vacation+work

Joan Katulege 1. In depth · Peasants were the main reason behind the revolutions that took place in the 20th century due to the population growth and the combined resentment they felt toward big landowners. · Peasants were also angered by the increase in taxes that made their lives difficult. · Revolutions were also fueled by the spread of the industrial revolution due to the loss of jobs that took place during this time and the indecent jobs that educated scholars in colonial countries received. · The world wars also fueled wars and were an opportunity for leftist revolutions and fascist pretenders to flourish and reign. · Existing regimes received a bit of competition when communist leaders such as Karl Mark who were very committed to change the existing social order, influenced the working class and peasantry class by setting new visions of a better life in their minds. · The need to reduce western influence was another factor that fueled the revolutions that took place in the 20th century. Questions: The internal forces that weakened the governments of Mexico and China were the visions of the good life in peasant communes or workers’ utopias were a powerful driving force for revolutionary currents throughout the century and the external forces included was the need to come to terms with western influence and often reassert greater national autonomy. The peasants and the working class were the key social groups behind the revolutions in Mexico, China, and Russia and they were important because they set a new standard for the governments that were governing them and also changed their lives, for some that was for the better and others it was for the worst. There were all controlled by the people in the working class, those are the people that forced the change and tried to make better lives for themselves. 2. Outline notes on Russia. M.I In March 1917, a revolution in Russia began and led to the **//__Soviets__//** taking over the city government which ended the imperial rule. · Russian revolutionary leaders like **//__Alexander Kerensky__//** were eager to see genuine parliamentary rule that had religious freedoms and a host of political and legal changes. However, Russia was not a very deeply liberal country. · Due to the pressures of participation in the First World War and the weak economy, liberal leader in Russia held off social reforms which led to the another revolution that put the radical **//__Bolshevik__//** wing of the Social Democratic party and their dynamic chief **//__Lenin__//** in power. · Lenin quickly gained influence within the urban workers’ councils in the major cities by voicing his thoughts on how “revolutions should come not from literal mass action but from tightly organized cells whose leaders espoused a coherent plan of action.” · Once Lenin and the Bolshevik had gotten rid of the liberals in Russia, they signed a humiliating treaty with German which was nullified when the allies defeated Germany, however during the Versailles peace conference, Russia was treated unworthy and was converted into new nation-states and all this later helped motivate the renewed expansionism. · Since Lenin and Bolshevik were not the only popular revolutionary power there was a November seize of power in 1917 that led to soviets from the nation creating the Council of People’s Commissars that were led by Lenin. When the Social Revolutionary party had produced a clear majority of the elections, Lenin shut down the parliament and filled them with a Bolshevik dominated Congress of Soviets that isolated Russia from western culture and which lasted up to 1989. · Russia’s revolution received a lot of backlash from internal and external forces. Internal forces included the domestic resistance that took place while the external forces included the world powers at the time (Britain, France, Japan, and the United States) who tried to intervene but quickly pulled back due to the weakness leftover by WWI. · An internal civil war arose due to the unhappiness the peasants and working class felt due to the weak economy and the loss of land and incentive that the new regime had taken over and distributed to other peasants who in return threatened the new regime’s most obvious social base as well as its ideological mainstay. M.I: The stabilization of Russia’s communist regime occurred on several key foundations. · A new powerful army under the leadership of Leon Trotsky that was able to recruit able generals and masses of loyal conscripts who were now able to rise to great heights instead of being doomed to immobility under the old governing system. · Food production began to recover when Lenin issued the temporary New Economic Policy that promised considerable freedom of action for small business owners and peasant landowners. · A constitution was set up with a federal system of socialist republics and a new capital was established in Moscow. Since the Russians and the Jews received no separate republics and were governed firmly by the national Communist party the direct nationalist protests declined notably from the 1920’s to the 1980’s. · Even though there was no competition with in elections there was a trappings of a parliament that was elected through universal suffrage. The central bureaucracy monopolized the power and the ability to control decisions from the center but it elaborated over time by speaking glowingly of human rights in the 1930’s and reestablishing an authoritarian system that was more efficient than its tsarist predecessor that had updated versions of political police to ensure loyalty. M.I: Even though they still wanted to stay organized and keep western influence out, the Communist party was interested in subsidiary organizations for the youth, and women who actively debated problems they faced in their environments. · Education became very promoted by the government who were trying to reshape popular culture away from older peasant traditions and religion and toward the Communist political analysis and science which encouraged controversy. · After Lenin’s death in 1924, there was a struggle of power between upcoming leaders but after a few years **//__Joseph Stalin__//** emerged as the undisputed leader of the Soviet state and he now had the power to control other branches of government. · Stalin’s accession to power enabled him to install his idea of communism which was the nationalist version which in many ways represented the anti- Western strain in Russian tradition, though in a new guise. Rival leaders were killed or expelled, and rival visions of the revolution were downplayed which showed that his accession to power was also a personal issue. He was very quick to accelerate industrial development while attacking peasant land ownership with a new **//__collectivization__//** program. · Building on widespread if diverse popular discontent and a strong belief in centralized leadership, the Bolsheviks were able to change the political system from that of the cruel tsars and taking the aristocratic class out of center stage where they had been for a long time there fore making the Russian Revolution one of the most successful rising in human history. M.I: Even though the Soviet Union had buffered from the Depression by its separate economy, Soviet leaders made much of the nation’s ongoing industrial growth but in the 1930’s, Stalin used methods that echoed authoritarian responses in other societies. · Stalin strived to modernize the Soviet Union but he wanted the state to be in full control of it instead of private individuals or private business, which put a twist on things when he was willing to borrow Western techniques and advice by importing a small number of foreign engineers. M.I: Stalin’s idea of collectivization agriculture sounded ideal due to the equipment that was to be used but it also required that resources be taken from peasants, through taxation in order to provide capital for industry. · Collectivization agriculture was resented by the kulaks and by peasants who didn’t like the rigid environment that they were supposed to work in which in turn made the whole program not as successful but there was an increase in agriculture production which remained a weakness in the Soviet economy, which demanded a higher percentage than there was of the labor force. · The late 1920’s and early 1930’s the cities received a massive flow of unskilled workers as the industrialization kicked into high gear. · Stalin’s approach to handling the industry of agriculture was deemed a success due to the system **//__five year plans.__//** The government became independent from the western- dominated world banking and trading patterns with the construction of massive factories in metallurgy, mining, and electric power. · Maintaining their own industrial system allowed the soviets to stay ahead and become the world’s third industrial power when the west was going through the Depression. M.I: Like the west, the Soviet Union was able to offer the industrial society a modest standard of living when the cities got overcrowded by workers, and has a host of collective activities compensated to some degree. · The Soviet Union under Stalin used force and authority but it also recognized that it needed the work force and so responded to problems that they had while informally consulting laborers as well. M.I: A number of scientists and other people were ruined by government persecution due to **//__Socialist realism__//** that was encouraged in Soviet Union and shut down every other belief that contradicted Marxism or was deemed dangerous. · An atmosphere of terror spread through out the Soviet Union when innocent people started confessing to innocent crimes and being put to death when Stalin used the part and state apparatus to monopolize power. · Even though the top army officials weakened the nation’s ability to defend themselves from foreigners it helped them develop diplomatic relations with other countries as well. · The rising threat from Germany forced Russia to look for incentives in other countries such as France and Britain but both seemed very suspicious of Russia as they were of Germany and so as a last minute effort to avoid war, the Soviets signed a historic pact with Germany. M.I: The Soviet Union earned the title as a super power due to their industrialization and continued concentration on heavy industry and weapons development during the two front war. · The Soviet Union became a world power when it started producing atomic and then hydrogen bombs, having a military and economic presence in the Middle East, Africa and even parts of Latin America. It was able to find an ally in China, Cuba, Vietnam, and it established a protectorate over the communist regime of North Korea. M.I: As a world power, the Soviets pushed their empire further west which helped launch the cold war. · The small nations of Europe fell under Nazi control for four years before Russia was able to push it back and gain more communist ground in other countries with the exception of Greece, Albania, and Yugoslavia. · New Soviet sponsored regimes attacked possible rivals for power. The collectivization of agriculture ended the large estate system without creating a property-owning peasantry. · With the formation of NATO in western Europe, the Soviet stationed troops in most eastern European states after the Warsaw Pact to confront the Western alliance and to ensure the continuation of the new regimes and their loyalty to the common cause but when rising began to happen in eastern Europe, the Berlin wall was built to keep the people locked in. · In 1956, the relaxation of Stalinism within the Soviet Union created new hopes that controls might be loosened which did occur in eastern Europe overall in economic and culturally factors but the soviets still controlled the diplomatic and military alignment which remained essential. · Upheavals arose while Eastern Europe continued being vastly transformed by several decades of communist rule but they retained their cultures but shared the same experience of the abolition of the dominant aristocracy and the introduction of collectivization agriculture which was growing. · The expansion of Soviet influence answered important Soviet foreign policy goals both traditional and new. M.I: For fear of another war breaking out with the United States, they blasted and showed the U.S as an evil power with a distorted society which shielded Soviet populations from extensive contact with foreigners or any uncensored glimpse of the outside world kept in the Soviet Union until the mid-20th century. · The threat from the United States, encouraged people to remain with the same strong government that they already had which worked n the favor of the Soviets. · Soviet populations started taking their own direction in the national economy along with the steady extension of education, welfare, and police operations that expanded both the government and the parallel Communist party. · In these states there was a lot of opportunity for people to shine due to the emphasis that was placed on those talented to be given an opportunity to rise from below and the cheapness of certain things that would have been expensive. M.I: 3. Outline notes on China M.I: The abdication of Puyi, the Manchi boy-emperor in 1912, ended the long Manchi regime and left China in such of a new leader. · Likely leaders such as warlords and military commander dominated politics for the next three decades after the absence of an emperor but only did it by the alliances to protect their own territories and to crush neighbors and annex their lands and seek an educated middle- class politician. · There was some tension with the intellectuals and the students with those in search of power, they were supportive and wary during different times. They were very defenseless in a situation in which force was essential to those who hoped to exert political influence. · Some people wanted to restore China to a monarchial rule but they wanted it to be under China, not some foreigner dynasty. There efforts to revive China were slowed due to the west’s intervention that was eager to profit from China’s divisions and weakness. M.I: Sun Yat-sen started a revolutionary and self proclaimed his self as the rightful heir to the throne but he wasn’t able to stop warlord opposition and had no support from the outside to back him up. · When Sun Yat-sen resigned as president, he was successes by Yan Shikai in 1912 who only wanted a strong military and who focused all his energy into it and using it to assassinate those who opposed him, but he was forced to resign his presidency after the twenty one demands were given by Japan and there was a widespread of Japanese hostility that took over. · Japanese hostility led to mass demonstrations that took place due to the Japanese changing from the Allied powers to the Entente powers. Students and intellectuals began the **//__May Fourth movement__//** that was aimed at transforming China in a more liberal state and those part of it ridiculed the Confucian ideas and a new hope of a new era where western ideologies were fully taken to the heart. · Even though they had wanted Western ideas to rule, the people of China realized that radical solutions were needed to revive China and so intellectuals focused on the works of Marx and other socialist leaders in search of a solution. This gave rise to the communist left within the Chinese nationalist movement. · Thinkers such as **//__Li Dazhao__//** fully supported the communist nationalism and decided that China’s society was proletarian and was the fault of the west because they had exploited the Chinese and they needed to rise up and unite against their exploiters. · Young student like **//__Mao Zedong__//** joined Li’s circle because they were angered by what they believed was a betrayal by the western powers and longed for the return of Confucian ideas. · In the summer of 1921, the communist party was born but it was more as a reform program than an alternative to fill the ideological and institutional void left by the collapse of the Confucian order. M.I: After his temporary exile in Japan, Sun and his followers attempted to unify the diverse political organizations struggling for political influence in China by reorganizing the Nationalist party of China. · The Nationalist party sort for alliances in organizations that would help eliminate warlord menace and they believed that Nationalism had something to offer to everyone. They decided to cooperate with the communist party as a war to gain the support of the peasants and the working class. · When the Whampoa Military Academy was founded in 1924 by the Soviets, a young military officer named **//__Chiang Kai-shek__//** became the first head of the academy. He resented the alliance with the communist party and had managed to be one of Sun Yat-sen’s inner circle advisors. He then began bidding his time to take care of the warlords and the communists who were the obstacles to nationalism flourishing. · Political tensions began to rise when Sun decided to ignore that the people living in rural areas were having serious difficulties and needed help. M.I: Due to his early rebellion days as a child, Mao was ready for a revolution after he put himself through education in Beijing and fell under the influence of Li Dazhao. · After the death of Sun Yat-sen, Chiang seized control of the party and became the leader of the warlord hierarchy or the new president of China to the outside world. · After Chiang started attacking communists and beheading them and widespread massacres happening Mao Zedong led the **//__long march__//** with 90,000 followers who relocated to the peasant communes in Shanxi. · Chiang had to form another alliance with the communists once the Japan started attacking which gave the communists the advantage they needed. M.I: Due to his obsession with the communists, Chiang focused on the communists more than the Japanese that were invading China. · The Japanese proved to be an advantage to the communist party because they captured much of the Chinese coast where the Nationalist people did their business while Chiang was busy trying to undermine his alliance with the communist party. ·