietnam invaded communist Cambodia in the late 1970s.
• World communism was at its greatest extent in the 1970s.

The Struggle for Decolonization

• Focus on colonial rule, subordination, racism, and poverty.
• Signaled declining legitimacy of empire and race as credible bases for political and social life.
• The Philippines, India, Pakistan, Burma, Indonesia, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and Israel achieved independence in the late 1940s.
• Over 50 African colonies achieved independence from the mid-1950s to mid-1970s.
• Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, the Solomon Islands, and Kiribati became independent in the 1970s.
• Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Jamaica, Trinidad, and Tobago became independent in the 1960s-1970s.
• Cuba became independent in 1902, but rejected American control in 1959.

The End of Empires

• The end of empire was associated with nationalist ideology for the first time, claiming international status.
• Many empires fell in the twentieth century, including the Austrian and Ottoman empires in the wake of WWI and the Russian, German, and Japanese empires with WWII.
• The idea of national self-determination began to grow and was globally accepted in the twentieth century.
• Empires without territory came under attack, exemplified by U.S. involvement in Latin America and the Mexican Revolution.
• The last territorial empires fell at the end of the twentieth century, including the Soviet Union in 1991, though China remained intact.

Path to Independence in Asia and Africa

• Democratic European state values and national self-determination clashed with the realities of colonial rule.
• Europe was weakened by world wars and no longer seen as morally superior.
• New superpowers (U.S. and USSR) opposed older European colonial empires.
• European colonies were vulnerable without local elites.
• 2nd-3rd generation educated elites pushed for immediate independence, feeling colonial rule was not necessary for progress.
• There was increasing public receptiveness to this independence.
• Colonial rulers defensively planned decolonization, including political reform, investments in infrastructure, elections, and constitution writing under pressure from nationalist movements.
• Nationalist movements were mostly led by male leaders, organized political parties, and sought to join the modern world and sought international recognition such as the UN.
• They recruited followers, with leaders like Gandhi mobilizing millions with nonviolent tactics.
• Indian National Congress leader Mohandas Gandhi rejected industrialization, while his lieutenant Nehru embraced it and there was a great Hindu/Muslim divide.
• Nationalist movements varied, independent in either peaceful means or by armed struggle.

Post-Freedom Conditions

• Common conditions arose in creating new political orders.
  • An exploding population, diverse cultures, and growing public employment with state assumption.
• Europeans established many democratic institutes which were fragile or generated into corrupted personal tyrannies or Big Man dictatorships
• Dozens of military takeovers in Africa by the 1980s due to multiple conflicts in the region.
• Multiple military interventions occur in Latin America in the 1960s and 1970s.
• Globalization of democracy in the late 20th century caused multiple popular movements, multi party elections, and new constitutions but caused authoritarian governments.
  • Unable to curb promotion and corruption, some leaders turned authoritarian.
• Right-wing populist movements shifted many countries' political systems into an authoritarian direction by 2020.

The End of the Communist Era

• Communism (roughly 1950-2000) ended the Cold War, lessening nuclear war threats and resulting in ~20 new nation states.
• China abandoned Maoist communism in the 1970s.
• Eastern Europe overthrew its communist governments in 1989.
• The USSR fell in 1991.
• Communism failed to compete with capitalism and was morally inferior to democracy and human rights.
• Deng Xiaoping led China after Mao and dismantled collectivized farming which caused slower industrial reform.
• Township and village enterprises were established to create high output.
• Deng's huge economic growth resulted in better prosperity for millions.
  • Better diets, lower mortality, declining poverty, urban construction, and higher exports.
• Deng’s reforms downsides:
  • Massive corruption among officials.
  • Inflation, urban vices, pollution etc.
• The CCP was unwilling to promote democracy or relinquish its political monopoly.
  • The Tiananmen Square demonstration crushed in the late 1980s.
• Gorbachev led the USSR since the mid-1980s and he launched the Perestroika program in 1987.
• State enterprises became exempt from government regulation.
• Cooperatives were allowed, as well as private businesses.
• Joint enterprises were allowed with foreigners.

Cultural and Political Developments

• Glasnost allowed new cultural and intellectual freedoms.
• Democratization allowed a new parliament.
• The Cold War ended through military cuts, arms control negotiations with the U.S., and non-intervention as Eastern European communist governments were overthrown.
• USSR weakening led to the collapse.
• Inflation grew, little to buy, ration coupons, unemployment feared.
• Little private farming, little foreign investment.
• Democracy movement, joined by labor unions
• Nationalist movements
• The Glasnost elections inspired the miracle year.

After Communism

• In 1989, there were massive demonstrations, last-minute reforms, the breach of the Berlin Wall, and unpopular communist regimes overthrown.
• A military coup in August of 1991 triggered the end of the USSR's communist regime.
• Gorbachev’s challenges addressing problems may have been the main reason for the collapse of the Soviet Union.
• The communist world had shrunk much by the twenty-first century, effectively dead.
• By 2020, hostile relationship between Russia and the United States.
  • Eastward expansion of NATO, Russian intervention in Ukraine and Crimea, Russian interference in U.S. elections.
• A deteriorated relationship also resulted when Trump raised tariffs on Chinese imports
• Instability and conflict arose in the Middle East.
• Conflicts between the new 1948 state of Israel and Palestine
• The Iranian revolution of 1979 created an Isalamist government which triggered war with Iraq
• A terrorist attack was launched targeted at the World Trade Center and prompted prolonged wars
• European, Russian, and Islamic cities also targeted.
• The Syrian civil war led to 12 million refugees in 2016.