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