The Cold war and American foreign policy

The Second World War had led to the allied powers join forces with the Soviet Union and USA in their fight against the fascist regimes of Italy and Germany in Europe and Japanese expansionism in Asia. But by 1945 major fighting in the European theater and Pacific theater began to come to an end. World War II in Europe ended with the defeat of Nazi Germany by the Allied powers in May 1945.In August 1945 with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan by USA the Second World War finally came to an end. In the final stages of the Second World War relations between the USA and the Soviet Union began to fall apart.

The Yalta conference and the Potsdam conference took place in the final stages of WW II.The Yalta conference was a major event in the Cold War. It was attended by Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. Neither side trusted the other and Stalin was of the belief that Britain and USA delayed the Normandy invasion and Allied invasion of Italy to cause the Soviet army to struggle alone against Nazi Germany.

The Potsdam conference of 1945 was attended by Harry Truman, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. Truman had just replaced Roosevelt as President of the United States. The purpose of the conference was to discuss the post war reorganization of Europe and peace treaty issues. It was at the Potsdam conference that Truman made Stalin aware of the atomic bomb program (Manhattan project) and that the Americans had developed the world’s first atomic bomb. Both Truman and Stalin were suspicious of each other’s intentions and it was at the Potsdam conference that the Cold War started.

The nuclear arms race between the USA and the Soviet Union and the ideological incompatibility were the main features   of the Cold war. The USA had stockpiled a large arsenal of nuclear weapons and it was the only nation in the world to have used nuclear weapons in warfare. In response to this the Soviet Union conducted its first nuclear test in August 1949 which further led to rivalry, distrust and suspicion between the two nations. By the 1950s both countries had developed enough nuclear weapons to destroy the other. Their rivalry also extended to the space race when in 1957 the Soviet Union successfully launched its first satellite Sputnik and sent the first human to space in 1961.In a similar move America made its first landing on the moon in July 1969.

Ideological incompatibility was another feature of the Cold war. The USA had a capitalist economy and the Soviet Union had a communist economy. The Russian revolution of 1917 had transformed Russia in to a communist nation while the United States was a modern liberal democracy based on the principles of individualism. Capitalism believes in the private ownership of property and free trade while communism advocates the control of state over the means of production.

American foreign policy during the Cold War wanted to contain the spread of communism and its spread by the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union had already expanded its sphere of communism in Korea, China, Vietnam and Eastern Europe. In 1948 America started the Marshall plan to help the countries of Western Europe in their economic recovery following the destruction of Second World War.President Harry Truman approved the Marshall plan  in 1948 and aid was given to Britain,France,Belgium and other West European countries.

On the military front the United States signed the NATO pact in 1949 with the countries of Western Europe .to provide them military aid in the case of a Soviet attack. To counter this the Soviet Union signed the Warsaw Pact with the countries of Eastern Europe in 1955.The high points of the Cold War were the Cuban Missile crisis of 1962, the 1950-53 Korean war, the 1956 Suez crisis, the Vietnam War, the Berlin blockade of 1948-49 and the Berlin crisis of 1961.The Soviet Union and the US also competed for influence in Latin America and the Middle East

By the early 1970s the USSR and US entered a period of détente (French word for easing of relations) when relations between the USSR and the US began to improve. However things took a turn with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 which again led to a strain in relations. By the early 1980s Mikhail Gorbachev emerged as a prominent figure in the USSR. He withdrew from the Soviet Afghan war and both Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to reduce their nuclear weapons and end the Cold War.Domestically, he embarked on a policy of Glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring).

The various Eastern bloc nations broke away from the Soviet Union in 1991 and this finally led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of Cold War. The fall of Berlin wall in 1989 led to the reunification of Germany.Following the end of Cold War the United States emerged as the sole superpower in the world.The United States had to intervene militarily in the 1991 Kuwait war when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. A coalition of American and British forces defeated Iraq in the 1991 Gulf war. America launched an invasion of Iraq in 2003 and ousted Saddam Hussein from power. A new threat has emerged in the form of terrorism and America has been fighting this menace in the present times.

The beginning of European colonization in India

The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 blocked the passage of Europe to Asia. The European powers began to find alternative routes to reach Asia from Europe. The four major European powers were the Portuguese, Dutch, British and French which subsequently held colonial possessions in India. The European powers initially were only concerned in trade with India but in the 18^th century with the disintegration of the Mughal Empire the Portuguese, French and British fought among themselves for the control of India. In the end the British became the masters of the whole of India by defeating the Portuguese, Dutch and the French.

The Portuguese were the first to come to India for trade and established factories and colonial posts in India. The Portuguese under the command of Vasco da Gama arrived at Calicut in May 1498. Having arrived there he obtained permission from the Zamorin of Calicut to trade with India. Subsequently the Portuguese established settlements at Quilon, Daman, Diu, Goa and Mumbai. Goa was their chief possession and it was ultimately taken over by India. From Portugal in 1961.The Portuguese promoted Catholicism and the Jesuit missionaries played an active role in the conversion of Indians to Christianity.

The Dutch East India Company was established on 20^th March 1602 to trade with Mughal India. By the end of the 16^th century and the beginning of the 17^th century  the Mughal empire under Akbar had ushered in a period of rapid economic growth and the Bengal subah was the most developed  province of Mughal India from which 50% of textiles and 80% of silk were imported. The Dutch controlled the Malabar Coast of India and established trading posts at Pallipuram, Cochin, Quilon, Cannanore and Surat.They conquered Ceylon (Srilanka) from the Portuguese. The Dutch did not play a major role and later they were expelled from India by the Mughals in the 17^th century.

It was finally the British and the French who competed for dominance over India. The East India Company (EIC) was started in 1600 in England by a charter given by Queen Elizabeth I to trade with India. In 1608 the Company sent its representative Captain William Hawkins to the Mughal emperor Jahangir to set up settlement at Surat .They were initially refused by Jahangir but later in 1609 Jahangir gave a Farman (royal order) to establish a factory at Surat. Factories were established at Surat and Masulipatnam. In 1615, Sir Thomas Roe visited Jahangir and received a farman to carry free trade and got exemption from inland toll. During the rule of Aurangzeb royal farman was issued which exempted the EIC to pay custom duties in Bengal. In 1700, the EIC built a fort called Fort Williams in Calcutta. In 1717, the Mughal emperor Farruksiyar gave a royal farman giving trade concessions to the British.

The French East India Company was set up in 1664 during the reign of Louis XIV.The first French settlement was established at Surat (1668) and second at Masulipatnam (1669).Other settlements were Chandranagar and Pondicherry. The French intensified their territorial conquests in India in the mid 18^th century.

After the death of Aurangzeb in 1707 and the defeat of the Maratha empire at the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761 the British and the French changed their motives  from commercial to territorial expansion .They began to meddle in the internal politics of India. In the later 18^th century Great Britain and France struggled for dominance in India. In 1757 Siraj ud Daulah was the Nawab of Bengal and Mir Jafar  his commander in chief. The British wanted to seize control of Bengal .Hence they bribed Mir Jafar in the Battle of Plassey fought on 23^rd June 1757 in which Robert Clive and the British East India Company defeated Siraj ud Daulah and installed Mir Jafar as the Nawab of Bengal. After Mir  Jafar became the new  Nawab of  Bengal the British made him a puppet ruler. Mir Qasim(son in law of Mir Jafar) got the support of the British  to become the new Nawab and under the pressure of the British Mir Jafar decided to resign in favour of Mir Qasim. An alliance of Mir Qasim, Shah Alam II and Shuja ud Daula fought the battle of Buxar in 1764 with the British under Robert Clive as they believed that the British were misusing the farmans issued to them by Mir Qasim..With this the province of Bengal was conquered by the British.

After this the British turned their attention towards the Marathas. After the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761 the Maratha Empire was in decline which gave an opportunity to the British to interfere in the internal politics of the Marathas leading to the First and Second Anglo Maratha wars. In the Third Anglo Maratha war the British defeated the Marathas in 1818.

The Kingdom of Mysore existed in south India. The French allied themselves with the rulers of Mysore and later Hyder Ali and  his son Tipu Sultan fought four wars with the British which came to be known a s the Anglo Mysore wars. In the Fourth Anglo Mysore War Tipu Sultan was killed in 1799 at the siege of Seringapatam and the Kingdom of Mysore was annexed by the British.

Finally in the 19^th century the British defeated the Sikhs in the Second Anglo Sikh war. In the First Anglo Sikh war the Sikh Empire defeated the British and the treaty of Lahore was signed in 1846.However, the British continued to interfere in the internal matters of the Sikh empire which led to the outbreak of the Second Anglo Sikh war in 1848.The Sikh empire was defeated and subsequently Punjab was annexed by the British. 

The British started as traders in the Mughal Empire but they took advantage of the weakness and disunity of the Indian rulers in the 18^th century to fulfill their territorial ambitions in India and ruled the country for over 200 years.

The French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte

The French revolution (1789-1799) was a turning point in the history of modern Europe that started in 1789 and ended in the late 1790s. By the late 18^th century France was in crisis due to the despotic rule of King Louis XVI of the Bourbon dynasty. During this period the people of France revolted against absolute monarchy and the feudal nature of French nobility. The ideals of equality before the law and Enlightenment inspired a change in the French society. The Revolution overthrew the monarchy and replaced it with a republic. The Revolution eventually culminated in a dictatorship under Napoleon Bonaparte.

The causes of the French Revolution  were a series of bad harvests coupled with Louis XVI costly wars, rising social and economic inequality, political ideals inspired by enlightenment, economic mismanagement and droughts and overtaxed peasants. The ‘Ancien Regime’ or the French social and political system of the Bourbon dynasty ruled over France in the 18^th century. The social and political structure of the French society was characterized by feudalism and absolutism. In 1774 Louis XVI ascended the throne of France in the middle of a financial crisis in which France was suffering from budget deficit and bankruptcy due to France’s costly involvement in the Seven Years war and later the American Revolutionary War. The king proposed reforms to deal with the poor economic condition of France but the clergy and the nobles did not want to lose any of their privileges.

The Estates General was composed of the clergy, nobility and the common people. The clergy and the nobility which comprised of the first and the second Estates did not pay any taxes whereas the third Estate which comprised of peasants and ordinary citizens had to bear the brunt of taxes. The rule of King Louis XVI was absolute since he believed in the divine rights of kings. The king convened a meeting of the Estates General in Versailles on 5^th May 1789 but the nobles and the clergy were not in favor of any reforms. The Third Estate met at the Tennis Court in June 1789 and wanted popular sovereignty in France leading up to the overthrow of Louis XVI beginning with the storming of the Bastille prison on 14^th July 1789 till the execution of Louis XVI and his queen Marie Antoinette by the revolutionaries in 1792. The people of France formed a National Constituent Assembly and abolished privileges and feudalism in France. Also the tithe (a 10% tax for the church) gathered by the clergy was also abolished.

On 26^th August 1789 the Assembly published the Declaration of the rights of Man and of the Citizen. The Revolution caused a massive shift of power from the Roman Catholic Church to the state. Under the Ancien Regime the Church had been the largest landowner in the country owning about 10% of the land. The growing resentment of the people of France towards the Church led to a decline in religion in France. The first French Republic was proclaimed on 10^th August 1792. This period signalled the end of monarchy, the establishment of the National convention and the Reign of Terror and the subsequent rise of Napoleon Bonaparte to power in France. In 1792 and 1793 Paris was plagued by discontent due to food shortages which led to the Reign of terror in France. The Reign of terror (1793-1794) was a period of massacres and numerous public executions which took place as a response to anticlerical resentment in France initiated by Maximilian Robespierre. He was ultimately executed by the revolutionaries. Meanwhile, France was engaged in the French Revolutionary wars with Britain and other European powers. In this scene, Napoleon Bonaparte, a statesman and military leader rose to prominence in France in 1799. He became the emperor of the first French Republic in 1804 after seizing political power in a 1799 coup’d’etat. Napoleon conquered every European state and he was unchallenged in the battlefield. However, his military successes suffered a reversal and he was forced to abdicate. He went on exile in Elba, a Mediterranean island off the coast of Italy. On February 26, 1815 he returned to France once again and gathered forces against a coalition of Austria, Britain, Prussia and Russia. However, in June 1815 the French were crushed by the British at the battle of Waterloo. In October 1815, Napoleon was once again exiled to the island of Saint Helena where he died on May 5, 1821.

History reads.

Hi Everyone,

Do check the link below.

Title: Ancient and Medieval India Paperback 

Author: Poonam Dalal Dahiya

Book Review

Hi Everyone,

Book Review

Title:  The Penguin History of Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300

Author: Romila Thapar

Review:

The book begins by a survey of the prehistory of India,the Indus Valley civilization, the vedic age, the rise of Buddhism and  Jainism, the formation of states and kingdoms and the cultural history of ancient India.

The book is written by an eminent historian in which the author explores the development of various schools of historiography in India. The author gives an insight about the rise and fall of Indian kingdoms and their causes. It also discusses about the social, economic and political conditions in ancient India.

The author also gives us a brief overview of the transition from ancient to early medieval India.She also notes about the progress in Indian art and  architecture during the ancient period.It also gives us information about the cultural history of ancient India.

The language used by the author is simple and lucid.

Rating: 3/5

Note: The book reviews are my personal and not sponsored.