Amsco 4 Assignment PDF

# The Eight Independent Italian States in 1858 - **SWITZERLAND** - **AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE** - Lombardy Venetia - **FRANCE** - Sardinia - **OTTOMAN EMPIRE** - Sardinia - Parma - Modena - Tuscany - Papal States - Kingdom of the Two Sicilies # Forces Un...

# The Eight Independent Italian States in 1858 - **SWITZERLAND** - **AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE** - Lombardy Venetia - **FRANCE** - Sardinia - **OTTOMAN EMPIRE** - Sardinia - Parma - Modena - Tuscany - Papal States - Kingdom of the Two Sicilies # Forces Unifying and Breaking Apart Countries - **A definition of nationalism is a nation's desire to create and maintain a state of its own.** - Since nationalism unifies people, it is an example of a centripetal force, one that helps to unify people within a country. There are other centripetal forces that unite people: - A shared religion - Roman Catholicism unites Mexicans. - External threats - Estonians are united by fear of Russia. - A common language - Japanese share the same language. - **A counter to centripetal forces would be a centrifugal force.** This is a force that tends to divide people, break states apart, or even prevent states from forming. For example, religion and language divide the people of Belgium. Most people in the north speak a Dutch language called Flemish and are historically Protestants, while people in the southern regions of Belgium speak French and tend to be Roman Catholics. The capital region of Brussels is officially bilingual in an attempt to foster centripetal forces that unify the people of both regions. # Imperialism and Colonialism - Imperialism and colonialism are related ideas, but they are not the same. - **Imperialism is a broader concept that includes a variety of ways of influencing another country or group of people by direct conquest, economic control, or cultural dominance.** - **Colonialism is a particular type of imperialism in which people move into and settle on the land of another country.** Examples of imperialism and colonialism can be found throughout history and all over the world, but modern European imperialism and colonialism are relevant to the current political map because the boundaries of most countries were created by these forces. European imperialism occurred in two distinct waves. ## Early Colonialism - The first wave of European colonialism was led by Spain and Portugal, and then by France and Britain. These countries established large empires in the Americas, and they were motivated by “God, gold, and glory.” They wanted: - Religious influence by spreading their form of Christianity. - Economic wealth from exploiting land, labor, and capital to enrich the home country. - Political power by expanding their influence throughout the world. - The European powers justified their conquests through the legal concept of terra nullius, a Latin phrase meaning “land belonging to no one.” According to this concept, they could legitimately seize “uncivilized land.” The result was the dispossession of indigenous people and the impact of this is still being redressed throughout parts of the world today. - Wars among empires influenced colonial claims. In the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), known in North America as the French and Indian War, the British won control of Canada from France. However, the strain of paying for the war led to conflicts between Britain and its colonies, soon resulting in the American Revolution. U.S. independence then inspired similar movements in other colonies. By 1833, most of Latin America was free from European rule, and nationalism was spreading through the region. ## Later Colonialism - During the 19th century, the influence of Spanish and Portuguese empires declined, which allowed other European countries to launch a second wave of colonization. The competition to claim resources (to feed factories) and new markets (to sell goods) resulted in Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, and Germany seizing control of lands in Africa and Asia. - In 1884 and 1885, representatives from the major empires of Europe met in the German capital of Berlin to lay out claims made on the continent of Africa. The Berlin Conference (see Topic 4.5), sometimes known as the Congo Conference, used these claims to form state boundaries in Africa. These boundaries showed little regard to the existing ethno-linguistic, cultural, and political boundaries. As a result, one colony might include a patchwork of rival cultural groups, and another cultural group might be divided among multiple colonies. - The modern country of Nigeria has several major languages and more than 500 individual languages are spoken within its borders. Hausa is widely spoken in the Muslim-dominated regions of the north, while Igbo and Yoruba are regionally spoken farther south where Christianity mixes with traditional religions. As a former British colony, Nigeria’s official language is English, which acts a centripetal force for such a diverse population. # Geopolitical Forces Influencing Today’s Map - While the European colonies in Africa and Asia did not last long, their legacy was strong. It can be seen in contemporary maps and the links among countries. ## Modern Colonial Independence Movements - Colonists, inspired by nationalism, resisted the rule of Europeans, sometimes with violence. People in these European colonies wanted several types of influence: - Economic control over natural resources such as petroleum and precious metals. - Political power through free elections. - Social changes such as racial equality and religious freedom. - However, subject people in colonies wanted self-determination, the right to choose their own sovereign government without external influence. With the support of the United Nations, created in 1945, they were slowly successful. Within a century of the Berlin Conference, all European colonial territories had won independence. This process is known as decolonization, the undoing of colonization, in which indigenous people reclaim sovereignty over their territory. - While many former colonies gained political independence, they remained in a state of economic dependence. A new form of colonization, neocolonialism (see Topic 4.3), emerged in which control over developing countries was exerted through indirect means, whether economic, political, or even cultural power. ## Civil Wars in the Developing World - From 1960 through 1970, 32 colonial territories in Africa gained independence. However, since independence was won by colonies rather than by cultural groups, the boundaries imposed by Europe remained in the newly independent states. As a result, cultural boundaries and political boundaries often did not match. Cultural conflicts within countries led to many civil wars. Then, because cultural groups spanned political borders, conflicts in one country often spilled over into other countries. - Among the worst of these wars was in Rwanda in 1994, which led to genocide, organized mass killing, in which people are targeted because of their race, religion, ethnicity, or nationality. Before colonization by Belgium, two rival ethnic groups, the Hutu and Tutsi, had competed for control of territory and resources. In 1961, Rwanda won independence. The Hutu majority won elections to govern the country, but the rivalry with the Tutsi continued. In April 1994, the Rwandan president, a Hutu, died when his plane was shot down. Although no one knew then who was responsible, Hutus exacted revenge by killing Tutsis and moderate Hutus on a vast scale. Within just a few months, more than 800,000 Rwandans were killed and nearly 2 million migrated as refugees to neighboring countries. - This pattern of independence followed by civil wars and regional conflicts is nothing new to the political landscape. Serious problems result when national and ethnic rivals are forced to share political space because of boundaries drawn by outside powers. And in many cases, one ethnicity may be spread over several states, so a conflict in one state quickly escalates into a regional one. Today, many of the geopolitical “hotspots” in Africa and the Middle East are difficult to solve because of borders established long ago. # The Spread of Independence, 1945 to 2015 - The Cold War was a period of diplomatic, political, and military rivalry between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR or Soviet Union), a confederation of 15 republics, including Russia. It started at the end of World War II (1945), continued through the collapse of the Berlin Wall (1989), and ended with the breakup of the Soviet Union (1991). - Although the United States and the Soviet Union did not fight a direct war against each other, they fought several proxy wars—by providing military and financial support to the countries involved in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. For the United States, the largest of these conflicts were in Korea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan. The superpowers wanted to extend their spheres of influence, or the areas over which they had some degree of control. This meant winning allies in other countries and thwarting their rival from doing the same. The American-Soviet contest often influenced the newly independent states emerging out of colonialism. - After World War II, the frontline for the Cold War was Europe, where a tenuous peace divided the continent between East and West. Eastern European countries were liberated from Nazi Germany and later occupied by the Soviet army, became Soviet satellite states, or a state dominated by another politically and economically. Attempts by Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 to break away from Soviet domination were put down with overwhelming force. - Germany’s status was complicated. Its territory and its capital city (Berlin) were split between the democratic and capitalist-friendly West Germany and West Berlin and the Communist Soviet Union-dominated East Germany and East Berlin. In 1961, to prevent people from defecting from the Soviet sphere of influence, the Berlin Wall was constructed by East Germany, physically demarcating and ideologically representing the deep divide between the two worlds. ## The Collapse of Communism - In the late 1980s, new leadership in the Soviet Union began to relax its grip over satellite states in Eastern Europe. Finally, in November 1989, citizens of East and West Germany brought down the wall that had long divided the city of Berlin. Within two years, Germany had reunited and former satellite states of Eastern Europe were holding free elections without Soviet influence. - Some states experienced a relatively peaceful transition, such as Poland with the Solidarity movement led by Lech Walesa. However, others endured more violence. In Romania, a 1989 revolution resulted in the execution of the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife. But change in Europe did not end there. - The Soviet Union began to collapse as well. Under extreme economic duress, and significant social and political division within the Soviet Union, the 15 republics were granted more autonomy and self-rule. This process in which one or more regions are given increased autonomy by the central political unit is known as devolution. ## Newly Independent States - After 1990, the political boundaries were once again altered. The collapse of communism and the Soviet Union resulted in the creation of 15 independent states from former Soviet republics, with Russia as the largest. This series of events significantly altered the modern map of Europe and Asia. - Many former satellite states made a peaceful transition into the post-communist world. For example, in 1993, Czechoslovakia divided into the Czech Republic and the Republic of Slovakia, predominantly along ethnolinguistic lines. This event has been called the “Velvet Divorce,” since the transition was so smooth. - However, the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991 was complicated and violent. Long-standing ethnic tensions erupted. Hundreds of thousands died in clashes between Serbs, Bosnians, and others before a handful of independent countries emerged. Many died because of ethnic cleansing (see Topic 4.8), the forced removal of a minority ethnic group from a territory. Geographically, this region was a shatterbelt (see Topic 4.5), a place that suffers instability because it is located between two very different and contentious regions. ## Changes in the Balance of Power - The collapse of communism and the Soviet Union drastically changed the balance of power in Europe and throughout the world. Some former communist countries of Eastern Europe, as well as some independent states, joined the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)—the