Matthew Chou

After World War II, it drove India towards its independence. The partition of the Indian subcontinent inflamed tensions between the Hindus and Muslims as a result of gaining Independence from Britain. Gandhi transformed the India Congress Party into a mass independent movement. The Muslim League feared the Hindu domination of India and wanted to make a separate state for Muslims. Before then, there were religious hatred between the Muslims and Hindus, leading to many deaths on both sides. Although Gandhi opposed partition, eventually both sides accepted partition in 1947, which lead to more massacres and tensions between the two groups. The effects of the Communist victory in the Chinese civil war made a extremely popular land reform, in which the government sized holdings of landlords and peasants were distributed to millions of poor peasants and laborers. In addition, Communists initiated mass arrests, forced labor camps, and education through propagan da, along with reuniting Chinas millions of inhabitants in a strong centralized state. During the Great Leap Forward, Mao made an attempt to modernize China and make a new socialist personality that rejected individualism by initiating industrial production under quotas and forcing people to work in communes. However, millions died because of famine. Mao Zedong used the Cultural Revolution to revive the spirit of the communist revolution by organizing an army called the Red Guards, which practiced rebellion. Many professors, intellectuals, and party officials were exiled for heavy labor, while others who did not support Maos ideas were executed, and as a result 8 million people were executed. However, after Maos death in 1976, there were movements for hum an rights, such as the Tiananmen Square protests, but were halted by the Chinese Army. After World War II, Japan was occupied by the United States. The United States introduced democratic reforms with the support of liberal Japanese. A New Constitution was formed with the Bill of Rights, which granted basic civil liberties and freed political prisoners. In addition, rapid economic growth increased living standards, and Japan developed a system of managed capitalism. These Social and economic reforms promoted the labor movement and Japanese women were emancipated. Land reforms also brought redistribution of land to peasants. The Emperor at the time, Emperor Hirohito was allowed to remain as a figurehead. In 1945, decolonization was the prevailing tendency because of their reaction against Western imperialism and the growth of African nationalism. This was because Africas multiplicity of ethnic groups complicated the development of political and nationalism. A system of apartheid existed in South Africa until the 1990s because the government was controlled by white people who refused to let native Africans participate in the government. In the 1990s there was political reform in which political protestors rose up, resulting the end of apartheid.

Matthew Chou

At first, the Jews demanded that the British permit all the survivors of Hitlers death corps to settle in Palestine. Jews accepted partition, but Arabs rejected, leading to the IsraeliPalestinian conflict. In the Suez Canal Crisis, Nasser, helped nationalize the Suez Canal, which made the French and British outraged, and it ran their forces out, displaying the weakening of European power and influence in the Middle East. However, the Arab World was still divided.