By the turn of the twentieth century, elements of Indian nationalism and Chinese revolution existed in embryonic form. In the years to follow, Mahatma Gandhi would emerge as the leader of the Indian Independence Movement and Mao Zedong led the Chinese Communist Party. Both countries were forever changed by the movements led by these two leaders. Although the inherent political and intellectual differences between Gandhi and Mao eliminate any blatantly obvious connections, similarities exist in both of the leaders’ universal goals of enacting economic, political, and social changes within their respected countries. For both China and India, the early twentieth century marked a period of radical changes that were not common to these highly traditional societies.
However, China's revolution differed because the initial democratic establishment led to opposition from the Communist party while the formation of the U.S.S.R faced minimal opposition. In China, the Qing dynasty was ineffective, instead of trying to modernized as early as possible, it squandered what remained of its wealth and in doing so led to heavy losses in influence and power. Similarly, in Russia, The Tsars became ineffective, the decision to enter World War I had brought Russia to its knees socially, politically and economically. The Tsars also faced many scandals that would deface their influence in Russian cities. It was due to these reasons that both China and Russia were seeking to replace the government in power with new ones that would appeal to the population's demands.
Trotsky described war as the ‘locomotive of history’. How far can it be argued that change in Russia in the period 1855-1964 was caused only by involvement in wars? During this period the biggest change that happened was the move from Tsarist autocracy to communist dictatorship as well as the short lived provisional government, which was a form of democracy. Furthermore there were changes to economic policy, which had a great impact on society. The wars that occurred did bring change but were not the only causes of change.
Discuss how democratic Britain became during the period 1830-1918 Britain underwent significant social and political changes from 1850-1918 and these changes resulted in the government and country becoming more democratic. The years before the first world war saw a huge change in Britain. The country became much more modernized and urbanized and this change in Britain put a strain on old aristocratic constitution. It was a time when citizens were becoming increasingly aware of the lack of democracy within the country. This essay plans to analyse and explain the extension of the franchise from 1830 and to asses whether Britain was fully democratic by 1918.
However, by the time of his graduation, Sun believed that whilst the Manchu dynasty still existed, China would remain corrupt and backwards. His experiences abroad shaped his political ideas as at the beginning of the 20th century, the West were advancing and modernising their countries quicker than Sun’s own country of China. He toured Europe and America in hope to raise funds for the “Save China League” and made attempts to start a revolution against the Qing for example, the unsuccessful uprising in Canton, 1895. Sun worked hard travelling around to different countries, gaining more foreign funds and support. Sun Yatsen influenced the Chinese with his Three Principles – Nationalism, Democracy and Socialism and later in 1905; he formed the United League which was a revolutionary
Unfortunately, similar to the Roman Empire, its fall was both unanticipated and catastrophic. With two world wars, the fall of a long dominant region (Europe) and the rise to power of two new superpowers, the world had changed. The empire fell due a fortunate combination of motives: the anti-imperialist ideology of the US, public opinion in Britain, the appearance of Europe as an alternative, the strong rise of nationalism and most importantly economic distress in Britain. Even though they were all interlinked and nationalism received a lot of attention by the media and historians alike, the underlying factor was that of financial crisis. Nationalism was partly responsible for the rapid fall of British Empire.
Anti-Japanese Protests of Spring 2005 and the Correlation between the May 4th Movement Most of China’s modern history can be traced back to epic events that had major impacts on the shaping and distribution of political power. The anti-Japanese protests and riots of 2005 can be directly related to the events of the May 4th Movement. Before we can fully understand how these two key occurrences can correlate between each other, we must grasp the happenings that led to the events and their historical significance. First this essay will dissect the initial progress of the May 4th Movement and how that mounted into an all out protest against the western powers of the world. Then it will flow towards the historical background of the protests against the Japanese in 2005.
1. How did Western imperialism affect China from 1750 to 1850? If we were to look at the interaction between the Chinese and the Westerner nations from 1750 to 1850 we would see a clear shift in power from Asia to Europe due to differences in technology and mindset. It changed China’s position in the world from a leading civilization to a war torn nation. This is clearly observed through imperialism, which was the extension of control over people and territories, by forced submission through military superiority.
Though this proposition is correct, I argue that the decentralization of the Chinese system of governance was an integral reason for its inability to cope with the challenges posed by modern nation-states. This decentralization is characterized by many factors including internal social unrest, lack of strong leadership, corruption, and traditional ideals. The already decentralized, corrupt state was thus easily exploited by modern imperialist powers due to their superior military technology and organization. Eventually, China’s decline and successive defeats led to the fall of the last Chinese empirical dynasty. To begin, it is necessary to have a strong understanding of China’s background as an empire and what led to its decline during this period.
If Russia’s economy was relatively healthy in early 1914, how did it manage to be in such a sad state of affairs by 1917? There are many factors that contributed to this: the decision to go to war, the direction of the Russian war effort between 1914 and 1917, economic and social factors as well as political developments. So how did the Russian Empire manage to collapse so quickly? The answer lies in the changing nature of warfare after 1914, as well as the social and economic strains that a war of that magnitude imposes. This is implying of course that the decision by Nicholas II to go to war against Germany and it’s allies in 1914 was wrong, but this is not the case.