Notes/UNB/Year 5/Semester 1/HIST1001/In class notes.md

Module 1 (Cold War)

Background on Russia

• Long history of expansion
• A multinational empire
• The Romanov ruled for over 300 years

Russia in the early 20th century

• Serfdom abolished (1861), industrialization started
• Social and political tension
• Low class people forced to pay for their freedom
• Defeated in war with Japan The people wanted change, many wanted more western political systems like a parliament, and many assassinations took place during this time.

Revolution

Tsar Nicholas II abdicates in 1917, replaced by Provisional government (called the February Revolution), but was overthrown by Lenin and Bolsheviks later that year (called the October Revolution). The Russian calendar at the time was 14 days behind the current one, hence the date discrepancy.

Some Key Points

• Tradition as major power, but struggling to modernize. In a vulnerable state
• Tradition of autocratic rule and repression
• Challenges of governing a vast state remain.
• Bolsheviks have ambitious international goals

The Bolsheviks take power

Their goals:

• Lenin and his colleagues
  • Revolutionary Marxists: use disciplined party to take power
• Gain support from workers, other social groups
• Use force to win and keep power
• Initially hoped revolution in Russia would spread on an international scale

The Russian Civil War

• Conflict reaches its peak in 1918-1921
• Reds (Bolsheviks) vs whites
• bloody conflict, atrocities on both sides
• Millions of deaths, potentially uncountable more, country in ruins
• Some nationalities, Poles, Finns , Baltic states, break away and establish states
• But Bolsheviks/communists emerge victories: authoritarian, repressive tactics

Early communist foreign policy

• Ruthless pragmatism - Lenin's regime signs peace treaty with Imperial Germany in 1918, despite territorial losses, to keep power
• But Bolsheviks also have revolutionary ambitions - establish communist international (Comintern) in 1919
• Goal is to encourage formation of communist parties internationally, spread revolution - but proves difficult to achieve

Early soviet relations with the west

• British, French, and Americans, concerned & angered by the Bolshevik takeover in 1917
• New regime - promotes revolutionary ideas
• Lenin's treaty with Germany (1918); creates new thread in first world war

Intervention in the Russian civil war

• France, UK, Canada, USA, Japan send troops
• To protect interest, support whites

Soviet union in the 1920s

• Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) established in 1922
• Included much of the former Russian empire, but now a federation of republics
• Western power remain suspicious, but do not see USSR as imminent thread
• Comintern remains active, but USSR focus on rebuilding after wartime devastation

Leadership change from Lenin to Stalin

• Lenin dies in 1924, Josef Stalin emerges as winner of prolonged power by 1928
• Promotes Socialism in one Country
• Imperial Russia - suffered defeats because it was "backward" - Soviet Union must modernize "or the capitalists will crush us"

Stalin's Transformation of the USSR

• Rapid industrial growth through state directed "Five Year Plans" - achieves results but harsh conditions for workers
• Collectivization of agriculture - to support industrialization, transform society - associated with massive repression, famine
• Purges - intensive suspicion of conspiracy with foreign power leads to mass arrests, executions in 1930s

Stalin's foreign policy in the 1930s

• Comintern continues to operate
• Stalin's policies are pragmatic, shift over time
• Hitler takes power in Germany, 1933 - a serious potential thread
• Soviet Union calls for "collective security" with Western powers, promotes "Popular Front" policy to oppose fascism

On the eve of war

• 1939 - Second World War looks increasingly likely - Hitler making demands on Poland
• Stalin - Covets Polish territory, seeks to expand influence, and wants to buy time
• Negotiations with Britain and France fail; instead USSR signs agreement with Nazi Germany - two countries will not go to war, both to expand influence in Eastern Europe

Key points

• Soviet foreign policy - revolutionary impulse is significant
• But there is a powerful pragmatic streak - willing to cut deals, shift sides
• Stalin wants to expand revolution - but also to regain territory, influence of USSR

Overview

• Soviet Union: Moves from cooperating with Nazi Germany to allying with british empire, USA
• Initial desire to continue cooperating in postwar years soon runs into problems
• By 1947th alliance has broken down, Cold War has begun - why? Was the breakdown inevitable?

Shifting Soviet Policy

The Nazi-Soviet Pact (1939-41)

• Two states agree not to fight, and to partition territory
• Promotes hostility towards Soviet Union, communist parties in the western democracies
• Britain, France go to war with Nazi Germany in 1939. France is defeated in 1940, but the British empire hangs on
• June 1941: Hitler decides to invade USSR; British indicate their willingness to support the soviets

Turning Points (1941)

• Operation Barbarossa and Japans attack on Pearl Harbor
• The "Big Three" (Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill) meet in Tehran, 1943

Formation of the Grand Alliance

• USA enters the war after Pearl Harbor (1941)
• Americans, British, Soviets become allies
• Soviets eventually halt German led invasions, push back, occupying most of Europe
• More points in slides

The Soviet Perspective

• Devastated by war: Estimated 25 million dead
• Plays key role in defeat of Nazi Germany; Receives Lend-Lease Aid
• Soviets occupy territory in Eastern Europe, including Poland, Germany - Stalin wants a "sphere of influence"
• Willing to make some concessions - Stalin dissolves Comintern in 1943 - but insists on security and influence

The Western Perspective

• The United States - dominant power with the largest economy, and had recently developed the atom bomb (1945)
• Franklin Roosevelt - wanted United Nations, open international order, and willing to work with the Soviets
• Replaced by Harry Truman in 1945 - Grows more concerned about Soviets and the spread of Communism
• British Empire - greatly weakened by the war, and wants to rebuild. The attitude was ambiguous towards the USSR

Early Tensions

• Regular meetings of "Big Three" (1943-45)
• Cooperation continues - USSR joins war against Japan
• But problems began to emerge:
  1. Future of Poland - uneasy agreement to move territory, form of coalition government
  2. Future of Germany - divided into zones of occupation, what long term policy to pursue
  3. Concerns about soviet espionage, and the potential spread of Communism

Germany Divided

• Poland gains territory
• Four occupation zones
• Germans expelled from ...

Rising Tensions (1946-47)

• Sources of Tensions
  • Soviet actives in eastern Europe cause concern
  • Soviet troops are slow to withdraw from Iran
  • Stalin puts pressure on Turkey for access, bases
  • Greek civil war, Communist vs Anti-Communists; fears of Soviet intervention
  • European economies are struggling; American officials feat communism will gain further support
• Shifting Policies
  • March 1947 - US president Harry Truman promises aid to Greece, Turkey - but framed in broad terms (The Truman Doctrine)
  • June 1947 - The US secretary of state George Marshall proposes massive aid package to support European reconstruction (The Marshall Plan)
  • Western and Eastern European states are invited t participate, asked to develop coordinated plan; Britain and France are keen.
• The Soviet Response - How to interpret?
  • Wilfred Loth - Soviet are suspicious of the Marshall Plan, quickly reject it, veto East European involvement
  • Geoffrey Roberts - Soviet Response was initially more ambiguous, several reasons for rejection; East European role was complex, not just an issues of "veto"
  • Soviets go on to mobilize criticism of Marshall Plan, create "Cominform" and tighten grip of Eastern Europe

Key Points

• Stalin's foreign policy - complex, driven by desire for security but also to enhance Soviet influence.
• Willing to work with wartime alliances but within limits - by 1947 those limits are breached. Historians debate if he was actually truthful about this willingness
• Role of shifting perceptions (in USSR and USA)
• Significance of ideology in shaping perceptions
• Significance of advisors, role of other states

Global Competition

• Cold War - an increasingly global confrontation
• Europe divided into "blocs" by the "Iron Curtain"
• Communists take power in China, war in Korea
• Nikita Khrushchev - Seeks to enhance soviet unions international influence, compete with USA - period of tensions and crises

Stalin, Europe and Asia

Europe Divided

• After rejecting the Marshall plan, soviet control in eastern Europe tightens further
• Germany divided: Western zones combined into west Germany, soviet zone become eastern Germany (1949). Berlin a divided city, tension point
• NATO established 1949, Warsaw Pact 1955

Communism in China

• Long complex power struggle between Chinese Communist (CCP), led by Mao Zedong, and Chinese Nationalists, led by Chiang Kai-shek
• Civil War (1946-49): Communists win control of the mainland, establish Peoples' Republic (PRC) in 1949
• Mao and Stalin sign treaty of alliance in 1950, but China is "junior partner" in Soviet opinion; the two countries eventually become rivals

War in Korea

• Korea split into two zones (US and Soviet); evolve along different paths
• Kim Il-Sung, Communist leader of Norther Korea, orders invasion of South in 1950 (had consulted Mao and Stalin)
• US-led forces repel invasion, then invade North Korea; China sends troops, heavy fighting; armistice signed in 1953, after Stalin's Death

A change in leadership

The Rise of Nikita Khrushchev

• Gradually emerges as dominant leader after Stalin's death, 1953-1956; reduces repression, seeks reform
• Speaks of "peaceful coexistence", but a true believer in promoting Communism, competing with USA
• Wants to improve living standards, but also invests heavily in space race; seeks to exert pressure on USA
• Age of decolonization, states achieving independence in Asia, Africa: Khrushchev sees opportunity

The Soviet Union engages the "Third World"

• Seeking to win friendship, influence in newly independent states; Khrushchev conducts visits
• Soviets provide material aid, weaponry, other support - role of Komsomol and other organizations
• Foreign students encouraged to study in USSR
• Competing with USA for global influence
• Mao's PRC also emerges as rival/competitor

Khrushchev's Cold War Crises: Examples

• Berlin 1958-1961: Khrushchev tries to pressure western powers into leaving- East German regime is losing thousands of people to the West via Berlin
• but US and Allies will not back down, result in the building of the Berlin Wall 1961
• Congo (1960-1961): Soviets seek to support nationalist political Patrice Lumumba, but not in a strong position to exert influence: Lumumba killed in 1961

Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)

• Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution
• Tensions rise with United States: Castro turns to the Soviet Union for support
• Khrushchev sends nuclear missiles to Cuba; Discovery by USA leads to intense confrontation, threat of nuclear war (October 1962)
• Khrushchev and US president Kennedy negotiate a solution, world sighs with relief

Key Points

• Leadership changes from Stalin to Khrushchev: Change possible with USSR, but continuities are strong
• Cold War confrontation: Intelligence and military powers crucial, but competition for influence also involves "soft power"
• Foreign policy and domestic politics are linked: Khrushchev weakened, removed from office 1964

Overview

• Leadership change from Khrushchev to Brezhnev
• Soviet Cold War policy increasingly complex, expanding military, active in seeking influence, tensions with china
• 2 more points in slides

Leonid Brezhnev

• Became dominant soviet leader after Khrushchev is removed in 1964, remains in office until death in 1982
• Very much a product of the soviet system, hopes to sustain it, despite growing challenges
• Foreign policy goals: retain Soviet Bloc, avoid Nuclear war, compete with USA and PRC for influence

Challenges for the Soviet Bloc

• Previous Uprising (East Germany 1953, Hungary Revolution of 1956) were violently suppressed
• Czechoslovakia 1968 - New leader, Alexander Dubcek, seeks to enact reforms while remaining in the Warsaw Pact: Socialism with a human face
• Brezhnev and colleagues grow concerned about implications - send in military forces, August 1968
• "The Brezhnev Doctrine" asserts right to intervention

Soviet System under Brezhnev

• Initially, economy grows, helped by Oil exports
• But economic growth stalls mid 1970s-80s
• Brezhnev spends heavily on military, strains economy
• Growing sense of disillusionment, Brezhnev declines

Soviet Union and the Vietnam War

• The conflict between Communist North Vietnam, authoritarian republic of Vietnam (South)
• US intervention in Vietnam intensifies in 1960s
• Mao Zedong's regime supports North Vietnam but soviets steadily increase aid to compete
• North Vietnam wins (1975) but USSR had spent billions

Relations with Mao's China

• Rivalry for revolutionary leadership increasingly bitter
• 4 more points in the notes

The rise and fall of Detente

• US, USSR both want to reduce threat of nuclear war
• Detente involves US, Soviet, German and European leaders
• SALT: Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty
• SALT I signed, placing restrictions on nuclear arms
• Paralleled by political development in German states and Europe; talks begin for a SALT 2 treaty

Limitations of Detente

• Soviet Union remains engaged in competition, support for international revolution - supplies arms to Arab states in conflict with Israel, supports African revolutionaries
• US Carter administration still negotiates but criticizes Soviet record on human rights, continues relations with PRC
• December 1979: Soviet Union invades Afghanistan to maintain pro-Communist regime
• Nuclear arms negotiations stall, detente at an end

Key points

• Brezhnev - peruses contradictory policies
• Wants to avoid nuclear war, willing to negotiate with USA
• but also wants to ensure Soviet power is respected, continues to seek leadership in international affairs compared to PRC
• Detente with USA fails, Americans improve relations with China
• Desire to preserve influence leads to invasion of Afghanistan

WAS SICK FOR A WEEK

Module Overview

Assignment Discussion (Review on D2L for writing essay)

• Can use other articles in source, mainly for context or historical references
• No external sources are expected, stick to mainly sourced cited in the article
• Three more more sentences is what a paragraph should aim to be (or longer). See if small paragraphs could be brought into another paragraph. Break up paragraphs that are a page long and discuss too much
• About the three readings
  1. First article
     • Attempts to reassess the common mentality of the Marshall Plan, trying to enrich or develop some different perspectives
     • What and why are the underlying roots of the radical shift in foreign policy

  2. Second article

  3. Third reading\
     • Gorbachev ending the Cold War

Module 2 (Early Modern)

• Ordering time
  • Chronology: Placing of events in a sequence of occurrences
  • Periodization: Divide, categorize and name chronological periods of blocks of time
• Traditional way:
  • Ancient era: Until the fall of the roman empire in the 5th century
  • Medieval era/middle ages 5th to 15th centuries
  • Modern era: from the 15th century until the present day
  • Then historians began to conceive of an early modern era, from the beak of modernity in the 15th until the 18th century, calling after the french revolution as truly modern
• Basic prioritization for European history
  • Ancient era: Same
  • Medieval era/middle ages: Same
  • Early modern era 15th -18 centuries
  • Modern era: 19th until the present day

Defining Early modernity

• How "new" and different was the early modern period?
• How and when did the early modern period end?
• And how different was it from what came after?
• Degree of continuity/discontinuity between historical periods depends on what aspects of history one focuses on

When did the modern era begin?

• Possible events
  • Siege of Constantinople: 1453
  • Gutenberg Bible: 1454
  • Columbus first voyage: 1492
  • Martin Luther's 95 theses: 1517
• Or a process
  • The Renaissance
  • Religious reformation
  • Large-scale gunpowder warfare
  • Bullion from the "New World"
  • Early nation ...
• Or features
  • Global interaction and exploration
  • Shift in global trade flows
  • Unprecedented rise in slave trade
  • Emergence of new cash crops
  • Shifts in political ideology
  • New technologies
  • New types of public sphere and collective identities

Great Chain of Being

• God
• Angels;Demons
• Stars, moon
• Kings, Princes
• Nobles
• Commoners
• Animals
• Plants. minerals, etc Reflection
• Pre-modern social hierarchies appear unjust in light of modern ideas about the equality of all people
• How can we explain the contradiction between our discourse on equality on the empirical reality of profound inequalities in our own society

Renaissance

• An Era (approx 1350-1550)
• Began in Italy, spread to rest of Europe
• Re-birth: knowledge from the classical world (ancient Greece and Rome)
• Recovery: Growth and creation following a period of crisis and decline
• Changes in education, art, culture, architecture, political philosophy, etc

Historiography

• The History of historical writing
• The study of historical methods and scholarship
• Traces secondary sources in conversation and in debate
• Asks: how was history written? Who wrote it? How and why historians produced their scholarship

Humanism

• The ideology of the Renaissance
• Study of classical texts, and ideas from ancient Greece and Rome, history, moral philosophy, rhetoric, poetry, arts etc
• Education, public good, civic life
• Rise of universities in Europe (approx 20 in 1300, 50-70 by 1500)
• Rise of vernacular literacy
• Petrarch (1304-1374)

Christianity

Medieval Europe was united by Catholic Christendom

• System of beliefs and values
• Dominant the world view
• church attendance
• life cycle and christian rites of passage: baptism, confirmation, marriage or religious vows, final rites
• Passage of time, religious holidays, church bells
• Churches as space of worship, religious education and socializing
• Art and music dominated by religious themes
• Unity and identity - difference from the Other (Jewish and Muslim)
• "Practice tied to place": Local saints, shrines, chapels, relics, celebrations, leadership and other variations Many ways:
• Catholic church as landowner
• Social assistance (charity, orphanages, hospitals), education
• Parish priests administered the sacraments
• Bible only available in Latin
• Tithe
• The papacy controlled the religious hierarchy, distribution of power

Reformation

• Across Europe, 16th century
• To reform the catholic Church
• met with resistance, many groups split from the church (Protestants)
• Broke religious uniformity of medieval Europe
• not a singular event; multiple processes
• A period characterized by religious warfare
• Counter-reformation
• Periodization often cited as the origins of (early) modernity

Events

• Indulgence Controversy (1517)
  • Indulgences: to purchase release from penance or purgatory
  • Corruption?
  • Depiction of the pope as the Antichrist signing and selling indulgences (by Lucas Cranach the Elder - 1521)
• Martin Luther (1483-1546)
  • Professor of Theology at University of Wittenberg
  • Luther and others denounced the sale of indulgences
  • Salvation by faith alone
  • Pope Leo X, indulgence sale to fund rebuilding of St. Peters basilica, Rome (1515)
  • Luther's Ninety-five Theses (1517), Calling for debate
  • Excommunicated and refused to recant
  • Began to spread his ideas, and sparked debate on his theses
    • Salvation, by faith, by works
    • Scripture, who gets access, who can interpret
    • "Priesthood of believers"
    • Transubstantiation
• Radical Reform
  • Ana-baptism (re-baptism; pacifism)
  • Mennonites (Americans)
  • Siege at Munster (stoked fears of fanaticism and overturning social order)
• The Peace of Augsburg (1555)
  • Halted military encounter between Catholic and Protestant Princes in the Holy Roman Empire
  • A compromise, recognizing the permanent religious division of the German states
  • determined that the religion of the ruler of each state would be the official religion of that territory (eius religio)
  • permitted Catholics to relocate the Catholic territories, permitted protestants to relocate to Protestant territories (resulted in large migration)
• English reformation
  • Henry VIII - Defender of the Faith
  • Act of Supremacy, 1534
• Catholic / Counter Reformation
  • To reaffirm Catholicism and negate Protestantism
  • Focus on piety, charity, and devotion
  • New religious orders (brotherhoods, monasteries and convents) and a renewal of old orders
  • Power of the Papacy
  • Council of Trent

New Technology

• Printing Press
  • John Calvin
    • Wrote important work of Protestant theology, many translations and editions in his lifetime
    • Became a leading protestant theologian and leader
    • Importance of the printing press in the transmission of his work
  • Movable Type
    • Hallmark of early modernity - The Gutenberg Bible
  • Growth of Libraries, Universities
    • Some Universities have their own, become influential (Oxford)
  • Turned Ideas into a movement
    • Religious pamphlets
    • Broadsheets
    • Engravings, woodcuts
    • Books (ex, saints lives)
    • The Bible (n vernacular)
    • "The art of printing is very useful insofar as it furthers the circulation of useful and tested books; but it can be very harmful if its permitted to widen the influence of pernicious works. It will be necessary to maintain full control over the printers" - Pope Alexander VI (1501)

State Power

• State
  • Defined territory with a government and a permanent population
  • Recognized by other states and able to enter relations with them
  • Has formal systems of law, political organization, government bureaucracy
  • Has systems of communication, education, industry and production
• Nation
  • A group of people who share language, culture, history, traditions
  • Can refer to ethnicity
  • Tied to place, shared geographic territory an/or loyalty to a state
  • National identity
  • Can be hard to define

Imagined Communities

• "Nation, nationality, nationalism all have proved notoriously difficultly to define, let alone analyse"
• Defined nation as "an imagined political community, an imagine as both inherently limited as sovereign"
• "Deep horizontal comradeship"
• Modern, with early modern origins

Early modern states and nations

• Ruled by hereditary monarchs
• Growth of government bureaucracies, taxation, military power
• Nobility under control
• Consolidation of power and creation of larger states
• Control over national churches
• Rise of vernacular languages and print cultures
• Development of national consciousnesses
• Growth of states, state power, and national identities were key developments in early modern European history
• Medieval foundations (beliefs and institutions) and local belongings remained important