Cold War and Post World War II Political and Economic Issues

1
Cold War and Post World War II Political and
Economic Issues
2
What was the experience of Africans in British
colonies during their struggle for independence?

• The experience of British African colonies
  differed, depending on the value Britain placed
  on those colonies.
• Colonies that had little economic value won their
  independence shortly after World War II, enduring
  little bloodshed or warfare in the process.
• One example is the Gold Coast, renamed Ghana
  after independence.
• Ghana won independence in 1947 under the
  leadership of Kwame Nkrumah.
• Britain fought harder to retain Kenya, which had
  many wealthy European-owned plantations.
• British battles against Kenyan freedom fighters
  lasted until independence in 1964.
• In Rhodesia, after long struggle, majority rule
  prevailed.
• Rhodesia was renamed Zimbabwe when Africans
  ultimately prevailed.
• In South Africa, like Rhodesia, the white
  minority fought to retain political and economic
  power at the expense of the non-white African
  majority.
• The concept of apartheid, a policy of racial
  separation, was opposed by the African National
  Congress and Nelson Mandela in particular.

3
African colonies shared many internal problems in
their struggles for independence. What were some
of those internal problems?

• Decolonization and nation building in Africa
  varied greatly from nation to nation.
• Although no single African model was evident
  throughout the continent, there were some issues
  that colonies shared as they moved toward
  independence.
• For instance, geographic boundaries, established
  by European powers, were often not recognized by
  Africans.
• Realignment of those borders was a problem for
  African nationalists.
• The shortage of educated Africans often made
  self-rule a difficult objective.
• New nations also lacked an adequate
  infrastructure for internal transportation and
  communication.
• Dependence on medical, sanitary, and public
  health systems established by Europeans also
  created problems.
• Emerging nations suffered a shortage of financial
  backing for investment in education,
  industrialization, and agricultural
  expansionparticularly in those countries that
  fought wars of liberation

4
What two broad global contexts explain the onset
of the Vietnam conflict? What were the long-term
repercussions of United States involvement in
Vietnam?

• Vietnam conflict within the following two broad
  contexts.
• First, the independence movement in Vietnam was
  similar to other anti-colonialism and
  independence movements around the world in the
  decade after World War II.
• Second, United States intervention in Vietnam
  clearly illustrates the bipolarity of the Cold
  War.
• The US began a pattern of involvement in this
  region as soon as the Eisenhower administrations
  decided not to support the French colonial
  administration in 1954.
• The French were driven out of Vietnam by a
  nationalist movement seeking Vietnamese
  independence.
• Later, however, President Kennedy supported the
  corrupt and unpopular South Vietnamese government
  as a bulwark against the expansion of communism
  from the North.
• The Gulf of Tonkin incident provided the excuse
  necessary to deploy many thousands of additional
  U.S. troops, and the war escalated throughout the
  1960s.
• The 1973 treaty ending the fighting between the
  United States and Vietnam was prompted by a
  powerful antiwar movement in the United States.
• The antiwar movement, economic problems created
  by the war, and the unpopularity of the conflict
  itself ensured that the United States would not
  engage directly in other Cold War conflicts.
• Future interventions involved military support
  rather than the use of U.S. troops.

5
What are the economic and political struggles
between Third World nations in Latin America and
the United States?

• In Guatemala, reformers focused on agrarian
  reform and nationalization of large land
  holdings.
• The United Fruit Company was a large United
  States corporation which not only controlled the
  export of various crops, but also owned large
  tracts of lands.
• In response to nationalization, the CIA on the
  pretext of protecting Guatemala from communism
  sponsored a military coup.
• The attempts by Cuba to win economic freedom were
  similar to the situation in Guatemala.
• American domination of the Cuban economy was
  overwhelming.
• Batista was corrupt and under the control of
  foreign influences.
• Fidel Castro, a charismatic lawyer, led a
  revolution to overthrow Batista.
• Castro gave speeches in the United States and was
  warmly received.
• Upon his return to Cuba, he nationalized private
  property and the property of United States
  citizens.
• He turned toward the Soviet Union and adopted
  Communism more out of necessity than design.
• The United States responded with a blockade,
  eventually forcing the hand of the Cubans but
  also setting up trade restrictions that remain
  today.

6
Describe the origins and the functions of the
United Nations. Use the internet and newspaper to
find current articles about the United Nations
and explain the issues currently be addressed in
the United Nations. Has the United Nations been
an effective peace keeping institution?

• The structure of the United Nations with its
  General Assembly and Security Council provides
  checks and balances for decision making.
• The General Assembly includes all member nations
  (about 190)
• The Security Council is a rotating body that
  include 5 permanent nations.
• The 5 nations hold votes on issues and any one
  veto sinks the measure.
• The intent is to provide a forum for discussion
  and is an attempt to balance military power with
  political power.
• The function of the United Nations is to address
  international problems and provide a forum to
  avoid war.
• Although throughout the Cold War era the United
  Nations did not effectively often stop or prevent
  war, it did send peacekeeping forces to quell
  conflicts

7
How was World War III avoided in the post World
War II period?

• The dangers and fears of the world in the post
  World War II era remain.
• Nationalism, militarism, a system of alliances
  and some imperialism is still present in the
  world areana.
• The generations of people who lived through both
  World Wars were determined to avoid a third world
  war, yet, also were determined to maintain a new
  balance of power as dictated by the Cold War
  atmosphere.
• The superpowers avoided direct military
  confrontation and the dangers of World War III
  by fighting proxy wars.
• Fighting through third parties avoided escalation
  to other countries.
• Also the fear of a global nuclear war contributed
  to a tense atmosphere.
• The creation of the United Nations is an example
  of the attempts to prevent another world war as
  well.
• For example, preventing China from becoming a
  direct participant in the Korean War and Vietnam
  War as well as the Cuban Missile Crisis where war
  was narrowly averted.

8
What were the causes of the Cold War and how do
know when it began?

• The Cold War had its origins during World War II.
  
• Fears of socialism and communism, together with
  the military might of the Soviet Union at the end
  of the war, created tension and distrust among
  Western nations.
• The Soviet Union felt that it was denied credit
  for having borne the brunt of the fighting
  against Nazi Germany, in which 20 million of its
  people lost their lives.
• Tensions and resentments built during the postwar
  disorder, seeming to confirm each sides worst
  fears.
• Postwar events, such as the Wests concern with
  the emergence of communist regimes in Eastern
  Europe, the blockade of Berlin, the formation of
  the Warsaw Pact, the brutal repression of the
  Hungarian revolt, the Cuban missile crisis,
  Soviet spying, and Soviet possession of atomic
  weapons are battles and strategies of the cold
  war.
• The Soviet Union reacted against what it viewed
  as attempts to undermine Soviet hegemony, such as
  the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, the
  creation of NATO, Western meddling in communist
  Yugoslavia, and Western assaults against
  communist North Korea.

9
How (in what way) did decolonization and nation
building in South and Southeast Asia occur?

• Japanese demonstrations of European weaknesses
  during World War II played an important role in
  Southeast Asian nation building.
• Many nations won their independence in the years
  immediately following the war as the Japanese
  disrupted the colonial administration and their
  exit from the region left a vaccum.
• For example, British India became independent in
  1947. Mainly because of regional and religious
  differences, the Indian colony achieved
  independence as two separate nationsIndia and
  Pakistan.
• Bangladesh split from Pakistan in 1974, revealing
  further divisions.
• The British colonies of Burma and the Malay
  Federation became independent in 1948, followed
  by Singapore in 1950.
• In Indonesia, Sukarno fought Dutch attempts to
  reassert control after World War II, and
  Indonesia became independent in 1949.
• France also struggled in vain to keep its colony
  of French Indochina. Opposition to the French was
  led by Ho Chi Minh, who controlled the Communist
  Party in Vietnam.
• French attempts to retain the colony ended in
  failure at Dienbienphu in 1954, eventually
  drawing the United States into the conflict.

10
Describe the political situation in the Middle
East after World War II, with particular emphasis
on the regions production of oil.

• The Arab struggle with Israel is the foundation
  for many decisions and activities in the Middle
  East.
• Originally encouraged by the Balfour Declaration
  decades before, Jewish settlement in Palestine
  increased tremendously after World War II and the
  Holocaust.
• Both Israel and the Arab states participated in
  the independence movements that swept the world
  after World War II.
• Nations that had been nominally independent but
  were actually under British, French, or American
  control became autonomous in those years as well.
  
• Many of those new nations rallied around the
  Palestinian people displaced by Israel, which
  became independent in 1948.
• Still, the Arab-Israeli conflict would have
  remained a regional issue if it had not been for
  the presence of oil.
• The regions huge oil reserves were not
  effectively exploited until after World War II,
  which also coincided with huge new demands for
  petroleum.
• Later, oil-producing nations won greater control
  and profits from Western oil companies by
  threatening to nationalize the oil fields.
• In 1960, they created OPEC as a political and
  economic instrument to further their interests.
• The continuing conflicts between the Arabs and
  Israelis complicated these matters enormously.
• After the oil crisis in 1974, prices spiraled
  upward, bringing great wealth and power to
  oil-producing nations.

11
How did the Cold War affect China and Japan?

• Both nations took advantage of the struggle
  between the United States and the Soviet Union.
• In doing so, both Japan and China placed
  themselves in a position to become major forces
  in the postCold War world.
• apan expanded economically, in part because of
  the very small military budget imposed on them by
  the Allies after World War II.
• Protected by the United States as an important
  Asian ally, Japan poured its resources into
  economic recovery and expansion during the Cold
  War years.
• China, on the other hand, was directly involved
  in the Cold War, particularly in light of the
  Korean and Vietnam conflicts.
• Although both were communist nations, China and
  the Soviet Union remained separate politically,
  and tensions between them often ran high.
• The Great Leap Forward in 1958 and the Cultural
  Revolution in 1966 attempted to drive Chinese
  industry and society forward but instead created
  deep conflicts and hardship.
• While the repression of the Cultural Revolution
  lasted until Mao Zedongs death in 1976, China
  was slowly becoming a more modern world power.
• The gulf between the USSR and China became so
  wide that China was welcomed in world affairs,
  joining the United Nations in 1971.
• Although repression continues in China, the Cold
  War was responsible for modernization and the
  recreation of China as a world power.