GRC - Brief Overview of the Topics before the Timeline (Lesson)
Brief Overview of the Topics before the Timeline
Before we begin chronologically though, we are going to quickly go over a few topics that will repeat themselves in the timelines—the Cold War, decolonization, supranational organizations, demography, technology, production and consumption—basically, those social and economic characteristics promoted by globalization. This way, as you go through the decades, you'll be able to identify and understand certain themes that crop up again and again.
The Cold War
You already know what the Cold War was—the state of political hostility between the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc and the United States-led western nations following World War II—but let's just review how it started and some themes associated with it.
At the end of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR) were on opposite sides of the political and economic spectrums and both saw the other as trying to expand their opposite influences around the world. Both were afraid that the other was trying to end their forms of government and economics. And both were right as that is exactly what the United States and the Soviet Union were doing—trying to spread their perspectives to other nations. In response to their perceived threats to their ways of life, both adopted policies to counter the others' moves.
The United States responded with the Truman Doctrine—a policy that declared the United States would provide political, military, and economic assistance to any democratic nation under threat from external or internal forces. This new policy was a change for the United States away from its isolationist past and announced to the world that it was embracing a more international and powerful role. To this end, the United States set up the Marshall Plan as a means of rebuilding the war-torn Western European nations into democratic, safe and economically sound nations to prevent a rising temptation to embrace communism. The United States also created the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) within its own government. The purpose of the CIA was to collect, evaluate and distribute information on the military, political, economic, scientific, technological, and social conditions of other nations—primarily those that the United States distrusted—and has always been a somewhat controversial agency within and without the borders of the United States. This is especially true regarding its role in weakening or discrediting certain foreign governments and its meddling in foreign elections over its history. With the Truman Doctrine and the CIA as its tools, the United States chose a path of "containment" during the Cold War—the idea being to "contain" communism to those nations where it already existed and to prevent its spread. This containment policy, however, would lead to many hotspots forming during the Cold War even as the United States and the Soviet Union officially remained at peace with one another. It also led to the United States accepting—even putting into place—authoritarian regimes as long as they were not communist.
The Soviet Union responded by establishing "puppet governments" throughout Eastern Europe—contrary to an earlier agreement at the Yalta Conference that should have allowed free elections in Eastern Europe following World War II—and established "satellites" that formed the Eastern Bloc. It also supported communists in other nations—either through funding for political candidates or through military assistance and funding for expansionist communist governments. The Soviet Union also responded to the start of the Cold War by stepping up its nuclear program in hopes to catch up and surpass American nuclear technology.
The strides made by the Soviets in their nuclear program led to a nuclear arms race between the two superpowers (the United States and the Soviet Union.) Ultimately, this "race" was guided by the "Mutual Assured Destruction" or MAD strategy with the result that both sides were so well-armed that they could destroy one another if there was an attack and, therefore, guaranteed that there would never be an attack. (Although, they did come close a couple of times.)
The back and forth responses between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War drew the entire world into their face-off. Eventually, a geopolitical model emerged describing the various sides of the Cold War. The Three-World Model categorized nations as:
This model has always been contentious as the numbering system favored the Western nations; but it will help us better understand how the Cold War played out—especially, if you keep in mind that both sides of the Cold War wanted to spread their influence globally. Therefore, nations of the First and Second Worlds (mostly the United States and the Soviet Union) spent a great deal of energy attempting to force the nations of the Third World into choosing one or the other. And at the time, this was not an easy choice as each side had its pluses and minuses that would grow over the years. (In particular, the United States had lost some of its credibility by propping up corrupt governments to block the formation of communist governments, by having a poor record regarding civil rights of minorities within its own nation and by not being the first into space.)
Therefore, many nations were not sure whose side to join—in those cases, both sides were willing to "guide" the decision-making process. This led to the hotspots mentioned earlier—locations where actual wars broke out over the fate of a nation with the United States and the Soviet Union backing opposite sides. These hotspots appeared around the globe—Asia, South and Central America, the Caribbean, and Africa—as new nations (or struggling older nations) grappled over the creation of new governments.
Decolonization
Much of the decolonization that followed World War II occurred with the Cold War as a backdrop. This meant that those areas were courted and bullied by the First and Second World nations (again, mostly by the United States and the Soviet Union.) But not everybody experienced the same thing.
India and Pakistan
We've already covered the decolonization of India in the previous module, but let's recap here. Following World War II, Great Britain decided it was time to end the British Raj in India and the area was in a good position to be decolonized—for decades, Indians organized politically through the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League and had notable Indian leaders that were ready to start a new government and nation. The problem was that these leaders didn't agree on what to create and this was mostly based on their divisions along religious lines. Some Hindu Indian leaders (like Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru) believed that India could be one nation that governed its diverse population well. But not everyone saw it that way. In particular disagreement with this point of view was Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of the Muslim League. He argued that a unified India was impossible and pushed for the creation of a separate Muslim state. When Great Britain granted independence upon India it partitioned the area into two states—this created the separate India (Hindu) and Pakistan (Muslim) nations.
As a result of this partition, roughly 12 million people found themselves living on the wrong side of the religious borders and were displaced. As these people moved across the border to join their religious majority populations, a dispute grew over the region of Kashmir. Ruled by a Hindu prince, Kashmir contained a majority Muslim population. When the prince elected to join India (rather than Pakistan,) the first Indo-Pakistani War kicked off. Continued disputes over Kashmir led to a few more of these wars over the next five decades.
India created a federal republic that, due to its very large population, is now the largest democracy in the world. India's republic resembles the United States' government in that it is a federal system with one central government and 28 states with their own local governments; but it differs in that it is a parliamentary democracy with a prime minister as the head of the government. Pakistan also created a federal republic with a parliamentary democracy but experienced more growing pains than India did. (This was due to the fact that India had a previous history of some self-rule while Pakistan, as a new nation, did not. And also due to the fact that during its first four years, two of Pakistan's leaders died while in office. Plus, while Pakistan had a majority Muslim population it did not have a unified ethnic population. From its beginning, Pakistanis were divided in language, culture and location. These divisions made it very difficult for the national Pakistan government to get much done. For example, when Pakistan tried to declare a national language—Urdu—one region walked out of the nation altogether.
The lack of political stability caused by the differences among its people allowed for military take-overs of the government on several occasions during Pakistan's history. Four different military generals have taken over Pakistan's government during its young life and each one implemented martial law. In fact, Pakistan has been under martial law at different times for periods that total thirty-four years since its formation in 1947.
Pakistan's instability and the continued dispute over territory strained relations between Pakistan and India. As mentioned before, since their independence, they have faced off many times in wars and skirmishes. But also, both embarked on a nuclear arms race to counter possible threats from each other. They now both have nuclear weapons.
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