Those who study modern China know that the Communist government struggles with the yearnings and demands of its 55 ethnic minorities. What immediately comes to mind are the calls from Tibetans for more autonomy, or independence itself, and the complaints of the Uyghur people concerning religious and political discrimination in Xinjiang, the the northwest part of China. The majority Han people have been moving into both Tibet and Xinjiang, thereby changing the native cultures there.
In the last few months, we have been hearing complaints from the Mongolian people in China. Mongols are upset that so many Han have moved into Inner Mongolia and disrupted their pastoral way of life. The Mongols have staged protests against the environmental damage that comes with settled agriculture, the strip-mining of coal, the building of highways, the damming of rivers, and the overgrazing of land.
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| Inner Mongolian grasslands |
Background. The Mongols and Han have a long history of interactions. The nomadic Mongols invaded China many times, attracted to the relative wealth of the more settled Chinese. In fact, the Mongols even ruled China from 1279 to 1368, setting up the Yuan dynasty with its capital at Tatu, which is present-day Beijing. The Yuan dynasty was known for its religious toleration, especially of Muslims, Daoists, and Buddhists. During Mongol rule, the country prospered because the Mongols encouraged foreign and domestic trade. Eventually, the Han Chinese became dissatisfied with Mongol rule and threw them out. Since then, the Han have dominated their Mongol neighbors. Now the Peoples Republic of China rules Inner Mongolia.
A Recent Novel. By coincidence, this spring I read a novel about the Han and the Mongolians in Inner Mongolia. Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong tells the tale of Chen Zhen, a Chinese Han who travels there in the 1960s during the Cultural Revolution and falls in love with the traditional Mongol way of life. He and two other Han young people work and live in a community that raises cattle, sheep, and horses on the steppe. While there, Chen learns from a local wise man of Mongolian lore and spritual life and the important place that wolves play in both.
By: Abigail Johnson,
on 3/15/2011
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JacketFlap tags: History, Economics, Japan, Business, Current Events, Social Studies, World History, Natural Disasters, AP World History, Add a tag
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| Nikkei 225 Stock Index Board |
Often, in secondary education, economics and economic systems are taught separately from history, civics, and current affairs. Yet, concepts in economics can sometimes best explain a nation’s moment in history, the reason the nation has the alliances it does, and the type of government structure that exists in it. Economic systems can be a good way to introduce history, politics, dissect current affairs, and even play around with predicting future outcomes in a fun, discussion-oriented class setting.
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| Tsunami damage in Japan |
Since 1990, Japan’s economy has been rather stagnant. Slow growth, coupled with a low birth rate meant the recession of 2008 was a double blow to the just-recovering economy. The Japanese were probably pretty fed up. Which could be a reason why since 2000, Japan has had seven prime ministers, some staying in power for mere months before being ousted and replaced by someone else. Someone who, people
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By: Henry the Elder,
on 2/22/2011
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| Casablanca: Victor Laszlo leads the café in singing "La Marseillaise." |
As a young, budding historian, I was taught certain axioms–great truisms which, it was believed, provided the key to understanding world affairs in the 20th century. One of the most oft repeated was that nationalism is a force which transcends all other forces. Nationalism, after all, was regarded as one of the five long-range causes of World War I. And combined with the megalomaniacal racism of Adolf Hitler, nationalism made it easier for millions of post-World War I Germans to accept the Nazi belief that they were ein herrenvolk, a master race with a special destiny to rule the world. As a young teacher, I illustrated the transcendent power of nationalism by referencing a scene from the 1940s film Casablanca. In Rick’s Café, an argument between a jealous Vichy French officer and a young woman is interrupted when Victor Lazlo, a leader of the resistance to Nazi rule in Europe, strides to the band and orders them to play the “Marseillaise,” the French national anthem. The French in the café are instantly united, singing their emotion-laden anthem with all their might. At its conclusion, the young woman shouts “Vive l’France!” A riot erupts, with the Vichy French attacking the Germans, who are technically their allies.
Another 20th-century axiom was the belief that “the sun never sets on the British Empire.” British schoolchildren were taught geography by looking at maps on which much of the world was colored red, indicating the many colonies, protectorates, and spheres of influence of the empire in which they were taught to take such pride. Eventually, of course, the sun did set on the British Empire. After World War II, Britain no longer had the resources to control or police their far-flung possessions and were forced to grant independence to their African, Asian, and West Indian subjects. Some elected to join the Commonwealth of Nations, which some contemporary scholars regard as little more than a social club, rather than the remnant of a once-mighty empire. In contemporary Britain, or the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, nationalism is no longer the force it once was. This downward trend was given impetus during the administration of Prime Minister Tony Blair (1997–2007), which implemented a policy of devolution–the transfer of political power and control of domestic affairs from Parliament to elected law-making bodies in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. In these countries, people have increasingly come to think of themselves as Scots, Welsh, and Ul
1 Comments on Antiquity Corner: Has the Sun Set on Nationalism?, last added: 2/25/2011
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By: Henry the Elder,
on 10/25/2010
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The Office of Strategic Services was the precursor of the Central Intelligence Agency, which was organized after World War II. During the war, it worked closely with the British Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.) in organizing what popular writers called cloak and dagger operations. Espionage played a major role during the Cold War when the C.I.A. and allied security services maneuvered against the agents of the Soviet KGB. In the 21st century, the world’s security services use technology and agents in the fight against global terrorism.
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By: Henry the Elder,
on 9/27/2010
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| Ptolemaic Queen, probably Cleopatra VII |
When Caesar arrived in Egypt, in 48 B.C., his official purpose was to arbitrate between the boy-king Ptolemy XIII and his half sister Cleopatra VII who had been driven into exile. However, when the twenty-one-year-old charmer secretly visited him in Alexandria, Caesar, over thirty years her senior, took her to live with him in the royal palace, and became her lover. The result was warfare with the royal army, which favored the king. When Ptolemy XIII was defeated and killed, Caesar confirmed Cleopatra as queen of Egypt. When later, Cleopatra visited Rome with her infant son Caesarion, whose paternity she ascribed to Caesar, she was able to view a gilt bronze statue of herself that Caesar had placed in the Temple of Venus. She was in Rome on the day of Caesar’s murder in 44 B.C. and afterward fled to Egypt. Following the defeat of Caesar’s assassins and the division of the Roman world between Octavian and Marc Antony, Cleopatra became Antony’s lover and had children with him. She encouraged conflict between Antony in Alexandria and Octavian in Rome, which erupted into open warfare, resulting in the defeat of the lovers’ forces at the sea battle of Actium in 31 B.C. and the subsequent suicides of Antony and Cleopatra.
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| Peggy Ashcroft in Caesar and Cleopatra, 1932 |
For Cleopatra to have had such an influence on the course of history, she must have had more than physical beauty. We know that she was an exemplar of the rich Hellenistic c
1 Comments on Antiquity Corner: Antiquity and Romance, last added: 9/27/2010
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Sounds like a great book. It reminds me of the Native Americans' respect and facination with wolves. There is much controversy in the US about wolves in some national parks.
Can someone send a copy of this book to Sarah Palin?
Communist governments care about their subjects’ yearnings or demands? What’s the world coming to?
Their “re-education” camps and firing squads were so efficient . . .