Category: HST271

This week, we looked at the death of Mao Zedong, and how China flirted with democracy before eventually stamping down on protesters at the Tiananmen Square massacre. For Wednesday, I read the Attempts at Democracy exploration pack. One of the most interesting things mentioned in the readings for that pack was the democracy wall. To…

In 1969, tensions between communist China and the Soviet Union erupted in a series vicious and bloody border disputes. These clashes were the culmination of years of rising friction between the two nations, and in their aftermath, both sides seriously considered the prospect of a nuclear war. The origins of the Sino-Soviet split can be…

This week, we looked at the Cultural Revolution and the opening of relations between the Communist Chinese government and the United States. For Wednesday, I read the Three Body Problem excerpt. Obviously, it was fictional, but the brutality of the situations depicted still seemed to be realistic and believable depictions of violence. This was particularly…

This week, we looked at Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward, and some of the social implications of it. I misread the assignment for Wednesday’s class, and read both the Iron Child passage and the Lei Feng Diary. We discussed the Iron Child at length in class, but I had a few thoughts that I did…

This week we looked at a period of consolidation in China as the communists cemented their power in the country. On Wednesday, we looked at the propaganda that the communists used to try raise support for their initiatives. I did not read about relations with the Soviet Union, but I wish that I had, since…

During the period of 1911-1927, various factions competed for power over China. These warlords had to negotiate major obstacles in order to build armies strong enough to dominate the others. In this, they were hampered by a military tradition in China that had been steadily declining for over half a century. Therefore, the warlords of…

This week, we covered the communist victory in the Chinese Civil War. For Wednesday, I read about the influencer and about the Tokyo Trials painting. I also read the Moise textbook. It strikes me that Chiang Kai Shek could almost be taken as a textbook case for how not to fight a war. I understand…

This week, we looked at the situation in China throughout the 1920s and 30s as the nationalist Guomindang party under Chiang Kai-Shek worked to centralize power away from the warlords, while simultaneously trying to exterminate the communists. One of the interesting themes that I noticed from the Wednesday readings was that the Guomindang did not…

This week, we looked at the Chinese Republic; since I looked at the World War One labor forces and the Taiwan exploration packs, my week’s readings had a decided focus on the experiences of Chinese people outside of the territory controlled by a Chinese government. However, the textbook also made clear the very complicated situation…