2018 and History

Some Gilets jaunes protesters

2018 is coming to a close and 2019 is soon to arrive. Over this last year we have seen many events occur which find their origin in history, as well as anniversaries of major events which shaped the world that we live in today. Of course, so many things have happened across the year so I cannot go over everything, and as my speciality is limited to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries we naturally cannot cover everything. As a result, we'll cover several key events and anniversaries that has happened across the last year.

Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa, and the Legacy of Mandela

In February South African president Jacob Zuma resigned in favour of Cyril Ramaphosa. This became even more important with 2018 also see the passing of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and the one-hundredth birthday of Nelson Mandela. Nelson and Winnie were two of the many individuals who took part in the anti-Apartheid protests across South Africa. In 1948 the National Party under Daniel Malan instituted a policy named Apartheid which legally separated white South Africans from non-whites. This policy was not entirely new - racial discrimination and segregation existed long before the National Party - but now a government was in power wanting to explicitly expand segregation and prejudice. By the 1970s the government had gone as far as to create the 'Homelands' granting 'independence' to black African peoples in order to strip urban black Africans of their citizenship. Many different organisations emerged in order to oppose Apartheid including the African National Congress (ANC) of which Nelson, and later Winnie, became involved in. In June 1964 Nelson Mandela was put on trial and initially sentenced to death, but this was reduced to life imprisonment. Thanks to the ANC in exile Mandela became an international martyr and attention came onto his activist wife Winnie. Anti-Apartheid activism wasn't just limited to the Mandelas and the ANC - a variety of organisations took part ranging from the Pan-African Congress to the Communist Party. Following Mandela's imprisonment a new generation of activists emerged with new organisations, including Ramaphosa and the National Union of Mineworkers (formed 1982). By the late-1980s the Apartheid state was collapsing: a shift in the economy undermined Apartheid; domestic opposition increased; international sanctions destroyed the South African economy; the state's attempts to preserve Apartheid had destroyed its own economy; and Mandela's imprisonment continued to make him a martyr. February 11 1990 Mandela walked hand-in-hand with Winnie, and four years later the first multi-racial election took place which brought an end to Apartheid and brought Mandela to the presidency.

After a century of racial discrimination, and with the Mandela presidency focusing more on reconciliation than social justice, followed by fifty years of Apartheid had continued to leave South Africa's black population impoverished. Nelson's and Winnie's honesty in politics, as well as strong stance on social justice, had inspired a new generation born after the collapse of Apartheid. This issue was compounded by the intense corruption of the successive ANC governments under Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. Amidst a corruption scandal Zuma resigned in favour of Cyril Ramaphosa. Ramaphosa has effectively used the legacy of Mandela by positioning himself as the successor to Mandela in order to rebuild the lost trust in the ANC. Time will tell how if this works out in his favour. 

Korea

Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in crossing the DMZ

Throughout this year relations have been changing between North and South Korea. In March the two Koreas in the Seoul Winter Olympics participated as one team and in April the leaders of the two states met and symbolically crossed the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Following the end of the Second World War and the defeat of the Japanese Empire - which had formally ruled Korea since 1910 - the Korean peninsula had been divided along the 38th parallel. In the North a Marxist-Leninist government was implemented by the Soviet Union under Kim Il-sung while in the South a capitalist government was implemented by the United States under Syngman Rhee. Initially it was intended that the two Koreas would be united but Cold War tensions soon prevented this. Meanwhile, Syngman Rhee and Kim Il-sung both moved to solidify their own position - an uprising of Jeju island was brutally crushed by South forces as an example. Both wished to unify the peninsula and war broke out in 1950 as the North invaded the South. Kim's forces found quick success and almost succeeded in conquering the South until a US-led coalition with UN support landed. Initially the plan was meant to push the North back across the 38th parallel but unexpected success emboldened the US who now wanted to directly pushback communism. This made the newly declared People's Republic of China fearful that this would embolden them to push into China so the People's Liberation Army crossed the Yalu River. Chinese forces pushed the UN forces back and three years of stalemate followed costing the lives of 2.5 million Korean civilians. A peace treaty was signed at Panmunjom between all the combatants except for the two Koreas - to this day North and South Korea technically remain in a state of war. Currently the DMZ remains heavily guarded and is one of the most fortified regions in the world.

Since 1953 relations between the two states have not improved. Kim Il-sung and Syngman Rhee ruled in Pyongyang and Seoul respectively in two authoritarian regimes. One a Marxist-Leninist authoritarian regime, the other a capitalist authoritarian regime, meant that unification became a distant memory - even when South Korea became a multi-party democracy in 1987. Relations remained sour between the two states since 1987, especially thanks to continued American presence in the South and the North's testing of nuclear weapons in 2006. A regular occurrence since then is that the North tests weapons causing the South to adopt more recalcitrant positions which in turn causes the North to test more weapons. Earlier this year there seems to be a break in this trend - 2019 might see relations improve, or this thaw come to an end.

100 Years since the end of World War One

Londoners celebrating the end of World War I

This November saw 100 years since the end of the First World War - one of the most brutal and destructive conflicts in human history. The assassination of heir to the Austrian-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand, on June 28 1914 in Sarajevo led to the European powers declaring war on one another - France, Britain, and Russia on one side (the Entente), and Germany and Austria-Hungary on the other (the Central Powers). Immediately it became a world war - British and German troops first fought one another in West Africa and their fleets quickly did battle at the Falkland Islands. Britain's Dominions - Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa - were brought into the war and Britain's alliance with Japan (as well as Japanese interests in China and the Pacific) brought it into the war. The Ottoman Empire, angered by Britain and France intervening in its affairs, joined the Central Powers as Italy unexpectedly went against its alliance with the Central Powers to join the Entente. By 1917 a stalemate had occurred and support for the war, which was very popular in 1914, had started to waver. The Central Powers even at this stage seemed to be in a position to see victory - revolution broke out in Russia in March bringing down the tsarist regime and in November a second revolution brought Russia out of the war. However, US entry into the war the same year made Germany fearful of American power accompanied by the slow disintegration of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian armies thanks to ethnic divisions. The Ludendorff Offensive aimed to quickly knock out France before US troops and resources to arrive to reinforce the Entente - it almost succeeded but doing so weakened the German lines, cost them their best soldiers, and depleted their resources. Soon enough the Central Powers collapsed and November 11 1918 a ceasefire was declared. After four years of fighting over 16 million were dead, a flu outbreak devastated the world, and soon enough conflict began once again. The war changed the world as we knew it - empires collapsed, the tragedy of the violence caused a demographic change, and new politics emerged. These legacies remain hotly debated today. In Britain the poppy has become a symbol of remembrance and in recent years has become subject to debates on national identity. Activist and World War Two RAF pilot Harry Leslie Smith, who tragically passed this November, wrote on Twitter: 'Instead of wearing a poppy for #Remembrance2018 we should wear our shame because as a human race we've learned nothing since 1918.' Wars are currently destroying Syria, Yemen and Iraq funded by Euro-American governments - we have to ask ourselves, have we learnt anything since 1918?

Meiji - 150 Years On

150 years ago one of the most important events in Japanese history took place. Japan for centuries had been ruled by shoguns - to summarise samurai warlords - with the emperor as a puppet. Then in 1853 Commodore Matthew Perry forcibly opened Japan to foreign affairs leading to a series of treaties - named the Unequal Treaties - which exploited Japan. Young samurai from Choshu and Satsuma were angered by the shogunate's seemingly lack of action and bowing down to foreign demands so in April 1868 they issued the Charter Oath. They vowed to 'restore' the emperor to power and fight back against foreign exploitation. The shogunate was overthrown, the emperor 'restored' (he remained very much a figurehead), and a process of 'modernisation' began. Japanese rulers knew that they had to reform society in order not to be conquered by Europe, but they debated how much society had to be changed. The old samurai order was abolished but should they allow capitalists? They looked to Europe and America for inspiration but how much inspiration should they take from the West? Within a generation Japan had become an industrialised imperial empire but these debates continued. Some have suggested that the bombings of Pearl Harbor, and later Hiroshima and Nagasaki, had their roots in the Meiji Restoration. It in undeniable that the era of the Meiji Reformers greatly shaped the future Japan. Recently, the emperor, Akihito, had announced that he plans to abdicate in 2019 - the first emperor to abdicate in centuries - and Akihito's reign had been involved in dealing with the legacies of pre-war, and wartime, Japan. He has repeatedly criticised the government's refusal to acknowledge war crimes throughout the Japanese Empire as well as readily accepting that he was to be a mortal and a figurehead - something his father Hirohito struggled to come to terms with.

1848-1968-2018

Since November in France we have seen the Gilets jaunes protests which have attracted over 300,000 participants. Emmanuel Macron's proposed fuel tax would have affected ordinary French citizens much more than the big companies who contribute most to climate change - wearing yellow vests protesters met in Paris and soon other grievances came to attention. Thanks to Macron's unpopularity, his approval rating is below 25%, the Gilets jaunes has attracted support from across the political spectrum. These protests have been France's largest since 1968. Across the world in 1968 we saw widespread protests: there was a spike in anti-Apartheid protests across the world; Catholics protested against discrimination in Northern Ireland; the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia broke out against harsh Soviet rule; students in Mexico, West Germany, the US, and UK clashed with police; race riots broke out in the US due to the assassination of Martin Luther King; and there were protests against military rule in Brazil, Pakistan, and Franco's rule in Spain. French students also protested in May 1968 which dwarfed that of the Gilets jaunes. Students and their teachers initially protested against harsh treatment of students by the police which expanded to target consumerism, capitalism, and American imperialism. Soon workers became involved with various wildcat strikes - 11 million workers ended up taking part in the protests. Communists and socialists became heavily involved but there were deep divisions among the left; the protesters adopted Maoist and libertarian socialist thought, although some protested for the imagery and not the ideals. Students jokingly said that Jimi Hendrix was leading their protest and graffiti read 'Je suis Marxiste - tendance Groucho' (I am a Marxist - Groucho tendency). The 1968 even created fears that there might be another revolution and caused a quick election. Just over a century before that Paris, and Europe, saw a major revolution.

1848 saw a series of revolutions sweep over Europe beginning in Paris which has since been called the 'Springtime of Peoples'. Crop failures deeply affected the poorest and when you're hungry you begin seeing the faults in society. Royal absolutism, power of the nobility, and serfdom created disaffected working, and middle, classes which led to revolution in 1848. In January a failed revolt broke out in Sicily but the most important one broke out in Paris in February. Discontent was growing over Louis Philippe's power, a limited franchise, and economic disparities. Paris was also home to major socialist thinkers including Louis Blanc and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon - one of the first and major anarchist thinkers. Revolt broke out in Paris and soon swept across Europe where they got support from different peoples over different ideas. Liberalism, socialism, and nationalism were hotly debated across Europe. It was during the revolts that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote The Communist Manifesto. In the short-term the revolts failed. There were deep rural-urban divides, clashes between national identities, and fearing socialists moderates ended up siding with conservative forces. In France the Second Republic was declared which was soon brought to an end via a coup in 1851 by Louis Napoleon, the nephew of Napoleon, who declared himself Napoleon III. However, in the future the reforms that were passed thanks to the revolts, and the impact of the revolts helped bring about what the revolutionaries of 1848 hoped to get themselves.

Karl Marx - 200 Years On

This February we saw 150 years since the publishing of The Communist Manifesto as well as the 200th birthday of Karl Marx in May. Inspired by a variety of writers, most notably Hegel, Marx as a journalist caught the attention of the Prussian government, and later governments of states including France, for his radical socialist views. To briefly summarise Marx's views he was a proponent of dialectical materialism - where two opposing ideas clash which transforms or dissolves them. He also was a proponent of historical materialism - looking at how human societies develop over time and comparing societies based on these developments. Marx and Engels also argued for socialism; they praised capitalism for mechanisation and destroying feudalism but they also viewed it as exploiting workers who they saw as the true wealth producers. The ideas of Marx would go on to inspire thousands through history ranging from political thinkers like Vladimir Lenin and Angela Davis to artists like Pablo Picasso and Hayao Miyazaki. 

Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

Left to Right: Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko

This year we saw the unfortunate passing of two of the major cultural creators of the twentieth century - Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Lee and Ditko were two of the heavyweights at Marvel comics and together the two created Spider-Man and his entire mythos. With Jack Kirby Lee ended up creating most of Marvel's major characters including the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Dr Doom, and Ant-Man. Before Lee, Ditko, and Kirby came along comic book heroes were meant to be flawless individuals that young people could look up to and be inspired by - to this day Superman is still referred to as 'the big blue boy scout'. Marvel came along and made heroes real - they had money and family problems, they failed, got mad, had arguments, and struggled with their own power. Marvel was also keen to reflect reality. Published during the height of the Cold War heroes often clashed with Russian opponents given powers by nuclear weaponry. Stan Lee was a keen supporter of the Civil Rights Movement and was keen to reflect that in X-Men, and Black Panther was one of the first black characters to have their own comic line. Lee and Kirby, less so than the shy and retiring Ditko, put their bold personalities on display - 'Stan's Soapbox' discussed everything from future comics to his support for racial equality. Marvel has since become one of the world's major cultural icons.

Brazil and Bolsonaro

In October far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro was elected president of Brazil. Bolsonaro has stated that he would rather have a dead son than a gay son, that Afro-Brazilians were not 'worth procreation', that the dictatorship should have killed instead of tortured, and that 'not an inch' of the Amazon will be protected. In particular, this year he praised Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet - the same year that the relatives of some of his victims got justice when some of Pinochet's murderers were put on trial. Bolsonaro was a paratrooper in the military during the dictatorship. With this post we'll look more at Brazil's dictatorship rather than how Bolsonaro came to power. In 1964 left-leaning president Joao Goulart began nationalising land, however, Brazil's traditional elite were land owners. During the Cold War, especially following Castro's victory in Cuba in 1959, nationalisation policies were viewed with distrust and even Goulart's moderate reforms were seen as a prelude to a socialist takeover. The military, supported by the US, intervened and ousted Goulart beginning a dictatorship which would last until 1985. Unlike the later Pinochet regime Brazilian military generals kept up a facade of democratic politics; there were two legal parties, the pro-military ARENA and the 'opposition' MDB. There was a joke that the only difference between the parties was one said 'Yes' while the other said 'Yes Sir!'. Torture was a tool widely used by the military - the confirmed people to be murdered was much smaller compared to neighbouring dictatorships thanks to this. Former president Dilma Rousseff was just one person to be tortured and imprisoned during the regime's rule. In 1979 the Amnesty Law was passed - individuals could research human rights abuses if supervised. It was thanks to this law that Brasil: Nunca Mais, a book detailing all the human rights abuses, was written and later published shortly after the dictatorship fell. However, at the same time the Amnesty Law allowed human rights abusers to be immune to prosecution if they testified.

In 1985 the military fell but the impact it had lasts in Brazil. It took until 2014 for an investigation to happen about the human rights abuses and with Bolsonaro now elected the future of this investigation is up in the air. Furthermore, the regime most affected the poor and ethnic minorities - indigenous peoples were disproportionally affected by the regime - and it seems the same could continue under Bolsonaro. There is a glimmer of hope. Under the regime a strong counterculture movement emerged among student groups which managed to embrace feminism, LGBTQ+ rights, and environmental activism under the nose of the military. Ipanema and Copacabana have become world famous for its thriving LGBT culture, especially the beach, and you may be surprised to hear that this really took root under the military's rule. Under Bolsonaro's fist a thriving counterculture movement could emerge once more to resist him. 

Frankenstein - 200 Years Later

The Monster in the Universal adaptation

On a lighter note to end this post I thought it would be good to end with a cultural icon - Frankenstein. Published in 1818 by a 20-year old Mary Shelley Frankenstein, Or the Modern Prometheus has since become one of the most important novels of all time. As a fan of both the horror and sci-fi genres I owe a lot to Shelley - Frankenstein is one of the first horror novels and laid the groundwork for the sci-fi genre. Locked indoors by bad weather while touring Europe with her husband, the poet Percy Shelley, they played a game of telling stories and she later had a nightmare. She combined the two forming Frankenstein. The story focuses on scientist Victor Frankenstein who aims to copy God by creating life: he sews together corpses and using a brain he brings to life his creation, the Creature. Now brought to life and excluded from society he demands a bride to bring him happiness, and Victor and his Creation have to face their bleak existence. Since 1818 Frankenstein has had several new editions and has been adapted countless times. In 1910 a 12-minute loose adaptation was produced by Thomas Edison and is now readily available on YouTube. The most famous one is perhaps the 1931 Universal adaptation featuring Boris Karloff, pictured above.

Thank you for reading and I hope you found it interesting. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby. Thank you again for reading and it's time to say bye to 2018 and hello to 2019.