Power to the People?:

Independence Movements

& Revolutions up to 1949

Independence Movements

• Led by mixed identity local elite–Gandhi (India under British)–Ho Chi Minh (Indochina under

French)

• Post World War II Decolonization amidst Cold War Agendas–Africa–SE Asia

Debate Time!• We will judge the

merits/disadvantages of Gandhi and Ho Chi Minh’s leadership:–Key terms: civil disobedience,

violent vs. non-violent resistance, boycott, guerrilla warfare–Terrorists or freedom fighters?

Mohandas Gandhi

Gandhi Returns to India

Satyagraha

Salt March, 1930

1947: Independence & Partition

Nguyen That Thanh

Comintern

Dien Bien Phu & the Geneva Accords, 1954

20th Century Revolutions up to 1949

• Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920• Chinese Revolution, 1911-

1949• Russian Revolution, 1917-

1921

China’s Revolution• 1911: October rebellions leads to

National Assembly• 1912: Pu-Yi abdicates; Republic of China

created• 1913-1916: Yuan Shikai undermines

ROC; dies• 1916-1927: Warlord period• 1927-1937: Nanjing Decade– KMT vs. CCP vs. Warlords–Mao Zedong’s Long March

• 1937-1945: Japanese invasion

Who looks to win in 1946?

KMT• US initially gave KMT

1.5 billion dollars worth of aid between 1945-1948, then gave KMT another 2 billion dollars worth of aid after 1948

• 3 million trained men with American weapons

• Controlled big cities, main railway lines and some of the richest provinces

• Many foreign governments recognized CKS as the true leader

CCP• Communists were only in the

countryside, no air force, no navy, only 1 million men

• No other nation is backing them at this point

• CCP had been quite successful using guerrilla warfare against Japanese, giving them heroic, legendary stories

• Red army soldiers had helped in community projects and on many peasant farms in areas under their control

• 1945-1949: KMT vs. CCP

1949: ROC retreat to Taiwan; PRC established

Porfirio Diaz, 1876 - 1910

Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920: Villa & Zapata

Venustiano Carranza: 1917

Alvaro Obregon: 1920

Jose Orozco Clemente

“Cortes & Malinche”

Diego Rivera, 1930s

Frida Kahlo

Comparing Revolutions• Battling weak regimes– Aging dictator; boy emperor; inept tsar

• Large social group willing to engage in violence– Peasants; working class

• Ideological buildup– Republicanism; Communism

• Civil War– Increased centralization and one-party rule to

quell resistance• Western interference

– $$ to support various non-socialist and/or pro-independence leaders/armies

Comparing Revolutions

• Social change– Undermining landowners

• New cultural forms– Indian heritage of Mexico (pre-West!), the

proletariat and Soviet realism, Mao’s cult

• Negotiating new vs. old identities– Nationalism built on older traditions and/or

Western ideas