Deck 23: B: The End of Empire the Global South on the Global Stage 1914-Present

Question 1

What features of British rule helped to create an Indian identity?

Answer 1

•Unlike previous foreign rulers,the British never assimilated into Indian society because their acute sense of racial and cultural distinctiveness kept them apart.This served to intensify Indians' awareness of their collective difference from their alien rulers.
•British railroads,telegraph lines,postal services,administrative networks,newspapers,and schools as well as the English language bound India's many regions and peoples together more firmly than ever before and facilitated communication among its educated elite.

Question 2

How was Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's cultural revolution in Turkey different from the one launched by the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran?

Answer 2

•Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's reforms in Turkey:
otransformed Turkey into a modern,secular,and national state.
oremoved Islam from public life.
oadvocated wholesale adoption of many aspects of Western civilization.
oextended new rights to women.
•The Ayatollah Khomeini's reforms in Iran:
otransformed Iran into an Islamic state.
opromoted Islamization of public life.
orejected many aspects of Western civilization.
oenforced Islamic restrictions on women.

Question 3

How can one account for India's relatively smooth and lasting transition to democracy in the period since independence?

Answer 3

•The struggle for independence in India had been a prolonged affair,thus providing time for an Indian political leadership to emerge.
•Britain began to hand over power gradually well before complete independence was granted.
•Because of these factors,a large number of Indians had useful administrative or technical skills.
•The nationalist movement in India was embodied in a single national party,the Congress Party,whose leaders were genuinely committed to democratic practice.
•The partition of the country at independence eliminated a major source of internal discord.
•Indian statehood could be built on deeply rooted cultural and political traditions.

Question 4

What common issues did the developing world in the Global South confront in the second half of the twentieth century?

Question 5

What were the contradictions within European empires that contributed to their collapse after World War II?

Question 6

In what respects did the twentieth century witness the demise of empires around the world?

Question 7

Compare and contrast the tactics used by the Indian National Congress,the African National Congress,and those South Africans who continued the freedom struggle after the African National Congress was outlawed.

Question 8

Why has there been a remarkable resurgence of Western-style democracy in Africa since the early 1980s?