Review Notes 13: Revolution

Revolution is a term that generally refers to a fundamental change in the character of a nation's govt, & possibly in the society, that may or may not be achieved through violent means

Revolutionary mvmts are a type of transformative mvmt

A revolutionary mvmt hopes to achieve radical change through the elimination of old social institutions & the establishment of new social institutions

Rev soc mvmts want to completely destroy the old social order & replace it w/ a new one

The goal of a rev is the total transformation of society by destroying the old govt & replacing all current leaders

Revolutions may also occur in other areas than govt, including cultural, economic, and social activities

Rev are the most threatening to existing social order, authority, & power

Sometimes revs have specific goals, sometimes only vague utopian dreams

For Marx, there is a clear distinction between political changes in governments and radical changes in the economic organization of society even when the former occurs violently

For Marx, most revs are simply the replacement of one political regime w/ another, while the fundamental structures of soc stay intact

The type of rev which Marx advocated was the replacement of one mode of production with another

For Marx, the history of societies is the history of class conflict or the contradiction within the mode of production between the forces and the relations of production, & thus rev must come about through class conflict, which need not be violent, but unfortunately often is

See Also: The Forms of Rev

In medieval Europe, for example, serfs or peasants sometimes rose up in protest, demanding freedom, against the policies of aristocracy (Scott, 1986; Zaparin, 1982)

The objectives the rebellions in medieval Europe were usually to secure more favorable treatment, or to replace a particularly tyrannical individual by someone less harsh, & not to achieve what we would today call a rev

Revs brought about historic & far reaching social change over the past 2 centuries

The Am & French Revs of 1776 & 1789 were the most important revs of the 18th C & possibly of all time

The ideals of those revs, liberty, universal citizenship & equality are fundamental socio political values upon which modern society is now based

To assume rev, & to proclaim liberty, universal citizenship & equality as the basis of modern society only 200 yrs ago, & to assume that they could be realized through mass action represent a profound historical innovation

Prior to the 18th C, only idealistic dreamers suggested that human being could or should establish a social order in which socio econ pol participation was open to everyone & that rev was the path to this goal

The term revolution came to be employed in its modern sense at the same time as the term democracy

The term revolution was not widely used until the success of the Am & Fr struggles made clear that a new system existed in the world

Alexis de Tocqueville is credited w/ recognizing the important of the revolutionary, democratic mvmt

Tocqueville wrote, "What, to start with, had seemed to European monarchs and statesmen a mere passing phase, not unusual symptom of a nation's growing pains, was now discovered to be something absolutely new, quite unlike any previous movement, and so widespread, extraordinary, and incalculable as to baffle human understanding." (1955; orig 1856)

In the 18th C the term revolution still meant "to move in a circle" and the Am & Fr revolutionaries believed they were "turning back" to a natural order of things

Am & Fr revolutionaries believed people were born free & equal & had been oppressed by the rule of kings & authoritarian rulers, & rev was the means of restoring that happy, natural condition

The innovative nature of the Am & Fr revs was not apparent even to those who played the major roles in bringing them about

As the Am & Fr revs & their ideals became permanent, the term revolution came to mean mass action for bring about fundamental social reconstruction (Abrams, 1982)

While some revs since then attempt to restore a preexisting form of society, such as the Islamic rev in contemporary Iran in the late 1970s, the idea of rev is usually associated w/ progress, representing a break w/ the past to establish a new order for the future (Arendt, 1977)

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Outline on the US Revolution

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PRE REVOLUTION

Relations btwn the American Colonies & the UK began to break down during the mid 1700's

The British won the French & Indian War, & under the Treaty of Paris of 1763 they ruled most of America east of the Mississippi River

Little by little, the UK tightened its control over the colonies in order to consolidate power over the vast wilderness of America & to increase taxes to pay off their war debt

The UK's leaders passed laws that taxed the colonists & restricted their freedom

The Stamp Act of 1765 extended to the colonies the traditional English tax on newspapers, legal documents, & various other written materials

The British established a standing army that was housed by the Am colonists

The Am colonists had become accustomed to governing themselves, & had developed a sense of unity & independence

The Am colonists expressed their common interests in the slogan, "Taxation Without Representation is Tyranny"

Through the years, the Am people had developed attitudes that help explain their strong desire to gain freedom from the UK

The attitudes which aided in the Am rev included a deep belief in govt by the people, a sense of unity, an optimistic view of the future, & strong nationalistic feelings

The Am colonists deeply resented what they considered UK interference in their affairs

In 1767, the UK Parliament passed the Townshend Acts, which taxed lead, paint, paper, & tea imported into the Am colonies

On March 5, 1770, Boston civilians taunted a group of troops

The troops fired on the civilians, killing three persons & wounding eight others, two of whom died later in what came to be known as the Boston Massacre, which shocked Americans & unnerved the British

On Dec. 16, 1773, a group of American colonists staged the Boston Tea Party to dramatize their opposition to the various taxes & trade restrictions enacted by the British

In 1774, the Intolerable Acts included provisions that closed the port of Boston, gave increased power to the British royal governor of the colony of Massachusetts, & required the colonists to house & feed British soldiers

In 1775, the Continental Congress tried to reconcile w/ King George, but to no avail

REVOLUTION

In 1775, the Revolutionary War broke out btwn the two sides when the British tried to seized military resources near Lexington & Concord

In 1836, the American author Ralph Waldo Emerson referred to the first shot fired by the patriots at Concord as "the shot heard round the world."

Many people who had been unsure of whether to rebel or not were convinced by reading Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense

In Common Sense, Paine stated the simple alternatives open to the Americans: They must either accept the tyranny of the British Crown or throw off their shackles by proclaiming a republic

The colonists were

- wealthy merchants & planters formed a small upper class, known as the "better sort"

- a large middle class, or "middling sort," consisted mainly of farmers who owned their land, shopkeepers, & craftworkers

- skilled workers & farmers who rented their land ranked among the poor, or "lower sort"

The colonist groups of the better sort, the middling sort, & the lower sort had to find their common interest in revolution

The ruling merchants & landowners presented only half hearted resistance to this widening of political power & thus they needed the aid of the lower classes to back their opposition to British policy

During the war, on July 4, 1776, the colonists boldly declared their independence from their mighty British rulers

The Second Continental Congress officially declared independence & formed the United States of America by adopting the Declaration of Independence

Written by Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, the declaration was a sweeping indictment of the king, Parliament, & the British people

Thus the colonists were fighting for philosophical principles as well as specific objectives & the spirit aroused by the Declaration of Independence was an important factor in the ultimate American victory

The Revolutionary War raged on through the 1770's & then, on Oct. 19, 1781, the Americans won a decisive victory at the Battle of Yorktown in VA where Thousands of British soldiers surrendered

Two years of peace negotiations & occasional fighting followed & finally, on Sept. 3, 1783, the Americans & the British signed the Treaty of Paris of 1783, officially ending the Revolutionary War

ANALYSIS OF THE AM REV

The US rev can be seen as rebellion to the extent that England was democratic & capitalist

The US rev can be seen as a rev to the extent that the US radically enhanced democracy & free-mkt capitalism to such an extent that it did result in major changes in the social order

The US rev is seen as historically important because, as Tocqueville noted, the freedoms, etc. which the rev embraced were a historically new model for society

The US rev validates many of Farley's necessary conditions for rev in that

- the people were dissatisfied given taxation w/o representation, tariffs, oppression of the populace by the military, etc.

- while communications were difficult in colonial times, it was still possible given the mail, newspapers, etc.

- the people & leaders had survived several attempts at repression by the British

- while the people feared England because it was the greatest power in the world, they had strong leaders who inspired them

- the people had barely adequate resources

The US rev validates many of Marx's factors affecting rev in that

- the populace experienced the contradiction of democracy & capitalism in theory, but lack of it in practice

- the populace had class consciousness in that they understood the contradiction & eventually several classes came together to oppose the English

- the historical circumstances of colonialism, the dev of democracy & capitalism, the support of the French all supported the rev

- the colonists had a strong political org in the form of the colonial govt

- several colonial classes were repressed including the better sort, the middling sort, & the lower sort

The US rev validates Johnson's theory in that colonial America was in disequilibrium because of the contradiction btwn democratic & free-mkt values, & the econ system

Johnson notes that loss in a war sets the old regime up for rev, but in the case of the US rev, the English had won the French & Indian War of 1763, but in many ways this weakened the English in that they became over extended in trying to rule their vastly expanded empire

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Outline on the French Revolution

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PRE REVOLUTION CONDITIONS

The French Revolution (FR) lasted from 1789 to 1799, & had far reaching effects on the rest of Europe

The FR brought about great changes in the society & govt of France

The FR introduced democratic ideals to France but did not make the nation a democracy

However, the FR did end supreme rule by French kings & strengthened the middle class

After the revolution began, no European kings, nobles, or other privileged groups could ever again take their powers for granted or ignore the ideals of liberty & equality

The 100 yrs. of the Fr transition to democracy was extremely violent & it was not until the late 1800s that stability returned Napoleon III was defeated by Prussia in 1870

Various social, political, & economic conditions led to the FR

The conditions which led to the FR included dissatisfaction among the lower & middle classes, interest in new ideas about govt, & financial problems caused by the costs of wars

During the time of the FR, legal divisions among social groups that had existed for hundreds of years created much discontent

THE THREE ESTATES OR CLASSES

According to law, French society consisted of three groups called estates

Members of the clergy made up the first estate, nobles the second, & the rest of the people the third

The peasants formed the largest group in the third estate

Many of the peasants in France in the 1700s earned so little that they could barely feed their families

The third estate also included the working people of the cities & a large & prosperous middle class made up chiefly of merchants, lawyers, & govt officials

The third estate resented certain advantages of the first two estates

The clergy & nobles did not have to pay most taxes

The third estate, especially the peasants, had to provide almost all the country's tax revenue

At the time of the Fr Rev, many members of the middle class were also troubled by their social status because while they were among the most important people in French society, they were not recognized as such because they belonged to the third estate

The new ideas about govt challenged France's absolute monarchy

At the time of the Fr Rev, under the Fr monarchical system, the king had almost unlimited authority

The Fr King governed by divine right, that is, the monarch's right to rule was thought to come from god

There were checks on the king, but these came mainly from a few groups of aristocrats in the parliaments (high courts)

During the 1700's, French writers called philosophes & philosophers from other countries raised new ideas about freedom

Some of these thinkers, including Jean Jacques Rousseau, suggested that the right to govern came from the people

CRISIS

The Fr Rev began w/ a govt financial crisis but quickly became a movement of reform & violent change

The financial crisis developed because the nation had gone deeply into debt to finance fighting in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) & the Revolutionary War in America (1775-1783)

By 1788, the govt was almost bankrupt, but the Parliament of Paris insisted that King Louis XVI could borrow more money or raise taxes only by calling a meeting of the Estates General

The Estates General was made up of representatives of the three estates, & had last met in 1614 & the king unwillingly called the meeting

The third estate, the peasants, insisted that all the estates be merged into one national assembly & that each representative have one vote & it also wanted the Estates General to write a constitution

The king & the first two estates, the clergy & the nobles, refused the demands of the third estate, the peasants

	THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF FRANCE
	In June 1789, the representatives of the third estate declared themselves the National Assembly of France & gathered at a tennis court & pledged not to disband until they had written a constitution
	The vow of the third estate to form a constitution became known as the Oath of the Tennis Court
	Louis XVI then allowed the three estates to join together as the National Assembly, but at the same time began to gather troops to break up the Assembly
	While the National Assembly negotiated a constitution & while King Louis secretly gathered troops the masses of France also took action by gathering at the Bastille
	STORMING THE BASTILLE & PEASANT UPRISINGS
	In July, 1789, a huge crowd of Parisians rushed to the Bastille, a royal fortress & hated symbol of oppression
	The masses believed they would find arms & ammunition there for use in defending themselves against the king's army
	The people captured the Bastille & began to tear it down & at the same time, leaders in Paris formed a revolutionary city govt
	Massive peasant uprisings against nobles also broke out in the countryside
	A few nobles, who were called émigrés because they emigrated, decided to flee France & many more followed in the next five yrs
	The uprisings in town & countryside saved the National Assembly from being disbanded by the king
	During the rev, Fr armies suffered military defeats & Parisians feared that the invading armies would soon invade the city
	Parisians also feared an uprising by the large number of people in the city's prisons
	In August 1789, the Assembly adopted the Decrees of August 4 & the Declaration of the Rights of Man & of the Citizen which abolished some feudal dues that the peasants owed their landlords, the tax advantages of the clergy & nobles, & regional privileges
	The declaration guaranteed the same basic rights to all citizens, including "liberty, property, security, & resistance to oppression" as well as representative govt
	The Assembly later drafted a constitution that made Fr a limited monarchy w/ a one house legislature
	THE REIGN OF TERROR
	In the first week of September, small numbers of Parisians took the law into their own hands & executed more than 1,000 prisoners
	In 1789, the "September Massacres" occurred when ordinary citizens in France executed over 1,000 prisoners who were mostly clergy & nobles
	The September Massacres, turned many people in France & Europe against the revolution
	A series of elected legislatures then took control of the govt
	King Louis XVI & his wife, Marie Antoinette, were executed
	Thousands of others met the same fate in a period called the Reign of Terror
	The new invention of the guillotine sped up the mass execution process & the streets flowed w/ blood
	The term "terrorism" originated from the Reign of Terror that characterized the Fr Rev
	While the modern form of terrorism has been around for millennium, it is during this period of violence in the Fr Rev that the term terrorism came into usage
	The Assembly seized the property of the Roman Catholic Church
	THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY
	By September 1791, the National Assembly believed that the rev was over & it disbanded at the end of the month to make way for the newly elected Legislative Assembly
	The new Assembly, made up mainly of representatives of the middle class, opened in Oct. of 1791
	The New Assembly faced the challenges of creating internal stability as well as facing a foreign threat
	Stability during the FR depended on the cooperation btwn the King & the Assembly but Louis remained opposed & so he asked other rulersfor help in stopping it, & plotted w/ aristocrats & émigrés to overthrow the new govt
	Public opinion became bitterly divided: the revolution's religious policy angered many Catholics while other people demanded stronger measures against opponents of the revolution.
	In April 1792, the new govt went to war against Austria & Prussia & these nations wished to restore the king & émigrés to their positions
	While Louis XVI & his supporters clearly hoped for the victory of the invaders, the foreign armies defeated Fr forces in the early fighting & invaded Fr
	As a result of the defeat of the French armies, angry revolutionaries in Paris & other areas demanded that the king be dethroned & in August 1792, the people of Paris took custody of Louis XVI & his family & imprisoned them
	Louis's removal ended the constitutional monarchy & the Assembly then called for a National Convention to be chosen in an election open to nearly all French males age 21 or older, & for a new constitution
	In Sept 1792, Fr forces defeated a Prussian army in the Battle of Valmy, which prevented the Prussians from advancing on Paris, helped end the crisis
	In time, the radicals began to struggle for power among themselves
	Most of the democratic reforms of the past two years were abolished in what became known as the Thermidorian Reaction
	The Convention replaced the democratic constitution it had adopted in 1793 w/ a new one in 1795
	W/ the 1795 Constitution, France was still a republic, but once again only citizens who paid a certain amount of taxes could vote
	The revolution ended when Napoleon Bonaparte, a French general, took over the govt in Nov of 1799
	The Fr Rev brought France into opposition w/ much of Europe because the monarchs who ruled the other nations feared the spread of democratic ideals
	The revolution left the Fr people in extreme disagreement about the best form of govt for their country but the revolution created the long lasting foundations for a unified state, a strong central govt, & a free society dominated by the middle class & the landowners
	ANALYSIS OF THE FRENCH REV
	LeBon studied the collective behavior of the people & offered theories to explain the crowd behavior & violence in his study, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, 1895
	LeBon noted that in the French Revolts, people engaged in criminal acts were cheered & they later demanded medals for their patriotism, & he thought this was irrational behavior
	"May you be cursed to live in interesting times"
	France had irreversibly changed in almost every way during the period from the Fr Rev of 1789 & LeBon thought much of this was due to social contagion
	The Fr Rev is seen as historically important because, as Tocqueville noted, the freedoms, etc. which the rev embraced were a historically new model for society
	The Fr Rev validates many of Farley's necessary conditions for rev in that:
	- the peasants, the third estate, was dissatisfied because of high taxes, poverty, oppression of the populace by the military, etc.
	- while communications were difficult in the late 1700s, it was still possible given the mail, newspapers, etc. & since much of the rev occurred in the cities, the people were close to each other
	- the people & leaders had survived several attempts at repression by the French monarchy
	- while the people feared the French Monarchy because it was so powerful, they had their beliefs in justice & equality to inspire them
	- the French peasants had barely adequate resources, but were bolstered by the support of the bourgeoisie class
	The FR validates many of Marx's factors affecting rev in that
	- the French peasants experienced the contradiction of monarchical feudalism & democratic capitalism
	- the French peasants had class consciousness in that they understood the contradiction because the French Enlightenment had spread ideals of individualism, freedom, etc. to the general populace
	- the historical circumstances of the weakness of the French Monarchy, the rise of the bourgeoisie class, & the loss of wars by the French all contributed to the success of the French Rev
	- the French peasants had a strong political org in the form of the Parisian govts
	- there was a high level of class conflict btwn the clergy, the monarchy, the peasants, & the bourgeoisie & the clergy & the monarchy banded together while the peasants, & the bourgeoisie banded together
	The Fr Rev validates Johnson's theory in that 18th century France was in disequilibrium because of the contradiction btwn democratic & free mkt values, & the econ system, btwn monarchical values & econ system, & democratic values & econ system
	Johnson notes that loss in a war sets the old regime up for rev, & in the case of the French Rev, they had - lost the Seven Years War - lost the French & Indian War - gone into debt funding the Am Rev War - won some & lost some battles during the actual FR from 1789 to 1799

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Outline on the Russian Revolution of 1917

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CZARIST RUSSIAN

Since the mid-1500s, Russia had been ruled by leaders called czars

Under the czars, the country remained far behind the industrial progress made in Western Europe & thus most of the people were poor, uneducated peasants

Russian Peasants farmed the land w/ the same kinds of simple hand tools their ancestors had used

Through the years, revolts against the harsh rule of the czars had occasionally broken out, but these revolts were not successful

In the late 1890s, discontented Russians formed several political orgs

One group, the Marxists, followed the socialist teachings of Karl Marx, a German social philosopher

At the time of the Russian Rev, the Bolsheviks (later called Communists) made up a group w/in the Marxists & their leader was Vladimir I. Ulyanov, who used the name V. I. Lenin

After an economic depression began in Russia in 1900, a number of student protests, peasant revolts, & worker strikes broke out

In 1905, two uprisings were crushed by govt troops, but the rev mvmt in Russia continued to gain strength underground

The uprisings forced the czar to establish a fully elected lawmaking body, the Duma

World War I began in 1914 & Germany declared war on Russia in August of that year

During World War I, Russia had enormous losses, & the people suffered severe shortages of food, fuel, & housing

Russia's role in the WW I was hampered by poor generals & a struggle for power btwn Czar Nicholas, Rasputin the Monk, & Czarina Alexandra & was influenced by Rasputin's mysterious ability to alleviate the hemophilia of the royal family's child, Alexis

Untrained Russian troops behind the fighting lines feared being sent to the front, where they might be killed

THE 1917 RUSSIAN REVOLLUTION

Early in March 1917, the people revolted & riots & strikes over shortages of bread & coal grew more violent in the capital, Petrograd

Troops were called in to halt the uprising in Petrograd, but they joined it instead

The people of Petrograd turned to the Duma for leadership which Czar Nicholas II then ordered to be dissolved, but the parliament ignored his command

The Duma established a provisional (temporary) govt & because Nicholas had lost all political support, he gave up the throne on March 15

Nicholas & his family were then imprisoned, their eventual fate becoming one of history's great mysteries, but it is believed that Bolshevik revolutionaries killed them in July 1918

A Soviet of Workers' & Soldiers' Deputies was also formed in Petrograd in March which was a rival of the provisional govt

In April, Lenin demanded "all power to the soviets," which were small regional, provisional govts, &, in July, armed workers & soldiers tried to seize power in Petrograd, but failed

Lenin fled to Finland, some of his followers escaped or were jailed, others were driven underground & later that month, Alexander F. Kerensky, a socialist, became premier

THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION

General Lavr Kornilov, the army commander in chief, planned to seize power from Kerensky, but the local soviets throughout Russia, & the Bolsheviks rallied behind Kerensky

The general advanced on Petrograd in September 1917, but his group broke up before reaching the city

After this episode, the soviets became more radical & many army units supported the Bolsheviks

Lenin returned from Finland in October & convinced the Bolsheviks that they should try to seize power

Lenin hoped a revolution would set off other socialist revolts in Western countries

Lenin's most capable assistant, Leon Trotsky, helped him plan the take over

On November 7 (October 25 in the old Russian calendar), 1917, the armed workers took over important points in Petrograd

After a bloody struggle in Moscow, the Bolsheviks controlled that city by November 15

THE BOLSHEVIKS TAKE POWER & ESTB THE USSR

In 1917, the Bolsheviks formed a new Russian govt, headed by Lenin

They changed Russia's name to the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR)

The peasants had already seized much farmland from Russian nobles & the czarist state & for a time, Lenin endorsed these land seizures

After a civil war broke out between the Bolsheviks & their opponents, the govt tightened control & forced the peasants to give the govt most of their products

The govt also took over Russian industries & set up central mgt bureaus to control them & the Cheka, a secret police force, was established

After the Bolsheviks seized the govt, Russia w/drew from World War I & began peace talks w/ Germany

In March 1918, Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk w/ Germany & under the treaty, Russia gave up large areas, including the Baltic states, Finland, Poland, & Ukraine

After the war, Armenia & Georgia set up independent republics

In 1918, the Bolsheviks moved the Russian capital back to Moscow, which had been the center of govt until Czar Peter I made St. Petersburg the capital in 1712

POST REVOLUTIONARY CIVIL WAR

From 1918 to 1920, Russia was torn by civil war btwn the Communists & the anti-Communists, called Whites

The peasants believed they would lose their lands to their old landlords if the Whites won, & so they generally supported the Reds

The Whites were aided by troops from Britain, France, Japan, the US, & other countries that opposed the Communist govt

But these nations helped little because they were unwilling to fight another war after World War I

After the civil war, the Red Army invaded Georgia, Ukraine, & eastern Armenia, & helped put down nationalist independence movements in Belarus (then called Byelorussia) & central Asia where Communist rule was gradually established

In 1920, Poland invaded Ukraine in an attempt to expel the Communists but the Red Army drove the invaders out & nearly reached Warsaw, Poland's capital

The Polish troops, w/ help from France, finally defeated the Red Army & a treaty signed in 1921 gave Poland the western parts of Byelorussia & Ukraine

In 1922, the RSFSR & three other republics formed a new nation called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), also known as the Soviet Union (SU)

Lenin became seriously ill in 1922 & a struggle for power developed among members of the Politburo

Leon Trotsky ranked after Lenin in power, but the next two most important members of the Politburo, Lev Kamenev & Grigori Zinoviev, joined forces to oppose Trotsky

Kamenev & Zinoviev chose Joseph Stalin to be their partner, greatly strengthening his position as general secretary of the party

As general secretary, he had the support of the local party secretaries, whose careers were dependent on his approval

Stalin defeated his rivals one by one, first Trotsky lost power in 1925 then Stalin expelled from the party his own former partners, Kamenev & Zinoviev

STALINIST RUSSIAN

By 1929, Stalin had become dictator of the SU

In Stalin's SU, a crisis in grain deliveries to the cities threatened to sink the first Five-Year Plan econ development plan

Stalin forced the peasants into collective farms called kolkhozy, where they had to give most of their products to the govt at low prices

The peasants opposed being forced to join collective farms, & destroyed much of their livestock & crops in protest

As punishment, Stalin had millions of peasants killed or exiled to prison labor camps in Siberia & the Aral-Caspian Lowland during the early 1930s

In 1932 & 1933, a famine killed 5 million to 7 million people in Ukraine & in the Volga & Kuban regions of western Russia which resulted from a govt policy that forcibly took food from the farmers to supply urban, industrial workers

Many Soviet citizens opposed Stalin's policies during the mid 1930s

In order to crush opposition, Stalin began a program of terror that was called the Great Purge wherein the secret police, the forerunners of the KGB, arrested millions of people

Stalin eliminated all real or suspected threats to his power by having the prisoners shot or sent to labor camps

WW II & Hitler's aggression allowed Stalin to further consolidate power

The Cold War gripped the SU after WW II, allowing the Communists to justify continued oppression

The SU broke apart in 1991, & Belarus, Russia, & Ukraine invited the other republics to join a federation called the Commonwealth of Independent States.

ANALYSIS OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION OF 1917

The Russian Rev is seen as historically important for the people of Russia & people around the world because it was a "socialist revolution" which embraced a historically new model for society that challenged the model of the major western, capitalist nations

The Russian Rev is historically important because the founding of a major socialist nation estb the relationships of int'l conflict for the next 70 yrs as seen in the Cold War

The Russian Rev validates many of Farley's necessary conditions for rev in that

- the was dissatisfied because of high taxes, poverty, oppression by the military, the waste & opulence of Czar Nicholas, the Czarina, Rasputin the Monk & others

- while communications were difficult in the 20th century Russia, it was still possible given the mail, newspapers, etc. & since much of the rev occurred in the cities, the people were close to each other

- the people & rev leaders had survived several attempts at repression by the Czar, though many also died

- while the people feared the Czar & the Russian Monarchy because it was so powerful, they had their beliefs in socialism & equality to inspire them

- the Russian peasants & city poor had barely adequate resources, but were never supported by any other nation or class, all whom feared a socialist rev

The Russian Rev validates many of Marx's factors affecting rev in that

- the Russian peasants experienced several contradictions among the old system of monarchical feudalism of & "democratic" capitalism, & the promise of freedom under socialism

- the Russian peasants had class consciousness in that they understood the contradiction because the Marx, Lenin & others had spread ideals of socialism, freedom, etc. to the general populace

- the historical circumstances of the weakness of the Russian Monarchy, the rise of the bourgeoisie class, & the loss of wars by the all contributed to the success of the Russian Rev

- the Russian peasants had various strong political org in the form of the "soviets" which were regional, provisional govts

- there was a high level of class conflict btwn the clergy, the monarchy, the bourgeoisie, & the peasants, & while the clergy, the monarchy & the bourgeoisie banded together against the peasants, the former three were often fighting among themselves to try to grab power, & to save Russia from defeat in WW 1 & the oft present threat of rev

The Russian Rev validates Johnson's theory in that 20th century Russia was in disequilibrium because of the contradictions btwn feudalism, capitalism, & socialism all of which had competing value systems which promised particular lifestyles, but which in Russia, were not delivering

Johnson notes that loss in a war sets the old regime up for rev, & in the case of the Russian Rev, they had lost power in WW 1 which weakened the power of the Czarist Monarchy & killed tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers who were often from the peasant & urban poor classes

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Outline on the Indian Revolution

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PRE CONDITIONS TO THE INDIAN REVOLUTION

The Mughal Empire was established in 1526 when a central Asian leader named Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi, the last sultan of Delhi

Babur, a descendant of both Timur & the Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan, estb the Mughal Empire in India

Babur's grandson Akbar became the greatest Mughal emperor, ruling from 1556 to 1605, making India among the most powerful nations in the world at that time

Akbar was a tolerant ruler who expanded his empire as far west as what is now Afghanistan & as far south as the Godavari River in central India

A Muslim, Akbar won over the Hindus of India by making many of their leaders govt administrators & military commanders, & by giving them honors

The first European explorer to reach India was Vasco da Gama of Portugal who arrived in Calicut in 1498

In 1600, Queen Elizabeth I of England granted a charter for the formation of a company to open trade w/ India & East Asia

By the mid 1700s, little remained of the Mughal Empire, & since there was no effective central power, the Europeans in India prospered

At the Battle of Plassey in 1757, the forces of the East India Company, defeated the army of the Mughal governor of Bengal

The British victory at Plassey was the starting point of the British Empire in India, though at that time most of the country still remained under the rule of Indian princes

Over the next 100 years, however, British political influence & territorial control expanded & Indian resentment against British rule grew

Land taxes imposed by the British caused many difficulties for farmers & large numbers of people went hungry when British land reforms took away land from many Indian people

THE SEPOY REBELLION

Many Indians resented what they regarded as a growing British interference in Indian customs & religion

In 1857, the Indian people rebelled starting w/ what is sometimes called the Sepoy Rebellion or Sepoy Mutiny where Indian soldiers called sepoys revolted after British officers instructed them to bite open rifle cartridges believed to have been greased w/ cow & hog fat which was taboo to the Indians

The Sepoy Rebellion was defeated & the British govt decided to govern India directly through a regime that is now called the British Raj which means rule or administration

BRITISH EXPANSION IN INDIA

In 1876, Queen Victoria of Britain was given the title Empress of India by the British Parliament

Although the British did not further expand their territory w/in India, they were involved in several wars in which they used Indian troops including the Second Afghan War (1878-1881) which established the border w/ Afghanistan, & the Third Burmese War (1885) which made Burma (now Myanmar) a province of India

In the second half of the 1800s, the British built railroad, telephone, & telegraph systems in India, established universities, & enlarged the Indian irrigation system, but agricultural production improved only slightly

Poverty levels remained high & the British spent little money on elementary ed & did little to promote industrialization

The ideology of Indian nationalism rose because Indians did not generally feel content about British rule in India

The struggle for the loyalty & the common interests of the Indian population was intense btwn the Muslims & the Hindus

HINDU MUSLIM SEGREGATION

In 1905, when the British divided the state of Bengal into separate Hindu & Muslim sections, these groups protested w/ a boycott of British goods & a series of bombings & shootings

In an effort to stop the violence, the British introduced the Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909 which allowed Indians to elect representatives to the provincial legislative councils & resulted in the reunification w/ Bengal in 1911

When World War I broke out in 1914, Britain declared that India was also at war w/ Germany & Indian troops fought in many parts of the world.

In return for support, the British promised more reforms & agreed to let Indians have a greater role in political affairs, never-the-less protests against the British continued

In March 1919, the British passed the Rowlatt Acts to try to control protests in India which attempted to restrict the political liberties & rights of Indians, including the right to trial by jury, but demonstrations against the govt increased in response to the acts

The Amritsar Massacre, in which the British shot 400 unarmed protesters, proved to be the turning point when, from then on Indians demanded complete independence from British rule

GANDHI

By 1920, Mohandas K. Gandhi had become a leader in the Indian independence mvmt & in the Indian National Congress, which had become the most important Indian political organization

Gandhi's program asked Indians to boycott British goods, to refuse to pay taxes, to stop using British schools, courts, & govt services, & to use nonviolent disobedience, also known as nonviolent noncooperation

The salt march, where Gandhi led hundreds of followers on a 240 mile march to the sea, where they made salt from sea water, & other acts of civil disobedience in the early 1930's led the British to give the Indian people more political power

The Government of India Act of 1935 created a new constitution which gave provincial legislatures control over lawmaking in the provinces

The Muslim League became more politically active as Muhammad Ali Jinnah organized Muslims, won seats in the legislature & demanded that a new country, Pakistan, be carved out of India for Muslims

During World War II (1939-1945), Britain declared war on Germany on Sept. 3, 1939 & as it had done before, in World War I, Britain again said that India was also at war w/ Germany

Indian leaders were angered because they had not been consulted & members of the Indian National Congress demanded immediate self govt instead, & they refused to support the war effort

Nevertheless, India was already helping Britain by fighting in Africa & the Middle East, & by providing coffee, tea, rice, & wheat, contributed in part to the Bengal famine of 1943, in which about 3 million Indians died

When Japanese troops had captured Burma, which was a province of India, & invaded eastern India in March 1944, thousands of Indian troops decided to aid the Japanese in the hope of driving the British out of India, but British & Indian troops soon drove them back

The Indian leaders who refused to support the British in WW2, were jailed, but at the conclusion of the war in 1945, Congress leaders were released & negotiations for independence were resumed

To show its strength & to warn the British not to make a separate agreement w/ the Congress, the Muslim League declared Aug. 16, 1946, as Direct Action Day during which they held nationwide demonstrations calling for the establishment of Pakistan

PAKISTAN & INDEPENDENCE

In 1947, Indian & British leaders agreed to partition (divide) the country into India & Pakistan because they saw no other way of bringing to an end the violence btwn Hindus & Muslims

Pakistan became an independent nation on Aug. 14, 1947 & India became an independent nation on Aug. 15, 1947

More than 10 million people became refugees, as Hindus & Sikhs in Pakistan fled to India, & Muslims in India fled to Pakistan but about half a million people were killed in Hindu Muslim riots

Gandhi was assassinated on Jan 30, 1948 by a Hindu fanatic who hated Gandhi for his tolerance toward Muslims & disagreed w/ Gandhi's policy of nonviolence

While the nonviolent protests organized by Gandhi had brought about much social & econ disruption, & they did divide the populace, there was not the kind of damage, violence, & divisiveness as is often brought about by war

The Indian Rev is significant because it wrested power from the British, one of the most powerful nations on Earth, through non-violent protest & the use of the British's own laws about freedom against them

The Indians used the British ideals of democracy, freedom, & the rule of law against them, demanding their own democracy, freedom, & the rule of law

India instituted a representative parliament based on a Western model, w/ multiparty elections

NEHRU & POST REVOLUTION INDIA

Nehru, a Hindu, was India's first elected Prime Minister

India has not experienced a stable process of development

The Indian govt has struggle to maintain control in a country were regional divisions remain pronounced

The level of pol freedom in India is high as measured by the diversity of views which can be publicly expressed, & by the types of pol orgs that can be legally formed

India has made little progress in reducing extreme poverty, eliminating official corruption, providing health & welfare facilities, & in the level of illiteracy in India is high

Indian econ dev following the revolution was low & well below the level of population expansion

In India, ag reform was less than successful in increasing production & eliminating starvation because there was never a major redistribution of land to peasants from the ancient, family manors

India is following a typical path seen even today in the major Western nations where a successful middle class has grown, an even more successful upper class has remained in power, & a lower class continues to exist on the edge of starvation

For many young democracies such as India, a major area of conflict is how to eliminate poverty even as the rest of the nation prospers

Kashmir is fought over by Indian & Pakistan to this day, fueling a nuclear buildup

ANALYSIS OF THE INDIA REVOLUTION

The Indian Rev is seen as historically important because it
- established the most populous democratic nation in the world, because
- was done w/o a major rev war
- was fought against Britain, another powerful democratic state, & because
- invalidated the concept of colonialism, even benign colonialism

The Indian Rev validates many of Farley's necessary conditions for rev in that:

- the Indian peasants & upper classes were dissatisfied because of high taxes, poverty, oppression of the populace by the military, & a general discontent w/ British colonialism

- while communications were difficult in 20th century India, it was still possible given the mail, newspapers, etc. & since much of the rev occurred in the cities, the people were close to each other

- the people & leaders had survived centuries of repression by the British

- while the people feared the Britain because it was so powerful, they had their beliefs in justice & equality to inspire them, & leaders such as Gandhi who pointed out that the ideal of freedom & democracy which the British professed, was not being practiced in India

- the Indian people had barely adequate resources, but were bolstered by the support of all classes, religious & ethnic groups against the British

The Indian Rev validates many of Marx's factors affecting rev in that

- the Indian peasants & all Indian groups experienced contradiction because India was a complex mix of ancient Indian feudalism, British colonialism, & some forms of capitalism

- the Indian peasants had class consciousness in that they lived through the many contradictions because for decades Gandhi & others had spread ideals of individualism, freedom, & Indian nationalism to the general populace

- the historical circumstances of the strength of the British, the rise of the bourgeoisie class, & the victory of the British in many wars all contributed to the fact that it took over a century for the Indians to free themselves from British rule

- the Indian peasants had a strong political org in the form of the colonial govt which was run by the Indians but dominated by the British

- there was a high level of ethnic, religious conflict btwn Muslims & Hindus which hindered the rev

The Indian Rev validates Johnson's theory in that 20th century was in disequilibrium because of the contradiction btwn the British ideal of freedom & democracy & the reality of oppression, exploitation & colonialism in India

Johnson notes that loss in a war sets the old regime up for rev, & in the case of the Indian Rev, the British had been losing their empire since WW1 but had, never-the-less, won many wars w/ the help of Indians & thus this strength made the Indians realize that they could not win freedom by force

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Outline on the Chinese Revolution

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PRE CHINESE REVOLUTION

The British, French, Americans & others exploited China through inequitable trade policies & by selling opium in order to balance their trade deficits w/ the nation

Opium smuggling by the Western nations created disorder in China, & the large outflow of silver to pay for the opium seriously disrupted the economy

The Treaty of Nanjing was the first of what the Chinese called the unequal treaties which gave the Chinese island of Hong Kong to the UK & opened five Chinese ports to British residence & trade

A series of uprisings in the mid-1800s posed a serious threat to the survival of the Qing dynasty

The most important uprising in China in the mid-1800s was the Taiping Rebellion which lasted from 1850 to 1864 & caused the loss of millions of lives

The Taipings were a semireligious group that combined Christian beliefs w/ ancient Chinese ideas for perfecting society

A disastrous war w/ Japan in 1894 & 1895 forced the Chinese to recognize Japan's control over Korea

China also had to give the Japanese the island of Taiwan, which China had controlled since 1683

ANTI COMMUNIST NATIONALISTS & THE BOXERS

The division of China into a number of European colonies appeared likely but the Chinese people had begun to develop strong feelings of national unity which helped prevent the division of the country, as did rivalry among the foreign powers

Chinese rebels formed secret societies to fight these influences, the best known which was called the Boxers by Westerners because its members practiced Chinese ceremonial exercises that resembled shadowboxing

In the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, the Boxers & other secret societies attacked & killed Westerners & Chinese Christians

In the years following the Boxer Rebellion, the Manchus set out to reform the Chinese govt & econ but the Manchu reforms came too late to save the dynasty

In 1905, several revolutionary republican orgs combined to form the United League & choose Sun Yat-Sen, a Western educated physician, as their leader

In the 1910s, the Republic of China fell into dictatorship

In 1919, Sun Yat-Sen began to reorganize the democratic Nationalist Party & to recruit supporters from among students, but at almost the same time, the first Communist student groups appeared in Beijing & Shanghai

The Soviets persuaded the Chinese Communists to join the Nationalist Party & help it carry out the revolution

Sun Yat-Sen died in 1925, & leadership of the Nationalist Party gradually passed to its military commander, Chiang Kai-Shek

Chiang & his troops turned against the Communists & destroyed the Communist backed labor unions in Shanghai

Because of attacks by the nationalists, most Communist leaders fled to the hills in the province of Jiangxi in southern China

In 1928, the Nationalists captured Beijing & united China under one govt for the first time since 1916

By 1931, the Communists had established 15 rural bases & set up a rival govt in southern & central China

In 1934, Chiang Kai-Shek's armies forced the Communists to evacuate their bases & begin their famous Long March

By the end of 1935, the Communists had marched more than 6,000 miles over a winding route to the province of Shaanxi in northern China

Of the approximately 100,000 Communists who began the march, only a few thousand survived to reach Shaanxi, & Mao Zedong became the leader of the Chinese Communist Party

WAR W/ JAPAN

While Chiang was fighting the Communists, the Japanese were seizing more & more Chinese territory

In 1936, the Manchurian forces kidnapped Chiang in Xi'an who was released only after agreeing to end the civil war & form a united front against the Japanese

China joined the Allies in World War II on Dec. 8, 1941, one day after Japan attacked the US at Pearl Harbor

For the Communists, the war against Japan provided an opportunity for political & military expansion.

In 1946, the US sent General Marshall to China to attempt to arrange a political settlement btwn the Nationalists & the Communists

However, neither the Nationalists nor the Communists believed that they could achieve their goals by coming to terms with the other side & thus in mid 1946, full scale fighting began

The superior military tactics of the Communists & the social revolution they conducted in the countryside gradually turned the tide against the Nationalists

This revolution involved widespread guerrilla warfare, a popular form of combat among modern revolutionaries

After capturing Tianjin & Beijing in January 1949, Mao Zedong's armies crossed the Yangtze River & drove the Nationalists toward southern China

THE COMMUNIST REVOLUTION

On Oct. 1, 1949, Mao proclaimed the establishment in Beijing of the People's Republic of China & therefore in December, Chiang Kai-Shek & his followers fled to the island of Taiwan where they estb a govt in exile which still exists today

The Chinese Communists fought for 22 years before defeating the Nationalist Chinese govt in 1949

The beginning of Communist rule took place under the direction of Mao Zedong, the chairman of the Communist Party while Premier Zhou Enlai directed all govt departments & ministries

Military & economic aid from the USSR helped support the new govt

POST REVOLUTION CHINA

The wars that took place over the decades leading up to the rev devastated the nation socially, economically, & created deep divisiveness w/in the populace

When Western colonial domination was finally thrown off, the Communist part estb a strong, centralized govt, imposing strict censorship upon the press & other media

The level of pol freedom in China is low as measured by the diversity of views which can be publicly expressed, & by the types of pol orgs that can be legally formed

China has made strong progress in reducing extreme poverty, eliminating official corruption, providing health & welfare facilities, & the level of literacy in China is high

Chinese econ dev following the revolution was high & well above the level of population expansion & is very high in the 2000s

In China, ag reform was successful in increasing production & eliminating starvation

The Chinese have broken the power to the ancient, rich landlords & distributed the land to the peasantry

For many young communist nations such as China, a major area of conflict is how to estb freedom even as poverty is eliminated

Btwn 1966 & 1968 the Chinese "Cultural Rev" threw China into turmoil when millions of mostly young people sought to re-impose "proletarian values" upon professional, managerial wkers & party officials whom they believed were ignoring the teachings of the rev

Today, the Cul Rev has been replaced by a program that emphasizes the need for capitalist mechanisms of personal incentive & profit in order to improve ag & ind production

Recently the "100 yr lease" which the British had on Hong Kong has expired & the island has been returned to China who is struggling to integrate this model of capitalism & pol freedom into its own nation while preserving its econ & cultural effectiveness & yet not undermine its own system

The break off of Taiwan early in the rev conflicts is a area of intl struggle today as the US has pledged to maintain the status quo while it is the policy of China that Taiwan should be re-united w/ the mainland

ANALYSIS OF THE CHINESE REV

The Chinese Rev is historically important because, like the Russian rev it was a socialist rev which set the stage for the Cold War

The Chinese Rev is historically important for the people of China & people around the world because it was a "socialist rev" which embraced a historically new model for society that challenged the model of the major western, capitalist nations

The Chinese Rev validates many of Farley's necessary conditions for rev in that:

- the Chinese peasantry was dissatisfied because of high taxes, poverty, oppression of the populace by the military, etc.

- while communications were difficult in 20th century China, it was still possible given the mail, newspapers, etc.

- the people & leaders had survived centuries of repression & civil war by internal war lords & external colonial powers such as England, France, the US, & others

- while the Chinese people feared the various foreign powers, the various Chines factions, & the Japanese, their sense of nationalism, & absolute refusal to be ruled by foreigners, the Chinese people stubbornly fought for autonomy for over a century

- the Chinese had barely adequate resources, but by sheer numbers & force of will they overcame Balkanization & invasion

The Chinese Rev validates many of Marx's factors affecting rev in that:

- the Chinese peasants experienced the contradiction of monarchical feudalism, colonial capitalism, Balkanization, ethnic conflict, & religious conflict

- the Chinese peasants had class consciousness in that they understood the various contradictions because they had suffered under them for more than a generation, & because various leaders had offered them a vision of one China

- the historical circumstances of the Chinese Rev included centuries of factional rivalry, foreign colonialism, & several wars, including WW 2, all of which contributed to the people's intense desire for rev in the form of one nation free from factional fighting & foreign colonialism

- the Chinese peasants had a strong political orgs in the form of the factional govts

- there was a high level of class conflict btwn the Chinese Peasants, the landed elites, foreign colonizers, & ethnic factions

The Rev validates Johnson's theory in that 20th century China was in disequilibrium because of the contradiction btwn btwn monarchical values of the various factions, the democratic values & econ system of the nationalists, & the socialist values & econ system of the communists

Johnson notes that loss in a war sets the old regime up for rev, & in the case of the Chinese Rev, they had
- lost numerous battles w/ Japan
- been dominated by Western foreign power
- won & lost battles among Chinese factions, making them war weary

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Outline on the Cuban Revolution

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PRE REVOLUTION CUBA

During the 1800s, many Cubans began to call for independence from Spain

In 1898, the US helped defeat Spain, which then gave up all claims to Cuba

A US military govt ruled Cuba from 1899 until 1902, when the island became a republic

But the US maintained close ties w/ Cuba & often intervened in the island's internal affairs

The Cuban people elected Machado president in 1924

During his campaign, Machado had attacked the Platt Amendment & had promised reforms, but after becoming president, he ruled as a dictator

In August 1933, a general strike & an army revolt forced Machado out of office

The army named a five man govt, headed by a former university professor named San Martin, to rule Cuba

The Grau govt wanted to reduce US influence in Cuba & make far reaching changes

The govt passed a number of measures, including laws that established an eight hour workday & required all Cuban businesses to employ Cubans for at least half of their total work force

The US & many Cubans refused to recognize the Grau govt

A month later, an army sergeant named Zaldivar & a group of university students & professors led a military revolt that overthrew the new govt

BATISTA

Batista forced Grau to resign from office in 1934 & until 1940, Batista ruled Cuba as a dictator through presidents who served in name only

In 1934, the US & Cuba signed a treaty that canceled the Platt Amendment, except for the Guantanamo Bay lease

During most of the period from the 1930's to the 1950's, Cuba was controlled by a dictator, Zaldivar

The US recognized & supported Batista's govt

US investments in Cuba continued to expand during the 1940s & 1950s

Many Cubans remained unemployed & in poverty, & political conflict expanded across the island where strikes & demonstrations became common

CASTRO

In July of 1953, Fidel Castro, a young lawyer, tried to start a revolution against Batista by attacking the Moncada army barracks in Santiago

Castro was captured & imprisoned & many of his followers were either imprisoned or murdered

Castro was released from prison in 1955 & went to Mexico where in 1956, he organized the 26th of July Movement, which was named after the date of his first revolt

Castro's forces landed in Oriente Province in December 1956 but most of the rebels were imprisoned or killed

However, Castro & about a dozen of his followers escaped to the Sierra Maestra

In 1957, Castro's forces began to wage a guerrilla war against the Cuban govt

In 1957, university students stormed the presidential palace in an attempt to assassinate Batista

Attempts by the govt to crush the rev increased the people's support of the rebels

Continued poor econ conditions also led to growing support for the rebels, particularly among workers, peasants, students, & the middle class

By mid 1958, Batista's govt had lost the support & confidence of both the US & the Cubans

THE CUBAN REVOLUTION

In 1959, Castro led a rev that overthrew Batista

On Jan. 1, 1959, Batista fled the country & Castro's forces then took control of the govt

The rebels later set up a Communist govt w/ Castro as its head

Relations btwn Cuba & the US became tense soon after the rev

The Castro govt developed close ties w/ the Soviet Union ( SU ), then the main rival of the US in a struggle for international power

The rev leaders did away w/ the political & military structure of Batista's govt

Many former political officials & military officers of the Batista govt were tried & executed

CUBA & THE US

A large number of middle & upper class Cubans went into exile in Florida

The new Cuban govt immediately set out to change Cuban relations w/ the US

In particular, it sought to reduce US influence on Cuban national affairs

In 1960, for example, the Cuban govt seized US owned businesses, including sugar estates & as a result, relations btwn Cuba & the US quickly became strained

As relations w/ the US declined, Cuba developed stronger ties w/ the SU & became a Communist country

In early 1960, Castro's govt signed a broad econ pact w/ the SU

In June 1960, the Castro govt took over Am & British oil refineries in Cuba after the refineries refused to process crude oil imported from the SU

In 1961, the US ended diplomatic relations w/ Cuba

In April 1961, Cuban exiles sponsored by the US CIA invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast

Castro's forces crushed the invasion & captured most of the exiles & Castro later released many of the exiles to the US in exchange for nonmilitary supplies

Cuban leaders feared another direct US invasion & the SU offered military aid to Cuba, & Cuba agreed to let the SU send missiles & materials to build launch sites

In October 1962, the US learned that Cuba had nuclear missiles in place that could be launched toward Am cities

President Kennedy demanded that the SU remove all missiles from the island & dismantle the remaining missile bases

Finally, the SU removed the weapons under protest from Castro

The Soviet action came after Kennedy privately agreed not to invade Cuba & Kennedy also agreed to remove US nuclear missiles from Turkey, which the Soviets considered to be a threat

SOCIAL PROGRAMS IN CUBA

The Castro govt built many new schools & improved old ones, & school enrollments & literacy rates increased dramatically

Health conditions improved, & life expectancy increased & social reforms also led to more opportunities for minorities

On the other hand, many opponents of the govt were jailed, & Cuba came under sharp criticism from intl human rights groups

In addition, the Cuban people were denied many political & econ freedoms

The Cuban econ declined under Castro, & the people suffered from shortages of food & housing

ANALYSIS OF THE CUBAN REVOLUTION

The Cuban Rev is seen as historically important because it overthrew a capitalist state, an ally of the US, & occurred in the backyard of the US

The Cuban Rev validates many of Farley's necessary conditions for rev in that

- the Cuban people were dissatisfied because of exploitation by foreigners, esp the US, exploitation of the Batista & other govts which were puppets of the US, oppression by the military, etc., & general poverty

- while communications were difficult in the 20th century Cuba, it was still possible given the mail, newspapers, etc. & the small size of the Cuban island

- the Cuban people & leaders had survived centuries of repression by the foreign occupiers & puppet & corrupt govts

- while the Cuban people feared the Cuban puppet govts, & the colonizers, esp the US, Castro & Che Gueverra inspired them w/ their visions of socialism, equality & freedom from colonialism & corrupt govts

- the Cuban people had barely adequate resources, but were bolstered by the support from the Soviet Union ( SU )

The Cuban Rev validates many of Marx's factors affecting rev in that

- the Cuban peasants experienced the contradiction of & colonial capitalism

- the Cuban peasants had class consciousness in that they understood the contradiction of colonial feudalism & colonial capitalism because they had lived under it for centuries

- the historical circumstances of the Cuban Rev included the historic colonial exploitation of the nation, the puppet, corrupt regimes, the rise of leaders who supported socialism, the Cold War, & support from the SU

- the Cuban peasants had a strong political org in the form socialist revolutionary cells

- there was a high level of class conflict btwn the peasant, local bourgeoisie, local feudal land barons, & foreign colonists

The Cuban Rev validates Johnson's theory in that 20th century Cuba was in disequilibrium because of the contradiction btwn peasants value of freedom & the elimination of poverty, the values of the local bourgeoisie, local feudal land barons, & foreign colonists of maintaining what they saw as free mkt capitalism

Johnson notes that loss in a war sets the old regime up for rev, & in the case of the Cuban Rev, they had
- lost several wars of independence from earlier colonizing powers
- but had lost no wars prior to the Cuban Rev other than the rev war itself
- however, there had been several internal strikes, & protests which had weakened all puppet regimes

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Outline on the Explanations of the Development of Social Mvmts & Revolutions

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Some of the explanations of social mvmts attempt to articulate the interests of the developing historical actor

Giddens notes that articulating interests may seem simple in retrospect, but it is very difficult to read the present & the future

A common post modernist critique is that social theorists rationality "draws straight lines of historical action" in the past & then projects that into the future when in fact there are no straight lines in the past, present or future

For Farley the necessary conditions for the formation of a soc mvmt include...

1. Dissatisfaction: - that people must be dissatisfied

2. Communication: - that people who are dissatisfied must be able to communicate w/ each other

3. Survival of repression: - that people must be able to survive attempts at repression

4. Perception of chance for success: - that the mvmt must seen by participants & potential participants as having a reasonable chance for success

5. Adequate resources: - that people must have adequate resources including leadership, money, supporters, etc.

Any one of the necessary conditions, or several of them, are not by themselves adequate for the formation of a soc mvmt; a soc mvmt requires all of the necessary conditions to form; however, the necessary conditions do not guarantee success

Most revolutions occur because of widespread dissatisfaction w/ an existing system

Social conditions such as poverty & injustice under cruel, corrupt, or incapable rulers may contribute to revolution, but in most cases, social problems alone do not cause revolutions

Poor social conditions lead to despair rather than a will to fight for something better

Revolutions need strong leaders who can use unsatisfactory conditions to unite people under a program that promises improvements

Many revolutions occur after rulers begin to lose confidence in themselves & yield to various demands from their rivals

Compromises by rulers, or rapidly improving social conditions, create a revolution of rising expectations as people begin to see hope for a better life

If changes do not keep pace w/ people's expectations, the people lose faith in their rulers & start listening to revolutionary leaders

The French Rev of 1789 & the Russian Rev both began after the rulers agreed to the people's demands for representative assemblies

The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 occurred after the govt released some of its strongest opponents from prison

Not all revolutions have led to improved conditions because some revolutionaries have worked for change only to gain political power for themselves or because the goals were unattainable under the circumstances

A number of conservative rulers have called themselves revolutionaries simply to convince the public that they support social & economic changes

The various explanations of the formation of soc mvmts each consider one or more of the necessary conditions for soc mvmts:

Personality Theory, Farley

Mass Society Theory Locher

Marx's Theory of Revolution Giddens

Johnson's Theory of Revolution: Disequilibrium Theory Giddens

Relative Deprivation Theory Farley, Turner & Killian, Locher (Giddens: Rising Expectations)

Charles Tilly: Revolution through Collective Action Giddens

Resource Mobilization Theory Farley, Locher

Political Process Theory Farley, Locher

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Outline on Marx's Theory of Revolution

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Marx's theory of rev was based on his interpretation of human history

For Marx, the development of societies is marked by periodic class conflicts which may terminate in a process of rev change

Class struggles derive from the contradictions, i.e. unresolvable tensions, w/in societies that result from the inevitable divergent interests of the major classes in society

For Marx, the serfs, aristocrats, & church leaders of the Middle Ages had inevitably divergent interests

For Marx, the proletariat & the bourgeoisie of the Early Industrial Era had inevitably divergent interests

Marx would probably agree that the middle & upper classes of today have inevitably divergent interests

The source of contradiction is found in econ changes, i.e. change in the forces of production