CONTINUITY AND CHANGE
LEADING TO THE 21ST
CENTURY IN SOUTHERN AND
EASTERN ASIA
STANDARD:SS7H3
THE STUDENT WILL ANALYZE CONTINUITY AND
CHANGE IN SOUTHERN AND EASTERN ASIA
LEADING TO THE 21ST CENTURY
A. DESCRIBE HOW NATIONALISM LED TO
INDEPENDENCE IN INDIA AND VIETNAM
NATIONALISM
• Nationalism occurs when people of a
country are strongly devoted to their
country.
• It is when a country controlled by a
foreign country desires political
independence from that foreign
country.
HE WAS ASSASSINATED
IN 1948 BY ONE OF HIS
FELLOW HINDUS FOR
HIS ATTEMPTS TO
BRING HINDUS AND
MUSLIMS TOGETHER.
The people of India desired such
freedom from Great Britain.
Great Britain had controlled India for
almost 350 years.
Nationalism began in India during the
18th Century.
Their Nationalist leader was an unlikely
candidate.
Mohandis Gandhi was a very small mild
mannered holy man.
He led the country in their non-violent
passive resistance of British dominance.
He was called “Mohatma” which meant
“great soul.”
He led non-violent resistance to
British rule and domination that led
to the creation of a free and
independent India and Pakistan.
A Hindu himself, he tried hard to
keep India and Pakistan together
although the Hindus and Muslims
fought bitterly in religious wars.
His non-violent means of
resistance inspired the non-violent
protests of Martin Luther King, Jr.
and the American Civil Rights
Movement.
The story of nationalism in
Vietnam is very different from that
of India.
Vietnam was once ruled by
China, and it gained its
independence from China only to
find itself bitterly divided into civil
factions that led to violent
upheaval and civil war especially
in divisions between the northern
part and southern part of the
country.
France took control of Vietnam in
1858. The Vietnamese people sought
freedom from the oppressive French.
A northern leader Ho Chi Minh
(pictured here) looked for help from
Communist China to oust the French.
The United States sent weapons and
aid to the French to try and keep
communism from spreading to the
south. The French were defeated and
the country was divided into North and
South Vietnam in 1954.
The United States took the lead in the
fight against the communist North and
the Viet Cong (communists seeking
reunification of the country under
Communist rule).
The Viet Cong used guerilla tactics against American troops.
The more the Americans bombed the countryside trying to get to
the Viet Cong, the less popular the war became back home in
the U.S. and amongst the local people in Vietnam.
The unpopularity of the war led to the ultimate withdrawal of
forces from Vietnam in 1975.
Vietnam went on to unify as a communist nation in 1976.
Thousands of south Vietnamese fled the country as communist
rules brutally took over the democratically sympathetic south.
Vietnam’s history is littered with violent, corrupt, and almost
continuous nationalism.
REBUILDING JAPAN AFTER WORLD WAR II
STANDARD:
c. explain the role of the United States in the
rebuilding of Japan after WWII
• JAPAN SURRENDERED TO ALLIED
FORCES AFTER THE DROPPING OF
THE ATOMIC BOMBS ON HIROSHIMA
AND NAGASAKI IN 1945.
OUT OF THE ASHES
• Japan was a wreck after WW2. Much of
Japan’s infrastructure (buildings, public
systems, services) was gone due to the
bombings.
• The U.S. provided loans and advice while
occupying Japan in martial law after the war.
• Japan lost control of all of its overseas
possessions.
• The Japanese people put off their ancient
warlike traditional ways and turned their
attention on their fallen economy.
• America helped Japan establish a new
democratic form of government modeled
much like their own.
OUT OF THE ASHES
• On May 3, 1947, Japan’s new constitution became
official.
• In this constitution, the Japanese emperor was
stripped of his power and became a figurehead;
article 9 states that Japan would never again be the
aggressor in war. Japan could not longer use its
land, sea, or air forces to settle international
disputes.
• Today, they have one of the most powerful
economies in the world with a democratic
constitutional monarchy led by a prime minister and
a legislature called the Diet.
• The Japanese people are now a mostly
homogeneous society (one ethnic group) that live by
the principle of Ohn or membership to the group
first, and to the individual second.
• They are closely tied to the United States today even
though we were bitter enemies during WW2.
COMMUNIST CHINA
STANDARD:
d. describe the impact of communism in China in terms of
Mao Zedong, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural
Revolution, and Tiananmen square
• CHINA’S HISTORY IS MUCH TOO LONG AND
COMPLEX TO ANALYZE IN THE TIME WE HAVE.
• BASICALLY, CHINA HAS BEEN A CLOSED SOCIETY
FOR MUCH OF ITS HISTORY.
• THEY FOUGHT AMONGST THEMSELVES
SUCESSIVELY FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS IN AND
OUT OF IMPERIAL DYNASTIES WITHOUT FOREIGN
INTERFERENCE.
• EVENTUALLY, FOREIGNERS LIKE THE BRITISH,
FRENCH, AND AMERICANS WOULD PENETRATE
THEIR CLOSED DOOR POLICY.
COMMUNIST CHINA
• LIKE MANY OTHER EASTERN NATIONS, CHINA
EVENTUALLY REACHED A POINT OF STRUGGLE
INDUCED BY THE UNITED STATES AND ITS ALLIES
AGAINST THE SOVIET UNION AND ITS ALLIES OF
THE COLD WAR.
• CHINA WOULD ULTIMATELY DECIDE THROUGH
VIOLENT UPHEAVAL WHETHER IT WOULD BE A
FREE DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY OR A COMMUNIST
ONE.
• DEMOCRATIC FROM 1911 TO 1945, THE CHINESE
AGAIN DIVIDED AND THE COMMUNISTS LED BY
MAO ZEDONG TOOK OVER CONTROL OF CHINA
MAKING IT A COMMUNIST COUNTRY.
CHAIRMAN MAO, AS HE WAS CALLED,
TOOK CONTROL OF CHINA’S ECONOMY.
HE LED A MOVEMENT CALLED “THE
GREAT LEAP FORWARD”. IT WAS A
HUGE FAILURE!
HE TRIED TO SET UP HUGE COMMUNES
TO IMPROVE AGRICULTURE AND
INDUSTRY, BUT ALMOST 20 MILLION
STARVED.
IN RESPONSE TO HIS FAILURE, A
MOVEMENT AMONG THE CHINESE
PEOPLE CALLED FOR REFORM. IN FEAR
OF LOSING POWER, MAO DID WHAT
MOST COMMUNISTS DO.
HE BEGAN A POLICY OF
DICTATORIAL RULE CALLED THE
“CULTURAL REVOLUTION”
WHERE ANYONE WHO SPOKE
AGAINST THE GOVT. WAS PUT
DOWN INHUMANELY BY THE
MILITARY CALLED THE “RED
GUARDS.”
MAO DIED IN 1976. SINCE THEN
CHINA HAS SLIGHTLY OPENED
UP TO THE WORLD, BUT IT IS
STILL A COMMUNIST NATION
WHOSE GOVT. DOES NOT LIKE
BEING CRITICIZED.
TIANANMEN SQUARE
• 1989, MOSTLY COLLEGE AGED YOUNG
PEOPLE SPOKE OUT AND DEMONSTRATED
AGAINST THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT IN
THIS BEIJING SQUARE.
• HUNDREDS WERE KILLED OR WOUNDED AS
THE MILITARY PUT THE DEMONSTRATION
DOWN.
• SINCE THEN, THE WORLD HAS PUT
PRESSURE ON THE CHINESE TO GIVE AND
PROTECT MORE HUMAN RIGHTS LIKE
FREEDOM OF SPEECH, FREEDOM OF
RELIGION, AND RIGHT TO PURSUE
HAPPINESS.
COLD WAR ASIA
STANDARD:
e. Explain the reasons for foreign involvement in Korea and
Vietnam in terms of containment of Communism
• MANY OF THE NATIONS OF SOUTHERN AND EASTERN ASIA
TODAY OWE THEIR CURRENT STATUS TO THE EVENTS OF
THE COLD WAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND THE
SOVIET UNION (NOW RUSSIA) BETWEEN 1945 AND 1991.
• VIETNAM AS WE HAVE ALREADY DISCUSSED AND KOREA
ARE TWO.
• VIETNAM WAS REUNITED IN 1976 AS A COMMUNIST NATION.
HOWEVER, KOREA WHICH WAS A SITE OF UNITED STATES
INVOLVEMENT VERY SIMILIARLY IN THE 1950’S, REMAINS
DIVIDED INTO A FREE SOUTH AND COMMUNIST NORTH WITH
A DMZ (DEMILITARIZED ZONE) DIVIDING THEM.
• THESE GEOGRAPHIC OUTCOMES ARE A DIRECT RESULT OF
THE UNITED STATES’ ATTEMPTS TO CONTAIN THE SPREAD
OF COMMUNISM DURING THE COLD WAR.