Revolution, Socialism and Global Conflict


Marxism’s path to the future: Interpretations of the work of nineteenth-century philosopher Karl Marx predicted a path to an egalitarian future utopia. Societies would industrialize under capitalism, then see revolutions that would take them through socialism and on to communism. This ideology was named after Marx, although he discussed the nature of capitalism and its history rather than spending much time thinking about the future. Communist revolutions in agrarian societies: Ironically, the revolutions that brought about so-called Marxist regimes happened in preindustrial agrarian societies such as Russia, China, Korea, Vietnam, and Cuba. This went against the actual theories of Karl Marx. Nonetheless, these revolutions and a few others established regimes that called themselves Marxist and communist. Communist parties outside of communist regimes: In Western Europe, the United States, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere, there were communist parties that ran candidates for elections. They were also part of the global communist movement. Internationalism: Communism was explicitly international and antinationalist. Nationalists and communists remained staunchly opposed political enemies in the twentieth century. Conflict among communist states: Yet when communist parties came to power, they began to act like typical states. Conflicts broke out between the USSR and the states it treated like colonies in Eastern Europe and between the USSR and the People’s Republic of China.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Colonial Encounters

Europeans had defined others largely in religious terms, now they adopted the idea and techniques of more “advanced” societies equals precedent by wealth, and used both to produce unsurpassed military power.   It’s not surprising that their opinions of other cultures dropped sharply. European eyes to the status of tribes led by chiefs as a means of emphasizing their “primitive” qualities. Still Europeans used the apparatus of science to support their racial preferences and prejudices. (Measure the size of the skull, white skull larger; therefore more advance and intelligent) Race in this view, determined human intelligence, moral development, and destiny. “Race is everything”. The sense of responsibility to the “weaker” races. Europeans had “duty to civilize the inferior races”. “Discipline and production for the market to the lazy natives”. Charles Darwin – “the survival of the fittest” led to the “social Darwinism” – destruction of backward races or “unfit” races. Second wa...
Read more

The End of Empire

Contradictions of the colonial empires: Major factors for the collapse of the colonial empires were the numerous contradictions between European ideals and the nature of colonial rule. How were Christians, heirs of the Enlightenment, and democratic states able to justify the stark injustices of colonial rule? A new international climate after WWII: Decolonization also saw some clear conjunctures of new forces after WWII. The war weakened Britain, France, and Holland, and the United Nations offered a new forum for arguing the anticolonial cause. Several of the colonizers began to prepare to divest themselves of their colonies but also to establish favorable postcolonial economic relationships. New elites challenge colonial rule: Several generations of Western rule had produced various new elites that could use their Western education, their military service for the colonizing power, and their knowledge of how to mobilize a mass-based nationalist party to challenge colonialism. A numbe...
Read more