Modern World History Final Exam Review

Common characteristics: open elections, equal votes, real choices, information free access, rule of law guaranteeing freedom. Ingredients: elected officials, free/fair/frequent elections, freedom of expression, multiple information sources, freedom of assembly, inclusive citizenship Essential conditions: civilian control of military and police, democratic political culture, no foreign intervention.

According to Wood (p2) what are common characteristics of democracy? What are the ingredients (p11)? What are the essential conditions (p12)?

Finding or establishing cheap sources for the raw materials such as colonies; hiring women, children, immigrants or minorities for cheap wages.

Cutting costs on labor is one way to reduce the investment and maximize profit. There several ways they did that (reduced the investment and maximized profit) in the 19th century. Identify 2.

Democracy

In 1978 the Chinese Communist Party announced the "Four Modernizations" policy. Carrying out this policy required the separation of the Party from government functions, particularly the bureaucracy, and delegation of authority to the local level as well as some recognition of private property. In 1979 and again in 1989 there were calls for a "Fifth Modernization" that was suppressed, yet China seemed in many ways to be moving in that direction. What was the "Fifth Modernization"?

It requires a wealthy landowning elite group to be willing to sell their land and give up the basis of their wealth and their eliteness.

In Africa, the US proposed a different method of land reform called "Willing sellers, able buyers" for plantations owned by white settlers. (See the Decolonization in Africa powerpoint) This method was applied in Zimbabwe, Rhodesia/Zambia, and Kenya. Why didn't this method work well?

Cacao beans (chocolate) Tobacco

Many early modern colonies were actually large trading posts, places merchants used as a base for trade with local natives before moving on with what they got. In the Americas, however, Europeans managed to establish agricultural colonies where they could grow lucrative cash crops that would not grow in Europe. Which of the following popular cash crops grown in the Americas were actually native to the Americas?

Lack of solidarity and popular will to participate and compromise

Match the reason for democratic failure: Indonesia

One-party state

Match the reason for democratic failure: Taiwan before 1985

Polarization of wealth, oligarchy of very wealthy families

Match the reason for democratic failure: The Philippines

Guatemala b Nicaraugua b, c Chile b, d Cuba a, b

Match the reason for democratic failure: a. One-party state b. Foreign domination and interference c. Popular ideology or group feared by current leaders d. Polarization of wealth

National capital consists of trade (export) value and hard currency (gold, silver, copper). The balance of trade is the export value minus the import value. A positive balance = export value > import value, meaning the value earned is higher than the value spent.

Mercantilism is a national economic system that aims to increase the national capital through a positive balance of trade. What is the "national capital" and what is a "positive balance of trade"?

In a one-party state, only one party, or one major party is allowed. There may be some other parties, but they are all aligned with the dominant party. In a one-party dominant state, there may be two or more major parties, but one party dominates by consistently winning

What is the difference between a one-party state and a one-party dominant state? What are the risks for democracy in a one-party dominant state?

Militarism required a large military with modern weapons, which meant more opportunities to join the military and more factories producing modern weapons and other military supplies, meaning also more jobs.

What opportunities did modern militarism provide the working class poor?

Land reform eliminates regional domination of landowning elites who may otherwise form an oligarchy that deters democratization and leans toward dictatorship. Land reform also provides an economic basis for developing social equality.

Why was land reform frequently important for successful democratization?

Raw materials, factory, machines and tools, labor, transport, marketing

A capitalist is a person who invests money to make more money, also called profit. What do industrial capitalists invest in?

The merchant used hard cash to buy the imports. Hard cash is difficult to replace, so this was a loss of national capital. Any profits the merchant made by selling the imports in his own country had no effect on the national capital except to collect more of it in the merchant's pocket.

A merchant who had trouble selling the trade value he took could buy commodities such as pepper, coffee, sugar, silk and cotton textiles, tea, porcelain, and spices using hard cash (usually silver and some copper) and profit immensely from selling those imports back home. Why would this merchant profit be a major loss for the national capital?

Special Economic Zones inviting foreign corporate capitalist investment were established in China. New Economic Zones encouraged farmers to combine farming with handicraft production in Vietnam. Later Vietnam also established Special Economic Zones and both encouraged free markets and private-public joint ventures.

After 1980 the People's Republic of China and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam carried out pragmatic reforms that led to both nations participating in the global capitalist economy. a. Describe one pragmatic reform carried out in China. b. Describe one pragmatic reform carried out in Vietnam.

A family wage is a wage sufficient to support a family.

As more commodities industrialized in the 19th century, more and more men found themselves looking for jobs as factory labor and they argued that men should be paid a "family wage". What is a "family wage"?

Modern militarism is a system in which monopoly capitalists use their political influence to use state military power to establish and defend sources of raw materials and cheap foods, and privileges in foreign markets making it easier to exploit them and sell excess manufactures. A large and strong military force with modern weapons is essential for militarism to be effective, so that means government investment in heavy industry to manufacture modern weapons, artillery and the other supplies required for a modern military. This investment requires, therefore, industrialization supported by the state, and therefore a short cut.

Discuss militarism and how it provided a short-cut for industrialization as well as solutions for the problems of mass production beginning with an explanation of militarism.

Nationalism is the desire of a people to form a nation and rule themselves, and ethnicity is usually the way they define themselves as a people with the assumption that ethnic characteristics of shared language, history, culture, values, and religion should form a cultural unity that allows the solidarity of the nation. The solidarity of this common national "ethnic" identity should mean that people care enough about the welfare and needs of the nation as a whole that they are willing to negotiate and compromise with various social and political groups within the nation in recognition and consideration of their needs. However, ethnicity can be defined both broadly and narrowly, and sometimes persuading people to accept broader definitions to encompass a nation is difficult. Some common substitutions that have been successful for creating national solidarity are religion or religious sect, ideology, and values.

Discuss nationalism and explain why a common national identity was essential for establishing democracy in the modern world. This identity was generally defined by ethnicity, but what is ethnicity and how is it defined, or what else could be used to define national identity?

Both Hardliners/Purists and Pragmatists agreed on the goal for their nation to become a prosperous egalitarian nation. Hardliners believe that this should be achieved together through cooperation and collective work to bring prosperity shared by all. Pragmatists were willing to use this method if it worked, but the large projects of collective work did not improve the economy. They are more willing to introduce more private property, individual incentives like bonuses, or some profit rewards, to allow some to find their way to become prosperous and pull the rest along with or after them. Some pragmatist policies and projects include: giving more authority to local government, encouraging private-public joint ventures with local communities instead of the state, the Agriculture Responsibility System, the Special Economic Zones.

Every Asian Communist society had Hardliners (called Purists in Vietnam) and Pragmatists. The Hardliners believe sincerely in Marxist Communist ideology and have the goal for their nation to become a true Communist utopia. The Pragmatists, however, have been in charge in China and Vietnam since the 1980s. What is their goal?

In the new Soviet Union of 1917, the state claimed ownership of all land and handed responsibility for confiscation and organization of collective farming of that land to the local land committees and soviets. Individuals could retain private ownership of their "garden plots" only. In China, however, young members of the Communist Part visited each local village and required the village community to claim control of the land owned by landlords who had land farmed by tenant farmers. The tenant farmers were encouraged to "struggle against" their landlords and air their grievances over how they were exploited before the village community, and then the community was responsible for redistribution of the land following basic guidelines. Peasants who owned farms they farmed themselves kept their farms. The landlords kept the land they farmed themselves. The remaining land was redistributed among the landless so that each farmer got his or her own plot.

How did China (PRC) and the Soviet Union differ in the way agricultural land was redistributed so that even poor and landless farmers got their own plots?

Cheap exotic foods reduce the price of food in general and therefore the cost of living. Capitalists can therefore pay moderately lower wages that nevertheless allow the proletarian workers to buy more and live comfortably.

How did the cheap exotic foods from colonial empires such as bananas, pineapples, sugar, chocolate, coffee, benefit both the wealthy capitalists and the proletarian workers?

Fascism

Identify the ideology represented by the following statement positions: "Democratic elections are little more than popularity contests. We need experts who understand the issues and have the expertise to know what best to do about them for the benefit of the whole society. Men are not equal, so they should contribute with what they are best at."

Democracy

Identify the ideology represented by the following statement positions: "Every man should have equal opportunity to be heard and we need to discuss and discover compromises that will take the needs and concerns of all into consideration"

Absolutism

Identify the ideology represented by the following statement positions: "I was chosen by God. I can do no wrong. Whatever I say is the law."

Conservatism

Identify the ideology represented by the following statement positions: "Men of elite families are much better educated and trained to think of the welfare of all, so of course they should be the political and economic leaders."

Socialism

Identify the ideology represented by the following statement positions: "Our society has enough wealth and resources for all, so it is not right that some should be homeless or starve despite working hard, while others have more than they can use because they were born to wealth."

Liberalism

Identify the ideology represented by the following statement positions: "People should be free to make and sell what they want without government interference and they will succeed or fail on their own merits and efforts."

Communism

Identify the ideology represented by the following statement positions: "We should share and share alike with all working together to contribute to the welfare of all as we live in an egalitarian society."

military protected markets raw materials

In modern militarism monopoly capitalists use their political influence to persuade the government to use its diplomatic and m_______ power to establish p________ m_________ and cheap sources of r__ m________ for their manufactures.

In this case the discussion refers to the plantations getting slave labor "for free". However, slaves were valuable assets, and their value was in their capacity to work. So, owning a slave meant somebody bought the slave. If the slaves cannot work because they are starving or ill, the value of the slave disappears, so the owners need to provide food, clothing, shelter and medical care to get the best value for their investment in owning a slave.

In recent months I have heard claims that slaves provided "free labor" to their owners. What is wrong with this claim? What were the costs of employing slave labor?

They were looking for ways to get to the Indian Ocean and Asian markets hoping to get better value for their exports by trading directly instead of depending on Middle Eastern merchants.

In the "Age of Exploration" what were European explorers looking for and how was this related to mercantilism?

In the modern "Communist" societies of China and Vietnam, the middle class merchants and especially the professionals are the wealthy and political elite, so instead of fighting to gain equality with a hereditary elite, they try to maintain their own elite status compared to the proletarian working class.

In the 18th-19th century Western world, the growth of a middle class of merchants and professionals rose up and demanded equality with the political elites of the time resulting in democratization. Why hasn't that happened in China or Vietnam?

The identification of Vietnam as a proletarian society exploited by capitalist imperialist France to enrich the French was exactly the Vietnamese experience of French colonialism. In addition, Communism offered a vision of an egalitarian and prosperous society that could be achieved by working together and this fit the Vietnamese historical experience while the Asian tradition of promoting the needs of the community as a way to achieving the needs of the individual fit Communist ideology.

In their fight for national independence, Vietnam chose to unify around Communist ideology following the Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist examples. What was the attraction of Communism for the Vietnamese and why did they begin by rejecting Western capitalism?

Since Russia was not an advanced capitalist society, the proletariat of factory workers were a small group without a lot of education, much less knowledge of Karl Marx or his ideology of Communism. So, Lenin believed that the Russian proletariat was not ready to spontaneously rise up as Marx predicted, but could rise and carry out a communist revolution if intellectuals who understood the ideology and the situation could lead them. A vanguard is a person or group that leads the way forward, so Lenin's proposal is called the "Intellectual vanguard thesis".

Instead of the proletariat spontaneously organizing to rise up against the capitalists, Lenin proposed the intellectual vanguard thesis. What was the intellectual vanguard thesis and how did it work?

Russia had a traditional communal organization called a soviet that Lenin believed could become the basis for forming a communist nation as a network of soviets. Moreover, soviets were appearing all over the place in 1917 when Lenin returned to Russia after the Tzar abdicated in the March Revolution. So, Lenin thought Russia could skip the capitalist stage and use the soviets as a building block to transforming Russia into a communist society.

Karl Marx predicted that the proletariat would unite against the capitalist class for a socialist or communist revolution in a wealthy, advanced capitalist society. Russia was not a wealthy capitalist society, so why did Lenin believe that Russia could become communist?

Lack of solidarity & Foreign interference Ethnic conflict and insecure government (lack of solidarity) immediately after independence led to foreign intervention in a military coup backed by the USA and dictatorship.

Like many other former colonies, Congo tried to democratize immediately after independence in 1959. Why did democracy fail in Congo resulting in dictatorship by 1970?

Because colonies produced raw materials, free trade between colony and metropole would cut the cost of raw materials.

Mercantilist systems focused on trying to export more commodities while protecting the national market from the effect of popular imports. Why did manufacturers in Western nations demand "free trade" between their nations and their colonies and how was this related to cutting costs for manufacturing?

Potatoes, tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant, kidney and black beans.

Name 2 vegetables native to the Americas that dramatically changed the European diet and European cuisine.

Lack of solidarity Lack of solidarity in this highly divisive society of many peoples and languages resulted in corruption as elected regional representatives acted to funnel benefits only to their own ethnic group, ignoring the rest of the peoples in their regions. This led to a breakdown of democracy in a military coup with vows to "clean up the corruption" and return to civilian democratic elections with again the same problems, a cycle that repeated many times 1960-1998.

Nigeria went through numerous attempts to democratize with elections followed almost immediately by a coup d'etat and dictatorship. This pattern elections - coup - dictatorship repeated many times during the first 40 years of independence. What was the main problem?

Merchants should be allowed to sell whatever they want (opium) wherever they want (in China) without restrictions.

One demand for "free trade" was related to the China trade and opium. What was this demand for "free trade"?

No, one-party states are frequently dictatorships with the party of the leader the only party allowed and elections designed to keep him in power. Therefore, one-party elections would not be considered free or fair because the people do not have a say.

Should a one-party state be considered a democracy? Why or why not? (Take some time to look up "one-party state" and think about your answers to question 1).

Captives in war were typically sold as slaves, as were criminals, and people living near the borders of warring societies were often kidnapped and sold as slaves. Poor families or individuals also sometimes sold themselves or a family member as slaves to ensure their survival when life was hard.

Slavery was a common feature of West African societies. What were some of the ways a person became a slave?

Industrialization and other projects were expensive. Egypt was persuaded to borrow the money for industrialization (buying the machines and getting set up) from British and French banks based on the assumption that modern industries would produce so much profit that repaying the debts would be easy. However, the treaties prevented Egypt from imposing tariffs to protect those industries, taxing Western merchants or collecting fees for use of the Suez Canal, so there was not enough profit from the new industries or the canal to repay the debts.

The British and French persuaded the king of Egypt that industrialization and modernization were essential. One important project was the Suez Canal. Why did industrialization, modernization and the Suez Canal (which was supposed to be profitable) send Egypt to near bankruptcy? (Hint: Egypt signed the same sort of treaty signed by Japan and China).

The British believed China was trying to protect her market and potential drain of national wealth from the popular opium imports. They thought it was unfair since they were buying huge amounts of tea from China and since selling opium to the Chinese was the only thing that they were able to get some amount of profit back.

The Chinese state banned opium as an illegal and dangerous narcotic in 1800. What was the British interpretation of this ban and why did British merchants believe it was unfair?

Mercantilism is mainly concerned with increasing the national capital with more hard cash (gold, silver, copper) and preventing its decrease. Foreign trade was really the only way to increase the amount of hard cash in the national capital, but there was so much potential profit for individual merchants from the foreign imports they brought back from Asia that merchants could potentially use a lot of hard cash to buy as much as possible, causing major losses of national capital instead of increasing it. The charter restrictions of the East India companies were important for fulfilling these goals of increasing the national capital and reducing the risk of its loss in several ways. The charter monopoly only allowed merchants from the nation of the charter who agreed to the charter restrictions to go to Asia to trade. Those merchants also agreed to use as little hard cash as possible in their trade, and they agreed to focus on earning the value of the imports they brought back by trading or selling the exports they took, or by finding other means to earn the value without using hard cash.

The East India charter companies were an example of a mercantilist strategy of some European nations. Explain how these charter companies fulfilled mercantilist goals. What were the concerns of mercantilism?

(Capitalists exploit the proletariat for profit. For Marx this was factory owners exploiting their workers for profit. For Lenin the Tzar was the major employer, so the Tzarist state exploited the workers for profit.) For the Chinese Communist Party, the capitalist imperialists exploited China as a proletarian society for profit. Li argued that imperialist powers like Britain, France, the Netherlands, the US, Russia, Germany, and Japan were exploiting China with the complicity and assistance of some Chinese capitalists and politicians. In Chinese society, he included landless tenant farmers as well as artisans in large workshops and the more traditional factory workers as the proletariat, but likewise argued that Chinese society as a whole could claim to be proletarian.

The March 4th Movement led to the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party. Warlord agrarian China, however, did not have much of a proletariat, so the Marxist formula - capitalists exploit the proletariat - had to be adjusted. For the Chinese Communist Party who were the capitalists that exploited what Chinese proletariat according to Li Dazhao?

They bought slaves from African merchants. The Portuguese specifically got most of their slaves from merchants of the Bakongo kingdom and other societies along the West coast of Africa.

The Portuguese established the trans-Atlantic slave trade beginning in the late 15th century. How did they get the slaves they transported across the Atlantic to sell or use as plantation labor growing cash crops?

Even though farmers got their own farms in the land reform, many didn't own the tools or farm animals, or have the family labor force to actually farm the land themselves. So in China, farmers started coming together in their villages to share the tools, farm animals and labor to farm their land together with each claiming the harvest on his or her own land. Some farmers didn't get as good a harvest on their land as the others because of geographical differences, or complained that some members weren't working as much as others, so in some groups they chose to pool ownership of their land to form collectives and be compensated according to the work they put into the land.

The Soviet state forced farmers, particularly in Ukraine, to form collectives. Why did Chinese farmers begin forming cooperatives and collectives on their own and what was the result?

There were 2 articles in the treaties considered unequal. 1) Extraterritoriality rights meant that Westerners in Asia could not be punished under Asian law. They were outside the law. 2) Tariffs were negotiated meaning that Asian nations could not protect their markets or new industries from a flood of cheap manufactures from Western nations.

The USA, Britain, Netherlands, France and Russia signed treaties with Japan and China that the Asian nations considered to be "unequal". What was "unequal" about them?

Slaves were separated or sold away from their kin or lineages, so slaves were understood to have no kin. This meant they took on the status and authority of their owners, representing their owners' will whether as farmer, artisan, merchant or monarch.

The enslaved included people in a variety of statuses, some who could be sold and others who could not. Discuss some of the status differences among slaves found in Africa?

promoting free trade

There are a number of mercantilist policies governments used to discourage consumers from buying popular imports and reducing the national capital. Which of the following were not such policies?

A popular ideology or group feared by current leaders Nasser carried out a land reform and various other social reforms that promoted equality and broke the power of the landed elites. However, Nasser and his successors were afraid of the popularity and power of the Muslim Brotherhood and tried political repression and suppression to try to eliminate their power, and they maintained a strict one-party state dictatorship. This strategy apparently did not work since in 2011 a candidate backed by the Muslim Brotherhood won the first democratic elections since Egypt's independence. A year later he was overthrown in a military coup d'etat.

Upon gaining independence, Egypt also tried to democratize under Gamal Nasser, but Nasser remained in power as dictator, followed by his Vice President Anwar Sadat, and his lieutenant Hosni Mubarak. Egypt tried again to democratize during the Arab Spring in 2011, but this too ended with dictatorship. What do you think has been the obstacle to Egypt's democratization?

No. Traditionally both men and women worked at home to produce things for themselves and for the market to bring income into the household.

Weren't women always housewives?

South Korea was a one-party state with a lack of freedom - of speech, of assembly, of choice.

What do you think delayed democratization in South Korea?

A metropole is a nation that has a colonial empire.

What is a metropole?

Replacement industry replaces a popular import product with the same or similar item produced locally. (Same for crops)

What is a replacement industry or replacement agriculture?

It is an ideology that imagines society as separated between the "pure people" and the "corrupt elite" and argues that politics should be an expression of the general will of the "pure people". It is risky because it often represents political extremism, either on the right or the left, and its tendency to develop a cult-like adoration of populist leaders can lead to dictatorship. In Argentina, populist leader Juan Perón had the support of the labor unions in promoting economic nationalism

What is populism and why is it risky? Discuss populism in Brazil or Argentina. (Wiesner-Hanks 31-32).

The "Leap" was a rapid increase in steel production as each collective tried to produce steel in "backyard" steel mills. Farmers melted down their older good tools to produce "better" ones, but the low-tech steel mills couldn't produce good quality steel so the new tools were brittle and easily broke Many GLF collective leaders ignored the farmers warnings that some of their efforts to increase the harvest would fail. political corruption

What was the "Leap" part of the Great Leap Forward? What were two reasons the Great Leap failed? (There were many.)

While they could, and originally did, attack merchant ships from other countries to steal their cash and trade value, or tried to raid or take control of popular ports to take over their trade and profits, these acts of piracy were risky and could result in great losses. More successful was providing services to local elites as a kind of trade value used to get what they wanted.

When East India Company merchants could not sell their trade value well enough to buy the commodities they wanted and were reluctant to use or didn't have enough hard cash with them to buy what they wanted, what other methods did they use to get the foreign commodities they knew they could profit on?

The CCP wanted the communities to participate with violence.

When Mao Zedong had rural villages carry out a land reform he required that all the villagers participate in the process. Which of the following was NOT true of the land reforms?

The Ottoman slave elite were the sultan's personal slaves, largely bought from families belonging to minority religions in the empire. They were elite in that they represented the authority of the sultan, their owner, and served as provincial governors and magistrates, as well as grand viziers, tax collectors, the police and the elite officers and troops in the Ottoman military. With the exception of those serving as police or in the military, they could marry, collect great wealth, own slaves of their own, and they children were free Muslims.

Who were the slave elite in the Ottoman Empire? In what way were they slaves and in what ways were they the elite of the empire?

Because if the men were paid a family wage, the extra money he would get would be more than his wife would ever get paid. So it was just better if the wife quit her low-paid job to become a housewife and let her husband go to work and get paid a family wage instead.

Why did the labor union protests of the mid-19th century, including demands that men should be paid a "family wage" contribute to the transformation of the Western family to a "breadwinner/housewife model" of family life?

These empires were networks of trading post colonies established through alliances or with the permission of local elites. They were not empires established by conquest, except when the Europeans supported the military ambitions of a local leader.

Why does Sharman call the early modern European trading empires "Empires of the Weak"? What was weak about them?