Struggles for Democracy

(1945 – Present)

DEMOCRACY

Free Elections• >1 political party• Universal suffrage (all adults)

Citizen Participation

•High levels of education & literacy•Economic security•Freedoms of speech, press & assembly

Majority Rule w/ Minority Rights

•All citizens equal before the law•Shared national identity•Protection of individual rights (e.g., religion)•Representatives elected by people

Constitutional Gov’t

•Gov’t based on tradition & law•Widespread civics education•Acceptance of majority decisions•Shared belief no one is above law

Mexico• Following Mexican Revolution,

government passed Constitution of 1917

• 1920-1934 military generals elected president & National Revolutionary Party created

• 1934-1940 President Cardenas – Promoted labor rights– Carried out land reform – Nationalized oil industry

Mexico (cont.)• 1946 name change Institutional

Revolutionary Party (PRI) – Election fraud ensured gov’t control – Severe economic problems (lack of jobs,

land and huge foreign debt)

• 1968 – Student protest at Aztec ruins resulted in hundreds dead

• 1994 – Chiapas revolt (Zapatistas) led armed revolt for social & economic reforms (esp. for Maya)

• 2000 – PRI lost Presidential election to Vincente Fox (PAN)

Argentina

• 1946 – 1955 Juan Peron (former milt.) est. a dictatorship w/ wife Eva (“Evita”) until shortly after her death in 1952– Lots of social welfare programs– Limited foreign-owned business w/ import

substitution (local manufacturers produce goods at home to replace imported goods)

– Limited freedoms

Argentina (cont.)

• 1955 milt. coup by mid-1970 economy was in ruins & terrorism was on the rise

• 1976 milt. coup by Lt. Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla seized power & imposed martial law state terrorism led to the disappearance of 20,000 “desaparesidos”

• 1983 Raul Alfonsin elected President democracy restored, but economic problems persist despite

• 1989 Carlos Menem (Peronist) → econ. problems• 1999 Fernando de la Rua → resigned in 2001 (econ. problems)• May 2003 – Nestor Kirchner (Peronist) elected & first time that

econ. has seen a turn around – his wife Cristina Fernández de Kirchner elected 2007

Nigeria

3 major ethnic groups1. Hausa-Fulani (N & Muslim)

2. Yoruba (SW & Christians or Animists w/ monarch traditions)

3. Ibo (SE & Christians or Animists w/ democratic history)

1960 granted independence in a federal system (one state for each ethnicity)

Nigeria• 1963 - Ibo in Yoruba section

tried to form their own state, but Hausa-Fulani violently stopped the movement

• 1967 – Eastern region (Ibo) seceded from Nigeria & made Biafra

• Civil War for 3 years → Biafra surrenders & Nigeria reunited

• 1970s & 80s mostly milt. rule

• 1999 – elected 1st civilian gov’t

South Africa• 1910 received independence

from Britain– White minority held power

• 1948 apartheid is made legal– Segregated housing, trains,

schools, etc.– Interracial marriages banned

South AfricaProtest

• African National Congress (formed in 1912) organized strikes & boycotts– 1960 protest in Sharpeville

• 69 killed & 180 wounded• ANC outlawed

– 1964 Nelson Mandela jailed– 1976 Soweto protest left 600 students dead

South AfricaProtest (cont.)

• In 1972 Steven Biko was one of the founders of the Black Peoples Convention (BPC) (played a major role in Soweto uprisings)– 1977 Biko was detained & died in jail

• Bishop Desmond Tutu worked w/ foreign nations to use economic sanctions on S. Africa

South Africa Change

• 1989 F.W. de Klerk became Pres. Of S. Africa– Legalized ANC– Repealed segregation laws

• 1990 Nelson Mandela is released• 1994 S. Africa held open elections

→ Mandela elected President (he was succeeded by Thabo Mbeki in 1999)

Fall of the USSR

• 1985 – Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the USSR & wants reform– Economic Reform – perestroika – introduced

some capitalism which stimulated the economy, but inflation increased & there were shortages of food & medicine

– Political Reform – glasnost – “openness” to stimulate ideas, people needed to express their ideas → ended censorship & encouraged criticism

Republics Break Away Poland

• 1980s – Economic problems caused labor unrest

• Lech Walesa helped organize a trade union Solidarity

• USSR outlawed the union and & arrested Walesa

• 1989 – free elections → Walesa became President (although the country still faced economic problems)

Republics Break Away East Germany

• October 1989, huge demonstrations broke out in cities across East Germany in response to growing democracy elsewhere in Eastern Europe → Erich Honecker, party boss, lost authority w/ the party & resigned

• November 1989, Egon Krenz (new E. German leader) opened the Berlin Wall in an effort to restore stability

• Once the wall fell, Germany was reunified on October 3, 1990 w/ help from W. German Chancellor Helmut Kohl

Collapse of the USSR• March 1990, Lithuania declared its independence

→ Gorbachev ordered a blockade of the republic• January 1991 – Soviet troops attacked unarmed

civilians in Lithuania’s capital in a show of force • June 1991 - Boris Yeltsin is chosen to become

Russia’s first directly elected President• August 1991 – upset w/ reform, Soviet hard-liners

tried, but failed a coup attempt• Soon after the failed coup, Estonia & Latvia

declared their independence & other republics followed

• December 1991 - all 15 republics were independent

Yugoslavia

• 1980 – Josip Tito, the communist leader died → communist control gradually weakened

• Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic tried to assert Serbian leadership over Yugoslavia

• Slovenia & Croatia declared their independence

• June 1991, Serbia invaded (resulted in a UN ceasefire Jan. 1992)

Yugoslavia (cont)

• Feb 1992, Bosnia-Herzegovina declared independence (Bosnian Muslims 44% in favor, Croats 17% in favor, but Serbs 31% opposed)

• Bosnian Serbs launched a brutal war in March 1992 – they practiced ethnic cleansing to rid Bosnia of its Muslim population (approx. 200k people died & 2 million fled their homes)

• By 1995, Serbs controlled 70% of Bosnia

Yugoslavia (cont)• 25,000 UN troops were sent to keep peace,

distribute food & medical supplies• December 1995 the leaders signed a peace

treaty• September 1996 Bosnians elected a 3-person

presidency (one leader per ethnic group)• Late 1990s, Milosevic sent Yugoslav troops

against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo (Muslims)• After refusing a NATO peace plan, Milosevic

was arrested, put on trial & died of a heart attack March 2006

China Follows Its Own Path

MAO’S

REFORM

1st Five Year Plan1953-1957

• Industry grew 15% per year•Agricultural output grew slowly

Great Leap Forward1958-1962

•China suffered economic disaster (industrial declines & food shortages)•Mao lost influence

Cultural Revolution1966-1976

•Mao regained influence by backing radicals•Purges & conflicts among leaders created economic, social & political chaos•Moderates increasingly opposed radicals in Communist Party

Change for China

• After the failure of the Cultural Revolution, China entered a moderate period under Zhou Enlai in the early 1970s

• 1971 - Zhou invited an American table tennis team to China (1st visit to Communist China)

• US endorses mainland China’s entry to the UN• 1972 – Nixon goes to China → limited trade• 1979 – US & China have formal diplomatic relations

China Under Deng

• Mao & Zhou died in 1976• By 1980, Deng Xiaoping

emerges as leader• Four Modernizations – called

for progress in agriculture, industry, defense & science/technology– Eliminated communes & leased

land to peasants (food production 50%)

– Introduced limited capitalism to industry

– & promoted foreign trade

Effects of Economic Progress• As living standards improved, gap between the

rich and the poor widened• Students (educated in the West through

exchange programs) occupy Tiananmen Square (near the Imperial Palace in Beijing) for a protest regarding China’s lack of political freedom

• April 1989 – 100,000 students occupy the square

• Over time,1 million people joined the protest• Deng declared martial law & had 250k soldiers

surround Beijing

Tiananmen Square• Many students leave the square, but about

3,000 stay• The students set up a statue that resembled the

Statue of Liberty called the “Goddess of Democracy”

• June 4, 1989 – thousands of soldiers attacked the student demonstrators in the square & around Beijing → thousands of casualties

• The Chinese gov’t used the media to deny the attack, but the media had already broadcast the truth

China Today

• Deng died in 1997 after a long illness → Jiang Zemin became leader

• China continued to repress the pro-democracy movement

• Population growth → strained economy

• Human rights concerns continue

Hong Kong

• The Chinese adamant that Tibet, Xinjiang (once known in the West as Chinese Turkestan), and the Northeast (once known as Manchuria; for 15 years, it was converted by the Japanese into a separate kingdom) are part of China

• Hong Kong -- for 155 years a British colony – was returned to China on July 1, 1997 after China promised respect Hong Kong’s economic system and political liberties for 50 years (so is Macao)