Who is Robert Mugabe?

Robert Mugabe

One of the news stories to dominate the recent headlines is the coup in Zimbabwe which has forced the resignation of Robert Mugabe who has been in power since 1980. Mugabe's rule has been accompanied by ethnic violence, human rights abuses, censorship of opposition, and economic turmoil, but people have been wondering why this coup went through legal procedures to depose Mugabe. In fact the only reason why this coup has seemed to happen is that he made his wife, Grace Mugabe, vice-president. Even the opposition leaders have commended Mugabe, and across Africa he is still widely respected. Mugabe is both hated and loved. Today we'll look at Robert Mugabe's life to understand why this is.

Birth and Background

Mugabe in 1976 with his first wife, Sally

Robert Mugabe was born to a poor Shona family on 21 February, 1924 who were living in the northeast of Salisbury (the modern capital of Harare) in the British colony of Rhodesia. In 1890, just a year after a Royal Charter was granted, the Pioneer Column occupied Mashonaland raising the Union flag in what would become Salisbury. The colony of Rhodesia was dominated by a white settler class and formed a colonial system of rule not dissimilar from that of what would become South Africa to the south. Racial discrimination meant that many rural Africans were landless or tenant farmers while in urban areas they were forced into poor, overcrowded housing. Thanks to discrimination many could not go into higher education; in Northern Rhodesia (modern Zambia) only 35 Africans had gained higher education by 1959. Mugabe was lucky enough to go into education although his family life was telling for the situation for Africans in Rhodesian society. Two of his brothers died - one of diarrhea and one of eating poisoned maize - around 1934. He managed to go to Kutama College in order to become a teacher, partially funded by Jesuit missionary Father Jerome O'Hea from which he graduated in 1944. In college he was a loner, often described as 'a bit of a cold fish' and after graduation he never stayed long at one school. In 1949 he won a scholarship to Fort Hare University in South Africa which was the same university in which Nelson Mandela attended.

When Mugabe was in college and university Africa, and the world, was in change. The Second World War had brought many Africans into the political fold of their imperial overlords, and when that was limited after the war they became involved in independence movements. Meanwhile in India, Mahatma Gandhi's independence movement had helped break British rule (alongside the millions which took part in the movement) and would inspire colonized peoples worldwide. The victory of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany had also brought Marxism into discussions across the world. Gandhi and Marx both helped shape Mugabe's views. In Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah's CPP (Convention People's Party) won independence in 1957 and in the same year a Rhodesian branch of the African National Conference (ANC) was founded. The ANC wanted to reform land allocation, abolish discriminatory laws, and extend the franchise (out of 52,000 people eligible to vote only 560 were African). In 1958 Mugabe moved to Ghana, while also doing a second degree, where he met his first wife Sally Hayfron. According to Mugabe it was while he was in Ghana that he became a Marxist.

Revolutionary Years

Joshua Nkomo

Mugabe wasn't the only leading nationalist in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia. Former leader of the ANC, Joshua Nkomo, formed the more racial National Democratic Party (NDP) in 1960 when the ANC was banned. Co-founder (who was also a friend of Mugabe) Leopold Takawira said 'We are no longer asking Europeans to rule us well...We now want to rule ourselves.' Takawire convinced Mugabe to remain in Rhodesia who became heavily involved in the nationalist movement. By the early 1960s as nationalist movements had either won independence or were winning independence Britain had started to offer independence, but on their own terms. In 1961 Britain's Commonwealth Secretary Duncan Sandys organised a meeting in Salisbury to draft a constitution for Rhodesia, and he invited Nkomo to represent the NDP. Many whites opposed this as it seemed to be giving the African majority more power. However, Britain planned for the white population to keep their power by only giving some token representation to the far larger African population. Perplexingly the NDP agreed to a compromise which gave Africans 15 out of 65 parliamentary seats. Riots broke out over the agreement so the NDP was banned. In 1961 the Zimbabwe African People's Union (Zapu) was formed under Nkomo and in 1963 the rival Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu) was founded which Mugabe joined causing gang warfare to break out between the two. Meanwhile, the more radical right-wing Rhodesian Front came to power in 1962, and in 1965 to forestall Britain granting African rule the prime minister, Ian Smith, declared a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI).

In 1963 Mugabe was imprisoned and while imprisoned his three-year old son would pass away of cerebral malaria; Eddison Zvobga, a senior Zanu figure, reported that 'He was in tears...he just sat in the corner quietly. I watched him sob.' Smith himself personally saw to it that Mugabe was denied compassionate leave to bury his son. Until his release in 1974 Mugabe retreated into himself acquiring four further degrees. Outside of prison, Zanu's leader, Ndabaningi Sithole, faced a vote of no confidence, and Mugabe was made his replacement. A guerrilla war was being waged in the country with both key parties having their own armed group: Zanu had the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (Zanla) backed by China while Zapu had the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (Zipra) backed by the USSR. As this was happening South Africa, fearful of African guerrilla activists spilling over the border, started putting pressure on Smith, while Rhodesia's independent neighbors were putting further pressure to have the 'Prison Graduates' released. However, in April 1974 a coup in Portugal led to the independence of Mozambique and the coming to power of the Marxist-Leninist Frelimo removing one of Rhodesia's key allies. After 11 years in prison Mugabe was released and immersed himself personally in the guerrilla war, although he focused mostly on propaganda and left warfare to Josiah Tongogara.

Ian Smith

The guerrilla war was extremely bloody. Guerrilla groups killed white farmers while Rhodesian security forces often killed African civilians. In 1974 16 European civilians were killed to 118 African civilians - meanwhile 345 guerrillas were killed to 96 security forces. Before 1972 David Caute claimed that 'not a single white person died as a result of guerrilla action.' Operating from neighboring Mozambique Zanla troops poured into Rhodesia as Mugabe as he vowed to expel the 'blood-sucking exploiters' and 'sadistic killers' in order to establish a one-party Marxist state. By 1979 20,000 had been killed when a moderate African, Bishop Abel Muzorewa, was elected to replace Ian Smith forming Zimbabwe-Rhodesia. However, he was denounced by both Nkomo and Mugabe as being a puppet, which he was. Eventually, Zambia (where Zapu was based in) and Mozambique forced Nkomo and Mugabe to attend a conference in London in 1979 to organize a ceasefire and elections. Mugabe only agreed to sign when Samora Machel of Mozambique told him that unless he signed the agreement he could no longer use Mozambique as a base. Mugabe later said: As I signed the document, I was not a happy man at all. I felt we had been cheated to some extent, that we had agreed to a deal which would to some extent rob us of victory we hoped we would achieve in the field.' Machel further informed him: Don't play make-believe Marxist games when you get home. You will face ruin if you force the whites into precipitate flight.' Despite violence on all sides Zanu-PF (Zanu-Patriotic Front) won 62 percent of the national vote, most of which were in the Shona population.

When Mugabe appeared on television he seemed to be the opposite of his guerrilla self; Ian Smith even found him 'sober and responsible.' Mugabe himself said:

 The wrongs of the past must now stand forgiven and forgotten. If ever we look to the past, let us do so for the lesson the past has taught us, namely that oppression and racism are inequalities that must never be a correct justification that because the whites oppressed us yesterday when they had power, the blacks must oppress them today because they have power. An evil remains an evil whether practised by white against black or black against white.

Hopes were high in 1980. Mugabe brought in Ndebele (who had largely voted for Zapu) into his government, and even kept Ken Flowers the Head of Intelligence, the man who had tried to assassinate him. £900 million was donated from abroad, boycotts were lifted, Africans no longer faced racial persecution from the security forces, and whites no longer face military call-up. For the first three years of recognized independence everyone benefited and Mugabe could easily have been seen as positively as Nelson Mandela is seen today. Primary school enrollment rose from 82,000 in 1976 to 2,216,878 in 1985, and secondary school enrollment from 66,000 to 482,000 in the same period. By 1988 the WHO and UNICEF praised Mugabe for providing safe drinking water to over 84 percent of the population. Workers' rights improved, a minimum wage was introduced and labor discrimination based on race was illegalized. Shona and Ndebele were both made national languages, as well as English, and many minority languages including Chewa, Venda, Tonga, Nambya, Kalanga, and Shangani were officially recognized. He even earned the nickname 'Good Old Bob.' This shows that Mugabe saw great improvements to Zimbabwe but the big question is, what went wrong?

British prime ministers, starting with Margaret Thatcher, would often pay Zimbabwe when Mugabe redistributed white land.

End of the Honeymoon
There are several reasons why the honeymoon period came to a crashing halt. The legacies of colonial rule in the form of the Lancaster House constitution meant that very few black families were resettled onto white land, and many areas of resettled land was not suitable for farming. Although 416,000 people were resettled on 6.5 million acres this was not nearly close enough to deal with the issue. Job creation stalled: although 10,000 were made a year this was not enough. Most importantly many former soldiers lacked work and this became a major criticism towards Mugabe as he was seen as abandoning people who fought for both Mugabe and Zimbabwe. It did not take long for Mugabe to abandon socialism and unlike others like him he did not even pay lip-service too socialism. As corruption started to skyrocket, (one of his proteges Phillip Chiyangwa said 'I am rich because I belong to Zanu-PF. If you want to be rich you must join Zanu-PF.'), inflation soared. Human rights started as exemplified by the Gukurahundi.

Members of Mugabe's 5 Brigade

Gukurahundi is a Shona word for 'the rains which blows away the chaff.' Mugabe would boast of another degree, 'a degree in violence,' and during the Gukurahundi from 1982 to 1987 he exercised this degree. Unlike Mandela Mugabe was never a devotee to democracy, and, as according to James Muzondidya, political issues which could have been sorted with diplomacy was sorted with violence. Soon after becoming president he had his own personal force, called 5 Brigade, trained in North Korea so in the future, if the need arose, he could deal with opponents. One of Mugabe's closest advisers was an Ndebele politician called Enos Nkala who loathed Joshua Nkomo and Zapu calling Nkomo the 'self-appointed Ndebele king.' Zapu opposition towards Zanu-PF infuriated Mugabe and in 1982 claimed that Zapu had arms caches and was preparing a coup. Calling Nkomo a 'cobra in the house' he said 'The only way to deal effectively with a snake is to strike and destroy its head.' Former Zipra soldiers were arrested and Zapu assets were seized in Matabeleland which allowed South Africa to send soldiers 'to keep the bot boiling.' Mugabe accused Zapu of conspiring with South Africa so sent in 5 Brigade. What followed was a series of ethnic based violence in Matabeleland. Already facing a drought relief supplies were cut off as 5 Brigade attacked Zapu supporters. As most supporters happened to be Ndebele this turned into ethnic violence where Ndebele were forced to speak Shona, women were raped, an indoctrination policy was introduced, and villagers were forced to sing Shona songs praising the murders as they danced on mass graves. A report named Breaking the Silence was released after the Gukurahundi found that over 20,000 civilians were murdered during this period. During the guerrilla war Zanu-PF had tried to implement women's rights but during the Gukurahundi, and after, feminist groups were silenced. In December 1987 the Gukurahundi came to an end when Nkomo signed the Unity Accord with Mugabe merging Zanu and Zapu together. On 30 December 1987 Mugabe made himself president which put him charge of the armed forces, allowed him to dissolve the parliament, gave him unlimited terms in office, and allowed him to declare martial law.

Since 1987
Since becoming president in 1987 the current image of Mugabe which we have in the North Atlantic world set in. Due to the amount of things to discuss I'm only going to focus on certain key events of Mugabe's presidency until 2017. It is quite telling that the US, UK and World Bank focused not on the Gukurahundi, which largely affected Ndebele but also affected some white farmers, to instead criticize Mugabe over the seizure of white land without payment in the early 1990s and again in the 2000s. However, this should not overlook the blatant cronyism. As mentioned earlier Mugabe abandoned socialism rather quickly, and in 1991 Zanu-PF dropped all references to socialism, never mind Marxism. In December 1996 a recurring theme in Zimbabwean politics happened. Popular war veteran Mukoma Musa passed away in relative poverty, and at his funeral Brigadier Gibson Mashingaidze criticized Zanu-PF for abandoning their ideals and that he himself had to contribute lots of money to Musa's funeral. 'Some people now have ten farms to their names and luxury yachts and have developed fat stomachs when ex-combatants like Comrade Musa lived in abject poverty. Is this the Zanu-PF I trusted with my life? Is this the same party which promised to care for us in our old age?' By 2000 unemployment had reached had risen by 50 percent, inflation had reached 60 percent, 70 percent of the population were in poverty, and 13 million were 10 percent poorer than they were in 1990.

Morgan Tsvangirai

In 1999 a primarily urban-based socialist party called the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) emerged under former Secretary-General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, Morgan Tsvangirai. The MDC aimed to oppose the 2000 referendum which would have changed the constitution creating the position of prime minister, restricting the president to two terms of five years (Mugabe could hold power for a further ten years), and letting the government seize white farms without payment if Britain cease paying Zimbabwe. Despite a propaganda blitz 55 percent of the country rejected the constitution where the rural population largely abstained. Mugabe blamed the white population and had the army attack farmers and their employees. Throughout the 2000s Mugabe continued his presidency marred by press censorship, corruption and political repression. For example, as a way to punish the MDC and urban populaces Operation Murambatsvina sent soldiers into shantytowns and slums to 'remove criminal elements' where the UN estimated that 700,000 people lost their homes or sources of livelihood. Adding to issues is the immense amount of debt the North Atlantic and China hold over Zimbabwe not improving issues.

The Coup

Tanks in Harare during the coup

Since the mid-2000s Mugabe's rule has wavered. From 2009 Morgan Tsvangirai acted as prime minister until the position was abolished in 2013. On November 8, 2017 Mugabe dismissed his vice-president Emmerson Mnangwa to replace him with his wife, Grace Mugabe, as he showed 'traits of disloyalty.'  This was, and is, unfortunate for Mugabe as Mnangwa has ties to the chief of the army and is a war veteran. Veterans of the independence war are still extremely respected in Zimbabwe so replacing a veteran with his wife was clearly a step too far, as well as replacing an ally of the army. Many veterans continue to say that Mugabe betrayed the revolution. Then on 13 November army commander Constantino Chiwenga threaten to intervene, which happened. However, unlike most coups legal procedures were taken into account with both parties trying to impeach Mugabe until the voluntarily resigned - recently he has been given a $10 million payoff and immunity to his family.

Despite the political repression, economic turmoil, and mass sympathy protests during the coup Mugabe is still very much respected. The legacy of his fight for African liberation and attempts to help the non-white population before his rule became increasingly authoritarian. Opposition leaders during the coup have even praised him for his actions during the liberation war. The media in the North Atlantic world has been quick to paint Mugabe as a dictator, and it is quite accurate to do so, but it is also important to remember that he was not always seen that way. Not mentioned yet but Elizabeth II did knight Mugabe. Robert Mugabe can easily be described as a liberator turned dictator.

The sources I have used are as follows:
-Profile: Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, Al Jazeera
-Nick Dearden, The West owes Zimbabwe a Future, Al Jazeera
-David Blair, Degrees in Violence: Robert Mugabe and the Struggle for Power in Zimbabwe, (London: Continuum Books, 2003)
-Michael Auret, From Liberator to Dictator: An Insider's account of Robert Mugabe's descent into tyranny, (Clarement, South Africa: New Africa Books, 2009)
-Martin Meredith, The State of Africa: A History of the Continent since Independence, (London: Simon & Schuster, 2011)
-Brian Raftopoulos and Alois Mlambo (eds.), Becoming Zimbabwe: A History from The Pre-Colonial Period to 2008, (Johannesburg: Weaver Press, 2009)

Thank you for reading. If you have any thoughts feel free to leave a comment. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby. Thanks for reading.

Comics Explained: Steppenwolf

Steppenwolf

The new edition to the DCEU, Justice League, has recently been released and with it we have a new villain not yet seen outside of comics or animation: Steppenwolf. He was originally going to be in the theatrical release of Batman v. Superman but his cameo was cut making Justice League his first actual appearance. However, when he was announced to be the primary antagonist of Justice League many people, including comic fans, responded with, Who is Steppenwolf? Steppenwolf has made very few appearances in comics, Rob of the YouTube channel Comics Explained estimates that he was in only 70 comics, so many wondered why he was chosen as the antagonist over Brainiac or Darkseid. Today we're going to look at just exactly who Steppenwolf is.

New Gods #7

New Gods #7

Steppenwolf first appeared in Jack Kirby's New Gods #7 in 1972. Kirby was half of the dreamteam which made Marvel the success that it was, but he felt he wasn't getting the recognition that he rightly deserved (people mostly credited Stan Lee over Kirby) so amicably left to work for DC. There he made the New Gods which are a very inventive series of comics. Originally, the New Gods lived on two worlds existing outside the Multiverse in what has been named Kirby's 'Fourth World': the idyllic New Genesis ruled by Highfather, and the dystopian Apokolips ruled by Darkseid. As they existed out of the Multiverse the only way they could be reached, or come to the DC Universe, by portals named Boom Tubes. When Crisis on Infinite Earths destroyed the Multiverse the Fourth World was moved to existing inside the DC Universe, but they existed in a galaxy cut off from the rest of the universe only accessible via Boom Tube. The one last thing we need to discuss is the Source Wall. This 'Wall' exists at the edge of the Multiverse and separates the Multiverse from the Source: a collection of all knowledge and power in the Multiverse. If someone fails to get across the Source Wall they become part of the Wall itself.

Now we turn to Steppenwolf. Steppenwolf was the commander of Apokolips' military while Apokolips was under the rule of his sister Heggra, someone who had been ruling Apokolips since her husband, Yuga Khan, was claimed by the Source Wall. Later, when Heggra's son Uxas, (Darkseid), killed her he began serving his nephew. Steppenwolf was the enforcer for Apokolips; when Heggra or Darkseid wanted something done he would do it. This brings us to his first appearance in New Gods #7. Darkseid wanted his mother dead, (after all she had his wife, the only person he ever loved, executed), and wanted war with Apokolips' eternal enemy, New Genesis. So he sent Steppenwolf to assassinate Avia, the wife of New Genesis' ruler Izaya. This resulted in a bloody war which devastated both worlds. During the war Darkseid poisoned Heggra and Izaya smashes Steppenwolf killing him yelling: You'll never kill anyone again, Steppenwolf!

Steppenwolf's Death

During the war Izaya learned of the Source and devoted himself to peace renaming himself Highfather. He made a peace agreement with Darkseid where his son would be raised by Darkseid, while he would raise Darkseid's son Orion. While the sons were on their new worlds the peace would stand, so Darkseid had a torturer daily abuse Highfather's son so he would be compelled to escape the planet and end the non-aggression pact. Darkseid then showed his power and resurrected Steppenwolf putting him back in charge of Apokolips' military. Until the DC Universe was rebooted in the New 52 he was a background character with the only noteworthy thing that he did was dying at the hands of the Terror Titans; an inverse group of the Teen Titans.

New 52

Steppenwolf was reintroduced following the New 52 in Justice League Vol.2 #6. Again, he is in charge of Darkseid's army, however, he plays a minor role with Darkseid being the main villain. As the New 52 brought back the Multiverse the Fourth World was moved again to being outside the Multiverse. One of the 52 new universes was Earth-2 and Darkseid declared war on this reality. He sent Steppenwolf with an army of Parademons to wipe out the main threats of this reality before he invaded, clearly learning from his failed attempt at invading the mainstream universe. Steppenwolf destroyed entire countries and even destroyed Amazon Island causing the Olympian Gods to pray for humanity to fight through this. Batman infiltrated towers controlling the Parademons while Superman and Wonder Woman directly fought them. However, Steppenwolf impales Wonder Woman on his sword killing her and Superman is killed when Parademons overrun him. 

Steppenwolf kills Wonder Woman

Finally, Batman sacrifices himself destroying the towers, and with it the Parademons. Steppenwolf then is trapped on Earth where for five years with the remnants of his army he tried to establish his own kingdom in order to later conquer the rest of the planet. Steppenwolf had been using a clone of Superman, called Brutaal, to fight for him and had been indoctrinating him to worship Darkseid. However, this worked too well so when Steppenwolf decided to conquer the Earth for himself, and not Darkseid, Brutaal killed him. Sometime later Steppenwolf was resurrected again by Darkseid appearing in Justice League Vol. 2 #42.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post. For future blog posts please see our Facebook or get me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

World History: The Little Ice Age

Peter Breughel the Elder's Hunters in the Snow

When we think about history we often forget about the climate and environment, but it has been incredibly influential in shaping human history. The last time we looked properly at the climate as a part of World History it was our very first post describing the evolution of humanity; there changing global climate caused grasslands to encroach on forests and forced our ancestors to walk upright, (please see here). Climate has never stopped affecting human history and today I want to focus specifically on a period of climate history named the Little Ice Age, something which lasted from the mid-fifteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century. First coined by Francois E. Matthes in 1939 historians now have taken note of the significance of the Little Ice Age and its impact on our history.

How do we know it happened?

Changing Global Temperature

Quite often historians have been criticized for making statements with the idea 'we weren't there so we can't be certain.' Although at times this is a valid criticism but for the Little Ice Age we do have evidence that it took place. Climatologists and meteorologists have used ice-cores and dendrochronology (looking at tree rings) which show us that from around 1300 the world's climate got much colder, reaching a peak in the seventeenth century, and then getting warmer in the 1800s. Geoffrey Parker in his article Crisis and Catastrophe has shown through a series of graphs how fewer sunspots were seen, temperatures were lower, and increased volcanic activity happened during this time period. Not only that, we have cultural evidence that global temperatures dropped during this time period. Pictured at the top of this post if Peter Breughel the Elder's Hunters in the Snow painted in 1565 depicting hunters walking through thick snow as people ice skate on a frozen ponds. A painting by Abraham Hondius in 1676 depicted hunters chasing a fox on the frozen Thames, and until the mid-nineteenth century carnivals on the frozen Thames were a regular occurrence. We have written records also of severe climate and weather conditions. In 1641 Enomoto Yazaemon wrote that on New Year's Day 'ice lay in the fields one foot deep. From that time, I observed seven snowfalls until the spring.' Chronicler Benedikt Kuen in the 1680s wrote about the glacier Vernagtferner moving south from the Alps:

in 1600. so our ancestors tell us, the big glacier behind Rofen after it had come into the valley according to its habit, broke out on the feast of St James [25 July], did great damage to the fields in the Ezthal, spoilt the roads and streets and carried away all the bridges. In the parish of Langenfeld the water flooded the ground from Rethlstain to Lener Kohlstatt.

In the 1640s governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony noted in his journal: 

The frost was so great and continual this winter that all the Bay was frozen over, so much and so long, as the like, by the Indians' relation, had not been so these forty years ... To the southward also the frost was as great and the snow as deep, and at Virginia itself the great [Chesapeake] bay was much of it frozen over, and all of their great rivers.

Volcanic eruptions, independent of global climate, added to global cooling periodically. 1816 was described by contemporaries as 'The Year Without a Summer' following the eruption of Mt. Tambora the year prior. We can even use wine harvests to provide evidence for the Little Ice Age; before 1469 wine was actually cultivated in England which ended through colder temperatures.

A Thames Frost Fair

How It was Explained

Today we know that the adverse climate was due to the Little Ice Age, but we have the benefit of hindsight and decades of scientific research on climate. Contemporaries did not have that benefit so looked at ways which they understood the world to explain the floods, hail, and storms. We'll look at two areas of the world and how they understood the causes: Europe and China.

We'll discuss China first. Throughout World History when we've discussed China one phrase has repeatedly cropped up, 'the Mandate of Heaven.' For those who are new to the term the Mandate of Heaven was the idea that the ruling dynasty only ruled thanks to a mandate directly from Heaven. However, if the ruling dynasty was seen as being corrupt or decadent, abusing its citizens, or just generally inept it was believed that the mandate would leave the ruling dynasty. Any new dynasty which ousted the old one could now claim that they have the Mandate of Heaven. Since the fourteenth century the Ming had ruled China and by the seventeenth century Chinese society had changed. Years of relative peace and prosperity had caused a population boom in the countryside putting pressure on the land, a thriving domestic (and a smaller external) trade had caused merchants to become wealthier than farmers, and inflation was rapidly rising through the importation of silver from the Americas and Japan. The floods, hail, storms, and cooler temperatures brought on by the Little Ice Age led to crop failures compounding the issue, and nothing causes a revolt quicker than starving people. To contemporaries it was clear that the Mandate of Heaven had left the Ming and they pointed to the weather as a sign of it. The violent weather was seen as a sign that the Ming were no longer protected by Heaven, and that this was a sign that the Ming should be replaced. In 1644 the Ming were overthrown and their successors, the Shun, were overthrown shortly after by the new Qing Dynasty.

A depiction of a witch burning from England in the 1640s

Europe did not point to their rulers as the cause of bad weather, hail and red suns but instead turned to the Bible. Wolfgang Behringer has linked the Little Ice Age to the spike in witch hunts. From 1560 to 1600 somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 people were accused of witchcraft where 40,000 to 60,000 were executed. Before Pope Innocence VIII released his papal bull Summis desiderantus affectibus on 5 December 1484 the Church did not link witchcraft to the weather, and Innocence only did this at the request of Dominican friar Heinrich Kramer. Often the sins of the populace were blamed for the weather but smaller political entities were more susceptible to the idea of witches. A very severe thunderstorm hit central Europe on 3 August 1562 during a time of meteorological events which people in the Barony of Illeraichen blamed on witches which forced Count Hans von Rechberg to imprison several women who confessed to witchcraft under torture. Between 1562 and 1565 in Wiesensteig there was an attempt to eradicate 'the evil' in society where 63 women were burnt as witches. A chronicler in the Franconian town of Zeil in 1626 wrote:

Everything froze, something which had not happened as long as one could remember, causing a big rise in prices. […] As a result, pleading and begging began among the rabble, who questioned why the authorities continued to tolerate the witches. […] Thus the prince-bishop punished these crimes

Accusations were heavily gendered. Between 75 and 85 per cent of those accused were women, but in Northern Europe more men were accused than women. However, there were pushbacks against the idea of witches causing the bad weather. As mentioned many in the Church blamed the sins of the people and at times ridiculed the idea of witches. The idea of familiars was mocked with some clergy commenting if Satan really wanted to cause damage; wouldn't he become a dragon instead of a cat? Humanists looked to secular reasons and centers of secularization like Nuremburg and the Swiss and Italian-republics, despite ruling lots of rural land, saw little to no witch burnings. Scholar Albrecht Durer produced woodcuts presenting the subject as a way for people to portray beautiful women naked. Across Europe reaction to the Little Ice Age varied.

The Crisis of the Seventeenth Century

Historians Eric Hobsbawm and Hugh Trevor-Roper argued in the 1950s that the 1600s saw a 'Crisis' where the world was plunged into increased violence. Hobsbawm, a primarily European historian, argued this crisis was part of Europe's transition from feudalism to capitalism, whereas Trevor-Roper linked this to a political crisis where the modern political state started to emerge. The 1600s were a violent time in history: over a million took part in revolts in China, peasant revolts swept over Switzerland and Germany, rebellions hit Russia in 1648 and 1649, a series of revolts in Brazil, the overthrow of the Kongo Kingdom, the brutal collapse of the Ming, the Mughal Civil War, a spike in the amount of people made slaves for the Atlantic Slave Trade, the Fronde in France, a succession war in the Ottoman Empire, the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in the British Isles, and the Thirty Years' War are just some of the violence to strike the world. Geoffrey Parker reopened the debate but spoke of a global crisis, not just a European one. He went on to link this to the Little Ice Age. Although the Little Ice Age did not cause these conflicts and bouts of violence it helped contribute to them. Using the example of China the collapse of the Ming was down to poor harvests and other factors, and the Manchus who succeeded them, (excluding the brief Shun Dynasty), moved south to China as they believed that China would have better harvests than Manchuria. Parker himself can sum this idea best:

How, precisely, can historians link the harsh winters, cool summers, droughts, and floods of the 1640s […] with individual cases of state breakdown such as the revolts of Scotland, Ireland and England against Charles I, or the collapse of Ming rule in China? We must not paint bull’s-eyes around bullet holes and argue that since climatic aberrations seem to be the only factor capable of causing simultaneous upheavals around the globe, therefore those aberrations “must” have caused the upheavals.

Depiction of the Thirty Years' War

The Little Ice Age amplified causes for war and violence throughout the world. A two per cent drop in global temperatures can halve a rice harvest, which happened. This would help explain some of the origins of a revolt but not all of them. Despite rice or grain harvests becoming smaller taxes on land remained the same and often crops were sent to the cities instead of staying in the countryside. When more crops remained in the countryside riots broke out in cities as the price of food, like bread, rose. Furthermore, the various wars which swept the world added to these issues. Soldiers would pillage the countryside for food helping cause famines, and with less food your immune system is weaker so this helped spread disease. War, disease and famine during the Thirty Years' War caused a population decline of up to 40 per cent in the German states and in China the word binghuo (soldier calamity) was coined to describe the pillaging of the country by soldiers. 

Image of the Fronde

Before we conclude I just want to talk about the demographic shift thanks to the Little Ice Age. When people were tired of war, persecution and famine they moved. The 1600s saw the largest surge of colonists to the Americas and, unfortunately with it, slaves from Africa as well. A Chinese diaspora also began in the early 1600s with many settling in areas like Malaysia and the Philippines which would open up these areas for migration in the 1800s. At times when food was in short supply through bad harvests family sizes decreased and in some areas, like northern Europe, they largely remained small. We can see as well the difference in wealth as well. A general trend in Europe was that wealthy families, who could afford food, had larger families whereas less wealthy families had smaller families. There also began a trend of marrying later, and in Renaissance Europe quite often widows did not remarry. However, there were darker sides to this. In the 1680s the Qing passed a decree to prevent widow suicides indicating that it must have been an endemic problem and several European states, like France, passed strict laws against infanticide. Children who died under the age of five were sometimes checked to make sure they died naturally and were not murdered. 

Conclusion

New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina

The Little Ice Age offers a prime example for us to learn from history. As I am writing we are faced with dramatic climate change caused by global warming. During the last hurricane season the United States was hit by several destructive hurricanes - Harvey, Irma and Maria to name just three - most likely as a result of climate change. Alongside these hurricanes we had intense wild fires in California and floods in Chad, India, Nepal and Nigeria. Geoffrey Parker put forward the Little Ice Age as one of the causes of the Crisis of the Seventeenth Century a few years after Hurricane Katrina and was deeply influenced by this. It is widely believed that the reason why the Little Ice Age ended was because of the Industrial Revolution which poured carbon dioxide in unprecedented numbers into the atmosphere causing global temperatures to rise. By looking at how the Little Ice Age affected communities of the past we can find ways to cope with the climate issues which we face today.

The sources I have used are as follows:

-Geoffrey Parker, 'Crisis and Catastrophe: The Global Crisis of the Seventeenth Century Reconsidered,' The American Historical Review, 113:4, (2008), pp. 1053-1079

-Wolfgang Behringer, 'Climate Change and Witch-Hunting: The Impact of the Little Ice Age on Mentalities,' Climate Change, 43:1, (1999), pp. 335-351

-Crash Course World History: The Little Ice Age

-Brian Fagan, The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300-1850, (New York: Basic Books, 2000)

-Tom Bristow and Thomas H. Ford, (eds.), A Cultural History of Climate Change, (New York: Routledge, 2016)
-Wolfgang Behringer, A Cultural History of Climate, (London: Wiley, 2009)

-Jean M. Grove, The Little Ice Age, (London: Methuen, 1988)

Thank you for reading. Next time we'll be looking at one of the most significant events in European history which saw its 500th anniversary this October: the Reformation. For future blog updates we have a Facebook or you can get me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

For other World History posts we have a collection of them here. 

History in Focus: The October Revolution

Lenin during the October Revolution

As I am writing we are coming up to the centenary of possibly the most influential revolution in the history of the twentieth century. On November 7 1917, October 25 in Russian using the Julian calendar, the first successful revolution Marxist revolution took place which would go on to change world history. A deeply politicized aspect of history regardless of where you stand on the October Revolution it remains one of the most significant events to shape the world we live in. Before we look at the October Revolution, Lenin, Trotsky, and the Soviets we must first understand how this revolution came to pass.

Background to Revolution

The October Revolution was not the first revolution to hit Russia in 1917. In February (March) a revolution rocked the Russian Empire which we looked at in February, which I would suggest reading to better understand the October Revolution. As a result we shall only briefly discuss the long term origins of the October Revolution. Since the mid-nineteenth century Russia had hoped to 'catch up' to the states of western Europe - France, the UK, and Germany especially - starting with the reforms of Tsar Alexander II, including abolishing serfdom in 1861. Russia hoped to be an industrialized, capitalist power without the powerful democratic institutions which the UK and France had. Although they accepted some form of democracy, like the creation of the local governments called zemstvos, power was supposed to remain with the tsar. After the assassination of Alexander II by Narodnaya Volya (People's Will) in 1881 his successors opted for more autocracy than Alexander. Russian society had changed by this time. Industrialization had created a new class of people, universities had allowed left-wing ideas to flourish, and nationalism was slowly emerging in the multi-ethnic empire. Internationally Russia was seen as backward and autocratic with it facing a humiliation over the Russo-Japanese War which saw Russia defeated by Japan. This inspired the 1905 Revolution which actually saw Leon Trotsky arrive on the scene. Although defeated the 1905 Revolution led to the creation of a parliament, called the Duma, which was extremely weak. The tsar could, and did, dissolve it whenever he wished and the first prime minister, Pyotr Stolypin, was actually chosen because he crushed the rebellion in 1905.

Soldiers in Sarikamish

After years of dissatisfaction from several sectors of society the principal factor in causing the revolution was not in fact domestic in origin. Russia had been portraying itself as the guardian of the Slavic peoples and had created an alliance with Serbia. When Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia following the assassination of heir to the throne Archduke Franz Ferdinand Russia was drawn into the war. Thus the First World War began. However, Russia was vastly unprepared. Initially the Russian populace was in favor of the war seeing Tsar Nicholas II in a positive light; all except the radical left-wingers of the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin. Like the Russo-Japanese War military setbacks caused the populace to turn against the war. Thousands were killed as they were caught in between advancing German artillery and the Russian army's scorched earth tactics. Between 5 and 10 million civilians 'voluntarily' left their homes. 

Marxism and Lenin

Karl Marx

In 1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels released their seminal pamphlet The Communist Manifesto. Since 1848 the writings of Marx and Engels have influenced up to possibly millions around the world, and they expanded upon it with works such as Das Capital. To summarize Marxist ideology, it opposes capitalism and where private property, as a form of means of production, is communally owned. The writings of Marx and Engels spread across the world with future member of the Mensheviks, the less radical leftists, Vera Zasulich personally writing to Marx saying: You are not aware that your Capital enjoys great popularity in Russia. Although the edition has been confiscated, the few remaining copies are read and re-read by the mass of more or less educated people in our country. The October Revolution was not the first time there was an attempt to create a state inspired by Marxism. Following the collapse of the Second French Empire the Paris Commune was formed which was brutally suppressed by the French army; later Lenin would count to see if his communist state would outlast the Paris Commune. This brings us onto Lenin. Vladimir Lenin, born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, became involved in Marxism while in university, and his brother Aleksander was also a Marxist. Aleksander was later executed for his involvement in an assassination attempt of a tsar which may have caused Lenin's radicalization. In 1902 he had caused a stir with his booklet What is to be done? calling for a disciplined, centralized party to act as a vanguard of the working class which he elaborated on in 1905 stating that the Romanov monarchy should be abolished in favor of a 'provisional revolutionary democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry.' To achieve this rather paradoxical idea revolutionary terror, similar to that of the French Revolution, would be required. He would also expand upon Marx in 1917, in what is now described as Marxist-Leninism, stating that imperialism was the last stage of capitalism.

Lenin was not the only revolutionary in Russia. He was part of the Social Democratic Labour Party which was split between the Bolsheviks, Lenin and like-minded individuals, and the Mensheviks (Minoritarians). The Mensheviks called for a more decentralized party without the projected dictatorship. Meanwhile, there was also Viktor Chernov's Socialist Revolutionaries who disagreed with the Social Democrats in who the revolutionary class were. The Democrats viewed the urban proletariat as this class whereas the Revolutionaries viewed the peasantry holding this distinction. In 1897 Lenin and his family were exiled, and with a few exceptions spent most of his time in exile until 1917.

The February Revolution

The February Revolution

On March 8 (February 23) in Petrograd, (St. Petersburg), on International Women's Day the socialist Social Democrats issued leaflets to women waiting in food lines. These leaflets read:

The government is guilty; it started the war and cannot end it. It is destroying the country and your starving is their fault. The capitalists are guilty; for their profit the war goes on. It's about time to tell them loud: Enough! Down with the criminal government and all its gang of thieves and murderers. Long live peace!

Through this the women started protesting which in turn inspired factory workers in the Vyborg District and Putilov Factory. As protests escalated the troops Tsar Nicholas II sent to put down the protests mutinied and joined the protesters as mutineers in the navy threw their officers into the sea. In the 1905 workers' councils called soviets were formed to organize the working classes and they returned in the February Revolution. However, Lenin and Leon Trotsky were in political exile when they were formed. Two shadow governments were formed in Petrograd: the Provisional Government and Petrograd Soviet. The Provisional Government began arresting the tsar's ministers as a way to prop themselves up, and to protect them from the Soviet. Then with no option Nicholas II released this statement on March 15:

In agreement with the State Duna, we have thought it best to abdicate the throne of the Russian state and to lay down the supreme power. Not wishing to part with our beloved son, we hand down our inheritance to our brother, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich.

Grand Duke Michael, however, could not keep control and just after a day he abdicated ending four hundred years of Russian Tsardom. The Provisional Government took over under liberals, conservatives, businessmen, liberal nobles, and professionals under Prince Georgy Lvov. Only major socialist was part of this government, the Justice Minister Alexander Kerensky who the tsarina had even called for him to be hung. Inspired by Europe and the USA they established freedom of speech, and 'an immediate and complete amnesty in all cases of a political and religious nature, including terrorists acts, military revolts, and agrarian offences.' If there were these reforms why did the October Revolution happen?

Between Revolutions

Catherine Evtuhov and Richard Stites has described the Provisional Government as 'dual powerlessness.' The Government was intensely divided with it having moderate socialists like Kerensky, and former nobility like Prince Lvov. While the liberal Kadets wanted to keep the old tsarist administration whereas the socialists wished to grant non-Russian peoples increased autonomy, like in Ukraine. During the February Revolution the Soviets had become powerful but the Government became distant from the Soviets; in early June soviets around the country sent representatives to Petrograd to the First All-Russia Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. Most importantly the Government had continued to fight the very unpopular war. Soldiers were executed for desertion, food was diverted from the starving population to the front, and Russia was still facing military setbacks. At the start of April Lenin presented his April Theses criticizing the apparent failures of the February Revolution and that power should lie with the soviets who should bring about socialism. Germany, wishing to disrupt Russia, smuggled Lenin into Russia via train from Switzerland as others returned from internal or external exile, including Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. In April workers and soldiers protested in Petrograd due to the continuation of the war, and following another protest in July the state chose to brutally crush it and blame the Bolsheviks. Many Bolsheviks were arrested and Lenin had to go into hiding. The people were dissatisfied and started turning to the Bolsheviks seeing the moderate socialists as betraying them. A former soldier in Moscow said:

You [The Provisional Government] have the audacity to say that freedom has come. But isn't your current power over the people that the bourgeoisie delivered to you, based on coercion?...The bourgeoisie is striving for democratic forms of governance because in them it sees the most convenient method of oppression and exploitation.

Following the July Days Kerensky took over the government but anger at the government remained. Unlike Lvov he was more eager to use violence against deserters and protesters, such as sending troops to suppress the 'Tsaritsyn Republic' declared by radicalized soldiers and Bolsheviks. Then the Kornilov Affair happened. Commander-in-Chief General Lavr Kornilov wished to end left-wing protests, and some of his followers wanted him to seize power. However, he just wanted to hang soviet members and see order return to Petrograd. When Kerensky asked Kornilov to come to Petrograd to help restore order in September the general opted to purge the government, so Kerensky released Bolsheviks, including Trotsky's Red Guard, to stop him. Soldiers deserted Kornilov when the Red Guard infiltrated his army, and workers and railway workers went on strike disrupting his supply lines. In the end Kornilov's coup failed and there was a drastic swing to the left in the soviets and army. Thus the stage was set for October.

October

Lenin speaking to soldiers during the Revolution

Following the July Days Lenin had been hiding in Finland where he had been advocating armed revolution. In October he returned, in secret, to Petrograd to plan a revolution. On October 23 the Bolshevik Central Committee voted 10-2 to oust Kerensky's government, and they formed a committee under Trotsky to organize the revolution itself. They were so confident that they didn't even bother concealing their plans so Kerensky actually knew some details of it! However, Kerensky's weak position and, the radicalization of the urban masses and army meant there was little he could do other than seize the Bolshevik press, which he soon lost control of. On October 25 armed forces occupied railway stations and military strongholds while at Kronstadt sailors announced their allegiance to the Bolsheviks. The next day the Provisional Government's headquarters, the Winter Palace, was seized and ten years later was mythologized in, what has been regarded as a cinematic epic, Sergei Einstein's October. Despite popular depictions the seizing of the Winter Palace was not actually violent; often the October Revolution has been described as a bloodless revolution. Thus history was made.

Aftermath

Although the Revolution itself was bloodless the aftermath was not. A bloody three-way civil war lasting several years broke out between the Bolsheviks, (the Reds), the peasant armies (Greens), and anti-Communists and foreign powers (Whites). Costing between seven and ten million lives the Russian Civil War was a brutal affair which devastated entire communities. The Bolshevik Revolution did inspire people all across the world. In Germany the Spartacists under Rose Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht tried to form a communist government without the revolutionary terror and dictatorship of Leninism until they were crushed in 1919; a similar attempt was made in Hungary under Bela Kun; mass movements across the globe from China to Argentina; and the rise of Communist Parties across the world. Regardless if they agreed with Lenin, like the newly formed Japanese Communist Party, or virulently disagreed with him, like Luxemburg, people across the world became inspired. There was also a right-wing backlash. Many countries including the USA, UK, Japan and France actually fought the Red Army during the Civil War, and at home anti-communism was rife. The First Red Scare hit the USA in the 1920s, the forged 'Zonviev letter' helped cause the British Labour Party to be defeated in the 1924 General Election, and when Japan enfranchised all men in the mid-1920s it came with a law suppressing radical politics. Left and Right were greatly influenced by the October Revolution.

Conclusion

The October Revolution is by far one of the most significant events of the twentieth century, and perhaps the most important political revolution since the French Revolution. To this day millions have been affected or inspired by the October Revolution. It made Marxism the most discussed ideology until the 1990s and recently Marxism has returned. I myself am a Marxist, although I am a Luxemburgist instead of a Marxist-Leninist, and I became one through reading the Menshevik-Bolshevik debates. Regardless of your political standing you cannot deny the significance of the October Revolution. Whether you believe it changed history for good or for ill it went on to shape the entire history of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The events of 1917 affect our lives in 2017.

The sources I have used are as follows:

-A History of Russia since 1800: Peoples, Legends, Events, Forces by Catherine Evtuhov and Richard Stites

-The Penguin History of Russia: From Tsarism to the Twenty-First Century by Robert Service

-The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union, 1917-1991 by Richard Sakwa

-The Bolshevik Revolution, 1917-1923. Vol. 1 by E.H. Carr

-Russia: People and Empire, 1552-1917 by Geoffrey Hosking

-A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924 by Orlando Figes
-The Age of Extremes, 1917-1991 by Eric Hobsbawm

-History of the Russian Revolution by Leon Trotsky

-Imperialism, The Highest State of Capitalism by Vladimir Lenin

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or get me on Twitter @LewisTwiby