Ethnic Conflict Notes

Independence Movements

ASIA

India

Indian nationalists wanted independence from Great Britain beginning in the 1800s.
Mohandas Gandhi used passive resistance to try to get freedom.
Great Britain finally gave India independence in 1947.
There were many religious and ethnic conflicts in India.
Great Britain divided India into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan. This was known as the partition of India and Pakistan.
Sikhs (a blend of Islam and Hinduism) wanted self-rule.
There was, and still is, much violence in the partitioned India.
Jawaharlal Nehru was India’s first prime minister.
India became the world’s largest democracy.
Movements tried to change the strict social structure (caste system) with small changes.

Indochina -- Vietnam

France ruled Vietnam since the mid-1800s.
After World War II, Ho Chi Minh (leader of Vietminh, an alliance of nationalist and communist groups), declared Vietnam free.
Vietnam was divided into communist north and non-communist south in 1954.
Elections were to be held in 1956.
Ngo Dinh Diem, leader of South Vietnamese (America supported) did not hold elections, because he thought the Communists would win.
Ho Chi Minh, leader of the North Vietnamese (Communist, Vietcong) tried to overthrow Diem during the Vietnam War (1959-1975).
In 1975, the country was united under communist rule.

Indochina -- Cambodia

Helped the North Vietnamese and Vietcong during the Vietnam War.
Americans bombed and invaded Cambodia and then left.
Khmer Rouge, Cambodian communist guerrillas took control of the government.
Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge, began a reign of terror to remove western influence by killing more than a million Cambodians.
Vietnamese forces occupied Cambodia from 1979-early 1990s.
UN negotiated settlement and elections in early 1990s.

Indochina – Myanmar

Myanmar (Burma) belonged to the British from 1800s-mid-1900s.
By mid-190ss, there were lots of ethnic tensions, poverty, and it was ruled by a repressive military.
Opposition to the military party grew in the 1980s, led by Aung San Suu Kyi.
Aung San Suu Kyi won an election in 1990, but the military rejected the results and put Kyi under house arrest.

AFRICA

Concepts Behind African Independence Movements

1.Pan-Africanism

Pan-Africanism was a movement inside Africa feeding nationalist movements since the 1920s.
It advocated unity of Africans and people of African descent.
Many African nations gained independence after World War II.
WHY?

Africans fought in World War II.
Africans resented returning home second-class citizens.
Africans moved to cities during World War II and were exposed to nationalist ideas.
The Atlantic Charter (by Churchill and Roosevelt in 1941) wanted self-determination (independence) for all nations.

2.Boundaries

“Most of the current national boundaries in Africa were established during the colonial period by Europeans. Unfortunately, the boundaries were made without consideration for the traditional territories of tribal and ethnic groups. As a result, some ethnic groups were separated into different nations. Other ethnic groups were united within nations. Today, therefore, loyalty to one’s tribe is often stronger than loyalty to one’s nation.”

-- Global History and Geography, page 304

Ghana

Ghana (Gold Coast) was a British colony until 1957.
Before independence, Kwame Nkrumah (American-educated leader) was inspired by Pan-Africanism and Gandhi and organized a political party.
Nkrumah organized strikes and boycotts against British.
Nkrumah became prime minister and renamed the Gold Coast, Ghana.
Nkrumah created the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to promote Pan-Africanism.

Kenya

Britain controlled the colony of Kenya until 1963.
Jomo Kenyatta led the Kikuyu people and their struggle for independence.
Kenyatta was jailed after some Kikuyu became violent.
Kenyatta became Kenya’s first prime minister in 1963 when released.

Algeria

Algeria was a French colony with many Europeans and Muslims.
There were many fights between the French army and Algerian nationalists between 1954-1962, with thousands of deaths.
France granted independence in 1962.

South Africa

Europeans ruled South Africa from the 1500s until it won independence from Britain in 1910.
Still, white citizens controlled the government and economy.
To maintain this control, in 1948, the whites legalized the reparation of races with a system of apartheid.
Blacks and whites were separated in all aspects of life: neighborhoods, trains, beaches, schools, restrooms, and marriage.
Nelson Mandela was a leader of the African National Congress (ANC) who practiced nonviolent protest against apartheid.
Mandela was jailed from 1964-1990.
Desmond Tutu (a black Anglican bishop and civil rights leader) led other nations in limiting trade with South Africa, because of the apartheid.
F.W. de Klerk became president of South Africa in 1989 and repealed the segregation laws.
de Klerk released Mandela, who was elected president in 1994.

Dictatorships in Former Colonies

Cuba

From 1898, when Cuba gained independence from Spain, to 1952, Cuba was greatly influenced by the United States.
However, in 1952 a repressive and corrupt government under Fugencio Batista seized power.
Fidel Castro formed a guerrilla army and fought against Batista, overthrowing him in 1959.
Castro established a communist dictatorship and was heavily supported by the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War.

Panama

In the early 1900s, the Panama Canal was constructed to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
The U.S controlled the canal from 1914 to 1977, when it gradually gave complete control over to Panama by 2000.
However, in 1989, the U.S. invaded Panama and arrested its leader, Manuel Noriega.
The U.S. thought Noriega was helping cartels (criminal gangs) smuggle drugs into the U.S.
Since Noriega’s leaving Guatemala has experienced greater stability.

Guatemala

In 1954, Jacobo Arbenz was the leader of Guatemala.
The United States did not like Arbenz’s land reform program, because it threatened U.S. business activities in Guatemala.
The United States helped landowners and the military overthrow Arbenz.
A civil war broke out in Guatemala with thousands of indigenous Indians dying before the war ended in 1996.
A peace accord was signed, with the hope of rights for all Guatemalan citizens.

Argentina

Argentina was very wealthy before the depression of the 1930s.
Juan Peron, a former army colonel, became the leader of Argentina in 1946 after a military coup.
Peron believed in nationalism, supporting local manufacturers, and decreasing imports.
Peron increased wages, strengthened labor unions and social welfare programs.
BUT – Peron’s government was repressive and took the nation into huge debt.
Peron lost power through another military coup in 1955.
By 1976, a different military group took control of Argentina and terrorized leftist guerrilla groups.
This government conducted “dirty war” by arresting, torturing, and killing thousands of people . . . these people simply disappeared.
In 1983 the people of Argentina voted in a democratic government who worked to control the military and restore human rights.
However, economic hardships have continued to plaque Argentina.

Conflict in the Middle East

Creation of the State of Israel

1947 – Present

Jews (Israelites) vs. Arabs (Palestinians)

Jews had been migrating to Palestine since the late 1800s, and the numbers swelled following the Holocaust.
Jews and Palestinians both claimed Palestine as their homeland and fought violently to gain its possession.
The United Nations decided in 1947 to divide the British-controlled Palestine into a Jewish state and Palestinian state, much to the Palestinians dismay.
Jews claimed the new Israel and fought with Arabs over the land and independence . . . the Jews won and gained more land.
While Jews populated Israel, the Arabs became refugees and still wanted an Arab Palestinian state.
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), led by Yasir Arafat, used terrorist tactics and guerrilla warfare to fight the Israelites.
In 1987, Palestinians began an intifada (uprising) against Israeli soldiers.
Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed an agreement in 1993 to have limited self-rule of Palestinians in Gaza and Jericho.
Conflict and violence between the two groups erupts almost daily still.

Armenia

Ethnic tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan had been suppressed during the Cold War.

However, after the fall of communism, in the early 1990s, Armenia and Azerbaijan ethnic divisions resulted in open fighting.
Both nations fought over a small area in Azerbaijan where many Armenians lived.
Eventually Armenia gained control over the area.

Rwanda

Ethnic conflict led to genocide.
In 1994, Rwanda had a population of 7 million – 85% Hutu and 14% Tutsi.
Hutu extremists, supported by the government, launched an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Tutsis.
Between 500,000 and 1 million Tutsis were killed within a few months.
The genocide ended when a Tutsi-led rebel army seized control of the government.
The UN has set up an international war crimes tribunal to judge the worst acts of the genocide.

Bosnia

1990-Present

Yugoslav government (Serbs) vs. Bosnians and Albanians

Bosnia-Herzegovina separated from Yugoslavia and became independent after the fall of communism.
The Yugoslav government (Serbs) still wanted to control the area.
Much violence resulted in Bosnia between the Bosnians and Serbians.
The Serbians tried to remove the Bosnians and other non-Serbians by force.
Many Bosnians became refugees, were brutalized, and/or killed by the Serbians (ethnic cleansing).
By the 1990s, the Serbians were still trying to control the previous Yugoslavia area, and Albanians (the majority) in Kosovo wanted more power.
Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic (a Serb) began ethnic cleansing against the Albanians.
Milosevic refused a NATO peace plan.
NATO forces had to take military action against the Serbians (Yugoslavia) for fear of more ethnic cleansing.

Iraq

Iraq, under the leadership of Saddam Hussein, has been involved in several conflicts during the past few decades.
In 1980, Hussein’s military took over a disputed area between Iran and Iraq.
War broke out between the countries and they both attacked oil tankers in the Persian Gulf.
The U.S. then began protecting shipping lanes in the area.
The war ended in 1988 and created hardships for both countries.
Two years later, Iraq invaded Kuwait and claimed oil fields.
The U.S. saw this as a threat to Saudi Arabia and the flow of oil, so it organized a trade embargo on Iraq.
Peacekeeping forces went to Saudi Arabia to try to get Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait.
Iraq refused to withdraw in 1991 and the Persian Gulf War began.
The U.S. and its allies won quickly.
When the allies won, the UN required Iraq to destroy all its nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons and its missiles.
The UN conducted a series of inspections to insure compliance.
By the late 1990s, Hussein refused to allow the UN in Iraq any longer.
In response, the U.S. and Great Britain staged air strikes against Iraq and captured Hussein.
Today the U.S. is still a very active presence in Iraq and is rebuilding its government.

World Studies

Fall of Communism

Breakup of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

As Gorbachev loosened political restrictions, people began to exercise more rights.
Many Eastern European satellites declared independence by 1991, including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, East Germany, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria, and tried to start their own democracies.
Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Macedonia separated from Yugoslavia and became independent states.
The Soviet Union no longer existed.
Gorbachev resigned and Boris Yeltsin came into power.
Yeltsin tried to transform Russia from communist to democratic, but many problems occurred –
Command economy to market economy
Privatization of state-run farms
Food shortages and unemployment
Yeltsin retired in 1999 and Vladimir Putin was elected as President.
Putin now operates cooperatively with regional and world leaders.

Reunification of Germany

REMEMBER:
Since the end of World War II Germany was divided into a democratic West Germany and a communist East Germany.
The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 by Stalin to keep out any western influence.
As the Soviet Union began crumbling in the 1980s, East Germans wanted freedom and the Soviet Union was unable to help German leaders contain it.
The communist government was forced out of power by waves of protests.
In 1989, the Berlin Wall was torn down and East and West Germany were reunited.
Although Germans wanted to be reunified and all democratic, but there were problems in creating a market economy –
West Germans had to pay higher taxes to rebuild impoverished East Germany.
Unemployment rose in East Germany as they tried to transition to a market economy.
There was much social unrest and some right-wing groups tried to bring back Nazi ideologies.
The extremists attacked foreigners.