HISTORY NOTES Part 2

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Cold War

The postwar order

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.

WW2 was two wars in parallel.


1. Classic military warfare
2. Social dimension with left wing orientated resistance movement.

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

Fascism is not something that comes suddenly. It rises from social


injustices and incompetence from governments on solving peoples problems.
There can not be democracy without social justice.

UNITED NATIONS - created 1945

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.

----> UN had an imperialist agenda, but no goal to conquer territories.


----> Wanted to implement their values of free trade, capitalism etc.
----> Became an instrument of world supremacy by the 5 great, veto, powers

"the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"

- Roosevelt, "Evils of want and fear"


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Bretton Woods: 1944 - 1970
- An internationally recognized monetary system to avoid the huge ux of currency that
happened in the interwar era.
- Wished to ensure economic multilateralism (no trade barriers)
- Succeeded, when it was in place there were no major economic crises

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

Dollar - gold standard: controlled exchange rates.

- 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

Yalta, February 1945 - Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin


- tried to agree on a critical point where the two armies, from east and west, would meet
- agreed on areas of in uence, e.g. Poland as a Soviet-in uenced area and Greece as British

Potsdam, July/August 1945 - Truman, Churchill/Attlee, Stalin


- established nal division of Germany. Soviet in a rush because of the paci c war
- certi ed what was already there: a global division between two spheres of in uence
- agreed that fascist regimes in Spain and Portugal should be left as they are. Churchill preferred
fascist regimes rather than democracies that could be in uenced by Soviet.

Big social and economic problems to be solved in Europe. Around 40 million displaced refugees.

TOWARDS A BIPOLAR WORLD


Both US and USSR stood for a di erent model of society and they both wished to
impose/convince other countries to adopt their way of seeing things.

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

Telegram by George Kennan, published in Foreign A airs in 1947


- said "the communist ideology of USSR seeks to destroy the US way of life and authority"

First part of cold war (US perspective): containment


- don't need to invade Soviet (impossible...) but contain their expansion
- thought that the own contradictions within the USSR will make the union collapse by itself.
"Communism doesn't work" (kind of ended up being true, but much later than expected)

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

Truman doctrine - The domino theory

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.

Also established the idea of bipolarism between two worlds:


- talks about "a free world" against communism
- the good and the evil

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.

---> European Recovery Program (ERP) 1948-1951

- 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

"Everyone in America have their own car"

Stalin vetoes the participation of Czechoslovakia and Poland


- didn't want eastern Europe dependent on American economic help
- cold war pretty much started with the Marshall plan.
- an economical help with political implications

Central Intelligence Agency - CIA: secret services abroad

1947: National Security act


- reconstruction of intelligence body in US government. Until then, intelligence was not really
developed in any country, not even USSR
- not yet sophisticated, small amount of spies getting to know what the enemy is doing
- Starts growing in WW2, until 1950s: golden age of spionage.

1948: Italy, rst CIA intervention


- creation of Gladio: defense at any price against communism
- reformists, founded Christian Democratic Party

USA had a way to act in other countries to in uence political scenarios.

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.

1947 Peace treaty with Germany

1948 Announcement of a government with its own currency in West Germany


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A messy economical situation - two currencies. One in west Germany and one in Soviet zone

Soviet react by blocking the access to Berlin.


- USA were about to surrender, but instead started an areal bridge to west Berlin
- ew one airplane every minute through all Berlin crisis (5 months)

The Berlin crisis was the movement when it was more likely for a new world war to break.

1948 - Federation of West Germany declared


1949 - Soviet declared East Germany. Ended up being a single party dictatorship.

1949 NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization


- a belief that Soviet would start a military attack in Europe, NATO was an alliance to stop that
- didn't play an important role in the cold war, even though it was supposed to
- rst time NATO intervened in a war was in Yugoslavia in the 1990s

Portugal included, Spain not because of having a fascist dictator

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

Cominform was a way to establish ideological discipline.

After WW2, communist countries became "popular democracies"


- were not single party systems
- were part of national anti-fascist governments. Joined the liberal forces
- wanted key positions, like ministry of interior (police, election, local governments...)

1948 Czechoslovakia - communist coup


- communists won the election, and decided not to share power with other parties
- lead to an escalation where other communist parties did the same in other countries
- occupied strategic positions, then banned other parties

From popular democracy to single party dictatorships

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

1950s - FROM POLITIC TO MILITARY PHASE

Theories of dominoes and communist monolithism


- the idea that "all communists were the same" (not the actual case)
- Chinese revolution con rmed the idea that "communism was spreading". Is Korea next?
- ----->
Only way to avoid Soviet attack is the increase of military capacity

The war was believed to be right around to corner

1952 Nuclear bombs in USSR (USA believed in an immediate attack)


1951-1953 USA military budget from $13.5 billion to $53 billion (four times more)
Both sides supported development of nuclear bombs in other countries

KOREA - confrontation scenario

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

None were democratic, both practiced hard repression against dissidents

North: autocratic regime under Kim Il Sung, identi ed as between God and King
- Bodo League, 60 000 - 200 000 killed

South: a police state


- suppression of Jeju uprising, a communist uprising in the south. 60 000 killed

1950-1953 Korean war : US and UK vs China (and USSR)

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 DOMESTIC COLD WAR

The cold war was not only a geopolitical confrontation, but also an internal, ideological threat.

USA: red panic and McCarthyism


- McCarthy was a senator who led the persecution of communists (and others possible spies)
- Identi ed members of the communist party as "members of the Soviet army inside the US"

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.

Dismissals of public workers ∼ 10 000

Ronald Reagan became famous by denouncing communist actors through the actors union.

Escalation ---> Rosenberg case, June 1953


- Rosenberg couple were scientists, a time of true paranoia
- he passed information to the soviets, she didn't know anything but they were both executed
- awakened public opinion about these practices
- freedom of speech had been constricted

USSR: limitation of freedoms


The repression was much more open. 2.5 million inmates in camps (1950) and many executed.

Zhdanov Doctrine in the cultural world. Attack on cosmopolitanism, no more abstract art - only
allowed in a way that the proletarian will understand.

The cultural front


Both sides were occupied with reinforcing their ideas to the world. Ideological war --> cultural war
- George Orwell was nanced by CIA, writing books criticizing Stalinism (Animal farm, 1984)
- CIA nanced people that had been communists and now were criticizing.
- supported everything that was supposed to stop communist in uence in litterature, lms etc
- USA supported abstract art, USSR were against it

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?

"The Soviet system was not supposed to be ruled by a single guy."

Stalin was replaced by a Troika (collective direction) - Beria, Malenkov, Khrushchev


- represented di erent interests and visions inside of USSR
- Beria head of KGB, Khrushchev had the favor of the army and heavy industry

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.

Hopes for change - beginning of the end of the eastern block

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

1956 Dissolution of the Cominform - the communist movement started breaking

A new, anti-capitalist, anti-Stalinist left emerged


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1956 Polish October - channeled reform
- changed the presidency of the country and declared independence of the USSR
- the communist party started reforms and Soviet agreed
- Gomulka rst secretary of the party

1956 HUNGARIAN REVOLT


- wanted more authority from Soviet Union, and to decide about freedom of speech
- in Poland, Soviet agreed to the change. Not in Hungary.
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October 23 - Revolt
Student uprising put the communist regime in trouble. Started to accuse students for being
fascists etc. Protests spread to factories, started to form soviets.

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.

November 4 - Soviet military intervention


Showed that Hungary was not a free, independent country at all. Soviet smashed the protests.

---> 2500-3000 killed, 200 000 exiled

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

From "peaceful coexistence" to escalation

Peaceful coexistence was a concept popularized by Khrushchev


- interested in changing living standards in Soviet Union
- understood that Soviet had "developed" during Stalinism. Maybe needed a totalitarian phase to
channel those radical changes. But now it was time for something new

--> more freedom of speech, guarantee food consumption, reduced work hours, higher salaries

Outside changes: abandon world revolution and talk about coexistence.


- "Soviet and USA have to abandon the idea of war"
- Khrushchev travelled to the west and western leaders to USSR.

Austria gained independence, but with conditions:


- not aloud to ally with Nato, Soviet or Germany, or restore the Habsburg monarchy.

1961 Berlin wall

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.

- Adenauer had a strategy of strong confrontation with Soviet


- gave him a lot of votes and support among expelled german minorities
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- encouraged east Berliners to go to work in west Berlin, causing economic problems for DDR
D-mark was more valuable than eastern mark, and salaries were higher. Social services and
salaries were funded by the state. When people started working in west Berlin they were payed in
d-mark, which devaluated the currency in east Germany. It led to DDR putting strict controls on
transferring money across the border. Restrictions increased until they build a physical wall to
separate the city.

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.

1959 Cuban revolution


Fidel Castro took power. Decided to turn themselves into communists to get support by USSR.
Cuba was a protectorate, like a colony, from USA. Logic step to ask USSR for help.

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.

Steps towards a relaxation

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

1945 Growing after WW2


1947-1950 Reaches a peak, issues in Germany and Korea
1953-1956 Declining. Stalin dies, Khrushchev talks about peaceful coexistence
1961-1962 Missile crises in Cuba and the Berlin wall. Highest peak of the cold war
1963-1980 Tensions decrease again
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Change of leadership

1963 - Assassination of JFK, but his ideas remained


1964 - Khrushchev replaced, but the decrease of tensions remained

Why? Both sides had to face internal dissension

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

GERMAN FEDERAL REPUBLIC


- discomfort with the situation of being a "nuclear protectorate"
- was the rst line in the cold war and a lot of nuclear equipment was installed
- clear example of a not fully independent country, constitution was conducted by the allies
- a federal republic because the allies understood it was more likely for a federation to avoid the
concentration of power to a single person
- a green paci st movement arise in the 70s, against nuclear escalation. Still strong today

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.

Albania - had their di erences with Soviet so chose to be Maoists.

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.

1968 Prague Spring - Alexander Dubcek


- wanted to reform communism
- greater freedoms, federation, multi-party

"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

USA: Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, H.W Bush

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.

USSR: Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko, Gorbachev

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.

Vietnam war results


- reduce the dangers of nuclear war
- reduce areas of direct con ict
- create links that will provide incentive for moderation
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- reduce con icts in peripheral areas

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

- normalizing diplomatic relationships in Germany. "The split is due to international politics"


- both countries recognized each other in 1972. Willy Brandt

Similar: Taiwan recognizes China, but not the other way.

Nixon recognized the People's Republic of China at the UN --> Ping pong diplomacy

The world is recognizing their borders. Normalization of the relationship


between the two worlds that were so di erent to each other.

Discussing human rights violations by both sides in the Helsinki conference

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"

Arms race (again) - during Reagan administration


1977 Clean bomb (neutron bomb, an enhanced radiation weapon)
1983 Strategic Defense Initiative - "Star Wars". Able Archer training.

COLLAPSE OF THE USSR

1985 Gorbachev elected


- transform in order to maintain the Soviet Union. Change into something viable

Perestroika (reconstruction) - new ideologies, changes in economic and political structures


Glasnost (transparency) - more freedom of information

Impose reforms in eastern Europe: withdrawal of troops and economic help


---> many systems start to struggle economically s

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

The symbol of communism collapsing in Europe

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)

Fall of Honecker --> beginning of a process of political openness

Confused government announcement about the border opening made a casual thing to the fall.

October 3, 1990: German reuni cation


- rather an annexation by the Federal republic of the Democratic republic.
- no one really wanted to uni cation, it was not a necessary end of the story. But it happened.

Fall of eastern regimes


- Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Romania (violent)

---> Yeltsin is elected president of Russian Soviet Republic (May 1990)

10th of July 1991: Russian nation declares independence from Soviet Union
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Chinese civil war 1927-1949
- still lasts until today

From a powerful empire to a defeated nation


- largest nation in the world, ruling over most of the asian continent
- China considered themselves centre of civilization during the 19th century

Reasons that created the notion of the defeated China:

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

---> Boxer rebellion: anti-foreign, anti-Christian, anti-imperialist. To confront western imperialism.

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

Manchu origin of - King Manchu from Manchuria


the Qing dynasty: - Chinese nationalists blamed the Manchus for the failure

----> Led to power vacuum, revolutionary cycles and civil wars

1912-1927 Republic of China, before the war

1911 Xinhai Revolution "Double 10 revolution"

- 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

--> Dictatorship of general Yuan Shikai


- the military was the real power in China, became a dictatorship
A failed state with many issues, mainly a fragmentation of power:
- not a uni ed China, territories were controlled by warlords
- similar to a feudal system
If you don't have control of the territory, you can forget about politics and new changes

4 May 1919: rst organized (student) demonstration against imperialistic Japan

--> May 4th movement: spurred Chinese nationalism and political mobilization
Educated "new youth" engaging in a anti-traditional New Culture Movement
Main actors

Communist Party of China (1921)


- founded by university students: Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu
- root of the party was set during the May 4th movement. Made way for Chinese intellectuals
- began teaching Marxism in Universities
- rstly made up of a real minority, but USSR tried to help them and make the party popular
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Kuomintang (1919)
- nationalist party founded by the previous president Sun Yat-sen. Returned from exile in Japan
- labeled illegal by the dictator
- goal was to reunite China and defeat the warlords that fragmented the country
- nationalist and anti-imperialist. Considered USSR the main anti-imperalist country in the world
USSR supported both parties, wanted an allied power in China to protect Soviet territories and
stop in uence from Japan.

1927-1949 CHINESE CIVIL WAR

Sun Yat-sen died and Chiang Kai-shek took over the leadership of Kuomintang

1926-1928 Northern expedition

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

---> Nanchang uprising


- by communist party and left wing Kuomintang, against right wing Kuomintang
First weaponized battle between the communist party and Kuomintang
- founding of the People's Liberation Army (communist)
- occupied Nanchang, but were then forced to retreat to the countryside and the mountains of
Jianggang, in western Jianxi

Era of Chang Kai-shek


- continuation of the war lords
- recovery of pre-Qing imperial elements
- modernization through Sino-American relationships. Wanting to electrify the country
- fascist tendencies
- established puppet state: Manchukuo - 5 year old emperor
Communists reorganized in the mountains
- two new leaders: Chu The and Mao Zedong
- new strategy: People's war
- wanted to maintain the support of the population, a peasant base. Guerrilla warfare
Chang Kai-shek seized the mountains of Jiangxi (with help of Germany)
1934-1935 The long march
- 100 000 people escaping
- walked 6000 km under the attack by Chang Kai-shek
- became a symbol in the communist party and attracted peasants
- strengthened Mao's position as leader

1937-1945 Second Sino-Japanese war


- united front against Japan
- Chang Kai-shek stopped the war with Japan and continued ghting the communists. Trusted
help from USA. His wife was friend of Truman's ancé

Agrarian reform: majority of communist army and 90% of Chinese population was peasants

Chang Kai-shek aligned with Japan to prevent communist take over.

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.

1946-1949 Wars break out again


- rst phase of Kuomintang victories
- second phase of communist victories
1st October 1949: Proclamation of the People's Republic of China

- 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:

200 000 Communists


1 000 000 Kuomintang
4 000 000 civilians

---> The situation caused by the civil war still continues today. China threaten to invade Taiwan
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Zionism
Marx: "The Jewish question"

Two currents of thoughts inside the community:

Haredim: Religious people isolating themselves from society


Assimilation: Followed by most jewish people, especially the richer. Dreitagenjuden

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"

---> Birth of Zionism

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"

Abraham Isaac Kook


- very religious rabbi from Lithuania
- "nations are like bodies, with a body and a soul"
- believed the body and soul must be united, therefore the Jewish people must go back to Israel

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

Hebrew considered o cial language to please everyone.


After the holocaust, the Sefardi increased in percentage of population.

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

Practical zionism was a minority. Founding a state and a new society.


- socialism and equality, Kibbutz.
- focus on agriculture, back to the time of David and Salomon = legitimacy to the land
- young generation shaping the zionist movement

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.

--> the Jewish community joined the allies

Britain tried to feed into the diversities, gave three contradictory promises:

1917 Balfour declaration - promised a national jewish home in Palestine


McMahan and Hussein - promised a great arab state, if they helped ght the Ottomans
Sykes-Picot agreement - divided the Middle East between Britain and France

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

1939 White paper (last and best known)

"Only 5000 jews will be allowed per year next ve years. After 1944 no more"

Palestinian nationalism created a Palestinian identity di erent from neighboring countries.

Di erences within the community

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

After WW2 - situations that helped the jews

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

- 700 000 Palestines had to escape


- ethnic cleansing that was denied by zionists later

After the war, only 10% arab population within Israel. The Israel of today was established with big,
jewish majority.

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