The United States put pressure on the British to avoid creating a communist country. Hesitantly, the British suspended the country’s independence for the time being. The British Guiana became a Cold War battlefield, one in which the United States saw itself responsible to prevent communist takeover. Jagan was seen as very dangerous, especially when he publicly declared himself a Marxist-Leninist in 1961. Therefore, during the 1961 British Guiana elections, Kennedy was determined to deny Jagan power.
For Woodrow Wilson, only a democratic republic could be a genuine nation-state. Wilson also argued that the nation-state is capable of upholding peace and international order because nation-states would naturally respect the sovereignty of their neighbours. Furthermore, conflict would cause disorder within, so there is an inward motivation as well. This belief in the natural peacefulness of nation-states leads liberal nationalists to the belief that internationalism and nationalism are compatible concepts. Internationalism is the theory or practice of politics based on global cooperation.
The outbreak of the Cold War was triggered by both the USA and the USSR, but I believe that the USA was primarily to blame. This is because of many reasons like the Truman Doctrine, Marshall Aid and other methods put into actions by Truman. The Marshall Aid, also known as the European Recovery Program was the American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to prevent the spread of Soviet communism. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1947. The goals of the United States were to rebuild a war-devastated region, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, and make Europe prosperous again.
What was the short term significance of the Iron Curtain speech? The iron curtain speech, made by former Great British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on the 5th March 1946, was met with both hostility and support. However it's short term impact is limited because both the USSR and the USA, the two main powers in the world at the time, already had very strong beliefs and views that would arguably require a more hard hitting event to change, after all Churchill was no longer Prime Minister so his political views carried less weight. It could be argued that the speech had more of an effect on America, who had a strong alliance with Great Britain after World War 2, and the American president, Truman, who was witness to the speech. The main effect was to crystallise Truman's desire to take a very hard line, anti-communism approach to the Soviet Union and for Stalin it symbolised an increase in opposition to the USSR.
The crisis began with the Great Depression, as argued by Abramovitz (2004) it was the collapse of the American economy in the 1930s that led to the rise of the welfare state. This change in the welfare state meant a stronger response from the government was needed. The economy counted on the government to offer a New Deal that would restore profits by fostering economic growth. The New Deal focused on programs that would provide relief for the poor, such as AFDC or Food Stamps and Social Security for the unemployed, retired or disabled. The New Deal also focused on the recovery of the economy to normal levels and reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression (Chen 2013).
Weatherford’s portrayal of Genghis Khan is “a progressive leader whose primary mission was to bring peace, not war, throughout his empire”. Though Weatherford’s perspective on Genghis Khan may be a little over the top with romanticism, he is not too far off what I have come to believe about him. The many accomplishments of Genghis Khan heavily outnumber all else that he did. Like Emperor Qin Shi Huang of the Qin Dynasty, Genghis Khan probably had more of an intention of uniting rather than destroying. If he had an intention of just causing havoc and war, then he would not have ended up encouraging trade and enlightening himself and those around him of foreign cultures.
The British Indian Empire was declared as a belligerent against the Axis powers by the United Kingdom without consulting prominent Indian leaders. Several leaders of the Indian independence movement, including Mahatma Gandhi, expressed strong opposition against Nazism and Fascism but termed Britain's "war to save democracy" as hypocrisy since it was denying democratic rights and individual liberties to Indians. The British, under Churchill, were critical of the Indians, with Churchill at moments describing them as “vile creatures”. Churchill did not want to offer them anything. In 1942, Sir Stafford Cripps on his first mission to India made on behalf of the British Government his offer of independence after the war in exchange for cooperation, but the Indian political parties rejected his proposals.
Nationalism also helped the push for westward expansion and the Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine is a policy of the United States introduced on December 2, 1823. It stated that further efforts by European countries to colonize land or interfere with states in the Americas would be viewed as acts of aggression requiring U.S. intervention. However, this did not last long and was broken predominantly by the Panic of 1819, which caused mass bank failures, unemployment shot up, and a slump in agriculture. The Panic of 1819 was the first major financial crisis and depression the U.S. faced.
The following years saw Western European integration take ‘place against the background of important developments in Europe and the wider world: the cold war, the division of Germany and Europe and the formation of the political, military and economic blocs in Eastern and Western Europe. After the upheaval of the war and the austerity of the early post-war years, the Western European economies entered a period of sustained economic growth at the end of the 1940s.’ (Western Europe and Germany – Clemens Wurm). In 1949 the Federal Republic of Germany joined the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation. The OEEC’s objectives were to ‘organise the effective use of US economic aid, to ease trade restrictions and to operate as a clearing bank in processing payments between member states’. When looking at the motives behind West Germany’s desire to integrate itself with Europe it is clear that political motivations were of primary importance.
General George Washington’s strategy of erosion effectively outlasted Great Britain’s will to fight a costly war on American soil. Comparatively, Great Britain wholly underestimated the colonists and did not employ a coherent strategy but rather relied on a poorly executed belief that colonial support for the war would disappear with the occupation of key American cities. Roots of the American Revolution reside in a series of laws and taxes implemented by the British government following their support of the colonies during French and Indian war. It is important to note that the French and Indian war was part of the much larger Seven Years war fought between 18th century powers Spain, Great Britain, France, and the Holy Roman Empire. While Great Britain emerged a victor of the Seven Years war, it was nearly bankrupt at its completion in 1763.