Political Scenario of The World from 1890 to 1918

   DURING the period from about the last decade of the nineteenth century to 1914 when the First World War broke out, the world was dominated by Europe. However, there were already signs that the beginning of the end of European hegemony had started. Outside Europe, two countries-the USA and Japan-had already emerged as major powers. Within the colonies, nationalist movements had begun to take shape. The rivalries among the European imperialist powers over colonial possessions and the conflicts among various European States over European affairs led to the First World War, which was disastrous for Europe. Within many countries of Europe, powerful movements had emerged which aimed at radical changes in the existing social, economic and political system. Even before the war was over, the biggest country of Europe, Russia had a successful revolution. The world which emerged after the First World War ended in 1918 was very different from what it had been in the preceding three decades.

EUROPE

Europe’s Hegemony and Inter-Imperialist Rivalries

   During the period from the 1870s, when the new phase of imperialist expansion began, to 1914, almost all parts of Asia and Africa and some areas in other parts of the world had come under the control of one European imperialist country or other. In Asia, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Burma (now Myanmar) were under British rule, the countries comprising Indo-China were under French rule and Indonesia was under Dutch rule. China was not directly ruled by any imperialist country but had been divided into ‘spheres of influence’ of various countries. She had been reduced to the status of an international colony. Her dismemberment was prevented by the Boxer Rebellion which broke out in 1899- 1900 The Rebellion was suppressed by a joint Anglo German Russian French Japanese American force which occupied Beijing but it prevented the partition of China. In 1907 , Iran was divided into three parts-one part was within the sphere of influence of Britain, the second within that of Russia and the third open to both Russia and Britain. Britain exercised some degree of control over Afghanistan. Central Asia had come under the rule of the Russian empire. The only country in Asia which was independent was Japan; she had defeated China in 1895 and occupied Formosa and in subsequent years she extended her influence over China and defeated Russia in a war over Manchuria. In 1910, she occupied Korea.
   Africa, with the exception of Ethiopia and Liberia, was divided among the European powers. In 1876, Leopold II, King of Belgium, had taken possession of Congo, more or less as his private property; it was handed over to the Belgian government in 1908. Britain’s empire in Africa included Egypt and Sudan, Rhodesia, Uganda, British East Africa, Sierra Leone, Gold Coast (Ghana), Nigeria, and South Africa. The French had taken possession of Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco the Sahara, French Congo. French Guinea, Senegal. Dahomey, and Madagascar. Germany had acquired German East Africa, South-West Africa, Cameroons and Togoland. The Italian conquests included Libya and Somaliland. Portugal held Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea, and Spain had acquired Rio de Oro and Spanish Guinea. Italy’s ambition to conquer Ethiopia had been thwarted when her troops were defeated by the Ethiopian army at the famous battle of Adowa in 1896.
   The British Empire was the biggest in the world; both in terms of the number of people over whom it ruled and the area under her rule. Britain at this time had a population of about 45 million but the population of her colonial possessions extending over an area of 23 million square kilometers was about 400 million. France with a population of about 39 million ruled over an empire of over 10 million square kilometers inhabited by over 50 million people.
   Europe dominated the world not only politically but also economically. Three countries of Europe-Britain, Germany and France-controlled about 45 per cent of the world trade and about 60 per cent of the world market for manufactured goods.
   The process of the imperialist conquest of Asia and Africa was accompanied by intense rivalries and conflicts (among the European imperialist powers. The competing claims over colonies often created conditions of war. However, generally, most of these conflicts were resolved in the conference rooms of Europe and wars were avoided. The European powers settled their rival claims-which country would acquire which territory-on the basis of quid pro qua of ‘something for something’, by giving away something in exchange for receiving something. For example, in 1904, after a long period of conflicting claims, which had brought them almost to the point of a war, Britain and France entered into a secret agreement whereby Britain was given a ‘free hand’ in Egypt and in exchange Morocco was to be given to France. When Germany came to know about it, she demanded that France relinquish her claim to Morocco. A series of international crises followed, bringing Europe to the brink of war. The Moroccan issue was finally settled in 1911 when France agreed to give a portion of French Congo to Germany and Germany informed France that she could do what she liked in Morocco. In creating these crises and in resolving them, the people of French Congo or Morocco, whose territories were being bargained, had no say.
   In spite of the ‘Gentlemen’s Agreements’ which resolved most disputes over colonies, there was growing militarization of the European States. Every country feared and suspected the other and tried to increase its military and naval strength and the size of every country’s navy and army went on increasing. Most European countries Introduced conscription that is, making military training compulsory for everyone. Europe was being gradually converted into an armed camp. Each country, of course, claimed that the increase in her armed strength was for purely defense purposes but others was for war. Britain opposed Germany building a strong navy saying that it was a luxury for her as she had a strong army. Kaiser William II, the German Emperor, declared, “The German Fleet is not built against any one and not against England, but according to our need....I want to make myself safe, against France and Russia and England too. And I am all for the white man against the black”. Britain was determined to maintain her naval superiority, which she had enjoyed for about three centuries, to protect her empire and commerce and to give herself a feeling of safety. The feverish manner in which the armed strength of various European States was increasing and the preparations for war made, led to the steady growth of feeling that war was inevitable. War was considered a part of the natural order of things and was even extolled as a virtue. Preparations for war were accompanied by propaganda for war, and some philosophers and politicians viewed war as one of the ‘divine elements of the universe’ and ‘a condition for progress’.
   When we speak of the economic and military might of Europe, it should be remembered that this was not true for all countries of Europe. When the war broke out in 1914, there were about twenty-five States in Europe, big and small. The most industrialized of these were Britain, Germany and France while most of the rest-Spain and Portugal in the Iberian Peninsula, the Balkan States such as Albania, Serbia and Bulgaria, and Greece and countries of Eastern Europe-were still primarily pre-industrial countries even though some of them had acquired colonial possessions. Russia, the most populous country in Europe and with a big empire, was also primarily an agricultural country, industrialization there had just begun and that too mainly through investment by other countries. Nor were the States based on the principle of nationality. The Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and Finland were part of the Russian empire. Poland as a State did not exist; one part of it was under Russian occupation, another part was under the occupation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the third part lay in Germany. Czechoslovakia was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as were many areas of the Slav people (comprising parts of present Yugoslavia). Ireland had been a British colony for centuries. The political system in these countries also varied-a few were republics, though not all republics were democratic; some were constitutional monarchies, the powers of the monarchs varying from country to country, and the rest were autocracies.

Conflicts within Europe

  The conflicts among the European countries were not confined to the question of colonies. There were tensions and antagonisms between them over European affairs. Of the twenty-five European States, five may be said to have been powerful. These were Britain, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary and Russia. Of these, Britain was the richest and the most powerful. Britain had a parliamentary form of government though monarchy had been retained. Even after the various Reform Acts passed during the nineteenth century, the House of Commons, the House of British parliament which comprised elected members (the other being the House of Lords which comprised hereditary members) was not truly democratic. All men still did not have the right to vote and women had no voting rights at all. One of the major problems that Britain faced was the demand for Home Rule by the Irish. A powerful movement for independence had been growing in Ireland though many people in Northern Ireland, mostly settlers from England and Scotland, were opposed to it.
  Germany was the strongest power, both in terms of her economic and armed might, on the continent of Europe and was Britain‘s main rival. She too had a parliamentary form of government though the position of the German emperor was much stronger than that of the British monarch. The territory of Germany included a part of Poland and Alsace-Lorraine which she had taken from France after a war in 1870-71. France, the third most industrialized State of Europe. had been a republic since 1871. She looked forward to the day when she would avenge her humiliating defeat at the hands of Germany and recover Alsace-Lorraine by a war of ravanche (revenge). Austria-Hungary, the Hapsburg Empire as it was called, was a dual monarchy. The two important countries comprising the empire were Austria and Hungary, and Francis Joseph was simultaneously the emperor of Austria and king of Hungary. Politically, Austria-Hungary was the most troubled Suite in Europe. Extending ever a large area of Europe, her territories, besides Austria and Hungary, included Czechoslovakia, Slav areas (later to constitute Yugoslavia) and parts of Poland, Rumania and even Italy. In all these territories, there was a resurgence of nationalism, creating deep discontent and divisions. The nationalism of the Slav people in Austria-Hungary was also fanned by Russia and Serbia and created strong antagonism between these two countries and Austria-Hungary. Russia was the biggest country in Europe and she had established a vast empire which included the Baltic States, Finland and part of Poland in Europe and northern and Central Asia. She was a backward agricultural country, with some industries concentrated in a few big cities, and had an outdated political system. She was under the autocratic rule of the czars, as the Russian emperors were called, and until 1905 she did not have even the semblance of a parliament. After the 1905 Revolution a parliament, called the Duma, was created but it had little power. Discontent was rife in the Russian empire, among the none-Russian nationalities because of the oppressive social, economic and political system. Another country of Europe which pretended to be powerful was Italy. She had vast colonial ambitions but, except for its northern part, she was industrially backward.
   Some of the tensions in Europe were connected with the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. Till the early nineteenth century the entire Balkan Peninsula was a part of the Ottoman Empire. Throughout the nineteenth century, there were wars between the Ottoman and Russian empires. Russian attempts to extend her control over the Ottoman territories in Europe were thwarted by other European countries, notably Britain, Germany, and Austria - Hungary. By the early twentieth century, the Ottoman rule over the Balkans had all but ended. Serbia, Bulgaria and Albania had emerged as independent States. However, the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire did not solve the problem of nationalities in Europe. Serbia had emerged as a champion of the Slav people many of whom inhabited the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She depended on Russia's support in her ambition to create Greater Serbia which would include the Ottoman provinces of Bosnia and Herzgovina that were under Austria-Hungary and the southern areas of Austria-Hungary which were inhabited by the Slav people-the Croats, the Slovenes and the Serbs. She encouraged discontent in these areas and organized conspiracies against Austria-Hungary. This region became the source of increasing tensions in Europe and finally provided the incident which brought about the First World War. In 1908, Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzgovina which had been placed under her administrative control. Serbia wanted Russia to go to war with Austria-Hungary on this issue but Germany’s threat of supporting Austria-Hungary in the event of a war restrained Russia. There was further intensification of bitterness in Serbia against Austria-Hungary as a result of the Balkan Wars in 1912-13. Some of the Balkan States, including Serbia, had united, with Russian support, to conquer Macedonia from the Ottomans. However, after the Ottomans had been defeated, Austria-Hungary, with the support of Britain and Germany, succeeded in making Albania an independent State rather than a pan of Serbia which Serbia had hoped During all this period, treaties and secret agreements were signed, and threats of war issued and withdrawn, indicating alignments and realignments. There were no permanent friends and no country could rely on the support of another country. This confusion-who was whose ally and enemy-persisted till the very outbreak of the war and was an additional source of tension. For example, Russia had threatened to go to war on the question of Bosnia and Herzgovina. In fact, she had earlier reached a secret understanding with Austria-Hungary promising her that she would not interfere in her plans to annex Bosnia and Hengovina in exchange for her support in Russia‘s ambition to have the straits leading to the Mediterranean opened to her. However, in spite of these uncertainties, two rival alliances had emerged by the first decade of the twentieth century. Already in 1882, the Triple Alliance comprising Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy had been formed, although for many years after 1882, Germany and Austria remained friends and by 1890 it was clear that Italy’s loyalty to the Alliance would be uncertain. Russia and France had signed secret agreements in 1894 which had brought them together against the Triple Alliance, particularly against Germany and Austria-Hungary. In 1904, Britain and France, who had long been enemies and had often, reached the brink of war in their rivalries over colonies, entered into what is known as the Entente Cordiale, a sort of friendly agreement rather than a formal alliance. The secret clause of the ‘friendly agreement’ included Frame giving up her claims on Egypt in return for freedom to do what she liked with Morocco. The next stage in the process was an agreement in 1907 between Britain and Russia-the two had a long history of rivalries and hostility. The purpose of this friendly agreement was to divide Iran, as already mentioned. With this was fanned the Triple Entente comprising Britain, France and Russia. It was an Entente (understanding) and not a formal alliance. The formation of the alliances (or understanding), in spite of doubts about the loyalty of allies and friends in case the war broke out, brought the war nearer and added to the mistrust and fear of each country against the others. The alliances also made it, in a way, inevitable that, when the war broke out, it would not be a local war confined to one or two countries and that it would almost certainly assume wider proportions.

Social Tensions

  Besides the conflicts between States, there were serious tensions and problems within States. The problem of nationalities, which has been mentioned, was not the only source of internal tensions. The changes that had come about since the rise of capitalism and during about a hundred years after the beginning of the Industrial Revolution had made Europe's hegemony over the world possible. However, the social system in all countries of Europe was marked by gross inequalities. In the countries where industrialization had not taken place on any significant scale, the peasantry which constituted the bulk of the population, continued to live in the old way in conditions of misery and oppression. The countries that were industrialized and had become mighty economic powers had social systems that were based on undisguised exploitation of the workers. In spite of the growth of industries which produced an increasing quantity of goods, vast masses of people lived in unhealthy conditions in slums and led lives of semi-starvation. With the ever-present danger of being thrown out of employment. In Britain, during her war against the Boers (Dutch settlers) in South Africa in 1899-1902, the need for recruiting additional men to the army was urgently felt. A large number of people who came to the army recruiting centers were rejected, for they were diseased and too weak, having lived lives of poverty in unhealthy surroundings, to serve as soldiers. Efforts were made to mitigate some of the worst evil effects of capitalism and the Industrial Revolution but the situation of the downtrodden had not significantly improved even after the end of the nineteenth century. A British historian of the twentieth century Europe has remarked, “The poor who thronged the overcrowded slums of the big towns and industrial districts were a lower order of humanity and treated as such, valued only as the necessary pool of labour, always in surplus, on which the social as well as the economic system depended.”

Socialist Movement

  The rise of the trade union movement and of the ideas and movement of socialism has been mentioned earlier. The socialist view that capitalism was a system based on exploitation and must be ended, was gaining increasing popularity with the workers of Europe since the last quarter of the nineteenth century. There was a spate of strikes in pre-First World War Europe. In almost every country of Europe, socialist parties had been formed and steadily growing. By 1914, the people who voted for the various socialist parties in Europe also steadily increased. In 1914, the socialist parties of Germany, France and Italy were the single largest parties in the parliaments of their respective countries.
   The formation of the Second International in 1889 has been referred to earlier. One of the decisions taken at the Congress at which the Second International was formed was “to organize, for 1st May, a great international demonstration organized in such a way” that on the same day “the workers in all the lands and cities will simultaneously demand from the powers that-be a limitation of the working day to eight hours". Since then, the May Day is observed throughout the world as the working class day and a day of solidarity of the workers throughout the world.
   There were many differences within the socialist movement and parties of each country on the meaning of socialism and the methods of achieving it. Some socialists held the view that capitalism could be ended only by over throwing the ruling class through a revolutionary struggle while others held that capitalism could be transformed gradually through the growing influence of the working-class without a revolution. These differences were also reflected in the policies of the Second International and continue to divide the socialist movement to this day.

Colonialism, Militarization and War

  Two major issues which all socialist parties and the Second International were concerned about were the issues of the colonies and of militarization and war. There were differences on both these issues although on certain aspects of those issues almost all socialists were agreed. Some advocated the view that the right of every nation to freedom and independence was a fundamental concept of socialism and that colonialism should be totally rejected. Others, while condemning capitalist colonial policies, held that under socialist government colonialism could play a positive civilizing role. The latter view was often used by some sections in the socialist movement to directly or indirectly support the colonial policies of their respective governments. These differences persisted for many decades and it was only after the collapse of the colonial system that the ‘civilizing role’ of colonialism, under a capitalist or a socialist government, lost all its ‘socialist’ adherents. In spite of these differences, however, the socialist parties of Europe, including those of the imperialist countries, demarcated themselves from the colonial policies of their governments. The Second International, at its Congress held at Stuttgart in Germany in 1907, unanimously passed a resolution which committed the socialist members of Parliament to oppose the robbery and subjugation of colonial peoples and to fight for reforms which would better their lot, protect their rights and “do everything possible to educate them for independence”. The leaders of the freedom movements often established close relations with the socialist parties and leaders of the colonial countries. Dadabhai Naoroji, the Grand Old Man of India’s freedom movement, attended a Congress of the Second International, and was greeted with “tumultuous cheers and applause, lasting for several minutes”. The President of the session asked the delegates “to treat with the greatest reverence the statement of the Indian delegate, an old man of eighty, who had sacrificed fifty-five years of his life to the struggle for the freedom and happiness of his people”. Madame Cama, an Indian revolutionary, unfurled India’s Hag of freedom, which she had designed, at a Congress of the Second International.
   From its earliest beginnings, the socialist movement had viewed war as an extreme expression of the evil of the existing system of society and a barbaric instrument with which the ruling classes of various countries tried to promote their economic and political power. The establishment of peace and human brotherhood had been one of the inspiring ideals of the socialist movement. With the growing militarization and the danger of war, the socialist parties and the Second International increasingly concerned themselves with these issues. One of their major preoccupations throughout this period was the “question of how the workers of the world could unite to prevent wars". All socialist parties were agreed that every effort should be made to prevent wars. They were committed to opposing the arms race and voting against war credits in the parliaments of their respective countries. Many socialist leaders suggested that workers should go on general strike to prevent war and, in case it broke out, to bring about its speedy termination. Keir Hardie, the British socialist leader, advocated the idea of a strike in the arms industry, transport and mining for preventing wars. The Stuttgart Congress of the Second International unanimously adopted a resolution on ‘Militarism and the International Conflicts’. The resolution stated that wars “are part of the very nature of capitalism” and declared that the struggle against militarism was inseparable from the struggle for socialism. It pledged the socialist parties and their representatives in parliaments “to combat the naval and military armaments with all their might... and to refuse the means for these armaments. It is their duty to work for the education of the working-class youth in the spirit of the brotherhood of nations and of Socialism...” The resolution ended by saying: “If a war threatens to break out, it is the ditty of the working classes and their parliamentary representatives in the countries involved... to exert every effort in order to prevent the outbreak of war by the means they consider most effective.
   “In case war should break out any way, it is their duty to intervene in favour of its speedy termination, and with all their powers to utilize the economic and political crisis created by the war to rouse the masses and thereby to hasten the downfall of capitalist rule.”
   The concluding parts of the resolution quoted above were drafted by three socialist leaders Lenin and Martov from Russia and Rosa Luxemburg from Germany. They remained steadfast in their adherence to the resolution. A great leader who fought all his life against the forces of militarism and war was Jean Jaures of France. He had earned the wrath of the French revanchists (the revenge-seekers) for his propaganda against militarism and war.
  During the Balkan War in 1912 when a European war seemed imminent, he had declared, “Let governments remember that in conjuring up the danger of war they invite the peoples to make a simple calculation-how much smaller a sacrifice a revolution would involve, when compared with the war they are preparing.” On 28 July 1914, Austria Hungary had declared war on Serbia. A meeting of the Second international was held at Brussels. A call was given at this meeting to the workers of all countries threatened by war to organize peace meetings and to work for the settlement of the dispute between Austria Hungary and Serbia. The meeting also decided that “the German and French workers will bring even greater pressure on their own governments to make Germany exercise restraint on Austria while France persuades Russia to keep out of the conflict”. There was a workers demonstration in Brussels With the slogan ‘War on War’. Jaures was among the leaders who addressed the demonstrators. After his return to Paris on 31 July, he went in a deputation to persuade the French government to pressurize Russia, France’s Entente ally, against mobilization for war. A few hours later, on the eve of the outbreak of the First World War, he was shot dead in a cafe.
   When the war, finally, broke out, most socialist parties decided to support their respective governments and made common cause with their respective ruling classes who solely bore the respons1bility for the war. They found themselves to be powerless to oppose the war and to call for an uprising to terminate it. The war which was caused by the inter-imperialist rivalries and served only the narrow imperialist aims of the ruling classes, was viewed by many socialists now as a fight for the survival of their respective nations. With this an important phase in the history of the socialist movement came to a close. The spirit of internationalism which had characterized the socialist movement from the very beginning, suffered a mortal blow. There were splits in the socialist movement in all countries and these became even deeper after the Russian Revolution.
   The period of the quarter century before the First World War broke out was one of tremendous growth in the strength of the socialist movement in Europe. The socialist movement challenged the existing order in Europe, the capitalist system on which it was based, the policy of imperialist conquest and exploitation of colonies and militarism and war. There was a fear of revo1ution in Europe though none actually took place except in Russia in 1905 where it was suppressed. “Certainly no European governments hesitated to go to war for fear that its subjects would refuse the call to arms or turn their weapons against their own ruler sand they were right”. This statement by a historian correctly sums up the situation as it developed, except in the case of Russia where the rulers were proved wrong.

USA AND JAPAN

  Two countries which emerged as major powers during this period were the United States of America (USA) and Japan.

The USA

  During about a hundred years after the thirteen English colonies on the east coast of North America had won their independence from England and emerged as the United States of America, that country had attained its present territorial proportions. The westward territorial expansion of the United States took place at the cost of the American Indian tribes with inhabited those areas. The American Indians resisted these encroachments but by 1890 this resistance finally ended in a massacre at a place called Wounded Knee in South Dakota. The USA also purchased vast territories of Louisiana and Alaska from France and Russia, respectively, and seized Texas and California from Mexico after a war with that country. Between 1861 and 1865, there was a civil war when the southern States of the USA which were primarily agricultural with plantations worked by slave labour seceded from the Union. As a result of the defeat of the southern States in the civil war, the Union was preserved and slavery was abolished.
   Within about three decades after the end of the Civil War, the USA had become the foremost ‘industrial power in the world. By the end of the nineteenth century, she was producing about one-third of the total production of iron and steel in the world. In almost every branch of industry, she outstripped every other country in the world. There were over 300,000 km of railroads in the country, which exceeded the combined railroads in entire Europe. She produced and consumed more oil and natural gas than the rest of the world put together. For a long time, the amazing growth of the US economy went unnoticed. One reason for this was that the US herself provided a huge market for her products. The US population had risen from about four million in 1790 to about 92 million in 1910. About twenty-five million Europeans had migrated to the US during the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century. There had also been a general lack of interest in the European and world affairs.
   By 1890s, the USA had emerged as a new imperialist power. In 1889, a US senator said, “Today, we are raising more than we can consume. “Today we are making more than we can use. Therefore, we must find new markets for our produce, new occupation for our capital, new work for our labour.” Another senator had warned that the US must not fall out of the line of March. Like many Europeans at that time, the Americans also had begun talking about of the duty of the civilized nations to uplift the less fortunate ones and the domination by strong nations of the weak ones being in accordance with the laws of nature. The US expansion in the Pacific had started even earlier. The Hawaian Islands were referred to as being a part of the American System in 1881 though they were annexed only in 1898. In the 1880s, a war-like situation had developed as a result of the US, German and British rivalries over the Samoan islands. For some time, the three countries established a tripartite control there but in 1899, Germany and the US divided the Islands ‘between themselves, with Britain being provided elsewhere. In 1893, the USA declared her hegemony over the American continent. During a territorial dispute between Venezuela and British Guiana (present Guyana), she forced Britain to agree to refer the dispute to arbitration and declared, “Today the United States is practically sovereign on this continent and its fiat is law upon the subjects to which it confines its interposition.” In 1898, the US went to war with Spain over Cuba which, along with Puerto Rico, was the only Spanish colony in the Americas. It was claimed to have been “a splendid little war” except for those who had fought in it. The US also attacked the Philippines, a Spanish colony in the Pacific. Spain was defeated and ceded Puerto Rico and the island of Guam in the Pacific to the US. The Filipinos were considered unfit to rule themselves and the US President, claiming that he had received divine guidance, decided to annex the Philippines. Cuba was forbidden to make treaties with any other country and the US claimed the right to intervene in Cuba to preserve her independence, life and property. Though nominally independent, she became a US appendage. When in the 1890s, the European Powers made preparations for the partition of China; the US felt that she would be left out. She, therefore, declared what is known as the Open Door policy, which meant that no country should be discriminated against in China by other countries, including in areas which they claimed as their spheres of influence. When the Boxer Rebellion broke out, the US troops joined the troops of European countries in suppressing it and in occupying Beijing. By the early years of the twentieth century, the US had become fully aware of her being a world power. There was also a streak of racism in the US attitude to other peoples. According to the US President Theodore Roosevelt, the ‘civilized’ nations were predominantly white and the ‘uncivilized ones predominantly non-white. He himself summarized his foreign policy in these words: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” He was concerned about the Russian designs in China and, therefore was quite happy when the Japanese attacked the Russian fleet in 1904. Later, he mediated to end the Russo-Japanese War and persuaded Russia to recognize Japan’s territorial gains which included control of Korea and southern Manchuria, and a part of the Sakhalin Island which had earlier belonged to Russia. He also entered into a secret agreement with Japan which gave the US the right to trade freely in that region; The US appeasement of Japan’s colonial ambitions was to prove costly to the US later as Japan became the main rival to the US in the Pacific. Latin America had begun to be seen as the USA’s special Sphere of interest, which was open to intervention only by the US. In 1904, Roosevelt declared that the United States had the right not only to oppose European intervention in the American continent but to intervene herself in the internal affairs of her neighbors to maintain order. This is known as a new ‘corollary’ to the Monroe Doctrine. For over thirty years, the US kept with her the control of the customs revenues of the Dominican Republic. In 1906, the US troops landed in Cuba to preserve order and remained there for three years.
   The completion of the Panama Canal is considered the “most celebrated accomplishment” of Roosevelt. A French company had completed about 40 per cent construction of the Panama Canal in Colombia. The US bought from the French company its holdings but the Colombian government refused to agree to the terms which the US had offered to her regarding the payment to be made to her for giving the right to construct the Canal in Colombian territory. Roosevelt called the Colombians “bandits” and “blackmailers”. A ‘revolution’ was organized in Panama with money supplied by an American industrialist, the US troops landed in Panama to preserve order (actually to prevent Colombia from suppressing the ‘revolution’ and, after three days, Panama was recognized as an independent nation. The new government of Panama signed an agreement with the US on the Panama Canal on terms that were much more favorable to the US than those which the US had earlier offered to Colombia and which the latter had rejected. The Canal was opened in 1914. In the meantime, in 1906, Roosevelt had been given the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the Russo-Japanese War.
   The policy of US intervention in the internal affairs of the Latin American countries continued during the presidencies of William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson. 'Taft’s policy of promoting American investments in the Latin American countries and elsewhere and establishing indirect control through investments did not preclude the use of gunboats and armed intervention if the need arose. The US policy “towards Mexico during the presidency of Wilson earned the US the lasting hostility of Mexico. In 1910, a corrupt director of Mexico had been deposed by a popular leader Francisco Madero. In 1913, he was deposed, with US approval, by another dictator, and murdered. This dictator was deposed after some time and the US, unsuccessfully, continued to intervene in the affairs of Mexico.
   The industrial expansion, which had made the USA a leading industrial power and was soon to make her a world power, was accompanied by corruption, intense exploitation and the use of ruthless means, and disregard for the interests of the people. The owner of one of the largest railroad companies is credited with the frank statement - “The public be damned.” By adopting ruthless methods, a few individuals controls ling a few corporations had concentrated enormous economic power in their hands. Often this concentration took place in violation of the law and by bribery. The holder of a huge industrial empire, when told that what he was doing was against the law, declared, “What do I care about the law? Hain’t I got the power?” The need to control the increasing concentration of economic power in a few hands became a major issue in the politics of the USA from the 1890s. It led to a movement called ‘Progressivism.’
   What has been said earlier about the conditions of the common people, particularly the industrial workers, in Europe was also true for the USA. The working and living conditions of the workers were miserable and unemployment was a common feature of their life in spite of the enormous growth of the economy. Workers were never very far from the prospect of poverty, losing their jobs or facing a cut in their wages. Child labour was rampant and children working at night in the textile mills were kept awake by throwing cold water on their faces Female children in some industries worked sixteen hours a day; About 20 per cent of the workers employed In manufacturing industries were women, who were paid much lower wages than men. Little attention was paid to prevent industrial accidents, which were a common occurrence.
   The workers of the USA began to organize themselves and there was a wave of strikes from the 1880s. Most of these were ruthlessly suppressed by the state police and troops, which were used to terrorize the workers. The industrialists also used guards hired for the purpose of breaking strikes and terrorizing workers. One agency which provided the services of its guards for this purpose was the Pinkerton Detective Agency and it continued to provide these services for many decades. Killings of trade union leaders were not uncommon, A national workers’ organization which emerged in this period, was the American Federation of Labour (AFL). On its call, strikes and demonstrations were held on 1 May 1886 all over the country to was the demand or an eight-hour working day. In the Haymarket Square in Chicago on that day the police fired at the demonstrators who were protesting against the police atrocities on the striking workers of the city. Four workers were killed. Someone had earlier thrown a bomb at the police, which had killed seven policemen. Eight persons were arrested on the charge of inciting the person who had thrown the bomb and in what is considered to be one of the most “Injudicious trials” m American history, seven of the accused were sentenced to death. The Second International’s decision to give a call to workers to observe 1 May to demand eight-hour working day has been mentioned earlier. The choice of that day was connected with the incidents that earlier took place at Haymarket Square m Chicago on 1 May 1886.
   Many Americans raised the voice against the gross inequalities in society the exploitation of child labour and of women workers, the growing concentration of wealth in a few hands, and corrupt industrialists, bankers, politicians and officials. A powerful literature of protest was produced by writers and journalists. There was also strong opposition to the imperialist policies being followed by the US government. Some of the earliest socialist groups outside Europe were formed in the US. In 1901, the Socialist Party of America was formed. Its most prominent leader was Eugene V. Debs, who later polled about one million votes in the 1912 election for the presidency. Another important labour organization was the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). When the First World War broke out, the US, in the words of President Wilson, decided to remain “impartial in thought as well as deed”. In April 1917, the USA decided to enter the “war to end wars” and to “make the world safe for democracy”. It has been mentioned earlier that when the war broke out the socialist parties of Europe decided to support their respective governments. The American Socialists Party and the IWW, however, stuck to their opposition to the war. The US government had made laws according to which any public expression of opposition to the war was sedition and sabotage. Many Americans were prosecuted for their opposition to the war, Eugene Debs was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment.
   There were other tensions and conflicts within the US some of which have persisted till our own times. Vast sections of the American population suffered from various other disadvantages besides the ones created by the concentration of wealth in a few hands. Industrial progress did not mean increased prosperity of the people. In the course of a little over hundred years, the American Indian tribes which inhabited North America were deprived of their lands and their way of life was totally disrupted. By 1890, the process of their total subordination was nearly complete and they had to accept what the whites left to them. One of the major issues in the history of the USA since the nineteenth century has been the struggle of the black people for freedom and equality. For about 80 years after the USA emerged as an independent nation with a republican form of government, slavery continued in that country. In 1860, in a total population of about 31 million, there were four million slaves owned by about 225,000 people in the southern States of the USA. In 1865, after the Civil War, slavery was abolished. For about ten years afterwards, efforts were made to enforce the rights of the black people-the former slaves in the former slave-owning southern States. 1868, “citizenship” rights were given to all persons “born or naturalized” in the United Stat and these rights could not be abridged. In 1870 the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed, which made it a law that the right the citizens to vote “shall not be denied or abridged on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude”. Earlier, even in the northern States, which did not have slavery, most black people were denied this right on one ground or the other. Now even in the southern States, the black people, who were now free but very poor, were not only given the right to vote but this right was enforced. This period which lasted till the 1870s is known as the Reconstruction Period. In many respects, this was the first time that the US had a truly democratic system. It came to an end when power was handed back to the former slave-owners in the southern States, troops of the Federal government were withdrawn from the southern States and a period of denial of political and legal rights to the black people and the practice of racial discrimination and oppression against them started. By the early years of the twentieth century, the black people were stripped off their legal and political rights, and segregation between whites and blacks was rigidly enforced-blacks and whites could not travel in the same train compartments, they could not go to the same parks and beaches, they could not eat in the same restaurants, and they could not go to the same schools, theatres and even hospitals. Segregation was combined with violence, and it is estimated that about 200 blacks were lynched by white mobs every year during the last decade of the nineteenth century. Racism also became an instrument for perpetuating economic inequalities in society. The black people were the most economically depressed section of American society. But most of the whites were also poor and were ruthlessly exploited. By arousing racial feelings, common people, black and white, were prevented from unitedly fighting against exploitation. The black people suffered from discriminatory practics throughout the country; in the southern States, of course, it was much worse and much more brutal than in the northern States. By the early years of the twentieth century, a powerful movement of protest against racial discrimination began to emerge. The most significant figure in this movement for about half a century was W.E.B. Du Bois. In 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) was formed. Many who were opposed to racism also supported the struggle of the black people. How: ever, it took over half a century before significant progress began to be made in ending racial discrimination and the inhuman system of racial segregation.
   It has been mentioned earlier that even in those European countries that had a democratic system of government, women were denied the right to vote. The same situation existed in the USA. The movement for woman suffrage had started in the mid-nineteenth century and it became an important issue in the early twentieth century. However, it was only in 1920 that American women were granted the right to vote by the US Constitution.

Japan

  It has been mentioned earlier that Japan was the only Asian country to have escaped imperialist control. For centuries, military generals, called shoguns, exercised real power in Japan while the Japanese emperor was a mere figurehead. For over two hundred years, Japan had been almost totally secluded from the rest of the world. In many respects, the Japanese social system was comparable to the social system of feudal Europe. Around the middle of the nineteenth century, Japan was rudely awakened to the modern world by the threat to her independence. Within a few decades she not only succeeded in warding off the danger of foreign domination but also underwent a process of modernizing certain aspects of her society that enabled her to emerge as a world power. In 1853, Commodore Perry went with a US fleet and delivered an ultimatum to Japan. It was stated that “positive necessity requires that we should protect our commercial interests in this remote part of the world; and in doing so, to resort to measures, however strong, to counteract the schemes of powers less scrupulous than ourselves”. Eight months later, when he returned with a bigger fleet, the Japanese government signed a treaty with the US under which two ports were opened to US ships and some amount of trade was permitted. Similar treaties were then signed by several European countries. In 1863 and 1864, the US and European fleet displayed their military superiority by firing on two Japanese cities. In 1868, the rule of the Shogun was ended and a new set of rulers and advisers came to the f ore. They ruled in the name of the emperor, whose authority, in theory, was restored. This event is known as the Meiji Restoration, after the title ‘Meiji’ which the new emperor took.
   Within less than four decades of the Meiji Restoration. Japan’s economy and political institutions were transformed. The Japanese government made heavy investments in industries, the money for which was raised by heavy taxation and exploitation of the peasantry. Subsequently, the industries were sold to capitalists. Afterwards, government support in starting industries was no longer needed as the Japanese capitalists were able to start industries on their own. The process of industrialization was accompanied by impoverishment of the peasants, who often rebelled. An increasing number of them migrated to the cities where they provided cheap labour for the industries. By the early years of the twentieth century, Japanese goods, particularly textiles, could successfully compete in the international market with European goods. The demand for Japanese manufactures within Japan was limited due to the extreme poverty of most Japanese.
   In 1889, Japan was given a new constitution. The emperor enjoyed a special position as head of the executive and ministers were appointed by him and were responsible to him. He was believed to be “heaven-descended, divine and sacred; he is pre-eminent above his subjects. He must be reverenced and is inviolable”. The constitution provided for a parliament called the Diet. Less than 3 per cent of the population had the right to vote. The Diet enjoyed little power: the ministers were not responsible to it, and even in financial matters, its powers were limited. The military enjoyed vast powers in the new political system and, in course of time, came to completely dominate it. The army and the navy appointed army and naval officers, ministers of the army and the navy and the Diet had absolutely no control over them. The educational system which was built up made a mass of the population literate within a very short time. It enabled the Japanese to master the technical skills necessary for industrialization. The educational system was also used to promote emperor worship and an attitude of extreme nationalism and chauvinism. The civil liberties and Open political struggles were lacking in Japan. The State was controlled by an oligarchy and the repressive apparatus of the State, notably the police, enjoyed wide powers to control the press and prevent the holding of public meetings and demonstrations. Political dissent was not tolerated. In Spite of severe restriction, however, the first socialist group in Asia was formed in Japan.

A LYNCHING

  The Negro now gave one yell of terror and collapsed, falling prone. He quite bounded as he did coming down with a dead chug on the earthen floor. Reason had forsaken him. He was by now a groveling, foaming brute. The last gleam of intelligence was that which notified him of the set eyes of his pursuers.
   Davies, who by now had retreated to the grass outside before this eight, was standing but ten feet back when they began to reappear after seizing and binding him. Although shaken to the roots of his being. he still had all the cool observing powers of the trained and relentless reporter Even now he noted the color values of the scene, the red, smoky heads of the torches, the disheveled appearance of the men, the scuttling and pulling Then all at once he clapped his hands over his mouth, almost unconscious of what he was doing.
   “Oh, my God!” he whispered his voice losing power
The Sickening sight was that of the Negro, foaming at the mouth, bloodshot as to his eyes, his hands working convulsively, being dragged up the cellar steps feet foremost. They had tied a rope about his waist and feet, and so had hauled him out; leaving his head to hang and drag. The black lace was distorted beyond all human semblances.
   “Oh, my God!” said Dawes again, biting his fingers unconsciously.
The crowd gathered about now more closely than ever, more horror stricken than gleeful at their own work None apparently had either the courage or the charity to gainsay what was being done With a kind of mechanical deftness now the negro was rudely lilted and like a sack of wheat thrown into the wagon. Father and son now mounted in front to drive and the crowd took to their horses, content to clatter, a Silent cavalcade, behind As Davies afterwards concluded, they were not so much hardened lynchers perhaps as curious spectators, the majority of them, eager for any variation -- any excuse for one to the dreary common places of their existences. The task to most of all indeed -- was entirely new Wide-eyed and nerve-racked. Davies ran for his own horse and mounting followed He was so exalted he scarcely knew what he was doing.
   Slowly the Silent Company now took its way up the Sand River pike whence it had come The moon was still high, pouring down a wash of silvery light As Dawes rode he wondered how he was to complete his telegram, but decided that he could not When this was over there would be no time How long would it be before they would really hang him? And would they? The whole procedure seemed so unreal, so barbaric that he could scarcely believe It that he was a part at it Still they rode on “Are they really going to hang him ?” he asked of one who rode beside him, a total stranger who seemed however not to resent his presence.
   “That's what they got ‘im fer,” answered the stranger
And think, he thought to himself, tomorrow night he would be resting in his own good bed back in K-1.
   Davies dropped behind again and Into Silence and tried to recover his nerves He could scarcely realize that he, ordinarily accustomed to the routine of the City, its humdrum and at least outward social regularity, was a part of this. The night was so soft, the air so refreshing. The shadowy trees wore stirring with a cool night wind. Why should anyone have to die this way? Why couldn‘t the people of Baldwin or elsewhere have bestirred themselves on the Side of the law before this, just let it take its course? Both father and son now seemed brutal, the injury to the daughter and sister not so vital as all this Still also, custom seemed to require death in this way for this It was like some axiomatic, mathematic law-hard, but custom The Silent company, an articulated, mechanical and therefore terrible thing moved on It also was axiomatic Alter a time he drew near to the wagon and looked at the negro again.
   The latter, as Davies was glad to note, seemed still out at his sense. He was breathing heavily and groaning, but probably not with any conscious pain. His eyes fixed and staring, his face and hands bleeding as it they had been scratched or trampled upon He was crumpled limply But Davies could stand it no longer now. He fell back, sick at heart, content to see no more. It seemed a ghastly, murderous thing to do! Still the company moved on and he followed, past fields lit white by the moon. under dark, silent groups of trees, through which the moonlight fell in patches, up low hills and down into valleys, until at last a little stream came into view, the same little stream, as it proved, which he had seen earlier today and for a bridge over which they were heading. Here it ran now, sparkling like electricity in the night. After a time the road drew closer to the water and then crossed directly over the bridge, which could be seen a little way ahead.
   Up to this the company now rode and then halted. The wagon was driven up on the bridge, and father and son got out. All the riders, including Davies, dismounted, and a full score of them gathered about the wagon from which the Negro was lifted, quite as one might a bag. Fortunately, as Davies now told himself. he was still unconscious, an accidental mercy. Nevertheless he decided now that he could not witness the end, and went down by the waterside slightly above the bridge. He was not, after all, the utterly relentless reporter. From where he stood, however, he could see long beams of iron projecting out over the water, where the bridge was braced. and some of the men fastening a rope to a beam, and then he could see that they were fixing the other end around the negro‘s neck.
   Finally the curious company stood back, and he turned his face away.
“Have you anything to say?” a voice demanded.
There was no answer. The Negro was probably toiling and groaning, quite as unconscious as he was before.
   Then came the concerted action of a dozen men, the lifting of the black mass into the air, and then Davies saw the imp form plunge down and pull up with a creaking sound of rope. in the weak moonlight it seemed as if the body were struggling, but he could not tell. He watched, wide-mouthed and silent, and then the body ceased moving. Then after a time he heard the company making ready to depart and finally it did so, leaving him quite indifferently to himself and his thoughts. Only the black mass swaying in the pale light over the glimmering water seemed human and alive, his sole companion.
   By the 1890s, Japan had stated pursuing her colonial ambitions. These ambitions were primarily directed at China and aimed at establishing Japanese supremacy in East Asia. Later, the object of Japanese ambitions was to be entire Asia and the Pacific region. Having built up her armed strength, she went to war with China and defeated her in 1895. She annexed Formosa, which was a part of China, and forced China to recognize Korea, which came under Chinese suzerainty, as an independent State. In 1905, Korea was made a protectorate of Japan and in 1910 was annexed by her. In 1899, Japan’s status as a great power was recognized by the US and European countries when they gave up the rights and concessions that they had obtained as a result of the treaties which Japan had been forced to sign with them after 1854. In 1902, the Anglo Japanese Treaty or Alliance was signed, and Japan became the first Asian country to enjoy the status of full equality with other colonial powers. The British objective in signing the treaty was to deter Russian designs in China. The Russo Japanese War (1904-05), which ended in the defeat of Russia, has already been mentioned. Southern Manchuria was recognized as a Japanese ‘sphere of influence'. Japan also obtained half of the Sakhalin Island and acquired control of the Liaotung peninsula. During the First World War, Japan sought to establish her protectorate over China. Though she did not succeed in achieving this aim, she was able to extend her influence there.
   The rise of Japan as a great power, even though she was following imperialist policies in Asia, provided an impetus to the growth of nationalism in many Asian countries. Her war with Russia proved that an Asian non-white country could defeat a major European power. It helped the peoples of Asia to regain their pride.
   The emergence of the USA and Japan as great powers was an indication that the supremacy of Europe would not last long. The First World War hastened the process.

ASIA, AFRICA AND LATIN AMERICA

  We have referred to certain developments in Asia. Africa and Latin America in the context of European, American and Japanese imperialism. From the time when the imperialist countries established their direct or indirect control, they were faced with stiff resistance by the people. In course of time, the early forms of resistance gave way to the rise of nationalist movements, which aimed at the overthrow of direct or indirect foreign control, asserted their right to equality with other nations and expressed their determination to build up the economies of their countries on modern lines and their political and social systems on the principles of democracy and social justice. These nationalist movements often had to fight against the outdated political systems in their countries as well as those elements that stood in the way of their progress.
   You are already familiar with the rise of Indian nationalism and its specific features. It was one of the first nationalist movements to emerge in the colonies. Movements of national liberation had begun to emerge in other parts of Asia by the early years of the twentieth century, notably in Indo-China, Indonesia, the Fhilippines and Iran. In Iran, after a series of revolts, the Shah of Iran had been forced to agree to transform Iran into a constitutional monarchy with a parliament, called majlis. Soon after, however, with foreign, particularly Russian, support, the Shah reestablished his despotic rule and the majlis was abolished. In China, the national awakening of the people was expressed in the emergence of a number of revolutionary organizations which came together by forming the Chinese Revolutionary League. The President of this League was Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who played the leading role in the national awakening of the Chinese people and uniting the various revolutionary groups together. The League was guided by three principles enunciated by Dr. Sun Yat-sen. These principles were: Nationalism, Democracy; and Livelihood (the last one is sometimes referred to as Socialism). In specific terms, these principles meant the ending of the rule of the Manchu dynasty which had been ruling China since the middle of the seventeenth century, establishment of a democratic republic and equitable distribution of land. In 1911, revolution swept southern China and on 1 January 1912. China was proclaimed a republic with its headquarters at Nanjing (Nanking). Dr. Sun Yat-sen was made President of the Republic. In the meantime, in northern China, some steps had been taken to make China a constitutional monarchy with General Yuan Shih-kai as Prime Minister. To avoid a conflict between the government in control of northern China from Beijing (Peking) and the republic proclaimed at Nanjing, a compromise was reached. The Manchu ruler abdicated and thus the imperial government in China came to an end. Yuan Shih-kai was recognized as the President and he was entrusted with the task of calling the parliament. Yuan Shih-kai was supported by foreign powers. In 1913, he called the parliament but soon dismissed it. He had dreams of declaring himself emperor. In the meantime, Dr. Sun Yat-sen had formed the Guomindang, (Kuomintang) or the National Party and had given a call for a second revolution. Yuan was able to suppress the Guomindang, Which was banned, and Dr. Sun sent into exile. In 1916, Yuan died and China came under the rule of warlords, who controlled different parts of the country and received financial support from foreign powers. When the Fust World War ended, the national and revolutionary movement in China entered a new phase.
   The Ottoman Empire, as has already been mentioned, had lost most of its territories in Europe by the early years of the twentieth century. Most of her possessions in North Africa had also been taken over by European colonial powers. In the countries of West Asia-Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and Arabia-also nationalist feelings had been on the rise. Within Turkey, there were powerful stirrings against the tyranny of the Sultan and for making Turkey a modern democratic and secular State. The movement was led by a group of intellectuals, reformers and army officers, called the Young Turks. Threatened by a rebellion, the Sultan, in 1908, agreed to restore the constitution, which had been first introduced in 1876. Some Young Turks were in favour of giving equal rights to the Arabs of the Ottoman Empire while others were bent on maintaining Turkish supremacy and even extending it. Ultimately, Turkey, due to the failure of the liberal Young Turks, was drawn into the First World War on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary, and the British succeeded in pursuing her imperialist ambitions in the Arab world by making use of the anti-Ottoman Arab nationalist feelings.
   The European partition of Africa had been more or less completed by the end of the nineteenth century, except for some parts of North Africa, which were acquired by the end of the first quarter of the twentieth century. The actual occupation of African territories, however, took the European colonial powers much longer because of the resistance and revolts that they had to face. Some of these revolts took the colonial powers a long time to suppress. There was, for example, the Maji-Maji revolt In German East Africa in 1905-07. Unlike in many countries of Asia, modern nationalist movements in most parts of Africa emerged only after the First World War. When they arose, they had a long tradition of resistance and revolt behind them. In Latin America, twenty independent States had emerged with the collapse of the Spanish and Portuguese empires. Till the end of the nineteenth century, most of them had backward economies, based mainly on agriculture. Most of them were also ruled by corrupt oligarchies, and strong governments did not emerge, which could resist the economic domination by other countries. The rich resources of these countries, instead of being used for development and welfare of the people, were battered away to European companies and, later, increasingly, to US corporations. With foreign investments in mines, plantations, railways, shipping, electricity, that is, in almost all sectors of economy, Latin America had become what has been called an “informal empire”. The increasing control and domination exercised by the USA over Latin America has already been mentioned.
   Most Latin American countries had social systems which were marked by gross inequalities. In some countries, slavery had been abolished as a result of the French Revolution. In some others, however, it persisted even after it had been abolished in the USA. In Brazil, for example, slavery was abolished only in 1888. However, in spite of the long persistence of slavery in some of the Latin American countries, the kind of racism, racial discrimination and segregation which marked the life in the USA even in the twentieth century, was absent in Latin America.
   Except for later Asian immigrants, the population of Latin American countries comprised people of European descent, blacks who were descendants of slaves who had been brought from Africa, and American Indians and their admixtures. More than half of the population of Latin America was of mixed blood. However, in most countries which had a large American Indian population--such as Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela--all power was concentrated in the hands of white ruling cliques. Large estates were owned by mainly absentee landlords while the American Indians were forced to live in conditions of extreme poverty. Only in Mexico-another country with a large American Indian population-did united popular movements grow with American Indian participation on a massive scale to put an end to social inequalities, to bring about equitable distribution of land, and build a state system based on the support of the common people. Mexico, however, underwent a long period of political turmoil, including intervention by the USA, before the aims of the Mexican Revolution could be realized. Argentina made some progress in building up her economy and democratic institutions. The city of Buenos Aires was regarded as the Paris of Latin America.
   By the time the First World War broke out, there were democratic stirrings in many pans of Latin America. Even though Latin American countries had been independent for about a century, they “lingered on the margin of international life”, with no independent role to play. With little industrialization, they were reduced to the position of suppliers of raw materials. Some of them were transformed into single crop economics for the benefit of their powerful neighbor. This made them further dependent. The contrast between North America and Latin America was too glaring to be missed by the people of Latin America. There was a rise in the aspirations of the Latin American people and a growing sense of hostility to the USA, “the Colossus of the North”.

THE FIRST WORLD WAR

  The inter-imperialist rivalries, the growing chauvinism and antagonism and conflicts with Europe, the formation of opposing alliance systems, and the growing militarization an feverish preparation for War-these were some of the features that characterized the history of Europe since the last decade of the nineteenth century; There had been a number of crises which had been at least temporarily resolved. The tensions in Europe, however, had created a situation in which war had begun to be considered inevitable. Every State was ready with its war plans and strategies. It had also become increasingly clear that once the war broke out, it would not be possible to localize it and that it would become a general war and every country would get drawn into it.

The Immediate Occasion

  The assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, and his wife in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914 provided the immediate occasion for the outbreak of the war. Sarajevo, where the assassination took place, was the capital of Bosnia which had been annexed by Austria-Hungary a few years earlier. The organizer of the assassination was a secret society, called the “Black Hand” or “Union of Death”, of extremist Serbian nationalists whose aim was to unite all Serbians into a single Serbian State. Historians are generally agreed that the Serbian government, or at least the Serbian Prime Minister, was aware of the conspiracy to assassinate the Archduke but did nothing to stop it. Convinced of Serbia’s complicity in the assassination, Austria (short for Austria-Hungary) served an ultimatum on 23 July making eleven demands on Serbia. Austria did not expect these demands to be accepted and hence fixed a time-limit of forty-eight hours for unconditional compliance. Serbia accepted most of the demands, but not all. Total acceptance of all the demands would have meant total loss of sovereignty by Serbia. Serbia’s reply of 25 July did not conciliate Austria, and Serbia, knowing that it would not, had already ordered mobilization of her troops. Austria rejected Serbia’s reply and immediately ordered the mobilization of her army for an attack on Serbia. She was determined to put an end to this “permanent danger to my House and my territories”, as the Austrian emperor called it in a letter to the German emperor. On 28 July Austria declared war on Serbia. On 29 July, the Austrian army bombarded Belgrade, Serbia’s capital.
   The outbreak of war between Serbia and Austria was soon followed by two other wars, and the three wars, militarily linked together, led to the general war or the First World War. In order to pressurize Austria to abandon the war against Serbia, Russia ordered mobilization against Austria. She could not permit Austrian expansion in the Balkans, where she had her own ambitions which would suffer if Serbia was defeated. As Germany would come to the aid of Austria if Russia entered the war against Austria, Russia also prepared for war with Germany. Germany was convinced that in the event of a war between her and Russia, France would join Russia against Germany. This would mean that Germany would have to fight on two fronts, with France in the west and with Russia in the east. To be successful in the war, Germany had made plans to first defeat France in a quick war by mobilizing most of her troops for this purpose and then turn to Russia against whom a quick victory was not possible. Thus the second war was between Austria and Germany on the one side and Russia and France on the other. The British position was still unclear as the British government was divided on the issue of going to war. She responded to the French request for help by promising to defend France’s northern coast against German navy. However, Germany invasion of neutral Belgium finally ended Britain’s indecisiveness, and Germany and Britain were at war Thus the rival alliances, formed in the preceding years, and had come in play. Only Italy, a member of the Triple Alliance, remained neutral on the grounds the Germany was not fighting a defensive war.

The Scope of the War

  On 1 August 1914, Germany declared war on Russia and on 3 August on France. In the morning of 4 August, German troops entered Belgium and at midnight of the same day Britain declared war on Germany. In the meantime, the Serbo-Austrian war which had led to the conflagration involving Germany, Russia, France and Britain, appeared to have become secondary. Till 6 August Austria was not at war with Russia and till 12 August it was not at war with Britain and France. Soon others joined in as a result of efforts by both sides to win allies by promising them territorial gains. In August, Japan declared war on Germany. She had entered into an alliance with Britain but her main aim was to seize German territories in China and in the Pacific. Portugal, often refund to by Britain as her oldest ally, also entered the war. In May 1915, Italy declared war on Austria. Britain and France had promised her Austrian and Turkis territories. Later Rumania and Greece also Joined Britain, France and Russia and these countries along with their allies came to be known as Allied Powers. Germany and Austria were joined by Bulgaria in October having been promised territories in Serbia and Greece, and Bulgaria was also given some Turkish territories. Turkey declared war on Russia in November and joined the war on the side of Germany and Austria. These countries-Germany and Austria and their allies-came to be known as the Central Powers. Various other countries in other parts of world also joined the war. The USA entered the war in April 1917 on the side of the Allied Powers. In all, the number of the belligerent countries rose to twenty-seven. These comprised countries from all continents. Thus the scope of the conflict was widened. About 65 million men (soldiers) were mobilized for the war. Of them over 42 million were mobilized by the Allied Powers and over 22 million by the Central Powers.

The Course of the War

  The battles of what has rightly come to be called the First World War were fought in different parts of the world. In terms of the intensity of fighting and killings, the battles in Europe overshadowed the battles in other parts of the world. On the western front in Europe, the war began when the German armies, sweeping across Belgium, entered southern France and by early September had reached the close vicinity of Paris. The French army in the meantime had moved to the Franco-German frontier to march into Alsace-Lorraine. The German army hoped to encircle the French army and achieve a quick victory. The French offensive into Alsace-Lorraine had been repulsed but the retreating French forces along with the British force met the German forces in a battle known as the Battle of the Marne (after the river Marne near which the battle was fought). The German forces had to retreat and they entrenched themselves along the river Aisne. There were desperate fights, but by the end of November the war entered the period of a long stalemate on the western front when neither side could dislodge the other for about four years.
   Behind a long unbroken chain of opposing trenches and barbed wire extending over hundreds of kilometres from France’s southern border with Switzerland to the northern seacoast of France, the opposing armies dug themselves in. Protected from the machinegun and rifle fire behind the trenches, neither side could break through the other’s line of trenches. Each side conducted raids on the other in the pre-dawn hours with little success, only steadily adding to the number of the dead on both sides. Germany, in 1915, started the use of poison gas to achieve the breakthrough, and Britain, in 1916, introduced the use of tanks, devised recently, for the same purpose. Neither made much difference. The losses suffered by each side were made up by bringing in more troops.
   On the eastern front, Russia achieved some initial successes against Germany and Austria but these were short lived. In 1915, the Russian armies suffered heavy defeats and the forces of the Central Powers entered many territories of the Russian empire. In 1916, Russia launched another offensive but it was repulsed. After the October revolution, Russia withdrew from the war. On 2 March 1918, she signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany and ceded many of her territories as the price for peace. Out of a total of 12 million men mobilized by Russia, 1.7 million had been killed, about 5 million wounded and about 21⁄2 million were either missing or had been taken prisoner. In the meantime, Serbia and Rumania had capitulated.
   Outside Europe, some major battles were fought in North Africa and West Asia. Germany and Turkey united to threaten the Allied possessions and influence in North Africa and West Asia. Britain and France fought these attempts and tried to seize the Arab territories of the Ottoman Empire. They also established contacts with Arab nationalists and others and fomented anti-Turkish Arab risings. While pretending to espouse the cause of Arab countries freedom from Turkish rule, Britain and France entered into a secret agreement known as the Sykes-Picot agreement, in 1916. This agreement provided for the division of Arab countries between Britain and France. In 1917, the British government also pledged itself “to the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”. This ‘pledge’ by Britain about another country, who were not consider tit to be consulted, was to have serious consequences for the peace and stability in West Asia.
   During the years of the war, German colonial possessions in Asia and Africa were seized by the Allied Powers. Japan made colonial gains to China by acquiring control over the German sphere of influence and forcing China to make further concessions to her. German South-West Africa was occupied by South African troops, Togoland by British and French troops Cameroons by British, French and Belgian. The fighting between British and German troops in German East Africa continued till the end of the war.
   In the meantime, what has come to be known as the “war of attrition" was on in Europe. It meant each side trying to wear out the others side by mobilizing more and more men and using enormous amounts of artillery and other weapons. Two catastrophic battles were fought as a part of this “war of attrition”. In February 1916, Germany launched a massive attack on the French fortress of Verdun. The French in turn poured hundreds of thousands of their soldiers into the battle. This battle, which did nothing, to end the stalemate resulted in about 700,000 soldiers killed or wounded, more or less equally divided between the two sides. The other was the battle of Somme (named after the river Somme) along which the battle was fought. Here the Allied troops involved were mainly British who launched the attack. On the first day itself, the British dead or wounded totaled about 60,000.

The Policy of Blockade

  The war had become a total war. It was no longer confined to battles between armies. It required total mobilization of all the resources of the main belligerent countries. An increasing amount of munitions and other war materials were require to be produced. This meant changing the production pattern. Every economic activity had to be subordinated to the needs of the war. It also required that no goods--food, raw materials war materials, anything and everything-should be allowed to enter the enemy’s country from anywhere. By doing this, that is, by imposing an economic blockade, each side thought that the other would be starved into submission. Britain imposed a naval blockade on Germany and though the naval fleets of the two countries fought only one major battle, and that too indecisive, the British succeeded in their blockade of Germany. To prevent food and other supplies from reaching Britain, Germany started using submarines (U-boat, in German Unterseeboot) which they had developed to sink any ship heading for Britain, including those of the neutral countries. This, among other things, led to the United States entering the war on the side of the Allied Powers.
   The use of the aircraft in warfare also started and though cities were bombed from the air and German and Allied aircraft had dog tights, air warfare played little role in deciding the outcome of the war.

End of the War

  Russia had withdrawn from the war after the October Revolution and had been forced to accept a humiliating treaty by Germany. However, the war between the Central Powers and the Allied Powers was to be decided elsewhere and not on the eastern front. Loss of Russia by the Allies was more than made up by the US entry into the war. The USA had been supplying goods, including munitions and food, to the Allies since soon after the outbreak of the war and, as a result, the US economy had prospered. Now the armies and the vast economic resources of the USA were to be directly used to defeat the Central Powers.
   In the meantime, discontent had been rising in the civilian population and amen the soldiers of all the major belligerent countries. There were demonstrations and mutinies. The Russian emperor had already fallen. The discontent was much more widespread in the countries of the Central Powers. There was a wave of strikes in Germany and Austria-Hungary and a succession of mutinies in their armies and navies. In Austria-Hungary, there were desertions on a large scale among the soldiers of the “subject nationalities” and many of them were fighting on the side of the Allies. By about the middle of July 1918, the tide of war was beginning to turn against Germany. Germany had launched a series of offensives on the western front, inflicting heavy casualties on the Allies. But by July, the German offensive was contained and the Allies launched counter-offensives. In the meantime, the Allied forces had started their military intervention in Russia. In the east thousands of Japanese troops poured into Siberia. While the allied intervention in Russia was to outlast the end of the First World War, the collapse of the Central Powers had begun.
   On 29 September 1918, Bulgaria surrendered. By the end of October the Ottoman Empire had ceased to exist. On 12 November, the Hapsburg emperor abdicated. Most people of the Austro-Hungarian Empire-the Czechs, the Poles, the Yugoslavs and Hungarians-had already declared their independence. Now only Germany remained and final Allied offensives against her had been launched in September. On 3 November, revolution broke out in Germany; on 9 November, the German emperor abdicated and fled to Holland, and on 10 November Germany was proclaimed a republic. On 11 November 1918, the new government of Germany signed the armistice and at 11 o’clock in the morning of 11 November, the First World War came to an end.
   The destruction caused by the war in terms of human lives lost was terrible. Out of about 65 million soldiers mobilized, about nine million were killed and about 22 million wounded. To understand the true nature of this catastrophe and its impact on European societies, it should be remembered that most of the dead and the survivors, ‘scarred physically and mentally’, were the “flower of Europe”, young people between the age of 18 and 35. Erich Maria Remarque, who had been forced to join the German army, published a novel which in English translation is entitled All Quiet on the Western Front. The dedication page of the novel carries the statement “This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war.”

FORWARD MARCH

  ‘It seems to be a bit different here from around Prague,’ said Svejk to break the silence.
‘At home the harvests already over.’ said Vanek ‘we begin first in the Kralupy region’
   ‘There’ll be a very good harvest here after the war,’ said Svejk after a while. ‘They won’t have to buy bone flour. It’s a great advantage for the farmers when their fields are covered with the dust of a whole regiment; in other words it's a very good means of livelihood. The only thing which worries me is that the farmers shouldn’t let themselves be cheated and sell these soldiers’ bones unnecessarily for bone charcoal in the sugar refineries.
   In the barracks at Karlin there was a lieutenant called Holub. He was so learned that everybody in the company thought he was an idiot. You see, because of his learning, he never learnt to swear at the soldiers and considered everything only from the academic point of view. Once the soldiers reported to him that the army bread which they had drawn was not eatable. Another officer would have flown in a passion at such insolence, but not he. He remained quite calm, didn't call anybody a pig or a swine, and didn’t sock anybody on the jaw. He only called all his men together and told them in his pleasant voice “First of all, my men, you must realize that the barracks aren’t delicatessen shop where you can choose pickled eels, sardines and sandwiches. Every solider must be Intelligent enough to swallow any ration he draws without complaining about its quality. And he must have enough self-discipline not to make a fuss about the quality of what's put before him. Just imagine, my men, it there were a war. The soil in which you‘d be buried after the battle wouldn't care a hoot what kind of bread you were gorged With before you died Mother Earth would decompose you and eat you up boots and all in this world nothing is allowed to vanish completely. Out of you, my men, there‘ll grow new corn for bread rations for new soliders who again like you perhaps won’t be satisfied, will start complaining, and then come up against someone who’ll clap them in gaol until kingdom come, because he’s got the right to do that Now, my men, I‘ve explained everything to you nicely and I believe I need not remind you again that whoever comes and complains a second time Will thank his lucky stars later when he's allowed out again into God’s light.” “If he'd only swear at us” the soldiers said to each other, and they didn't at all like all those refinements in the lieutenant s speeches And so once they chose me from the company and asked me to go and tell him that they all liked him but it‘s not the army if people don't swear at you. And so I went to his house and asked him to cut out all this refinement; that the army must be as tough as nails and soldiers are used to being reminded every day that they're bastards and swine. If they aren‘t they lose respect for their superior officers. At first he defended himself, spoke about intelligence and said that the times had gone by when the birch rod ruled, but in the end he accepted it, gave me a sock on the jaw and threw me out of the door so as to bolster his prestige When I told the others the result of the negotiations they were all very pleased, but the very next day he went and spotted it all. He came to me and said in the hearing of all of them - Svejk, I lost my temper yesterday. Here‘s a guilder for you Go and drink my health. One’s got to know how to treat the men.

Svejk looked at the countryside. (From Jaroslav Hasek’s novel The Good Soldier Svejk)

LIVING AND DYING IN A TRENCH

  One morning two butterflies play in front of our trench. They ate brim stone butterflies, with red spots on their yellow wings. What can they be looking for here? There is not a plant for a flower for miles. They settle on the teeth of a skull. The birds too are just as carefree, they have long since accustomed themselves to the war. Every morning larks ascend from No Man's Land. A year ago we watched them nesting the young ones grew up too.
   We have a spell from the rats in the trench. They are In No Man’s Land--we know what for. They grow fat; when we see one we have a crack at it. At night we hear again the rolling behind the enemy lines. All day we have only the normal shelling, so that we are able to repair the trenches. There is always plenty of amusement, the airmen see to that. There are countless tights for us to watch every day.
   Battle planes don’t trouble us, but the observation planes we hate like the plague: they put the artillery on to us. A couple of minutes after they appear, sharpnel and high explosive begin to drop on us. We lose eleven men in one day that way, and five of them stretcher bearers. Two are so smashed that Tjaden remarks you could scrape them off the wall of the trench With a spoon and bury them in a mess-tin Another has the lower part of his body and his legs torn off Dead, his chest leans against the side of the trench, his face is lemon-yellow, in his beard still burns a cigarette. It glows until it dies out on his lips.
   We put the dead in a large shell-hole So far there are three layers, one on top of the other. Suddenly the shelling begins to pound again Soon we are Sitting up once more with the rigid tenseness of blank anticipation.
   Attack, counter attack, charge, repulse-these are words, but what things they signify! We have lost a good many men, mostly recruits. Reinforcements have again been sent up to our sector. it is one of the new regimens, composed of young fellows called up during last year. They have had hardly any training, and are sent into the Field with only a theoretical knowledge. They do know what a hand grenade is, it is true, but they have very little idea of cover, and what is most important of all, have no eye for it. A told in the ground has to be quite eighteen inches high before they can see it
   Although we need reinforcements, the recruits give us almost more trouble than they are worth They are helpless in this grim fighting area, they fall like tiles The present method of fighting from posts demands knowledge and experience; a man must have a feeling for the contours of the ground, an ear for the sound and character of the shells, must be able to decide beforehand where they drop, how they burst, and how to take shelter.
   The young recruits of course know none of these things. They get killed simply because they can hardly tell shrapnel from high-explosive, they are mown down because they are listening anxiously to the roar of the big coal boxes falling far in the rear and miss the light piping whistle of the low spreading little daisy-cutters. They flock together like sheep instead of scattering, and even the wounded are shot down like hares by the airmen.
   Their pale turnip faces, their pitiful clenched hands, the miserable courage of these poor devils. the desperate charges and attacks made by these poor brave devils, who are so terrified that they dare not cry out loudly, but with battered chests and torn bellies and arms and legs only whimper softly for their mothers and cease as soon as one looks at them.
   Their sharp, downy, dead faces have the awful expressionlessness of dead children.
   It brings a lump into the throat to see how they go over, and run and fall. A man would like to spank them, they are so stupid, and to take them by the arm and lead them away from here where they have no business to be. They wear grey coats and trousers and boots, but for most of them the uniform is are too big, it hangs on their limbs, their shoulders are too narrow, their bodies too slight, no uniform was ever made to these childish measurements.
   Between five and ten recruits fall to every old hand.
   A surprise gas-attack carries off a lot of them. They have not yet learned what to do. We found one dugout full of them, with blue heads and black lips. Some of them in a shell hole took the masks off too soon; they did not know that the gas lies longest in the hollows; when they saw others on top without masks they pulled theirs off too and swallowed enough to scorch their lungs. Their condition is hopeless; they choke to death with hemorrhages and suffocation.

[From Erich Maria Remarque’s novel all quiet on the Western Front]

THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

  The Russian Revolution was an event of great world historical significance. Certain aspects and events of Russian history-Russian colonial empire, the autocratic nature of her political system, the backwardness of her economy, her defeat at the hands of Japan, the role played by her in the conflicts inside Europe, particularly the Balkans, and her entry into the war have already been mentioned. In the nineteenth century, there were various reform and revolutionary movements expressing discontent among the Russian peasantry who continued to live in misery even after feudalism was abolished in 1861. Vast estates were owned by the Russian nobility and the Church, and there were millions of peasants without any landholdings of their own. The industrial workers, a new class that had merged with the beginning of industrialization, also lived in conditions of misery. While the common people were obviously opposed to the existing system in Russia, the middle classes and the intellectuals also were united in the, opposition to the autocratic political revolutionary movements were the peasants and worker.
   Since about the last quarter of the nineteenth century, socialist ideas had begun to spread in Russia and a number of socialist groups had been formed. In 1898, the various socialist groups had joined together to form the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, popularly known as Lenin, was the leader of the left-wing section of the party. 1903, this section secured a majority in the party and came to be known as Bolsheviks and minority section Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks, while defining their final goal as the establishment of socialism, proposed their immediate tasks as the ending of the autocratic rule of the Czar and the establishment of a republic, ending the oppression of the non-Russian nationalities of the Russian empire and granting them the right of self-determination, introduction of eight-hour working day and abolition of inequalities in land and feudal oppression of the peasantry. As has already been mentioned, there was a revolution in Russia in 1905, which forced Nicholas II, the reigning Czar, to agree to grant a parliament, called the Duma, and other democratic rights of the people. During the period, a new form of workers’ organization come into being, called the soviet. It was a body of workers’ representatives set up for the purpose of conducting strikes. Later, soviets peasants were also formed-followed by soviets of soldiers and these sprang up all over the country. The soviets were to play a crucial role in the history of the Russian Revolution.
   The Revolution of 1905 had not ended the autocracy in Russia. Though the Duma existed, the power in Russia was wielded by the Czar, the nobility and the corrupt bureaucracy. Russia’s imperial ambitions led her to the war but the Russian government, inefficient and corrupt, was incapable of carrying on a modern war. The war exposed the bankruptcy of the existing system in Russia, aggravated the crisis of the autocratic system and, ultimate|y, brought about its downfall. The Russian soldiers, 12 million of whom had been mobilized, were ill-equipped and ill-fed. About 2 million of them were killed, about 5 million wounded and about 2.5 million were either missing or had been taken prisoner. The war had further worsened the already poor state of Russian economy, adding to the growing unrest. The country, including the capital city of Pertrograd (formerly St. Petersburg, now Leningrad) with its population of two million, was facing prospects of starvation. There were long queues for bread which was in short supply. From the beginning of the year 1917, there was a spate of strikes, which took the form of a general strike. The demand for ending the war and the rule of the Czar grew and on 12 March many regiments of the army joined the striking workers, freed political prisoners and arrested Czarist generals and ministers. By the evening Petrograd had passed into the control of insurgent workers and soldiers. These events of 12 March 1917 marked what has been called the February Revolution (because, according to the Old Russian calendar, the date was 27 February). The Czar, who had been away from the capital, had ordered the suppression of the insurgents and the dissolution of the Duma. However, the Duma decided to take over power in its own hands and on 15 March announced the formation of a Provisional Government. That very day, the Czar was forced to abdicate and his autocratic rule came to an end, though Russia was proclaimed a republic a few months later in September.
   The end of the Czarist autocracy was welcomed the world over. But the Provisional Government failed to solve any of the problems that had led to the collapse of the Czar’s government. The policy of pursuing the war was continued and nothing was done to solve the land problem. The Bolsheviks were the only party which had a clear-cut programme. It has been mentioned earlier that two Russian socialists Lenin and Martov-had drafted a part of the Second International’s resolution which called upon workers to utilize the crisis created by war, if it broke out, to overthrow the system which had led to the war. The Bolsheviks were consistent in their opposition to the war. There were five Bolshevik members of the Duma. They opposed the war when it broke out. They were arrested and exiled. When the February Revolution took place, Lenin was in Zurich, Switzerland. He called it only as the initial, but by no means complete, victory, and declared, “Only a workers’ government that relies, first, on the overwhelming majority of the peasant population, the farm labourers and poor peasant’s and. second, on an alliance with the revolutionary workers of all countries in the war, can give the people peace, bread and full freedom.”
   At the time of the February Revolution, the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies had been formed and it became the most important force in the fast-changing situation. On his arrival in Petrograd in April 1917, Lenin addressed the people, “The people need peace; the people need bread; the people need land. And they give you war, hunger, no bread; they leave the landlords on the land.” He gave the call No support for the Provisional Government! All Power to the Soviets. At this time there was another threat to the Provisional Government. General Kornilov had risen in revolt in an effort to establish his dictatorship. However, the attempt was thwarted by the workers and soldiers who rose up to defend the Revolution. At this time, the Provisional Government was headed by Aleksander Kerensky, who held liberal and democratic views. He failed to make any departure from the policies which had been pursued by the Russian government since the outbreak of the war, and proved himself to be totally ineffective. He was totally lacking in support In October, the Bolsheviks made careful preparations for an uprising. The All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies had been convened on 25 October. The uprising to overthrow the Provisional Government had been timed to coincide with the Congress. The uprising began in the early hours of 25 October in Petrograd and within a few hours, almost every strategic point in the city was occupied by the revolutionary soldiers and workers under the guidance of the Bolsheviks. At 10 a.m., Lenin’s address “To the Citizens of Russia” was broadcast. It said, “The Provisional Government has been deposed....The cause for which the people have fought, namely, the immediate offer of a democratic peace the abolition of landed proprietorship, workers’ control over production, and the establishment of Soviet power-this cause has been secured”. (The date of this event was 25 October according to the Old Russian calendar; hence it is called the October Revolution. It actually happened on 7 November.) At 10.40 p.m. the meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers and Soldiers’ Deputies began. At about the same time, the assault on the Winter Palace, the headquarters of the Provisional Government, began. At 1.50 a.m. on the next day (26 October according to the old calendar), the Winter Palace had been occupied and the members of the Provisional Government put under arrest. The head of the Government, Kerensky, had, however escaped. At 9 p.m. the second session of the Congress of Soviets started. According to the eye-witness account of John Reed, an American journalist, Lenin was received with a “long-rolling ovation” as he stood up. As the ovation finished he said simply, “We shall now proceed to construct the socialist order!” The first act of the new government which took over was the adoption of the Decree on Peace (adopted at 11p.m.). It expressed the resolve of the government to immediately enter into negotiations to conclude a peace without annexations or reparations. The workers of Germany, France, and Britain, the Decree said, “will understand the duty imposed upon them to liberate humanity from the horrors and consequences of war; and that these workers, by decisive, energetic and continued action, will help us to bring to a successful conclusion the cause of peace-and at the same time, the cause of the liberation of the exploited working masses from all slavery and all exploitation”. As has already been mentioned, Russia withdrew from the war even though at the cost of losing many of her territories which Germany had made a condition for agreeing to peace. The second step taken by the revolutionary government, headed by Lenin, was the Decree on Land, which was adopted at 2 a.m. on 27 October (9 November). This Decree abolished private property in land and declared land to be the property of the entire nation. Soon after, it renounced unilaterally all the unequal treaties which the Czar’s government had imposed on countries such as China, Iran and Afghanistan. The right of all peoples to equality and self-determination was proclaimed.
   The uprising in Petrograd, which led to the establishment of the Bolshevik government, was followed by similar uprisings in other parts of the former Russian empire, and by February 1918, the new government had established its authority throughout the country. Soon, however, Russia was involved in a Civil War. The forces loyal to the old regime, known as White Russians, had organized themselves to overthrow the revolution. The Allied powers-- Britain, France, the USA Japan and others-- also started their military intervention in Russia, to bring Russia back into the war, to exploit her resources for the war and to aid the counterrevolutionary forces. The Civil War and foreign military intervention ended in 1920. The dynasty of the Czar was the first to fall during the First World War. Two more imperial dynasties-the German and the Austrian--fell before the war was over. Another--that of the Ottoman Sultans-fell soon after the war. The Russian Revolution marked not only a change in the political life of the Country; but also the beginning of a new order, which had no parallel in history.

AN ACCOUNT OF SECOND SESS ON OF THE ALLERUSSIA CONGRESS OF SOVIETS OF WORKERS’ AND SOLDIERS’ DEPUTIES 8 NOVEMBER 1917

  sIt was just 8 40 when a thundering wave of cheers announced the entrance of the presidium, with Lenin-- great Lenin-among them. A short, stocky figure, with a big head set down in his shoulders, ‘bald and bulging, Little eyes, a snubbish nose, wide generous mouth, and heavy chin; clean shaven now, but already beginning to bristle with the well known beard of his past and future. Dressed in shabby clothes, his trousers much too long for him. Unimpressive to be the idol of a mob, loved and revered perhaps a few leaders in history have been. A strange popular leader-a leader purely by virtue of intellect; colourless, humourless, uncompromising and detached, without picturesque idiosyncrasies but with the power of explaining profound Ideas in simple terms, of analysing a concrete Situation. And combined with shrewdness, the greatest Intellectual audacity.
   Kameniev was reading the report of the actions of the Military Revolutionary Committee; abolition of capital punishment in the Army, restoration of the free right of propaganda, release of officers and soldiers arrested for political crimes, orders to arrest Kerensky and confiscation of food supplies in private store houses....Tremendous applause.
   Again the representative of the Bund. The uncompromising attitude of the Bolsheviki would mean the crushing of the Revolution, Therefore, the Bund delegates must refuse any longer to sit in the Congress. Cries from the audience, “We thought you walked out last night how many more times are you going to walk out”?
   Then the representative of the Mensheviki internationalists Shouts, “What you here still?” The speaker explained that only part of the Mensheviki Internationalists left the Congress; the rest were going to stay.
   “We consider It dangerous and perhaps even mortal for the Revolution to transfer the power to the Soviet” interruptions “but we feel it our duty to remain in the Congress and vote against the transfer here.”
   Other speakers followed, apparently without any order. A delegate of the coal-miners of the Don Basin called upon the Congress to take measures against Kaledin, who might cut off coal and food from the capital. Several soldiers just arrived from the front brought the enthusiastic greetings of their regiments....Now Lenin, gripping the edge of the reading stand, letting his little wm king eyes travel over the crowd as he stood waiting, apparently oblivious to the long rolling ovation, which lasted several minutes. When it finished, he said simply, “We shall now proceed to construct the socialist order!” Again that overwhelming human roar.
   “The first thing is the adoption of practical measures to realise peace... we shall offer peace to the peoples of all the belligerent countries upon the basis of the Soviet terms-no annexations, no indemnities, and the night of self-determination of peoples. At the same time, according to our promise, we shall publish and repudiate the secret treaties. The question at war and peace is so clear that I think that I may, without preamble, read the project of a Proclamation to the Peoples of All the Belligerent Countries...”
   His great mouth, seeming to smile, opened wide as he spoke, his voice was hoarse-not unpleasantly so, but as if It had hardened that way after years and years of speaking and went on monotonously, with the effect of being able to go on for ever...For emphasis he bent forward slightly. No gestures. And before him, a thousand simple faces looking up in Intent adoration.

[From John Reed's Ten Days that Shook the World]

   The significance of the October Revolution extended beyond the boundaries of the Russian Revolution. Soviet Russia, later the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, became a: major influence in the subsequent history of the world.