Unit 6: The Contemporary World, 1900 – Present

1. Unit 6: The Contemporary World, 1900 – Present

2. MEXICOPorfirio Diaz = leader“ruled with an iron fist through an effective political machine” Mexican Revolution= 10-year civil was & political upheaval caused primarily by internal forces • Dictatorship since 1876 under Diaz • Economy was dependent on exports • Foreigners controlled large sector of economy • Hacienda system dominate certain regions of Mexico • Political system was corrupt • U.S. concerns owned 20% of Mexico’s territory • Growing nationalist resentment

3. MEXICAN REVOLUTION OF 1910CAUSES • Wide spread foreign control --> Growing nationalist resentment • Diaz won a rigged election over Francisco Madero by throwing him in jail. • When Madero was released he called for a revolt & a general rebellion developed • Former bandit and commander of north = Pancho Villa • Diaz was driven from power & Madero came into power • Madero’s programs continued to cause social problems

4. Emilano Zapata rose in revolt against Madero who was then assassinated • General Victoriano Huerta tried to impose a Diaz-type dictatorship • Villa and Zapata rose again w/ middle class against the govt. • 1914 Huerta was forced from power • Period of warfare followed with new leaders fighting over new regime • Villa and Zapata controlled home territories • General Alvaro Obregon emerged as leader of government Zapata & Villa Alvaro Obregon

5. Consequences • MEXICAN CONSTITUTION of 1917- promised lad reform, limited the foreign ownership of key resources, and guaranteed the rights of workers. • Attempted to “Indianize” the nation through secular schools that emphasized nationalism • Artists Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco recaptured past through murals • Mexico became a multipart democracy in theory but in reality the Party of the Institutionalized Revolution (PRI) controlled politics and maintained its hold on national political life

6. RUSSIACauses of War • Outbursts caused by wartime misery (painful food shortages) • Protests against incomplete rural reform & unresponsive political system • A council of workers (soviet) took over the city govt. and arrested tsar’s ministers • Alexander Kerensky = Russian revolutionary leader who was eager to see genuine parliamentary rule, religious and other freedoms, and a host of political and legal changes.

7. Stabilization • Construction of the powerful new army under the leadership of Leon Trotsky recruited able generals and masses of loyal conscripts RED ARMY • New Economic Policy = promised considerable freedom of action for small business owners & peasant land owners  reduced economic disarray • 1923 Bolshevik revolution was an accomplished fact • New capital: Moscow

8. USSR • New constitution set up federal system of soviet republics.  recognized by Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. • Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) = multinational character of the nation • The supreme soviet had many trappings of a parliament & was elected by universal suffrage • USSR’s attempts didn’t work out well because certain groups weren’t given distinct representation (jews) • Separate republics firmly controlled by the national communist parties and firmly centralized basic decisions caused the new nationality policy to be mixed

9. The soviet regime grappled with other key definitional issues in the 1920’s • Leader rivalries needed to be sorted out • Lenin became sick and died which made a leadership gap • Stalin= the Red Army’s flamboyant Trotsky & communist party stalwart of worker origins • Emerged as undisputed leader of soviet State • Represented a strongly nationalist version of communism • Collectivism = creation of large, state-run farms rather than individual holdings. Allowed more efficient control over peasants. STALIN’S ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL PLANNIING

10. CHINA PROBLEMS FOLLOWING FALL OF QING DYNASTY • Extended struggle over which leader or movement would be able to capture the mandate to rule the ancient society • Internal divisions & foreign influences  ultimate victory of communist party under MAO ZEDONG • Regional based military commanders dominated Chinese politics for the next three decades • Warlords combined into cliques • Most powerful clique =headed by Yuan Shikai in north China who hope to seize the vacated Manchu throne and found a new dynasty.

11. SUN YAT-SEN = head of Revolutionary Alliance, he was bankrolled by merchants and bankers of coastal cities • May Fourth Movement = aimed at transforming China into a liberal democracy. It was the day when resistance began • Confucianism was ridiculed & rejected in favor of western democracy • Program included speeches, pamphlets, novels, and newspaper articles. • Li Dahao= most influential of the thinkers who called for a reworking of Marxist ideology to fit China’s situation. • Placed heavy emphasis on its capacity for promoting renewal and its ability to harness energy and vitality of a nation’s youth • Characterized whole of Chinese society as proletarian • Oppressed Chinese as a whole needed to unite and rise up against their exploiters

12. Mao Zedong= Communist leader in revolutionary china • Advocated rural reform and role of peasantry • Influenced by Li Dazhao • Goumindang = Nationalist party which was to prove the communists’ great rival for the mandate to rule in China. It was struggling to survive in the south. • It attempted to consolidate power by unifying regional power bases • Also, sun and his followers attempted to unify the diverse political organizations by reorganizing the revolutionary movement and naming it the Nationalist part of China (the Guomindang) • Chiang Kai-shek = young, ambitious military officer who was the first head of the Whampoa Military Academy.