Struggles for Liberation in a Modern World - India and China
“Anarchy under Home Rule is better than orderly foreign rule.“
-Mohandas Gandhi (1909)
After World War II, two conflicting economic systems- capitalism and forms of communism- competed for influence and power around the world. This competition was between the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R., former WWII allies, and their arena was the world. Colonial revolutions and independence movements also occurred after WWII, with Europeans finally allowing a majority of their colonies in Africa and Asia to become autonomous against their former rulers. any newly created countries found independence difficult however, and fresh challenges arose out of this modern liberation movement.
A swelling of nationalism in India created opportunity for political and cultural transitions. By the 1940s the religious divisions between Hindus and Muslims in India had been amended to definitively end imperial domination by the British. Mohandas Gandhi, a western educated Indian lawyer, had been leading peaceful protests for three decades that eventually, combined with British imperial decline, won India her independence in 1947. However, this independence reignited disagreements between Hindu Indians and Muslin Indians, thus newly independent India was partitioned into what today are the countries of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan). Partition aside, the country of India quickly identified as being the largest democracy in the world. Also, India, which was more industrially developed than her neighbor China at the time of the realization of nationalist identity, would evolve into an economic powerhouse in the last quarter of the 20th century.
Up north, hundreds of years of dynastic rule was replaced by the rule of Sun Yat Sen in China in the year 1912 CE. China was beginning her move towards modernity. By the mid 1920’s, Sun’s Kuomintang was succeeded by Jiang Jieshi (formerly Chiang Kai-shek) and the Nationalists. Jiang and the Nationalists were supported by Chinese citizens who looked favorably on the economic system of Capitalism.
Whether it was the Kuomintang or the Nationalists, the new Chinese republic struggled with ruling such a large and underdeveloped nation. Already by 1922, Mao Tse-Tung (Mao Zedong) and the more radical Communists had split from the ruling republic and challenged their power. After years of off-again and on-again civil war, Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communists succeeded in wresting control from Jiang Jieshi and the Nationalists in 1948. Mao’s brand of Marxist Socialism, a one-party Communist rule, led to three decades of radical Chinese modernization and transformation.
Each of these two Asian nations have emerged from the post-colonial era of World History to play powerful roles in global trade, politics and military prowess at the end of the 20th century and into the beginning of the 21st.
Essential Questions
What issues arose for many nations once they gained independence?
How does decolonization create instability?
What legacies of Imperialism remain today?
What role did non-violence play in India’s quest for independence?
What role did collectivism play in the Chinese Communist revolution?
What are human rights? What rights should be guaranteed to all people?
How can one person inspire others and make a difference in the world?
Terms
Mohandas Gandhi,
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Jawaharlal Nehru
Satyagraha/Civil Disobedience/Truth-Force
Muslim League
Indian National Congress
Salt March
Kashmir
Partition
Jewel in the Crown
August 15, 1947, summer of ’47 and mass migration
Mao Zedong
Jiang Jeshi (Chiang Kai-shek)
Communists/Nationalists (Kuomintang)
Qing Dynasty
May 4th movement
Long March,
Japanese Aggression
October 1949
Production battalions/communes
Red Guards
Cultural Revolution
“Anarchy under Home Rule is better than orderly foreign rule.“
-Mohandas Gandhi (1909)
After World War II, two conflicting economic systems- capitalism and forms of communism- competed for influence and power around the world. This competition was between the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R., former WWII allies, and their arena was the world. Colonial revolutions and independence movements also occurred after WWII, with Europeans finally allowing a majority of their colonies in Africa and Asia to become autonomous against their former rulers. any newly created countries found independence difficult however, and fresh challenges arose out of this modern liberation movement.
A swelling of nationalism in India created opportunity for political and cultural transitions. By the 1940s the religious divisions between Hindus and Muslims in India had been amended to definitively end imperial domination by the British. Mohandas Gandhi, a western educated Indian lawyer, had been leading peaceful protests for three decades that eventually, combined with British imperial decline, won India her independence in 1947. However, this independence reignited disagreements between Hindu Indians and Muslin Indians, thus newly independent India was partitioned into what today are the countries of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan). Partition aside, the country of India quickly identified as being the largest democracy in the world. Also, India, which was more industrially developed than her neighbor China at the time of the realization of nationalist identity, would evolve into an economic powerhouse in the last quarter of the 20th century.
Up north, hundreds of years of dynastic rule was replaced by the rule of Sun Yat Sen in China in the year 1912 CE. China was beginning her move towards modernity. By the mid 1920’s, Sun’s Kuomintang was succeeded by Jiang Jieshi (formerly Chiang Kai-shek) and the Nationalists. Jiang and the Nationalists were supported by Chinese citizens who looked favorably on the economic system of Capitalism.
Whether it was the Kuomintang or the Nationalists, the new Chinese republic struggled with ruling such a large and underdeveloped nation. Already by 1922, Mao Tse-Tung (Mao Zedong) and the more radical Communists had split from the ruling republic and challenged their power. After years of off-again and on-again civil war, Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communists succeeded in wresting control from Jiang Jieshi and the Nationalists in 1948. Mao’s brand of Marxist Socialism, a one-party Communist rule, led to three decades of radical Chinese modernization and transformation.
Each of these two Asian nations have emerged from the post-colonial era of World History to play powerful roles in global trade, politics and military prowess at the end of the 20th century and into the beginning of the 21st.
Essential Questions
What issues arose for many nations once they gained independence?
How does decolonization create instability?
What legacies of Imperialism remain today?
What role did non-violence play in India’s quest for independence?
What role did collectivism play in the Chinese Communist revolution?
What are human rights? What rights should be guaranteed to all people?
How can one person inspire others and make a difference in the world?
Terms
Mohandas Gandhi,
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Jawaharlal Nehru
Satyagraha/Civil Disobedience/Truth-Force
Muslim League
Indian National Congress
Salt March
Kashmir
Partition
Jewel in the Crown
August 15, 1947, summer of ’47 and mass migration
Mao Zedong
Jiang Jeshi (Chiang Kai-shek)
Communists/Nationalists (Kuomintang)
Qing Dynasty
May 4th movement
Long March,
Japanese Aggression
October 1949
Production battalions/communes
Red Guards
Cultural Revolution