OPVL - WWI Graphs

O: The graphs come from a secondary source from Britain

P: The graphs are intended to mathematically chart the included terms prior to WWI

V/L: The graphs serve as a valuable resource primarily because they offer numerical proof as to the might of countries in certain areas, many of which are shown in ratio to one another. The major limitation however is that it is impossible to know whether or not any of the information is accurate. The numbers given would easily have been subject to alteration by the government at hand. The numbers have little to no given context and as such, are not very helpful in deducing the impact industrialization has on the outbreak of war. 

HW 9

Compare:
     Division of ethnic groups with arbitrary country borders
     Power hungry dictator cites expansion and need of space as reason to attack
     Conflict between ethnic groups separate from main war
     Severe military miscalculation/ poor information
    

Contrast:
     Alliance system played little to no part in Iran-Iraq war
     Religion played only a small role in WWI
     No two-front war scenario
    

HW 8

Cause: Mao's personal paranoia
Cause: Increased "Western" ideas

Practice: Destruction of 4 Olds; (Old Customs, Old Habits, Old Culture, Old Ideas)
Practice: Red Guards given power above the police

Effect: Countless ancient artifacts and buildings were destroyed
Effect: Economic and Education systems brought to an absolute halt due to the turmoil in the government

HW 7

Mao's aims as a ruler:
1.) Remove as many Nationalists from mainland china as possible. This was achieved by as violent a means as possible.
2.) Increase diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union
3.) Industrialize as much of mainland China as possible
4.) Ensure order through out China

Mao's methods were mostly of violence. The Great Leap Forward was adapted from the Soviet 5 Year Plan, but to a much less successful scale. Mao's control over the people manifested itself in the "mini-revolution" where Mao had declared members of the party to be capitalist supporters which led to an outburst of violence against government officials. Mao was able to make laws about anything he wanted so the line between use of force and legality is somewhat blurry. A blockage was ordered for the city of Changchun, which led to roughly 330,000 deaths. Mao had refused to allow the civilians to flee the city, instead allowing citizens to starve nearly to death, only to have Communist soldiers enter the city and begin executing them. Some Communist soldiers had such moral problems with the executing of civilians that many committed suicide afterwards.The Great Leap Forward was seen as a failure because it placed much too much stress of meeting the quotas set forth which led to the lack of materials and supplies for the peasants. Poor weather was blamed and wide-set famine and starvation was common. Mao commonly set forth propaganda stating that only the Communists were the friends of the peasants. Mao's most common form of propaganda was slogans that were to be repeated by all party members. 

HW 6

1.) Mao's use of psychological warfare came in the dealings with forced starvation of the surrounded Nationalist troops. The lack of food was used as a way to convince the Nationalist troops to switch sides and join the Communists.
2.) The Communists themselves would describe themselves as a friend to the people and their beneficiaries, but many other sources describe them to be just as bad, if not worse than the Nationalists.
3.) People were encouraged to fight amongst themselves and turn in their neighbors for un-partylike activity, much as Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia had.
4.) Drafts were instilled in order to increase the number of either soldiers or laborers as well as "drafting" women into the army as support troops and cooks.
5.) The only part of land reform that mattered to Mao was the removal of all prior Land lords by violent means in order to rally the people in one violent cause.
6.) Mao primary goal was to secure power rather than provide for the common welfare of the people. Had his goal been to provide for common welfare, Mao would not have used policies of starving innocent people to death in order to convince them to change allegiances.

HW 5

Economic) Massive loss of jobs and unemployment following the Chinese civil war. The effect was attempted to be fixed during the Great Leap Forward
Political) China became the People's Republic of china after it was established into an official communist state.
Social) Women were given equal rights as men in terms of having the ability to negate arranged marriages (although the practice was still common in rural areas) as well as the ability to own land.

HW 4

1.) Communists were able to use propaganda much more effectively than the Nationalists and thus garner the support of the peasants. The Communists used a much less formal form of military encounter and used guerilla warfare to strike at Nationalist forces when they were exhausted
2.) The tipping point came when the Russians offered assistance to the Communist troops in the form of military advisors.
3.) The source seemed to greatly under estimate the difficulty with which the Communists defeated the Nationalists. The sources also address the fact that the Communist were forced to use guerilla tactics.
4.) GRU : Soviet Military Intelligence
CCP : Chinese Communist Party
HQ : Headquarters
5.) The passage explains how the Nationalists temporarily took time to fight the Japanese, which gave the Communists time to regroup. The Communists spent this time reconfiguring supplies and gather use of the intelligence and equipment given to them by the Soviets.
6.)The Nationalists seemed to want to defend the mainland from Japanese far more than the Soviets, because the Nationalists wanted China to return to its former glory.
7.) The nationalists would have only wanted to remove the Japanese threat from the mainland, while the Communists could have potentially worked with the Japanese to destroy the Nationalists far more easily.
8.) Chang Kai-shek withdrew all troops from affected areas so that Mao may have been better able to lead his troops.