HISTORY NOTES Part 2
HISTORY NOTES Part 2
HISTORY NOTES Part 2
After WW2, democracies had to be socially advanced democracies. Some of the issues that put
democracies into crisis in 1920-30s, was that they considered political rights, but were really
weak on the social rights part.
Crises of 1930: social reforms were rolled back. Countries had problems nancing them.
Failure with land reforms. After WW2 that was implemented on a previously unthinkable level.
Social constitutionalism: new constitutions that established social and political rights equally.
- was strong in countries were anti-fascist movements were strongest, such as France and Italy
were the communist party was part of both governments.
Welfare states were established: democracy not able to be conceived without social dimensions
and welfare systems
The weak League of Nations couldn't do anything about the German invasion. Lesson for UN.
Letter from the Atlantic (1941) a precedence for the UN. Churchill and Roosevelt agreed on
principles for the post war order
- Recognition of the self-determination “of all peoples”
- Abolition of barriers to free trade
- Liberation of mankind from the evils of want and fear
Previously, recognition of self-determination had been about "white, European people". Colonies
were considered not capable of self governance, UN precedence was a huge step forward.
From 1945, USA were standing for free trade. They were the main economy globally, so no one
could compete with them and free trade was bene cial. Before WW1, UK was the main global
economy and the main advocator for free trade, while USA were protectionists.
Financial bodies formed to avoid monetary disorder: World Bank, International Monetary Fund
- USA ended the war as the great superpower and could impose this measure.
- had a lot of currency available, could use the extra money as an international currency
- acted as an international bank during the war lending money = dollar was already international
Broken by Nixon 1971 when the dollar had to be devaluated. The economy was too big and no
longer convertible to gold.
Political conferences
Big social and economic problems to be solved in Europe. Around 40 million displaced refugees.
Perspective of USA: USA had not much interest in international politics before WW2. Now they
needed the world to be capitalist and adopt free trade measures, so that other countries could
buy from them. A lot of incentives to export American ideology.
Also a true fear of Soviet invasion of western Europe. France, with a major communist party,
adopted communist inspired political systems. Problematic from an American point of view.
Soviet perspective: expanded their area of in uence in eastern Europe. Paranoid after being
invaded twice in 30 years by Germany, built a protection zone for future invasions.
Not very interested in the form of governments of other countries.
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Rollback
Cold war didn't start immediately after WW2, rst a rollback. Soviet demobilized their armies,
reduction of military budget. Only 1/5 of total forces remained.
1946 Churchill coins the idea of the iron curtain in a speech. Created a visual image.
1947 Lippman invents the term cold war
National Security Council agreed on covert operations in Europe, to avoid communist government
- communists part of governments in France, Italy, Yugoslavia and "all eastern Europe"
Collective imaginary
The phrase cold war was established by Walter Lippmann.
- new type of war based on threat, not attack
- going to be very expensive and result in arm escalation
- same costs for growing a military, even if the war will never be fought
We can't tolerate any country to become communist. When one has fallen, the others follow them.
Truman convinced congress to participate in the Greek civil war based on this theory.
Nothing as aggressive had occurred before, not even during war. A new kind of rhetoric.
Similarity: George W Bush used Truman rhetoric when participating in wars because "USA stand
for and ideology that will be better for the countries"
Greek civil war - sometimes national movements took the image of communism
State of Europe
- completely ruined
- occupation zones in Berlin
After WW2, American frontiers had ended up in Europe. What happened in Greece had something
to do with USA.
UN wanted to avoid people falling into extreme poverty, which could lead the way for a new wave
of nationalism and war. ----> humanitarianism
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MARSHALL PLAN
- not only humanitarian help, a plan to reconstruct Europe and make sure the machinery of the
economy runs again
- aim to eliminate possible communist in uence (in western Europe)
- open the receiving markets to US products. USA needed European markets to recover.
- 12.7 billion dollars to pay for imports of US food, raw materials and machinery
- USA government bought from their own country to give to Europe. Highly bene ted USA
- a propagandistic deployment: selling an idea of how life could (should?) look like
BERLIN CRISIS
Di cult to nd a proper solution for peace that all the allies would agree on. They needed to agree
about what Europe would look like.
- France wanted to de-industrialize Germany so they could never start a war again
- Soviet agreed, but UK and USA understood that Germany was the core industry of Europe
- Germany was needed for economical recovery in Europe
Axis countries were occupied by allies with di erent occupation zones --> high tensions about
how to govern the regions. Soviet de-industrialized their part of Germany.
The Berlin crisis was the movement when it was more likely for a new world war to break.
The idea of fascism in the post war era was something outdated, from the past.
Other "western" alliances were also formed in Oceania, South East Asia etc.
Internationals
Communist states also formed alliances. The world revolution was supposed to be led by the
third communist international. Recognized in 1940 it was not in the agenda.
Stalin dissolved the international and reformed the organization of the communist parties
--> COMINFORM
- conferences where communist parties from around the world agreed on ideological issues
- a message to the western world: "we are no longer promoting the world revolution"
- a way for Stalin to make sure all communist parties follows the USSR leadership
Stalin was against this. He wanted them to remain mixed economies, that were allies with USSR
- USA wouldn't identify them as a threat if they remained multi-party (not communistic) systems
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1948 USSR - Yugoslavia split
- Yugoslavia was the only country to liberate itself without Soviet aid.
- Tito was a "little Stalin". Popular, charismatic.
- He forced change and nationalized everything --> Yugoslavia expelled from the cominform
- Yugoslavia received nancial help from USA, even though it was a communist country
- "internal Titoism" arose in other communist countries, and was persecuted
Titoism: eliminating pluralism to become single party systems, and mixed economies
Warsaw pact
- a military pact similar to NATO (Yugoslavia not included)
- founded 6 years later, not an immediate response
38th parallel: Agreement between USA and Soviet to share the country, as with Germany.
Soviet arrived rst, but stopped at the 38th parallel. USA arrived in 1945.Country was occupied.
August 1948 USA decide to create the Republic of Korea, in the south
September 1948 Soviet create the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, in the north
North: autocratic regime under Kim Il Sung, identi ed as between God and King
- Bodo League, 60 000 - 200 000 killed
Started with northern (mutual) provocation. Shootings over the border, several injured every day.
- O cially USSR were not involved (feared third world war) but did in fact help
- US dilemma: avoid confrontation with USSR, but stop possible Chinese expansion
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Appeared events that would reappear in Vietnam, like us of napalm.
---> 4 million casualties, half of them civilian. No peace treaty, even until today.
Lesson for China: saw the importance of the world revolution, would become its main defendant.
Lesson for USA: need to invest more into military to stop communism. Need direct interventions.
Direct involvement in wars by USA led to a public spending in the military, which created a
military-industrial complex. The American government created a moster, and during the last
decades USA have never been in peace. The way of living for military-industrial complex is war.
"maybe tomorrow, the military will force us to intervene in wars, only because they
bene t from war. They make the war as a way of living." - Eisenhower
The cold war was not only a geopolitical confrontation, but also an internal, ideological threat.
Homosexuals persecuted as communists, FBI le with more than 300 000 names. A macho-
perspective: claimed that communists were "weak and vulnerable", therefore easily convinced.
Ronald Reagan became famous by denouncing communist actors through the actors union.
Zhdanov Doctrine in the cultural world. Attack on cosmopolitanism, no more abstract art - only
allowed in a way that the proletarian will understand.
CIA promoted rock and roll in eastern Europe, while USSR promoted ballet
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DESTALINIZATION - not just the idea of one person
Died March 5, 1953 - Stalin's death was in the right time for the ruling class, but who should
occupy all the power?
Agreed that stalinist terror should not be repeated, therefore, changes were made:
- more freedom of opinion and freedom to the press
- prisoners started to be released
- started changing the heavy industry (interest of the military) to light industry (interest of people)
Troika changed several times until Khrushchev nally reached the position of Secretary General.
1953 Plzen, Czechoslovakia - protests about increasing productivity leading to more work hours
1953 East Berlin - workers protesting about salaries, time and rhythm of work
Seen as a sign of change happening, but Soviet intervened and killed a lot of protesters.
"The government seems to have decided to dissolve the people and elect another one"
In many countries, old stalinists were now reformists leading the change of destalinization
Controlled opening
Report by Khrushchev to the Congress (supposed to be secret, but intelligence worked well)
- denunciation of the cult of personality of Stalin. Referred to as arbitrary and cruel. billed the
image of USSR as
- the leader of the communist world
From the start, they wanted to democratize communism and was not against communism. But
the more the Hungarian government pushed, the more anti-communist protests became.
This established a line about what was tolerated and what was not, regarding democratization.
Western inaction: activists demanded USA and NATO to intervene, believed it could start a
movement that would turn down communism in eastern Europe. No intervention by west powers.
- showed that they considered it internal business, they accepted the division of the world.
Imre Nagy - stalinist that became the leader of a new democratic communism
- the revolt resulted in a change of government, Imre Nagy became president
- image of destalinization, formed a plural-party government and established plural-party system
- initially didn't want to take down communism, but ended up rather anti-communistic
- cut a whole in the Hungarian ag = took a way the communist symbol
--> more freedom of speech, guarantee food consumption, reduced work hours, higher salaries
Growing tensions between the blocks. Lots of money and military support from Nato arrived in
west Germany. Publicly, Adenauer (Christian Democrat) wanted to unify Germany, but actually he
wanted to remain separate to play the card of anti-communism and Atlantism. Social democrats
supported the German uni cation, wanted similar agreement as Austria.
The Berlin wall became the symbol of the iron curtain, even though it wasn't built until 1961
Arms race
With the amount of arms that existed in the 1960s they could destroy the life on earth 16 times.
Scenario where it was really really dangerous to start a war. Ballistic missiles with nuclear
warheads, could be launched by rockets.
A lot of global development would have been possible if they abandoned the armed race
Space race
First arti cial satellites and development of space rockets. Was important but not violent, more
like a sports competition. But rockets developed can also be used for atomic attacks.
Soviet was surrounded by countries attached to USA, they wanted to pay back with the same
medicine. USA had installed missiles in Turkey, so Soviet wanted to install missiles in Cuba.
- USA started a blockade of Cuba, to stop Soviet submarines
1962 Cuban missile crisis - Peak of the tension, close to a third world war.
After that, both sides agreed that a change is needed. USA agreed to dismantle missile bases in
Turkey, if Soviet did the same in Cuba. Soviet agreed that the dismantling in Cuba should be
public, USA's dismantling in Turkey should be private. No one should know they had gone back.
July 1963 - Installation of a red telephone with direct contact between the White House and Kreml
International treaties about avoiding nuclear tests and limiting nuclear warheads.
Development of tensions
What happened in Hungary was not an isolated case, similar events would happen often during
this period of time. Soviet had to prioritize internal dissent and were less concerned about USA.
Same situation in USA/western world: civil rights movement, student revolts, workers movements
None of the sides were able to control the situation within their zones of in uence.
Cuban crises showed that anything can happen within your own zone, therefore USA become
concerned about communism in latin America. Talking about the internal enemy, not the external.
FRANCE
- reluctant to NATO and the prominence of USA and UK
- develops own nuclear strike force, don't want to be dependent on USA
- tried to be a third force in the cold war, wanted UK out of the common market
- recognized People's Republic of China (1964) as one of the rst countries
- trip to the USSR, red telephone Kremlin - Elyssée
United Kingdom
- blamed by other European countries to lack an external policy of their own.
- starting to understand the role of UK in the "American century"
- 1960: creating the commonwealth of nations. Old platform of colonies, only sharing the Queen.
China
- Khrushchev's anti-Stalin speech 1953 break the relationship with China
- see themselves as the vanguard of the world revolution
- Sino-soviet schism (late 1950s): idea of a more radical approach to communism. The rise of
Maoism, ended up very di erent...
- other communist countries align themselves with either China or Soviet.
Romania
- Soviet identi ed Romania's role in eastern Europe as the rural country, supplying food to the
rest of the eastern countries.
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- Romanian authorities rejected it, wanted to industrialize the country, which China was doing.
Complex situation with a lot of countries asking for independence.
Poland was a reformist movement but they never jeopardized the central role of the communist
party. Similarly, Romania stayed in the Warsaw pack with a communist system.
"we don't need the same control of the people. They can do what they want
under the logic of the communism regime"
Dubcek believed the dictatorship of 1948 was necessary to transform and industrialize the
country, but now 20 years later it is time to go back to a multi-party system.
Romania and Yugoslavia support the Dubcek reform. Soviet fear the eastern block falling
apart.
Soviet wanted a belt with friendly countries surrounding the country.
August 1968 - Soviet tanks intervene and smash the Prague spring. Other countries join, it
is the rst intervention of the Warsaw pact. Against one of its members...
At this time: western in uence trespass the iron curtain and show another way of life.
Relevant.
Changes in leadership
Nixon lost Vietnam war and resigned because of Watergate. Ford and Carter were democrats
trying to establish a new relationship with Soviet. Reagan comes with a really violent, di erent
style. Was the perpetrator of the collapse of USSR, even though it happened during Bush.
Brezhnev was a hard core communist leading the intervention in Prague. Andropov and
Chernenko as well. They were old people from the old system that eventually died. Gorbachev
was a young face representing a new communism.
'Détente' - distension
After Prague spring it was not violent or confrontational between the two blocks.
1970
Oil crises --> put an end to the constant growth of capitalism since WW2
Treaties of arms control --> dismantled old material, still produced new
Diplomatic distension
Nixon recognized the People's Republic of China at the UN --> Ping pong diplomacy
Rise of Islamism
- new countries and new elements started to emerge (in Iran, Afghanistan etc)
- both sides in the cold war realized they were no longer alone, not a world divided between just
communism and capitalism. Other actors also involved globally
Iranian revolution happened in western hemisphere. Afghan-war by the doors of Soviet Union.
- Soviet feared the spread of islam in their own republic
- Afghanistan became "the Soviet Vietnam"
1986 Chernobyl
- a symptom of the economic state of Soviet, showed how much they needed reforms
- they situation was similar in other areas, like railways, factories etc.
- rst exercise of transparency
- radiation 200 times more intense than Hiroshima
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Cracks in the periphery
- workers uprising in Poland, form unions apart from the soviets
- transition to pluralism in Hungary (1988-1989). New leadership
Each country had "their own Gorbachev" --> a person from within the system willing to reform it.
November 9 1989 - Fall of the Berlin wall
DDR destabilization:
- mass protests and riots months before the fall of the wall
- Soviet had withdrawn the troops. Gorbachev no intention to intervene in Europe (like Brezhnev)
Confused government announcement about the border opening made a casual thing to the fall.
10th of July 1991: Russian nation declares independence from Soviet Union
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Chinese civil war 1927-1949
- still lasts until today
Western imperialism: - Opium wars in the middle of the 19th century, Chinese empire VS Britain
- con icts because of worldwide expansion of capitalism and imperialism
- successfully started planting opium in Bengali to invade Chinese market
Japanese competence: - Japan industrialized and became very powerful in the region
- also had imperialistic ambitions
- First Sino-Japanese war (1894-1895). China gave away Korea etc
---> Showed the self-strengthening movement was a failure. Small Japan could defeat China
- Chinese republican movement, ending the Qing dynasty (2000 years of empires)
- led by Sun Yat-sen "the father of the nation" in Republic of China
1912-1949 Republic of China
--> May 4th movement: spurred Chinese nationalism and political mobilization
Educated "new youth" engaging in a anti-traditional New Culture Movement
Main actors
Sun Yat-sen died and Chiang Kai-shek took over the leadership of Kuomintang
Military campaign led by Kuomintang against Beiyang government and other warlords.
- successful missions and they took over territories in northern China
Kuomintang were proud and broke with the communists
Massacres on communists and left wing Kuomintang
Agrarian reform: majority of communist army and 90% of Chinese population was peasants
After WW2, neither USA or USSR wanted to support due to a risk of war.
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Truman doctrine (helping every country to stop communism) led to a support of Chang Kai-shek
USSR mistrusted the Chinese communists and Stalin was afraid of a strong communist party. Tat
could lead to competence inside the international communist movement. Stayed neutral.
- Kuomintang ed the country, continued Republic of China in Taiwan. Chang Kai-shek dictator
- many were kidnapped by Kuomintang to go to Taiwan
- division of families as in North and South Korea
Deaths:
---> The situation caused by the civil war still continues today. China threaten to invade Taiwan
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Zionism
Marx: "The Jewish question"
Dreyfus case:
- wrongfully condemned for treason for spying for Germans
- symbolic case
"I don't want to be Haredim, but I can't be assimilated. They say I am di erent, so maybe I will"
Theodor Herzl:
- assimilated journalist in Vienna, member of upper class. Covered the Dreyfus case
- wrote "Der Judenstaat" 1896
- the main problem is that Jewish people are foreigners and stateless
- "with the creation of a Jewish state, antisemitism will vanish in the world"
Kook convinced Herzl about Palestine, a place that was of high interest by great powers.
Ashkenazi: European jews, mainly speaking jiddisch. 80% of population beginning of 20th century
Sefardi and Mezrahi: Jewish people living in the arab world. Sefardi speaking Judaeo-
Spanish, Mezrahi speaking arabic
Political zionism: Herzl - talked to great powers to present the case of the jews
Practical zionism: Ben-Gurion - establish it as a grassroots movement. By land, move there
Before WW2 practical movement was already bigger than the political one.
WW1: zionists not sure to ally with Ottoman empire or Allies. Ottomans were kind and sold land to
them. Also, France and Russia had started antisemitism movements.
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Ottoman empire was divided and tolerant for di erences, while states were become more
centralized. Ottomans started becoming fearful of diversity, and became a "Muslim empire"
persecuting jews and christians.
Britain tried to feed into the diversities, gave three contradictory promises:
Could just be one. Worked during the war, became a big problem after. Everyone was cheated.
British interest: to defeat the central empires in the war, and the Ottoman empire was the easiest
goal. Also to get territories to divide for the winners.
Interwar years:
- Arabs bothered with another culture and religion coming in great numbers - an invasion.
- violence between arabs and jews, di cult to stop
- Britain tried to limit jewish establishments, became a three way war
"Only 5000 jews will be allowed per year next ve years. After 1944 no more"
German antisemitism led to more people moving to Palestine, this time old, middle class from
liberal, capitalist backgrounds.
- despised the society the socialists were building
Main consensus that Palestine had to be divided. Socialists agreed, for arabs it was unacceptable
1. Willingness to compromise - seemed more open and the global community sympathized
2. The holocaust - jewish people ned a state to be protected (from europeans...)
3. Vision of a nation-State - clear idea of a state similar to western ideas
1947
- Britain left
- UN plan of partition: 60% of land to jews though only 30% of population
Arab states rejected the plan and went to war, sympathy from neighbors.
Israel has sympathy from Soviet (socialism) and eventually zionists in USA
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1947-1948 War
After the war, only 10% arab population within Israel. The Israel of today was established with big,
jewish majority.