Asia in the 20th Century

AP World History

Presentation Outline

1) China2) East Asia (Korea, Japan, Taiwan)3) India4) Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the

Philippines)

1)China in the 20th Century

1) The rise of the Kuomintang2) The Chinese Civil War3) Mao and the People’s Republic of China4) China since Deng Xiaoping

Rise of the Kuomintang

• After Sun Yat-sen’s 1911 revolution China became politically destabilized

• From 1916- 1928 China was divided by warlords

• With the conclusion of the Northern Expedition in 1928, the Kuomintang create centralized rule throughout most of China

• From 1928- 1949 Chiang Kai Shek’s Kuomintang ruled China from the new capital in Nanjing

• Chiang was a military dictator who favored close ties with the West, modernization, and industrialization

Chiang Kai Shek

Shanghai: mid 1930s

Chinese Civil WarFirst Civil War 1927-1937• Broke out around the time of the Northern Expedition• Mao led communist insurgents• Suffered many casualties and defeats• Regrouped forces during Long March (1934-5)

Sino-Japanese War 1937-1945• Temporary alliance to fight against Japanese forces• Chiang relocated capital to Chongqing• Communists did the lion share of the fighting against the Japanese

Second Civil War 1945-1949• Hostilities broke out after Japanese surrender• Chiang had superior supplies, professional army, and American support• Mao had the support of the peasants and won several decisive victories• Chiang and his government fled to Taiwan

Chiang and Mao standing together during their alliance against Japan

Mao and his forces during the Long March

Japanese troops marching through Shanghai

Japanese occupation was harsh and included numerous atrocities, most notably the Rape of Nanking

Mao and the People’s Republic of China, 1949-1976• After defeating Kuomintang Mao proclaims Communist Republic in 1949• Establishes totalitarian one party state

1957-8 Great Leap Forward• Massive program to increase agricultural and industrial production• Failed and led to 1960 Great Famine

1960-1989 Sino Soviet Split• Ideological differences led to a major split between Beijing and Moscow• Mao pursued more radical Communist policies while the Soviet Union focused on easing tensions with the

West

1966-69 Cultural Revolution• Political campaign initiated by Mao to eliminate capitalist and Western ideas and his enemies in the Party• Championed by students and their “little read books”• Resulted in economic ruin, international isolation, countless executions and imprisonments

Collectivization of agriculture: Chinese peasants working on a collective during the Great Leap Forward Chinese students with their little red books

chanting slogans during the Cultural Revolution

China since Deng Xiaoping, 1978-present• After a power struggle Deng assumed the position of paramount leader in 1978• Made several reforms which transformed communist China and ended its

period of isolationism

Education/Legal reforms:• Reintroduced state examinations and technical education• 1983 Constitution• 1979 Legal Code

Economic reforms• Creation of Special Economic Zones (SEZs)• Encouragement of foreign investment• Dismantling of the commune system• Increased privatization

Despite reforms China has remained authoritarian and the regime has opposed democratization, most notably during the 1989 Tiananmen Square crack down

1989 Tiananmen Square student demonstrations

2)East Asia in the 20th Century

1) Japan at war2) Post-war Japan3) Taiwan4) The Korean peninsula

Japan at War• Japan was a major imperial power by the early 1930s

• Occupied: Northern China (Manchuria), Korean peninsula, and Taiwan

• Japan’s was ruled by a military dictatorship in the name of its emperor Hirohito

• Focused on expansion and acquisition of raw materials through conquest

• Conquered much of East and Southeast Asia during the 1930s and 1940s

• Drew the U.S. into a war by bombing Pearl Harbour in 1941

• Experienced setbacks in naval battles in the Pacific (Midway 1942)

• Army committed atrocities throughout Asia

• Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki led to Japanese surrender in August, 1945

Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941

Japanese General Umezu signs Japan’s unconditional surrender on September 2, 1945 aboard the USS Missouri

Post-war Japan

• US occupation • Japan implemented a democratic and

pacifist constitution• Government focused on rebuilding the

economy• Japan became one of the most import

export-driven economies in the world, enjoying a boom period from the 1960s to early 1990s

Japanese consumer products from the 1960s on display

Taiwan

• Under Japanese occupation until 1945• since 1945 has been under control of Kuomintang

(nationalists)• Chiang’s forces lost Chinese civil war and fled to Taiwan• From 1949 to 1975 Chiang ruled Taiwan as a military dictator• A multi-party democratic system emerged in the 1980s• Like Japan, Taiwan has become an export-driven economy

President Chiang Kai Shek

The Korean peninsula• Under Japanese occupation from 1910 to 1945• Divided between Communist (North) and Capitalist (South) spheres in

1945• North Korea invaded the South in 1950 triggering the Korean War (1950-

1953)• U.N. forces led by USA pushed back North Korean advances• Ceasefire declared, peninsula divided at 38th parallel

North Korea• Established by Kim Il-Sung• Communist and totalitarian

South Korea• Pro-US military dictatorship until 1980s• Multi-party democracy emerged in 1980s• Export-driven powerhouse economy

3) India in the 20th Century

1) The Indian independence movement2) The Partition of India3) Modern India4) Modern Pakistan5) Modern Bangladesh

• India had been ruled by the British Raj since the mid 1800s

• In the early 1920s Mohandas Ghandi established the non-cooperation movement, whose goal was to achieve self-rule for India through non-violent means

Ghandi’s non-cooperation took the form of civil disobedience• Burning of foreign clothes • Salt March to protest the British salt monopoly• Fasts

• The leader of the Muslim League (Muhamad Jinnah) joined Gandhi’s Congress Party in opposing British colonial rule

Indian independence movement

(Satyagraha):

Jinnah and Gandhi united in their opposition to the British Raj

Gandhi spinning yarn. Gandhi refused to wear British clothing and urged Indians to make their own clothes- major form of satyagraha

Ghandi and his supporters march to the coast to collect salt in violation of the British Salt Act

The partition of India• Throughout the 1940s tensions were building

between Muslims and Hindus• Gandhi wanted a unified independent India• But Muhammad Jinnah and the Muslim League

wanted protection for Muslims and the creation of a separate Muslim state (Pakistan)

• In June, 1947 the British partioned India into two states: India with a Hindu majority, and Pakistan with a Muslim majority

• Chaos, violent retributions, and massive resettlements of Hindu and Muslim populations resulted

• Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu radical

Scenes of violence during the Partition with Hindus killing Muslims and Muslims killing Hindus

Modern India• Achieved independence in 1947• Became a republic in 1950• Multi-party democratic state• National Congress Party has dominated the government

since independence• Notable Prime Ministers include: Jawaharlal Nehru(1947-

1964), and Indira Gandhi (1966-1977, and 1980-1984)• Indira was assassinated in 1984 by two Sikh bodyguards• During the Cold War India led the non-aligned movement• Has recently become an economic powerhouse

Prime Minster Indira Gandhi (Nehru’s daughter)

Modern Pakistan

• Achieved independence in 1947 and was a British dominion• Became an Islamic republic in 1956• Has alternated between military dictatorship and limited democracy• US ally during the Cold War• Has been at war with India over Kashmir since independence• Has fought several border skirmishes and battles with India since independence• East Pakistan revolted and separated from Pakistan in 1971, creating the state

of Bangladesh• Pakistan continues to be a major leader in the Muslim world

4) Southeast Asia in the 20th Century1) French Indochina2) Vietnam 1954- present3) Cambodia4) Malaysia 5) Indonesia6) Philippines

French Indochina

• From 1887-1954 Indochina (Vietnam, Lao, and Cambodia) was under French control

• Vietnam had several rubber plantations• From 1945-1954 The North Vietnamese (Viets) fought the French

army• The Viets scored a decisive victory against the French at the

Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954• The Geneva Agreements (1954) divided North (communist) and

South Vietnam(capitalist/American backed) along the 18th parallel• Along with the two Vietnamese states, Lao and Cambodia

became independent• The French withdrew from Indochina

Viet celebrate over a downed French plane

Vietnam 1954- present• Soon after the French withdrew tensions between the North and South began

emerging

• The Soviet Union and China backed the North, while the Americans supported the South Vietnamese regime

War in Vietnam

• The North Vietnamese encouraged the Vietcong (communist) insurgents to attack the South Vietnamese regime

• North leader Ho Chi Minh wanted a unified Vietnam free of colonial or foreign control

• By the mid 1960s the war had escalated with the deployment of a large scale American force in Vietnam

• US soldiers and their South Vietnamese allies battled the Vietcong and the North for nearly a decade until a ceasefire and peace agreement was achieved in 1973

• In 1975 the North took advantage of the departure of Richard Nixon (Watergate) scandal and invaded the South- Saigon fell in 1975 and the country was unified

North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh

• Vietnam was internationally isolated for most of the 1970s and 1980s maintaining relations only with the Communist East Bloc and Soviet Union• In the early 1990s, Vietnam (like China under

Deng) initiated market reforms and established trade and diplomatic relations with most of the world’s countries

The evacuation of the US embassy in Saigon, 1975

Cambodia• Cambodia gained independence from France in 1953

• From 1953 to 1975 Cambodia was ruled by King Sihanouk as a constitutional monarchy

• Cambodia was drawn into the Vietnam War as the communists used the countryside as a base of operations

• President Nixon also ordered the bombing of the Cambodian border

• From 1975-1979 the Khmer Rouge (radical communists) controlled Cambodia and implemented radical measures such as forced collectivization

• During the Khmer regime over a million Cambodians died during the Cambodian genocide- Killing Fields

• In 1979 the Vietnamese Army invaded and deposed the Khmer Rouge

• Since the early 1980s Cambodia has had a constitutional monarchy and has implemented democratic and market reforms- though remains relatively impoverished

Khmer Rouge guard shouting out orders.

Cambodian man walks past killing fields.

Malaysia

• From the mid 1800s until 1960 Malaysia and Singapore were ruled by the British as Malaya and British Borneo

• From 1948-1960 British and Commonwealth troops were deployed to suppress the Malay Communist uprising which aimed to kick the British out of Malaysia

• Malaysia was eventually granted independence• Racial tensions between Malay (majority) and Chinese

(minority) soon emerged• Singapore separated in 1965 and became and independent

state• Since the mid 1980s both Malaysia and Singapore have

developed strong market economies, despite occasional setbacks such as the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis

Indonesia• From 1800 to 1949 Indonesia was a Dutch colony known as the

Dutch East Indies• From 1945-1949 Indonesians fought a war of independence

against the Dutch• Though the Dutch had won, they granted independence to

Indonesia in 1949• Nationalist leader Sukarno (1949-1968) became Indonesia’s first

president- he was authoritarian and fiercely anti-communist• General Suharto took control in a military coup in 1968 and

ruled until 1998• Indonesia was badly affected by the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis• Since the late 1990s it has become more democratic• It is the largest Muslim country in the world with over 250

million General Suharto, 1968-1998

Sukarno, 1949-1968

Philippines• From 1902 (end of the Spanish-American War) until

1946 the Philippines was under American control• The Japanese occupied the Philippines during WW2

leading to death of over 1 million Filipinos• Since 1946 the Philippines has been a presidential

republic• From 1965 to 1986 Ferdinand Marcos ruled as an

authoritarian leader, fierce anti-communist, and strong US ally in the Cold War

• Marcos’ regime was toppled during the 1986 People Power Revolution led by Corazon Aquino who became the country’s first female president and first democratic leader

• Since 1986 the Philippines has implemented major democratic reforms

Cold War allies: Marcos greeting Nixon in Manila.

Aquino greeting supporters during the People Power Revolution.