I have been writing all of the questions. You may write your own question and answer it. Choose a topic we studied this semester. What did you learn about that topic? Do NOT use a question like or very similar to ones the class has answered in previous blogs.
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ReplyDeleteSoumya Srivastava
ReplyDeleteWord Limit 300
How was the Manchurian Incident staged and how did the other countries react to it?
The Manchurian Incident was a staged event that gave Japan military the power to set up a puppet government in Manchuria. During 1920s the Japanese feared that unification of China under the Kuomintang party could interfere with Japanese interests in Manchuria. This was confirmed when Manchurian general Chang Hsüeh-liang refused to stop construction of railway and harbor facilities in competition with the South Manchurian Railway referring Japan to the Nationalist central government. When a bomb exploded on Japanese railway near Shenyang, the Japanese Kwantung army guarding the railway used this event as an excuse to occupy Manchuria, despite the opposition of the Japanese cabinet. When it was exposed, japan went into isolation and eventually withdrew from the League of Nation. However after Japan occupation of the Muncharia china had no help from the other countries. During this time, the fragile system of international order broke down as several major powers resorted to force to achieve their national goals and to settle real or imagined grievances. The Global Depression was especially significant in the sharpening the rivalries. Although contusing existence of the vast British and French empires seemed to offer those two imperial powers some economic protection against the worst ravages of depression. The depression contributed to the reluctance of the Western democracies to spend more on military preparedness thus weakening their ability to oppose aggression. All the countries just came off from WWI. Many of the countries had problem with inflation. They needed the money to either pay off debt or/and the money to repair the damages resulted from the war. They were in no position to offer any help. Britain was the only European country that could have offered help, but were unable to because they were too preoccupied by the events in the Pacific and there heavy involvement in India.
David Kassir
ReplyDeleteWhat was the League of Nations and why did it fail?
The League of Nations was an international organization set up in 1919 to help keep world peace. It failed because of the following reasons.
1.Not all countries joined the League.
Although the idea for the League of Nations had come from Woodrow Wilson, there was a change of government in the United States before the signing of the treaty and the new Republican government refused to join. As a punishment for having started World War One, Germany was not allowed to join and Russia was also excluded due to a growing fear of Communism. Other countries decided not to join and some joined but later left.
2.The League had no power.
The main weapon of the League was to ask member countries to stop trading with an aggressive country. However, this did not work because countries could still trade with non-member countries. When the world was hit by depression in the late 1920s countries were reluctant to lose trading partners to other non-member countries.
3.The League had no army.
Soldiers were to be supplied by member countries. However, countries were reluctant to get involved and risk provoking an aggressive country into taking direct action against them and failed to provide troops.
4.Unable to act quickly.
The Council of the League of Nations only met four times a year and decisions had to be agreed by all nations. When countries called for the League to intervene, the League had to set up an emergency meeting, hold discussions and gain the agreement of all members. This process meant that the League could not act quickly to stop an act of aggression.
Word Count: 284
Mao had reform camps. How did those reform camps work to keep Mao in power?
ReplyDeleteMao essentially had an ideal Chinese man and enforced this way of living upon the people. Those who went against him were sent to reform camps. He worked with and took advantage of human psychology in order to keep his power and show who was boss. How they worked was that people who are sent are made to do physical labor, enough to where they don't think of escaping along with some study of Mao's words and ideas. The next stage is reeducation. The accused are made to learn communist ideals and the words of Mao at a more rigorous level and work long hours along with that. The third stage is where the prisoners go through a mental breakdown where they battle with their own beliefs and what the country and society want them to believe. They go through a stage where they cannot handle the stress of hard labor and learning about the pros of Communism. The final stage is acceptance. They realize that the only way to get out of the camp is to go with the system. They simply just accept what is good for them and go along with it. Next the people are either released from the camp or are sent to continue their communist studies. Eventually, those people "graduate" and are deemed suitable to integrate with the rest of Chinese society.
Reina Wong
250 words
What made Mao Zedong's five year plan both efficient and inefficient?
ReplyDelete- what made this plan efficient was that the five year plan its main objective of the first was to achieve a high rate of economic growth, emphasizing industrial development over agricultural development with a concentration on heavy industry and capital-intensive technologies. The Chinese government was aided in this plan by the Soviets, who sent large numbers of scientists, engineers, and construction experts to assist development. The government also proceeded with its plans to nationalize industry, and no privately owned industries remained in the PRC.
During the first five-year plan, the further collectivization of agriculture was also encouraged by the PRC. By 1967, most of the farmers had joined advanced agricultural collectives. During the five-year plan, agricultural output increased by a year, and industrial output increased yearly. However, successful the five-year plan was, Mao Zedong and other Chinese leaders were unhappy with the disparity in growth between the agricultural and industrial sectors, inefficiency, and inflexibility. They believed that the Soviet-style economic development might not be appropriate for China.
Mao's intentions as a leader was originally to benefit the lower class but in reality it was to benefit the imagery of china therefore making this five year plan inefficient and reducing the health of the lower class. The five year plan did not fully reach its great potential it had many weaknesses such as they way that it was directed and it also was not as productive as it could have been according to the leaders of China, Mao strive to create respect and equality for his country from the rest of the world to prove that they were a strong nation.
word count. 282