Archive | History

The tension of the Cold War seemed to have moved from Europe to East Asia. On October 1, 1949, the People’s Republic, under Mao Zedong, was proclaimed in China.

No part of the world escaped the effects of the Cold War. But up to 1949 the Cold War was mainly confined to Europe and the chief arena was in Germany.

There were deep-rooted ideological, economic and political differences between the United States and the Soviet Union before the Second World War.

After 1848, the Unification of Italy and that of Germany were significant political events and a total vindication of middle class nationalism. In Italy, Mazzinni, Cavour, Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel II were instrumental in forming the Italian State.

During the Napoleonic wars, States had fiercely defended their people, their frontiers, their identity and so national heroes and national symbols became an important part of the common man’s existence.

Power in international relations is defined in several different ways. Political scientists, historians, and practitioners of international relations (diplomats) have used the following concepts of political power:

The nationalist approach International context approach Domestic constraints approach. The Nationalist Approach in the nationalist view indigenous resistance and anti imperialist struggle led to independence.

From Mexico, the Spaniards expanded north into the southern portion of North America. In 1781 the Yuma rebellion thwarted Spanish expansion along the Colorado Valley into Arizona.

For explaining European military superiority over Afro-Asia in general and India in particular, most of the historians followed Edward Gibbon’s emphasis on gunpowder weapons.

British and French India, a difference that strikes one is the long and protracted negotiations for transfer of power in French India in contrast to the way the British quit India.

Decolonization refers to the undoing of colonialism, the unequal relation of polities whereby one people or nation establishes and maintains dependent territorial governments over another.

The French Revolution was like an explosion and a violent upheaval. Events like this often destroy many aspects of the past culture. The destructive experience of the revolution was not expected to give birth to durable creations but the Revolution of 1789 signifies an idea of fundamental change.

In the first stage both the objectives-the monopoly of trade and appropriation of government revenues-were rapidly fulfilled with the conquest first of Bengal and parts of south India and then the rest of India.

The first stage had two basic objectives. In order to make trade more profitable indigenously manufactured goods were to be bought cheap.

Historians often distinguish between two forms of colonialism, chiefly based on the number of people from the colonizing country who settle in the colony:

In the 19th century, India emerged as a major market for British manufactures and supplied food grains and raw materials. Opium from India was sold in China, enabling Britain’s triangular trade with China. Railways were a major area of investment of capital.