GRC - During the Truman Administration, 1945-1953, Continued (Lesson)

During the Truman Administration, 1945-1953, Continued

May 26, 1948—South Africa

• The Nationalist Party, dominated by Afrikaners (the South African descendants of Dutch settlers), came to power in South Africa during the general election of 1948. Under the Nationalists, apartheid became the official policy of South Africa in the following years. Under apartheid, all South Africans were classified and registered according to one of three races—black, white, coloured (mixed.) (The government later added a category to include Asians due to immigration.) Furthermore, political and social rights were based on one's race—only white South Africans could vote, South African residential communities were divided by white and non-white, white South Africans could not marry or have sex with non-white people. Essentially, in South Africa under apartheid—everything came down to what race a person was classified as—social rights, political rights, educational opportunities and economic status followed accordingly. In 1950, South Africa passed the Group Areas Act. This law set aside approximately 80% of South African territory for the use of white South Africans. Townships were built in the remaining 20% of land. Legal residences for black South Africans were restricted to these townships or white-owned farms. However, if a black South African couldn't prove employment on one of the farms, he or she would be deported to a "homeland" set up by the white South African government. Over the next few decades, millions of black South Africans were forcibly resettled randomly around South Africa—sometimes in townships near family, friends and work, but often not.

June 24, 1948—Cold War

• The Berlin Blockade was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. In an attempt to cut off West Berlin (located deep within the Soviet sector of Germany) from West Germany, the Soviet Union blockaded the only road going into Berlin from the western sectors of Germany. By cutting off supplies to that portion of the city, the Soviets hoped to end western control over it and to reunite the capital of Germany under their own control. However, the western allies controlling the other three sectors of Germany—the United States, Great Britain, and France—responded with the Berlin Airlift (an 11-month airlift of food and fuel supplies to West Berlin.) At the height of the Berlin Airlift, one plane landed every 45 seconds at Tempelhof Airport. Two weeks after the Soviets lifted the blockade on West Berlin, the Western Allies united their sectors into the nation of West Germany.

December 10, 1948—International

• On this date, the United Nations ratified its Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as a response to the experiences of two world wars. Although not legally binding, the UDHR listed essential rights and freedoms that all people should have and served as a guide for future treaties.

January 20, 1949—Science & Technology

• The United States held the 2^nd inauguration for its current president on this day. Harry S. Truman's inauguration was the first presidential inauguration to be shown on television. At the time, less than one percent of Americans had televisions within their homes—within a decade, the percentage of American homes with a television was above 80%.

March 30, 1949—Syria

• In 1946, Syria received its complete independence from France and set up a democratically elected government. Just three years later, though, that new government fell apart. During the year of 1949, Syria experienced three different military coups—the first occurred in March as the Army Chief of Staff overthrew the elected government in the first military coup of the modern Arab world. Later that same year, two Syrian colonels led two successive military coups ousting the leaders of previous coups. And, thus started the demise of political stability within Syria with military coups experienced each decade until the rise of a new dictator in 1970.

April 4, 1949—International

• In 1949, Western European and North American nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)—the military alliance between member nations who agreed to provide defense for any member nation attacked by an external party collectively.

August 29, 1949—Science & Technology/ Cold War

• In August 1949, the Soviet Union test detonated its first atomic bomb in Kazakhstan. Within days, an American spy plane reported evidence of radioactivity from the explosion and the United States learned of the successful Soviet test. This led to U.S. President Truman ordering the construction of a newer and more powerful nuclear bomb—the Hydrogen bomb (successfully test detonated in 1952. Dropped on an atoll in the Pacific Ocean, the device vaporized the entire island.) Three years later, the Soviet Union successfully tested their own hydrogen bomb and the world entered a phase where the threat of thermonuclear warfare became a part of life for the first time in history.

October 1, 1949—China

• Mao Tse-tung announced the creation of the People's Republic of China and formed a communist government. Later, in December, the nationalist leader of the Guomindang Party—Chiang Kai-shek—fled mainland China for the island of Taiwan off the coast. Taking 2 million fellow Chinese nationalists, Chiang Kai-shek established the Republic of China on Taiwan with its capital in the city of Taipei. Both Mao Tse-tung and Chiang Kai-shek claimed their nations as the one true China. Chairman Mao Tse-tung, leader of the People's Republic of China, inherited a nation torn apart by decades of war and more than 600 million people to govern: therefore, he turned to the Soviet Union for assistance. The Soviet Union agreed to help China in return for certain favors in the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance in 1950.

Early 1950s—Japan

• Starting in the early 1950s, Japan experienced, what is referred to as, the "Japanese Economic Miracle." This was a record period of economic growth that lasted to 1990. In the beginning, some of the success came from American investment in the nation as it rebuilt following World War II—as part of the containment policy, it was hoped that Japan's economic success would inspire those nations with leanings toward a Command Market (found in Communist economies) to revise their economies towards a more Mixed Economy (one that combines elements of capitalism and socialism as found in the United States and Japan.) But, eventually, the United States pulled back on its investments and the economy still continued to climb as the government encouraged private sector growth as the different levels of business cooperated with one another.   By the 1960s, Japan had the world's second largest economy. The chart pictured here depicts the percentage of growth for the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of Japan during the "Economic Miracle." Each year the percentage of growth was in the positive range (except during an oil crisis in 1973)—and sometimes that percentage of growth was in the double digits—hence, the "Economic Miracle" as most percentages of growth are not that high from year to year.

 

June 25, 1950—Korean Peninsula/ Cold War

• The Korean War started in 1950 when North Korea (led by Kim Il-sung) invaded South Korea in the hopes of reuniting the Korean peninsula into one communist nation. North Korea had the support of China (and the Soviet Union to some extent) to back their war efforts while South Korea relied on American and United Nations support—therefore, it was the site of the first major Cold War "hotspot." The war resulted in a heavy loss of Korean lives (on both sides) and a heavy destruction of the Korean environment (again, on both sides.) But when the end of the Korean War came in 1953, the political line that divided North and South Korea had not noticeably moved—the border remained roughly the same (located along the 38^th Parallel) as it had been three years earlier. Along the border, though, North and South Korea created a de-militarized zone that prevented either nation from pushing troops right up to the border. (They did not, however, create a peace treaty—therefore, technically, the war never ended.) At the "end" of the Korean War, North Korea immediately set about repairing the damages and restructuring its government and society. School books were rewritten to promote national unity and communist ideas, industries were nationalized and individual farms were collectivized. Also, class divisions brought on by Confucianism were banned.

July 1, 1951—International

• In Colombo, Sri Lanka, several Asian and South Pacific nations met to discuss how to raise the standards of living for the people of the region in order to combat domestic communist movements. The result was the Colombo Plan that went into effect in July 1951. At the time, seven original members—Australia, Great Britain, Canada, Ceylon, India, New Zealand and Pakistan—formed an agreement on the framework for mutual financial assistance to promote economic and social development amongst themselves. But over the decades many more nations joined the Plan—it now has over 20 members including the United States.

July 21, 1951—Iran

• Iran was known as Persia until 1935 when the first shah of the Pahlavi Dynasty changed the nation's name. Persia, at the time, was going through dramatic reforms to westernize and modernize the nation and Reza Shah Pahlavi thought a new name suited the new times. But while the shah worked to build the strength of his nation as a whole, he didn't work very hard to build the rights of the individual or tribal—his reign was very dictatorial. Still, he might have maintained his position had World War II NOT broken out or if he had NOT picked the Axis Powers to support. When Great Britain occupied Iran during World War II, they exiled Reza Shah Pahlavi and replaced him with his son—Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. Since the discovery of oil in Iran, the shahs traditionally allowed Western nations a great deal of concessions regarding oil rights—that was no different under the new shah. But this tradition wasn't necessarily popular among the Iranian people. In July 1951, the Shah of Iran appointed Muhammed Mossadeq as the new prime minister. Mossadeq immediately went to work on social and economic reforms to benefit the average Iranian worker (rather than the wealthy foreign oil interests.) Then he nationalized Iran's oil reserves—would not let the British oil companies near them! Naturally, this led to a British boycott of Iranian oil along with a blockade on Iranian oil sales elsewhere—this threw the Iranian economy into a tailspin.

July 23, 1951—International

• Just a few months after signing the treaty that was the basis for its formation, the European Coal and Steel Community went into effect in July 1951. It was an international organization to control and integrate all European coal and steel production. Original members included West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France. The European Coal and Steel Community's primary goal was to be so linked together economically that war against them would become impossible. The community continued its existence until it was replaced by the formation of the European Union in the 21^st Century.

February 6, 1952—Great Britain

• On this day, Queen Elizabeth II began her reign as Queen of the United Kingdom (even though her coronation happened a year later.) She became the longest reigning British monarch in 2015 and the longest reigning female head of state in world history.

July 23, 1952—Egypt/ Decolonization

• The Egyptian Revolution of 1952 ended Egypt's monarchy and the British occupation of Egypt in one swoop when Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew King Farouk's government. Nasser later became second president of Egypt in 1956—an office he held until 1970. As the leader of the Pan-Arabism movement—he hoped to united all of the Arab nations—but was ultimately unsuccessful.

October 1952—Kenya/ Decolonization

• Since 1945, Kenyan nationalists—like Jomo Kenyatta—worked to end British colonialism in Kenya through political avenues. But by 1952, a faction of the nationalists broke away from this approach and united in the Mau uprising when a secret guerilla group of the Kikuyu people created a state of emergency by attacking British settlers. Over the next few years, tens of thousands of Kenyans and British were killed or arrested (including Jomo Kenyatta—who would later become the independent nation's prime minister.) The uprising lasted (officially) for four years—but Great Britain didn't end the state of emergency there until 1959 (a year before Kenya received its independence.) There is an argument that the rift created between British settlers in Kenya (who built concentration camps as part of their response to the uprising) and Brits back in Great Britain helped lead to Kenya's independence in 1960 (but as they weren't the only nation to receive independence that year, it is a contended argument.)

December 5-9, 1952—Environment

• The Great Smog of London in late 1952 lasted for just a few days but is known as the worst air-pollution event in the history of Great Britain. Windless conditions, cold air and collected airborne pollutants (mostly from the burning of coal) combined to form the thickest layer of smog the city of London had ever seen. While the event lasted briefly, the effects were long-ranging. Initially, scientists believed that the smog caused 4,000 deaths and respiratory illnesses among 100,000 people—but later research claimed that there were probably over 10,000 deaths as a result of the Great Smog. Four years later, Great Britain passed the Clean Air Act of 1956 to regulate the level of pollution put out by residences heating their homes among other pollution sources. In the history of the environmental movement, the Great Smog and its after-effects are viewed as a catalyst for the movement.

 

 

 

 

RESOURCES IN THIS MODULE ARE OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER) OR CREATED BY GAVS UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. SOME IMAGES USED UNDER SUBSCRIPTION.